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Today's Letters: Politicians, ever heard of efficiency?

By LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published April 27, 2007

Re: Cuts could include police, fire story, April 25

Instead of looking for efficiency (that means doing it better and faster at a lower cost), the Tarpon Springs politicians attempt to frighten the taxpayers with cuts in police and fire. Gosh, maybe the police and fire could be more efficient?

How about raising local fees for people who are using government services and not paying the full costs, such as for recreational activities? How about scaling back some of these activities?

Have you ever heard a public official call for doing more with less or even doing the same with less? Never!

What do they think private industry has been doing for the last 10 years? Surprise, surprise - they have become more efficient! The politicians must think the layoffs were for fun.

When public officials make these absurd statements, they are really saying their city operation is 100 percent efficient. Anybody who believes this believes in the tooth fairy.

I dare say that most public officials wouldn't last a year in the real competitive business world.

I hope the Legislature makes some major reductions and forces the local governments to become more efficient, because they just don't get it!

Jim Harpham, Palm Harbor

Tarpon leaders' war on taxpayers 

Re: Cuts could include police, fire

The war declared on the taxpayers of Tarpon Springs by the city leaders continues unabated. Our city manager has come out with a list of service cuts she would like to see imposed on the people of Tarpon Springs to punish them for having the effrontery to question the wisdom of the unfettered tax spending of the past several years.

And our local elected officials' only response to this attack is a lame lament about the city staff's too-quick reaction to legislation which is yet to be finalized.

The city manager's manifesto, posted on the city's Web site using city resources, was clearly an attempt to blackmail city residents into petitioning their elected representatives to vote against needed reform. A list of dire outcomes - cuts chosen by the city manager - is presented as if there were no alternatives and with no justification of why these specific cuts are the correct ones.

This egregious insult to the intelligence of the people of Tarpon Springs should not be tolerated. It is wrong because it presents the issue in a dishonest manner, and because it keeps us from having a reasoned discussion about the financial management of the city.

The truth of the matter is that our city leaders have been the beneficiary of inflated tax revenues for several years now, and they have very few examples of complementary improvements in the quality of city life to show for this. Like a well-run business, we need to have a discussion on how we can do more with less given the change in our circumstances.

Instead, we are treated to inflammatory, misleading diatribes designed to promote the narrow self-interest of a privileged few, all at the taxpayers' expense.

How sad that we do not have even a single elected official who will stand up to this outrageous behavior of staffers who are supposed to be operating in the best interest of all the people of Tarpon Springs.

Jean Jester, Tarpon Springs

Fix preserve with Spratt resignation 

Re: Preserve is a misleading name for land guest column by County Administrator Steve Spratt, April 23

Does Steve Spratt want to solve the Brooker Creek Preserve problem? Then he should resign now! Sounds creative to me! Take Pinellas County Utilities director Pick Talley with you!

Throughout his column Spratt talks about how citizens just don't understand what was promised in the past by Utilities and the County Commission. Were these promises made behind closed doors? Any agreement made in 2003 should have been completed within that year. Today is 2007, four years later. Maybe the commission needs to resign also?

At the end of his column, Spratt talks about how the county is buying another 416 acres of green space, with 200 of those acres to be merged into the Brooker Creek Preserve. Well, why hasn't he considered using some of the 216 acres that won't be put in the preserve for ballfields?

A. Corbo, Palm Harbor

Your voice counts

You may submit a letter to the editor for possible publication through our Web site at www.tampabay.com/letters, or by faxing it to (727) 445-4119, or by mailing it to Letters, 710 Court St., Clearwater, FL 33756. You must include your name, address and phone number. Letters may be edited for clarity, taste and length.

[Last modified April 26, 2007, 23:22:27]