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Home » Community Forums » Upcoming Elections » Council Elections

Civics 101

Submitted by DoTheRightThing on Sat, 01/26/2008 - 11:25pm. Council Elections

There seem to be a lot of people who are unhappy with the current town council and mayor. I've been here for a while and can tell you that previous iterations of this body haven't been any better. In my experience, the people who want these positions are precisely the people who should not have them. We can gnash our teeth and rend our clothing to each other on this forum about the various improprieties the council and mayor and the police department have allegedly committed, or we can do something.

What is the town government empowered to provide you for your tax dollar? Read the town charter and you’ll find it's very little. What are the tangible services you receive? The ones I’m aware of are the police department and trash pickup. Anything else? Haymarket Day. The parade. That it? One additional thing I receive from the Town is a tax bill for more that $600. This is in addition to the taxes I pay to Prince William County. This tax burden is an exorbitant price for an additional layer of bureaucracy which provides very little or no service. Particularly with the current economic downturn, who couldn’t use a little more money in their pocket?

I see 3 options:

1) The town council can voluntarily proceed to annul the charter: Legislative Information System Not likely to happen.

2) The citizens can petition the Courts for a referendum. Protracted and expensive with an uncertain outcome.

3) If the existing council won’t abdicate power, let’s create one that will. Four people, who have no interest politics as a career and who have no agenda other than fiscal responsibility, run for town council. These four people would constitute a majority block of votes. Their platform is to annul the town charter and provide reasonable, minimal, non-intrusive governance during the transition process.

So I put it to those who read and post on this forum. Let’s have a rational discussion on what the citizens of Haymarket receive for their tax dollars. Do your tax dollars result in civic value or not? If not, are there three or more Haymarket citizens, willing to run on a platform of dissolving the town government?

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OMG that is genius!!

Submitted by Walter Raliegh Dr on Sat, 01/26/2008 - 11:32pm.

That could really work! other than trash pick up I really see nothing the town provides.

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What can we say?

Submitted by facts4you on Mon, 01/28/2008 - 4:10pm.

There isn't much to discuss about the funds that the town collects from taxes. It never goes to fund the projects that the town needs like sidewalks and better conditioned roads. Taking our complaints to the town council never result in a positive outcome. I agree that better things need to happen and more people need to voice their opinion of how funds should be spent, but in reality the result of the citizens standing up to voice complaints always gets swept under the table. We voted for a board of people that only consider what they feel is important to the town and never give the citizens the respect of listening to our concerns. My first few suggestions would be to get rid of the town manager. That position pays nearly $70K a year. That money could be used to enhance landscaping along Washington. Next would be to get rid of the police force. That would give the town A LOT of money to improve properties, roads, sidewalks, and the list could go on. The bottom line is, will the council take those suggestions into consideration? NO! They will dismiss it like any other idea that is brought up to their attention.

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