City of vision is blind cont...
If such an immoral concept is allowed to go through, no citizen, in any part of the city of Rio Rancho, will be safe when it comes to forced actions by the city. Think of it: you want a traffic light put in on the corner of your block because of increased traffic - the city will tell you to pay for it yourself - with a SAD. Say you would like to put a new playground in for the neighborhood kids, and you think your impact fees should pay for it - guess again - it's SAD time. Even though amenities like parks are currently paid for with impact fees, it won't be long before the city will tell every citizen, every time they want a project done, to pay for it themselves- and then pocket impact fee money, or residual SAD funds. That is, of course, if you're just a group of citizens. If you're a developer, you can expect big money to come your way, maybe even SAD money.
While Jim Palenick and John Kolessar tell the media that there is no money to give us the drainage infrastructure we deserve, a developer got the new dam project started recently to protect his interest! He contributed only 1/7th of the total cost. The city gladly coughed up the rest to the tune of around $6 million dollars - and no suggestion of a SAD to the developer. It's a disgrace, and something our city officials should be ashamed of. The spectre of mismanagement just keeps getting bigger and bigger.
And sadly, part of the blame needs to rest on the shoulders of our mayor Kevin Jackson. When the floods first appeared, Jackson met with desperate citizens and saw no problem getting the proper drainage infrastructure in. Since that time, after Jackson has had time to be reigned in by the city manager and others in our city government, he has been quoted as saying "It requires our legal folks to address legal and drainage issues." Rio Rancho Journal, July 27th edition. Legal folks Kevin? What are you saying? You see this as a legal issue? How about seeing it as an opportunity to help the residents. Sure, you might not get on television to break ground with a gold shovel, or cut a shiny blue ribbon in front of a retention pond for the cameras to catch, but you'd be doing a good thing as mayor.
The next council meeting is Wednesday, October 11th at the city hall. The citizens will have a chance then to express their concerns. It's time the city council. along with Jim Palenick and John Kolessar realized that Rio Rancho is not a city of of inept boobs. We are law abiding, tax paying citizens, and we deserve to be treated like it.