Resonding to anonymity

Posted on Voice of the People, questions directed to me from another anonymous “community advocate”:

1) “We know it is neither healthy, wealthy nor wise to criticize Mayor England. We understand that.”

I can’t say I am friends with Doug England, and I can’t say that I don’t like him either, regardless, he holds no interest what so ever in any of my personal or professional holdings, as such I have nothing to gain, or lose by speaking for him or against him.

2) “Why do you not insist the Council be given their monthly printouts of the financials (as required by law) so they can do their job?”

This is not my place. This is the place for the Council President and councilmen to accomplish. They have tools at their disposal to get this taken care of. If the council wanted to reports enough, they could get them, and should. So this, in my humble opinion is a 50/50 split on fault. (50% admin for not providing them / 50% council for not aggressively seeking them)

3) “Why do you tolerate the excuses about the lack of code enforcement?”
Two answers to this:
A) How many signs are around screaming no new fees or taxes, how many forums are filled with damning statements against the Code Enforcement Personnel, how many letters and forum posting are their blasting the expenditure for the truck, the uniforms and the salary of the personnel? How quick would you be to act in good faith when the ONLY public statements made for you is damnation and chiding?

B) I personally have no issues with code enforcement, as I have seen a great improvement in services in my area. And like any other citizen, when there is a problem that needs attention, and the petty excuses flow from Hartman’s office, I picked up the phone, called CM’s Gonder, Zurchmede, and McLaughlin. McLaughlin and Gonder personally came out; Zurchmede participated through emailed pictures and documents. With in 24 hours, the property in question was under condemnation orders, and has since been worked on and boarded up by the owners under orders of Carl M. and the Building commissioners office. I do not accept excuses for failure to act, so I went to their bosses, was polite, professional, provided dated, detailed photos, and documents, and in doing so, the situation was resolved. It takes more citizen participation that calling downtown and yelling “what are you going to do about this”. The Question should be polite and ask “How can WE work together to solve this?”

4) “Why do you tolerate Carl M. and John R. resigned for 30 days and are now knocking down their pension and salaries?”
I have no personal knowledge of this, nor have I seen any documentation regarding this, as such I am not able to address this.

5) “Why do you tolerate a Mayor elected but not in his office and letting Carl M. run the City? Why do you tolerate the Mayor laying drunk (which is to his demise because of the heart surgery)?”

To the best of my knowledge The Mayor has not been arrested and charged with public intoxication, OWI, nor have I any knowledge of reports of him being at work intoxicated, so making this statement is speculation at best. As far as his absence from office due to multiple surgeries, (back, neck, heart), what are we supposed to do, have him removed from office due to illness? His surgeons have not seen fit to list him as “unfit for duties” (note there is a difference between unfit for duties and medical leave), say we remove him from office, do we then open the city up for very real and very large lawsuits for violations of the ADA, etc. As I had said before, for me personally, when I call for city services, (fire, police, street department, etc.) the city offices still respond, my life has not been altered by his absence, so honestly, I hope he is doing well and recovering properly. (Bottom line, he is human, he is sick, and I do have compassion)

6) Why do you tolerate claims being paid without supporting documentation? Do you know of any business/corporation who would pay your expenses without an expense report and supporting receipts?

What makes you thing I support this? Do I oppose this practice, yes I do. Did I read where the State listed this line item in the audit as criminal, unethical, or underhanded, no I did not. Is my opinion more informed, or legal than the State Government body in charge of conducting such audits and issuing reports, recommendations, and initiating investigations by the Indiana departments of Law and Justice who would oversee any investigations? No, it is not, so I leave that to them.

7) “Why do you tolerate the lack of sufficent infrastructure (i.e. sewers, dilapidated houses) in order to get businesses located in NA?We understand; you dare not to criticize the Mayor because of the opening paragraph here!”

I do not tolerate this, never have and never will. I have advocated at great length for more enforcement, more tools to fight the degrading infrastructure. As a side note, I will point out, that the “reformists” camp fought this like mad. Many of the same people whom share views with the “no new fees, no new taxes” camp were present at many of them meetings, sitting with Harrison, et al, damning any measures to take further actions against this. I had been physically threatened over my participation in this issue. My property had been vandalized, buried a very good Black Labrador Retriever over this. There are no grounds what so ever for any informed person to question my stance on enhanced code enforcement. I strongly feel that the qualities of the infrastructure directly relates to the quality of business that are willing to locate here, or remain here, I have said that from day one. Lastly, again, I do not have reason to fear and retribution from Mayor England, I have sent him letters and emails thanking him for seeing that certain properties were cleaned up, and transversely I have sent him scorching emails, letter and phone calls when he was in support of the variance proposal by CCE to relocate at 111 and Corydon Pike, and I encouraged others to do so as well. I am not claiming that my stance alone changed his mind, but I would like to think it played a part.

8)“But, never criticize the voters. This is not healthy, wealthy nor wise either.”

Dont forget, I include myself, my family and my friends in this as well. Again, the bottom line for any real or perceived problems with the administration of city government and its operations is the voters. There is no way around this. There are not enough people in the “progressive camp” to truly change election outcomes, and the realization that there are not enough in your camp either to do so. Fact is both camps are out numbered by a few 10,000 or more voters who just vote during elections and are not involved between elections.

9) “We can only hope the picking of a candidate by Baylor has PAID THEIR DUES within the Democrat party. This is a MUST. The party is comprised of County and City and County people have friends and relatives living in the City.I'm done preaching. It's obvious to me NAC, the progressives (or whatever you wish to call yourselves) are in it for the monies. As far as we are concerned, your arguments have no merit. That's MY OPINION.It did make for a good chuckle, LOL.”

By suggesting in any manner that person(s) have received kick backs for propping up candidates, or by hand selecting certain candidates, and embarking on a subliminal campaign to control the minds of the voters in order to further an agenda of progress in this city is ludicrous, ill-informed and rates right up there with the conspiracy theories of area 51. I am sure this will not be sufficient enough, and I will not play tit for tat, and pose my liat of questions, I will pose only one:

If you ahd your choice of walking down one of two dark alleys, in one alley you saw people you recognised and knew a little about them, or alley #2 where you could not see the people, noly hear them, they stayed hidden in the shadows, or behind masks.
Which alley would you choose to walk down?