RICK HAS RESPONDED

Hi Stan,

I wouldn't say that this was done in secret at all. It was explained to us that she would be meeting with state officials including the Lt. Governor to help work out a solution that does not decimate the city's finances. As far as I know, there has been no plan to borrow money at this time. If the there was a plan to borrow the money, I believe that it would have to go to the voters if it were in excess of four million dollars. The proposal is to back out the penalty, keep payments for school funding at proper levels and break up the penalty over a four year span. The state has not at this time even said that the will in fact apply the penalties, but if they do, I believe that they have been presented a plan that deals with the crisis in a financially responsible manner. If the Mayor is expected to write a fifteen million dollar check to get everything up to date in one shot, every other city department will be decimated and we might as well call in the National Guard while the state takes over. In my opinion, that is not going to happen. I feel that Mayor has addressed this publicly and it was even detailed by some of us at the at large forum last week.

I hope that in the very near future, we hear the state's response so that the city can take the necessary steps to put this behind us.

Enjoy the weekend,

Rick

Well RICK you see, I was kind of under the IMPRESSION that "backing out" of the plan did involve money and that $15 MILLION dollars was in excess of $4 MILLION dollars. Agreeing to a repayment schedule IS like writing a check for the TOTAL, you just got to wait a little for the check to clear.

Also stating PUBLICLY that you met in PRIVATE isn't quite the same thing as meeting in PUBLIC.