Monday, February 1, 2010
YOU CAN WRITE A POST ON INSIDE SUFFOLK
Yes you can write a post here just as IS team members do, with the same conditions. Any subject that may be important to Suffolk Citizens is OK but you must stick your neck out as we do by including your name. And because it is possible to use any persons name we expect the Post to be accompanied by your email address. We, of course, will not publish your email address but we will check it out with you. Persons who publish an opinion in any newspaper must supply that much info. We offer this because we can't be on top of everything important to our citizens. We do not gurantee publication of your Post but do not be bashful about trying. It really does beat doing nothing. Be a contributor.
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16 comments:
Taking a little drive yesterday to cure my cabin fever, I noticed that although the main roads were clear most of the local streets remained covered in snow and ice. To my surprise many streets in downtown remained untreated with either sand or salt. VDOT appears to have done their part to keep the main thoroughfares open but has Suffolk Public Works done likewise? The million dollar "surplus" given away as bounuses could have been better used to buy salt, sand and pay overtime. With another bout of snow and ice here by the weekend, should we expect to be holed up because of poor budgeting and misplaced priorities?
And why expect anymore from our city as they spend our money in new and follish ways? By example: They have our million dollars in excess taxes this last year in their pockets, so no more is required on their part, or so they believe. Tell me again, what we are paying so much for, it certianly is not for good services or a higher quality of life?
Then we have Mr. Roundtree ready and willing to ask council and others for our money for his projects on "his golf-course". Also look to the secret agenda of the "pantsuit" mayor and her council of smitten boys today to see how they will protect the pay and benefits of the political constitutional officers that serve as the backbone of the her political machine, to serve her never ending agendas. She will insure that she protects the big salaries and benefits of her friends that supported her for election, and do it with our money!
What many of us detest about how Washington is run, is exactly the same as we see here in our hometown, Suffolk in how the "pantsuit" mayor abuses her trust for her agendas. The mayor and her boys use our taxes as a slush-fund to have their political way with us and it is getting old fast. I have a strong disagreement with such pandering foolishness and especially with how it all gets done in closed secret sessions that no one can see or comment upon, and pray that changes soon. Who will step forward to say they have an idea of how to fix these deep flaws that run to the core of how our mayor has subverted the way our city si being lead, or not lead? We need some of you politically savey persons to step forward and save us from such foolish self-interests soon, or there will not be much of Suffolk left.
So these issues runs much deeper than how the city fathers (and Mothers) fail us in much more than just snow-removal, but most of what they now seem to believe they need for us. They fail us all in more fundemetal ways everyday and we all have a story to backup such a statement, there is no doubt! As someone who live in the old city of Suffolk, or what the staff calls the southern urban core, I can attest to the fact that services and work paid for with our "HIGH TAXES" for things like snow removal is much, yes much worse now than ever in the forty years I have lived here. So, what is your story and how will you help make it different?
We can not squander the opportunity of changing the political equation on council to stop the mayor's ruinious running of our city. She can be stopped if we vote out her supporters on council like Parr and Gardy! Now is the time to plan, fund and act to oust the wart on the collective butt of Suffolk, by voting in some new faces with new ideas that stop the mayor's use of her office for her own agenda and power.
Sometime ago Suffolk's citizens gathered for a tea party. It was a well attended event but no means provided to move the process forward. Inside Suffolk has been a unique forum for citizens to speak out and demand accountability from their elected representatives. No doubt our public servants read IS to assess public reaction but refrain from enguaging commentators with all due modesty.
While emotion is running high and voters are motivated for change, it is time to coalesce our concerns into a platform backed by money and votes. A tea party is an afternoon venting displeasure and sharing concerns. We are well past that point. Now is the time to organize, build a political platform and identify like minded candidates. What's the next step is up to all of us.
Of the 3.5 million dollar surplus, only 1 million was given to city employees as a bonus.
Times are tight, and most city employees were not able to receive a pay raise this past year, and a one-time bonus (that I'm sure was heavily taxed) helped off-set the lack of a raise.
Do some of the commentors on IS have a chip on their shoulders? Do they have something against city employees? If you want the best, you have to pay them well.
Our police officers and fire fighters do a tremendous job, and they deserve our support, our thanks.
This one-time bonus may have helped a police officer provide Christmas for his family, or a firefighter the opportunity to pay that bill he was a month behind on.
With salary freezes in an ever-changing market, most people depend on a small, annual raise to help get by. This was a small bonus to thank employees.
OF the rest of the surplus, some of the money went to the rainy day fund, and some went to help support the police department battle gangs that are becomming entrenched in Northern Suffolk by way of Portsmouth/Newport News.
