Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

comments noted

I will step up the vigilance of the site and refer to any deletions in the ''political sewer work'' moniker if you do not mind.

I do not have an agenda regarding this, I am pretty tolerant in most cases, I will not favor one issue over another, I just hope we can return to a healthy debate of the many issues facing this community.

Since 2000 when I launched the web site, I have seen enemies become friends and friends become enemies in the political sense of the word ''enemy.''

This should be the ultimate lesson to all, sometimes being ''right''...is not the best thing for the community. There are those who battle to be right no matter the cost to everyone else. I hope they can see the futility of that endeavor, and move the community forward in a positive way! If this blog serves to further that ideal, then I can say I am proud.

By webmaster one

It started here

Before the Webmaster gets too comfortable in their high horse everyone should be reminded that a lot of this nastiness was generated right here from past newsletters.

Just for kicks I reviewed the last PATA newsletter of September of 2003. Those newsletter didn?‘t last many issues but they did have an impact on the voters and the local attitudes toward the politicians in office at the time.

I think everyone had reached the conclusion that growth was an issue in 2003. In fact it is still an issue but things seem to be getting better in that regard. What is interesting is the great efforts those writing the PATA newsletter went to get their point across many times stepping on the truth with total disregard for those they were attacking.

Clearly there has been a bias associated with this web site for years now. I remember when a certain township trustee ran for office and someone posted the fact that was public record that he had been charged with domestic violence. The webmaster quickly removed that posting saying it was unfair. Then to show the webmaster?’s bias they continue to refer to the incident for Lee Gray and the DUI suspect. In recent months I have seen that story embellished to the point of a lie and no-one feels the unfairness to what is being posted and removes it.

I went back and read the last PATA newsletter and in that newsletter these township people were railing about the debt the City of Pickerington had and they compared that debt to the City of Columbus and they claimed that Columbus had a debt of $50 million. I did a 15 minute research and found that the debt service alone for Columbus is $175 Million. That would mean they have a debt of around $2 Billion. Clearly by going unchallenged for years these lies have became facts on some people minds around town and I have even heard the faithful followers of that newsletter editor be repeated by some of the newly elected leaders on city council.

So what you have now are three groups: group one is the old group who were forced out of office on the belief of many that they were corrupt and that belief in their corruption was based mostly on the PATA newsletters. There is group two that has now had a few years to research and think about what was said and reported in the PATA newsletter and many in this group have found many myths associated with this former newsletter and how it was put together. Group three are those that still believe in these many falsehoods published in those PATA newsletters. They still believe no matter what happens those associated with the Pickerington City Hall are corrupt and that group is fading quickly.

Like all groups, there are people that join those groups for their self promotion and or for their own self interests. I would say all three of these groups have members in them that are in the group for themselves. Some believe in the interests of the city and they will be the ones that make it better for all of us. Will there be fighting and disagreement? YES! Sometimes the frustrations will over flow onto this website and others.

What I would say to everyone lets make sure in the future that we look long and hard for the truth and take our time to ensure that our words are helpful not polarizing like so many have been for so long.

By An old man