Gangs of Spin City

Friday, October 21, 2005

Gangs of Spin City

This is a sequel to the "Gangs of NY" movie. It is renamed "Gangs of Spin City". It will be a documentary of happenings in and around our fair City, which used to be called Lake Havasu City.

The movie will review past, current and future events.

Past events will include construction of the Aquatic Center, which the people were against, but the council did it anyway.

Another episode will show how a council doubled the irrigation and drainage tax to raise two million dollars to construct some streets. They, of course, left the tax doubled after the money was raised.

Another council increased the irrigation and drainage tax 37% to purchase Kingman's water rights for three million dollars, and left the tax increased after the money was spent.

Prior to the voting for our current sewer program, I wrote a letter to the editor of our local newspaper, Today's News-Herald. I included these two tax increases and stated, "Do you want to trust these people with $463,000,000 of our money? The editor deleted these two items from the letter. Questioning him, he told me the city staff would not verify my figures.

Then, there was the chip seal controversy. The people hated chip seal for obvious reasons, but one councilman told me, "We have a chip seal report. We don't care what the people want. We are going to use chip seal." The report he referred to was prepared by the City Staff, and was filled with garbage.

And, can anyone drive our streets today, and say they are acceptable? Take a drive on Swanson, Mesquite, Jamaica, or, for that matter, any street in the City. And, now the city staff has directed the contractors to replace torn up sewer streets with asphalt over dirt-a future maintenance nightmare. I was told by one if the engineers from the City they could not afford to replace the streets properly and continue the sewer program. Does this make sense to anyone in their right mind?

The sewer program deserves a movie of its own. There was, and is now, too much spin, lies, half truths, etc. to be included in this sequel. Has anyone shown proof that septic tanks are affecting our ground water and the Lake? I don't think so-just more spin.

We can expect a vociferous crowd at next Tuesdays council meeting. The audience will be stacked with people not confused by facts, but, only interested in their own pocketbooks. There will be hurrahs and clapping for anyone favoring approval to continue the sewer program. But, pity any bravehearts that say a word against, and they will be booed, and after the meeting, better get out in a hurry.

Some people say the sewer program brought an undesirable element into the City. It certainly isn't the quiet place it used to be. The wild and heavy traffic reminds one of a big city. Prices of most items are higher here than in Phoenix.

Anyway, does the City Council have the guts to do the right thing and stop this out-of-hand sewer program? I think so.