In 447 BC, when the Parthenon was built, they knew the value of fiduciary transparency in government. Athena's dress was made of gold, in sections, so they could be regularly weighed and recorded, since it was part of the city's treasury that was kept in the public's eye.
The great artist Diego Velazquez painted royalty as they were, often blank-eyed and taken up with amusing themselves with court jesters instead of serious matters of state. There are Velazquez-like parallels with the supposedly democratic T or C city commission.
Another four years of 'on-call' contracts that short-circuit city commission and public oversight of capital projects. Department heads have carte blanche to hire architects and engineers behind closed doors.
The city commission adheres to its practice of not considering criticism or learning from it, even when a referendum checks their power. More toxic positivity will be imposed and naysayers and truth-sayers will continue to be scapegoated and castigated.
For the second time the people of Truth or Consequences have voted down this financial scheme.
The city's budget for the next fiscal year is being drafted. The people may want to push back on how it's been handled in the past. Hiring outside contractors indicates a lack of in-house competence and is expensive. Is the public paying more than it should for its local government?
A leadership vacuum at the top trickles down to the people having to pay repeatedly for emergency and then long-term repairs.
The state was very good to the city this legislative session, obviously recognizing its waterline crisis.
A great exchange occurred among residents, Spaceport America staff and the company working on its master plan.
Solid waste rates are wildly unfair. It will take years to make them equitable.
I submitted an IPRA for the engineering document that relates to the city's legislative request last year and this year. Finally, I received a relevant document this year; only three pages long, but enlightening.
“You can fool all of the people some of time; you can fool some of the people all of the time, but you can't fool all the people all the time.” Attributed to Abraham Lincoln in The New York Times, August 27, 1887.