Column for Nov. 12, 2009

Congratulations, Selma. I just watched the town's municipal election returns on News 14 (an exclusive service of Time Warner Cable. Yes, I work for that company. I am the engineer who brings you all of their advertising. I install and maintain their advertising automation systems for a living. Now the newspaper can send them a bill for the mention) and on the county web site. You just voted for at least another two years of the same old status quo. This little town in which I keep hearing about wanting a change in leadership has just refused the change.

To all those who live outside the town limits, you can look forward to an increase in regulation without representation. The same people who brought you town ordinance control extended to the extra-territorial jurisdiction are still in office. The same people who tried to annex your land and raise your taxes are again in office and will most likely assault your property rights again.

To those who live within the town limits, you can look for an increasingly stringent set of laws and regulations. The same people who brought you tax increases three out of four years in a row and higher utility bills than those on a privately owned electrical grid are still in power (pun intended).

The same town council members who need to have each and every issue explained, re-explained, and then rephrased to be comprehensible to them will again sit in the seat of power. Those with questionable eligibility for even holding municipal public office are still holding on to it. Way to go, Selma. The same mayor who brought news crews, the NAACP, lawsuits, and just plain negative attention to our sleepy little town will have control of the town gavel.

To all of you readers who keep telling me you want change but did not vote for it or even failed to vote at all, please refrain from telling me you want change in this town. For the past three municipal election cycles, I have made an effort to spread the message of conservative, proven, and decisive leadership. Instead, people apparently would prefer an existing clique.

Sitting at a local restaurant or barbershop, I have heard several people either postulate or assent to the idea of candidate X being a nice "airhead" or indecisive, and yet the same candidate has been returned to office yet again.

I was personally hoping for a changing of the guard, since I am tired of the status quo. We had status quo four years ago, but I do believe that perhaps some of that status quo was better than our existing status quo. When liberties are marred, taxes are raised, town public relations and perceptions worsened, volunteer advisory boards repeatedly ignored, and hand picked cronies empowered, I question the legitimate progress therein.

To be fair, there have been some positive results over the past four years of the tenure of our incumbent town "govering [sic] body". The town did indeed trim some of its budget. Though from what I have been informed by those who would know, the town was never in as bad shape economically as was claimed.

The town did reorganize its fire department and hired a full time fire chief, regardless of the questionable methodology in doing so. The town leadership did hire two different town managers, though again, its methodology and end result are still in great question. The town council and mayor did adopt clearer planning and zoning ordinances, though they were brought about by the diligent work of a new Planning Director and the few accepted recommendations by a frustrated Planning Board. Just ask them and you will find that most on that board are very frustrated.

Here is the saving grace. The phrase, "the devil that you know is better than the one you don't" may be appropriate in this case. At least the incumbents are a known quantity, though I was looking forward to something different. I figured that the race for mayor could have been an upset, and it was even closer than two years ago, with just a twenty-seven vote difference. That means that just 14 voters could have changed the outcome of that election. I figured (and wrote some time ago in this very column) that the two incumbents for the town council would return handily, and they did. In all honesty, there was little in the way of opposition to worry about. There were some write-in votes, but those were not reported.

Oh, well. It's time to simply pick up my pickaxe and keep swinging. In the meantime, I am going to spend less time involved in public affairs in this town and more time with my family, my church, and in my cozy home sanctuary.