What is our new Mayor up to? (Colorado Springs: crimes, live in)

[YoYoSpin]

Here’s the latest from the Mayor Bach soap opera: From the Gazette...Mayor Bach calls City Council's latest decision a "disaster".

Bottom line is that the Mayor’s unilaterally handpicked lawyer - Melcher, who took over as city attorney about five months ago, has published an opinion at the Mayor’s request, that gives the Mayor absolute power, and renders the City Council completely toothless, with no ability what so ever to override the Mayor on any spending issue. Now there’s going to be a legal battle between the Mayor’s office and the City Council to sort this out…and the Mayor is doing everything he can to stop the City Council from even asking the question…” do we have a representative form of government that includes nine elected council members and one elected mayor, or a dictator mayor and nine bystanders?”

[proveick]

Does anyone really care????

[YoYoSpin]

Originally Posted by proveick

Does anyone really care????

Well, we all might care just a bit, when our taxes go up to cover the new staff (big salaries) and legal expenses generated by the Mayor's activities.

[Bob from down south]

Originally Posted by YoYoSpin

Well, we all might care just a bit, when our taxes go up to cover the new staff (big salaries) and legal expenses generated by the Mayor's activities.

Yawn...your continued axe-grinding sure is boring.

You've made it pretty clear that nothing Mayor Bach would or could ever do would meet with your approval.

[YoYoSpin]

Originally Posted by Bob from down south

Yawn...your continued axe-grinding sure is boring.

You've made it pretty clear that nothing Mayor Bach would or could ever do would meet with your approval.

Attacking the messenger will not further your Bach fan-boy cause. If I bore you, do not read my posts.

BTW, what has Mayor Bach done that is good so far? I have not read or heard of anything substantial that's come out of the mayor's office in the past year that adds positively to the city...unless maybe you're a land or property developer. All I’ve seen is that he's fired several long-time city employees, hired several over-paid cronies, threatened people with legal action, and gone out of his way to be a bully and hard-ass.

[proveick]

http://leftperspectives.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/be-suspicious_02.jpg (broken link)

[Bob from down south]

Originally Posted by YoYoSpin

Attacking the messenger will not further your Bach fan-boy cause. If I bore you, do not read my posts.

BTW, what has Mayor Bach done that is good so far? I have not read or heard of anything substantial that's come out of the mayor's office in the past year that adds positively to the city...unless maybe you're a land or property developer. All I’ve seen is that he's fired several long-time city employees, hired several over-paid cronies, threatened people with legal action, and gone out of his way to be a bully and hard-ass.

I haven't attacked the messenger...yet. But you tempt me.

I am not an ardent Bach supporter. OTOH, I do want a leader that will strap on the responsibility for running the city government and lead, not hide in a group to avoid accountability like generations of city councils have done for decades now. No matter what, at the end of his term, we'll hold Mayor Bach accountable for what he's done or not done with the city government...something we haven't been able to say with any recent group of councilmen.

I have seen substantial leadership--in particular the ouster of Myers from the police chief job. Lots has been wrong with CSPD for the last few years, which let gangs get a foothold in the city while they focused on writing traffic tickets by the ream. Pushing out the top dog there sent a strong message. And firing a few entrenched and overpaid city employees that wouldn't follow his lead as the new boss is A-OK with me. In fact, your incessant bleating about this makes me wonder if you or a close relation are one of those overpaid city employees...

[YoYoSpin]

Originally Posted by Bob from down south

your incessant bleating about this makes me wonder if you or a close relation are one of those overpaid city employees...

Now who's being Boring. Oh, and Bob...I'm pretty sure that there are substantially more people killed and injured in this city every year as a result of speeding and other vehicular crimes than from gang activity.

[Bob from down south]

Originally Posted by YoYoSpin

Oh, and Bob...I'm pretty sure that there are substantially more people killed and injured in this city every year as a result of speeding and other vehicular crimes than from gang activity.

Geez, what planet are you living on? Vehicular "crimes?"

Oh yeah, there are lots of folks being killed because of people driving 5 mph over the limit at the bottom of a hill, or 2 mph over the limit on a divided highway like Powers. I have no problem with enforcing red lights and reckless rule-breaking, but I watched CSPD for years setting people up for the kill on easy technical violations. That kind of lazy police work didn't keep us safe; it only served to put money into the coffers.

A read of the police blotter might enlighten you that gang activity is indeed a public safety concern, especially for those living south of Platte.

[lurtsman]

Originally Posted by Bob from down south

Geez, what planet are you living on? Vehicular "crimes?"

Oh yeah, there are lots of folks being killed because of people driving 5 mph over the limit at the bottom of a hill, or 2 mph over the limit on a divided highway like Powers. I have no problem with enforcing red lights and reckless rule-breaking, but I watched CSPD for years setting people up for the kill on easy technical violations. That kind of lazy police work didn't keep us safe; it only served to put money into the coffers.

A read of the police blotter might enlighten you that gang activity is indeed a public safety concern, especially for those living south of Platte.

I'd like to see a crackdown on organized crime as the primary focus of the police. The issue with speeding tickets is that we are facing a zero sum game. The department may see it as a way to improve revenues and potentially create more money than it cost to hire the police--but that money is all coming from tickets that are often handed out to relatively good citizens. There are times for writing speeding tickets, but speeding alone rarely causes accidents. It often involves other factors. We have to ask if we really want traffic to slow down enough that we would choose to have police employed for the purpose of writing speeding tickets.

Personally, I do not want to hire someone to write speeding tickets. Even if the job is spread out over several officers, the result is still the same. If they don't write tickets, they are wasting tax payer money because they won't cover their salary. If they do write tickets, they may be harassing citizens for minor violations. I don't mind seeing cops pull people over for driving that creates a real threat to the lives of other people. I'd like to see more of that. When I was in Portland they never set up efforts to catch drunk drivers, despite the dramatically higher likelihood of them killing someone.

Money spent on catching criminals has a positive net effect. That is to stay that in most cities today, hiring a police officer to crack down on property crimes costs less than repairing the damage from the increased crime that occurs in the absence of the additional police force. Insurance premiums go down as well because the insurance adjusters are very quick to catch crime trends in a city. They all want to have the customers who are unlikely to ever file a claim. I want to see the actual criminals get picked up, but I don't want to see the parent running late to get their kid to a soccer game get stopped for going nine over.