It finally happened: On a big vote this week, Steve Christy took the wrong side against Ally Miller. Could this be the indication that we were right about him all along? Or is this just one bad vote on his part?
The Arizona Daily Independent has already thoroughly covered the money pit that is the American Airlines direct flight between TUS and JFK: Those aren’t chemtrails, they’re just dollar bills being shredded through the jet turbines.
This past week at the Pima County Board of Supervisors Meeting, King of Wasteful Spending Chuck Huckelberry hemmed and hawed over his desire to commit your tax dollars to bailing out his crony in a bad deal with American Airlines. Keep in mind, this is the major airline at or near the highest of its peers in debt load, and increasing its debt while other airlines are decreasing theirs. Even Huckelberry had to admit in his rambling circumlocution that the route is not a viable business for any airline and that it is losing gobs of money for American.
Steve Christy portrayed himself during the election as a businessman with good sense and strong leadership. Why, then, on God’s green earth, would a successful businessman want to throw good money after bad? The right move on Tuesday would have been to cut the losses and allow service on that route to end. Again. For the–which–time? Third? Fourth? More?
If you believe him, Richard Elias doesn’t hear any complaints from his constituents–and he still has yet to respond about his offensive comments to the citizens of this county from the last meeting–so let me write in language even he can comprehend:
You enjoy oppressing your constituents. Many of them find more convenient flight times for less money out of Sky Harbor. Even if they have to schedule around taking a shuttle, they get better connections from flights out of PHX than out of TUS. The rest of the poor fools who reelect you scheming spendthrifts lack either the reason or the disposable income to travel to New York. Flights from TUS to major hubs in ATL, IAH, DEN, and LAX are good enough. And, while we’re on the topic of how much money you throw away with impunity, because you so badly mismanage this county, people from New York–and most of the rest of the country–would rather fly to anywhere else than to one of the most impoverished metropolitan areas in the U.S. Fix the town, then drive tourism; it doesn’t work in the reverse order you fools keep trying.
And while we have Richard Elias on the mind, let’s talk about his continued hateful bigotry toward Ally Miller: She vociferously declined to vote on three items that had clerical errors in the text as Huckelberry and crew presented them for the vote. Rightly so. But then she voted in favor of an item that corrected a different clerical error. Blinded by his malevolence toward Miller, Elias pontificated that it made no sense to him that she would vote against three errors and then for a fourth. Instant replay: Against an error, against an error, against an error, for a measure to correct an error.
There is a massive, chasm-bridging difference between voting against measures in error and voting for a different measure that corrects an error. And he jabbed at her anyway.
Once again, Elias is so far from the rational truth that he must be ignorant of the proceedings around him. Which is no stretch, since he got up and walked around the dais multiple times while Ally Miller was speaking. He is inconsiderate, he is rude, he is uncivil. And yet, Chair Bronson imposes “rules of civility” on the public during the open call.
Oh, Sharon Bronson doesn’t escape notice this meeting, either. Could somebody please remind her that this is a representative republic and not a democracy? She clearly forgot or misunderstood that during a proclamation early in the meeting. And then she opened the call to the audience and proceeded to thank commenters with whom she agreed, but failed to acknowledge those with whom she disagreed. Such a lack of civility. Among those she called to speak were several who got an early start on a measure that will come before the Board when next it convenes: Hands-free requirements while driving.
Do we have to go there? Carrying a gun onto La Encantada is illegal; a shooting claimed two lives there last week. Drunk driving is illegal, as is entering a flooded roadway; one or the other–or both, according to some rumors (unsubstantiated, but unprovable because there was no blood test with published results)–led to Bronson plowing her taxpayer-funded county car into a wash last monsoon season. Speeding is illegal; the average flow of traffic on Tucson streets is at least five miles over the posted limit, usually faster.
People don’t obey laws that impinge on their convenience. In the first few months of Oro Valley’s hands-free ordinance, OVPD has made hundreds of stops to “inform” drivers, not cite them. Do our law enforcement officers sincerely have that much time to spare? New Yorkers don’t give two squirts about our hands-free laws. How about we focus our Sheriff’s Deputies on property crime and vandalism. Maybe then, if we cleaned up the town, tourists would be more interested in coming to Tucson.