T or C city commissioners continue to perpetuate ‘big lie’ about police department’s gross receipts tax

Abiding in the midst of ignorance, thinking themselves wise and learned, fools go aimlessly hither and thither, like blind led by the blind.— Katha Upanishad^[4]

Saying the same thing over and over again does not make it true, but city commissioners are using that tactic to try to persuade their constituents that the money they have decided to spend on a new police building can’t be used for anything else.

For the fourth city commission meeting in a row, Mayor Amanda Forrister and City Commissioner Shelly Harrelson have asserted that claim. City Commissioner Destiny Mitchell joined them at the Dec. 13 meeting.

Mitchell said the commissioners have been taking a lot of flak from people who want the money to be spent on the disastrous state of the water system.

Without giving evidence or explaining herself, Mitchell claimed, “We can’t use PD money for anything else but the armory building.”

Harrelson falsely claimed that similar to school funding earmarked for certain uses, “that funding goes back to the state” if it isn’t used.

Forrister claimed yet again that the money can’t be used for water projects.

Later in the same meeting the city commission passed a disaster declaration due to waterline breaks and pump failure at the city’s Grand Central water terminal, the Cook Street Station. This was an “amended” disaster declaration that was first passed last month.

I sent an email to the city commissioners and City Manager Angela Gonzales asking them to please explain why the .25 percent gross receipts tax designated for “public safety” cannot be used for water projects. No response, as usual.

In the email I repeated what I have said at the mic at two prior meetings during public comment. The state legislature passed a bill in 2019 that became state law 7-19D-9. It states local gross receipts taxes previously earmarked for a specific purpose can be changed to other uses. All the city commission would have to do is pass an ordinance. The city commission passes ordinances at nearly every meeting. This is not a big deal.

I also reminded the city commissioners and city manager that their financial consultant on the police building’s financing, Chris Muirhead of Modrall Sperling, confirmed what I said at the mic at the November meeting, agreeing that the legislature had changed the local GRT law in 2019 and that the change of use has to be done by ordinance.

In the email I asked why City Attorney Jay Rubin and City Manager Angela Gonzales were not correcting the misinformation the city commissioners keep asserting.

I’ll let you know if they answer, but I doubt they will.

None of the city commissioners have ever responded to my numerous emails over the last four and a half years. The only press they talk to is the Sentinel, owned by Frances Luna, who flouted her conflict of interest as a journalist and elected officials for years. She was a city commissioner for two years a county commissioner for eight years and again a city commissioner for two years until 2021. Luna has long demonstrated her indifference to journalistic ethics that demand the press hold the government accountable with evidence and facts. One cannot be the government and a journalist. She too is spreading the lie that the police department GRT cannot be used for anything else, asserting it without citations in her Nov. 24 column.

Harrelson, during at least three city meetings, praised the Sentinel for writing “positive” articles about the community and chided local “bloggers” for not doing the same, pointedly looking at me, also claiming it’s “more fun to write negative stories,” implying journalism is entertainment and public relations. About a year ago she said she had been trying to teach students at local schools the difference between fact and opinion, but they still couldn’t get it after two weeks. She then praised the Sentinel for publishing “truth.”

Mitchell also teaches—earth science—at local public schools. Forrister, at one time, taught there too and is now a soccer coach.

I wonder if they allow students to make unsubstantiated claims instead of citing to reliable sources in their school work. They certainly don’t hold themselves to that standard during city commission meetings.

I suspect that the city commission is clinging to the notion that the police department’s .25 percent GRT can’t be used for anything but the police building because correcting themselves, holding themselves accountable would confirm the lack of homework  and due diligence the city commission brings to the job.

Ron Fenn, a local activist long scapegoated by various city commissioners and regularly reviled by Luna in the Sentinel, has circulated a petition to put the question to a vote, specifically: whether to finance the renovation of the old armory building into a police station by selling $4.5 million in revenue bonds on the public market.

The city passed an ordinance at the November meeting authorizing such a financing scheme, the debt to be paid back using the police department’s .25 percent GRT, which generates about $400,000 a year.

Fenn said the deadline for turning the petition in is Dec. 18, but he already has more than the 209 required electors’ signatures to get the question on the ballot.

A successful petition acts as a stay on the police building financing scheme.

Obviously the city commissioners are continuing to perpetuate the lie about their inability to use the police department .25 percent GRT in order to influence the likely special election on the question.

The city commission is supposed to refrain from telling constituents how to vote on ballot questions, but the lie is doing the opposite. They are allowed to “educate” and “inform” the public on ballot questions, but instead are resorting to misinformation and demagoguery.

The big question the city commission has yet to answer or even examine is whether the city can afford to pay for the police building while it has ongoing emergency water and wastewater repairs as well as $31 million in capital projects it has on the books for this fiscal year.

The city didn’t plan for this $4.5 million expenditure. It was not put in this year’s budget. And unlike other big capital projects, the city is not leveraging the GRT by having it match state or federal grants. The total debt will be borne by the local tax, which will be much more than $4.5 million when interest is added.

This is not a matter of whether one is for or against local law enforcement. It is not “negative” for the press and the people to ask if the city (which is owned and funded by the people) can afford a new police building while water and wastewater problems are at crises levels. These are neutral and essential questions the city commission refuses to answer.