Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

I see further down the page that Mrs. Shaver is trying to fire the up the troops trying get someone to step forward to say enough is enough. So I pose the question what will it take to get someone to step forward and take the leadership of a recall movement?

Our City Council members that have voted on every rezoning in the last three years are Fox, Maxey, Parker, and Wright and they are still on council. With no veto possible they can still pass these ordinances at will. The only weapon you as citizens have is to run referendums. When you have run the referendums they fight you every step of the way. They are in power and they are letting you know they are in power with every move they make. When will you come out of hiding and demand your rights back under our democratic government?

Are you waiting for an indictment? Obviously an indictment is not needed to recall an elected councilman. Have they voted in your behalf? If you were directly making the votes over the last three years would you have voted for 3000 more homes and R-4 zoning or higher densities? I doubt it judging by your vote on November 5th.

Do any of you see a problem with Mr. Hackworth and or Mrs. Shaver leading the recall effort? If they march forward with this effort then that would hurt them and or their spouse in trying to get and stay elected to actually promote change in Pickerington.

There are some of you waiting for the first appointment to council will that change your attitude? It is very likely that they will appoint a toady. Will that fire you up? Okay let?’s say you give the pass on the first appointment. What happens when they appoint a toady for the second appointment?

Many have expressed the view that everything will take care of itself this fall with three council seats up for election and the Mayor?’s seat up for election. Please do the math. For us the controlled residential people it will take a clean sweep to accomplish any kind of control over this council. Do we have 4 candidates that are well know and willing to run a VERY HARD CAMPAIGN against unlimited funds from the builders and most of the social groups in towns campaigning against the anti-growth people?

Are you the citizens of Pickerington willing to wait maybe two more years for the next election cycle? If the candidates running this fall don?’t win all four seats then we are still playing the waiting game and they will still be in control. How much can they do still in control? Even without any council legislation Joyce Bushman will not be fired with William Wright in charge of council. Yet as I have talked with some of the potential candidates they all think they will sweep in on their white horses this fall and win everything. Will they?

At the very least you must recall Fox and Maxey before summer. Don?’t let them go on to the county to cause even more damage to our area. You can always wait and do Wright and Parker next year if the good guys don?’t win all of the seats this fall.

Do we have a leader in Pickerington willing to take on this duty? You are needed immediately.





By Honest Abe

Deer in the head lights stare

I want to award good old Lou and the rest of the mob for some great play acting in their recent strategy to confuse and defer the will of the people. Lou is now sitting in the Mayor?’s seat on Council talking and acting like sugar wouldn?’t melt in his mouth. Now even David Shaver is giving Lou a complement on doing a fine Mayor?’s report. I think I want to barf.

How did we get into this mess? Wasn?’t it the ?“IN YOUR FACE TACTICS?” of Lou Postage and his supporters on council? Didn?’t they control everything in Pickerington for nearly 20 years now? Hasn?’t Lou used the applicants applying for zoning changes as a referral service for his business, The England Insurance Company? It wasn?’t until recently that Old Lou started abstaining from voting on zoning issues that he had a business relationship with. What brought on this change of ethical behavior? Do any of you think this will be a permanent behavior on Lou?’s part? Remember his partner Dave England is still on the P & Z commission.


Are they just trying to protect their interests until this current fire storm blows over? Have they ever had this problem before? The answer is yes. In 1995 Dave England was defeated in his bid to get elected to council by Linda Wilson. Then waiting a short time, they had her recalled. Who paid for that recall? Who was appointed to fill Mrs. Wilson?’s seat?

They have frozen the citizens in place with a more, kinder and gentler council SHOW. Yes they have retreated in the short term but they plan to re-emerge and resume where they left off November 5th, 2002. If the citizens leave enough of them in position to preserve their power base then nothing will have been gained by the over whelming voter message sent last fall.

There is an old myth about a snake won?’t die until sunset no matter how badly they are injured. When will this council finally see its sunset? When will they appoint their toady?


The answer to the question above is: Craig Maxey filled the vacant seat of Linda Wilson. Had she committed a crime? Like he is telling us all now?


By Old Bill

It's funny you should mention...

Bill,

I just about upchucked my coffee reading your posting. In reading the Mayor?’s kinder gentler mantra I had to laugh. All the talk about respect and decorum. It brought to mind a meeting I attended and spoke at where he later exploded at me to the point of a near cerebral hemorrhage. He even had to get up and leave the meeting clutching his cane and chest at the same time.

Talk about election year tactics. The biggest offender at showing a complete lack of respect for the citizens and turning decorum into a circus act is now preaching to us and warning other councilmen.

Spare me please. If the citizens of this city can?’t see through this charade then they deserve to have the current regime stay in place.

Who cares?

Last November there was a call to recall. Today everyone seems to be waiting for things to change. Remember we went to the polls in record numbers and voted to slow the residential growth. To date have any of you read or heard a statement from any of the elected people who are responsible for this residential growth to say they are working on a plan to slow the residential growth down?

I am of course discounting the Lou Postage quote in the paper that ?“they were going to slow growth down this year anyway.?”

The only why the citizens of Pickerington will slow the growth down is to recall the four remaining council members from office.

Issue 17 passed by 77% and this council has tried every trick in their book to ignore it. This issue actually slows the growth if the council will obey the voters. So let?’s review class.

Knowing from a phone survey in the city prior to the election they knew issue 17 was going to pass. Yet they allowed these builders to apply for final plat approvals for nearly 2000 more homes. Nothing in those approvals regulates the rate of growth on these 2000 lots. To further accommodate the builders they hired two full time inspectors. If they were going to slow down growth anyway why hire the two full time inspectors?

Using the same language as the City Manager the Building Association of Central Ohio mounted a campaign against issue 17. They also have threatened a law suit. Thank god we have competent lawyers defending our rights because they will surely win according to our Law Director. Wait a minute he is defending us isn?’t he?

Last week I read where he now says issue 17 will inhibit Nursing Homes and Assisted Living facilities. It had something to do about land use instead of zoning, same Law Director different day.

Now I drive down Diley road this fine afternoon and see something even more disturbing. Before the elections a local group (different group from before) ran 5 referendums on the final plat approvals from some of these last minute housing projects in Pickerington. Of Course Mapes found something wrong with it and Mrs. Fersch didn?’t want to send the petitions to the Board of Elections for the voters to vote on. Remember the ordinance versus administrative action?

So the petitioners took their case to the Ohio Supreme court. They filed their case on December 23rd. 2002. In the mean time Pickerington has allowed these builders to erect 17 homes on this former business park site. That?’s right 17 homes now under construction just to rub your face in it Pickerington. Yet they may be nice at the council meetings but they are taking us all to the cleaners. So what happens if the Supreme Court agrees with the petitioners and say this referendum must be placed on the fall ballot? Will Pickerington be required to buy these 17 or more homes? Have any of you heard that these houses were being built?

This city government is doing business as usual like nothing ever happened November 5th. When do you stop them? And the only way you are going to stop them is with a recall.


If you don't recall them then they have beat you all.

By Bye Bye Birdie