Village Of Valleyview

I noticed there has been no Newsletter since July 13, 2005.

No reporter covers the council meetings.

There are no reports of what happened at council meetings.

I guess it is no surprise considering Watkins' short span of education. He never did know how to express himself without swearing, yelling and lying.

I guess he is speechless when it comes to being honest. He knows how to lie. And, Honest Abe, he is not!

If the current council were honest they would keep the residents advised of their activities.

The residents got what they asked for. Now all Parrish can do is moan about what he got.

If he is so unhappy, he could make more noise!

The Village Needs News

Ms. White,

I have to agree with you that there needs to be more news. Your dates on when the last information was put out are a little out of date. The last Village Newsletter was in October 2005 and the Westside Messenger just ran a story recently (7/15) about a special meeting that the Council held about the budget for 2007.

Either way there is not enough information coming from our Council. It shoud be noted that they are meeting the legal minimum requirements in posting information.

It is disappointing that the Council and Mayor do not make a better effort to get information out to the residents. More newsletters would be better. At the beginning of the year they voted to only do two newsletters a year and so far they have not done any.

I have offered to help with putting out the Village newsletter and have received no response.

As to reporting what is happening at meetings, very few residents attend meetings and I have been only able to attend one meeting so far this year because of my work and personal schedule. I do check with my sources from time to time to find out what is going on to make sure that there is not something that I should get involved in.

As to accusing the Council of not being honest I feel that is very unfair. I am sure they have their excuses as to why they are doing less. It takes someone to step up and take the lead on it and force it to get done. Right now I do not see anyone on the Council taking on extra responsibilities. The residents also have a resonsibility to keep themselves informed about what is going on in THEIR village. The Council has no legal requirement to put out a newsletter, I believe that they have a moral obligation and it would be the neighborly think to do.

I am a firm believer that more information is always better. When information is provided it brings things to light and prevents people from putting out their conspiracy theories that the Council and Mayor are up to something.

The Council will have an uphill battle getting the levy to pass if they do not get information out to the residents about what it is, what it covers and that it will lower your taxes.

As to what I got, I got a Mayor that was able to get a police department up and running and got some of the physical problems facing the Village taken care of. I still stand by my earlier statements that I do not believe that the other two candidates for mayor would have been able to get things turned around in the Village as quickly as it has been done by our current Mayor. My complaints are with the Mayor and Council for not being more open and seeing that communication needs to be more widely distributed to the residents. I also feel that the current Council members are not doing their homework and making more of an effort to learn their jobs and responsibilities.

I have voiced my concerns to the Council and Mayor, it seems to fall on deaf ears.

Falls on Deaf Ears?

This sounds very familiar. It is frustrating isn't it Paul? Now you know what I went through.

You said it was not fair that I accused council of being dis-honest. That they have their excuses. Why doesn't someone ask what they are and demand answers?

You said someone needs to step up and take the lead. on it and force it to get done.

I did and you and the others refused to listen and threw me out of meetings. That is why what you say now is falling on deaf ears. No one wants to hear the truth.

You said you believe they have a moral obligation and it would be the neighborly thing to do to advise the residents about what is going on.

If you don't have morals, you are dis-honest. So Watkins and council are DIS-HONEST. I would not want people in power who are amoral. I guess you did.

When I went to the meeting held by John Glenn Institute, we were told NEVER say no comment when asked a question. It appears the powers in Valleyview are saying ''no comment'' to everything by not giving information. They are as the church says, committing sins of ommission.

You thought Watkins would be a good person and mayor. That was your mistake. You got residents to elect him by lying about his history and qualificatiions. Your sin of ommission is very obvious.

Where There Is Smoke

The definition of moral - Of or concerned with the judgment of the goodness or badness of human action and character: adj.

Being a moral person does not mean that if they are not making the extra effort to put out a newsletter that they are dishonest. Because no one is there to ask any questions how can you say they are being dishonest if there are no questions to answer?

definition of amoral - Lacking moral sensibility; not caring about right and wrong.

I do not believe that to be the case at all for the Council and Mayor. They are not being dishonest and I believe that they do care about what is right. Again, I strongly disagree with your charge that the Mayor and Council are dishonest.

The Council and Mayor are not saying ''No Comment'', they are not even being asked questions. Was it not worse, having Bob Graves sit there and say, ''I do not have to give you an answer,'' when asked a direct question by a resident?

When I was asked a question I answered it. If I did not have the answer right then, I said so and researched the answer and got an answer to the person within 48 hours.

I am a firm believer that more information is always better. If more information is put out there it prevents someone like you Ms. White from twisting or spinning things the way you think things are.

Yes, you screamed and yelled, but you were wrong 99% of the time. For you there was always smoke and you were looking for the fire.

I never lied to anyone about anyone's qualifications. I believe that the Mayor is a good person. I believe that the people on Council are good people. Every person has their faults, be it laziness, lack of education, lack of motivation, etc. etc. The true test of a person is overcoming those faults and succeeding for the common good.

My mistake was believing that the example that I set would be followed by those that followed me serving on Council. I am frustrated by the lack of communication from our Council and Mayor. Nothing will change on the Council until someone steps up and takes the lead. Someone on the Council has to make the extra effort to go beyond just showing up at meeting and voting on something that they have just read for the first time.

Things are getting done, but no one knows about it because they do not make the extra effort to get the information out. That is the Council's loss.