No respect, no local control (August 8, 2016)
Mayor Barb Stanton dedicated the July 26th Town Council meeting to local citizens’ advocate Chuck Hanson, who had recently passed away. The insincerity of that lip service soon became apparent, though, as minutes later the Town Council voted in support of a controversial ballot measure designed to eviscerate Hanson’s final project (Town opts for own measure,
Daily Press, July 29, 2016).
One of the hallmarks of respect is telling the truth. You just don’t lie to someone you respect, and yet the Apple Valley Town Council has devolved to a point where it lies about almost everything. Just as bad, they’re not even good liars, despite all the practice they’re getting.
One of the big lies the Town has been promoting for years is that their hostile takeover of our water utility will result in something they call local control. Considering we already have local control of our water, this is a pretty amorphous promise.
Chuck Hanson and his wife Pat decided to help the Town keep its pledge, and their ballot initiative was the result. If passed in November, it will introduce a tiny bit of actual local control into the Town’s proposed seizure.
Even that was too much for the Town Council, though, as shown by their unanimous vote creating a competing ballot initiative. Where the Hanson’s ballot measure gives the citizens a voice, the Town Council’s ballot measure removes virtually all citizen input, now and in the future.
This action (which is only one of many) shows that the Town Council and highly-paid staff neither respect nor trust the residents of Apple Valley, whom they supposedly represent. If the residents of Apple Valley continue to support the current office-holders in the face of this egregious behavior, we deserve whatever happens to us.
— Greg Raven is Co-Chair of Apple Valley Citizens for Government Accountability, and is concerned about quality of life issues.