As many of you might or might not know May is coming up and what happens in May, yes, school lets out, yes summer begins and yes...there are local elections. And small town politics is in the air....the stench of death surrounds me. I will not use any of the towns names, cause well, I’m not an ass-hole like that.
First off, here in my hometown, cause well i like picking apart the political atmosphere here in town. The city council (elected officials) has done...JACK SHIT the past few years and for the most part has been the topic of many a debate. First off they didn't assign the local boy to police chief (appointed official) a big mistake that they, after seeing the public pissed and threatening to vote them out reversed. The city manager (appointed official) has been the topic of some rather interesting items. This guy and the fire marshal go at each other any time they can, constantly arguing and bitching at one another…it’s gotten old. he was suppose to be evaluated in December but what's this? he was not...until yesterday, a few weeks before the elections. Cause after all the city council wants to look like they have been working. We recently had a neighbor that wanted to put up a fence that was not up to city code, so he took it up with the city council…..it took three tires because they did not have a quorum. Oh, they must have forgotten there was a meeting those days, after all what do they care, they are only elected officials. So on the third try this guy gets a variance for his fence. I shit you not, the city council has not upheld it’s own codes and laws like it is suppose to. But of course this guy’s wife is on the school board, (elected official) and she turned in a letter from the school that is on my block, and it tells the council that they see no danger of putting up this fence that blocks the view of on coming traffic. A School Board member asked the school to write a letter saying that it’s ok for her to have her fence. Can you say conflict of interest? I figured that the board saw this and disregarded it, but naw, fuck it, we are not here to secure the safety of the public. They only had this to say:
Board: if this fence proves to be unsafe we’ll ask to knock it down.
My Dad: as in your going to wait till there’s an accident and someone dies correct?
*no response*
This is done every fucking election year...everywhere. examples? Sure why not;
moving on....in a town I lived in up north, the county commissioner (elected official) paved DIRT roads three weeks before election. yes, i'm that country, we did literally have dirt roads, but yay, the commissioner paved them, and got elected. but of course Zavala county has had a history of political recklessness. this is the same county where the Raza Unida political party started, over a cheerleading incident in Crystal City. (what can I say, small town politics started a communism county) and in my old town, the school board president (elected official) wanted to get a cousin hired at the school, where my dad was the superintendent. this person wasn't a certified teacher, has had no schooling, and is in no way going to get hired there. so what does the board president do? turns the board against the superintendent. The same man that took the job when the school was $1.2 million in debt and turned it into a $750,000 surplus. and that's after buying new equipment for all school athletics, buses and more computers and academic tools. there's no way in hell your going to touch a guy that does this kind of thing, and in fact lawyers stepped in and threatened wrongful termination. The board had no reason to fire my dad, so the had to buy the contract out. Way to use the surplus guys, and since then, the school is back to it’s old habbit of wallowing in it’s own shit because it is in debt. Bravo board members, you’ve fucked up any chance of educating your kids in a modern fashion. Back to old computers, old buses, and old materials.
South of me is another town I used to live in, where the power struggle between the board and the superintendent is non-existent. Why? Do they hold their meetings in an appropriate manner? Nope. They have intentionally hired a superintendent that knows nothing about school finance, school programs, and doesn’t know how to set up a budget. The school board does all that, they want to hire/fire whom they please, sign all the forms, and run the school completely into the toilet. Talk about puppet work, this town is the prime example of it.
And finally west of me is another small town I’ve lived in. (I went to 7 schools in 5 towns before I graduated high school). This town out west had a bond issue that my dad made, passed and voted for. This bond issue was to build a new high school, that was 25 years old. Let’s go back into time, back to the 70’s. This is the same town where a puppet mayor, city council, school board, and county commissioner once were controlled by one man, that I have mentioned before put a US president into office. This man, was paid X amount of dollars from a company so that they could win a bid on the new school projects. So the project was given to this company, that doesn’t know shit about shit when it comes to building a school. Once it was built, the local schools, colleges, and universities visited this school frequently….it taught the kids how NOT to build a public facility. It’s an architecting disaster, so hideous, it’s become a marvel in itself. One of those students that visited was my dad. Ok, let’s move on to the early 90’s, the superintendent of schools (my dad, he’s the reason I moved so much) gets a bond issue passed with the help of school board members. The school is just now being built….10 years later. Why? Because this town is horrible when it comes to paying it’s taxes. No one pays them, and now you passed a bond issue (bond = fancy word for tax) that is asking for more money? The people objected and delayed the process. To top it off, my dad left, disgusted with the protests, and the following person put the school in debt. So you have a bond issue that got passed through the people. Then they turn around and bitch about it and delay it? What’s the affect…they paid into this bond 10 years and they could have had something to show for it but instead have to wait until next year. I’m not done with this town, now another superintendent has __________. Hell I don’t know what to put in the blank. The school is fucked up man. This guy did a real good job, got them out of debt and started work on this new school. The newspaper tells the public, this guy isn’t going to retire after all, he’s going to another city. That’s cool, and I went to a baseball game with my dad in this town. And sure enough, the people of this town remember my dad, and cheerfully tell him, “the superintendent is gone, we’re getting rid of him!”
the paper said he was going to retire, but then he decided no. right? The newspaper is full of shit. We saw right through it. The board put pressure on this poor guy, telling him, we’re going to fire you, we’ll make it public, and we’ll embarrass you, unless you do this for us, then we’ll say you just retired and send you on your way. The guy must have agreed with it, then got a new job, then told the board, go fuck yourself, I’m out of here, and then did not do what they asked of him. Bravo man, that’s the way you stick it to those bastards. thank god for due process. during the pre-game announcements, the announcer asked the town to cheer and applaud the board members in attendence, and they asked the board to stand and be recognized. what the hell for? because they are the saviours of this town, they do alot for this town, and they care about the kids? that's according to the blind public that doesn't get to see the inner working of small town politics. you have to play these games in politics, you have to learn them and play them very well if you want to do good for the public. otherwise, your just a corrupted man in a guise of an office, that is no better then an actor playing a role.
so if you all happen to have an election pertaining to even the smallest office, please choose wisely. and please vote too! yes your not voting for the freaking president, but what these people do and what actions they may take affect you alot more then what some guy in your nations capital can ever do.
