Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

I see that Mr. Fix has quoted me and has made some mis-representations on his part.

First we should all know that Mr. Tim Hansley was not part the Master Economic Development Plan that was shot down last year. In fact, the then Mayor Shaver was trying to band Mr. Hansley from not only these meetings but the building. So to try to use a quote from an employee no matter how experienced he is bogus in my mind.

Mr. Fix continued to quote the then City Manager Judy Gilleland that she supported this MEDA was also just as false. The proof of that is when Heidi Riggs asked in the October 2006 Service Committee meeting that she would like staff to look at the document also proves that the staff had NEVER saw the agreement let alone made recommendations. Clearly the staff version dated 11/1/06 was much different than what Mayor Shaver and Jeff Fix negotiated. On December 14th during the service committee meeting the other two members of that committee had not read the document. So they simply took Jeff Fix?’s word for it.

As time went on, people in the community began to see the problems with the agreement and how it was unfair to the city taxpayers. Mr. Fix has never saw that and only wants to be Santa in giving away our hard earned tax dollars to the township.

During the JEDD talks Mr. Hansley was present for all of the meetings as far as I know. However as an employee he had very little to say and Mr. Fix and Mayor Shaver were doing a hard sell on the council telling us that we couldn?’t make amendments to the agreement. As time marches on we are seeing the flaws in this agreement also. So the phrase ''given the circumstances this is an agreement that would benefit the city'' was a statement certainly made under duress to say the least. Clearly stated when we had a Mayor wanting to fire any employee in sight that disagreed with him.

I think we should all know that there has been a long time working relationship between Councilman Jeff Fix and the developer John Mac Gory. Back in 2000 he used John MacGory?’s contacts to raise thousands of dollars for Allan Reid who was running for county Commissioner. In June of 2006 Mr. Fix used tax payers dollars to have Mr. MacGory write a report on the possible development of the US 33 corridor. However now stop and think what is happening there. Despite using Mr. MacGory for the contracted Pickerington Development director in 2006 Mr. MacGory and his partners are marketing a piece of property within the outlined JEDD area as no personal or business income taxes. Not likely in my mind that they will join this voluntary JEDD.

It is also note worthy that they were all trying to sell us on the JEDD a couple of years ago. Clearly it was good for others not them.

What we all should consider is that Mr. Fix talks about huge revenues coming our way someday or to correctly use the phase ?“over time?” there has been nothing the last couple of years by experts in the field to back up Mr. Fix?’s claims. In fact everyone who has some time to really ?“THINK?” about this JEDD is against it. Jeff there are much better ways to improve commercial investment into our area.

Wasting critical time

To follow up on yesterday?’s posting I wanted to further explain the total waste of time the Pickerington City Council has engaged in over the last two years. Clearly since the arrival of Mr. Keith Smith and Mr. Jeff Fix the Pickerington City council has wondered off into a never never land of politics and political revenge. The lack of focus on the part of the City council continues today. With the exception of a couple of issues the council has simply spun its wheels since 2006.

The city of Pickerington and its taxpayers are faced with some monumental decisions and they must be faced immediately. Clearly the above two council members would rather dabble in other activities than address their responsibilities to the city and her taxpayers.

In 2006, I proposed to all the members of the council that we investigate either raising the income tax or at the very least addressing the budget short falls coming when the debt came due for the Diley Road project. We had just completed an exhausting year of adjusting the water and sewer rates to provide for adequate utilities for future growth within the city. All along Jeff Fix was carping about how slow the process (Utilities Review Commission) was and that we kept dragging it out. The entire purpose of the commission was to review and explore EVERY option before the City Council. It was also manned by citizens (myself included) that were not experts in the field of public finance and planning. We heard and received information from experts that advised us on what was legal and what level of future capacity was needed to provide a large part of the future infrastructure to the city. Once our work on the Utilities Review Commission was winding up I met with the City?’s Financial advisor to address the pending shortfalls in the General Funds of the City. Clearly the debt service on the Diley Road widening would be coming up and we simply (without huge cuts in services) could not make those payments without some kind of tax reform in the city.

