Yes, Alvin Brown is always making future promises but has no real accomplishments to speak of during his entire term save his faux claims of not raising taxes, when in truth he simply passed the buck onto council. Of course he is met warmly. He has charisma and is a friendly guy but neither of those traits mean he is competent in the position of mayor or that he is an effective leader. It is my hope that one day most voters will understand that electing someone to office should not be a popularity contest based upon charisma but an exercise in securing for office the most competent individuals we can.
Bill Bishop is the only person currently talking about potential solutions to our budget problems. A sales tax is one suggestion and one that would be put to the vote. He gets major props for boldly speaking his ideas and potential solutions and putting them up for discussion and a potential vote if the idea is embraced. That is what all the candidates, including the mayor should be doing but are not.
The mayor's idea of borrowing over 400k comes with no plan or idea about how it will be paid back. Brilliant! That is amazing in it's incompetence really but the kind of thing Brown dishes up on a regular basis, the kind of non thinking that has gotten our city into many a financial bind in the past and present. As far as a tax hike in the eyes of Republicans the fact is that it was a majority Republican council that did end up raising the property tax last year as a result of Brown's failed budget. Facts can be useful things.
