http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/jimr/14823 RE: COUNCIL MEETING DISASTER! &nbsp; OK, I&rsquo;m a bit (but just a tad) more calmed down now so I can give more details about&nbsp;Monday night&rsquo;s City Council meeting. &nbsp; WOW! What a pre-conceived set up against Stan Beckham. It was very well timed and orchestrated. They finally came out of the closet! Vernon, Hand, Smith and Grimes vs Beckham. I think if Beckham had advanced a notice to double their salaries and advance them to Sainthood&hellip;they would have voted against him. His Item #17 was timed WELL into the&nbsp; Time Zone so it was presented so late that most of the citizen audience had left. Frankly, but butt was so sore from sitting on those hard, metal chairs that I was tempted to leave many times&hellip;.but I stuck it out. For over 2 and a half HOURS. &nbsp; Beckham&rsquo;s 3 issues for resolution were uniformly voted DOWN! At least it is now a matter of public record. &nbsp; Phil Smith cooed lengthily about how wonderful he was because people just kept electing him AGAIN, AND AGAIN, AND AGAIN for all of his 20+ years on the Council. He opined that it was a simple matter if people wanted a change&hellip;all they have to do is vote in someone else. Whew! He&rsquo;s got to 2010 to face that, doesn&rsquo;t he! &nbsp; And, Deborah Hand&hellip;(the one who admits to counting the ceiling tiles when a voting citizen gets up to speak&hellip;.and who said that if she could change the law about allowing citizens to even stand up to speak, she would prohibit it) ) said&hellip;.(DON&rsquo;T TAKE MY WORD FOR IT&hellip;GET THE FREE AUDIO RECORDING AT CITY HALL) &hellip;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; She said: (and some &ldquo;ANONYMOUS&rdquo; blogger here thought that Beckham needed to take a lesson in Civics 101) &nbsp; &ldquo;I THINK THAT TERM LIMITS ARE UNDEMOCRATIC.&rdquo; No kidding! That&rsquo;s what she said. Check it out for yourself. What planet does SHE live on who doesn&rsquo;t even know that the President of The United States of America is limited to 2 TERMS! Is this what we want and expect from our City officials? C&rsquo;mon people. Check in&hellip;.and do it! I&rsquo;m announcing HERE AND NOW, that I will run for a City Council seat for November, 2008. And I sincerely hope that many others do the same. Yes, it&rsquo;s very early, but let me put them on notice NOW. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re tired as hell, and we&rsquo;re not going to take it any more&rdquo;. &nbsp; Jim Richards &nbsp; &nbsp; RE: COUNCIL MEETING DISASTER! &nbsp; OK, I&rsquo;m a bit (but just a tad) more calmed down now so I can give more details about&nbsp;Monday night&rsquo;s City Council meeting. &nbsp; WOW! What a pre-conceived set up against Stan Beckham. It was very well timed and orchestrated. They finally came out of the closet! Vernon, Hand, Smith and Grimes vs Beckham. I think if Beckham had advanced a notice to double their salaries and advance them to Sainthood&hellip;they would have voted against him. His Item #17 was timed WELL into the&nbsp; Time Zone so it was presented so late that most of the citizen audience had left. Frankly, but butt was so sore from sitting on those hard, metal chairs that I was tempted to leave many times&hellip;.but I stuck it out. For over 2 and a half HOURS. &nbsp; Beckham&rsquo;s 3 issues for resolution were uniformly voted DOWN! At least it is now a matter of public record. &nbsp; Phil Smith cooed lengthily about how wonderful he was because people just kept electing him AGAIN, AND AGAIN, AND AGAIN for all of his 20+ years on the Council. He opined that it was a simple matter if people wanted a change&hellip;all they have to do is vote in someone else. Whew! He&rsquo;s got to 2010 to face that, doesn&rsquo;t he! &nbsp; And, Deborah Hand&hellip;(the one who admits to counting the ceiling tiles when a voting citizen gets up to speak&hellip;.and who said that if she could change the law about allowing citizens to even stand up to speak, she would prohibit it) ) said&hellip;.(DON&rsquo;T TAKE MY WORD FOR IT&hellip;GET THE FREE AUDIO RECORDING AT CITY HALL) &hellip;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; She said: (and some &ldquo;ANONYMOUS&rdquo; blogger here thought that Beckham needed to take a lesson in Civics 101) &nbsp; &ldquo;I THINK THAT TERM LIMITS ARE UNDEMOCRATIC.&rdquo; No kidding! That&rsquo;s what she said. Check it out for yourself. What planet does SHE live on who doesn&rsquo;t even know that the President of The United States of America is limited to 2 TERMS! Is this what we want and expect from our City officials? C&rsquo;mon people. Check in&hellip;.and do it! I&rsquo;m announcing HERE AND NOW, that I will run for a City Council seat for November, 2008. And I sincerely hope that many others do the same. Yes, it&rsquo;s very early, but let me put them on notice NOW. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re tired as hell, and we&rsquo;re not going to take it any more&rdquo;. &nbsp; Jim Richards &nbsp; &nbsp; en-us Right on Jim http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/jimr/14823/#c_140261 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/jimr/14823/#c_140261 Right on Jim Jim, I'm sorry I wasn't able to go.&nbsp; I can't tell you how happy I am that you are running! You've got my vote! http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/jimr/14823/#c_140320 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/jimr/14823/#c_140320 Jim, I'm sorry I wasn't able to go.&nbsp; I can't tell you how happy I am that you are running! You've got my vote! <p><strong><em><font color="#333399" size="3">Thank you all for the kind words of support. Since there will be two seats up for the vote in November, 2008 I hope there will be many others who will join me in stepping up to the plate to take our City back!</font></em></strong></p> <p><strong><em><font color="#333399" size="3">Jim Richards</font></em></strong></p> http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/jimr/14823/#c_140337 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/jimr/14823/#c_140337 <p><strong><em><font color="#333399" size="3">Thank you all for the kind words of support. Since there will be two seats up for the vote in November, 2008 I hope there will be many others who will join me in stepping up to the plate to take our City back!