Swami has been told that money is tight in Waukegan's city government. But apparently au contraire. City dads must think there's so much loose change on the ground that they can afford to turn their noses up at $24 million from fed, state and county to clean up the harbor. In that case, Swami wants a loan ... and now, more of the perils of having many cranky old guys run your government ...
Swami now sees that the city of Waukegan, at least its city council and mayor, are telling the federal EPA to take a hike with its plan and millions of dollars to clean up the city harbor's PCBs.
The council met in executive session (Swami calls that a secret meeting) for one hour and 40 minutes to discuss the matter and emerged without comment or taking any action. In a statement released Tuesday, city officials showed no sign of changing course, and thus demand the EPA dredge the harbor just so deep so big commercial boats can't enter. That takes care of industry's use of the harbor, which seems to be what the city council wants even more than cleaning the harbor of cancer-causing chemicals.
The city says it "can't understand" the EPA position and the EPA can't figure out why Waukegan is being so persistently odd.
Here's why the city is being so persistently odd.
Too many old guys in power and occupying the same room. Old guys in power who want what they want. RIGHT NOW ! Old guys in power who think they're still the high school wrestling coach, and the EPA is some recalcitrant sophomore who won't do enough pushups and must be disciplined.
Too many old guys forget how to compromise. Too many old guys can't even do deep knee bends without breaking something; forget about the flexibility of having a sharp mind.
Swami expects the old city guys to hold their breath until they turn blue just to show the EPA who's boss. That should work.
Too many old guys in power...this is a problem common to all local governments.
Take the case of our little domain. In last year's election, three of the five Fearless Leaders were ousted, due in part to public protest of "wasteful spending." The new majority's priorities included eliminating this waste, so when budget time rolled around this year, they slashed the budget, denying requests for additional personnel and equipment that are badly needed because the previous board recklessly approved too much development and the staff is having a hard time handling the load.
Fast forward to last week, when one member of this august body mentioned to an employee that she needed some automated equipment to help her with her job. She tactfully reminded him that a request for the same was made in the proposed budget, which was shot down by the board.
Agendas vs common sense. It's the same everywhere.
WOW, as stated in today’s news "It always benefits a city when a big movie production comes to town," "It adds more revenue and it brings in more jobs. It's good that the city has another opportunity to have a movie filmed here"
BUT, We still want industry/jobs to go away.
Do you think the new imaginary residents living in their new posh lakefront abodes will be very tolerant of batmobiles crashing in there back yard, old night clubs being blown up and filming at all hours of the night or early morning parachutist and film crews out side there front porches.
I’m dizzy now.