Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

To Watcher

You are correct and you figured this out. However, there has only been one board member during that era that also figured it out. Bruce Rigelman. You have read Bruce here in this forum and you see he had it within his power to educate not only the other board members as to the folly of school funding and the madness of unbridled growth, but the voters, too. You also undoubtedly saw what they did to Bruce for his intelligence and foresight and commitment to the best needs of the community. They isolated him, ridiculed him and drove him away.

His lone voice was portrayed as angry, resentful, bitter and many other things instead of truth. He was up against fanatical and uncompromising sports boosters to whom some of the board members owed too much. He was up against an incompetent superintendent and an even more incompetent and, some may say, corrupt administration.

While you can illustrate mathematically the shortcomings of oppressive growth to the school district, look what it got the opponents of Dr. Rigelman. A $77.7 Million tribute and a division in the community that can never be repaired and many ?“up North?” think should never. NIMBY!!

Way too much coffee this morning


Well councilman Hackworth, you may think the budget is as lean as can be but ask yourself if it is really. You voted to give the employees a raise that not only included a pay increase but covered all their benefit increases they will see this upcoming year. What does that say to an average working stiff like me? My ENTIRE pay raise was engulfed by what my health insurance went up. ENTIRE!! My bosses didn?’t say, ?“Well, I feel sorry for you and I will see your health insurance increase and raise you X% on top of that.?”

Your Manager and Co-Managers, or is it Mayor and Co-Mayors made a choice in the back room. They chose to make the pay raises and sold it to council. Now you may say that overall the total dollar amount of these raises was negligible, but if the budget is as tight or lean as you say, are there truly any negligible amounts?

Your Manager and Co-Managers, or is it Mayor and Co-Mayors have stated in the local media that ?“our staff is stretched?” or ?“our thin staff is overburdened?”. Well, whine me a river! Where I work at I think they invented the phrase ?“do more with less?”. Heck, we often do more with nothing. Why can?’t the city? Is it due to lack of qualified staff? We all know who ran the show before this new form of city government (Manager and Co-Managers, or is it Mayor and Co-Mayors) rose to power. Joyce called the shots. She didn?’t need qualified staff; she needed loyal and obedient minions. Most of them are still there. If you have to increase staff in one department, decrease in another. Balance for gosh sakes!

Out of the mouths of idiots comes gold! ?“Wright said. ?“There?’s been a true breakdown of the leadership of council.?”?” DUH BILL!!! What was your first clue?? Since it was an election year you couldn?’t bring up the obvious calamity on council. You all stated you wanted to end Bickerington but is was more rampant than ever, wasn?’t it? Gosh Bill, I bet you could write a book. Was there any leadership on council? I look back through my papers and read the articles and stories coming from the council ?“leadership?” and I see FLUFF. I see all warm and fuzzy crap and no leadership. I see the hard hitting and really tough issues being dealt with by everyone else BUT the leadership. Bill, why did you let the form of government here change to Manager and Co-Managers, or is it Mayor and Co-Mayors? You and O?’Brien must have made the mistake of campaigning with what you thought voters would respond to rather that telling them that the leadership had gone to crap and you wanted to get reelected to fix it. Too bad but thanks for saying it now. How did it come to be that the Co-Mayor, or is it Co-Manager got in a position of leadership last year? Was it politics at its best? Did this person dupe even the bet of our councilmen?

?”Wright said the city has ?“dragged its feet?” in hiring a new law director and instead allowed the interim law director?….?” True ?– BUT ?– why didn?’t you hire this firm and lock them in at a more affordable cost a year ago as the Co-Mayor alludes to below? Certainly you must have had the opportunity. I mean, if I was that firm, I would have made you an offer you couldn?’t resist to land the account. Did this have anything to do with the new form of government? You know - Manager and Co-Managers, or is it Mayor and Co-Mayors?

continued below..

Switching to Decaf

?“City Manager Judy Gilleland said the law firm isn?’t under contract. The city is paying the firm hourly. She said an agreement was made to keep general legal expenses below $20,000 per month. General expenses don?’t include litigation.

Sabatino said he wants to know how much the law firm is receiving hourly. Gilleland said she would have to get back to council members with the amount. ?“ [sigh] So much to say and so little word count allowed?…. I?’ll get back to the manager (or is it Co-Managers or Co-Mayors) in another posting because obviously Bill?’s term of ?“leadership of council?” extends way beyond council.

?”Shaver added that the council had the opportunity to enter into a contract with the law firm earlier in the year ?– a measure that would?’ve cost the city much less. Shaver said Wright and Sabatino were adamant about using a selection process to find a law firm. ?“ For shame Mayor, or is it (Co- Mayor). Blank, blank, pants on fire. I recall these named people AGREED to a selection process. I do not believe they INITIATED it. Ask the Co-Managers and Co-Mayors what they remember. Better yet, ask Hackworth or Wisniewski or O?’Brien what they remember. I think it was you and the ?“Co?’s?” who demanded a process. Doesn?’t one of the ?“Co?’s?” have political interests in who is the firm selected? Don?’t most of the large municipal firms in Columbus make significant commitments of financial support in statewide campaigns? Hmmmm, makes me wonder?…..

?“It?’s a little bit disingenuous of them now to complain,?” Shaver said. ?“Quite frankly, that type of grandstanding is politics at its worst.?” AGAIN, FOR SHAME Mr. Co-Mayor. Next time you make a statement such as this, first look in the mirror and say it. You may be surprised to see that you can make the same statements about the man in the mirror.

Folks, we need to take a hard look at who is really running our city. Is it council's job? Is it the mayor's job? Is it the manager's job? The lines are now so blurred that I guess we have ManaMayorPres steering this ship. Woe are us!

Level of Service

First the budget is balanced.

The only debt service we are not paying this year is General Fund debt that is in the form of one year notes.

The total debt for the city has remained stable at around $25 million over the last two years and into next year.

We are aggressively paying down the utilities debt.

We SHALL hire a law firm in early 2006.

We spent over $100,000 in legal fees for land owners that are applying to the city to annex and we did this because we were obligated in pre-annexation contracts signed in 2001. So in short we are paying for both sides in these four open annexations south of the City.

We are expecting over $900,000 in new revenues from the impact fees. Approximately $185,000 will displace General Fund monies for debt service to the police station.

We must address the transition from uncontrolled growth to controlled growth this calendar (2006) year. There are numerous issues and I am sure the voters will get a chance to make their wishes known.

I believe the reporter left out the above comments.

Clearly the budget is lean and still providing all of the services expected by the taxpayers.

If we fail to convert the City Hall funding to a slow growth model then we will need to cut services and staff and probably go back to living off of tap fees and building permits fees.