Category Archives: City Politics

Agenda 21, city government offenses, City Politics, Cultural Marxism destroying United States, Political Correctness - The Destroyer

Government working its will against the people.

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Fort Smith School Superintendent Benny Gooden, the downtown oligarchs, & a few of their hat tricks.
July 6, 2015

Politicians and bureaucrats speak incessantly about their “visions”, i.e. con games—more control, more spending, more self-service.

Fort Smith citizens have been blistered for months by city government stating that police & fire pensions are in financial disarray and there must be budget reductions, i.e. cuts. Nothing about new spending increases & proposals, absent restraints, as witnessed by one of the sponges and one wanna be. That would be two fellows named Reinert & Merry, but not limited to, who are campaigning for huge new spending menus, e.g. bike lanes, multi-use rail trails, river taxis, fishing pavilions, community centers and on—more bread and circuses for a majority of the masses.

It was only weeks ago that Fort Smith citizens rejected the city’s vigorous financial plea for more trails (Agenda 21), but in typically corrupt politicians’ mind-set, they did not accept the will of the people, they just keep coming back to work their will; case in point, Dianne Morrison, resident Marxist and Certified Planner, e.g.” Placemaking, Public Participation, Local Government, Transportation Planning, Community Development, Comprehensive Planning”, (for whom?) and the beat goes on.

Government Planners are the enemy—the enemy of the people, the enemy of freedom, the enemy of free movement, taker of responsibilities of elected government officials and a huge sponge for tax dollars. Observe the multitude of NGO’s & MPO’s and multiplying all by design.

Society should demand the concept of letting things evolve naturally and not planning our lives by government acolytes.

Another example of same: Superintendent Benny Gooden getting quashed by Sammy Sicard & Richard Griffin & other downtown oligarchs, on his proposal for a new $75 million high school. Gooden comes back days later with a new plan for a $78 million spendathon, allegedly to be applied to his existing Taj Mahals. Nothing was said about this proposed $78 million spending spree prior to the new high school proposal. Does this mean Gooden not only wanted $75 million for a new school but also $78 million for existing schools? Remember, Gooden is a federal government union man (President of the National Superintendents Union) and he carried out the Fed’s & downtown oligarchs’ edict to implement their and his Southside coup d’état by removing, surreptitiously (no prior public discussion) the school’s Rebel mascot and anything relating to Dixie. The fix was and is in. This certainly was not a one man hit job.

Gooden would dare not carry out a plan of this magnitude that destroyed Johnny Reb, the fight song Dixie, the Dixie Belles, etc. without political heavyweights directing & backing his massacre. Think, if you will, what Gooden & the enabling Board did without consultation or discussion with Fort Smith citizens, all the while impugning and besmirching the good character of Fort Smith Southerners and the multitude of Southside alumni.. All done in secrecy (against the law) before the official Board meeting that evening and only later did he favor the city citizens with a July 27 hearing that will allow the people to comment. The fix is in. Gooden and the Boards’ behavior was/is despicable.
Ms. Mehl appears to be the spokesperson for the coup d’état.

And to the matter of trails and other Agenda 21 pursuits, resident Marxist Diane Morrison, Chief of the NGO, i.e. The Frontier Metro Planning Organization’s 2040 chimes in with an absurd statement, “there’s no money involved, so dream big while you have the chance”. (Translation please!!…more government doublespeak/lies.)

Now back to the citizens and the shortages in the police & fire pensions. Where did the money go? Probably the same places the 25 year $600 million 1 cent street & sewer tax went.

All the while, not a word from the FSM City Manager & Board about plans, if any, for the payment of the EPA’s hefty fine of $300,000 and the $500 million or more EPA demands to fix the sewers over the next 12 years.

Fort Smith City Administrator Ray Gosack asked the police department to shave their budget, allegedly to bailout the police/fire pensions.

If Gosack was an effective CEO he would have demanded the Chief of Police to cut his budget, Lindsay would not have been simply “asked” . The same command should go out to all department heads in the Fort Smith city government—CUT!

Where is Gosack’s “vision”, why did he and Director of Finance Kara Bushkuhl not see all these financial deficiencies coming years ago, as well as the City Board, or did they spend pension funds on some other so-called “projects”. In that vein Fort Smith city streets are a disgrace. Enough about visions.

The Mayor & Board of Directors appear to have no moxie, and are just a collection of political wanderlusts spending millions to keep the bread & circus crowd appeased.

The Fort Smith city government, and all governments for that matter, will never function efficiently until citizens’ demand that all departments introduce ZERO BASED BUDGETRY—means every department does not begin with a budget with built-in increases year after year. It means every single expense has to be anticipated and accounted for, and that each succeeding year begins with reducing the out-go. With proper management there are some departments that could actually increase revenue. Without such a plan, bureaucrats & politicians will continue their insatiable pillaging. The City Manager, the Mayor & Board and all their NGO’s have proved to be grossly improvident.

The American Institute of Planners comes under the heading of either “progressive, socialist, communist, Marxist”…take your pick. Both Democrat & Republican parties & the governments they create are responsible for these destructors of freedom.

Government Planners are an anathema to a free society! (i.e. CONTROL OF THE PEOPLE)

Joe McCutchen

P.S. Consider: this is the 3rd request directed to any official in the F.S. city government to provide the amount of liquid assets immediately available, that means any financial instrument that can immediately be used as cash…cash, bonds, stock, etc.

arkansasfreedom.net

City Politics, Cultural Marxism destroying United States, Education Morass, False history, Political Correctness - The Destroyer

“Racist”: Powerful Politically Correct Incendiary

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WHO IS THE RACIST? THE CONFEDERATE BATTLE FLAG OR PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN? June 27, 2015

If you have a strong stomach and a quest for factual historical knowledge, read the entirety of this piece.

Trading down—the insider’s game.

The Southside Rebels—the envy of every high school in Arkansas—why so? Because there are none like it.

Southside athletic teams are beautifully attired in distinctive blue and grey, with a smidgeon of red here and there. When they are suited up they resemble no other teams.

They are the Rebels—meaning they are independent, not easily regimented and not to be herded like sheep.

The Dixie Belles and the Southside Drill Team regalia—who else but Dixie Belles, a southern name and Southside tradition are accorded invitations to march in the Macy Thanksgiving Day Parade in NYC. Bulldogs, Tigers, Lions, etc. are not on parade, but there is a certain amount of magnetism about the name Dixie Belles.

The Athletic facilities feature Southern colors.

Then the stirring song “Dixie”, which arouses Southerners’’ emotions, is truly a song of the South and Southside.
And finally, the old, weather-beaten wooden Johnny Reb standing in the entrance to Southside High greeting the students.
How Racist!!

With what do Superintendent Benny Gooden and the compliant Fort Smith School Board’s automatons plan to replace southern excellence?
Two of the downtown insiders Richard Griffin & Sammy Sicard, who pushing their personal self-serving interests have offered up the colorless name “Southside Marshals”…named after the proposed Marshal’s Museum, billed as a private endeavor while being subsidized by millions of taxpayer dollars. Envision the proposed new athletic & band uniforms—tan or brown replete with tin stars. Women’s teams would probably be known as the “Marshalettes”, with similar costumes. The mutiny that Gooden & company have pulled off is at the very least, trading down. Very few in our city pay any special attention to Marshals; they are only hired guns, and the downtown crowd has created a phony admiration for Marshals by some.

