Ketchikan City Council Candidates By Douglas J. Thompson September 27, 2014
I think the current candidates for City Council are running at a crucial time. Under Ketchikan City Manager Amylon's command the city is heading for bankruptcy. A bankruptcy generated by wasting taxes and incompetent city management. It is worthwhile to look at the council candidates: Incumbent KJ Harris could not run a successful bar business and failed (perhaps he has as much trouble balancing his own checkbook as he does the city's?). I am not sure why his parents did not feel he was worthy of a name rather than just initials? At any rate last winter he was threatening the local voters who disagreed with him that he would get revenge if they ever came before the city council. This was reported in the local media as he became more and more involved in keeping the council appointed & alleged child molester on the council after the evidence had come out. He can not make good choices. He expressed the view in the Moose Club that petition signers should 'mind their own business and leave city decisions to the council". Obviously a person who does not believe in democracy or a free society. He has not had one solution to any of the city's problems. He is just not intelligence and competent enough to function in the council. By his own admission in the local paper he admitted he had no idea how to use the internet. A pretty basic requirement to get any information needed to help make decisions while in office. His arrogance in not attending public meetings for people to ask questions makes him an unacceptable candidate. While David Kiffer has much more going for him he has chosen to throw his lot in with the money wasters. His mind set being with them will not help to get value for tax dollar spent nor help reduce the debt. His time on the borough has been one give away or waste after another. The arrogance of the borough trying to annex villages who wanted nothing to do with them that he was involved in was repugnant to freedom loving people. The Ketchikan Borough has had a history of wasting money in a large way. Giving the 35 million to their close buddies, grants recently to a mariculture company that had already wasted the previous grant (sounds like the veneer mill all over again). Hiring a borough garbage cop who does nothing. The White Cliff fiasco. An incompetent Tax department. Nope, while Dave is a nice guy he has no business being involved in government which he has already proven. Much the same can be said about Dick Coose. He had his time on the city council for several terms and things have only gotten worse not better as he rubber stamped Amylon on demand. As a retired Federal Government worker he is evidently comfortable with large unstable debt and is used to working with unlimited money taken from the taxpayer and future generations. The library could have been built at the old Lewis Motor site for 1/10th the money spent on the hillside. The firehall could have been set on cheaper non waterfront water and built much cheaper. He wants business as usual and Amylon at full throttle burning money for no results. They have spent unlimited money on water sewer, power, police etc, etc. Yet we still do not have safe water, adequate power efficient administration or any of the other things we have paid so high for. If these candidates were going to be a part of the solution and control this debt while providing necessary services they would have already done it. Lord knows they have had plenty of time and unlimited money. So voting them back in only guarantees that Ketchikan heads to bankruptcy rapidly. That is why I once again encourage you to learn more about and talk with Amanda Mitchell, Ed Plute, and Kevin Staples. These candidates are the only ones who give the taxpayer who intends to stay here a chance to establish some fiscal sanity. City Manager Amylon needs to be given the boot and dumped quickly as the longer he stays the more damage he does and the more money he obligates us to repay. This repayment will be catastrophic. You can look to see the over '65 tax exemption and home tax exemption among the first to go. When the taxpayers are strapped with nothing left then the obvious fact that the power projects were a failure and homes will not be heated because oil will be prohibitive and the hydro projects that should have been done properly were not. A warm summer and we will run out of water because potable water has not been addressed while Amylon was building a museum without approval. Promising no new sales tax while the Hospital sky's the limit bond was passing then raising it two months later is the kind of lying we don't need. Amylon has been a parasite to this community for years and needs replacing by a competent Council directing a competent manager. These are only the barest few topics that space allows. There is a voluminous collection of huge waste gone berserk in local government with no responsible oversight. Check it out. Ask to see the city budget. Ask where those millions are going. When you do you will see there is little choice in this election we need the energy, intelligence, leadership, informed decision making of Amanda Mitchell, Ed Plute, and Kevin Staples for city council. We can not survive the ignorant, lazy, milk toasts sucking up to Amylon as he pursues his private agenda for the destruction of Ketchikan. One or two more elections reinstalling these sychofants and keeping Amylon will put Ketchikan beyond saving with millage rates at 20, sales tax at 9 or 10% and inflated tax assessments and climbing. People will be moving away in large numbers. This is the election October 7th. Check the candidacies of the aforementioned trio and you to will feel they will work to help Ketchikan out of this fiscal mess. Sincerely, Douglas J. Thompson, About: "A taxpayer sick of carpetbagger Amylon spending us into deep debt who can leave as he came leaving the mess to locals. We need people who can balance a checkbook on the Council." Received September 22, 2014 - Published September 27, 2014
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