Opinion: O’Rourke is feasting on the city of South Lake Tahoe
To the community,
Looking at the fuss over the bonds to bail out the private management of the ice rink, it appears to be a new chapter in Alice in Wonderland. Who will pick up the cost of turning the non-taxable bonds into the taxable bonds at a price tag of over $400,000?
JPA staff, John Upton, says the city must cough up the dough. City manager, Tony O’Rourke, claims private management must pay the piper.
Bill Crawford
Tweedledum and Tweedledee decided to have a battle over a new rattle. Of course there was lots of nonsense in it just as there is in the bond shenanigans.
The problem is the city manager who rushed to contract out management of the ice rink. Now having been the pied piper that led the city into a faulty deal he attempts to place the burden for his mistake onto the back of the private party to break the contract.
In his haste, Mr. O’Rourke acted mindlessly thinking that he is infallible. He has a master’s complex, and the city is his plantation. But he is fallible, and he is incapable of acknowledging it much like the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland. The result of his behavior is he sows mistrust because he has shown a lack of concern for the social fabric and under his leadership the fabric is thread bare. The community cannot have confidence in Mr. O’Rourke when he has displayed incompetence in managing the city’s business.
Finally, in the nursery rhyme the walrus and the carpenter did deceive the oyster and had them for lunch. It is time to stop Mr. O’Rourke’s feast on the city.
Bill Crawford, South Lake Tahoe
You borrow so many quotes and metaphors from nursery rhymes and children’s books it makes it hard for adults to believe you are serious, Mr. Crawford.
Adults are fully capable of grasping and understanding the facts at hand. You haven’t presented any of them.
Every single government official in SLT history has acted disingenuously. Each of them (past and present) uses their position to leverage themselves or their business into a better position. There is no bigger corrupt city government than in SLT. You have been part of that corrupt system for many years.
So, without defaulting to nursery rhymes: What’s in it for you, Bill, in this latest diatribe?
I disagree to the extent that the problem is much deeper than that; the problem is that the bonds prohibit private sector competition in the first place.
True O’Rourke, Upton and the lawyer sidekick Enwrong made a bad call. They always make bad calls. Upton especially
should have known better! He’s been at this a long time.
But the underling issues is the Tax code. It is time to recognize how the tax code has been used to divide us between government and private sector.
Non Profit corporations are the fastest growing form of in corporation. Does that make sense to you?
Was America built on the principles of ‘Non Profit’?
Granted, I think the government employees are way overfed, but the problem our country faces is well illustrated here. The problem is what we let the progress liberals in banking, accounting, law, and government do to our tax codes.
They have sliced and diced us into soooo many special interests groups and then on top of that made corporations people.
Does any of that make sense to you?
We can change this by following Canada’s lead.
Tahoe is a special place with special needs but it is also where the pendulum swung the most.
It can also be the place where it starts to swing back.
YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED
You so called Council Members should be ashamed of yourselves for allowing your City Manager to threaten employee groups they will get less salary and/or, worse yet, be laid off if they didn’t agree to the Health Plan changes. Not only is this very, very poor leadership and management but in fact ILLEGAL. Your City Manager has thrown things, yelled, intimidated and insulted associations and individuals during negotiations and has taken a functional, hard working, devoted organization and made it into a dictatorship.
You think this City is about paved roads when in fact it is about Community and People, two words you know nothing about. And you know nothing about, nor care about; the effects the proposed Health Plan changes will have on retirees that are on fixed incomes, past employees that worked hard to make the City a better place and relied on you. You are increasing costs to the retirees 100% to 400% with these proposed plan changes and that is unconscionable. And you sit there paying a City Manager to manager a City of approximate 20,000 over $200,000 (salary, benefits and perks). WOW, guess we know what is important to you…….
May you all be treated this dictator ship fashion forever.
I for one am totally sick of what you have done to the organization of the City of South Lake Tahoe and know that your actions will be known to all.
Happy New Year
This City Mgr. has raised our medical cost from 100% to 400%.
He threatened the Administrative and Confidential employees on Friday 12/16/11, that if they did not sign the changes to the medical plan by 8:30am Monday, 12/19/11 that there would be 6 of them laid off, he even went so far as to name the positions that would be laid off.