Gooden claimed the decision to scuttle Johnny Reb, etc. was based on “PERCEPTION”, i.e. racism. Perception is not an act; it is whatever the individual, in this case Gooden, wants the perception to be. What are the chances this coup was planned months or maybe years in advance, just waiting for “not letting a good crisis go to waste”, i.e. an attack on the Confederate battle flag and the South in general as an excuse to remove all remnants of the South?

Quisling Benny Gooden and his PC Board have no problem spending at least $500,000 (in government work no doubt more like $1 million) on the proposed transition, while at the same time massaging Griffin & Sicard’s ambitions.

A further note, Gooden and his Board held a behind closed doors private meeting before the public meeting to create the “fix” without the knowledge of the High School Administration or the taxpaying public. The speed with which it was accomplished, indeed breathtaking, scurrilous and denotes pre-planning by Gooden and his Board.

Government schools have been the principal purveyors of lies, altering, filtering , withholding, and revising facts concerning the Second War for Independence, misnamed the Civil War (among many other subjects) , and thereby rendering students academically misinformed and culturally defenseless. Note: Civil wars are fought to take over a central government; this was certainly not the case in the aforementioned war which was for independence from tyranny only!

Lincoln’s war cost 700,000 lives. 300,000 were Southerners and many of those were the progeny of the “DISTRESSED CAVALIERS”…brilliant minds and achievers who created a culture that is to be envied today. In 1861 there were more slaves in the north than in the south and slavery was on its way out without bloodshed, if only because of economics due to industrialization. Think of the gene pools lost—both sides, never to be replaced.

If Gooden, his PC School Board & the plethora of school teachers knew the true history of that period why are they continuing the 154 year old Lincoln cover-up? The larger question is, if they don’t know, why don’t they know??

Lincoln himself was a white-supremacist—the heck you say Rebel!

The following are some of the remarks made by Abe Lincoln in his debate with Stephen Douglas, Sept. 18, 1858. Documentation may be found (New York; Library of America, 1989) pp. 636-637. And this is only the tip.

“I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races, that I am not nor every have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people: and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social or political equality. And in as much as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the while race”.

The night Lincoln was shot he was busily working on a plan that he had begun to craft before the war and continued after the war, a plan to colonize blacks, i.e. to deport.

As President, Lincoln allocated millions of taxpayer dollars to a project that would “colonize” American blacks in Liberia.

In 1862 (the so-called Civil War was in full bloom) Lincoln held a meeting with several dozen “free” black men in the White House and explained to them that, because of the inherent differences between the white & black races they could never live together, and so he urged them to lead by example and colonize themselves in Liberia. (Abraham Lincoln, “Address on Colonization to a Committee of Colored Men,” August 14, 1862, in Abraham Lincoln; “Speeches & Writings, Vol. II, 1859-1866 (New York; Library of America, 1989), page 354. “

So who is the racist—The much maligned Confederate battle flag or Abraham Lincoln and the 154 year Lincoln cover-up by government schools, universities, elected & appointed officials, all media, and the PC crowd, including carpetbaggers. To the victor go the spoils, and the power to revise history.

The travesty being carried out by Benny Gooden and all his accomplices must not be tolerated. His unctuous dealings must be exposed to the taxpaying public and the Fort Smith School Board should fire him immediately, and then resign en masse. But that would be the honorable thing to do.

Joe McCutchen
arkansasfreedom.net

city government offenses, City Politics, Forced redistribution

The Road to Serfdom

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WE THE PEOPLE…MARCHING DOWN THE ROAD TO SERFDOM. June 11, 2015

Police & Fire pay raise.

Facts state all government entities are paid far more than equivalent employment in the private sector and every government entity is represented by a union & all joined inextricably at the hip.

Government salaries of comparable positions should never be higher than the private sector which subsidizes them.

Ray Gosack & Richard Jones are quoted in the T.R. June 10, 2015, three, at the very least two, disingenuous statements. Jones, “Since 2006 Fort Smith’s pay for police & fire has lagged behind comparison cities”. Jones, “In 2014 Fort Smith’s pay was nearly 13% behind”. Jones, everything & everybody are not equal.

Gosack,” Without cost of living or market adjustments (oh wow), our pay plan stays stagnant while other cities around us, we’re comparing to, are moving their pay plans along”. Just what is a pay plan??!!

“Comparing” is the same dishonest psychology that politicians & bureaucrats use to make We the People feel guilty for not sacrificing ourselves for more government & its employees.

What Gosack & Jones are doing is trying to compare apples to oranges. Here’s the Marxist mentality again—every city in this case is equal, with no regard for demographics. Additionally, because city claims they need a raise is no foundation for the city to be automatically given one—try that with your boss in the private sector!

Demographics must be the determinate—population size, sex, age, marital status, numbers of children, education levels, economic factors, and a series of others, none of which are being considered by Gosack & Jones. And local private sector salaries should specifically thrown into the mix.

Who exactly is Jones comparing Fort Smith with? Here are the comparison cities Jones cited and their populations.
1. Little Rock—198,000
2. Springfield, Mo—160,000
3. Tulsa, OK—617,000
4. Okla. City, OK—399,000
5. Hot Springs, AR—35,000—since the 1940’s Hot Springs has grown by 3,000. Fort Smith’s population is 89,000. Hot Springs is a tourist city and both residents and visitors are taxed to the hilt.

Note the disparity in population numbers. There is no commonality whatsoever between the cities. It is absurd and slaps the taxpayers of Fort Smith trying to use this mechanism for an excuse for a pay raise.

Divulge to the citizens and let us observe the following areas regarding pay and perks of city employees. List each pay grade beginning with the entry level up to the highest, citizen contribution to their healthcare and the cost of their healthcare, same for dental, pensions, pay allowances, paid time off, paid vacations & length, sick days, holidays, free days, and not to mention, government employees have 100% job security—as opposed by the private sector.

Gosack & Jones offer no justification whatsoever for any type of pay raise. Government employees are not an endangered species. Let them absorb the same standards that are observed by the private sector and if they are not happy there are always those willing to fill their slot.

Joe McCutchen

P.S. Still waiting to hear what the cash reserves are for the city of Fort Smith!

arkansasfreedom.net

city government offenses, City Politics, Forced redistribution

Government Gall: 30 year tax misapplied, So pay up for 10 more!!!

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WHY BOTHER?—BECAUSE IT NEEDS TO BE SAID AS A MATTER OF PRINCIPLE. May 3, 2015

Why would a voter (citizen) cast a yes vote to continue the 30 year 1 cent Sales Tax, formerly & officially known as the 1 Cent Street/Sewer Tax? The official legal title was surreptitiously dropped by city government for the new name (1 Cent Sales Tax) for political cover in order to allow City Manager Gosack and Board of Directors (past & present) to loot at will as if the tax were a General Funding tax.

