An anonymous commenter to this blog’s previous post said “you guys are paranoid” when we reported to you on the City Manager’s plan to “put lipstick on the corpse”(Bridge-Zilla) and ram it through while making a pretense of public involvement and consensus.
Last Tuesday evening, Mayor Funkhouser held a Town Hall meeting at Avila University where several members of Friends of Red Bridge spoke about exactly how the City had hired BWR, an engineering firm, to put on a mock public-involvement exercise while remaining in total control. The firm has even conducted a survey that was carefully created to get exactly the result they wanted. (The survey results are being advertised as a consensus for a bridge over the railroad and river valley.)
That’s the background. Now, here’s the story:
Not long before the Town Hall, the Mayor was briefed by BWR on the status of the project. City Hall employees—presumably in the Public Works department—objected, saying that BWR should not speak directly to the Mayor; only City staff should do that.
Sounds pretty darned “paranoid” to Fearless Leader.
And so, too, to Councilman Sharp, who was heard to make similar comments to a number of people after the Town Hall meeting was over.
2 comments:
The City staff is the problem in this project. They are the ones fixated on building 4 lane roads all over the City. When was the last time the City proposed fixing a road without making it 4 lanes? They are going to let the bridge continue to fall apart and then one day close it so they can sit back and say "We told you so" and build Bridgezilla. City staff also has an incentive to let this project drag out becuase they can continue to pay their staff out of the budget. BWR should be able to talk to the Mayor without the bozo staff becuase then the Mayor can ask whatever questions they want without staff being able to punish BWR later.
I would agree with the comment above. I would further clarify and say that the Public Works staff wants to make all roads 4 lanes with speed limits of over 40 mph. There is staff in other departments that disagree with that approach for many reasons.
Traffic engineers have ruined this town.
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