“Meet the new boss . . . same as the old boss”

(Last 2 lines of Won’t Get Fooled Again by the Who)

November 10, 2018

Citizens:

After nearly five months of staying away, I attended this past Monday’s City Council meeting.  I felt obligated to attend and speak.  Following are videos of my remarks before Council.

Shifting Power Back to Citizens:  Just Another Empty Campaign Promise?

On the anniversary of the 2017 election victory for good governance, I felt compelled to speak at Council.  The central campaign theme of 2017 was shifting power back to citizens.  Sadly, little has been done to actually shift power back to citizens.  In fact, power in our city government seems to have been concentrated in just a few council members.  You can listen to my remarks to Council in the following video.

Rigged Zoning Hearing

Instead of taking actions to shift power to citizens, our City Council has been bogged down with zoning hearings relating to the SE and NW corners of Birmingham Crossroads.  A second hearing on the SE corner consumed vast amounts of staff resources that would have been better deployed to reforming our zoning processes.  The Council hearing was a sham, as a deal had already been cut with the developer in a backroom, away from the prying eyes and ears of pesky citizens.  As always, Council’s indulgence of developer requests means the agenda for Council is driven by the needs of developers, rather than citizens.

Citizens, I understand that many of you are disillusioned by the recent actions of our city government, and you are disengaging.  I feel the same way and have considerably dialed back my involvement.  It is just too depressing.  Same old, same old . . . Meet the new boss, same as the old boss . . .

(Still) Advocating for clean, competent, courageous, and citizen-centric government

Tim