Category Archives: city government offenses

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.

Agenda 21, city government offenses, City Politics, Globalization

Rapacious Harpies never quit

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FOUNDER PATRICK HENRY’S RAPACIOUS HARPIES. December 30, 2014

No apologies, no explanations to the taxpaying citizens, no specific accountability to taxpayers, just political brute force and what appears to be misapplication of funds. WHERE DID THE MONEY GO GENERATED BY THE CITY’S 1% SEWER/STREET TAX?

Where did hundreds of millions of dollars dedicated to sewers/streets generated by the 30 year old 1% sewer/street sales tax go??? Specifically, the disappearance of $630 MILLION, one-half of which was dedicated for the eradication of sewer deficiencies.

The City Administration was notified 26 years ago by a directive from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to eradicate the sewer mess that was 4 years after trusting citizens had already taken action and voted for the 1% sewer/street tax.

The year 2014 the Environmental Protection Agency levied a $300,000 fine (allegedly no funds to pay the fine) on the citizens of Fort Smith, AR for non-compliance of the EPA edict.

Dec. 8, 2014 citizens were informed they must spend $200 MILLION to correct sewer/waste water deficiencies brought on by present & past City Managers’ inattention to the EPA mandate starting with the Strib Boynton Administration. Former & present City Directors were/are equally to blame.

Dec. 10, 2014 the $200 MILLION EPA demand ballooned to approximately $500 MILLION (1/2 BILLION) and will in all likelihood reach $750 MILLION due to inflation and government misfeasance at the 12 year finish line. It’s the city governments’ expectations that the $500 MILLION start-up money will be generated by ill-informed citizens’ voting for another 10 year round of 1% tax madness.

Pertaining to the $300,000 fine and the now $500 million EPA mandate, not one explanation from City Manager Ray Gosack, an off & on 22 year veteran city employee, nor from the obtuse Mayor & City Directors. Gosack stated in the December time frame he was pleased with the EPA arrangement. How so? The private sector citizens are the ones that will bear new tax burdens brought on by city government misfeasance, while Gosack & associates feed in the government welfare trough.

Enter the term “Sharrows”—emanating from aspiring political midgets and self-servers, fed to them by the United Nation’s Agenda 21 hucksters. In this regard Non-Government Organization (NGO) Parks Commission Chairwoman Angie Robertson stated with hubris, “We will earmark up to 10% of the tax revenues for trails.” Another example of an unelected dictating the tenor of city business. Who are “ we” Madam Robertson?

“Sharrows” is to be a looping trail 86 miles long at an opening taxpayer cost of $10-17 Million, absent funding. The city used 2 meetings for political cover in their “Sharrows” game and relied on a reported half dozen self-serving individuals to make the determination to build 86 miles of trails & bikeways. These few dozen attendees, for city purposes, are making a decision for the 150,000 person metroplex.
Until and if citizens examine their own trails in lieu of corrupt governments, the fiscal asphyxiation will continue, along with other personal attacks.

Coupled to the looping trails, Gosack and his insiders, with the full force of the Directors behind them, and by force of course, are poised to give city employees an 7-8% salary increase—a 4% health & a 3-4% merit/step raise…no available funding—the “officials” solution: raise taxes as Founder Patrick Henry once described, those “Rapacious Harpies”, referring to those who pick the bones of the producers.

Ark. governments’ preamble is always to lobby the AR. General Assembly, pass unconstitutional laws that give the Harpies power of force to increase taxes and create Commissions (NGO’s); thereby bypassing the wishes, demands & consent of the citizens. Recall if you will, that all departments in government have their unions & lobbying agents, coupled with NGO’s (Non-Governmental Organizations. The idea always is to expand government & crush private sector rights.

