I’m listening to the conversation between Dan Caulkins, former mayor Paul Osborne and Brian Byers on Byers’ radio show and all I can say is, “Silly!” Grown men arguing like school children on a playground. Now it’s as clear as can be why our city council has been totally incompetent over the past 3 or 4 years. It’s so obvious there have been competing, silly agendas that have paralyzed this community and left us in the dust, in comparison to neighborhing communities. It’s obvious there were agendas regarding the building of a new lake. Decatur entertaining the idea of paying for a lake in Forsyth in the past, was completely stupid. It’s just as dumb as Decatur’s Park District having its’ most profitable golf course in the middle of Forsyth. Pure stupid. A smarter thing to do, from a tax revenue standpoint, would be to develop the Hickory Point Golf course into residential neighborhood. At least Decatur would reap property tax revenue from high dollar housing, instead of making a nicer environment for Forsyth.
I’m tired of it! Lord, have mercy am I tired of it! This is a town with close to a 10% unemployment rate and climbing. My family is a casualty of Decatur’s weak economy and dumb decisions in the past. Decatur hasn’t attracted a major employer, who pays good living wages, for as long as I can remember. It’s pathetic that I can count our major employers on one hand. Our tax base is shrinking. Over 15,000 residents have left Decatur since I graduated high school in 1989. We’ve made stupid decision after stupid decision in the past that has crippled Decatur for the past three decades. The good news is, we can change things. It’s not too late.
We can make smart decisions. We can attract employers. We can grow businesses that are already here. We can make our neighborhoods better. We can develop in the Nelson Park area in a smart and fair way. We can be smart about land that we annex. Most importantly, this city is full of good, caring, competent people who can make a difference. We just need to sweep those who are hindering progress, with their silly agendas, to the side. Whether it’s labor, the Chamber of Commerce, developers, or whatnot – let the people lead and I promise you, Decatur will grow and prosper. The founding fathers (and mothers) of our country figured that out a long time ago.
Kris I didn’t listen to the show as you already know, but my co-worker listened and he thought it was disgraceful. His impression was that Byers and Osborne had Caulkins on the show just to beat him up. My co-worker said they would hardly let Caulkins talk without jumping all over him. He said they wanted to know who he was voting for and Caulkins told them it was none of their business, good for him! Why would a guy who quit because he couldn’t handle others not agreeing with him 100% even try and judge others. My co-worker has decided he will vote for whoever Osborne and Byers are for due to the show. I am glad I don’t waste my time here on earth listening to Rush Limbaugh show oh sorry I mean the Byers show its hard to tell them apart.
Clarification my co-worker is voting for whom ever Byers and Osborne are not for.
Kris what was your impression of the questions being asked?
My impression was pretty much the same as your coworker. All of it was silly. It sure explains why our city council couldn’t come up with solutions in the past few years. I’m not just singling out Caulkins and Osborne; it goes way beyond them, but rather the special interest crowds in Decatur who have screwed things up.
It’s so clear that there are groups of people in Decatur who have dug their heals in and have put their blinders on, at the community’s expense. It’s childish, selfish and dumb.
I just think Caulkins is stuck somewhere in the middle. He won’t play the puppet of one side or the other and that ticks the two opposing sides off from time to time. I like that about him. It shows he’s independent.
That being said, I’d like to see Decatur come together. Rich, poor, pro-business, pro-labor, white, black, democrat, republican, or whatever and put aside the nonsense. I like everyone. I like to hear all sides of an issue. Everybody has something worthwhile to contribute. Everybody has good points to make. All of us do dumb things from time to time too. I don’t want to come off judgmental. It’s just time for everyone to bury their hatchets and move on.
I did enjoy Rev. Carey Grady’s interview though. He sounds like a very smart, reasonable, optimistic guy. Just the kind of person Decatur needs.
