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July 26, 2007

From Each According To His Ability To Pay Taxes, To Each According To His Ability To Vote

Here at the World Headquarters of Ron Littlefield: Worst. Mayor. Ever. we recently received the July 2007 edition of Common Ground, "a newsletter from the Department of Neighborhood Services and Community Development."

The exact purpose of this eight-page, full-color, glossy publication is a little murky. One grammatically challenged headline reads, "North River Civic Center Host Volunteer Reception." I need to know this, why? I mean, I'm happy for them, to the degree that I can manage to care at all, but that bit of news is only slightly less useless than the story titled, "Mayor Littlefield Honors Local Tax Preparation Volunteers." Sure, It's nice that folks volunteered their time to help people with their tax return, but this is not the kind of information I really need from my local government. Especially, when I'm paying for the writers, production, printing and postal costs.

But then, as with most things Littlefieldian, you don't have to look far, to figure out the real purpose of this mailing. In fact, it was on page 2 under the heading "A Letter From the Administrator." Now, this is the second post that I've given Beverly Johnson a hard time, and for that, I'm sorta sorry. It's not that she isn't a nice person, it's just that she'd be so much more effective as the Administrator of Neighborhood Services if she were say, a librarian or a shop clerk.

Check it out: 'We are pleased to begin mail distribution of our Common Ground newsletter to every registered voter household in the city." In the next freaking sentence, she says that the newsletter has information that will "benefit all of our citizens." WTF?

If it would benefit all the citizens, then mail it to all the citizens. But it's so obvious that Ron Littlefield's crew is using Common Ground as a re-election brochure by sending it only to those who can vote for them. Clearly, Beverly unwittingly spilled the beans, likely having heard someone in a meeting mention their voter-targetting tactic, but forgetting to use the word 'secret'.

What's most amazing (beyond the political hackery) is that some moron tagged the publication with the phrase "Building Better Neighborhoods...Block By Block." This wouldn't be so insulting, or ludicrous, if it weren't for the virtual avalanche of e-mail I've been getting about the precipitous drop-off in the quality of public service that our neighborhoods are experiencing since Littlefield took over.

I cannot believe the amount of mail--especially from St. Elmo, North Chattanooga, Highland Park, MLK and Brainerd areas--where citizens are really steamed that trash and brush are not being picked up, street drains are clogged with debris, 311 calls get no response at all and on and on.

In the opinion of this citizen, this will be Ron's undoing. Vanity/legacy projects that waste hundreds of thousands of public dollars but accomplish little are one thing, but people get ticked when it takes weeks to get a Trash Flash pickup in front of their house. Not to mention the recycling fiasco (oops, just did).

In his "A Letter From the Mayor" section Ron, syntax be damned, says that he has "always held a soft spot in my heart for our neighborhoods." He has a funny way of showing it. He must have a soft spot in his head, if he thinks he can just talk about neighborhoods while the delivery of public works services continues to decline. This is one instance where empty rhetoric will not fool most of the people most of the time. You can say that you've made a commitment to neighborhoods (a statement that the MLK district finds laughable) and that you don't take that lightly, (which he claims in the letter), but when you don't follow through on promises to neighborhoods and you also don't even maintain the level of service of your predecessors, you'll be found out.

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July 13, 2007

Tale of the Tape(d Transcript)

From the 7-12-07 Times Free Press story about Ward Crutchfield's decision to stop lying, which our legal system calls 'change of plea':

"Defense attorneys have been trying to exclude a transcript of a recorded telephone conversation from March 2005 in which Sen. Crutchfield and Mr. [Can't Get No] Love discuss local politics, including the then mayoral race."

I'm telling you, you overhear something at City Hall and you can take that sh*t to the bank: know what I'm sayin?

