Louise Smith’s Farewell Fib

On Sunday I read Salisbury councilwoman Louise Smith’s op-ed in the Daily Times.  Riddled with innuendo, half-truths, and outright lies, this piece shows why the majority of Salisbury voters are happy to be rid of her.

Before we tackle the specifics of Smith’s masturbatory homage, let us re-cap her tenure on council:

1. Smith came into office with a lie.  Pledging to support councilwoman Debbie Campbell, she reneged after the Barrie Comegys bloc bought her support off with the center chair.  Smith claims she “prayed” about this matter and discussed it with her pastor.  As far as I know, the good folk over at Asbury UMC worship the same God that I do.  I find it doubtful that her pastor would encourage her to break her word and I KNOW that God didn’t tell her lie.
2. Smith turned right around and then voted for a charter change to enable a 17% tax increase.  I can only hope that the local GOP is ashamed of ever calling her one of their own.
3. Possibly outdoing former councilman Mike Dunn, Smith has repeatedly changed the rules because she is simply incapable of understanding her own rules and obviously believes that obeying them only applies to those who don’t agree with her.
4. Smith has saddled the taxpayer with boondoggles such as “The Bricks” and the “Linens of the Week” properties.  She has voted to furlough cops because “it wouldn’t be fair to furlough other city employees and not police officers”.  She did this despite the fact the furloughs of police officers actually saves nothing (they’re almost all on overtime anyway), but sends a very bad message regarding the city’s desire to crack down on crime.

These are just a few examples of Smith’s “admirable” record.  Now let’s look at how Louise sees it:

“A building eyesore on Healthway Drive was removed.”

Don’t think so Weezie.  I think we can thank folks like Richard Widdowson and his neighbors for that one.

“I pledged to have the city's audit completed without months of delay. Each year it improved.”

Smith campaigned for office on ONE real issue – she would get the city to complete their audit ON TIME!  To date, the city has yet to complete its audit by the state mandated deadline.

“For the 2010 audit report, a milestone was reached; it was received Dec. 8 -- the earliest since 2003 -- with no instances of noncompliance in the financial statements and no material weaknesses in federal programs.”

This is simply not true.  While some some material weaknesses have been addressed, others have popped up or re-emerged.  Most notable in the last audit is the fact that multiple accounts were run into deficit.  This is not only a material audit deficiency, but a violation of the city’s charter.  To be fair, Smith isn’t responsible for these problems; however, she is the one who has lied about their non-existence.

“I implemented 12 fall and spring cleanup efforts in the Church Street/Doverdale neighborhoods. More than 20 volunteers dedicated more than 9,030 hours, collecting more than 20.11 tons of trash and 1,515 pounds of recyclables.”

Smith should be applauded for her efforts here.  However, it should be noted that what she attempts to portray as a “volunteer effort” has cost the city taxpayers untold thousands (probably tens of thousands) in overtime costs.  Again, the “fiscally prudent Louise” is a phantom.

Yes, Louise is leaving.  We can only applaud and ask that she not let the door hit her in the ass as she exits.  I am sure that I will be criticized for this post.  However, we need to note the difference between disagreeing with someone’s policies and dealing with people who are genuinely dangerous to civil society because of ignorance, arrogance, and a lack of basic honesty.

If Salisbury is actually better for her “service”; it is only so because the voters may have learned a lesson.  We can only hope so.

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