TIME TO SAY GOODBYE (hum the Bocelli & Brightman song)

Well, it’s time to say adios as Poncho Villa Johnson rides into the sunset.  He leaves a legacy as a Mayor that has cost citizens the most money in outside attorney fees, legal losses and fines and penalty’s associated with the losses and other monies lost to the City such as having lost valuable revenue from Nat’l Grid by not renegotiating an expired contract for 5 years and not renegotiating the Time Warner contract (another 5 year loss of money).  The Rec Center should be his legacy because promising after it was built and in operation for 1 year it would not only pay for itself but make money, well it doesn’t pay for itself and costs taxpayers at least $100,000.00 - $150,000.00 in losses each year, plus WHERE ARE THE SHOWERS ? Now that is a legacy.  He terminated the full time HR Director the City employed and as is his managing style hired an outside company that supplies the City with an HR person that works 20 hours a week for a total of $75,000.00 a year or more, if he has to put in a few extra hours.  The dollar amount is much higher than the full time HR Director made.  He also takes credit for bringing peace and dignity back to the office of Mayor and to the Council.  That was the case when he had a 4-1 majority in his favor and had what we called the bobble head kids that sat at the table.  The 3 kids sat there bobbing their heads up and down at anything the Mayor said, leaving John Franck to be the voice of reason and as most thought the real mayor at the table.  However, when in a minority and where a real leader should step up to lead, our Mayor falls apart and becomes more hostile and pompous and the more ineffective he became.  You could read the fact he wasn’t going to run again after the last election when he was almost upset by a new comer to the local political scene.  He has looked dazed and confused ever since.  That stool at Sperry’s will be getting an even better workout now.

We would like to make one more think clear to the now Mr. ‘Lame Duck’ Mayor.  When you spoke proudly of the public/private monies that were used to build the new parking garage, you forgot to mention that there were no private monies involved.  The City owned the lot, the DBA donated money but that comes from their tax fund and the City paid the rest, so all in all it is tax payer money, no matter what the spin you tried to put on it.

Well, in closing I want to say thank you Mayor Johnson, you did make these last 5 years of Council meetings fun filled and sometimes hilarious.  I would also like to pass on a tip to the Deputy Mayor, she should have your gavel bronzed because after leaving office she may have some extra time and can come over to polish the thing.