A vote to continue the street/sewer tax, absent historical facts and specific questions addressed & answered is indeed foolish; particularly when the 30 year street & sewer tax was not applied as it was ordained. An ironclad legal guarantee in writing by the City Manager, the Mayor and the current Board should state every “rolling penny” must be spent on streets & sewers and should be demanded by citizen voters. At this juncture, why would any sane citizen presume to think the Fort Smith city government will change its present dubious & perhaps criminal conduct in their spending of the street/sewer taxpayer millions, if extended for another 10 years, and it will be?

A letter appearing in the Wednesday April 22 edition of the T.R. written by Scott Stuart stated in eloquent fashion why money should not be diverted from the 1 cent street/sewer tax to fund trails. However, Mr. Stuart, in his letter, unfortunately did not use the official name of the tax, i.e. THE 1 CENT STREET/SEWER TAX.

What Mr. Stuart fails to point out in his letter “vote no to the proposed diversion of money from an already inadequate street/drainage tax”. Absolutely not inadequate, if the 30 year street/sewer tax had been applied as so ordered by citizens. The City Directors & Manager refuse to answer how the 1% Street/Sewer Sales Taxes were spent. Simply put: the 30 years earmarked 1 cent street/sewer tax has generated $600 million…$20 million per year, and has been and is being misappropriated and diverted, and again, there could possibly be criminal involvements. All City Directors, Mayors, & City Managers from 1985 to the present have been involved in tawdry practices, whether they know/knew it or not. What makes one think anything will change unless citizen legal force is exerted? The city of Fort Smith is awash in tax dollars and in this regard, the Arkansas Times reports “Arkansas is 48th in government services provided”. “In spite of being in the top ten in what we pay to state and local government, we are in the bottom three in terms of what we get from state and local government”.

If the 1 cent street/sewer tax had been properly applied from say 1985—1995 the sewer/drainage systems would be perfectly functional and the streets in excellent condition. We would not now be faced with a 12 year $500 million federal directive, numerous fines, and new problems with sewers & streets occurring weekly. City Manager Ray Gosack should be fired and investigated immediately.

Residents are now faced with double taxation, rising rates, the streets a shamble, putrid sewers, numerous fines, all due to Fort Smith city government’s ineptness, coupled with other deficiencies. During the 12 year EPA mandate, the $500 million federal edict could easily balloon to $750 million. Recall, Gosack has been embedded in city manipulations for 22 years. Why continue to bestow $20 million per year on such a dysfunctional & questionable entity, accompanied by self-serving insiders?

April 15, 2015 I posed the question to City Directors Catsavis & Lau—What is the dollar amount of cash and convertible assets (bonds, C.D.’s, royalties, insurance, etc.) that the city possesses at this time, as opposed to the city’s fixed assets (buildings, equipment, etc.)?
No response. I believe that neither of these gentlemen have the foggiest idea what the fiscal assets of the city are, and if they did they would probably be fearful to divulge the dollar numbers even though it is a citizen right to know. In all likelihood the city has millions stashed away as is the case with most cities. Two questions must be directed at the City Board—should the 1% street/sewer tax be continued, if so WHY? Just how much does the city have in cash reserves?

History and evidence indicate the fix is in: if serious citizen analytic consideration was applied to the 1 cent tax matter, does anyone believe there are not ample funds to satisfy the alleged police/fire pension deficits? If there is doubt that pension funds are not available, police & fire unions would be screaming. Same scenario (is money in fact presently available?) for the promised (undeserved) raises for the 900 city employees. The appearance of a bait & switch operation. The day after the election or soon afterward, the above deficiencies, in all likelihood, will rapidly disappear.

If there is an actual shortage of pensions for police & fire, the City Manager as already stated should be fired and the current Board resign en masse.

The misplaced focus of city government, enabled by city elitists, e.g. Griffin, Sicard, & the Chamber, etc. have dual purposes. One is to enhance the property values & future incomes of said elitists, much of which is being subsidized by city, state, & federal taxpayers, while at the same time, the city government and the elites are playing to the ignorant (absent facts) Bread & Circus crowd through their new & proposed entertainment venues, e.g. trails, walkways, bike paths, sharrows, et al.

In this case, less than 50 well-placed F.S. residents are being used to influence, through indoctrination (mostly untrue), the thought processes of 89,000 residents and perhaps 250,000 in the 3 county propose alliance.

Then to the proposed Marshal’s Museum, taking a larger & larger share of the taxpayer pie to subsidize what initially was billed as a private enterprise project. Griffin & Sicard are the prime movers and if it reaches fruition they will divest their financial responsibilities and it will be quickly inherited by one or more government agencies.

A little fatigue by the self-serving insiders’ use of the penny, “IT’S ONLY A PENNY” & “KEEP YOUR PENNY ROLLING”, but very successful, after all, that little penny generates $20 million+ per year and allows the Fort Smith city government to continue its lavish spending and financial diversions while the city deteriorates.
One would be led to believe, in view of recent alleged city monetary deficiencies and fines, all embarrassing, and very expensive, that said government would make a gentleman’s agreement demanding the 1 cent street/sewer tax would be spent on exactly that, city streets & sewers.
Instead of engaging in the proper functions of city government, entertainment has seized the F.S. stage.

Why the sudden push for 87 miles of trails? Laying a plotter on a map, 87 miles would translate into a distance from Van Buren, AR to Henrietta, OK. Is this not pause for objective thinking? The push for extensive networks of trails in all communities is not a recent phenomenon, part of Agenda 21’s grand plan.

Therefore; what is the Grand Plan? Is there more to the trail systems than meets the eye? Absolutely!

Appearing in the T.R’s edition of 4/28/15 was a letter to the editor signed by Drew Linder, the Chairman of the F.S. Trails Commission. Spewing the company line, Linder made some outlandish, unsubstantiated claims designed to indoctrinate. To whit:

1. “Citizens told our committee that continuous trails are a priority”. By what authority? Why are trails a PRIORITY? How many citizens attended the 4 regional meetings? About 50, most self-servers, e.g. owners of bicycle shops, etc. and a 501c3 NGO (Frontier) run by a Marxist sympathizer.
2. “Tax will continue to go toward (?) streets and bridges”. Either Linder is ignorant or prevaricating. As previously pointed out, the 30 year 1 cent tax was specifically earmarked for streets & sewers, and the tax for the most part, was and has not been applied to streets & sewers. Nowhere was it a bridge tax. The streets are as rough as the Appian Way and the sewer system stinks.
3. “Many reports demonstrate the economic benefits in cities that have extensive trail systems”. There is not one shred of empirical data that substantiates the above claim.
4. “They are (trails) especially attractive to young people like M.D.’s, engineers, etc.” So what does that prove? More nebulous utterings promulgated by city government & NGO’s.

Trails are a small part of the global governance commitment. The ultimate use of the 87 mile trail system in Fort Smith & across the nation is simply designed to ultimately restrict & restrain various modes of transportation and movements of people, while concentrating residents into high density central locations—stack & pack.

The Bread & Circus crowd marches merrily along, subsidizing their own demise/loss of freedom through the many taxes they/we are forced to pay. REDISTRIBUTION.

Will the 1 Cent street/sewer tax be extended? Absolutely! Replete with a new name. Will the 3 county (Crawford, Leflore, Sebastian) trail system be authorized? Absolutely!

Gosack and his consummate enablers will celebrate another of their tax victories by clanking their champagne glasses behind closed doors while the Bread & Circus crowd will celebrate in the streets by Callin’ them Hogs!

