To the editor:
Are you better off today than you were in the years when you had a few on the city council (not a majority) that were on the conservative side? Of course you’re not better off because this sitting council (all except councilor Goughan) are spending like drunken sailors and we have a city manager who falls right in line with them and sometimes is the catalyst that spurs the council on to spend more money.
None on this council other than Mr. Goughan has ever run a business or wrote a paycheck for an employee. They all have their jobs that depend on public funds and all have Cadillac health and retirement plans that go far beyond what Social Security pays to the private sector employees. Just to add salt to the wounds, they’re able to retire at a younger age than the Social Security recipients who pay all the bills.
Did you ever imagine the day would come when these elected official would be so abusive with power to allow the city manager to set up new departments that have no place in any city government — such as the chamber of commerce and industry — just so they can drain the city coffers and create more hardship for the citizens in the private sector. What do these programs have to do with the health and well being of the citizens of this community? These are private sector institutions and should remain that way.
In the private sector, if a program does not perform well or is unaffordable you can just do away with it. When you make it a department of the city, you can never do away with it. It has to be funded from the cradle to the grave. Of course we can only blame the city council for approving this fiasco.
Now what do we do about this atrocity? Do we let “business as usual” prevail and wait until a ton of bricks fall on our heads in the form of more unneeded taxes or do we stand up and be counted and rebel against this undemocratic machine? We’ve all got to get together and petition, petition and petition to get rid of programs and departments that have no place in city government — even those that do not perform well. They can be bid out to private sector institutions that are more responsible and can do the job a lot cheaper and better to stop the bleeding.
We also have to elect citizens to the council who are of sound mind and have some common and business sense.
Also, I believe this city manager has spent too much time on empire building and has done absolutely nothing or come up with any ideas to lower government spending in this community. Local government should not go beyond its ability to sustain itself in a comfortable manner and only provide the basics of local government needs. Our citizens should not be forced into an unsustainable or unaffordable situation that only benefits a few special interests. We should learn from our neighboring cities who have cut programs, consolidated programs and gotten rid of the deadwood to offer their citizens a more affordable government to maintain or lower their present tax rates. They had the wisdom and fortitude to do due diligence and justice for their citizens.
Our council has ignored the problems and hard time the citizens of this community are facing. At the next election we will have a chance to make some constructive changes on the city council only if we band together to elect some citizens on the ballot who have the best interest of this community at heart, who are truly conservative, real dealmakers with business sense that have suffered through hardships and who have overcome them without dipping into the taxpayers’ pockets.
I want to remind all citizens of this city who want to get involved in what’s going on that all are welcome to join the Citizens for Responsible City Management organization. It will cost you nothing but your time and you will be informed about how to control your destiny as it relates to City of Caribou politics. If you don’t get involved, you have only yourself to blame and must live with the consequences. And if you’re not concerned (as the old song says) — “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” and suffer with your high taxes.
Wilfred Martin, Caribou
