The Asheville City Council as Roman Circus

**update** A Financial Report delivered at the Asheville City Council retreat is at the end.

The Asheville City Council had it's annual retreat yesterday, and here are some thought about it from Leslee Kulba:

One of council’s five goals is job creation. The first two great providers of jobs listed by Mayor Terry Bellamy were recent recipients of corporate welfare. Workforce development was one of Bellamy’s priorities. We appear but one step from accepting as a proper role of government the determination of the highest and best use for human resources. The free market has, no doubt, failed, and the seven members on city council have the knowledge and power to employ people better than capitalists trying to provide goods and services the community demands. We do, after all, have czars. It is aggravating that three people who do not know the Supreme Law of the Land can get elected and start enacting socialist policies, and everybody else is supposed to be polite and uphold decorum by keeping their mouth shut. One feels like a schizophrenic terrorist to even suggest something about cause and effect. Socialism’s track record for failure is inadmissible evidence.

Newly-elected Cecil Bothwell never ceased to shock. He said he hoped by 2020, Asheville could be recognized for having prepared for the end of the oil industry, having made their city livable with adequate transit beforehand. He had just read in the Washington Post that gas would soon go over $3.00/gallon, and $3.50/gallon is the tipping point for getting people to use transit in droves. Bothwell mentioned about three times the threat of global warming. It is occurring much faster than anticipated, and the polar ice caps will be decimated by 2015. Bothwell expected Asheville’s plentiful water resources would be a boon in the context of global water shortages. Lastly, Bothwell stated he had become a supporter of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, and wanted to lobby the legislative delegation for statewide legalization of drugs.

Gordon Smith praised locals helping locals as healthcare costs skyrocketed. He praised the Grove Park Inn for deciding to provide domestic partner benefits and hoped the city would follow suit. Smith also wanted to enact legislation against violence perpetrated against cyclists. He said almost every cyclist he knows has had a bottle thrown at him. Special legislation of this type insinuates it is OK to throw bottles at gays, geeks, or people of color as long as they’re not on bikes.

[snip]

The mayor mentioned in addition that the legislators had let up on the Sullivan Acts. The city is now allowed to use water revenues for parks and greenways. This brought to mind a past conversation with former representative Charles Thomas, who said the Sullivan Acts were needed because Asheville had a history of irresponsible spending. His worst fears seemed to be coming to life.

City Manager Gary Jackson prepared a white paper in response to “the Locke Foundation.” On break, he clarified the comment pertained only to the “By the Numbers” report. The white paper contained no new information. After conferring with city staff, more will be posted here.

The Lioness of Asheville, Leslee Kulba nails it. Read the rest at her blog, Wild West. All emphasis in the quoted excerpt from her blog are mine.

Commentary

I think that Asheville is getting EXACTLY what it deserves. Especially since the "conservative" candidates who ran in the last election took the fool's road and pledged to not raise more than $3,000 for their election campaigns.

My hope is that some serious conservatives will run in 2011 and stop the bleeding. I do not think it likely, but am willing to be pleasantly surprised.

Here is the Financial Report, titled "Asheville 2010: A Financial Crossroads"