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