BOHICA

Our betters down at City Hall are poised to rip yet another sewer line out of the Service Delivery Plan. It is notable that in order to accomplish said ripping, the Mayor and Commission must knowingly and willingly violate the both the letters and spirits of the Charter and the Service Delivery Plan – not, mind you, that doing so bothers them in the least.

As proof of this claim, consider that the item for last evening’s agenda setting session clearly states a series of “Goals for the Service Delivery Plan” (see page 7 of the PDF [page 1 of Attachment A]). Listed foremost among those goals is this little tidbit:

To comply with the Unification Charter that requires ACCUG to adopt a plan to provide water and sewer services to all residents.

Some would have us believe that merely adopting a Service Delivery Plan fulfilled the provisions of the Charter. This, of course, is sophistry of the highest order. The Service Delivery Plan should properly be viewed as the means to an end, not an end unto itself. The end in mind, obviously, is for the Unified Government “to provide water and sewer services to all residents” – you know, just like the Charter plainly says.

Unfortunately, such a condescending and dismissive attitude toward we hinterlanders became old hat long ago:

• No water lines (though they were explicitly promised and written into the Charter and though your wells now may be contaminated by runoff from the J&J Chemical Company fire)

• No sewer lines (though they were explicitly promised and written into the Charter and though the Unified Government is eager to regulate your septic tanks and charge you for the privilege)

• No trash pickup (though it was implicitly promised and though the Unified Government is eager to regulate your trash and charge you for the privilege)

• Fire Station Nos. 8 and 9 being built years after Fire Station Nos. 3 and 4 (the former two being built in peripheral areas of the county that lacked fire protection, while the latter two replaced existing in-town stations)

• Fire Station No. 6 being closed for a year and a half – and counting (and how did that one work out?)

• Enactment of the “conservation subdivision” ordinance (that slashed your property values by making your property essentially un-developable; in the several years since the ordinance was adopted, not a single such subdivision has been built, or for that matter even proposed, because the requirements are so Draconianly restrictive [and no, the Orange Twin development did not meet the requirements for a conservation subdivision])

• You pay the same millage rate as in-town neighborhoods (though the Charter plainly says that the millage rates charged in the various tax districts [of which there are five] should be based on the level of government services provided in those districts)

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