Democracy for Vancouver

Well, the Daily Fish wrapper, otherwise known, as “The Columbian” has once again not disappointed us. Almost as if on que, they have once again joined forces with the Tax and Spend Crowd and are asking you to return the three incumbent council members, who vote YES, in Lockstep, with Hiz Honor and the City Manger on every issue that comes before them.

Makes one wonder why, if council members are going to continue to be “Nodders” why have a council? What is a Nodder you ask? It is an individual who sits or sleeps through a session such as a council meeting nods yes in agreement with whomever is running the session on every issue and then ask after the session is over ” What was that all about.

Case in point. The Columbian and the Incumbents should read in today’s Fish Wrapper, the Article on Page 1 “Police: Gang Activity up since task force’s demise“.

The response to the following article high points:

a. Gang Activity has exploded since the Vancouver Police Department disbanded a highly effected task force in 2002, or
b. What we have seen since that time is an escalation of gang-related violent crime, or
c. The Guys who are coming up from California are breeding a more violent kind of gang member. we’ve had multiple shootings, or
d. As Diana Avalos, Former Commissioner of Hispanic Affairs said: “here has been an explosion of Gang Activity. I have seen children as young as fifth or sixth grade who belong to gangs. It has gone from a very quiet community to one that is about to explode”.

was sad to say the least;

And what is our current city council doing about this growing problem: NOTHING!!! In the Words of Dan Tonkovich, Council Member and Vancouver Mayor, Pro Tem, who makes a feeble attempt to place the blame on the Police Department, he was quoted in the article as saying:

“The Decision to disband the task force was an administrative decision made by the Police Chief, because the agency had other pressing needs. “There is a lot of Crime in Our Community”. Tonkovich went on to say, “but Vancouver’s Budget is stretched thin to provide the services the City Needs”

Notice Tonkovich did not say “People needs he said City”

Duh, shouldn’t the needs of the people be a little bit higher on the priority list?

Don’t forget these Council Members that the Columbian wants you to return to service the needs of the people are the same ones who spent millions and millions of your hard earned tax dollars:

a. Building and Subsidizing Hotels and Convention Centers
b. Building and Subsidizing Parking Garages
c. Selling publicly owned property for pennies on the dollar
d. Building the Bridge to No-Where over Highway 14.
e. Providing Developers with Ten-Year Property Tax breaks
f. Spending more millions on Light Rail Studies
g. Spending more millions on Resuscitating a Mummy (the downtown revitalizing downtown)
h. Spending more tax dollars paying lobbyist to help pick our pockets.
i. Creating Special Taxing Districts (this allows them to pick your pocket without allowing you to vote yes or not) and
j. Dozens and Dozens more BOONDOGGLE:

Had the current council prioritized their spending they could have with just a fraction of your tax dollars wasted by current council members on just one of the above items they could have maintained the Gang Task Force and prevented the current explosion of Crime Activities.

But then planning and prioritizing is not how they do things at our city hall.

Folks something needs to be done to return our once quiet, well kept, and beautiful city to its pre-current council status. Those that the Columbian is endorsing are the ones who have got us to the point that we are living in a community that has gone, in the words of others, from a very quiet community to one that is ABOUT TO EXPLODE.

It is going to take more than more glass and brick downtown to protect our citizens and provide for our children’s future. It really is time for a change. Lets make it a clean sweep.

It is time to vote out the Incumbents: Leavitt, Tonkovich, Smith, and Miller: They had their chance and failed to produce. Lets make them free agents.

VOTE FOR CHARLIE STEMPER, PAT CAMPBELL, DAVID KALLSTROM for City Council and JERRY OLIVER for Port Commissioner

L. M. Patella
CDR USN (ret)