Manipulated and subverted powers by government, enabled by the Bread & Circus crowd who are more than willing participants are glad to go along for the ride.

We, the Republic, have long since descended into a totalitarian morass called COLLECTIVISM.

Joe McCutchen arkansasfreedom.net

city government offenses, City Politics

THE IMPORTANCE OF ACCOUNTABILITY…CITY GOVERNMENT

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An off-the-wall Times Record editorial published Friday April 5, 2015, titled “Increased Sewer Rates Inevitable” April 13, 2015

Quotable statements by Madam Editor, City Manager Gosack, Mayor Sandy Sanders & Director Mike Lorenz were mind-boggling.

The year 1989, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a Consent Decree to immediately upgrade various components of the Fort Smith city sewer system.

Recall 4 years in advance of the initial EPA edict, in 1985 citizens voted for a 1 cent sales tax that was specifically earmarked, designating one half for streets and one half for sewers. During the ensuing 30 years the 1% sales tax generated $600 million, and obviously was misapplied, misappropriated, diverted, or all of the above.

2014 the EPA issued its final verdict that directs the city of Fort Smith to spend $480 million over a 12 year period to revamp its sewer system and also accompanied by a $300,000 fine. Any fool can readily understand that in 12 years there will be inflationary concerns, cost of doing business, cost overruns, ad infinitum, and in all likelihood reaching an ultimate cost of $ 3/4 Billion, meaning the residents of Fort Smith will pay for sewer upgrades that will cost well over twice the 12 year, $480 million EPA demand, that is if the city government had followed the city’s vote & trust along with the initial EPA decree. Then there is the sorry state of affairs pertaining to streets, also neglected.

The year 2014, City Manager Ray Gosack & his entourage were summoned to go to Dallas by the EPA. Returning from the meeting in Dallas, Gosack proclaimed like a conquering hero, that the deal HE (not the EPA) cut was a great deal. The arrogance of Gosack’s words is revolting.

Since the initial 1989 EPA mandate was ordered, Fort Smith has had 7 City Managers that have willfully disregarded the ‘89 demand by the EPA, couple that with all the City Boards who have been elected during the past 25 year period, and certainly applies to the present Board.

Gosack has been a key player in city government for 22 years. The present City Board, absent Director Pennartz, has been in power 35 years cummulatively….so why did the T.R. give the present Mayor, Board, & City Manager a pass? Did they have to wait for an invitation from the EPA before enacting what should have been done & completed and was voted on 30 years ago?

The following quotes expressed in the Times Record by Gosack & others are the height of absurdity and express in a woefully deceptive manner that the incompetence’s (massive debt & possible criminality) the residents are now facing are recent occurrences rather than the 25 years of actuality.

Madam Editor…”These are the guys who, almost literally, are cleaning up the mess left by earlier Boards”. These “guys” are a part of the mess. Madam Editor, City Manager Ray Gosack has been buried in this diversion for 22 years, it’s not a “mess” it is a financial calamity. The City Board had no other option but to accept the $480 million decree and a $300,000 fine, most of which Gosack bears the blame. Why are you not calling for the immediate resignation/firing of Gosack and an independent audit of city finances? Why did it take another EPA demand to force the present Board to comply with past decrees?

A quote from Gosack, “If a Consent Decree had not been approved by the city the Federal Government would have sued the city in Federal Court”. Some revelation by Gosack. Why did Gosack, accompanied by some past City Boards, put the city in these fiscally debilitating circumstances? Why didn’t Gosack think of that 22 years ago?

Trying to placate both sides, Madam Editor wrote “on top of that there would have been another $1.5 million for legal services, waiting longer to raise rates only would have increased the price and perhaps added new fines to the total”. More brilliant deduction and never does the editor or any of her reporters ask the question “Where did the earmarked $600 million go?” If city government will not obey the federal government demands, they certainly will not obey city voter demands.

Similar asinine statements were made in the editorial by Director Mike Lorenz and Mayor Sandy Sanders, but never an apology or even an excuse for their part in blowing the dedicated $600 million Street/Sewer tax from all the above.

Finally, Madam Editor states, “So we congratulate this Board for doing the dirty work”. Congratulating a City Manager, City Board & Mayor who had part in misapplying, misappropriating and diverting $600 million of taxpayers hard-earned money is an abuse of the word congratulate and a hard slap in the face of citizens, they are the problem.

The time is rapidly approaching when the ringing plea will be heard “KEEP YOUR PENNY ROLLING”. (Slogan to encourage votes for continuing the tax) Financed in large part by Griffin, Sicard, the F.S. Chamber of Commerce, & other self-serving interests.

The Bread & Circus crowd indoctrinated with Pavlov’s dog’s experiment will rush to the polls to “KEEP YOUR PENNY ROLLING”, producing millions for trails, bikeways, sharrows, signs, Marshall’s Museum, Water Park, Softball Fields, fluoridation, while at the same time, allegedly not having the capacities to fund Fire & Police pensions, proposing across the board 8% raises for all city employees, terrible streets, a $300,000 fine and the $480 million Consent Decree………and the beat goes on.

Joe McCutchen

P.S. Ward #1 Director Keith Lau, in Sunday’s edition of the T.R. seems to be expressing a desire to reintroduce transparency in city government, an extremely huge advance in transparency could be made in this Tuesday Board meeting by he or one of the other Directors asking City Manager Gosack publicly why he was one of the major instruments in diverting the 30 year $600 million. Furthermore, Director Hutchings, asking for less time on citizen appearances at Board meetings is laughable due to the fact that he is a preacher, and I personally take umbrage at any attempt to squelch citizen input.

arkansasfreedom.net

city government offenses, City Politics

Censorship, the enemy of freedom.

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Byline: Times Record 4/12/15…..”DIRECTOR SAYS FIVE MINUTES TOO LONG TO ALLOW SPEAKERS”.

Think about it folks. Not that long ago the City Board meetings were televised and citizens were allowed to speak/ask questions/give input after most meetings. Those unable to attend could watch the proceedings on their televisions. After the Board was challenged on some issues the TV camera was ejected (too expensive they said), in spite of the fact that private citizens offered to pay for it.

Not long after that, after being questioned and challenged again, the Board barred citizen input except on “special occasions”. Now we have Director Don Hutchings encouraging further censorship by saying 5 minutes is just too long to give citizens to express themselves!

This censorship is an idea expressed by a self-described “conservative” pastor. Sound familiar? (think Patriot Acts, NDAA, et al) Might make one wonder if this is his version of “Do unto others”?

This country was built on free expression/speech, and citizen input is vital to a transparent, healthy governing body…if such a thing is possible, especially these days.

Governing bodies have become arrogant, belligerent, defiant, and self-serving. Any such entity that blocks or ignores the taxpayers’ wishes and concerns is a rogue body, out of control and obviously willing and able to misuse their authority and the taxpayer monies put in their trust.

Once upon a time, discussions & debates could go on for hours, sometimes days in order to come to reasonable, fair conclusions. But now 5 MINUTES is simply too much to ask of our elected & appointed “leaders”.

Is it any wonder taxpaying citizens have zero trust in governing bodies? Why should they when they are told to shut up and sit down, or else. All the while they are the very ones funding the politicrats and their activities. What a tyrannical concept.

