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I'm calling this the "cover up/excuse-letter" because that is exactly what it looks like to me. The first page is nothing more than a sorry excuse! We really don't care who started it. What Mr. ellington is doing is trying to cast the blame on others before him. Mr. Ellington and others on his staff are the ones responsible for what is happening not the first committee, not some other previous mayor, noone else but the current administration! Mr. Ellington and his staff are the ones continuing these plans so I wish they would quit trying to blame someone else! They need to STOP IT! And they need to stop whining about people attacking them! STOP IT! Perhaps they deserve it perhaps they don't but as the old expression states "IF YOU CAN"T STAND THE HEAT GET OUT OF THE KITCHEN". We are tired of their crying! And they need to stop telling us what we want or need! We already know what we want and what we need! Mr. Ellington keeps talking about providing these services.Tell you what! Why don't they put up levys on all the things that they think we want and need and let us decide! Their job should not be to tell us what we want or need! Their job is to spend the money we have given them through levys and other taxations and not spend any more than they have been given! So they need to quit talking about all the great services and such and do their jobs with some fiscal responsibility for a change! Let me quote Mr. Ellington: "In May of 2008, Council created a committee-made up of vocal critics of the income tax--to examine the Village financial records and to assist Council in uncovering ways to avoid the imposition of an income tax. The committee found no source of additional revenue and instead recommended that Council could avoid the imposition of an income tax by reducing services such as zoning enforcement, special events, police protection, and recreation. Because Council has never heard from Amelia residents that they wished to reduce the services targeted by the committee, Council - continued its evaluation of the income tax after the committee provided its report." Just exactly what does "to examine the Village financial records and to assist Council in uncovering ways to avoid the imposition of an income tax" mean? If the recommendations of the Citizens Advisory Council can't be considered "ways to avoid the imposition of an income tax" than nothing can! Did Mr. Ellington ask the committee to find sources of income or did he ask them "to uncover ways to avoid the imposition of an income tax"? It seems obvious that Mr. Ellington must have asked them "to uncover ways to avoid the imposition of an income tax" because he said he did!!! Can you believe Mr. Ellington said "Because Council has never heard from Amelia residents that they wished to reduce the services targeted by the committee" The fact is that they heard it from a great number of people attending their meetings. The fact is that they heard it from the Citizens Advisory Committee or don't they count? Just exactly what did they think when hundreds of Amelia residents signed the petition to put the tax issue on the ballot and except for some honest mistakes it would have passed. I know what I would have thought! I would have thought that they did not want to give the Village adminstration one single penny more that they already were being given and if that dosen't mean "they wished to reduce the services targeted by the committee" I don't know what could make it any clearer. If Mr. Ellington thinks we believe that "Third, Council has always intended that the residents would have the opportunity to vote on the issue of an income tax" then he has another think coming. I'm going to squash this real quick by skipping all the diatribe and go to the Forth whatever you want to call it. This is what Fourth tells us about Mr. Ellington and council: "Fourth, in order to make Council's intentions perfectly clear (and hopefully prevent others from further misrepresenting Council's intentions), I am now recommending that Council utilize the only method it has available to absolutely ensure that the issue of the income tax is placed on the ballot. Accordingly, I have asked the Village Administrator to prepare a Resolution which requests the Board of Elections to place the issue of an income tax on the ballot at the next election. Because the law requires that any income tax implemented pursuant to this method be over 1 %, we will need to initially propose a slightly higher rate than the 1 % Council had originally proposed. However, to assure as much as is possible given the legal requirements, that the income tax is not effectively much higher than what was originally proposed, I asked the Village Administrator to draft a new Income Tax Ordinance with a proposed income tax rate of 1 1/10 % (the least percentage permitted to request a vote) and a credit of up to 6/10 % for residents who pay taxes in another jurisdiction for the 1st year. Thereafter, the proposed tax will be reduced to that originally proposed by Council -- 1% with a credit of up to 5/10% for residents who pay taxes in another jurisdiction. By utilizing this method, the income tax issue will automatically be placed on the ballot, no petitions will have to be circulated, and Council's intentions to have the implementation of an income tax determined at the ballot box will finally be made clear". Whew! A lot of words eh? But you know what it means? To me it's pretty simple. If Mr. Ellington and the council really wanted to put the issue on the ballot why didn't they execute the Fourth? Unless I misunderstood the above they could have easily done it without any meetings simply by asking 'the Village Administrator to prepare a Resolution which requests the Board of Elections to place the issue of an income tax on the ballot at the next election". So with that in mind I believe that Third is simply a falsehood designed to get get us to think they always intended to put it on the ballot when they had no such intentions whatsoever! Last but certainly not least. If Mr. Ellington and the council honestly believe in the absolute right of the citizens to decide by vote for what they want as they continually exhort us to believe then why don't they just skip to the end and "ask the Village Administrator to prepare a Resolution which requests the Board of Elections to place the issue of dissolving the Village of Amelia on the ballot at the next election". They would certainly save everyone a lot of time and trouble and it would guarantee that most of what they are whining about would disappear! __________________ |
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