Shame On You Donnie Blevins!

Last nights Council meeting held yet more grandstanding and finger pointing than it did any actual City business. Lord knows we have major problems to deal with in several areas of City operations, but CM Blevins' tactics last night were shameful.
Yes, most folks agree that the money being poured into the "sewer system" has become ridiculous and way out of hand, but CM Blevins should be careful who he's calling "greedy".
That title is easily awarded to Mayor Garner since he's made no attempt to disguise the fact that he thinks he should be making more money, and he isn't a bit reluctant to ask for it!
But, I digress. Back to the original discussion...
After the now infamous mayoral phone call/meltdown that followed CM Blevins' vote for an investigation into the 2004 audit findings, we are somewhat surprised that Donnie has once again swallowed the hook that Garner has baited.
Not only has CM Blevins swallowed Garner's empty promises (AGAIN) hook, line and sinker, we are convinced that this councilman's votes are compromised due to his status as a city employee.
Even though Donnie has flip-flopped a few times, managing to piss off everyone at one time or another, he always comes swimming back to the mayor's boat where Garner has so many lines in the water that it would be impossible to ever untangle the whole mess of stories and promises. But, Donnie is convinced he must grab onto one of those lines if he plans to continue his career as a city employee.
The former sanitation worker, transfered to the Street Dept. just before privatization of the Sanitation Dept., has been easily 'handled' by Garner and his goons by simply dangling promises of jobs over his head. A situation that doesn't bode well for serving the City's best interests.
So again, we say: "Shame On You CM Blevins" for only being concerned with securing your own job rather than concern yourself with helping save the ratepayers from another huge rate increase for the sewers. And you PROMISED us Donnie. You PROMISED you would NOT vote for a rate increase.
And Shame on you for biting on Garner's line AGAIN! A line saying he will save the Street Department and thus your job, if only you will...
Shame on you Donnie.
You should be asking how in the hell the Street Department has suddenly lost an extra $300K per year, going from a $179K deficit in 2004, to a $463K deficit in 2005, and now a projected $700K deficit for 2006 (thanks FOS), since Garner took office before you are so ready to throw good money after bad. Do you realize that's a 291% increase in the deficit in just 2 years??? How does that happen?
How about asking to have this situation included in the audit investigation? How about asking to see some documentation of how the Street Dept. has suffered such staggering losses the last few years?
Shame on you Donnie for abandoning the best interest of the citizens for another empty promise that won't hold true in the long run. They show those kinds of losses so they have an impossible hole to climb out of, forcing the department into privatization because the city cannot afford to bail out such huge losses.
Shame on you Donnie, for not understanding the bigger picture.
So, we'll leave you with one last piece of advise that we can only hope and pray that you will heed: Be careful. It can get pretty difficult to catch your breath when you get yourself shoved so far up there. And you can bet you WON'T come out smelling like a rose.
Finally, one short mention about the current article on the New Albany Today blog.
Maury acknowledges the obvious political stance taken by the Tribune as illustrated with the example of interviewing the candidate for Sherriff rather than interviewing the current Sherriff as would be accepted practice for thoughts on current issues.
We also agree with the assertion that a sewer rate increase cannot, and should not, be presumed until a lot of questions get answers, and a lot of financial documents are examined.
Thanks Maury for carrying the torch on these issues.