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In my opinion

Admin note: Mr. Patella’s posts are republished by d4v from his periodic emailings about local issues and with his permission. This one was overlooked until mentioned in the post earlier today from Chief (Is Jerry Oliver a “Sore Winner”??) about the new port commissioner.

November 14, 2007

As I have repeatedly said, you have got to love the Columbian and the Vancouver City Council. We can now add the current Commissioners of the Port of Vancouver to that list.

First they misled the public when they, during what appeared to be a good old fashion smoke filled back room session, attempted to impose an outrageous $132% property tax increase without a vote of the people. The tax increase they said was necessary to purchase, what turned out to be the highly contaminated Alcoa Evergreen Property, because sufficient funds were not available?

Fast forward to the post defeat of the port’s attempt to raise our taxes and the defeat of Port Commissioner Arch Miller, the architect of the property tax increase, the port has somehow found the funds to buy the contaminated property.

Why is the port in such a hurry to purchase highly contaminated property that has become the poster child for superfund cleanup sites? Why are they willing to risk our hard earned tax dollars to purchase the property before it is decontaminated or they know the extent of the contamination? It is my opinion that it is for the same reason they rushed to impose the property tax that the voters rejected. They are terrified that some nasty tax paying private industry individuals may be interested in the property once it is decontaminated.

When will the Columbian, the Port and the Vancouver City Council Learn that increasing taxes, boondoggles, secret deals, and the wasteful spending of our hard earned tax dollars will not be tolerated.

Voters in the recent completed election are to be congratulated. It appears that two members of the tax and spend crowd were fired by the people and the vote count received by the other two challengers was heartwarming. We will continue to monitor the words and deeds of the remaining members of the tax and spend crowd. Hopefully they will pay closer attention to the needs of the people. They are elected to represent us, not dictate to us.

Are we having an impact? You decide. Greg Herrington was heard to say at the close of the CCTV coverage of the Election Results that the peoples use of the Internet in general and yours truly in particular impacted the election. He could reduce that impact by spending more ink informing us and less time being a cheerleader for the tax and spend crowd.

We have the power to get rid of those whose only solution to any and all problems facing Us and Them is to raise taxes.

Stay tuned and please vote during every election. If you don’t you may someday lose the right to vote.

L. M. Patella
CDR USN (ret)

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One Comment

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  1. I want to make a few points on this Patella rant, and I promise to be a lot more polite about my choice of words here at D4V than I am at my own site, http://www.clarkblog.org. I honestly invite any comments you folks have to make, pro or con, about what I have to say.

    1. We did in fact have a “vote by the people” on the IDD Levy, and that vote is what defeated that issue, not Larry Patella. Larry Patella had one vote like all of us did on the IDDL, Jerry Oliver’s candidacy, and every other measure on the ballot.

    2. I will not believe that Greg Herrington credited Larry Patella with anything, until I see Greg write that in his column. Anything less is insufficent evidence and at best is a Patella opinion only, and at the worst just another outrageous Larry Patella lie.

    3. It cost the Port of Vancouver about $100,000 to pay for the costs of that election, which included the printing of the Voter’s Pamphlet section pertaining to the IDDL, and the total expense incurred by Clark County Elections to conduct that election among the residents of the Port District. Where do you suppose that money came from?? Did you really think that the election would be free of costs when you signed that petition?? Did anyone who urged you to sign the IDD Levy petition discuss the costs of that election with you when you signed??

    4. “Raising Taxes” is not in fact the only solution that we are offered for problems from our duly elected representatives, and to repeat that allegation like Commander Kneecap has done all this year, amounts to a deliberate decision on his part to ignore any thing that strays from his narrow view of things here in town. It also reflects his curious stubborn insistence on remaining willfully ignorant about the facts surrounding the things he comments upon, and if he did not read his much reviled Columbian, Larry Patella would not know what to think about much of anything.

    5. As a retired United States Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer, let me say that I am personally offended every time Larry Patella uses his former military rank to close his obnoxious remarks. Since he retired from Active Duty as a Naval Officer, and I retired from Active Duty and the Fleet Reserve, we both have had exactly the same rank…

    “CIVILIAN”

    Using that siggy the way he does makes the implication that his remarks are somehow more credible than anyone else’s, even though there are people here in town with US Military Service whose service was every bit as Honorable as his, yet do not feel it necessary to rub everyone’s nose in it with every hateful e-mail they send out to everyone in the County. Specifically Mayor Pollard and Councilman Larry Smith are both retired Army Officers, and do not find it necessary to use their former ranks for their correspondence.

    6. Just like my opinion of Charlie Stemper, if one single charge that Larry Patella makes is ever proven to be accurate or true, I will apologise in public with vigor equal to that with which I am stating my objections to it.

    7. Just like with Charlie Stemper, I am sick and tired of reading the spurious allegations against legally elected (and reelected) Public Officials from Larry Patella. We all know, that there can be no more serious charge against a Public Official than malfeasance or official misconduct in office. Go ask former representative Curtis what happens to politicians who really do practice offensive and potentially illegal acts while in office, and see what he tells you.

    It didn’t take Curtis 24 hours to realize his goose was good and cooked, so how is it that our City Council, Port Commission, County Commisisoners and every other elected official in sight is getting away with so much shit, as constantly claimed by Larry Patella?? How is it that nobody has ever been able to verify a single one of the illegalities he constantly alledges, and have never been offically investigated much less proven in a Court of Law??

    8. I know that many people here at D4V, and all over town read these hateful missives from Larry Patella, because he used all of the e-mail addresses that people provided to him on the IDDL petitions to augment the addresses for his “Local Mailing List”.

    Did anyone mention to you that he was going to send you this kind of hate-mongering e-mails when you signed the petition??

    How many of you have already un-subscribed to Patella’s “Local Maling List”?? Why, or more importantly, why not??

    Why are so many people so willing to listen to this guy, and allow him to influence your vote on anything, much less take credit for your decision at the polls??

    Doesn’t that insult you just a tiny little bit?? It sure does to me, and I’ve never been afraid to speak my mind about it…thanks for reading this, and I hope it provides you with some food for thought. I look forward to your comments here or at http://www.clarkblog.org.

    Stout hearts…

    If Larry Patella has some prosecutable evidence of offical misconduct against anyone in our local Government, I want to see it.

    [reply to this]

    1. Above written by Chief WahooNo Gravatar on November 18th, 2007 at 1:46 pm (replies, if any, are attributed separately above).
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