Letters to the Editor

Regarding Bloomingdale’s City Council Meeting....

Dear Editor,

We’ve all heard that “You get what you pay for,” but the real truism for Bloomingdale Citizens is “You deserve better than the Mayor and Council you elected.” For the 37% of registered voters who actually tore themselves away from hunting, fishing, and “American Idol” to vote in the November, 2005 election, remember, you thought you were voting for change and good government. Rather than the promised progress, this Administration continues the forty-year history of its former four-term mayor. A history founded on arrogance, isolationism, selective code enforcement and good plain and simple ignorance.

The Mayor and Council would have Citizens believe that the hotly debated fence item presented at Thursday’s Council Meeting was mean-spirited and revengeful. Not so, the real issue centered on a total disrespect of conflict of interest questions and the knowledge, compliance and enforcement of City Ordinances. Under Georgia Code 36-30-6 “It is illegal for a member of a City Council to vote on any question brought before the Council in which He or She is personally interested.”

How dare these arrogant Elected Officials openly sidestep their involvement in the fence issue? Billy Strozier is on the Church Board of Trustees. Margel Winn headed the committee responsible for the construction of the fence. Wayne Tipton provided personal construction equipment used on the fence. To infer that collectively all three of these Officials never considered the need or requirement for a Building/Fence Permit and/or variance, can only be defined as a total disregard of City Laws and/or stupidity.

This entire issue, about the size of a gnat’s head, could have and should have been avoided. Citizens were embarrassed and council time and energy was wasted because City Officials made a major blunder. But voters, remember, these same Officials make the City’s major infrastructure and financial decisions on a daily basis. Now, THAT is something to be concerned about.

All Main Street Canal questions continued to be “tip-toed” around by Mayor Tipton. The City is more committed to holding a Public Hearing for comments on a home-based beauty salon than a multi-million dollar supposed drainage plan. While Pooler Elected Officials boast of a new $4.5 million recreation park area for the enjoyment of it’s Citizens, Bloomingdale Officials are committed to squandering away millions on a 50-foot, wide open, 5,000 foot long, mosquito breeding hole in the ground at the expense of destroying Main Street.

Thomas and Hutton, the expert engineering firm, already paid hundreds of thousands of dollars is now billing more money, $125 per man hour, in an attempt to support their failure to involve Chatham County during the planning/design phase of this project. Any good fiscal manager or prudent City Official would charge its Legal Staff in questioning the contract validity to ensure that tax dollars are not being wasted and its Citizens are being protected. But, in an April 23, 2007 letter to Thomas and Hutton, Mayor Tipton solicits contract guidance from them rather than the City Attorney. I sincerely doubt that in the past, currently, or in the future, Thomas and Hutton’s primary goal is not making money, but rather looking out for the best interest of Bloomingdale.

Bloomingdale Citizens may sit on the sidelines and think that this canal does not involve them. But the canal is only one small piece of a much larger puzzle. File this away sports fans, look for even more so inflated infrastructure costs, poor or no effective long term growth in the City, devaluation of property, seizure of property via Eminent Domain and the continued erosion of Citizen notification and involvement in governmental decisions. Clearly the upcoming change on the Fire Safety responsibility and cost, will begin City operating expenses being transferred to residents. City Officials may not call them TAXES, but Fire Safety Subscription Fees will be at the expense of the residents…. Not the City Government.

What a great “Tip-ToeTipton” legacy. A City being encroached upon from all directions, Savannah, Pooler and even Effingham County, has little chance of survival under this inept Administration. Voters in 2005 had such high hopes for change and progress. What resulted is pitiful! It’s a shame the next election is still 2 1/2 years away. Only time will tell how much additional damage will be done by this Administration. Can Bloomingdale survive?

Latrelle Griffin Kling

Bloomingdale