Robert McDonald’s “Nickel and dimed” article (Nov. 10) is a real eye opener He shows us voting citizens what happens when we don’t pay enough attention to civic affairs.
Our city council, like its predecessors, sings from the official hymnbook: “We hire good people and let them do their jobs. We don’t interfere. We don’t micro manage.” Sounds good—until we look at results rising from this doctrine.
Let’s reflect on the bureaucratic entanglements described by McDonald: Any citizen who wants to build must submit his plans for “review.” He must employ the city review agency. He must pay whatever hourly fee the agency demands of him. He must pay for as many hours as the agency decides it wants to log. He must grit his teeth and patiently conform to the timetable established by the review agency. He must wait for their decision before proceeding. And he must abide by the agency’s recommendations in order to continue his enterprise.
All these “must do’s” are rationalized by proclaiming “this work protects the public interest.” Well, OK. It does. Sorta. But at what price?
Time for our city council to dismount its high horse and do a little macro managing.
This article appears in Nov 24 – Dec 1, 2011.