If “officials” can’t take the heat, why would anyone want them in the kitchen?

The lights are going out all over the world and another one just went out in Fort Smith, Arkansas.

~Barbara McCutchen
arkansasfreedom.net

Agenda 21, city government offenses, City Politics, Forced redistribution

Why would non-essential trails trump essential sewer/flooding crisis?

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A SYNOPSIS AT THE END IS FOR THOSE WHO DO NOT LIKE TO READ AND DEAL WITH THE FORT SMITH CITY GOVERNMENT’S DUBIOUS FINANCIAL ISSUES. January 25, 2015

THE RACE TO MAY—THEY ARE OFF & RUNNING! MANY QUESTIONS, NO REAL ANSWERS

They are off & running—the real owners of the Fort Smith City Government, City Manager Ray Gosack, F.S. Chamber of Commerce, F.S. Times Record/Warren Stephens, and the echelon of political high fivers.

The race officially began Sunday, Jan. 11, 2015 with an editorial salvo from the Times Record titled “Taxpayers Must Pay Bills, More”. Translation: Taxpayers; Suck it up, Shut up, Pay up.

The full court press continued: Times Record Jan. 12, 2015, 2 front page stories. Drew Linder, 1st National Bank employee and cheerleader for the unelected Bikeways & Trails NGO, in a blaze of bravado is leading a 6 person delegation of insiders advocating for 87.59 miles of trails. Linder paints a beautiful (at least in his mind) picture of what he believes eventually, if completed, the trails will look like. Linder claims the Trails will only cost the taxpayers a mere $17 MILLION. This is the estimated start-up cost.

Never mind the $500 million, 12 year EPA demand pertaining to the overhaul of the Fort Smith city sewer & surface water systems that has already been paid for at least once & mathematically could be more than once in the previous 30 years by the earmarked 1% street/sewer taxes which were misapplied and diverted. Now City Manager Gosack, Mayor Sanders & the Board are asking the citizens to foolishly vote for another 10 year extension of the city’s fun & gun spendathons.

The real owners of the Fort Smith city government, their enablers, and the compliant F.S. City Directors have staked-out their position by asking taxpayers for another 10 year renewal of the city’s two 1 cent street/sewer taxes, which by the way, city government, past & present, have surely obfuscated, misrepresented, misappropriated & diverted the 30 year/$600 Million tax monies, which could possibly be $1.2 billion that has been generated from the aforementioned two 1% street & sewer sales taxes. The city’s website and past Directors state there is a 1% sales tax for streets and a 1% sales tax for sewers.
http://www.fortsmithar.gov/newviews/Files/2012%20Sales%20Tax%20Election%20Presentation.pdf

Why did some of the city administrations present & past not discharge their sworn obligation to citizens and remedy the sewer debacle in a timely manner?

THE 1% STREET/SEWER TAXES WERE VERY SPECIFIC FOR 30 YEARS. THEY DEMANDED THAT THE REVENUES GENERATED WOULD BE APPLIED EQUALLY TO STREETS & SEWERS—NEITHER HAPPENED. WHAT GUARANTEES ARE IN PLACE THAT GOSACK, SANDERS, THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND/OR OTHERS WILL ABSOLUTELY, UNEQUIVOCALLY SPEND ALL THE MONEY ON STREETS & SEWERS? AND WHAT ARE THEIR POLITICAL GUARANTEES WORTH?—NOTHING. ABSOLUTE PROOF THAT GOSACK AND HIS ENABLERS HAVE DIVERTED THE SEWER TAX FOR AT LEAST 25 YEARS IS THE EPA’S $500 MILLION RECENT DIRECTIVE TO THE CITY AND THE OUTRIGHT $300,000 FINE. THE CITY IS NOW FEVERISHLY CAMPAIGNING FOR WHAT THEY HAVE NOW RE-BRANDED AS A 1% STREET TAX WITH NO SPECIFICS.

MORE IMPORTANTLY NO MENTION OF AN OMISSION OF THE SEWER TAX. WHERE DID THE MONEY GO & THE AMOUNT FROM THE 2ND 1% TAX? THE TIMES RECORD IS NOW CALLING THE FORMER 1% STREET/SEWER TAX , THE 1% STREET TAX. THESE FACTS INDICATE THE F.S. CITY GOVERNMENT IS AN OLIO OF CONUNDRUMS, OBFUSCATIONS, DIVERSIONS AND MAYBE MUCH MORE.

If voters approve the 10 year extension it will generate a minimum of $250 million by one of the 1% taxes, but what about the second 1% tax, what happens to it?

The downtown insiders have closed ranks and their battle cry is “we must educate Fort Smith citizens”, i.e. program, indoctrinate & obfuscate. Government’s golden rule.

The main subject here is the upcoming May election to renew or reject what has been a 30 year 1% street/sewer tax that generated $600 million which specifically demanded every penny be used equally for renovation of sewers & street improvements, resulting in citizen taxpayers having little to show for a remake of streets & sewers. The tax tally could have reached $1.2 billion during the 3 decade long period.

The present and some of the past city governments for the last 30 years have diverted, misapplied, & misappropriated the $600 million to $1.2 billion and have no qualms about unctuously asking for another $250 million to $500 million replete with no guarantees (same as the previous 30 years) on what & how they would spend the upwards to $ ¼ BILLION to $ ½ billion. “Trust us”, again.

The question continues to be Where Did The $600 million to $1.2 billion Go? Certainly not on streets and sewers.

Back in the day, 25 years ago, city government, the Chamber of Commerce, & perhaps others ran a successful campaign to get the 1 Cent street/sewer sales taxes passed, all wrapped up in sweet promises.

Observe the present day condition of streets & sewers.

The campaign was a simple one, but effective. Citizens were besieged daily with the written and spoken phrase “It’s only a penny”. The proponents of the well financed 1 cent tax campaign featured their media ads with a 1 cent copper penny with Abe’s image sunny side up.
Citizens bought into it in 1985, bought into it again in 1995, and again in 2005 and now the question is will citizens be willing to get stiffed again for the 4th time, with the city’s battle cry “Great streets & no more flooding for only a penny”? That worthless little copper created somewhere between $600 million & $1.2 billion in 30 years and disappeared with no explanations from the “officials” the taxpayers elected to protect their purse and property. WHERE DID THE MONEY GO?
Fool me once, shame on you…fool me 4 times, shame on me.

What clever, surreptitious media blitz will the city & their enablers come with this go-around?

SYNOPSIS:
A FACTUAL REVELATION OF THE CONDUCT OF THE CITY GOVERNMENT OF FORT SMITH, AR REVEALS AT THE VERY LEAST ITS INCOMPENTENCY OR AT ITS WORST CRIMINALITY.

Tuesday night’s official Board Meeting Jan. 20th : In view of the Environmental Protection Agency’s leveling a $ ½ billion demand against the city of Fort Smith, coupled to an outright $300,000 FiNE, why would the Board’s major topic of discussion be centered on Agenda 21’s 87.59 miles of unfunded Trails? The startup costs given by unelected NGO Parks Commission Chair Lorie Robertson would be $17 million, this without available funding. She states the Parks NGO will demand 20%, not the 10% the TR reports as their part of the newly named “1% street tax”.

