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Every post on here is trying to describe a small town. Our town has less than 1000 people. You could see the corruption if there were any. There isn't. They still have to live beside you, so they know better. Just 3 select people and 5 school board members. 5 planning board people and a code enforcement person.
One of the towns on my beat was just shy of 2,000 people. It was the second biggest community in the county, the biggest by far being the county seat, with a 10k population. All the other communities were small farm towns in the 200-400 pop. range.
One of the towns on my beat was just shy of 2,000 people. It was the second biggest community in the county, the biggest by far being the county seat, with a 10k population. All the other communities were small farm towns in the 200-400 pop. range.
The mayor was impeached for embezzling.
Yep, corruption is neither directly or inversely proportionate to population size. Scumbags exist in all sizes of communities.
I'm a great believer in small towns and cities being great places to live, but I do sometimes find myself upset over how politics and corruption rule. One place I lived the DPW was ruled like a dictatorship. You didn't dare cross the head of the department or your driveway would be plowed in six feet deep in a snow storm, your garbage would be liberally dumped all over your sidewalk, or your street would suddenly become one-way the most inconvenient direction. One time a rival woke up in the morning to find a rotting fish on his front porch. Everyone knew who did it, but nobody was ever caught. Another place I lived I knew a well connected "good ol' boy" who never set foot in the motor vehicle bureau. They would mail him his new driver's license and a fresh inspection sticker for his truck. Another classic is water connections. It is expensive and difficult to extend city water lines out to new developments, but lo and behold, when a major party donor happens to be building a new development suddenly the town is out there digging for weeks to extend the line while other developers have been waiting years for approval. The list goes on and on. Sadly, with the demise of local newspapers, I'm afraid the situation is getting worse.
Wow!! I don't know if you could be more accurate! We moved to a very small town/county for the recreation in 2014, which is pretty darn good and we take well advantage of it. I'm blessed to be able to do many things. Our problems started when we bought our place they were just starting a water main on our side of the county. The ground water in the county is horrible. The PW director is a great guy but has too much on his plate and not able to control those under him. He gave us approval but we had to take full liability of the work. It would have cost us $30-40k to have it done. Took me two yrs getting DEQ approval, then DW and I did all the labor and liability. We put in an extension for 6 of our neighbors. Cost each of them less than $1500. I received 1 half assed thankyou after it was finally done. One of the water dept pos idiots took a dislike to us as we were the first private residents to ever do a project like this. Only ever contractors. They felt we shouldn't have been able to do the work ourselves. The PW director told me this. I had a miserable time and still am today, yrs later with inaccurate meter readings causing over charges. I email my meter reading on a pic at the end of every month so as to get an accurate reading. I was told to just get over it. I had to make formal complaints to the mayor, put the town attorney in his place for inaccurate information (of course no apology). All I wanted was clean water. I did everything the PW director asked me to do and then some. They caused me considerable amount of grief for absolutely no reason and there was nothing I could do about it. The majority of the town/county is run in this way by this kind of ppl. The problem is everyone has their hand out for $. We do everything ourselves and they absolutely hate it. We remodeled one home then built another. We've had a great deal of problems and all we want is to be left alone. I've never seen so many, "mature adults" lie so blatantly. I do nothing without a recorder now and whatever I do is by email for record. Can't keep them from lying. The town/county leaders/workers are horribly corrupt! I could go on and on. The recreation is great but town/county ppl are horrible. Regardless we've bought off grid, remote property across the state recently that we will not have to deal with anyone about anything.? Can't wait to leave but covid has us in slow mo.
I've lived in a small town a few miles outside of one of the larger cities in my state for some time.
Yes, it exist and thrives. But it is usually only small scale organized crime where the players are only vying for small stakes. What some would call "side money".
Often it translates into having a home that is all fixed up and thought to be one of the nicer places in the village or town. In some cases those on the take are alcoholics and participate to support their habit. Still people know better than to cross any of them.
I knew of one who had their home listed as a church and they had gone online to become a minister within a few minutes for free. They had a few 15.501 c3 corporations set up to funnel money thru from various enterprises they exploited. The money they took in was laundered thru those. Example of this was overseeing properties that were being rented and their collecting the rent. The rent was collected in cash and that deposited as a contribution to their church. Then cash was later withdrawn to give to the property owners their portion. I remember how "religious" they presented themselves to be. But it was only to have everyone in town fooled.
I'm reminded of the Clint Eastwood movie, "Two Mules for Sister Sarah" when I think of them.
Generally there are numerous people in the town who are in on the graft. Those who provide services to the town will offer kick backs for contracts. (very common) If Government commodities are distributed
there some of it will not reach those it is intended for. Government cheese and butter often winds up being sold to restaurant owners.
Often any windfall of money to the town will be deposited into the "General Fund" account. It's the favorite pork barrel as it can be spent on anything without much ado, voting on the proposal three times over three meetings. (month and a half if the town has two meetings a month) Contractors will pad the cost of the project to allow for the kickbacks. The Contractors may do good work and make it look like they have taken extra pains to make it look like the town got it's money's worth. Still it is deception.
What I've seen of it came from the more simple "good ol boy" types from larger families in the towns.
But you have to consider small towns don't have that much revenue to be misappropriated. they may often take on the simpler jobs around the town such as mowing the pubic grounds, painting of he town hall, hanging flags up for memorial day, cleaning out drainage ditches, etc and having their check made out to their 12 year old grand son or daughter and explaining that they will take it to the bank and deposit it into their savings account. These are often jobs that would cost less than $100 dollars but
a few of these could pay the annual property taxes on one's home or buy a new set of tires for the car.
The more money flowing, the easier it is to siphon a bit
As a general rule, the cities, counties, and states with the highest overall tax rates per capita are also the most corrupt.
Quote:
Originally Posted by oldtrader
But big cities, are often even more corrupt.
The more money there is flowing through a town or state, the easier it is to siphon a little off.
I spent decades in Chicago; everybody knew the whole county was corrupt top to bottom, but as long as the convention and tourist money was flowing smoothly, nobody wanted to be the one to rock the boat. Even after Federal investigations like Greylord, Silver Shovel and the like, nothing changed.
Even after the money started to dry up, still nobody spoke up. It took Governor Blagojevich trying to sell off a US Senate seat for the Feds to finally make a move on him!
The Florida Panhandle and the oppressive communities that make up this part of the State of Florida, are riddles with corruption, due to being run by the Good Ole Boy networks. All of these little towns need a coming to Jesus meeting hosted by people with intellect, positive attitudes, who know a thing or two about what community is,suppose to be,and how they are run in the real world. It's appalling how all of these towns are run by the same few people,and their families uear after year. The citizens are opressed,while these few stay in control. Everyone is encouraged to snitch on one another,judge,and gossip. These towns are over policed using its own citizens to harass monitor and spy on residents,and those outside of this strange system, are forced to live a miserable existence with no opportunity to thrive, or become successful in any way shape or form. It's a nightmare here,and desperately needs to see change. I have begun emailing and encouraging businesses feom all over the USA to come and expand themselves to this area. I have gathered some serious interest from a major hotel corporation, and several restaurant franchises. These oppressive networks have been in charge long enough. It's time for a change. To let others have their turn at showcasing their ideas and talents. I would love to see the children have bigger opportunities,and access to diversity that will break this continuous oppressive cycle of control under these currupt,territorial, networks amd cliques.
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The more money flowing, the easier it is to siphon a bit