I'm not saying that I agree or disagree with the way the allocation of surplus funds was handled, but you have to admit that having a surplus in this economy is terrific,and when city employees do not have to take unpaid furloughs (as is the case in neighboring localities), the city will run most-efficiently.
11:23 Anon is correct we have a "surplus" depending on how and where the entries were made in the books. However be cautious of your government there is alaways an agenda behind it. Ask the Obama Administration about how much we save with his party's healthcare legislation all +2000 pages of it. How are we going to service our national debt, fund social security and hundreds of other entitlements confounds the brightest minds in America.
As for the recent bonus giveaway. It may be hard for some to realize we are in very hard times even here in Surprising Suffolk. The private sector has been the hardest hit and there is yet to be a positive signal anywhere that we are in a recovery. Not too long ago government workers traded salary for security. That disappeared with the JFK and LBJ Administrations. Government employees today enjoy better pay than the private sector. They have better medical, dental, retirement, COLAs and most importantly job security. Meantime the rest of us see costs rising, taxes on the increase, interest rates in the dumps and jobs are scarese. We see jobs going overseas by over taxed and government regulated employers that have been deamonized by the media and politicians.
Whenever I hear a whinning city employee I always suggest that if they don't like it here with the city, leave and go find a better one in the real world. It's strange but they never do.
So let's stop playing games on Market Street. Lead by example, sacrifice, pull in your belt a notch, show the citizens you understand this is no time to be giving away any of our "surplus" tax dollars. Remember November is mere months away.
Wow how government can juggle the numbers. There are 20,000 more on the unemployment line in January and the unemployment rate drops? How was that figured. Did others just give up and are sitting home watching The View and Oprah? God help them.
According to the SNH the assessment of the snow cleanup was positive. Up yonder in tax paying Northern Suffolk that was not the case. It was three days after the storm before a City plow came through and it didn't even scrape or sand most secondary streets. Hmmm, me thinks Public Works focused their clean up effort in the neighborhoods of the well connected and powerful. Next time SNH Editor Reeves ought to get out and see for himself rather than relying on the reports from the city.
There they go again. Utopia isnt suppose to have any problems. North Suffolk complaining? Tell you what, since it is the real true Suffolk.Maybe you could employ all the gansta wanna be's to clean up the snow. See things arent all that great in Utopia also known as North Suffolk
Why the harsh words on the fact that PW did a horrible snow clearing job in the Northern end of town to clear the secondary streets. In the Southend we saw that same lack of any help too, but that is the norm for us since we really don't have a councilman that wants anything but "Garbage Cans". The comments that PW did a "politically driven job" on the street snow removal does apear to hold water, but not snow. Time that all Suffolk gets treated the same, not just the old downtown first policy that we seem to always see!
If the PW poeple want to crow, plow our streets first and we will be happy to thank you for doing your job! Nuf-Said!
The North Suffolkians appreciate the offer however the downtown grown gangsta wanna be's aren't interested in that kind of snow or working for that matter. Haven't seen gang related problems except in downtown. Tell ya what, we'll concern ourselves with our type of snow problems and you with your's.
Anon 1:34
BAWWWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH. You got a gang problem and you got 434 k to combat it. Get over the snow issue, it does melt you know.
I'm still laughing at the SNH's Opinion about snow removal yesterday. They state that not a single person was injured, no lives lost and no weather related fatalities occurred because of the condition of the roads. They went on to use their scientific polling method that 52% of residents were satisfied with the snow removal. Wow, let's get this right. No deaths, injuries means the roads were clear and not that people instead stayed home for days or drove cautiously? There was no mention of VDOT keeping the main thoroughfares open and that PW took the credit. The other is the weight the Editorial staff place on their own selective polling method of gathering information from the few individuals that chose to participate and making gross assumptions. With such talent and polling methodology, I bet they can call state and local elections months in advance. Thank you Suffolk News Herald for doing what you do best.
Our community watchdog? More like our city administration's parrot. Our highly un-scientific selective poll indicates 52% of Suffolkians ask why wasn't VDOT mentioned.
I hope even in these challenging times PW employees are still being paid overtime to clear the streets of snow. They should still be receiving medical, dental and retirement funded by our taxes. So what's the big deal? PW should do their job, do it well, be happy they have a job and stop the BS.
Gee another waste of money. We have anotehr who lives in North Suffolk, declaring there is no gang problem. Then let the rest of the city use the 434 k for other projects. Earth to North Suffolk Hello
No doubt about it Suffolk is Gangsta. They're in the public school system, in the hoods, in non-profits, clubs and city government. They are black and white, young and old, poor and rich. The gangs go by different names but in the end they do the same thing.
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