Insiders from the Littlefield campaign have come out of the woodwork lately with all kinds of accusations, all of which I'd love to share, but so far I don't have the kind of confirmation that I'm comfortable with. Which may seem ridiculous from a blog like this one, but at my end I know what I write is solid based on my relationship with my sources. These new relationships don't meet that baseline. Yet. I mean, come on, these people worked for Ron Littlefield, a man known far and wide as the Worst Mayor Ever. Clearly, they've had some judgement issues! But I believe that people can grow and recognize their mistakes, otherwise I'd have no hope at all for a new mayor in Spring of '09.

Nevertheless, these former Littlefielders all say that Ward Crutchfield, now guilty of Federal crimes, was in constant, daily contact with Ron Littlefield and his campaign, as was convicted felon William Cotton. I don't think that's the sewage from Moccasin Bend that I'm smelling, but it does smell fishy.

I've got questions about Ward's plea, the most important one is: since he changed his plea to guilty (TM Morrissey), there'll be no trial. Since there'll be no trial, will we ever see this transcript that Sher and Lazenby refer to in their story? Please let that be entered into the public record. I think a whole lot of questions might be answered when that happens.

Does anyone know if Federal evidence becomes public after a plea, or has Cheney put all that into the 'man-size' safe in his office? [Sorry, corrupt politicians at every level just have me sick to my stomach today.]

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July 06, 2007

Money For Nothing (and your Snark for free)

God love John Wilson and his love child The Chattanoogan.com. Griscom hates it and has tried his best to get a piece of online Chattanooga's attention, but John and his ability to post news fast and, more importantly, throw up weird info that wouldn't work in a newspaper's format, has made him the King of the Net here in River City. Oh, the fact that it's free doesn't hurt either. ahem.

Of course, my rapture comes from the fact that Chattanoogans are pouring over his listing of the City of Chattanooga's salary structure. We all know it's public info and when you work at City Hall, you know that stuff could get plastered in the media, but it generally doesn't. Oh, the Mayor and his aides have to deal with it around swearing in time, but since they're making the big bucks anyway--too bad for them.

But this listing is sweet. Chattanoogans need to see this stuff--it's not secret, there's just never been anyone who'd put it out there like this. Rock on, John.

Here are some of the highlights from the list, with a little commentary from Yours Truly.

Ron Littlefield mayor $137,488 [Who would have thought you could do so much damage to a city's reputation and progress for less than 140K. Not bad for a C student. There's a lesson here kids. Don't do your homework, just network.]

Dan Johnson mayor's chief of staff $117,488 [That's Assistant TO the Regional Manager, my friend. Chief of Staff my ass. He's not even located in the same office as the Mayor. Ron, could you at least try to put on a show and pretend he's your #2 by putting his office in the Mayoral suite? We should have just put all the employees Ron had to hire to fulfill his campaign's back-room deals on one floor together. Or two. On the other hand, at 117K a year, I'm guessing he's dug himself out of bankruptcy.]

Beverly Johnson neighborhood services director $106,242
Steve Leach public works administrator $106,242 [$212,484 for the two of them?!? Appalling. One is virtually useless, the other a complete sycophant. I'll let you guess which is which. Actually, don't bother-they're both useless.]

Randy Burns management analyst $75,224 [Best bargain in the building. A genuine civil servant.]

Larry Zehnder parks and recreation director $103,746 [Probably worth that money.]

Missy Crutchfield education arts and culture administrator $98,470 [Does she still get that in singles and fives?]

Anita Ebersole deputy to the mayor $90,176 [Never in the history of campaign hangers-on has a campaign worker landed a better gig. Well played lady. Second place in this category used to go to MichMich. Hee! MichMich! Not on the list!]

Sandra Coulter manager civic facilities $56,656 [That last name can't help come promotion time. Kidding!]

Darde Long zoo supervisor $53,848 [Snake Lady! You go girl! I'd bring the snake with me for my annual review if I were you.]

Richard Beeland director of communications $50,485 [Dude! You got hosed! MichMich was bringing down like 20 Grand more than that!]

Hey! They forgot Rocky Raccoon! I believe the amount there is $100K.

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