Another case of bad water and mismanagement!!!!

Discussion in 'Current Events' started by GeddonM3, Mar 5, 2016.

  1. GeddonM3

    GeddonM3 Well-Known Member

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    Sound familiar? Except this time it's a Democrat Mayor and Governor at the helm and a town with disgusting water with an extremely high black population. Hmmmmm I wonder if this will get the same coverage as what happened in Michigan. I guess we shall see.


    "The mayor of a small Louisiana town plagued with murky brown tap water is accused of mismanaging and misappropriating funds, according to a new investigative audit."

    "Among the allegations: Mayor Edward Brown received $19,491 in monies he shouldn't have received, including overpayments, double payments and payments for personal travel or travel he did not go on."


    http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/03/us/st...?iid=ob_lockedrail_bottomlarge&iref=obnetwork


    Yikes, this one is especially messed up. What say you PF?
     
  2. DarkSkies

    DarkSkies Well-Known Member

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    [video=youtube;gWcuYn4gQZ4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWcuYn4gQZ4[/video]

    Cliff note: Wherever they're drilling, 91% of the people are those of color and lower income people. -Los Angeles.

    Bill rambled off some other places affected by something called Chloramines, which is basically ammonia and chlorine compounds in the same show:

    Washington, DC
    San Francisco
    LA, Denver
    Miami
    Indianapolis
    Milwaukee
    St. Louis
    Minneapolis
    San Diego
    Portland
    Austin
    Houston
     
  3. GeddonM3

    GeddonM3 Well-Known Member

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    Hmmmm so what are you trying to say bub?

    I mean I could definitely give my view, I used to live in LA and been to SF and also have family in San Diego. And I have been to most the cities in your list. But I wanna hear your take on this.
     
  4. An Old Guy

    An Old Guy Well-Known Member

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    Actually the "problem" in St. Joseph is not even close to that of Flint. Also, there are many, many communities across the country who have issues with their water supply - again, not quite a Flint. The population of St. Joseph is 1,200 people, the population of Flint is 100,000, the governor's office in Louisiana did not fundamentally change the source of St. Joseph's water to cause the problem while the governor's office of Michigan did change the source of Flint's water - which caused a major problem.

    http://theadvocate.com/news/1476146...-officials-working-on-st-joseph-water-problem
     
  5. GeddonM3

    GeddonM3 Well-Known Member

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    Actually just much of the same, just can't put any blame on the other party so it's going to be a media no go. Murky ass water, politicians not giving a damn, but making sure they get more than their cut from the tax payers anyways.

    You should be calling for this guys head, what's holding ya back?
     
  6. An Old Guy

    An Old Guy Well-Known Member

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    Somehow I think the job of calling for anyone's head is more your specialty. You aren't interested in anything but flames, see ya...bub.
     
  7. Darkbane

    Darkbane Banned

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    you can actually add Milwaukee to the lead pipe problem, and it has no plans to replace them... because the mayor keeps raiding the water budget... worse is milwaukee supplies the water for many of the suburbs inside the county, so basically the suburbs are paying higher water rates for milwaukee to raid the budget to fund their general budget... so pipe replacement programs are decades behind and maintenance is suffering in general, the other year we had a record number of water main breaks, guess what, all were scheduled to be replaced but delayed years while the mayor raids the money for his general budget expenses... suburbs funding the city...

    and they can't get enough water rate increases passed fast enough, because they want to keep raiding more and more suburb money...
     
  8. DarkSkies

    DarkSkies Well-Known Member

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    I guess I'm trying to say that a lot of these places are primarily Democratic. Part of their platform is supporting the EPA, but bad water is still getting through. I guess I'm also saying that due to this pattern, the Flint issue is less likely the Republican govorner's fault and more likely his Democratic predecessors'.
     
  9. DarkSkies

    DarkSkies Well-Known Member

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    I scratched my head when I heard Milwauke among the list. I'm not used to hearing it among trouble lists. I'm now aware that they are another Democratic stronghold.

    What I hear you describe sounds like a scheme to me. There should be a big stink about this because, quite frankly, I feel like I can synonymize shoddy water with Democratic strongholds. This while the party touts environmentalism and all that.

    BTW, I think they do a lot of money laundering/skimming.
     
  10. mdrobster

    mdrobster Well-Known Member

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    Are you saying this water issue happened within these 2 months, to assert the new Gov is responsible. :)
     
  11. democrack

    democrack Banned

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    When 80% don't pay their water bill and some nitwit judge says turn in back on they don't have to pay , guess what happens to the quality of water . :roll:
     
  12. GeddonM3

    GeddonM3 Well-Known Member

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    Really? that's pretty interesting. I only asked what should be done about this and if we will see an equal amount of coverage as Flint has gotten. But you have not even commented on the situation or act like you care. Very telling. Yeah see ya.
     
  13. GeddonM3

    GeddonM3 Well-Known Member

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    Im pretty floored by that statement.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Well, I would say the rules of engagement could apply here no lol?
     
  14. GeddonM3

    GeddonM3 Well-Known Member

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    But apparently to the story there is more to it that such a thing. It looks like the local government misused a lot of tax dollars and did not care to address this issue. according to the article this has been a 6 year issue.
     
  15. superbadbrutha

    superbadbrutha Banned

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    What difference does it make if the Gov't at the time is Democrat or Republican, someone is responsible and someone needs to be held responsible.
     