Further recall: Both City Manager Ray Gosack and Police Chief Kevin Lindsey belong to international managing & policing agencies. These two and perhaps other agency heads are taking their orders from the U.N. & DC opportunists while thumbing their collective noses at the citizens of Fort Smith and at the same time removing influence & decision-making out of the hands of taxpaying citizens. What are the ensuing costs of Gosack’s & Lindsey’s (& perhaps others) memberships in international bodies ?

There will be at least 15 fee increases and 10 or more new taxes implemented in order for the city to bestow employee pay raises and rekindle Fire & Police Pensions. The 25 new tax increases that are to be implemented by force will not totally cover pensions & raises. Then, how? What was the source of funding up to this point?

Then the matters of fluoridation, trails, bikeways, wayfinding signs, event nodes, etc. etc. All absent funding. And yes, Griffin & Sicard’s so-called “private enterprise”, i.e. the Marshal’s Museum which has been the recipient of several millions of taxpayer dollars, some of which appear to be surreptitiously obtained.

Then the big matter: the $½ Billion, 12 year initial cost for overhauling sewer/waste water systems and necessarily more new tax monies, more city employees, coupled with more economic demands and ensuing loss of personal freedoms made on Fort Smith citizens. Is an increase in property tax in our future, authorized by the Rapacious Harpies?

Conclusion: City Manager Ray Gosack and past Managers are guilty of misapplication of city funds, perhaps in the millions, aided by complicit or intimidated City Boards.

1. What happened to the $630 MILLION generated by the now 30 year 1% road/sewer tax?
2. What was the involvement, if any, of the Fort Smith City’s Attorney?
3. Why did City Administrators not act on the sewer mess in proper prescribed time frame?
4. Where are the explanations or excuses for this extreme, if nothing else, incompetency?
5. With the magnitude of financial deficiencies why would this administration even consider entering into hugely expensive non-essential programs such as trails, bikeways, etc. orchestrated by U.N. Agenda 21. Trails & bikeways already abound in the Fort Smith landscape.
6. Is there not a bid process going on in the city government?
7. By permitting city “heads” to take their marching orders from international bodies, are we not subsidizing in any number of ways our own demise?

THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION: Where is citizen outrage regarding the insouciant present city government? Should legal action not be brought against Gosack, the city’s legal counsel and to a lesser degree the Directors for practices they appear to be engaged in that have all appearances of malfeasance and misfeasance?

SOCIALIST AUTHOR H.G. WELLS CORRECTLY PREDICTED IN 1908 THAT:

“SOCIALISM WOULD CEASE TO BE AN OPEN REVOLUTION AND WOULD INSTEAD BECOME A SUBTLE PLOT. FUNCTIONS WERE TO BE SHIFTED FROM THE ELECTED REPRESENTATIVE, TO THE APPOINTED OFFICIAL…A SCIENTIFIC BUREAURACY APPOINTED BY REPRESENTATIVE BODIES WHICH WOULD HAVE DIMINISHING ACTIVITY AND IMPORTANCE…”

Citizens this was and is the definition of functioning Non-Governmental Organizations which are at work nationally and internationally, complements of U.S. governments.

Joe McCutchen
arkansasfreedom.net

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

Have you lost your minds?

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HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MINDS? December 18, 2014

I vividly recall Fort Smith business man Jerry Hamel repeatedly asking that very question a few years ago at a Fort Smith City Board meeting while they were still honest enough to televise their meetings for taxpayers’ transparency & oversight. That disappeared shortly after.

The question is even more poignant and relative now that we taxpaying citizens discover that for 30 years we’ve been paying a specific tax to have our sewers & streets upgraded to comply with common sense, legitimate costly problems, and an EPA mandate and that the mission is not only NOT accomplished but WE have to cough up a huge fine for that fact with absolutely no explanation or defense for the preventable crisis.

The Fort Smith City Government is worse than derelict, it as a whole or certain individuals within it are complicit in fraud and/or too uniformed to be employed in their capacities.

