Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

Two of the three charter changes proposed by Hackworth and O?’Brien passed with enough votes to be sent to the voters. This passage wasn?’t without the usual controversy, though. Here?’s what I don?’t get. According to the media reports about the special rules meeting and according to O?’Brien?’s letter to the editor, apparently he and Sabatino had reached some sort of compromise on the ordinance. O?’Brien agreed to remove the section about emergency annexations and Sabatino had already told the media that it was the only section that he was against. Sabatino had said that if this section was removed, he would vote for the ordinance. Well, he lied, didn?’t he? He lied to the press and he lied to the citizens. Are you all getting this? He lied to you again.

What I am seeing through this lengthy process on a charter change is that O?’Brien was willing to make peace and compromise to get at least two-thirds of the ordinance through because he thought it to be valuable to the residents and give them back some power from the council. Even though apparently none of the bozos had the decency to discuss the ordinance in committee or in council only to discuss it in the press instead. Cowards! Then I see Sabatino being what he truly is ?– an obstructionist. We no longer need these obstructionists in our city government. If one of the ?“majority?” members of council is willing to reach out a hand towards compromise and only gets it slapped, it is time to remove the slapper. It is time for Sabatino to go.

Obviously Sabatino has a personal agenda with his charter proposals. He wants the city divided into wards. Know why? He is realizing he can?’t get votes outside what he would propose as his ward. He doesn?’t want to out in the effort required to govern the entire city, just his piece. Time to go Mike! Maybe you should propose a pay raise for yourself while you?’re at it. Double, even triple what you get now. You think you?’re worth it don?’t you? Bye-bye Mikey.

Sabatino wants the manager to report to council rather than the mayor. Know why? They anticipate retaking the majority in November and want to fire her and bring back Bushman. Any way the democtratic governor?’s primary goes, Bushman is out of a job. She is a liability to Coleman. They (the three obstructionists) owe her big time and the only form of repayment is to get her the manager?’s job back. Time to go guys!

Are you as residents of the city willing to turn the government back over to those that not only did you overwhelmingly vote out, but who turned this city into a developer?’s haven? They caused our traffic and overcrowded schools. Period! It is time to speak out. It is time to attend a council meeting or two and tell the three obstructionists THEY MUST GO. Tell them to not bother running and save the embarrassment of losing big. Tell them to not repeat the Lou Postage campaign that resulted in a 2-1 vote AGAINST him.

Tell Mike Sabatino to get back into his truck and roll up the windows and turn on his AC while his fellow councilmen sweat in the streets with the residents. Tell this selfish fool to take his $13,000 settlement from the city and take a long vacation rather than use the taxpayer dollars to fund his campaign. Time to go. Time to move on. Time to heal this city.


By Movin' On

Throw the bums out

It seems another out of control council could still pass these pre-annexation agreements as emergency and load the community down with unwanted new homes at a rate that will kill us.

Parker wants to retain this power for the council. Clearly a power that he has abused during his time on council. Remember the Parker Doctrine. The Pickerington City Council was elected to do as they please. They answer to NO ONE. Clearly Doug and his two cohorts protected that doctrine last night. This council and any future council still has the right and THE POWER to vote as they please regardless of what the voters have to say once those voters have put them into office. Abusing the Charter by voting for annexations and zoning as emergency makes sham of the city's zoning code book. If like in the case of the Diley farm where on December 7th 1999 the council placed pre-annexation ordinance on the agenda prior to the council meeting. They suspended the rules and had three readings. This PRE-ANNEXATION agreement gave the developer his zoning in 1999. Then this was such an emergency that it took them until the spring of 2001 to start the annexation and rezoning through council. Despite the fact the all three readings of the zoning ordinance was a packed house with NO ONE expect Doug Parker in favor of the re-zoning the voted to rezone the Diley to 8500 square foot lots. It was zoned R4 with a ''promise'' to build OR-3 homes. This re-zoning was passed as an emergency. Despite the hundreds that attended the meetings that had on influence over the outcome because that was pre-determined with a zoning contract that our council was bound to from 1999.

The hypocrisy of these three is that they think that the residents of Diley Road who opposed the widening were denied their rights to get to vote on that issue and the fact is that we would not be widening Diley today if the proposed charter amendment voted out last night by the Parker crowd would have been in effect in 1999.