</font></em></strong></p> <p><strong><em><font color="#333399" size="3">Jim Richards</font></em></strong></p> I did not attend but it would be interesting to see how many City Council agenda items have had a split vote in recent years. I'm pretty sure that once one or two members hop on board, it's off to the races without much thought so I'd guess less than 5% of agenda items in the past 3 years have had any internal opposition. Anyone know the stats?<br /> <br /> I don't have a problem with Phil Smith. At least he is articulate to a degree and attempts to move the city forward. The worst member in my opinion is Hand - clueless, knee-jerk, and absolutely unprofessional in her behavior and comments. <br /> <br /> I say go for it Mr. Richards. It's never too early to campaign - look at the presidential race! http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/jimr/14823/#c_140562 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/jimr/14823/#c_140562 I did not attend but it would be interesting to see how many City Council agenda items have had a split vote in recent years. I'm pretty sure that once one or two members hop on board, it's off to the races without much thought so I'd guess less than 5% of agenda items in the past 3 years have had any internal opposition. Anyone know the stats?<br /> <br /> I don't have a problem with Phil Smith. At least he is articulate to a degree and attempts to move the city forward. The worst member in my opinion is Hand - clueless, knee-jerk, and absolutely unprofessional in her behavior and comments. <br /> <br /> I say go for it Mr. Richards. It's never too early to campaign - look at the presidential race! <p><font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2"><a name="1"></a>Hi Jim, Do you remeber the letter that was discussed last night at the Council Meeting?&nbsp; The letter was from the City and&nbsp;it was&nbsp;mailed to folks who live in a particular area of West D Street.&nbsp; In effect the letter stated, &quot;...you have to trim back your bushes within a certain amount of time, or the City will do it for you and charge you for it.&quot;</font></p> <p><font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2"><a name="2"></a>Well Mr. Smith lives at 104 West D St and this is his block that received the letter.&nbsp; I wonder who initiated that letter through the code inspector?</font></p> <p><font size="3"><font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2"><a name="3"></a>And, get this...the City had marked two trees by Mr. Smith's house for removal because they are tearing up the sidewalks.&nbsp; Mr. Smith talks to someone at the City and says, &quot;Oh, no.&nbsp; Don't remove the trees they provide shade for my house.&quot;&nbsp; Well the City has removed the white crosses that they placed on the trees so that the trees won't be removed.&nbsp; </font></font></p> <p><font size="3"><font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2"><a name="4"></a>Must be nice to get all these &quot;special&quot; services from the City.&nbsp; I guess I don't pay as much in property tax as he does.&nbsp; Oh, I forgot.&nbsp; I do.&nbsp; Oh, well.&nbsp; You can bet I'm going to bring this up to him in person.</font></font></p> http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/jimr/14823/#c_140608 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/jimr/14823/#c_140608 <p><font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2"><a name="1"></a>Hi Jim, Do you remeber the letter that was discussed last night at the Council Meeting?&nbsp; The letter was from the City and&nbsp;it was&nbsp;mailed to folks who live in a particular area of West D Street.&nbsp; In effect the letter stated, &quot;...you have to trim back your bushes within a certain amount of time, or the City will do it for you and charge you for it.&quot;</font></p> <p><font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2"><a name="2"></a>Well Mr. Smith lives at 104 West D St and this is his block that received the letter.&nbsp; I wonder who initiated that letter through the code inspector?</font></p> <p><font size="3"><font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2"><a name="3"></a>And, get this...the City had marked two trees by Mr. Smith's house for removal because they are tearing up the sidewalks.&nbsp; Mr. Smith talks to someone at the City and says, &quot;Oh, no.&nbsp; Don't remove the trees they provide shade for my house.&quot;&nbsp; Well the City has removed the white crosses that they placed on the trees so that the trees won't be removed.&nbsp; </font></font></p> <p><font size="3"><font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2"><a name="4"></a>Must be nice to get all these &quot;special&quot; services from the City.&nbsp; I guess I don't pay as much in property tax as he does.&nbsp; Oh, I forgot.&nbsp; I do.&nbsp; Oh, well.&nbsp; You can bet I'm going to bring this up to him in person.</font></font></p> you got my vote http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/jimr/14823/#c_143214 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/jimr/14823/#c_143214 you got my vote <p><strong><em><font color="#333399" size="3">Your words of support are very much appreciated and since the City Council elections are over a year away I only hope that people hang in there with me and don't forget about it when voting times finally rolls around. And, remember this:</font></em></strong></p> <div><font face="Arial"><font color="#ff0000" size="3"><strong>An election is coming. Universal peace is declared and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry. <br /> <br /> </strong></font></font></div> <p><strong>Jim Richards</strong><br /> </p> http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/jimr/14823/#c_143265 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/jimr/14823/#c_143265 <p><strong><em><font color="#333399" size="3">Your words of support are very much appreciated and since the City Council elections are over a year away I only hope that people hang in there with me and don't forget about it when voting times finally rolls around. And, remember this:</font></em></strong></p> <div><font face="Arial"><font color="#ff0000" size="3"><strong>An election is coming. Universal peace is declared and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry. <br /> <br /> </strong></font></font></div> <p><strong>Jim Richards</strong><br /> </p>