Having A Bad Day?
During this most recent bout between residents and City Hall, one council member stood up, and took the fight, head on. He started questioning every single aspect of the project. This part of his action is 100% commendable. I don't want to take anything away from that. This is how it's done, in my opinion. When your residents don't like something your governing body is doing, dig in, ask questions and get answers.
When you've done that, stop for a moment, and digest those answers. More important than asking the questions, is getting the answers and processing them. I think Mr. Day continues the questioning, even though the answers are now right in front of him.
I met with Mr. Day during the break. Mr. Rosado called me over, for reassurances that I understood his position. After speaking to him, I turned to Mr. Day. As I stated here, I asked him directly, to show his proof. He said to wait for his report to council. He said he had an answer.
Next, he asked me why I wasn't angry about my increased property taxes. Why I wasn't mad about the oncoming assessments. I answered, "I have a solution." He believes the 1c sales tax is no solution. "If that's your only solution, go back to the drawing board." He doesn't believe people will pass it. He tossed several arguments my way, I had an answer for each:
"Residents didn't pass 1/2 cent trauma center tax" There is a level of distrust, and dissatisfaction with the Lee Health System. There was (operative word was) a competitive source for hospital care in the county. Lastly, as good markets do, the market took care of itself, and LMHS purchased the competition. This is of course, a whole different topic, for a different day.
"The County doesn't want to pay for your sewer" Does the county want to finish its road widening? How about the bridge construction? How about the sewers that will eventually be required in Lehigh Acres?
"You would depress LeHigh Acres if you tried to assess them for sewers" Why would we need to assess them? It's a public health threat to keep septic systems in the ground. We'll just do away with them with some of the over 80 million dollars per year of that sales tax going just to county.
"Are you a staff plant?" Nope.
"They'll tar and feather you" I'll get a nice rain coat.
Mr. Day was asked to publicly apologize for misstating someone else's statements to the press. The Mayor quickly reminded the gentleman speaking to avoid any personal attacks. At that point, the speaker simply drew himself back, and calmly, and rationally explained his entire position. He spoke well, and he presented a handful of valid (if well tread) reasons for stopping illegal immigration. He never got his apology.
Mr. Barth (Edit: thanks for the correction!), a regular visitor to our council chambers, also spoke up. He asked residents to stop begging for subsidy, not caring where the money comes from, and start working for solutions. Mr. Bartlett also asked Mr. Day to accept that we need sewers, because of our unique geography. He tires of the continuance of investigation after investigation. For his calm demeanor, he received a nasty rebuttal from Mr. Day.
Finally, during Mr. Day's report to council, he revealed his plan to find evidence. The contract signed just before the SE1 Sewer only expansion added language to comply with a recommendation of the Townsend audit. It allows an Auditor to go to MWH, and compare the billing rates for the 16 individuals working directly for the city to the amount they are actually paid. So through all of the bluster, and political swagger, in the end, the only thing Mr. Day is going to get is the A-OK that MWH isn't overbilling for their direct staffers.
When the all clear is sounded, what will be next for Mr. Day? Will he continue to demand that we don't need sewers? Will he finally decide to join the rest of us in finding a new way to pay for all of this? We can only hope that tomorrow will be a brand new Day.
When you've done that, stop for a moment, and digest those answers. More important than asking the questions, is getting the answers and processing them. I think Mr. Day continues the questioning, even though the answers are now right in front of him.
I met with Mr. Day during the break. Mr. Rosado called me over, for reassurances that I understood his position. After speaking to him, I turned to Mr. Day. As I stated here, I asked him directly, to show his proof. He said to wait for his report to council. He said he had an answer.
Next, he asked me why I wasn't angry about my increased property taxes. Why I wasn't mad about the oncoming assessments. I answered, "I have a solution." He believes the 1c sales tax is no solution. "If that's your only solution, go back to the drawing board." He doesn't believe people will pass it. He tossed several arguments my way, I had an answer for each:
"Residents didn't pass 1/2 cent trauma center tax" There is a level of distrust, and dissatisfaction with the Lee Health System. There was (operative word was) a competitive source for hospital care in the county. Lastly, as good markets do, the market took care of itself, and LMHS purchased the competition. This is of course, a whole different topic, for a different day.
"The County doesn't want to pay for your sewer" Does the county want to finish its road widening? How about the bridge construction? How about the sewers that will eventually be required in Lehigh Acres?
"You would depress LeHigh Acres if you tried to assess them for sewers" Why would we need to assess them? It's a public health threat to keep septic systems in the ground. We'll just do away with them with some of the over 80 million dollars per year of that sales tax going just to county.
"Are you a staff plant?" Nope.
"They'll tar and feather you" I'll get a nice rain coat.
Mr. Day was asked to publicly apologize for misstating someone else's statements to the press. The Mayor quickly reminded the gentleman speaking to avoid any personal attacks. At that point, the speaker simply drew himself back, and calmly, and rationally explained his entire position. He spoke well, and he presented a handful of valid (if well tread) reasons for stopping illegal immigration. He never got his apology.
Mr. Barth (Edit: thanks for the correction!), a regular visitor to our council chambers, also spoke up. He asked residents to stop begging for subsidy, not caring where the money comes from, and start working for solutions. Mr. Bartlett also asked Mr. Day to accept that we need sewers, because of our unique geography. He tires of the continuance of investigation after investigation. For his calm demeanor, he received a nasty rebuttal from Mr. Day.
Finally, during Mr. Day's report to council, he revealed his plan to find evidence. The contract signed just before the SE1 Sewer only expansion added language to comply with a recommendation of the Townsend audit. It allows an Auditor to go to MWH, and compare the billing rates for the 16 individuals working directly for the city to the amount they are actually paid. So through all of the bluster, and political swagger, in the end, the only thing Mr. Day is going to get is the A-OK that MWH isn't overbilling for their direct staffers.
When the all clear is sounded, what will be next for Mr. Day? Will he continue to demand that we don't need sewers? Will he finally decide to join the rest of us in finding a new way to pay for all of this? We can only hope that tomorrow will be a brand new Day.
posted by Lloyd at 7:33 PM
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1 Comments:
I believe you are speaking of Mr. Barth and not Mr. Bartlett.
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