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The Upper Arlington posting to Mr. Hackworth's original ''much work'' posting should be moved to the head of the line.
In listening to that story on Channel 4, while it is understandable why residents are angry and going through the recall, I have to say that their concerns pale in comparison to what we have going on here. The leadership in this community have succeeded in making graft and corruption a cottage industry.
The wonderful residents of this community have been very patient, waiting and hoping that one or more of their elected leaders may come out and take a stand against some of the things that have been going on. But they have not.
The problems here are long-term, and have been created by the successful inbreeding of political candidates and appointees over the years. There is a long and winding pattern to what has taken place here. Much more so than what has occurred in Upper Arlington.
Maybe their residents are more educated about the recall process, or more motivated? Although I cannot imagine they are more motivated. Perhaps they carry more political clout at the statehouse or in political circles in central Ohio. Either way, we can't rely upon the elected officials, the appointees or even the Law Director to rectify what has happened here.
The only way to get rid of the weeds growing in our garden, so to speak, is to pull them up by their roots. Otherwise, they will no doubt grow back in time.
Recall, recall, recall. Is our future less important than Upper Arlington's?
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Once again the obvious...
has been spoken that we need to clean out city hall, but and it is a big but:
A. We have 2 open seats and do you honestly think Lou is going to stand by his impassioned speech about 'working with the critics'? If he is going to work with his critics then he would appoint one to council and 'win them over to his side'. There are plenty of them on the applicant list so whom do you think he will appoint, his critics or his bud's?
B. You can't remove the new appointees for 6 months.
C. Given the history, the answer to A. will be: his buddies and those who think and act like himself. There is a slight chance that person #2 appointed will be the proverbial olive branch to the community and won't be Joe Developers buddy or part of the failed policies of the past - aka: someone from P&Z, but that is such a long shot it isn't even funny.
Here's my perfect world scenario: We get all members of city council removed through a recall and you have David Shaver and two trained monkeys left. 2 to 1 is a majority or Shaver becomes mayor because of senority and loses the right to vote then you have 2 monkeys appointing back to the empty seats. We then do a flashback to 2001 and for the third time Craig Maxey gets appointed to city council along with Lou, Bill, Doug, and others along for the ride.
And then....
The commoners go crazy with yet another slap in the face and act liked crazed OSU fans and burn the entire city of Pickerington to the ground. Luckily city council had this in their plans for 2003 and in the 2004 budget they already allocated for another glut of building inspectors bringing the grand total of inspectors to 247.
I've tried to inject a little humor into this but I think Ted is on the right track with changing the charter to read that a special election will determine who gets to be on city council when a vacancy arises and remove this power from the current councilmen. I think you need to change the process of appointments or the cycle will just continue.
Just my 2 cents.
By Curious George
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Ground Hog Day all over again
Actually Upper Arlington is about 25 years ahead of Pickerington in public scandals. You see in the early 80s they had a City Manager go to prison for some very shady land deals.
You see their city manager had worked out a deal with a local developer to entice him to annex and then rezone the property. The enticement was FREE sewer and water taps. The developer then annexed his property into Upper Arlington and had it rezoned into residential building lots.
The developer then started selling these lots off to builders and individual home builders and some how he always forgot that the sewer and water taps were free yet he still charged his buyers for the taps. Part this money worked its way back into the pocket of old Hal Hern the City manager. No one would have know anything until some home owner got to looking into his deed information filed at the Court House and saw where the taps fees had been waved. He remembered that he was charged for his so he requested the developer return the taps fees and the developer wouldn?’t and couldn?’t because he had split that money with the City Manager. A closer look revealed most of the lots were charged for the tap fees.
So what happens when a City Manager profits from their position as Manager and makes money by influence peddling? In other words, let?’s say you have property and you are desperate to sell the property but you know it could be zoned as say commercial or even residential. If it is vacant land just by rezoning the property you could triple the value of the land. Let?’s say you tell the land owner that you will give him an option to buy the land that is worth $10,000 per acre. You as manager offer him $11,000 per acre and you sign an option agreement to purchase the land. Since you have total control over the council you jam through a rezoning and annexation ordinance. This Ordinance is passed as an emergency and no one can run a referendum on it. In the mean time you have a developer ready to buy the property either before or after the passage of the rezoning for say $20,000 per acre. This is a very clever scheme. No one knows anything about the manager having an option. It never is recorded in the public record. Only the transfer of the land from the original owner into the name of the developer is recorded at the Court House. The option is a private contract that could be closed in an attorney?’s office and done with cash. No one knows anything.
Oh yea! I am leaving out one detail. How did the Manager get the council to pass all these zoning ordinances by EMERGENCY and unanimous? Could it be that the Manager gave the City Council Members a cut of the proceeds to get their vote and their silence? How does a manger stay in their position when everyone is calling for her to be fired? Oh did I say her I should have said her or him. This has nothing to do with Pickerington honest! It is just a little story I thought up relating to Upper Arlington.
By Honest Abe
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