January 11, 2012

This nosey little newshound isn’t much on thumpin’ the drum for one politician over another, especially in this politically charged market. That said however, we’re wondering when the rest of the currently seated city council people will start playing up to their potential. Sure were a lot of high minded promises and sweeping changes proposed during the campaign phase. Sadly, not many seem to measure up to their own hype. There does seem to be one exception – City Councilman Scott Wagner.

Councilman Wagner, upon reading last week’s Buzz about Suzanne Dougherty, the Northeast woman saddled with a $4,000 repair bill for a sidewalk and curb she doesn’t own, immediately called for some policy changes on matters this newshound pointed out so eloquently. Our Buzz also prompted a camera crew from NBC Action News to contact Ms. Dougherty about the situation, further spotlighting the non-sensical ordinance.

This li’l news-dog might be getting a little long in the tooth but that doesn’t lessen our passion to not only report news in our community, but to spotlight situations (like this) and act as a catalyst of change for good in our community. Ms. Dougherty’s situation and the ridiculous $4,000 bill she received for repairs (complete with a $555 gratuity for “inspection and overhead”) is a situation where change is desperately needed in how the city treats its tax paying citizens.

Maybe instead of trying to micromanage the failing public school system here in the city, Mayor James can start overhauling some of the grossly mismanaged city departments – water for starters – that seem to forget that the taxpayers are actually the customers.

We can’t say much more than that, but it’s good to know that there are still elected officials around that “get it” and understand the term “public servant.”

We’ll have more on Ms. Dougherty’s situation as it becomes available. Suffice it to say, change is comin’, and that’s not a bad thing in this case.