The most obvious suspect is the man who’s been next to or in charge of city machinations for over 22 years, City Administrator Ray Gosack. (By the way, did we ever find out the whys, wherefores, & outcome of the thousands of dollars’ worth of uncashed checks written to Fort Smith from the Van Buren Water Department that were found stashed in someone’s city desk drawer?)

The cavalier attitude and lack of concern/responsibility exhibited by him, the Mayor & most of the Board is not only irresponsible but unbelievably arrogant or cowardly.

If there is no accountability there is chaos & in all likelihood layers of criminality, period. The easiest job in the world is spending other people’s money, especially if there are no penalties for misfeasance.

More than one individual is responsible for the EPA $300.000 fine and a $200 million edict which has already ballooned to a $ ½ BILLION mandate. Heads should roll. In the private sector they would not only be fired and sued for the missing/misspent money but they would no doubt go to jail. Why should government be any different?

At the very same time we have city & county governments contemplating or already in motion to fluoridate our water (against the voters expressed will), spending millions on trails, bikeways, event nodes, (all of which will be utilized by a miniscule of the population & unneeded)….already losing millions on public transportation, the Convention Center, et al., all unfunded.

Is it any wonder that so many taxpayers distrust their governments? They get taken to the cleaners and the perpetrators (politicrats & private cronies) not only profit but are free of accountability!

The whole scenario mirrors “The Emperor’s New Clothes” parody…the con men convince the Emperor he’s being fitted with fine array and he parades & struts naked in the streets and the people are too intimidated & brainwashed to admit the truth…they just oooh & aaah over the impressive raiment…it takes the innocence/honesty of youth to proclaim that the Emperor is indeed NAKED for the people to admit the truth.

Yes, Mr. Hamel, they have not only lost their minds but also their ethics, honesty, courage and responsibility.

Citizens—don’t any of you care that you have been fleeced like sheep, humiliated, & robbed and no one pays the price for it? Who are you afraid of? Where are your voices…the Emperor is indeed NAKED for all to see.

Where is the press? The Times Record continues to write “minutes of the meeting” type reports day after day, never an investigative report or any hard questions regarding obvious discrepancies…no wonder newspapers are doomed to file 13. Who wants to read the same old politically correct regurgitation on a daily basis?

If fitting into the collective P.C. crowd is more important to citizens than their own hard earned money, property and individual rights/ liberties, then many minds have been lost, along with the rule of law/justice & our Founding Principles…probably forever.

~Barbara McCutchen
arkansasfreedom.net

Agenda 21, city government offenses, City Politics

Where is the Wampum?

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WHERE IS THE WAMPUM???? December 17, 2014

What City Manager Ray Gosack, his underlings and present & past Fort Smith City Directors have done and are doing to the citizens of the city of Fort Smith is indefensible.

They are all guilty, past and present, of misfeasance or malfeasance or both.

The year 1985 citizens voted for a 1% road/sewer tax and it has remained in effect for 29 years generating hundreds of millions of dollars, yet the sewer crisis/problem remains. Additionally, the streets are in a state of disarray, WHERE DID THE MONEY GO???

In 1989 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) mandated the city of Fort Smith Arkansas to correct major sewer/ground water deficiencies. The city exhibiting hubris & stupidity has ignored the EPA mandate for 25 years.

Recall: the city wisely passed the 1% street/sewer tax 4 years before the EPA mandate, yet no positive action by the present City Manager accompanied by past & present Mayors & City Boards. WHERE DID THE MONEY GO??

During the month of December 2014 the EPA fined the city of Fort Smith $300,000, plus a $200 million mandate to correct the long term violations. Within the month the EPA mandate rose to $500 million (1/2 Billion) and within the 12 year mandate the dollar figure will in all likelihood go north to somewhere approaching $750 million. The lack of action to correct these major water deficiencies by Gosack & past & present city Boards is financially criminal, and citizens bearing the major economic pain. Why should citizens have to pay the fine and those responsible do not?

Not one public comment by any member of the present city government regarding an explanation or a defense of their sordid governmental misconduct.

