Now the mayor wants to bring in a specialist to teach everyone how to get along and play nice so more business can get done. Isn't that his job ? Is he footing the bill for this specialist ? He is the one that lets all this stuff go on. Somebody points out the ordinances to prove they are correct in their actions and are ridiculed for wasting time and accused of not doing anything for their constituents. So how long can you ride your past accomplishments, Mr. Amato ? Does that give you the right to act unprofessionally and childish at a meeting ? There's a slight double standard here, boys ! When someone else brings up issues, it is called whining and petty complaining. When you boys retaliate by wasting 2/3 of a meeting personally attacking that individual, who is most likely calling it like it is, that's allowed to take place by the mayor who runs the meeting. Really ? There is a difference between getting the job done and getting the job done right. We don't need a specialist to tell us that. I'll come and talk to them for free if you like.

The Mayor shares a good portion of the blame. He is in charge of keeping order, and enforcing Robert's Rules. Sadly however, the inmates run the asylum, and if Hugh Lofting penned a biography of Mayor Ron Counts, he would call it, "Dr. Do-Nothing's Circus". It has become clear over the last 3 years that Ron Counts cares about being Mayor, to be Mayor, rather than actually attempt to restore some semblance of accountability to the corruption that occurs within City Hall, or even to restore some semblance of fiscal sanity to the way the City operates. I was initially a supporter of his, but have resigned myself to the fact that my 3 year old would be a more effective leader, and run a more ordered meeting.

Do tell Mr. Hay. Which corruption would that be? Would it entail the meeting held in a mutual acquaintance's garage to plan the firing of City Attorney Sweeney in 2009 or would it be the scrambling to endorse and explain away a sitting councilman buddy of yours when he called for a moratorium on the sign ordinance so that he could get a nearly million dollar billboard deal? Could it possibly be that Mayor Counts actually saw the error of going down the path you and your crew tried to pave and saw that was not the honorable way to run things? Actually, in my opinion, he started off on the wrong foot but I will stand up and state the he has done a whole lot better in the last two years. I will stop now. Please - the floor is yours. Share your hopefully fascinating tales of corruption...

Meeting at an acquaintances garage/house, etc. to discuss anything is now corruption? Who is this acquaintance of whom you speak? I can't visit socially? As for Jerel, you know darn well he was not talking about billboards. The discussion was about onstreet signage, and you are well aware of that. Jerel had just met earlier that week with myself and Mary Holden on that very specific topic/issue. You know that is a ridiculous claim. Bob Sweeney filed his complaint, and it was dismissed. However, if you would like to speak about billboards and corruption, how about the electronic billboard that was planned a few hundred feet from Best Auto. The same plod of ground a certain former spouse fought tooth and nail for at the divorce proceeding for that very reason. LED in all its glory..... You know, the one that Mark Powell put the Rep in touch with a certain P&Z Member to "get it done". The same electronic billboard that the then former, now current City attorney mentioned in error while you and Randy stood at the press conference organized by ATS employee/contractor Ed Rhode? Or perhaps the City buying a commercial property at "Highest and best use" for a 5 ft sewer easement from a certain City Councilman's business partner for 4 times market value. Or perhaps the fact that the City had booted Best Auto and Tourkakis Dental from their property, saying that such businesses would not be allowed in the Commons, yet then Christian Brothers and a new dentist take up shop for starters.