Is this what they call Meet and Confer in Good Faith ???
The moral of the City Employees is so low that a snake would need a ladder to get under it.
Tony O’Rourke is a disgrace to the City and all of the people that live there, And the Council is no better, because they are allowing him to run Amuck and do what ever he wants, they will all pay when it comes time for re-election.
I can only hope that the City Mgr. and his family along with the entire City Council and there families are hit with
a very nice Christmas Present like they have just given 135 Retirees.
To X LOCAL-
You should be ashamed! Casting such a curse on the City Council is a very childish thing to do. Have you never heard of Karma?
No matter how angry you are or how disappointed you are with the City Council, making such a horrible wish is totally unacceptable.
Tahoe Karen
The letters that I put up to be read were just 2 of the letters that 28 x city employees wrote and many were sent to the Council and O’Orouke
I have heard of KARMA and I hope that it comes back on the people that have placed 130 retirees in a position of total hopelessness for there future and health. many will not be able to go on without major problems.
These could have all been avoided if the City would have just lived up to it’s agreement with the employees. If they want to change the policy on insurance fine, but for the 130 people that have been retired for 15+ years, not quite fair to them.
If the City had not used the Insurance reserve to balance there budget several times, there would have been more than enough money to cover all employees for years to come.
I believe the 400,000 buckaroos are a paydown on the bond principle which will enable the rated taxable bonds to come in at a lower interest rate than the present non-taxable bonds. Though it is an expense, it will be returned through lower interest payments on the remaining outstanding principle.
What about Upton the paid JPA Administrator, the City Attorney, and the City Council, they should certainly share the blame. In my opinion, all sound asleep at the switch.
And equally unsurprising, nobody stepping forward to claim this baby is theirs.
X local your benefits are 2X the min. wage. Just your benifits will BK the city, then you could get a lot less. Policy makers made these changes but they must be changed. Tony is trying, but with X locals making over 20,000 in benefits alone it can’t continue, there is no cost benefit. Most of these live out of state so they don’t pay state taxes, how sweet it is.
i
Tahoe Karen: No Curse was cast upon the City Council. Their actions bring about their bad Karma..hopefully sooner rather than later, they will get what they deserve..Yes, I do believe Mr. Crawford knows about the law of Karma, as does X-Local…I agree that the City is trying to weasel out of their obligations regarding pensions, and health care for their employees, past and present. Pray for snow, then the poop will really hit the fan! Especially with the limited Public Works employees left….
O’Roarke and Enright need to go their blunders are what really costs the city money!
O Roarke is the best city manager this city has ever had! 40 year resident and 40 year voter.
Lou-
I agree, I would rank him up there with Dick Milbrodt in the 70’s. No nonsense, get the job done, don’t give away the store to everybody who asks.
The only people who don’t like the current city manager are the employees and retirees who see their gold goose eggs finally being counted.
Worst CM ever. Has no connection to the town or residents, would rather spend big bucks on a tree at the Y, pop up tents and giving raises to upper managment.
Lou you are so full of BS, you are not a City voter, stop twisting the truth. Regarding the City Manager it is to early to write his legacy, he has been here less than two years.
CM must refere to the concessioen manager who makes 125,000.00. plus bennies of $25,000. and 4 weeks paid vactiion and 15 paid holidays, and 90% of that in retirement in a no tax state like NV. How long before BK.
Oh I forgot the sick days 12 to 15. I live in the county and have to use my real name to vote. I’ve paid city taxes for over 30 years, but your right, I can’t vote in the city.
I wonder what voting would be like in the city if every person who owned property could vote in local elections. It seems to me that our voting system, driven by where you vote for the US President, doesn’t provide people paying propety taxes on a 2nd home with a voice (taxation without representation).
To Steve & Lou, Yes, good for the CM in that he’s finally reigning in some expenses! But to then in turn hand out raises to the already overpaid top mgt., counteracts much of the good of the previous point!
And if the CM is in anyway responsible for this ice rink deal/fiasco, then I think we have to at this point call his record a wash.