Letter to the Editor

Does City Council have the resolve to "do the right thing"?

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

To the editor:

In the ongoing saga with the IRS, one of our illustrious city councilmen (persons) used the phrase "do the right thing" regarding the tax increase to pay off the screw-ups of the last mayoral administration. Now, I think it is time to see if the City Council has the resolve to do the right thing.

Our last mayor benefitted from firing the Water Department manager when the City Council "forced" him to take the extra money, and then, just to show what astute business people they were, voted him a 50 percent retirement after 10 whole years to reward him for having a college degree and doing such a bang-up job, managing to damn near bankrupt the Water Department and city.

Now is the time for the City Council to "do the right thing" and remove this completely unwarranted pay increase from the mayor as well as eliminate the 10-year retirement program. Our city population is dropping like a rock, our tax rates are high enough to ensure no new business or industry will want to locate here, and the number of new homes being built in this town isn't high enough to replace the crack houses that burn down. If the vacant and abandoned houses in this town were demolished it would look almost rural in some areas.

Since the City Council didn't really want to do the right thing and pursue criminal charges against the last administration, and since they don't seem inclined to do the right thing and try to collect reimbursement from the last administration for incompetence, then they should work to rectify this egregious situation and eliminate the increase and retirement.

It was nothing more than a payoff for one of the good ol' boys and does not deserve to be continued. Do the right thing!

Johnny Hutchinson
Blytheville