I agree Kris. I think some have realized that the growth of our City is not there and people are tired of the interest groups not caring. The City doesn’t need a change of government but a change in governing. To say we are on the right track with our current council is a joke. I can’t understand how we could lose so many good companies Cash Valve, Zexel, Firestone, and (there are a few others that have slipped my mind) say we can’t get 1 more big business here because we dont have a water supply. How did we do it all those years we were booming? To me it doesn’t add up!
That’s a good point about the water. Decatur used to have way more manufacturing plants in the past with the same lake. I think we need to address the water supply and maintain the lake properly, but we shouldn’t use that as an excuse as to why we can’t attract a single major industry. Of course, ADM has expanded quite a bit in the past 10 or 15 years and that’s where the majority of the water need is now coming from. Ethanol production requires a lot of water.
I agree on the governing part too. Any form of government is only as good as the people running it. But Decatur’s residents need to step up too. When only 30% or less of Decatur’s registered voters vote in municipal elections, we only have ourselves to blame for the results we get. We are the government.
I know not many people vote…… its too bad maybe when they get some people on the council that listen to what the people want instead of people that think they know whats best for everyone they will come back to the polls. I agree we are supposed to be the government but I don’t think Washington knows that yet but they will eventually….I hope.
Yep, I agree. A lot of people are just busy with their jobs and lives and don’t know enough about any of the candidates to make an informed choice. Not that long ago, I didn’t know much about the candidates and the different organizations in town either. I just happen to work out of my house on the computer, and keep up on all the local politics now.
I was glad to see Dan went on the show and I thought it was good of him to choose to go on the same time as Paul. That way he could attempt to answer the criticism he gets from both Brian and Paul directly.
Some times an honest answer IS “it depends on the details”. Dan said “it depends on how it is written”. I heard Matthew this am on Byers – he did good – but from the best I could tell that was his answer regarding the responsible bidder ordinance as well and Byers didn’t brow beat him over it…..
Brian also tried to claim that Dan opposed the Main St project but that is not true at all. I bet I still have the email Dan sent out clarifying his position on that while supporting the project he was opposed to some of the details and the way the decisions were made without input from the council. Brian misrepresented this as opposition to the project. Just like he misrepresented Shad Edwards statement regarding this project.
I don’t agree with Dan on everything but it sure appears to me that he has been targeted for not towing the line and pressing a particular agenda.
I’ve heard all the interviews so far on Byers and listened to most of the links Kris posted and been to 2 of the forums. And at this point I’m really impressed with many of the candidates! Like you I was impressed with Grady. The Rudderman interview was very interesting…. If you didn’t hear it I recommend listening to the podcast while it is still out there. He just sounds like a straight out there guy. I don’t know who I’m for yet.
Sue
Well my co-worker only got to listen to the first 6 to 8 minutes because his wife turned the radio off and said “I can’t listen to this guy anymore” LOL. His impretion of what he heard was Byers was going to use Matt as a tool to slam everyonel that he and Osborne want out.
The Responsible Bidders Ordinance really isn’t about the Union its about Companies doing work with our tax dollars that don’t have continued training of their employees. Would you go to a doctor that graduates then never learns another thing except thru trial and error on the job? Safety is another huge reason for this ordinance, sure if a company doesn’t hire a safety officer and has no osha required guidelines its unsafe and should not be representitive of the City. I’m sure if the unions didn’t have different levels of training and didn’t have to worry about teaching the members the required osha laws they could better compete with the company that does it the cheap way. Why would the City want to hire these companies anyway? Its the Chamber is representing the small business members that don’t do things the correct way. Death on the job because of poor or no safety training should put these people out of business but it doesn’t and its a shame. I know accidents happen but if they can be prevented why shouldn’t the city require it? It all depends on who is padding your pocket or Chicago style government you take your pick. These so called contractors get out of it because they do very little of the work they hire out and due to the low bidding odf a job your not going to get highly skilled or safe workers because those kind of workers require better money and deserve it.