An Open Letter From Ray Walker

From Ray Walker:

"Mr. Medin, as sponsor of the trash bill, fails to understand that there are responsible people in this city who do not need to have a city council mandating a service they do not need. During the presentations to the council and during the open houses, the issue of people using the business and apartment dumpsters to dispose of their trash was brought up several, several times and even addressed by a representative of the apartment owners association. The city staff response was that they don't have the manpower to police those illegal dumping complaints. So, here goes Mr. Medin sponsoring a bill favoring that small vested interest group, and others, to appease them as well as city staff.

"Mr. Medin also appears to have sponsored the trash bill to appease that small vested interest group that wants to inflict their minority principles on the majority of people in this city who were voluntarily doing what that group wants accomplished in the first place. But this goes one step further in that the ordinance makes it convienent for that group. They want to "save the environment" but yet only if convenient. They will not use clothes lines because they are not convenient and that would help cut down on energy demands substantially. There are other substantial ways in which they show their hypocrisy with disdain for the Americas cherished life, liberty and pursuit of happiness principles and tradition.

"This contributor regrets that the City of Jefferson has fallen prey to the big government syndrome. The trash issue, the adrain (of our current and future resources) island issue, the mandatory sidewalk issue, the convention center issue, the prison site issue, the destruction of historical neighborhood with freeway access issue, the greenway issue, the pedestrian bridge across the river issue, the new bus barn issue, the new dog pound and crematorium issueand on and on and on whilst they sit back and watch the infrastructure crumble. City staff and other special interest groups are paid to monitor how much "free" other peoples' money they can get to spend on these really fluff projects that favor special interests yet pee on the infrastructure.

"The time is past due that the city council and mayor recognize that 'Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.' (Albert Einstein.)

"Get down to basics unless there's an underlying effort to build either a legacy for some or pave the way for political futures.

"We need to have common sense in our trash bill.

"Remove mandatory use of "sole authorized collector" and the mandate to pay even if you don't use to allow the people show they really are responsible. Don't make us pay for "crimes" of a very, very few that annoy very, very few.

"There are over 1,200 households with incomes that could have possibly qualified for the indigent trash subsidy yet it would have been offered only to home-owners NOT renters because city staff somehow assumes that all renters receive some sort of government subsidy. City staff also informed the mayor and city council of an interesting definition of "household" where the number of incomes in a residence will determine the number of households are present. Make sense? Revising ordinance 14487 does make sense. Is that what city council and the mayor will attempt at HyVee this Saturday? Public is invited! Let us observe for ourselves rather than rely on second hand reports."