City Council Elections....

[Midtowner]

I wonder whether Hearron is aware that EVERY mode of transportation is highly subsidized? If we're talking about people/mile/dollar, I'd wager public transit probably beats private transit.

[Mikemarsh51]

I campaigned in ward six today. In a very poor part of it. Those folks are not really interested in what is going on downtown. They want someone who will do something in their neighhood. One elderly gent said it was time for Meg "how do you want me to vote, Mick" Salyer to go!

[Easy180]

Here's a comment by Hearron during an interview that is running in the DOK today:What, if anything, should be done about public transit?

“Public transit should be available where we have enough people to ride it to pay for it. Other than that we don't need it. I believe free enterprise could do a good job of providing public transit for this town and any other town.”



Read more: http://newsok.com/oklahoma-city-ward...#ixzz1EcHMb7DC

Private enterprise? What a lame-o standard Repub comeback...I am sure there are dozens of private companies dying to operate mass transit for OKC

[Easy180]

I campaigned in ward six today. In a very poor part of it. Those folks are not really interested in what is going on downtown. They want someone who will do something in their neighhood. One elderly gent said it was time for Meg "how do you want me to vote, Mick" Salyer to go!

Let me take a stab at your message in the poor parts..."Rather have more police and fire or a renovated Myriad Gardens?"

[Mikemarsh51]

You missed with your stab. This is exactly how I present myself. Hi, My name is Mike, I'm with Oklahoma City Firefighters. We are supporting this candidate. I would like you to consider this. Then I hand them the material and the rest is up to them. Why dont you roll around between SW 29th and SW 15th between Grand and Portland. Tell me what you think.

[betts]

What I think is that if city employees truly cared about the poor and their taxes, they'd be campaigning for salary cuts for themselves as well as an end to the Myriad Gardens. They'd retire at 65 on their company-matched IRA and consider themselves well rewarded by the gratitude of those less fortunate.

I also wonder how a candidate who thinks mass transit should be privatized or not exist at all can be considered a friend of the poor.

[Mikemarsh51]

That was quite a fantasy episode. Utopian, I guess. You really cracked me up with the company matched IRA.

[betts]

I just decided if "we" were going to be all beatific about our "goals" in this election, I might as well go whole hog. Personally, I'd probably give up my company-matched IRA for a hour with your candidate and a vial of truth serum.

Ah, I am easily amused.

[Mikemarsh51]

Company matched IRA, that is almost as good as the cheap City Council Christmas card I got from the city. The first week of January!

I got half an hour with my State Senator last week. You never know until you ask!!

[Doug Loudenback]

I campaigned in ward six today. In a very poor part of it. Those folks are not really interested in what is going on downtown. They want someone who will do something in their neighhood. One elderly gent said it was time for Meg "how do you want me to vote, Mick" Salyer to go!

Thanks for the report, Mike, even I don't like its content. I think that it would be a travesty if a person having the underpinnings of VanManen would oust one with those of Salyer, not even to consider their vastly different contributions to city public service outside of the city council matter.

It will be VERY IMPORTANT for those favoring Salyer to go to the polls on March 1, whichever side of the river they live on.

[Mikemarsh51]

Doug, I've kept my fingers in campaigns for going on 25 years. Yes, as part of a union. I remember Ron Norick telling us at our awards banquet, how important he felt our jobs were to the city. A year later he was opposed to everything we were for. If all of these races brought new faces, there would be a 5-4 split. Maps3 would go on like it's supposed to. The guy who call Meg "how do you want me to vote, Mick" Salyer said he was finished with her when she voted to spend $7,000,000.00 on the grand prix race. As much as that bothers you, his vote counts just like yours!

[LordGerald]

Company matched IRA, that is almost as good as the cheap City Council Christmas card I got from the city. The first week of January!

I got half an hour with my State Senator last week. You never know until you ask!!

Marshall: You got half an hour with your state senator last week as you begged for your full pension and a retirement limit of 20 years. How did you find time to lobby at the Capitol when you should've been washing your truck?

[Mikemarsh51]

Outstanding Mr. Joseph, you got your Internet turned back on. Government assistance is cool isn't it?

