Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

Yesterday I received in the mail a full color brochure on the back of an advertising magazine. There on the back of the magazine were pictures of Bill ?“Lenny?” Wright and Mike ?“Squiggie?” Sabatino.

This ad was paid for by the campaign committee of Bill Wright whose Treasurer is former Mayor Lou Postage. This is the same Mayor that couldn?’t pay his real estate taxes numerous times and now he is the treasurer. He is also the Mayor that sold an insurance policy to a felon to allow him to burn his house down to collect hundreds of thousands of dollars in claims. Fortunately the felon was caught and is serving time now.

In 2001 when Mr. Wright ran for office that last time, where did Mr. Wright?’s campaign get it funds from? Well folks as we can all guess, he received over $4,000 from builders, attorneys and other contractors doing business with the city. I believe in legal terms you would call this contract steering.

Both Lenny and Squiggie say they oppose any plans to raising water rates. I know Lenny has been on council for 10 years and during that time the city has NOT raise its user?’s fees rates. Obviously the employees have had pay raises and their expenses have risen over those ten years. Well they were able to rob Peter and pay Paul. They covered all of their ever increasing expenses through tap or connection fees which were much lower in cost than the the surrounding areas thus getting favorable contributions from those that stood to make tons of money selling homes in the area.

Clearly folks like Mr. Wright and their campaign manager Brian Fox they can proudly say they didn?’t raise rates in those ten years but what did happen? They shifted the burden of raising taxes over to the school district. In those years when the city wasn?’t raising water rates the school district was building schools. Remember, Tussing ES, Diley MS, Harman MS, North High School, Lakeview JH, and the refurbishment of Heritage.

Also remember one third of these new students came from the City of Pickerington.

Then they say they ?“voted for impact fees?”. Note they didn?’t say they initiated them. Nice play on words.

Now for the real stretch is they claim to be ?“INDEPENDENT THINKERS.?” Please someone hold me back from this one. I think I will move on before I become a potty mouth.

They also claimed to have the courage to speak out for the Citizens. Closely linked to that is ?“they support citizens rights to vote on important issues.?” In 2003 both Lenny and Squiggie voted AGAINST allowing the citizens of Pickerington to vote on a growth management plan that had been submitted to the council with well over 500 signatures. Lenny claimed at the time we could not afford to allow the number of building permits to drop below 300 taps per year because the City could not pay its bills. (See their common stand on water rates above). Squiggie said he would support it if it went through the process which is to vote him out of office on November 8th.

Then more recently both Lenny and Squiggie voted against the proposed City Charter amendment to prohibit the council from passing zoning laws as emergency. Apparently that is not important to them.





By Older Fox

More of the Pretenders

Continued

Then there is the issue with Ethics. Let me transcribe that quote to you all. ?“SUPPORT REAL ETHICS, BOTH IN LEGISLATION AND CONDUCT?”.

OK in 2001 Bill ?“Lenny?” Wright accepted thousands of dollars in campaign money from contractors doing business with the city. He then without removing himself from the voting votes to award these contractors literally MILLIONS of dollars of our tax money. Part of the Ohio Ethics law is to avoid even the APPARENCE of taking money under the table or selling out or what ever you what to call these. Only since David Shaver was elected Mayor did Bill Wright find the courage to abstain on contracts he received campaign money from.

Then there is Mike ?“Squiggie?” Sabatino. In the two and half years Squiggie has been in office he voted more than once on the Diley Road Widening Project and the Cherry Hill Sewer back up. In both cases the Ohio Ethics Laws recommend that he recluse himself from even lobbying for money or financial reward in these two issues. Not only did he not remove himself he also attended the executive sessions during which time legal strategies were more than likely discussed. Please note Mr. Sabatino knowing what was being talked about received the largest check for his personal property flooded by sewer backup. Then the Diley road widening could be a big benefit not only to his mother and his business partner/stepdaughter he even worked to circulate a referendum to close the project down because it directly affected his birth mother. Both of these issues are in clear violation of the Ohio Ethics Laws. In addition, Sabatino?’s distain for the Ohio Ethics Commission is clearly shown by his comments calling them the ?“Ethic?’s Nazis?”.

If you had respect for the Ohio Ethic?’s Law and Ethics in general would you call the commission NAZIS?

The other issue here is that Former Councilman Brian Fox is running their campaigns and he is also doing their fund raising.

In the last month some have wondered if Fox is running the campaigns then why is he attacking Mayor Shaver and Councilman Hackworth.

Well this is Brian Fox in reverse. His politics by association. Years ago he when he was running for council he would include campaign literature from Governor Taft (this was before his conviction). The purpose was to associate himself with someone important and ethical at the time. In doing so the voters got the impression that was Fox was also important and ethical. He has had a few problems with his association over the years namely DeMatsry and McAuliffe.

Now who are the leaders in the community that for a long time have supported controlling the growth and regionalism? Clearly Mayor Shaver and Councilman Hackworth have been at this for a long time. To throw mud at them should discredit the growth control people and have the voters lose faith in the direction of controlling growth. At least that is what their mind set is currently.

Lenny and Squiggie never mention controlling growth.

If I wanted to control growth (this hurts everyone in the school district) I would vote for the together4Pickerington group. I would also write a letter to the media explaining why you all feel the way you do. It only takes 6 ordinances to reverse everything passed by the current council majority.

Please don?’t let that happen.












By Older Fox