Major shortfalls continue to plague F.S. city government, e.g. deficits in Fire & Police pensions, accompanied by unfunded across the board 8% pay raises for city employees (4% increase in healthcare costs, 1% cost of living, up to 3% for step/merit increases, & the unfunded fluoridation of the people’s water supply). Yet Trails occupy center stage in official Board Meetings. All mum on the payment of the $ ½ billion EPA demand!

Facts support that one of the 1% street & sewer taxes have generated about $600 million dollars in its 30 year history. These taxpayer funds have been misapplied (who knows for what) and diverted.

In view of the diversion and misapplication of taxpayer funds, absent explanations and/or apologies to taxpayers, city government is now calling on voters to approve another 10 year 1% tax, replete with no specificities, as if they would be honored. And the other 1% tax?

The Times Record & the Fort Smith City Government have re-branded the name of the one of the two taxes to the 1% street tax, blatantly leaving out sewers. Why is that? According to the Fort Smith city government’s website there are two taxes, 1% for streets & a 1% for sewers, therefore why is the Times Record & city government now only talking about a 1% street tax in light of the $ ½ billion EPA mandate plus the $300,000 fine. This smacks of major deceptions aimed at the taxpaying citizen.

There’s no avenue for thinking citizens to comprehend & understand the circuitous maze of deception precipitated by city government. Again, there are TWO 1% taxes—a 1% tax for streets & a 1% for sewers. Why would the Times Record, always without questions, continue to alter the name of the official 1% street/sewer tax?
http://www.fortsmithar.gov/newviews/Files/2012%20Sales%20Tax%20Election%20Presentation.pdf

There is also the matter, and it smacks of bribery, having to do with the for-profit Delta Dental Insurance company’s subsidizing the start-up costs of $1 million to initiate the fluoridation of the F. S. water supply. Fluoridation has been turned down by voters on multiple occasions. Fort Smith sewers are not the only thing that smells.

It is noted that newly elected Director Don Hutchings was a past member of the F.S. Board of Dire

The F.S. City Government’s spendathon continues by subsidizing a plethora of entertainment venues, some government and some private, e.g. the Marshal’s Museum, the motorcycle rally, etc. all in full view of hundreds of millions in shortfalls.

The undeniable & indisputable foundation for this article and synopsis is based on facts that the present and past Fort Smith city governments have manipulated, misapplied and diverted somewhere between $600 million and $1.2 billion of taxpayers’ dollars as witnessed by the 25 year repeated demands made by the EPA on the city of Fort Smith for the correction of sewer/drainage problems. All the while the FS city government turned a 25 year blind eye to the EPA and the very real problems of raw sewage, flooding, etc. yet there were millions of taxpayer dollars readily available for revamping the sewer system/flooding problems. The EPA’s final demand was and is essentially a $ ½ billion demand fine & an additional $300,000 fine. The hubris that City Manager Gosack has shown, accompanied by various city Board members, shows arrogance and disrespect for F.S. taxpaying citizens.

Joe McCutchen

P.S. Notable supporters of Agenda 21 Trail systems, i.e. Lorie Robertson, Drew Linder, Bryan Merry (all unelected NGO members), and Bill Hanna & Casey Millspaugh—All are of the opinion that the Trails are “game changers”, “job creators” & would “draw industry” to the area.
Those are touchy, feel-good opinions directed at voters, perhaps self-serving, and that is all. There is not one shred of credible evidence and no empirical data that would support any of the above.

Did Whirlpool, et al leave because there were not enough Trails? Is that why Mitsubishi never occupied their enormous facility?

arkansasfreedom.net

Agenda 21, city government offenses, City Politics, Forced redistribution, Globalization

HAPPY TRAILS!

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HAPPY TRAILS!

North to
Bentonville, AR

West to East to
Henryetta, OK Fort Smith, AR Russelleville, AR

South to
Hatfield, AR

January 17, 2015
Each of the above cities is almost exactly 87.59 miles from the city limits of Fort Smith, AR which is the exact length of the Trails the Fort Smith city government is promoting.

Why, suddenly the uber push for this absurdity? A probable explanation:
1. No funding available due to the coming expiration of the 1% /1 cent street/sewer tax. Therefore; City Manager Gosack, the Mayor, the City Directors and their enablers have no present source of funding to support the Agenda 21 Trail System. Obviously, they are depending on citizen renewal of the 1% tax as their funding source for the proposed Trails.
2. The city also speaks of a partial source of funding from corporations. Corporations do not fund any entity from which they do not receive double or more benefits accompanied by political control.
3. As stated above, the city is counting on the 1% sales tax to be renewed and state affirmatively they will earmark 5% for trails ($1 ½ million per year). 10 years produces $15 million. Stated initial cost of the proposed Trails is said to be for openers $17 million, resulting in an immediate $2 million deficit, but does not address the enormous increases in the costs of doing business, inflation and government waste.
4. The cradle of Marxism in Arkansas, i.e. Fayetteville, Rogers, Bentonville, Springdale, has completed their U.N. Agenda 21 Trails Systems; therefore like sheep and not to be outdone the F.S. city sycophants must make their uber push to please the United Nations’ & D.C. demands.

TV Ch. 5 (& perhaps others) interviewed 2 or 3 Fort Smith citizens 1/14/15 and asked their views on the multi-purpose Trail system. Answers were what one might expect, varying from: “oh, it’s a wonderful idea”, “well; more people would use it in the summertime”. Of course, no statement or questions regarding costs or city government expansions, nor the justification of 87.59 miles of trails.

Fort Smith city government’s 2 main selling points (both fictitious).
1. The Trail system will bring in new industry. (not one shred of empirical evidence to support their assertion).
2. City functionaries are now maintaining the Trail system will draw more students to UAFS & they will graduate and remain here. (Doing what? Again no empirical evidence to support the wild claim.)
3. Both city arguments are based on nothing more than feel-good, sound-good indoctrinations.

Unfortunately we citizens are now wallowing in a “kept” society, and for the most part citizens are devoid of objective or analytical thought. In view of all the huge monetary deficiencies & multiple entertainment venues the Fort Smith city government has created and engaged in, why should a taxpaying citizen vote for ANY tax being promoted by this government in light of their 30 year history of mal-performances and plundering? Particularly the extension of the 1% street/sewer tax for 10 more years. For example:

1. Misappropriation & diversion of a $600 million mandated 1 cent sales tax specifically dedicated to streets/sewers initiated 30 years ago. Observe the decaying conditions of present day streets, sewers, and the accompanying flooding. The newer streets do not turn water. This piracy was accomplished by misapplication, misappropriation, diverting tax dollars, and perhaps other methods, absent citizen approval & most assuredly accountability.
2. In the wings is the recent leveling of an EPA $300,000 fine and their $1/2 Billion mandate to reconstruct the sewers. Money was readily available if the city was judicious & objective in their spending of taxpayer dollars. WE ARE PAYING FOR THE SAME PROJECT AT LEAST TWICE, I.E. SEWER RECONSTRUCTION.
3. This followed by city government overriding citizen voters disdain of mass medicating with fluoride…replete with no funding, and same goes for police/fire pensions, i.e. no funding.
4. City government promising across the board pay raises for city employees. 4% increase in healthcare costs and 3-4% for merit & step increases—Absent funding. City government deviously promotes their position that increases in healthcare costs are not monetary raises.
5. The numerous hugely expensive entertainment venues, some cash disbursements visible and some not, e.g. the Marshal’s Museum. The Merry-Go-Round never stops.
6. City Management is proposing 6-10 or more tax & fee increases. Some are new.