Nobody gets a full retirement, no idea what your referring to as a 20 year limit. Could you get one of your kids to type from now on?

[Doug Loudenback]

Doug, I've kept my fingers in campaigns for going on 25 years. Yes, as part of a union. I remember Ron Norick telling us at our awards banquet, how important he felt our jobs were to the city. A year later he was opposed to everything we were for. If all of these races brought new faces, there would be a 5-4 split. Maps3 would go on like it's supposed to. The guy who call Meg "how do you want me to vote, Mick" Salyer said he was finished with her when she voted to spend $7,000,000.00 on the grand prix race. As much as that bothers you, his vote counts just like yours!

It doesn't bother me that each of our votes counts the same, Mike. I already said what does bother me so no need to repeat.

[Mikemarsh51]

Doug, That is why we have elections.

[Larry OKC]

Never thought I would be the one doing this...but back on topic...LOL

Oklahoma City Ward 8 candidates answers questions

What do you think of the MAPS 3 projects?

Patrick J. Ryan (i), 72, retired utility executive

“I'm excited about MAPS 3. Every MAPS we've had so far, there have always been projects I liked better than other projects but when you look at the overall benefit that has accrued for the city because of the MAPS projects we've done in the past, I can't argue forcefully against anything we've done ... Look at what happened in Bricktown.”

Cliff Hearron, 74, retired U.S. Air Force colonel

“I voted against. The majority of people I talk to in Ward 8 voted against it. We all accept it, however, as a fact. Some of those pockets of MAPS 3 are probably pretty good. They're working out or will, but some other things need to be re-evaluated and I intend to help see that gets done ... People come first. Whatever the people want regarding what remains of MAPS 3 as voiced by them and all the council members, that's what I would like to do.”

More questions & answers here: http://newsok.com/oklahoma-city-ward...ticle/3542614#

[rcjunkie]

You missed with your stab. This is exactly how I present myself. Hi, My name is Mike, I'm with Oklahoma City Firefighters. We are supporting this candidate. I would like you to consider this. Then I hand them the material and the rest is up to them. Why dont you roll around between SW 29th and SW 15th between Grand and Portland. Tell me what you think.

Hi, my name is Mike, I'm still pissed we didn't get a huge raise and MAPS3 passed even though we poor, overworked firefighters didn't get anything from it, please help us get Meg defeated because she blelieves in making "every department" share in the budget cuts.

[Spartan]

You missed with your stab. This is exactly how I present myself. Hi, My name is Mike, I'm with Oklahoma City Firefighters. We are supporting this candidate. I would like you to consider this.

Why is this considered appropriate at all, to use your influence as a firefighter employed by the people of the city, to assuage poor people and demagogue them to get them riled up in your favor? Not only does it seem like a conflict of interest, but it seems like you are absolutely using these people.

By the way, you realize that the Myriad Garden renovations is almost finished already? The only things that are funded but not broken-ground yet are projects that the people already approved. So now people are looking for ways to go around the referendum of the people. A council vote for a name on the ballot is not the same as where the voter sits down and legitimately considers the projects on their own merits. That already passed by a landslide, and the forces trying to hold this city back should have conceded defeat back then. Now you guys are trying to go around the people, and undo their vote. That's pathetic. Anything you greedy union "public servants" can do to get your hands on more money. Even if it takes using the elderly and poor in the inner city for their votes. You're probably going to get some of them so riled up they have a heart attack, and there will be no firefighters to rush to their first aid because all you wanted was their vote, and besides, you're too busy out there doing your main job...campaigning for whatever might get you more dough in the end.

Do you guys take some kind of oath at all where you swear to protect and defend the city?? Doesn't seem like it. Or it must not be a very precise one, if you do.

This would be my simple pitch to the old ladies living around Portland/15th (what is that area called, foggy bottoms? swampy bottoms? something like that): Vote for the anti-urban candidates, continue the leaching of the inner city, continue the white flight, continue the suburban sprawl, and your neighborhood will continue to decline even more than it has. The suburban-minded council candidates, especially ones trying to get elected in an urban district, do not care about the plight of the inner city. Period.

But why would I do that? I don't think that the side of reason needs to use impoverished old ladies for political victories, which is you guys' life blood.

