City Hall Elevator Rumblings #38
Rider #1: Were you disappointed after watching the city council candidates forum on the ICTN Open Line program?
Rider #2: Yes! I thought I was watching a softball game with all the slow, soft and underhand questions being pitched to the candidates. Really, it was more like watching a political Infomercial than a candidates forum.
Rider #1: You would think that with all of the challenges, rampant project spending and other personnel issues in the city that the moderator would have attempted to hear candidate views on how to solve or cure the many malaises haunting city hall. At one time, I even thought the moderator was going to ask each candidate what their favorite color was, or what kind a tree they would like to be.
Rider #2: Seriously, I would like to have heard the incumbent (Stopfer) running for the at-large district explain how he allowed the McDougal redevelopment fiasco to go for years without proper council oversight...which ended with a $34 million hickey being place on property tax payers. And after he attempted to explain that away, let voters know why he continues to support the current financial plan of the Entertainment Center that is flawed and designed to place property tax payers on the hook for an even greater amount.
Rider #1: Well, you just have to remember one thing. The incumbent running for the at-large council seat and two other candidates running are being supported by the chamber and local special interest groups...primarily interested in maintaining the status quo.
Rider #2: We can only hope voters are tired of being taken to the cleaners by incumbents and special interest groups. Tax payers are already going to have a difficult time absorbing all the bad deals these folks have created this past year. And the Capo will have to work overtime to bury and hide all the extra cost that will result in another property tax increase next budget cycle.
A note from counsel: These “candid” elevator conversations have been injected with fabricated nouns, verbs, adjectives, conjunctions, adverbs, modifiers and maybe a few dangling participles….Mark Holbrook