To conclude that the majority of citizens are politically disengaged may be correct, and if that scenario is correct it is the major reason we citizens are/have become nothing more than government vassals and few realize it.

So why is the city government supporting such a massive, absurd Trail program when the architects are the Federal Government and the U.N.’s Agenda 21?

Sooner than later citizens will come to realize the real purpose of the Trail systems. It would behoove them to do some critical/serious researching & thinking. The imminent Economic Professor Paul Craig Roberts wrote, “AMERICANS NEED TO UNDERSTAND THAT THE ONLY THING EXCEPTIONAL ABOUT THE U.S. IS THE IGNORANCE OF THE POPULATION AND THE STUPIDITY OF THE GOVERNMENT.” In support of Dr. Roberts, here is the big question, where are the citizens who should be asking WHERE DID THE MONEY GO, i.e. the 30 year 1% sales tax for streets & sewers that generated $600 Million? Certainly not to the dedicated purpose—streets & sewers.

The Fort Smith city government has lied to the EPA for 25 years and more importantly, the citizens for 30 years. What would make one think these political sycophants will change their stripes?

IN A CAPSULE: THE TRAIL SYSTEM IS ULTIMATELY ABOUT AGENDA 21 REIGNING IN CITIZEN MOVEMENTS, DIMINISHING FREEDOMS, RESTRICTING PROPERTY RIGHTS & USAGE & ABSOLUTE CONTROL OF NATURAL RESOURCES.

THE REAL INDEBTEDNESS FORT SMITH HAS GENERATED, REVEALED STATISTICALLY IS STAGGERING AND TAXPAYERS ARE NOT AWARE OF THE REAL NUMBERS—WE ARE JUST VASSALS AND I GUESS I NEED TO HIT THE TRAIL.

Joe McCutchen

arkansasfreedom.net

Cc: Citizens…….please share on your Facebook & other media

Agenda 21, city government offenses, City Politics, Forced redistribution

Citizens: Suck it Up, Shut Up, Pay Up!

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ARE THERE LEGAL CONSEQUENCES FOR THE CITY’S WILLFUL VIOLATION (MISFEASANCE) AND THE STRONG POSSIBILITY OF MALFEASANCE FOR THEIR TREATMENT OF THE 30 YEAR 1% STREET/SEWER TAX THAT VOTERS HAVE AFFIRMED 3 TIMES? January 12, 2015

All governments are built on towers of lies, incestuous relationships & self-service: under the guise of “public service”.

For instance, City Managers emanating from the Strib Boynton era to Ray Gosack. Same time frame for City Directors who knowingly or unknowingly are and were complicit in perhaps the largest misapplication of citizen generated tax money in the city’s history—approximately $600 Million street/sewer tax money that accrued over a 30 year period replete with no accountability or explanations directed to city residents and in present day chronology from City Manager Gosack who has resided in the city government inner circles for 22 years. Nothing but dead silence from the city government functionaries.

Corruption you say, it would appear so.

Even more frightening is citizen silence and lack of outrage to confront the present Mayor & City Board. The significance of the silent Fort Smith citizenry for decades, for whatever their reasonings, has led to a rogue Fort Smith City Government.

In the wake of the 30 year $600 Million disappearance, the Federal Government’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has just levied a ½ Billion demand against the city of Fort Smith which requires the city over a 12 year time frame to renovate its sewer systems. Over that span the $1/2 Billion EPA demand will in all likelihood balloon to $3/4 Billion. Still little citizen outrage.

Recall that ½ of the $600 Million misapplication was specifically earmarked to overhaul the F.S. sewer & ground water systems, which should have begun some 25-30 years ago. If the city government had spent the 1% street/sewer tax as was so specified the sewer overhaul would have easily been completed by 1995 at at least one-sixth of the ultimate price the overhaul will cost in the coming 12 years.

In this regard, at the last City Board meeting (1/6/15) Mayor Sandy Sanders was asked the question (I paraphrase) “What happened to the sewer tax money?” Sanders haughtily responded, “We have spent $200 million on sewers.” Obviously, Sanders programed answer was designed to silence the questioner. Mayor Sanders, provide the proof to substantiate your claim. Sanders did not address the other missing $400 million.

The city’s misapplication of the 1% street/sewer tax is scandalous. Not entered into the equation is the 30 year history of continued dumping of raw sewage into the Arkansas River system and the routine flooding of businesses and homes throughout the city, accompanied by extreme personal cost.

Inflation factored into the EPA demand simply means that citizens will be paying for the same job 3 times, and still yet few protestations from citizens.

THE QUESTION THAT DEMANDS LEGAL ATTENTION: IS THERE NOT LEGAL PROTECTION FOR CITIZENS, INCORPORATED INTO THE INITIATED ACT, OR WHATEVER THE OFFICIAL TITLE IS PERTAINING TO THE 3 DECADE OLD STREET/SEWER TAX IN CASE OF CITY GOVERNMENT ABUSES OF THE TAX? SINCE THE ACT REQUIRES VOTER APPROVAL, SURELY THERE MUST BE SOME STATED REMEDY FOR CITIZENS AGAINST MISAPPLICATION OR OTHER ABUSES OF TAX MONIES BY ELECTED OR APPOINTED GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS. IN THIS VEIN, WHO PROTECTS CITIZEN TAX ASSETS SUCH AS THE SPECIFIED STREET/SEWER TAX AND WHAT ARE THE PENALTIES FOR ABUSE, IF ANY?

If citizens sit idly by as they are presently doing, the corruption will only exacerbate. Those elected and non-elected city officials that fit into the previously mentioned chronological envelope must be punished.

The hubris that the present & past city governments have shown is breathtaking. And now they come with more proposed citizen taxpayer abuse: The federal ultimatums described above are now roommates with pension funds, a 7-8% across the board pay raises…both absent funding, water fluoridation absent funding, huge shortfalls, massive cash disbursements to Griffin/Sicard’s “private” enterprise, the Marshal’s Museum, culminating with 87.59 miles of the United Nation’s Agenda 21 Trails & Bikeways

There have been at least 4 recent meetings for hustling this United Nations Agenda 21 Project. The 2 loudest voices are unelected NGO Parks Commission Chairperson Lorie Robertson and 1st National Bank employee Drew Linder who appears to be the spokesman for the money hustle which Linder says will begin at $9.5 to $17 million startup costs and as citizens plainly should understand, the cost will balloon exponentially. Linder, in all likelihood, is the power-broker in the massive Trail project for downtown investors Griffin, Sicard & their consummate insiders.

The above is another toxic example of city government appointing individuals to powerful NGO’s that have the authority to regulate citizens’ lives in any number of ways.