[Larry OKC]

Why is this considered appropriate at all, to use your influence as a firefighter employed by the people of the city, to assuage poor people and demagogue them to get them riled up in your favor? Not only does it seem like a conflict of interest, but it seems like you are absolutely using these people.

Sounds very similar to what the Mayor did during the MAPS 3 campaign!

[Larry OKC]

Candidates for Oklahoma City's Ward 5 answer questions
http://www.newsok.com/candidates-for...ticle/3542817#

What do you think of the MAPS 3 projects?

Brian Walters (I), 34, runs family business

“No surprise. I was the one who voted against them ... I had two major issues with MAPS 3. Number one was accountability. There was not enough accountability. It was literally elected officials in the government promising to do something with no teeth to make it happen. The only thing keeping the MAPS 3 projects in place is the fact that our credibility is on the line ... The second issue is there is a difference between a capital cost and an operating cost. All MAPS 3 was, was capital costs. The revenue is increasing but the costs of the services are increasing at a faster rate. You add on top of that three quarters of $1 billion worth of capitol projects that have no operating costs or source of revenue. Not a real good math problem. It's very poor planning.”

David Greenwell, 56, accountant

“From one perspective that vote has already occurred and I believe we need to follow through and fulfill the promises that were made when the MAPS 3 program was presented to the voters. If we don't I think we run the risk of losing trust from our citizens; we lose credibility as a municipal government and we don't ever want to do that ... We have a responsibility to our citizens to follow through with any promises we made.”

This was also reiterated by Walters in an adjoining articie

Walters also sees the need to follow through with MAPS 3 promises.

“Even though I didn't vote for MAPS 3, I think that it is an imperative that we follow with what we told the citizens we're going to do,” Walters said.

One of the promises was an assurance MAPS supporters gave voters that they would find funds for public safety, he said.

“There has been no discussion about that,” Walters said. “That has not happened. That is breaking a promise, and that has got to be fulfilled.”

[Wambo36]

Sounds very similar to what the Mayor did during the MAPS 3 campaign!

Once again Larry, you're confounding them with the facts.

[BoulderSooner]

any one else find it funny that the unions are supporting a "tea party" canidate .. they may be on your side concerning maps3 .. but in the long term you may not like the outcome

[Mikemarsh51]

Spartan, why is this considered appropriate? Because, it is the political process. In case you don’t realize we have periodic elections to see what the will of the people is. I am not trying to stop Maps3. Can’t wait for the park to be finished. I think it is time to focus on the entire city for a little while.

As I stated “Oklahoma City Firefighters” as in “Oklahoma City Firefighters association local 157”. Like Larry said, no different than Mick Cornett presenting himself as the mayor.

Again, do you think these people didn’t know what their surroundings look like? All of a sudden yesterday their eyes were opened because I handed them a flyer. *Nice rant, sounded like you just got home from a happy hour.

[betts]

I don't mind anyone campaigning for their personal agenda. Obviously this is a free country and there should be political choice. I do think anyone campaigning for their personal agenda needs to look closely at what other things that candidate may be saying or endorsing and make sure you can live with their entire platform, not just that part that seems to favor your agenda. I also have a problem with candidates using incorrect information in an attempt to win votes. For example, there are candidates talking about road quality who seem to either be deliberately ignoring the bond issue passed or who are ignorant of the passage of the bond issue. One option raises ethical issues and the other leads me to question their interest in the city and understanding of the political process.

I also had an interesting conversation with my son last night, who is studying for an exam in a law-related political science test. He was commenting on two recent Supreme Court justices who, once appointed, acted in a manner diametrically opposed to the political views of the President who appointed them. None of us really knows how a new candidate for political office will behave once elected. Incumbents are a bit more predictable. Sometimes we should beware of what we wish for. That's just a comment,a nd is not really related to any particular candidate, as any of them could do a 180 switch once elected, obviously.

[Mikemarsh51]

Betts, that is something to think about. In the article in today's paper the ward 5 candidates are asked about public safety. Walters refers to promises made during Maps3 about increased public safety. The city made cuts instead. Maybe that's what your referring to about things being done opposite of what was promised.