  16. Darkbane

    Darkbane Banned

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    yeah there should be a big stink... and there is... unfortunately because of milwaukees large population, and super majority democrat control, they also control the county board... in fact the county executive is a democrat who is being challenged by another democrat because he's not extreme enough for the super majority of democrats in the city... the suburbs are pretty much out of luck at this point, its why population has actually stunted in several of the counties, when they were in a growth trajectory... now we see the surrounding counties getting all the growth as people leave milwaukee for the suburbs, and people leave the suburbs for other counties free from control...

    there are so many other examples like that, we could go down the list of county services that are basically subsidizing the city services because the city can't raise enough taxes (new law passed at state level by republicans to prevent amounts of property tax increases to hopefully slow them down)... they've managed to leverage the county to pay for the city... its sickening... sadly the people of milwaukee will continue to put democrats in the mayors office, city council, and county board... why they keep voting for democrats when things are slowly declining I don't know, but I guess that goes to show the power of persuasion and convincing people state republicans are somehow manipulating the city and forcing them to be a lower quality city... sadly the folks who care, have mostly left by now, so its mostly union control...

    I mean who wouldn't vote for the boss who promises to give you raises every contract negotiation... you'd be stupid not to vote for them right? get what you can get and who cares at what cost it comes to other people... you can move into your few nice neighborhoods, or now you can leave the city and move into the suburbs since laws have finally undone city employees being stuck in the city... they've lost about half of them by most estimates... I dunno I could go on for hours, it all angers me...

    P.S. meanwhile, after 50 years of democrat control, black unemployment gap still the same, black education still terrible, black everything hasn't improved... but they keep putting democrats back into office... nobody can help you unless you help yourself... and I guess I don't want to make it sound like they have to give up their ideology to change and improve things, I guess they really shouldn't have to, but they damn well better start demanding better candidates and if they don't get them, send that message by putting the other guy up for a couple years...
     
  17. mdrobster

    mdrobster Well-Known Member

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    "Rules of engagement", what rules would those be. I agree the Mayor is most responsible, after that, more info is needed to pass any further judgment.
     
  18. GeddonM3

    GeddonM3 Well-Known Member

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    lol dude calm yourself. Im just wanting to see how people play this issue. They made a whole nation wide issue out of Flint, but this one is under the rug. I'd figure a pretty much equal situation would have the media and left scrambling for answers. But apparently not.
     
  19. mdrobster

    mdrobster Well-Known Member

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    no this another misleading thread.
     
  20. Deckel

    Deckel Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I don't disagree but priority number 1 should be fixing the problems, not assigning blame. Often all this finger-pointing is part of the "getting someone else to pay for it" part of politics. It is a convoluted story about how it came about, but the long and short of it is that about 10 years ago my city began the first phase of a 20 year plan to overhaul all the gas and electric infrastructure in the city and about 5 years ago they undertook another long-range plan to do the same to the water and sewage infrastructure. These problems do not originate overnight and they are not solved overnight. Now hopefully these incidents will cause more local government to become more proactive in evaluating their utilities and services infrastructure and developing comprehensive plans to address these types of issues before they become so dire.
     
  21. GeddonM3

    GeddonM3 Well-Known Member

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    Misleading how?
     
  22. DarkSkies

    DarkSkies Well-Known Member

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    The reason why they keep getting voted back in is because problems are spun as someone else's fault. With pretty much a monopoly on the political scene, no outside faction is able to point out these troubling trends. I was stunned myself when Real Time's Bill Maher and another guest spouted out all the cities with water issues. My immediate thought was this information will never see the light of day after tonight (awful cynicism I admit).

    People need more information and votes will flip believe me. I had this water conversation with some others yesterday. One of them had a stunned look on his face. His reaction, "Now I'm seeing the Democrats differently. Man I thought they were the good guys." My intention wasn't to demonize the Dems. It was to provide information to demonstrate that Dems weren't the flawless faction he thought they were.

    Ok I rambled too long. Tl;dr, People, including Black citizens, will think differently about the political parties if they had more information.
     
  23. GeddonM3

    GeddonM3 Well-Known Member

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    Things wont change until the government gets an overhaul that includes true punishments and jail time for their wrong doing. I mean is it not amazing what politicians can get away with in the open air and us citizens would be hauled off to prison?

    These guys get paid to screw up, and they get slaps on the hand and go on to collect their paycheck and pensions.
     
  24. GeddonM3

    GeddonM3 Well-Known Member

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    The fact of the matter is if our media would tell the truth about or government as a whole, the same (*)(*)(*)(*) we all discuss here on these very forums , the mainstream outlook on the government would be extremely different.

    I mean look at Flint, the only reason it is a big story is because it fits a certain narrative. Meanwhile these people in Louisiana are kicked under the rug. Point is both partis have screwed up in both areas, but only one of these stories is apparently news worthy. The story in Louisiana has been going on for 6 years, and it has only been what a year for Flint?
     
  25. Deckel

    Deckel Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    A lot depends both on your local government structure and your local political climate. My city elections are at-large elections which stop the ward pandering, the mayor is not elected by the public and has no power, and the city manager's office basically sets the baseline budget for the city. We have a high bond rating to be even a poor city because paying the bills and meeting the budget are always priority No. 1. I don't think there are many people still alive on public pensions because the city shifted to 401K's some time I think in the 80's. We can spend federal and state grant money like a crack whore with a stolen credit card, but we don't spend it unless we actually have it to begin with. That is part of having a good professional bureaucratic finance department and city manager. We recruit people nationally for those positions and don't play politics with getting the bills paid first.
     

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