This Saturday Bossier City Voters will go to the polls to answer a very simple yes or no question. A lot of those voters are upset with the mayor and council for what they percieve to be mismanagement. Some people are questioning why the current 6% rate was rolled back to 4.86% when the city was facing shortfalls and the nation was in a recession.Some people think that the facts were hidden from the public in order to have a smooth election cycle last year. Had this been foreseen, there certainly would have been a plethora of challengers; as it was, only the at-large incumbents were challenged. They both won. All of the other incumbents had no challengers.
Of course, if people had been paying attention, they would have known what the situation was. The problem was that no one attended council meetings unless they had a specific issue to address. No one kept up with what the council was doing.
In addition to this, the Tea Party movement is making waves all over the country and their target is government spending of any kind. A number of people are saying that they will not vote for the renewal in order to send a message to the mayor and council.
The problem is, they are not going to be sending the message they intend.
What they want to tell the elected officials is ‘We believe that you have not managed our money very well and we are very unhappy about it.’ That’s the message they intend to send.
The inconvenient truth for voters is that the message they will actually send is ‘fire 30 more policemen and 30 more firemen, we want a tax cut’.
The other message you are sending is to the policemen and firemen themselves, and that message is ‘take a hike’, we don’t need your services any longer. Morale is already very low, and this would be devastating.
I truly don’t think that people really want that outcome, but they must understand that if this dedicated tax is not passed, the cuts will be made in the public safety sector because that is where the revenue goes. This will come on top of a 13% cut already made this year.
That simple yes or no question is whether or not you want to maintain the police and fire departments at their already reduced levels?
Yes or no?
It disgusts me that we even have to make this choice. For our own safety, we should vote for the tax increase.
ReplyDeleteWhile we vote to keep police and fire, we need to remember in future elections that our Mayor and City Councilmen put us in this position, and we need to vote them out.
Please remember that this is NOT a tax increase, it's a renewal. You are already paying it. It will cost you only pennies per month to help keep our city safe. I've done the math on our home and it will cost us a whopping $89/year. That's $7.41/month....a fast food meal.
ReplyDeleteI can tell you first-hand how very important it is that this renewal passes. My husband was one of those officers who would have lost his job, his livelyhood, half of our income if this renewal doesn't pass. He as since left the police department because we could not afford for him to continue working for a city that cannot promise to protect him as he has protected our city. With the recent cuts in pay and insurance hikes we could not afford for him to stay financially. He left the job he was born to do, in order to help save a job for some other young family. However, not a day goes by that he doesn't think of or speak of the great mentors and friends he left behind.
If 30 more police officers and firemen are forced to leave these departments, the effects will be nothing short of devistating. They are already dangerously short-handed on the front lines of these departments. While we may have a fantastic new police chief, his hands have been tied. If the staff is cut further, officers and firemen will die. Even worse, citizens will suffer needlessly. What happens when you need a police or fireman and they are too busy to respond? It takes only minutes for a loved one to suffer life altering injuries in the absence of care. I understand our citizens anger with the mayor and city council. Their irresponsibility is unforgivable, but by voting "no", you punish the wrong people. You punish the young father supporting a young family. You punish your neighbor by preventing the delivery of care, rescue, and safety. Please vote "yes" on May 1st, then vote "no" when the men who caused this problem are fighting for their own jobs.
Carrie, you are a wonderful person. Thank you so much for your support for BCPD and BCFD. Your husband is a very well liked man, and I wish he never left our department (but I totally understand his reason for leaving). God bless y'all.
ReplyDeleteyours truly,
an anonymous BCPD officer
(God forbid I get caught appreciating someone who publicly stands up against our moron of a mayor, for MY job would then be in jeopardy).
Sometimes regardless of what we would like, cuts have to be made to prevent running up a huge deficit like our national government has done to our country. I don't know statistically how we fare per capita to other cities on the fireman/population percentages. I do know our police and fire do an excellent job protecting our city and its one of the things that makes Bossier Parish a great community overall. I will be voting "YES" as I believe safety of the community should come first in our city. If cuts are to be made I would rather see them somewhere else, and I don't think the fire department should be punished for the mismanagement of our local government. And we all have to take responsiblity to see the right people are in office through these tough economic times.
ReplyDeleteIm voting YES to keep Bossier City one of the safest communities if not the safest in Louisiana.
As an aside, when the explosion happened yesterday in Bossier with the Oil rig, the response time was overwhelming and the professionalism of the fire department was unsurpassed. You get what you pay for!
I don't believe that layoffs are in the works. I hear that it is going to be pay cuts. If they lay off 30 more fire and police, those departments will not be able to function, it will be chaos at city hall.
ReplyDeleteReplace the mayor and city council ASAP. that is the only way Bossier will survive.
Last post was right, you get what you pay for. lay offs or pay cuts, it does not matter the good ones will end up leaving.
What the hell, old Lo got his $800,000.00 home for half price. All it cost a huge sum of city money (I hear at the tune of up to $21,000,000.00) to pay for a parking garage for the Louisiana Boardwalk.
ReplyDeleteI think if there are pay cuts, each police officer and firefighter should be given a section of the parking garage to put a roof over their families' heads. After all their salaries went to pay for it.
I know many people disagree with me on this but here goes. Our elected officials have not managed our money well. We should not be in this situation at all. If in fact we do have to many police and fire employees that is the Mayor's fault. He has to approve each hire and promotion within the department. If we didn't have the money to keep these people then they never should have been hired. The sewage rates are going to go up, water has increased through the years. Bossier City is a very expensive place to live and I for one am not that impressed with it. I hate to see anyone lose their jobs, I do but I was against the bail outs by the federal goverment and I am against the Bossier City bail out by the local tax payers.
ReplyDeleteAnon 10:41,
ReplyDeleteIf Bossier City has too many police officers, then why was there such a huge push, including a write up in the Shreveport Times last fall almost the day after announcing the first round of lay-offs, asking people to join the reserves?
It seems to me that old Lo knows he'll be cut short in an emergency, so he thinks he'll have his ass covered if and emergency happens.
Old Lo, being a retired Air Force colonel probably thinks the reserves are like the military reserves, but the police reserve is under no contractual agreement to show up when called. It's strictly voluntary, and they can refuse to come in. And if this happens, then what?
Something to ponder.