I vowed to help the citizens keep up with our workings. I have recently reviewed my issues page on my original campaign website and will be posting a commentary of how I have kept up with my campaign issues. For now, I am reacquainting myself with my blog. I had planned to keep it up during my tenure, but after being elected mayor I made a decision to hold off. Obviously the council was elected during a time of turmoil and after a member being recalled and another resigning, we had two new members who had not run and with whom I was barely familiar. I was committed to providing leadership and trying to present a positive image of working together.
The Council was very anxious that my public statements all be approved by them as they felt I represented the entire council. This went so far as to requesting (insisting) that I not sit on the "upper" dias on the Planning Commission as they felt this gave me inordinate control of the process, so Annette and I moved to sit on the floor. Other public addresses I gave were extensively edited and modified by certain members. Again, I was anxious to maintain a harmonious working relationship and felt that these were minor issues compared to accomplishing the business of the town. Obviously, in the vein of "no good deed goes unpunished", I was not successful in that a major initiative of mine, obtaining more money for the high school was defeated and I was ultimately removed from office.
At this point, I no longer represent the council. I represent the town and my constituents, as I was elected to do. I'm not sure how much influence I might have on the Council (though I am pleased that on the issue of the fowl ordinance, three members (Dick, Lusk and Robertson) have moved from opposed to supportive - a minor victory at least), so I will return to my original goal of keeping the citizens informed as best I can. As with all blogs, I welcome your input and hope to create a public forum for discussion of the issues affecting our town.
This blog is dedicated to issues facing the Signal Mountain, Tennessee community.
2 comments:
What do you see as the top issues facing the Council and our community?
Well, I think the biggest issue coming up is the budget. With the economy what it is, this year promises to be tight. I would never make a "no new taxes" pledge, because I think it is irresponsible, but I will be a very hard sell. Raising taxes in the middle of a recession is generally a bad idea. This raises the issue of commercial development about which I am very leary. Some on the Council are very anxious to expand commercial zoning on Taft Highway and even out on Shackleford Ridge Road for the potential tax revenue. There has been an offer presented to us to buy some of the town's property for commercial development also. I would prefer to utilize our existing empty storefronts before considering such moves.
I do want to look closely at the "school tax". Since we borrowed much less than we expected (due to paying down the loan with the $300,000 set aside for the High School among other things), our yearly payments are less and, especially if the annexation is successful there might be a possibility for lowering that tax that I want to pursue.
I don't wish to lower services or "balance the budget" on the backs of our employees, so I will strive to protect those services and those employees.
Obviously, the "800 lb gorilla" has been land use planning. This has been frustratingly slow. We spent a whole year reviewing the land use plan, then had a large turnover in the Planning Commission. We spent the next year working on subdivision regulations and there is still much work to be done. This was part of my frustration at being removed as mayor from the Planning Commission after all the work I had done on this issue. We need to complete that before approaching the issue of zoning.
Zoning, of course was what led to the recall. I always felt that the debate over 1/2 acre vs. 1/3 acre was a false choice. Be very clear the 1/2 acre does NOT mean 2 houses per acre and 1/3 acre does NOT mean 3 houses per acre. Actual yield is always much less and that was why the recall campaign was so fraudulent (or ignorant, hard to know which). One of my campaign goals was to bring in a nationally recognized land use planner for advice on incorporating open space zoning. We brought in Randall Arendt who pointed out how wasteful it was to base density on lot size. This promotes sprawl. My goal has been to move to density-based zoning and I will continue to push for this as the Council will have a role in zoning where we don't in subdivision regulation.
Finally, the WWTA (sewer authority) has had a political makeover which does not bode well for Signal Mountain. There seems to be no end in sight for the sewer moratorium. This is not stopping growth, merely driving growth to be septic tank based which is very bad for our environment (especially our impaired streams). The moratorium is becoming rapidly counter-productive now that proposals for developments are occurring on Shackleford Ridge which, rather than being on sewers as originally planned, are being put on septic. I find this very disappointing, though obviously I can't blame developers who have patiently waited through all the vicissitudes of the last few years.
What do you think?
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