Well, sweetie, things are plodding along here in the berg with (by the time yew git this missive) three weeks left in the mayoral campaign. This is about the time the candidates themselves see this as the home stretch, but think it’ll never end. It could be the longest three weeks of their lives. Of course, in these parts, more and more local yokels are seeing this as a replay of previous elections.
I told yew about this. This three-way race thing has people looking back at years like 1981 when George Dunleavy and Don Wrinn beat each other’s brains out in a primary that had to be redone by court order after “irregularities” were found in absentee balloting. That go-round had the second Democratic Primary done on Election Day, with the general election moved back to December.
The Repubican, Larry Minichino, won that election, basing much of his campaign on the “Save Our Shore” movement that was still the hottest political item in town. He was around for three terms before he got ousted by Democrat Sal Guerra, who eventually got ousted by Republican Clem Evangeliste. Guerra was hurt by the housing bubble that burst with a vengeance in this town – and from which it has never recovered some 30 years later. Within three years of the 1989 election that brought in Evangeliste the city was bankrupt.
Here we are some 20-something years later and the city has about the same amount of debt as it did when the state took over, but said state will issue an $8 million handout to the city as long as it can have a seat at the table of decisions. I reminded yew last week that though the administration, which hasn’t yet decided to take the money, calls the “review” board something like what it goes through now, there are those who see this a smoke screen. “Review Board” or “Oversight Board” the state is coming in to protect its assets. If it says “jump,” whoever sits in the office on the third floor will only be able to ask “how high?”
So, in many ways this is like elections of the past, which has got to scare the Dems. Sammy Bluejay sez jest that. The Demmies, both the Rossi camp and the O’Brien camp, are seeing a lot o’ anger out there and seeing as how the Dems have been in power for a quarter-century, the anger is directed at them. Needless to say with the way the country went against the power base over the last little while, there are some who think the time is ripe for a GOP upset. We shall see.
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Nelly Nuthatch, meanwhile, came in t’other afternoon to say that the campaign signs are popping up all over the the city like mushrooms after a long rain. Rossi signs have been up for quite a while cuz of the primary, and some have been modified to reflect the results of the primary. Hizzoner has changed his signs, of course, he has some rather snappy signs (attractive in their own way) for the write-in campaign.
Nelly sez that some who were involved in the Picard write-in four years ago, are wondering effen the O’Brien people have any war chest to pay for the rest of the campaign. They told Nelly that the entire cost was in six figgers last time and couldn’t have got cheaper in the intervening moons since.
Who knows? It ain’t like they’re gonna hafta pay those bills that’s fer sure.
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Iva Lootey was in at the same time and he seems to wonder what is blazes is happening with the bonding the city has put itself into and yet to be sold. As I think I told yew a while ago, the city is putting out Bond Anticipation Notes (BANs) and is already spending some o’ the kopecks they hope to accrue when the bonds are sold.
Nobody seems to know exactly what’s going on with that sale, and how well, they’re going. With the state offering to give us a check for $8 million with strings, investors can’t be breaking down the doors or the tellers’ windows to purchase these things. It’s $150 million more of debt by a city that don’t even know effen the budget it passed for July 1 was balanced or not.
Until we know the status of the bond sale, like the state’s handout offer, it’s all jest a concept that everyone is talking about. Once the money is in hand, it becomes real.
That is why the big question that is coming from some quarters is similar to the question heard during the primary concerning the Haven: The high school isn’t going to be built is it?
How would you like to be a campaigner and attempting to answer that query? It can’t be comfortable because even though you might think you’re in the know, you probably aren’t. Only the inner circle in the Actors Colony, both city-side and school-side can answer that query, and they aren’t offering any explanations.
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Getting back to the $8 million the state is offering the city. I ain’t hoid whether hizzoner will take the deal, but one wonders how in Heaven he’ll be able to refuse it. There’s only one problem that politicos around the city are talking about.
Regardless of who is on the winning side come Nov. 7, that person is stuck with the deal hizzoner agrees to, if, in fact, he agrees to take the money. The “review board” is being touted as jest another iteration of the Municipal Finance Assistance Committee (MFAC), which has been working alongside the administration for years. Still, the city can accept or reject what MFAC sez. Yew can read the above commints to understand where people are coming from regarding this.
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I made a brief mention of this last week, but I’ll tell yew a bit more. The troubles betwixt the union members in the high school and the union itself are simmering and not to far below the surface. Remember, a year or so ago, the high school members wanted to secede from the union and go their own route and were stopped by the union international.
Well, a few things regarding what is seen as a further attempt to get rid of people the school administration thinks should be gone have riled up the issue again. Much like they have at least three times past, there seems to be a concerted effort to stuff a dossier on two teachers with the express purpose of getting rid of them. The two in question had something to do with the “Save Our Shops” movement a few years ago. Since then they have been looked on with a jaundiced eye, especially by that mercurial person teachers refer to as “Dr. Death.”
And the same complaints are made against the union leadership, which in the eyes of some of the high school staff are seen as rather lukewarm in protecting these people. Those complaints have to do with the fack that the leadership has been out of the classroom for a rather long period and seem to have a cozy relationship with those with whom they are supposed to have an adversarial one. One cannot be too adversarial when one has a cushy job at the largesse of the administration.
Sooo, expeck that this think is gonna git somewhat pernted perty quickly effen things head down the path they seem to be. People who saw this before are not happy and not satisfied that they are being represented.
Cobina doesn’t have a horse in this race, by she is enjoying the sturm und drang that this seems to be causing amongst the comfortable.
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Soooooo, what is happening with the Haven? One wants to know. We’ve hoid that an announcement is gonna be made soon. Could it be that the announcement is gonna be made jest days before the voters go to the ballot box? One has seen this before. It ain’t beyond the realm of possibility.
With that bit o’ chatter, I’ll close this time till next, mitt luff und kizzez,