Observations/Comments of April 21st Meeting

“All righty then”: Mayor Pro-tem’s favorite phrase

Council Member Stebner said the town is running at a deficit and he doesn’t want to raise taxes on residents. So we have to find other sources of revenue, like raising the gambling tax. One audience member gleefully chimed in before he even finished his sentence – the casino! One of the connected four used the descriptor “he” when talking about the gambling tax rate (even though there are other businesses with gambling in town). Another well-organized pitch that targets someone on their hit list.

Speaking of hit list, special neighbors were invited to complain about The Commencement. Heavens, we can’t have utilities going underground in our views sensitive areas! Especially if they include a 12-inch intrusion into someone’s view in order to remove hundreds of linear feet of poles and power lines! Only the complaining neighbors were allowed to speak – darn…

The council figured out the budget ordinance allows the utility clerk to go full time. She was promised that a year ago, but the spiteful four made sure that didn’t happen at the first of the year (might have made things easier on the mayor). They thankfully changed course last night, but with the caveat that they will explore overtime issues with their payroll legal counsel. Seems Council Member Hunt wants to follow the fine example of JC Pennys for how we treat our employees and keep those hours down.

Whaaaa Hoooo!!!! We have council rules!!!! Hey, that rhymes! Now if they will just follow ‘em. I don’t see anything in there that allows this routine of selective comments by the public.

Sally Everding is the newest town employee. She gets the important task of codifying all Ruston’s codes. And she’ll even have authority to correct “errors” in the codes when she wants. She’s got lots of experience in the technical world of electronic data but no municipal experience that I can tell, unless you count running the Ruston Connection web site.

The dismantling of Ruston continues – we are all invited to a study session to hear why we must change our form of government. It’s just too much for the mayor to handle. Or should I say this mayor, who won’t bow to every wish of the forceful four. Absolute control by the council is more the motivation of this group.

A final note (with more to come later): Shameful! A picture of a council member with symbols imposed on him that express what a resident thought of his ‘rules of engagement’! Two attacks about these blogs in a week - maybe we are hitting a nerve here??? Glad to know they are reading!

All righty then.

Karen