Council ignores wishes of citizens
Well we’re in a fine pickle now.
That phony promise of “no utility tax,” when Valley voters were conned into voting for this new city of Spokane Valley, was an out and out lie.
We’re getting a 6 percent utility phone tax in January 2009, and this City Council is considering spending $3,000 to sugarcoat this tax so us gullible peasants will willingly accept this tax.
The proponents (developers) of the “fabulous” city of Spokane Valley spent $200,000 selling Valley voters the fairy tale that we were rolling in money in the Valley and supporting the rest of Spokane County. The cry was, “Let’s form a new city and keep that money for ourselves.”
Well welcome to the real world. As a new city we had to hire the same services we got from Spokane County, but we have to pay the higher contract prices. We’ve had to duplicate the departments the county has and hire highly paid department heads. A city manager was hired, who is the highest paid in Eastern Washington, and doesn’t even live in this city.
This useless layer of government costs us so much that we don’t have needed money for street repair.
So where’s the money coming from to pay $37 million to change our efficient couplet (the county built us) back to 25 mph congested two-way traffic? Where’s the money coming from to build a grand, new City Hall to rule us from? Where’s the money coming from to build this city center? And where is the money coming from to “revitalize” Sprague and ruin the small-business owners there?
That’s an easy answer – our pockets. We’ll be paying through the teeth for something we don’t want.
This City Council doesn’t care that we don’t want to live in an over-crowded, over-developed, congested city. We would have chosen to live in Seattle or Spokane if we wanted busy city life. We’re the Valley! But this council has its own agenda and doesn’t care what we want.
That’s what really disgusts me about this city. These “rulers” do not understand the concept of our representative form of government that defines democracy in our United States. Elected officials are our employees. We elect them and pay them to represent us.
This arrogant council ignores the wishes of the citizens. They show rudeness and indifference during public testimony. They follow their own agenda and to hell with the citizens.
We do not have democracy in this city of Spokane Valley. That offends me. And it should offend every citizen in our Valley.