Mayor insults citizens
It is an election year in Kingsport, Tennessee for members of the Board of Mayor and Alderman. Mayor Dennis Phillips is running for re-election and has managed to insult the voters in his bull-headed attempt to put the aquatic center in an area where he wants it, but the citizens do not.
The mayor recently made the statement below as reported by the Kingsport Times-News.
“We have got to do a better job of getting this whole thing down to the eighth-grade level to where we can all understand it. I think that we need to get the word out of who we’re building the pool for,” Phillips said.
The above statement by the mayor should tell the citizens what the mayor thinks about their intelligence. Clearly, this is an insult..
Mayor Phillips is attempting to resell the concept of putting the aquatic center in the Meadowview area. He has managed to get very strong vocal opposition to it being placed in the Meadowview area and opposition to it being built in this economy.
This issue has been hard wired from the very beginning. First, it was the committee appointed by the mayor to make recommendations where to place the pool. It came out in the February 3, 2009 BMA meeting that the findings of the committee were flawed because of the very narrow marching orders given to the committee. Also, who do you think made presentations to the committee? Apparently, the committee believed the data presented by the city and we have seen in the past that the city is capable of not telling the full story sometimes.
The demographic analysis stated that the Meadowview area was the “closest proximity to home owners” is also flawed. I guess the city thought the citizens would believe that statement when in fact there is no way it can be true. I have reported many times concerning the city twisting the truth to get the effect they wanted.
The mayor states. “At the same time, we will maintain some type of city water feature at Legion Pool for the foreseeable future. We’re not going to abandon those children.” The city talks about keeping the Legion Pool open for one to two years after the aquatic center opens. Well, Mr. Mayor, when you close the Legion Pool after one or two years, then you are in fact abandoning the children.
Phillips said the city would somehow make the aquatic center available to people who can’t afford the fees and find a way to help some people get to the new facility. Nothing has been said about the fees that would be charged. Mayor Phillips statement makes be believe that the fees will be higher than the Legion Pool.
“This aquatic center is an investment in our city, and you have to invest in your city to get people to come,” Phillips said. Apparently the mayor is willing to invest money to get tourists to come to Kingsport, but not willing to invest to help lower the high unemployment rate in Kingsport.
Clearly, the mayor and city manager are on a public relations blitz to keep this project going.
I encourage you to read the entire Kingsport Times-News article (including comments) and also see post, Kingsport’s aquatic center in deep water
Comments are welcome.