This week (Thurs. July 29th, 6:30 p.m. City Hall) there will be a Town Hall meeting where Director of Public Service Zach Woodruff, Deputy Director of Public Affairs Megan Meyer and the City Engineer will provide the public information on the proposed water/sewer utility surcharge. I am told by Ms. Meyer that the information portion of the presentation will not be as long as other presentations they’ve made on the subject and that they’ll then open it to an informal Q&A with the public, both with those gathered and those online.

While this is all good and fine and right from the Town Hall playbook, and while I give them the due open-mindedness they and it deserve, I still reserve a measure of cynical reticence given ‘The City’ and ‘The Administration’s’ past behaviors and history of ignoring the public trust. They want us to put our full faith and allegiance in them while, when it was their obligation to honor the public trust for our sake, they instead honored their self-interests and not us. As such and given such extravagant spending on ‘The Administration’s’ part since the .5% tax increase (while our infrastructure crumbles beneath our feet), I’m concerned that this is merely a spin and sell job to get money to fix the water/sewer problem without having to cut anything from the largesse of ‘The Administration’s’ lineup of shiny crowd pleasers (which is GREAT for ‘The Administration’.)

So, keep your eyes and ears and, most importantly, your critical thinking skills open and we shall see what transpires.

Thank you