Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

In case many of you have not been following the events over the last few weeks, let me bring you up to date:

1. During the last two weeks the City of Pickerington and Mayor Hughes violate campaign laws by utilizng the city web site to urge the citizens to vote no against the three issues on the ballots.

2. The City development director advises someone at a meeting (who has aked to remain anonymous) that depspite the fact that the citizens voted in the three reform ordinances by an overwhelming majority, the city intends to ignore or work around the three newly passed oridnances.

3. The City Auditor issues a letter stating that she refuses to submit the referendum issues on the developments submitted by the citizens to the Board of Election.

4. After the election the City Manager gets on a radio show and tells everyone that the people have Pickerington have just done soemthing terrible. In other words, we are just too stupid and should just shut up and let Joyce and her friends make all the decisions. This is the same city manger who campainged agaisnt these measrue prior to the vote.

Add to this the actions of the past year where this council placed Maxey back on the council after the elctorate threw him out, passed a record number of ordinances by emergency to defeat referendum, gave away money to Maxey's new best friend, Colonial Heating, who his company just happpens to do business with, grants Homewoods builders concession that would choke a horse (Homewood justt happens to be associated with Lee Gray, who also just bought a shopping center) and spends hundreds of thousdands of dollars of your money on attorneys who just happen to also represent developers. This is after the city spend over $150,000.00 of your tax money to lobby agaisnt anexation reform, a movement so pitiful and obviously developer inspired that it could not even garner enough votes to be placed on the ballot.

Oh, by the way, you can add to this Brian Fox, in a move similar to Hitler's beer hall putsch, taking leadership of the county Republican party when he coulnd't even get his own neghbors to vote for him as the representative of his precinct.

The fact is, the thugs at city hall have taken over and have made voting in the city meaningless. Every single action taken by the citizens over the past two years to slow deveopemnt and control growth has been undermined by the developer toadies at city hall. If the people of this city don't stand up and throws these bums out they should be ashamed of themselves. Our fathers and grandfathers gave thier lives for the right to vote. From what I can see, we aren't even willing to stand up and sign petitions to rid ourselves of these bush league Mussolinis.

Pickerington, develop some backbone or stop whining.

RECALL RECALL RECALL.


ps: FOR ALL OF YOU WOULD BE REPLACEMENTS/CANDIDATES- IF YOU DON'T HAVE THE NERVE TO TAKE THE LEAD NOW, DON'T EXPECT ANYONE TO HAND YOU PUBLIC OFFICE NEXT YEAR OR AFTER THE RECALL. THIS TOWN HAS HAD ENOUGH OF PEOPLE WHO ARE MORE CONCEREND WITH A POLITICAL FUTURE THAN THEY ARE WITH SOLVING THE PROBLEM.

By Thomas Paine

That being said ......

President Bush said one of the best things he learned from his father's campaign against Clinton was to SPEND your Political Capital & not to save it. His father did not spend it & it cost him the election. The younger Bush took a risk & spent his during his campaign & has turned into a leader that all of America is proud of.

SPEND your political capital now - don't save it.

I certainly hope that Mr. Hackworth will consider running for one of the soon to be open spots.

This man has shown more heart & more caring for this City & Township, as well as taken more flak in the name of Citizens Rights - YOUR rights than anyone I know.

From what I have seen there will soon be 6 openings on Council & a spot for Mayor open. We need the soon to be new City Leaders to step up to the plate & LEAD now. Don't wait.



By Lisa Reade

I apologize

I have noticed the discussion over the City's Web Pages as it relates to the recently voted issues.I must set the record straight..the Mayor nor City Manager are at fault. I am responsible for what happened. It was an accident..I can offer many explanations but it will not change the fact that I am responsible for the mistake & I am truely very sorry. I will be taking Ethics Class training so as to never let this happen again. I am so very sorry & you all have my heartfelt apology. I was advised on Wednesday 11/6 that Councilman Shaver raised the issue about the Ethics of such an action, I immediately recognized that I was responsible, I had the provider remove the information. I was not my intent to destroy what had been posted..I just wanted to correct the situation after being advised of my mistake. It is my hope that as an organization that you will accept my apology.

Barb Slaven
Public Information Director

My Opinion

Are talking about the material that was posted on the city website against the initiatives, at taxpayer's expense?

If that's the case, then I don't know what the PATA thinks, but here's what I think....as a citizen of Pickerington.

Posting information on a tax funded website regarding an issue currently under consideration by the voters is unethical. More to the point, it would be an understatement to say that fact should have been obvious to an experienced public information officer. It is exactly like a city official posting endorsements of one candidate over another on a banner that hangs on City Hall.

I appreciate you acknowledging the error, we all make mistakes and it appears that you have an action plan to address the issue that is fair and productive. That's also refreshing.

Your actions alone would constitute an error, not unlike the several errors I make every day. Unfortunately, while this may be the first of your actions I've had reason to question; it is only the latest of a history of similar actions taken by Council and the mayor to thwart legitimate citizen initiatives and obvious intentions.

Let's look only at the last month. Did Joyce Bushman not speak to a local business group against these issues? Sbe'sthe city manager, and these are potential voters. I got a mailing against issue 17, and when I looked real hard, didn't that come from the Treasurer of the City of Pickerington? Aren't those also examples of my tax dollars being used to lobby against initiatives that it should now be obvious that an overwhelming majority of your ''bosses'' support? (For a longer outline of similar actions by council, see Ted Hackworth's recent posting) Note that when I said ?“bosses?”, I didn?’t mean Council, the Mayor, or Bushman, I meant we citizens, who came out in droves to let you know that you?’re all doing a bad job. It's easy to forget when things have gotten this bad, but those folks are suppose to be working for us.

Your actions were wrong in this case. No one is perfect. I have no idea who all was involved in this decision, but you are a city employee, and Randall Hughes is the captain of that ship. A real leader would have taken responsibility for the actions of his reports, and then addressed this issue with you. To handle this differently is bad leadership, but that?’s nothing new for council?…leadership, including management and negotiating skills, is sorely lacking at City Hall. That's why we're in this mess...

Finally, if I am correct that you have recently accepted this position then you also have my sympathy. To be a recently hired public information officer for a governmental entity that recently failed so miserably in a ''no confidence'' vote, you've really got your work cut out for you.

Good Luck, and thank you for the candor...it too has been lacking from City Hall.