Apparently the present Board of Directors has not one modicum of understanding of financials, and that is being euphemistic.

Add to the present long-term financial woes engendered upon citizens by this government pertaining to the sewer deficiencies, Gosack has sold out the citizens in the matter of United Nations Agenda 21 (trails, bikeways, event nodes, etc.) and Police Chief Lindsey’s membership in 2 INTERNATIONAL policing organizations which dictate the tenor of business in all areas for the F.S.P.D. removing any influence from Fort Smith citizens. These 2 actions are despicable.

Then there is the question of how many hundreds of thousands of dollars of city taxpayer money have been surreptitiously directed into Griffin’s & Sicard’s Marshal Museum?

The Mayor & City Administrator should immediately fire City Manager Ray Gosack, the city attorney Jerry Canfield and then promptly resign. This would allow for a deep-seated, detailed independent audit and reforming the city government. WHERE DID THE HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS GO DURING THESE PAST 29 YEARS?

Where is the taxpayer citizens’ outrage and are they not guilty of allowing the above scenarios coming to past? And WHERE IS THE WAMPUM???

Joe McCutchen
arkansasfreedom.net
P.S. Are we to believe none of the people in city government know how to balance a checkbook? Let the Ax quickly drop.

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

Government Types Rely on Gullibility

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THE ENEMIES OF INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM CONTINUE TO TIGHTEN THE NOOSE. December 15, 2014

It’s hard to avoid pejorative comments when speaking of/about politicians and bureaucrats and other hangers-on, particularly when they are hell-bent on enslaving citizens.

Hot Dog! A new word from the Agenda 21 crowd. “SHARROWS” Sharrows is an international word used where the mode of transportation relies heavily on non-carbon fuel, i.e. bicycles, rickshaws, horse drawn carriages, walking and running.

Add “sharrows” to the lexicon of Agenda 21’s Sustainable Development’s words & phrases that the Fort Smith city government has recently adopted, e.g. quality of place, sense of place, event nodes, smart growth, bikeways, wayfinding signs, and now sharrows.

When government types have “visions” that arise out of the ashes of the Phoenix, the cost of said “visions” are always unbridled and the consequences are many in terms of loss of freedoms and/or treasure.

A Fort Smith fellow by the name Drew Linder had such a “vision”. Linder’s vision: a looping trail extending around the city at a projected cost of $9.5 million to $17 million for openers. No estimates pertaining to the numbers of new government employees and maintenance that such a program would demand.

Lorie Robertson, Parks Commission Chairwoman, opines, “We will earmark up to 10% of tax revenue for trails.” Ah yes, gullible citizens will jump on it.

Note: Robertson is the chairwoman of an unelected, non-governmental operation (NGO). Again, NGO’s blunt and completely isolate/remove citizen influence in government.

All the above in the face of a recent $300,000 EPA fine, ½ BILLION dollar edict from the EPA, projected 8% salary increases for city employees, the trails/bikeways scheme, bankrupt pension programs, fluoridation, all devoid of money to fund, therefore new taxes will be pursued….Question: WHERE DID THE 1% SALES TAX MONEY GO??

Bicycle Advocacy groups are very powerful. Advocacy is a fancy word for lobbying, influencing and/or strong-arming the politicians and the public. They are a very useful self-serving tool for “Smart Growth” & “Sustainable Development” which are integral parts of U.N. Agenda 21.

It’s not just about bike lanes, it’s about remaking cities and rural areas to the “sustainable model”. High density urban development (stack’em & pack’em) without parking for cars is the goal. Bike groups are the “shock troops” for the Agenda 21 plan.

