Upgrade to Elmira charter will take time and money (well, when did government ever do anything without time or money?)
Elmira officials are searching for grants to bring the City Charter into the new millennium and make it more accessible.
Ok, the city charter is sorta-kinda like our federal constitution, I get that. Why is it though, that a typewritten copy of the federal constitution is at most 4 pages (if you use a really large font), while our little old city charter, is over 40,000 pages long? (That was FORTY THOUSAND PAGES people!)
Sure, I know, there is much nuance in dog control laws and the like, but come on people, get a grip.
How about this proposal, oh fine, elected folk, you are allowed 50 laws, I don;t really care what they are, as I find I follow less and less of them as I get older and older, if you find that you absolutely and positively need a new law in the charter, remove one of the less needed one in the charter. Who knows it might just catch on with the rest of the country
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Here’s a novel idea:
During regular working hours put a competent secretary and Assistant Corporate Counsel Campanella in a large, quiet room with the 1500-2000 pages of the Charter. Provide them with good lighting, several red pencils, and a large table with two chairs and a working pencil sharpener.
(IMHO, Corporate Counsel John Ryan probably shouldn’t be included in this process as he has a history of poor decision making already and I believe we probably don’t want mistakes to be made with this process).
Put the secretary and Campanella to work with the pencil and have them red line all the antiquated and inappropriate laws.
Have the secretary type up the resulting newly updated City Charter in a digital format suitable for computer publication. After red lining, the Charter would probably be only 8 or 10 pages so it could be typed up in an afternoon.
Type up the antiquated laws that were removed on a separate list so the City Council can accept their removal and they could then be included in the accumulated history of Elmira if such an item exists.
Shazaam! Problem solved on regular time by regular employees. No muss, no fuss, no grant required, no overtime involved, no outside consultants necessary, no thousands of dollars drained from Elmira’s already overextended coffers, no increase in taxes necessary.
As a former teacher, even Mr. Hare could approve of the red lining of the inappropriate and incorrect!
Isn’t this a novel concept?
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Every time there is a consultant hired, somebody is getting a kick back, so we have a financial disincentive to someone on the council or in the mayors office, other than that, the only other thing I can think of is, having many laws on the books makes it very easy to slap people whom the powers to be think need slapping.
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Obviously there is a reason to start worrying about the lack of updating the city charter over the past
(how many ) years ? What that reason is I have no idea but I can certainly think that it may just be a distraction to the bigger things that are currently going on in the City limits. What better way to turn the heads of the citizenship and the few tax payers who are left ? But methinks it aint going to work this time folks. Our once beloved City is literally falling into the streets ( good thing the potholes are deep ). The Arena seems to be on the skids and I have heard that Afr is thinking of pulling up stakes and leaving. The Jackals don’t seem to be able to put the same team on the Ice game to game. And the L.L.C.s are still waiting for their GRANT (i.e.Tax) money to start creating those High End apartment houses overlooking lovely ( rotting ) river front park and beyond. But hey, this seems to be a tried and true pattern for Elmira Politicians. When there are important issues at hand that will upset the tax payers , just drop back a few steps and come up with something that hasn’t effected any of us for the hundred or so years its been in existence and punt ! I personally have never owned a ‘p-shooter’ so I’m innocent of that one anyhow. But maybe we all should start craning our necks a little harder because this issue is not a good sign for Elmira’s future. Its kind of like the backward fence and Sam’s Club carport issues which have come up at times like the building of the Arena ! Distract and defraud the public seems to be the way Elmira has been run for many, many years. So don’t start worrying yourself about the Charter and if you are concerned about something like Mule crap in your backyard then just trot on down and ask to see a copy of the Charter. You don’t want to break the Law now, do you ?
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I think you are right though, instead of facing the real issues, the powers to be are looking for something they can make a big deal out of, and eventually get done, to no real advantage.
For 4 more years, there is not a thing we can do about it.
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