Yesterday I posted the pre-general financials of the ‘Committee to Extend Progress’ ( a misnomer if I ever saw one) submitted to the Franklin County Board of Elections. As you saw, the people wanting to give elected officials in Whitehall one more 4-year term raised an astounding $25,100. I’ve been looking at various financials from different campaigns for some time now and, to my knowledge, I’ve never seen an amount like this raised in a Whitehall campaign (and with no one person actually running either!). It’s extraordinariness raises a few alarms. First, a look at the numbers:

$16,000 was raised by businesses/corporations and a PAC or ‘Political Action Committee’ (what is this…Washington DC?!). Of those, there are four (to my immediate understanding) that operate businesses here in Whitehall. Two aren’t.

$9350 was donated by a total of four individuals, those whom I must assume are private citizens, only two of which gave a Whitehall address.

The only elected official to do so (At least so far. If others do, it’ll be on the post-general report where any ripples their financial participation may cause will not ill-effect the elections outcome) is Whitehall’s City Treasurer, Steve Quincel. The moral and ethical wrong of this is beyond shameful to our city’s processes and reasonable ethical principles. He himself has a vested interest in this Issue 37’s outcome. It is an exceedingly clear conflict of interest but, he treats it as if that’s none of his concern. He’s gonna do for himself and his ‘team’ at City Hall, regardless of the sacrosanct ‘public trust’, that which, in the ignoring of it for self-interest, says, ‘I don’t care’ to Whitehall citizens and the voters who elected him in. More on that later.

Over $11,500 to send out mailers. This is an expensive process, most candidates can’t afford (certainly in a small town like this). I dragged my butt all over this town to drop my literature door to door. Those that want this group to stay in power can afford it (which, to remind everyone, all officials can stay at City Hall, not just in the same office, for 4 years. That’s the ‘power’ smasher component of the two-term limit). Its really the wealthy trying to have at a middle to lower income community. As Mayor Maggard said just yesterday at the Norton Crossing ground breaking, the housing at Norton Crossing will be, “upscale residential units”.

With the release of this information it is clear who wants the Whitehall citizen’s traditional twenty-two year law of two-terms to be extended to three (Why not 4 terms? How about 7?! If our initial point was in limiting ‘terms’ to limit power, extending them then just seems in opposition to that intent): business interests, people who do business with Whitehall, wealthy benefactors and an elected official with a vested interest (and those in public office with yard signs promoting this vested interest…I’m talking about YOU Mayor Maggard and Councilman Wes Kantor).

Now, some enterprising people whose City Hall bias is clear, made recommendations to city council (whose bias is clear) who then passed them on to the ballot where huge singular donations have been made to make this two-term limit ‘irritation’ for city officials and vested interests go away. It fascinates me that those MOST interested in seeing the two-term limit disappear are always those within the system who have the money and/or power and not, by any reasonable view, the regular citizens themselves who make up the actual community of Whitehall.

Simply put, in my opinion, this isn’t about what’s best for this community of people, its what’s best for vested interest, power and people’s pocketbooks.

It is clear who wants them to stay for another term but, here’s the deal: A traditional two-term limit (good enough for Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama!) was brought forth by concerned Whitehall citizens because the Mayor and Council were abusing their power, plain and simply* (sound familiar?). Since then, it has been challenged twice and both times, the citizens kept the law in place. I hope those who this two-term limit actually benefits (the citizens), sees the folly of this money pile to our community and rejects ‘extensions’ of our long-held term limits, for their own sakes.

*as related to me by one of the original citizens who put the thing together