Bush I signed us on to Agenda 21 in 1992. In 2009 600 U.S. cities, towns, counties had agreed to Sustainability Principles…Fort Smith, AR is a certainty to be among those now well over 600.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IS THE WORLDWIDE PLAN TO INVENTORY AND CONTROL ALL LAND, ALL WATER, ALL MINERALS, ALL CONSTRUCTION, ALL EDUCATION, ETC. ETC. THESE COMMUNITIES ALSO PROMOTE ALTERNATIVE MODES OF TRANSPORTION, E.G. FORT SMITH, AWAY FROM THE TRADITIONAL AUTOMOBILE TO POLICIES THAT ENDORSE & ENCOURAGE PUBLIC TRANSIT.

Linder made another poignant statement, knowing or unknowing “I think it is such a good fit for the street tax because it’s just another form of transportation.” Spoken like a U.N. Agenda 21 advocate.

Are Linder & Robertson unknowingly parrots or are they advocates for the United Nation’s Agenda 21 freedom killing cabal?
City Manager Gosack most likely knows and is an active agent in Agenda 21/Sustainable Development, as is Mayor Sanders, but do the City Directors know or understand?

Joe McCutchen
arkansasfreedom.net

city government offenses, City Politics, Forced redistribution

Common Core Mathematics

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December 12, 2014
COMMON CORE MATHEMATICS!!!

The United States’ Federal Government, that’s us, own a national debt of $18 TRILLION and of this date will become $19 TRILLION, compliments of the national Republican leadership. Additionally, there is the matter of $120 TRILLION of unfunded mandates, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and an array of other unconstitutional unjustifiable so-called entitlements owed by U.S. citizens.

Sometime during the week of Dec. 1-5 Fort Smith citizens were made aware that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) mandated the city of Ft. Smith Arkansas to pay $200 million toward remedies for at least a 40 year old drainage problem, plus a $300,000 fine! No explanations by 22 yr Ft. Smith veteran employee City Administrator Ray Gosack and/or the Board of Directors where the tax money went that was dedicated to fix the drainage problem for the past 29 years.

Dec. 10, 2014 citizens were notified that the $200 million mandate had grown to $500 Million ( ½ Billion) dollars and in all likelihood could be more, to be directed for solving the drainage problems.

The Fort Smith City Government is either guilty of deliberate subterfuge or gross incompetence, couple that with a dose of arrogance & hubris pointed at the citizen taxpayers.

The city of Fort Smith is a microcosm, mirror image of the U.S. Federal Government, dominated by crooks, liars, self-proclaimed elitists, and/or mental midgets.

Have the readers of this missive ever asked themselves, will the soon to be $19 TRILLION debt ever be paid? Of course, the answer is NO.
THEN WHAT HAPPENS? CONFISCATION OF BANK ACCOUNTS & other PERSONAL PROPERTY. WELCOME TO AMERICA’S 21ST CENTURY OF SLAVERY. IT IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW AS YOU ENJOY SOME FORM OF MENTAL STUPOR.

Aren’t you glad you voted for these courageous, constitutional, honorable Republicans? Their fix is in.

Joe McCutchen

P.S. Why does the local newspaper never question city policies of any sort? What has the 4th Estate become?

arkansasfreedom.net

city government offenses, City Politics, Forced redistribution

The Money Pit?

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WHERE DID THE MONEY GO? Mismanagement? December 8, 2014

Gentle lady & Gentlemen of the City Board—an immediate 4% increase in the cost of health insurance for city employees, paid for by the private sector, is a raise! Is a Raise! Then there is the matter of City Manager Ray Gosack.

In the case the ½ % of the 1% road & water/sewer tax, specifically dedicated to sewers & overflow ground & waste waters, soon to be 30 years of specific taxation for sewer, flooding, overflow problems accompanied by no tangible results. What happened to the money?

The arrogance, hubris and/or the lack of factual data exhibited by the Fort Smith city government is breathtaking. The present & past city governments have put city residents into a taxpaying tail spin devoid of explanation and detailed public discussions particularly pertaining to the $200 Million EPA mandate, a $300,000 fine, and forced hiring of 82 or more (?) new employees. Specifically, where did the money go these past 30 years? ‘The massive shortages in Fire & Police funds and a stated 8% salary increases for city employees with no available funding for said increases, at least 2 new programs Bikeways, Trails, etc., and water fluoridation, both accompanied also by no funding.

