Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

Opinions and Questions cont.

Now some questions:

On the subject of a housing moratorium. Didn?’t the City do something similar in the past by ceasing to issue sewer taps for a period of time? Effectively, if you didn?’t have a tap, you couldn?’t start a house. What is the difference between that and a housing moratorium? Is one easier to enact than the other?

If petitions need to be circulated to amend the City Charter, couldn?’t efforts be consolidated into establishing a committee to look at another rewrite of the City Charter altogether? I know that was done not too long ago, and this is no reflection on the group that did that, but if there are more and more cracks in the Charter being found as time passes, wouldn?’t a total reexamination be more resourceful? We live in ever changing times. Shouldn?’t we look to make a Charter that is adaptable to these times?

Talk about windy!

I would encourage the citizens of this community to seek qualified and motivated candidates to run for the seats that will be open this November. I would also encourage them to begin the campaigns as soon as possible. There is no need to wait until you file your petition in August to start. Financing has to be obtained. Streets have to be walked and the voters have to get to know your candidates. The incumbents and their positions on issues are well known and don?’t require the same name and face recognition as challengers will. Some of your prime campaigning season will be before the August deadline, i.e. parades, festivals, etc.

Lastly, I would also encourage the citizens to really listen to and remember what they are being told by the incumbents seeking reelection from now until the election. If you have read this week?’s local media, ask yourself if you are starting to hear promises that certain people think you want to hear or if they are really making promises because they mean them and are capable of delivering on them. The true measure of our elected officials is their actions, not their words. Look back to the last time that these incumbents who will seek reelection this November. Look for what they promised then and make your decision as to whether they delivered or not. If they delivered on less than more, it might be time to let them return to private life and give someone else a chance. I am sure the webmasters here at PATA have the resources to locate the information shared and promises made by the incumbents who will seek reelection this November. Ask them to post it and see if the Business Parks, recreational parks, cooperation between City, Township and Schools they promised have been delivered.

Discussions

Mitch,

Let me clarify a couple of things. First I am not calling for a Charter Amendment to give the citizens the option of requiring their elected leaders to stand for election again in the middle of their term. I was merely suggesting an alternative to Curious George?’s question. Before I would ever propose it I would want to put safe guards in it to prevent abuse if possible. As for you trying to present a frugal image about the cost of a special election let me remind you of all the frivolous expenditures that the current city council has spent over the last few years compared to $8,500 for a special election.

Since my posting last night I though of another Charter Amendment related to Curious George?’s question. Instead of giving the council and the Mayor the option of re-appointing vacant council seats we could require them to call for a special election to replace the vacant seats. However that would require the cost of a special election again and I am sure the citizens would need to be aware of that prior to proposing a recall and a new election. Obviously we would need to consult and attorney to get the wording and safe guards installed.

Term limits opponents always come up with an elected leader ?“learning the job?” of being a council person or what ever position they are serving in as a defense for not supporting term limits. If you haven?’t learned how to be a Pickerington City Councilman in the first year, please resign. If it is going to take you 8 years to learn the job I doubt you will ever learn the job. Is Lou Postage any better now than he was in 1987?

My purpose in posting this information is to get community input. I am just throwing out ideas. If I feel there is strong support for these ideas then I may proceed with circulating new initiatives. Community support is the very first step in changing our government and the way we do business.

Mitch please don?’t take my responses as an insult or opposition to your ideas, but we need more discussion here in the community and it must be issue orientated. If recall is the issue then we all need to talk about it. I think you are more than capable of be a very good Pickerington City Councilman, it you get appointed or get elected in November. I would strongly support you in either case.

More wind

Ted,

Thanks for taking the time to read my extremely long-winded questions. Thanks also for the clarification on the mid-term elections. I was a little fuzzy on that. I am aware of some of the frivolous and questionable expenditures over the last few years that are sometimes seemingly directly against the citizen?’s wishes. I also know that $8500 pales in comparison to some of the numbers I have heard.

I believe your track towards an amendment requiring a special election to fill vacant seats has merit. That?’s just another argument for taking a look at the Charter as a whole to see how many cracks there are in it and how many gray areas need to be moved towards black or white. We probably would also need to assess the safeguards currently in place in the Charter and see exactly whom they safeguard.

I don?’t know if you could classify me as a term limit opponent but your point is taken. I guess my statements on the learning curve were based on Pickerington as-is. By the time you learn what Councilmen are supposed to do, what they actually do and what they have done to the City, I figure it could take a term or two to see if there is even light at the end of the tunnel. I don?’t mean that too harshly towards Council, as I am sure some of the challenges they are facing and dealing with are inherited from someone else.

I also factored into my learning curve calculations the situations in the Township and on the School Board and School Administration. You have to figure out what damage some previous and some current elected and hired officials have caused and the three entities just going their separate ways over the last few years. Then you have to add time to learn what they do, have done and need to do to pull the community back together.

I understood your purpose in posting the information. I am trying to help inspire the other readers of this forum to offer their input, too. Hopefully between the two of us today, we can get some other ideas as well thought out as yours are. Don?’t worry about me taking any of what you said as an insult. I hope I have a thicker skin than that. If I didn?’t, I should have posted anonymously.

Thanks for your kind words about my capabilities to serve the community and your support would be welcomed and appreciated and rest assured that the reverse is true. I would support you fully if you are appointed. I truly expect the appointments to go as they have in the past. There is simply too much discord within the City government and between them and other governing bodies in the area to believe for a minute that adding someone with my views and desires to return the ownership of the City to the residents of the City and once again turning the City, Township and School District into one community will ever happen. I suppose adding me to the mix at this time would be like throwing gasoline on an open fire. In order to get reelected this fall they need to assure they don?’t have another squeaky wheel to grease to detract from their mission. That?’s just how politics goes.

continued..

End of the wind

One last observation and it is not intended to start a whole separate thread of negativity. That is the last thing this community needs. But ?– was the new Mayor?’s comment in the last sentence of the article in the Pickerington Times-Sun quoted correctly? Did he really say ?“We?’re not all of the problem, we?’re part of the problem.?”? I hope he meant ?“We?’re a big part of the problem, now we?’re going to be an even bigger part of the solution.?” I too have been misquoted in the local papers so it might be true here.

Point of clarification for those of you who do read the local papers. In a recent profile of the candidates for Mr. Monebrake?’s Council seat I was reported to have lived in Pickerington for 6 years. That information was taken from my application from the question asking how many years I have lived at my current address, which is 6 years. I confirmed this with the Rules Committee. My family and I have lived in Pickerington since 1988. I just don?’t want everyone to think I am a relative newcomer to town shooting off my mouth all the time. I asked the paper for a correction and they agreed but I guess they just haven?’t had the space yet.