Tax, Spend and Undercut
The longer I sat
and listened at the May 10 DeKalb City Council meeting, the
more I wished I'd stayed home. It was a long, tortuous
display of politics as usual.
I had actually
been formally invited to come to the meeting, as a member of
the Growth Summit committee, and to speak to the Council.
Item number eight on the agenda was a consideration to add
"ten points of consensus agreement" of Growth Summit members
to the DeKalb Comprehensive Plan.
The fact of the
matter is that only 1/3 of the participants in the Growth
Summit turned in their survey. How can there be points of
consensus agreement when 2/3 of the committee did not turn
in their surveys? But the Comprehensive Plan will be
modified to include unrealistic goals and mechanisms to
further inflate housing costs.
Also on the
agenda was consideration for an intergovernmental agreement
between the City of DeKalb and the County of DeKalb for a
continuation of the shared sales tax increase passed last
year by the City Council. The Mayor and City Council
had promised to review the tax increase in two or three
years with an eye towards repealing the increase. It
took less than a year for them to make it permanent.
Tax and spend.
But the worst
was saved for last. New city manager, Mark Biernacki,
made a bold proposal to reorganize city staff and privatize
some of the city engineering services. His proposal
would have saved taxpayers more than $200,000 per year in
wages and who knows how many new truck purchases over the
years.
The City Council
commended Biernacki for making such a bold proposal and then
proceeded to rip the guts out of it on a motion made by
alderman James Barr.
Sitting directly
in front of me at the council meeting was former city
manager, Jim Connors. Directly to my right was former
mayor Bessie Chronopolous.
Every time Mark
Biernacki spoke, or an alderman spoke favorably to Biernacki,
Connors would grumble his displeasure. Every time
current mayor, Greg Sparrow, spoke or received support,
Chronopolous would grumble.
The city has
enough problems without former employees and former elected
officials working to undercut the current administration.
And it was embarrassing for me to sit there and witness
their lack of professionalism.
Where's fresh
blood when you need it?
Mac McIntyre
