In a Talk Back in the Blue Bag Rag, founding councilman Danny Ross offered up some historical insights on the genesis of the city, commitments made, offering a "shame on you" for what is certainly about to happen. He offers an insider's perspective and all that he says is true. If this were being written by Paul Harvey, we're now at the point where he would offer "the rest of the story." But it's not, and we're left few facts and many questions.
Who wrote the original city charter? Out of the gate, it seemed heavily influenced by developers. But who actually decided that this city should have elected officials, that we vote into office, have no operational responsibilities whatsoever? Was this based on the [unofficial] plan for a Public-Private Partnership where almost every service was put out to competitive bids ensuring best service at the best price? How could anyone, especially anyone in politics, NOT know that you simply cannot build a government bureaucracy that will not expand without bound? And yet we got exactly that, an administrative bureaucracy that is metastatic, a parasite that will consume the host.
We don't have the equivalent of the Federalist Papers so it is good that we have someone like Danny Ross, and that he is willing to speak up. But...wouldn't it be nice to hear from Dan and Fran, the originators of this...whatever it is...how proud they are of their little experiment?