The first Trail meeting was reported to have been attended by about 5 dozen (60) people. This past Thursday night, the 3rd meeting was convened and was attended by a handful of bicyclists, runners, and 2 bicycle shop owners; the total number of attendees was about a dozen individuals and through the mouths of an NGO are supposedly speaking for 150,000 people in the metropolitan Fort Smith area and accomplishing the city’s con job.

This is more devious misdirection by the Fort Smith City Government projecting the image that citizens are demanding bikeways & trails and the city government is “just trying to accommodate” i.e. 60 people that dovetails into a dozen.

All this in the midst of more massive tax burdens being laid on the backs of city taxpayers.

How is it that the Directors can even consider something as non-essential as “Trails” while dumping tons of raw sewage into the once beautiful Arkansas River system?

The Fort Smith City Government is a Fraud, marching to their own drumbeat. Are some of the City Directors even aware?

YESTERDAY’S TIMES RECORD EDITORIAL: “TAXPAYERS MUST FACE BILLS, MORE”………TRANSLATION: SUCK IT UP, SHUT UP, PAY UP. Never once did the Times Record call for city accountability or a question as to WHERE THE MONEY WENT.

Joe McCutchen
arkansasfreedom.net

Agenda 21, city government offenses, City Politics

Gone Missing: $600 MILLION…close enough for government work.

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January 6, 2015
MISAPPLICATION & DIVERSION OF TAXPAYER FUNDS HAS RESULTED IN CITIZEN’S DOUBLE TAXATION

MISAPPROPRIATION AND DIVERSION OF TAXPAYER MANDATED MONEY/FUNDS AMOUNTING TO $600 MILLION TO BE APPLIED TO STREET/SEWER IMPROVEMENTS BY PAST AND PRESENT FORT SMITH CITY MANAGERS & BOARDS OF DIRECTORS. RESULTS: A DOUBLE TAXATION & A VIOLATION OF A CITY STATUTE.

The 25 year edict leveled at the city government of Fort Smith, AR by the federal government’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), resulting from flouting by city governments, it becomes painfully obvious the issue has blossomed into a full blown city & federal legal matter which deserves an immediate investigation by the proper authorities.

Question: the specific matter of a 30 year history by the Fort Smith city government misapplying $600 MILLION that were to be dedicated to streets & sewers, what is the legal position of city/Sebastian County Prosecutor Daniel Shue and Federal Prosecutor Conner Eldridge?
Relative to the 30 year 1% street/sewer tax.

In this regard the Times Record reported that at-Large Director Kevin Settle has just concluded 8 years “of service” in the city government maze.

The Times Record reported further that the 1 cent street/sewer tax generated an estimated $21 MILLION yearly.

The above two facts were reported by the Times Record necessarily points directly at Director Settle that he must know where at least $168 million went in the 8 year period that Settle has served, which is part and parcel of $600 MILLION generated by the 30 year street/sewer tax.

Director Settle, along with the city government leadership, is mum pertaining to the misapplication and diversion of the estimated $600 MILLION street/sewer tax and counting. City Manager Gosack, Mayor Sanders and the Board of Directors are applauding strategies built on cunning subterfuge to pass another 10 year extension of the 1% street/sewer tax in the upcoming May election. The passage of this tax would create and sustain more taxpayer abuse orchestrated by the Fort Smith city government & NGO’s.

Jan. 4, 2011: Director Settle remarked about Gosack’s City Manager appointment, “We thought Ray would be and will be very good, and we didn’t want to lose his knowledge of city operations and the history.”

(Gosack’s knowledge of city operations and history has earned city citizens $ ½-3/4 Billion debt (double taxation), sprinkled with fines and a multitude of deficits.)

July 11, 2014: Settle stated in the Times Record, “Gosack has shown a great ability to lead the city”. (Where, into bankruptcy?)
Oct. 25, 2014: On other city matters, fluoridation/Delta Dental, Trails, Bikeways, etc—these matters show utter disdain for city citizens and their wishes.

Pertaining to fluoridation, Delta Dental and the Arkansas General Assembly Settle stated, “The City Board is more than willing to go along with the State Legislature”. Settle further responded, “The State passed it, not the Board, so we have to follow state law”. Settle showed no concern for city residents bymaking such an inflammatory statement. The Arkansas General Assembly, in league with an insurance company, in this case Delta Dental, has no constitutional or legal authority to force a city to mass medicate, absent funding, to satisfy the economic demands of an insurance company. The politically cowardly Settle knows full well that Fort Smith city voters did not want fluoridation and had voted it down on multiple occasions.

Nov. 4, 2014: Another unsettling matter. Chair of the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Parks Commission Lorie Robertson and her remarks regarding Agenda 21 Trails and the upcoming May vote to renew the 1 cent street/sewer tax, proposes to use the same corrupt strategy in the May election that Senator Jake Files & cohorts utilized to pass Issue 3. Issue 3 on the ballot was construed as a voluminous Ethics Bill, while on the back-end a couple of lines that doubled term limits for the Legislative manipulators.

Robertson put forth remarks pertaining to purloining 20% of the street/sewer tax and attaching 10% of it to Trails/Bikeways and the other 10% going to Police/Fire deficient pension funds.

Robertson’s remarks: “The beauty of this is not being written into the main part of this”, (referring to the confiscation of 20% of the street/sewer tax to be diverted to Trails & Pensions.) Robertson reveals she is devoid of ethics by openly admitting their plan to divert more of the street/sewer tax to unnecessary programs.

In other words, they count on citizens not reading the body of the street/sewer tax that gets them to the back end of the Bill that would contain the 20% takeaway.

Nov. 20, 2014: Director At-Large Settle bloviating; “City Manager Gosack has not had a raise in 2 ½ years”. Gosack receives $153,000 yearly in salary, plus a hugely liberal package of perks. A raise? Showering in a cascade of taxpayer dollars, Mayor Sanders receives an outrageous $250,000 annually for his own personal discretionary spending.

Should Fort Smith citizens choose not to examine their own Trails in lieu of the city government, financial asphyxiation will certainly occur sooner or later.

Is the official Board an obtuse, insouciant collection or are they in league with Gosack and the 30 year misappropriation of funds; furthermore, have there been quid pro quo awards during the disappearance of the approximately $600 Million street/sewer tax, especially in the area of very expensive purchases and massive amounts of new equipment?

Incidentally, recently constructed streets do not turn water.

A private business concern could never ever get away with violating the numbers of federal mandates being levied against the City of Fort Smith Administration; why the special legal treatment for the elected & managerial occupants of the Fort Smith city government for over 25 years? Why wasn’t the city locked down years ago and legal action brought against those present & past members of the city government involved in the $600 million diversion scheme?.

Citizens should demand detailed explanations and accountability for the disappearance of the $600 MILLION and if so indicated, litigation by the proper appointed and elected prosecutoral officials should ensue promptly.

Joe McCutchen

P.S. A portion of the City of Fort Smith’s “Mission Statement”…..INTEGRITY ALWAYS! & ABSOLUTE PROFESSIONALISM!!

P.S. In the wake of the new $1/2 -3/4 Billion new tax debt the citizens have been made aware that Gosack and the City Directors benevolently donated $50,000 more to the Marshal-Town Folly, designed to enhance and secure the downtown insiders’ assets. If the Marshal’s Museum reaches maturation , ultimately it will be turned over to some taxpayer subsidized entity.