Well---- it may be a "moment of truth." At the March 19 Council meeting, the issue of giving pharmaceutical giant Sanofil-Aventis a $360,000 construction tax rebate is on the agenda.
This "lame duck" Council has three options: Vote "yes;" vote "no," or vote to continue, perhaps until the new council members take their seat in June.
It should be an interesting vote. Stay tuned.
You can read the Explorer article here.
http://www.explorernews.com/article/show/21677
NOTE: The council voted 7-0 to continue until 2nd meeting in June. Smart move!
6 comments:
It is quite questionable why Sanofi-Aventis is building such an environmentally-sensitive project directly across the street from the crematorium. Now there's a contrast!! One development is super clean and the other one is a source of deadly pollution.
Taxpayers know that every "incentive", every "giveaway" is compensated for out of their pockets by a new fee or a new tax.
Sanofi-Aventis makes a fortune on pharmaceuticals that break the budget for many seniors and now they need a handout???
Council Member Paula Abbott suggested the perfect solution: have a Town policy BEFORE any such incentive is considered! We wonder why staff is so recalcitrant to propose such a policy.
Did anyone notice how, as usual, when Parish was speaking FOR the Sanofi rebate, the Mayor did not interrupt him, but when Paula spoke out AGAINST it, Loomis tried to stop her before she had finished. He always tries to squelch the opinions of those who disagree with him. But Paula stood strong and continued until she was done.
Even Gillaspie and Dankwerth switched sides last night and joined Paula and KC. Then even Kunisch appeared to be having second thoughts. The Mayor was outnumbered!
When the new council takes office in June, Loomis will find himself outnumbered on many more occasions and he will become politically impotent. He's probably already packing his bags for Phoenix!
Cowgirl,
Yes I noticed it, plenty of times.
Also telling, well at least to me, was the questions that Paula was asking or her comments would lead council members who are fair minded to come to the same conclusion on their own, she provided reasons why this deal was not a good one.
Terry Parish on the other hand just did not seem to get it.
Also I think Helen Dankweth's
dismay at not being told the whole story by town staff was one of the highlight's of the meeting.
Makes me wonder how many other decisions were made by council based on incomplete info.
I am glad that Helen spoke out but her questioning really should have been directed at the town staff, rather then the Sanovi-Aventis rep.
I hope others noticed this and maybe the council should be demanding some type of accountability from the town manager.
But then again I am disappointed that they did not vote on this issue last night, some of us are
waiting to see if Gillaspie would have voted for the "gift" or would he have been strong enough to stand up to the mayor.
Now we will never know.
Well, well, well, so now certain members of the Town Council are finally realizing that they haven't been told the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, but, now that Loomis's ship is sinking, voila, they're finally getting it. Many of us have tried, by speaking before Council, by writing letters to editors, by writing in this blog, yes, many of us have tried to enlighten the citizens of this community that a bad smell was emanating from our rotton leadership. From the abuse of this Town's own regulations, interpretations, and procedural malevolance, to the indignities foisted upon us by those who would be kings, finally, the chickens have come home to roost. To Bill and Salette we congratulate you,
to the status quo, GOODBYE!
If you look at the other article on the street maintenence, you will find this:
"Then, in September 2006, the current public works chief, Town Engineer Craig Civalier, informed Verde Catalina residents that 'the Town cannot accept these streets.'
"The letter told residents that town 'does not have sufficient funds to maintain the streets to the same level the area residents have been used to receiving.'"
Those funds come from the construction sales tax. In this current article, we find that the Town wants to rebate $360,000.00 of this sales tax to the third largest pharmeceutical company in the world.
Councilmember Paula Abbott has repeatedly questioned what road projects would not be funded as a result of the subsidy to the French company. The staff assured her repeatedly that no projects would go unfunded.
And yet, here is evidence that a road project that was promised by the Mayor to constituents was going unfunded.
What is going on here?
OV Mom--- Might it be that the "left hand" has no clue what the "right hand" says & does?
If the mayor can evidently make commitments without the council knowing, and if, by chance, the former Economic Dev. Administrator might have made a commitment to a pharmaceutical giant, what makes you think the OV government doesn't need new leadership?
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