Once I run this concern by Mayor Shaver he scolded me, by saying we couldn?’t simply raise the income taxes and he assigned Jeff Fix and Keith Smith to the task of finding a way to solve our budget shortfalls soon to come. So after two and half years we are were we were in late 2005. Initially Keith Smith and Jeff Fix met with the school board members and started the process of finding a solution to funding problems.

Somewhere along the line they both got side tracked with this political theater and they were diverting the issue of the city budget off to someone else with little or no regard to the citizens of Pickerington and her taxpayers. Clearly Mr. Fix pushed his way into the negotiations going on with the township and Gary Weltlich. All the time claiming this was too important than solving the city budget problems. On many occasions Judy would voice concerns about the agreements only to be ignored by Mr. Fix and Mayor Shaver. All of this time wasted by Mr. Fix and staff (attorney fees by now are probably nearing $100,000 and no agreement) for nothing. There are no expert reports that show us anything will come of these negotiations in the next 20 years. Giving away our tax dollars in 2008 and expecting a return on those dollars in 2029 will not help any of us solve our 2009 budget crisis.

continued

In 2006, Mr. Fix threatened me with my council seat. And in 2007 he was able to cash in on that threat. Clearly writing the campaign material for Brian Sauer and Tricia Sanders and filled that material with lies and embellishments. He simply wanted a couple of stooges to follow him without question and people not willing to read the reports so he could further his political ambitions.

Today he continues to push the five party JEDD agreement with no real facts or expert opinion to back up his claims of the money it will generate. Clearly seeing himself as an expert and ignoring the real experts working as consultants for the City. He is trying to strike while the iron is hot and before his two stooges wise up to him.

While Mr. Smith and Mr. Fix have ignored their responsibilities to the City of Pickerington and her taxpayers they have lost two full years and at least 8 election cycles to see what the taxpayers of Pickerington are willing to pay and what level of services they are willing to accept. Clearly by their own procrastination on the issue they may very well miss this November election and if that occurs we will kiss our police department good-by.

I know for a fact that Brian Sauer is very willing to turn the police duties over to the Fairfield County Sheriff?’s department and contract the service similar to Canal Winchester. What he forgets is that does not relive the city of the $330,000 debt service payment on the building.

The fact is Mr. Sauer is being played like a drum by the township trustees. Once we find the real costs of the sheriff?’s department the next issue will be to fund a property tax for a Violet Township police department using property taxes. It should be noted here that Canal Winchester also pays in voted milage over 20 mils to Madison Township for police and fire service and they still must contract from the Sheriff. The township will be forced into a township police force soon because that is one of the requirements of a home rule township.

I guess the challenge to us all over the next few months will be to watch with frustration as the Fix foursome tries to avoid their responsibilities and divert the issues to meaningless superficial ordinances. Please also note that Jeff Fix and Keith Smith will continue to undermine the council and to undermine the Mayor and Cristie Hammond.

I hope they have the maturity to prove me wrong.

IMHO

Spend a little time & fix your grammatical errors before you post, it will make what you say seem a little more credible. Nice you have admitted the things you are not an expert in - you may want to take a writing class in your spare time, this isn't a strong suit either.

You don't ''band'' someone from a meeting - you ban them.

Cit Council doesn't ''wondered'' into never, never land - they wandered

''Once I run this concern by Mayor Shaver he scolded me'' - you don't mix present tense & past tense in the same sentence. Correctly stated it's, ''Once I ran this concern by Mayor Shaver he scolded me''

''All the time claiming this was too important than solving the city budget problems.'' Correctly stated this should be, ''All the time claiming this was more important than solving the city budget problems.''

These are just the big ones - there are many more small errors.

Jeff Fix didn't take your Council seat away from you - the citizens of Pickerington did. You continue to bad mouth people that don't agree with you. Part of functioning in a group is learning to work with all types of people - even ones you may not share the same type of views and opinions. You need to sell your point of view & if you find you are in the minority you need to remember you were in office to represent what the majority of the people want. You go forward with dialog and compromise - if you can't make an argument to support your position, maybe it's the position that is wrong.

People are tired of a message that is so negative.