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One of the only ways the Citizens are going to take back Salisbury is if a decision is made whereas any purchase over $1,000,000.00 goes to a Public Vote. This will eliminate ANY questions as to how important certain projects are.
My example would be a $10,000,000.00 Fire Station. Even when this project came to a discussion, Fire Fighters were overwhelmingly AGAINST the project. Most still are. However, Barrie Tilghman and Chief See & Deputy Chief Gordy have sold the public a bill of goods and you know as well as I, if it came to a public vote, there would be no new Fire Station.
It's time to take back the City from Politicians and let the citizens decide the most important issues should they arrive. My guess is, they wouldn't be stupid enough to throw such a project in our faces if it was all up to you. That goes for a new $36,000,000.00 Master Plan for the Zoo.
10 comments:
I am not sure of that idea. We live under a representative democracy. The people elect representatives to work for their interests and make decisions in regards to their welfare. (Which is why legislative bodies large and small write and pass laws, and not everything is put to a referendum.)
The obvious advantage of this is that things actually get accomplished. If every decision of monetary consequence was put to public vote (even with a $1 Million threshold) you would harldy ever see a budget pass or a project be approved.
That is before you address the logistical nightmare of holding fair elections and referendums on a regular basis in a municipality the size of Salisbury. The money the city would spend on conducting these would prove counter-productive to the overall goal of increases "citzen input" this idea is trying to champion.
Furthermore, voter turnout is signigicantly lower in "non-presidential" years across the country, with Salisbury being no exception. While trying to open up this decision-making to as many people as possible, you would still be living under the influence of a relative few number of people. A people who, it could be argued, are less versed on the details of the issues than the representative they elected to make these very decisions.
The real solution to "improper spending" and citizen involvement in the process is already in place: regular city elections. Like them or not, the current elected officals of this city are the ones chosen by the citizens to make these decisions for us. If we do not like their choices, we need to then field candiates who are more in line with our values and then show up and vote for them on election day.
Thomas Jefferson said that, "we get the leaders we deserve." The electorate needs to use the system to get the results we want. If the leaders are to blame, do not reelect them, and ensure your memory for this does not fade by the time of the next election.
The point here was in fact to STOP multi million dollar spending/scams.
Make it as close to impossible as you can get to assure spending comes to an end and the ONLY things that go through are in fact necessities.
Look, the City, (even with the economy as it is) still wants to also support a $36,000,000.00 renovation to a Zoo completely in a flood plane and they have still yet to ask the County for any financial support.
The current administration is out of control, period. I don't care what history says, this is the Eastern Shore of Maryland and before they drive such a gem into bankruptcy, someone needs to come up with something to get it back under control.
$80,000,000.00 for a WWTP they can't even drink the water from. A $10,000,000.00 Fire Department on the wrong end of the City where they could have built 3 Stations for the price of one. A $36,000,000.00 Zoo in a flood plane zone.
A $14,000,000.00 TIF and the whole deal is falling apart. Multi million dollar developer reimbursements, shall I go on???????????
I agree completely with your objections to the current rate and type of spending and the thinking (or lack therof) surrounding these spending decisions. I do not think that the decisions that have been made recently (or the ones being debated) are fiscally responsible at all.
My point of contention is more on the processes surrounding your idea. We already have several institutions in place to address our dissatisfaction with our elected representatives: elections, recalls, petition, etc. The TIF alone (and the subsequent dissolution of the deal it was created for) should be enough to send the citizenry to he streets with torches and pitchforks. However, the genreal reaction of the public is muted grumblings and overall silence.
If the citizens respond to these type of violations with nothing more than yawns and genreal malaise, what is to stop the administration from doing any and everything they want.
Also, to pass the idea of public referendums for spending legislation, it would need to be written and passed by the Council. Do you see that happening?
Joe- The simple truth is that the people have spoken. They had a choice not to elect the mare or Bubba, but the chose to do so. They were known quantities and there were clear alternatives, but the people chose them, for some Godforsaken reason. The exception is Louweasal, who marketed herself as something completely different that what she has decided to be. But that is also the will of the people, since she is the puppet of the 3rd term mare. If the people of Salisbury want better decisions made by their elected officials, they need to do a better job of electiong them. They have got exactly what they have asked for.
I agree that we get what we pay for when we elect people. At the same time, when the electorate is promised one thing, and end up getting a system more inept than the one we had before, the citizens should have some sort of recourse. Does anyone remember the big recall effort of a few years ago/ Maybe that is what is needed. Granted, the previous effort failed, but what happened was that some officials were defeated, and others chose not to run for reelection. And, I seem to recall that there was a brief time when the council actually "walked on eggshells" around the citizens. The citizens got lax, and we got screwed over.
Let this be a lesson for all of us...we cannot become complacent.
Sorry everyone, but I definitely agree with Joe on this one. We have been screwed hard by politicians on the fiscal front for a long time. I agree with teacher lady relating to recourse, or rather the difficulty of exercising any right to recourse. It has been intentionally made difficult by politicians FOR politicians. I also understand dan's position that we live within a representative form of govt., but something has to give.
I think we all agree that the politicians are supposed to be answerable to the people, but the time and effort it can take to either recall politicians or to hold them accountable at the ballot box is often becoming a critical issue. I mean....in some instances (like this giant tax increase proposal by the Governor) irreversible damage will likely occur by the time the next election is held and a recall petition would require an effort so large that it is a virtual impossibility.
The only way I see to put the people back in charge of thier govt. (remember that concept?) is to put some failsafe mechanism in place that PREVENTS spending from getting out of hand. When your child abuses a freedom you've given him/her, you take that freedom away. Our elected officials have abused some of the freedoms that come with thier respective offices.
I think that there should be mechanisms in place that requires expenditures over a certain amount of money to be approved by the people. I understand that it would take more time. But would it take more time than it takes for politicians to backstab each other, or to flip-flop on the issues because an issue was presented by a member of a DIFFERENT political party this time. The time wasted by politicians who play party politics is enormous.
Perhaps some thought should be given to the idea that our representatives aren't really representing the constituency effectively enough to make the "representative" form of govt. work.
Sheree Samples-Hughes meets with her constituents regularly to educate them on the issues and to learn how they feel about things that are coming before the county council for consideration. She can then cast a vote that accurately represents the will of the people in her district. I haven't seen ANY other council person do that.
Perhaps we should REQUIRE that each council person conduct a recorded official public meeting with his/her constituents (verified registered voters) to discuss items coming up (including the budget)on the agenda. Nothing gets on the agenda which involves
passing of ordinances or spending large amounts of money with out these meetings taking place. I know that there is a time for public comments on the council level, but this would permit the recording of comments from each district which were directed at the individual council person.At the end of each topic, a call of hands would be made, yea or nay. The results of these meetings would be binding on the representative. The representative would be required to cast his vote at the council meeting as indicated by the will of his/her constituents at the meeting.
I like that idea granddad. As I stated, I do not disagree with Joe on pricipal, just on logistics.
I believe a public referendum for each major spending item would prove unweildy to manage and would nearly grid the process to a halt.
However, forcing our representatives to meet with us regularly so keep us informed and get out direct and honest feedback is a good step to putting the government back into our control.
If, after that, we still elect the ones that do not serve our best intrests, then we need to start screaming into the mirror.
What Mirror? I broke mine years ago and I refuse to put it back. Not until Barrie is out of Office.
they'll just ask for $999,999.99 dollars instead
Alas, when "the public" vates, it's far from a majority. Voters need to be informed & they need to GO VOTE!
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