VOTE AGAINST THE BOND ISSUE THIS TUESDAY FEBRUARY 26
2-20-08
Of Puppy Dogs and Skunks
If you wanted to adopt a cute puppy dog, should you have to adopt a mess of skunks also? Any rational person would answer "no". You shouldn't have to take the skunks in order to get the puppy; yet, that is exactly how Mayor Perkins' Bond Issue is presented to the voters. There is a puppy dog or two in the Bond Issue which we need and want, but we are not willing to take the mess of skunks in the Bond Issue just to get one or two puppies.
There are some real skunks in this Bond Issue. First, is the plan to spend $480,000 on the TrustBuild building behind the Police Building while spending only $134,000 on the Police Building. The City recently spent $74,000 to repair the roof of the Police Building, but it continues to leak like a sieve. Everyone has been moved off of the 3rd floor where the smell from water damage is unbearable. The storm last Sunday leaked right through the roof all the way down to the 3rd, 2nd, and 1st floors. We are told it destroyed all of the evidence when the evidence room was soaked. The City has already been sued because conditions in the Police Building have created a health hazard for employees.
But, instead of proposing a new Public Safety Building from Bond proceeds or proposing that the present building be repaired, the Bond Issue only proposes that $134,000 be spent on the Building while nearly $500,000 is spent on the TrustBuild office building. To us, that is a "skunk".
We also believe that $3.1 million for Information Technology is another skunk. Reliable sources tell us it only costs about $60,000 to wire a mile. The Mayor is talking about 2 miles square wired plus every new computer and gadget on the market FOR PEOPLE WHO REALLY ARE NOT YET CAPABLE OF USING SUCH EQUIPMENT. To us, that is a "skunk".
A third skunk in the Bond Issue is the MAYOR'S PLAN TO PUT A MOVIE THEATRE ON WATER AVE. This will effectively kill the development of Water Ave. We can not expect people to visit Water Ave if people are being shot in front of a movie theatre.
The Bond Issue has a few puppies we would support if we could vote on them individually, BUT WE ARE NOT WILLING TO ADOPT A BUNCH OF SKUNKS just to get the cute puppy! We urge everyone to VOTE AGAINST the Bond Issue on Tuesday and urge City Council to present a Bond Issue framed in such a way that individual items can be voted on. Then we will take the puppies without having to take the skunks also!
