Have you noticed that revolving door we’ve installed here at our City?
When we were sworn in a year ago the City manager had been on duty for a while. He was our second manager, the first manager having moved on to other assignments. It wasn’t long before the second manager was gone, and the third manager came up from Austin, TX to manage us. We then moved away from CH2MHill management, and hired our own interim manager, manager #4.
When he came to work he was very enthusiastic. I said, “You seem like a nice guy, and a professional. You’ll try to do the right thing. That won’t matter. You’re here to do as you’re told.” He didn’t want to believe me. His last day was January 31st. He lasted a month longer than I’d guessed. We now have an acting interim manager, manager #5, who in the not too distant future will give way to our 6th manager.
When we were sworn in a year ago a nice communications lady helped us get our pictures taken. She didn’t last long. A Council member took over doing communications, but she quit. Another Council member took over, but she took orders from another newly appointed Council member, who had just been voted off Council by the citizens.
CH2MHill sent a communications professional from Atlanta, but he wasn’t given the chance to make his presentation. He suggested we should save money by hiring a small local firm instead of incurring CH2MHill’s costs. That sounded good, so Council went out for bid. Many candidates applied. Of all the applicants, we hired CH2MHill to be our communications provider. We’ve budgeted $75,000 for communications, a huge increase over 2010.
That’s 12 people. Have you noticed that revolving door we’ve installed here at our City?
Monday, February 21, 2011
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Those People Are Trying to KILL our City.....
In the past couple months I’ve written a couple articles for our community newspaper, The Connection. I’ll write more. So far, citizen response to the articles has been very supportive. Most encouraging, some folks who were initially disappointed checked their facts, and now nod. There seems to be appreciation that someone has brought up the topics for community discussion.
A great number of people were initially supportive of the dream of a Great City at Castle Pines. Three years after the beginning of that new City, some of the polish has come off the apple. There is no doubt it took a ton of work to lift the City to where it lies today. There is no doubt the lives of the average citizen are little changed by the creation of the City, if at all. There is no doubt the numbers don’t crunch for the City. They never did. More and more people are coming to this realization.
Some folks opine that the idea of the City is tremendous, but those now in office are just not very good at the tasks at hand. Other folks believe the City could never flourish under present conditions, regardless of whomever was elected.
As for the first view, it is true it makes no sense to give additional authority to folks you elect to run a City, until those folks demonstrate an ability to handle the tasks for which you’ve made them responsible. Would you want our water service or sewer service to run like our street maintenance and snow removal has? (I’m not throwing any barbs at our public works folks. They work hard and try to do the best they can with the tools they’re given. I’m throwing barbs at every Council member who will not vote to properly fund upkeep of our streets.) Rather than spending bandwidth and treasure pursuing the Metro District, let’s please leave the District to the tasks they have responsibility to perform (water, wastewater, open space and parks management). Let’s ask the City to focus on how it’s going to take care of our streets, and properly implement its land use authority.
As for the second view, I’ve never believed a City can properly function at Castle Pines until development on the east side of I-25 comes to fruition. The City isn’t evil. It may have been created too early, or at a bad time, or perhaps both. The necessary development has not been in place these past twenty-five years. It’s not there now. It won’t be put in place until our broad economy improves. We need a crystal ball to forecast exactly when that recovery will happen. It may be eight months or three years from now, and I sure hope it’s not seven or eight years away. I’m all for partnering with land use interests to create the best community we can as the turn-around begins. But, what do we do until that happens?
I believe we should come together to take responsibility for the City’s obligations. If Council demonstrates the integrity to bring the matter of funding the upkeep of the roads to voters for a tax increase, good for them. If citizens understand the need for additional taxes and vote yes, let’s get busy. But if voters say no new taxes, a decision has been made that we need to take to heart. We cannot abandon our streets! If voters say no to funding the upkeep of the roads, we have to go back to the County, hat in hand, and say, “just kidding about that dream of incorporation”. I’m not for “Killing the City”, and I've never met anyone who is. If we have to kill the fantasies of a few folks in order to take responsibility for our obligations, I am definitely OK with that.
Imagine, if you can, a Great City…..that takes care of its streets!
A great number of people were initially supportive of the dream of a Great City at Castle Pines. Three years after the beginning of that new City, some of the polish has come off the apple. There is no doubt it took a ton of work to lift the City to where it lies today. There is no doubt the lives of the average citizen are little changed by the creation of the City, if at all. There is no doubt the numbers don’t crunch for the City. They never did. More and more people are coming to this realization.
Some folks opine that the idea of the City is tremendous, but those now in office are just not very good at the tasks at hand. Other folks believe the City could never flourish under present conditions, regardless of whomever was elected.
As for the first view, it is true it makes no sense to give additional authority to folks you elect to run a City, until those folks demonstrate an ability to handle the tasks for which you’ve made them responsible. Would you want our water service or sewer service to run like our street maintenance and snow removal has? (I’m not throwing any barbs at our public works folks. They work hard and try to do the best they can with the tools they’re given. I’m throwing barbs at every Council member who will not vote to properly fund upkeep of our streets.) Rather than spending bandwidth and treasure pursuing the Metro District, let’s please leave the District to the tasks they have responsibility to perform (water, wastewater, open space and parks management). Let’s ask the City to focus on how it’s going to take care of our streets, and properly implement its land use authority.
As for the second view, I’ve never believed a City can properly function at Castle Pines until development on the east side of I-25 comes to fruition. The City isn’t evil. It may have been created too early, or at a bad time, or perhaps both. The necessary development has not been in place these past twenty-five years. It’s not there now. It won’t be put in place until our broad economy improves. We need a crystal ball to forecast exactly when that recovery will happen. It may be eight months or three years from now, and I sure hope it’s not seven or eight years away. I’m all for partnering with land use interests to create the best community we can as the turn-around begins. But, what do we do until that happens?
I believe we should come together to take responsibility for the City’s obligations. If Council demonstrates the integrity to bring the matter of funding the upkeep of the roads to voters for a tax increase, good for them. If citizens understand the need for additional taxes and vote yes, let’s get busy. But if voters say no new taxes, a decision has been made that we need to take to heart. We cannot abandon our streets! If voters say no to funding the upkeep of the roads, we have to go back to the County, hat in hand, and say, “just kidding about that dream of incorporation”. I’m not for “Killing the City”, and I've never met anyone who is. If we have to kill the fantasies of a few folks in order to take responsibility for our obligations, I am definitely OK with that.
Imagine, if you can, a Great City…..that takes care of its streets!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
