An Apology and a Commendation

By John Derby
November 17, 2011

We received some backlash from readers over our editorial endorsements. Some of our readers accused us of being unusually harsh on the mayor and some other candidates running for office.

It is true that we felt strongly the city could not stand another two years of the same-o, same-o. We feel this next year or two will be even harder on the city and drastic actions need to be started right now or there will be major consequences.

Apparently the voters agreed with us and voted for the same four candidates whom we endorsed.

This does not excuse us from showing any lack of respect toward Mayor Bill Spriggs, and Councilmembers Michelle Gabriault-Acosta, Bill Blake and John Carlisle, who have voluntarily served the city and have devoted countless hours and effort with almost no pay.

To all candidates who ran for office and did not get elected, we apologize for any harshness. At the same time, we commend you for running for office because without people like you Democracy fails.

We actually endorsed Bill Spriggs when he ran for his first term as mayor in 2009 and we agreed with the part of his campaign statement when he said there needs to be “structural changes” in the city government if it is to survive.

Taking that statement even further, there needs to be “structural changes” in the state, county and federal government if this country is to avoid what has happened in Greece and Italy.

Governments which consistently live over and above their means can not survive. The interest on the debt will eventually drown that government. 

One of the big failures of government has been to not budget for the true long term cost of the benefits being handed out. In some cases, in our local government, we have one person working on the job and three to four people receiving high benefits for having worked at that job in the past. 

Those benefits can go on for years and continue to drain budgets. It seems only reasonable as people live longer that their retirement benefits should start later in life. 

The other structural differences needed in government is to see the true function of government and to realize that it can not be all things to all people. Government must focus on maintaining public safety.

Any other issue has be to be secondary. 

We are hoping that the people we have endorsed and who have been elected to serve, will take a proactive stance in solving the problems of the city, and those we did not endorse will not be too critical of us for having made our endorsements public.