Director Mike Lorenz, “We’ve just got to fix the problem, no matter how ugly it is”. For Director Lorenz: it’s not a problem, it is significant problems. Director Lorenz statement would indicate he just recently became aware of the multiple financial crises. And of course, with certainty his solution is to continue pushing for the extension of the 1% tax and diverting said tax to EPA fines & deficits, diversion seems to have been the case for the last 30 years.

Some of City Manager Ray Gosack’s convoluted recent statements: “These overflows are a violation of the Clean Water Act”. That statement is an insult to citizens, certainly not a revelation…citizens have been aware of these overflows for 30 or more years. City Manager Gosack has been employed by the city of Fort Smith for at least 22 years and should have been acutely aware of these many deficiencies and foolish expenditures. Why hasn’t he, along with the past & present Board addressed these problems with the money allocated for them? It seems obvious that dedicated tax monies have been moved around to different accounts for free-wheeling spending by this Administration and others resulting in great difficulty tracking the spending? How can anyone be in upper city management for that long and not be acutely aware of these multiple crises?

In what appears to be a victory statement by Gosack, “I’m pleased to report that after 2 days of negotiation in Dallas last month, facilitated by Arkansas A.G. Dustin McDaniel, we (the city) have reached a conceptual agreement on a recommended consent decree.” Incredulous! Fines, mandates & huge increase in numbers of employees!

The time is now to dig deeply into past spending and what/who benefited…that means an INDEPENDENT AUDIT.

The dysfunctional F.S. city government cannot be trusted due to a lack of forceful, knowledgeable leadership emanating from the Directors. Gosack in his profile says he believes in a transparent government. The Mayor and Board of Directors, at the very least appear to be grossly incompetent for whatever the reasons. Obviously the city Board is not much more than enabling sycophants for Gosack, otherwise the taxpayers would not be facing a huge fine, a massive EPA mandate, and huge financial shortfalls.

Gosack has been ensconced in Fort Smith city government off & on for at least 22 years, dating back to 1985 when the 1% road/sewer tax was passed, yet he makes the following statement, “In the decades prior however, it’s unclear why the city’s sewer woes went unchecked”. Unfathomable. In all their views it always comes down to taxation, government expansion, no accountability, and business as usual. Never do they entertain the concept/precept of operating within existing revenue streams, as the private sector must do.

Another Gosack gem,”We’ve really in many ways turned the ship 180 degrees”. Think if you will, if the Public Servants had addressed the sewer problem in 1985 as they were mandated to do so by the 1% road/sewer tax, think of the positive advancements and savings of taxpayer dollars that we would enjoy today.

The sewer/waste water problem is precisely the mirror image of the Lee Creek fiasco back in the 1980’s, orchestrated by City Government, editorials in the Times Record, and an engineering firm who benefited hugely in a land deal surrounding Lee Creek and the throwaway of over $22million, while at the same time all the above were denying the viability of raising the dam at Lake Fort Smith when facts were readily available that supported the raising of the dam, which just now has been accomplished after all that waste. We are now looking at 12 years or more to get remedy for sewer/waste water problems.

Another bit of government dishonesty…Gosack trying to justify an 8% or more raise for city employees, (1% cost of Living—a raise, 2 ½ to 3% or more for merit/Step Raises, plus the disingenuous proposed 4% pay increase for city employees’ health insurance…a raise).
Gosack states “Fort Smith’s pay rate is 12% behind other regional, benchmark cities”. Government has been getting away with this “benchmark” shell game for decades. What happens in Fort Smith bares no relation to the demographics, economics, or natural resources of other cities. As stated previously, if the city does not have the funds for Pensions, the city certainly does not have the funds for city salary increases, much less enormously expensive new projects!

