The Port Angeles Train Wreck
The Mayor, City Council and City Manager all seem to agree: the entire city government is F#$!’d up. They only disagree on who the culprit is. They're all pointing to each other. “I’m a guardian angel and everybody else here is a F#$%$!in’ A$$#%&!” could be their motto.
There's nothing new about sleaze like this of course. Governments in general are corrupt and just out for themselves.
Maybe all of this public finger-pointing and soul searching (whether it’s real or not) will lead to some changes. And maybe that public meeting on August 27th — 6 p.m. at the city council chambers — will reveal some new information.
One can hope.
There's nothing new about sleaze like this of course. Governments in general are corrupt and just out for themselves.
Maybe all of this public finger-pointing and soul searching (whether it’s real or not) will lead to some changes. And maybe that public meeting on August 27th — 6 p.m. at the city council chambers — will reveal some new information.
One can hope.
Labels: Port Angeles City Council, Port Angeles City Manager, Port Angeles Mayor, Port Angeles Train Wreck
posted by Tom Harper at 1:54 PM
5 Comments:
I'm so tired of Madsen and his hissy fit. He needs to get over himself and move on.
Why is he being so mysterius about the indentity of the person/persons on the City Council who are causing all this "trouble"? Could it be that he's the one causing the problem? Something doesn't add up here, but the sooner he's gone, the better.
yes, I agree. Madsen is an ego out of control. He is protesting too much, so what is HE GUILTY OF?
I agree, we need to know more than we ever will. Transparency in government should be the STANDARD, and instead we can only aspire to it.
Everyone on the City Council has a personal agenda, the Mayor does, Madsen does -- I understand that, it's human nature. But they have to set it aside and try to work together. If they can't do that, we should throw ALL of them out.
Okay, something's got to give here.
Seems to me Madsen just wants the city council as nothing more than figureheads. For example, wanting Wharton or Kidd to avoid talking to their constituents, or get involved in any way on the problems of Port Angeles. He wants them to, well, to take notes, shut up, and bring everything to him. I know I'm not getting the whole story (who is?), but that seems like he's turned our elected representatives into a group of overpaid secretaries for his rule. L'État, c'est moi
Frankly, that scares the hell out of me. We have no say in who gets appointed city manager. That and the amount of money we're paying this guy to do the job of the council (and the money we're paying him to quit his job) and it's just a bad scene.
In the olden days, when we walked two miles to school in the snow, we got by with just a council and a mayor. Personally, I'd say let Madsen walk and then distribute his responsibilities to the council. It'd be cheaper, there'd be no confusion as to who's running what, there'd be less government bureaucracy instead of more, and we the voters would have a say in who is running the show. If they throw a tantrum because they aren't getting their way, then vote the bastards out.
...seems that we need to revisit civics 101. We are in a weak mayor form of government. Means the mayor and the city council are figure heads, but all the REAL decisions come from the hired city manager.
We'd need to get an initiative and vote to establish a strong mayor government (which is not that common in WA state).
As for us not getting a say in who is hired at city manager...that IS one of the weaknesses of the weak mayor government. Some towns set it up so that the city council IS IN ON IT, but, seems that here..no such thing happens. I think only 3 members of the city council (we don't get a say) review, but someone within city hall hires.
This wouldn't be such bad news if we had some upstanding civil service workers...but we seem to have a city run by little wanna-be-kings, and the county/city is a bunch of little empires who don't play well.
The thing the city is not full of are PUBLIC SERVANTS....it's more self-service.
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