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