Fort Smith’s City Government’s philosophy, “We’ll get on it next year”….which has amounted to 30 years of inattention & procrastination and should have been directed at significant problems involving sewer, flooding, and discharging foul water into the Arkansas River resulting in high levels of pollution.

Then there is the immoral, unethical, dishonest practice of funneling millions of taxpayer dollars into the nascent Marshal’s Museum and other special interest projects. The Marshal’s Museum is a private endeavor being orchestrated by Richard Griffin, Sam Sicard, Jr. and their cohorts. For transparency sake, how many citizen total taxpayer dollars has the Fort Smith city government transferred to the embryonic Marshal’s Museum and why are citizens being forced to subsidize downtown special interests up & down Garrison Ave?

WHERE DID THE MONEY GO???

Joe McCutchen
arkansasfreedom.net

city government offenses, City Politics

The vanishing transparency in government

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WHY ALL OF A SUDDEN, PENDING DEFICITS IN THE CITY GOVERNMENT OF FORT SMITH, AR?
December 1, 2014

Where did the money go? Is the alleged deficit a new phenomenon or has it been accruing over a period of time?

Nothing about the proposed 2015 budget meets the smell test and certainly does not favor the taxpaying citizens in any manner. The budget proposes more city government expansion and accompanied by maybe a dose of incompetence.

The Directors’ proposed cuts are cosmetic, meaningless…travel, entertainment, advertising, etc.
If City Manager Gosack and the Board were approaching the 2015 budget with citizen concerns in mind, they would tailor the budget to existing revenue streams.

Instead, the opposite: Bestow raises to employees without existing revenue.

Apparently they have toyed with Fire & Police pensions resulting in a shortage numbering in the millions. Why has a shortage occurred?

The application of the 1% street/sewer tax , while calling for more sewer & surface water taxation will bring the cumulative to 3 taxes for water & sewer—one old and two new. The 1% tax has been in effect for 29 years and generated hundreds of millions of dollars…where did the money go?

Up for a vote in May, the city is angling to divert 20% of the 29 yr old street/sewer 1% tax to a new massive unfunded program—Bikeways, Trails, Signage, Event Nodes, etc., as well as the Fire/Police deficit pension funds. And by the way, what is the cost & function of the Frontier NGO (non-elected) that has arisen from the ashes like a Phoenix?

Then there is the fluoridation of water in spite of citizens’ voted objections, and no funding to install and maintain except for a $1 million buyout of the F.S. Directors by the Delta Dental Insurance Co. Arrogance & hubris would you say?

The following is stunning. In your face private sector citizens. City employees’ pay raises could easily exceed 7%! E.g. 1% cost of living increase, 2 ½ to 3% or more merit and/or step salary increases, coupled to a 4% add-on cost for employee health insurance.

How many tax increases, diversions, and fees are they proposing and will get? For starters, a 25% increase in utilities fees, 4% increase in water & sewer rates, raise franchise fees 25% for telephone service, electric, gas, and cable TV ¼ %, and the possibility of the reincarnation of latent business license.

What is the cost to the city for Chief Lindsey’s membership and protocols from at least two memberships in international policing organizations?

What was the cost and the results for Gosack & cronies to fly to Dallas to renegotiate a pending EPA lawsuit that has been smoldering for 30 years pertaining to damaging sewer & surface water problems? And on the subject, where did the money go (1/2 of the 1% street/sewer tax dedicated specifically for that purpose)?

The possible illegal diversion of Fort Smith city taxpayer money to the fledgling “private” enterprise Marshal’s Museum. How much from city, county, & state, inception to present?

Why were there no cuts in or the abolishment of the yearly $250,000 dedicated to Mayor Sanders?
Then there is the murky Sen. Jake Files/city government softball complex deal.

Are the taxpaying citizens of Fort Smith, AR victims of a rogue city government?

Joe McCutchen
arkansasfreedom.net