A revealing documents available on Brad Cole's web site is his 2003 platform which touches on many of his accomplishments before he was Mayor -- during his four years as a member of City Council. These accomplishments included rehabilitating the old Woodlawn Cemetery; eliminating the city's portion of the property tax; recouping hundreds of thousands of dollars lost to Census error-- and more. I'll try to draw up a comprehensive list, as time permits.
I repeat: he got these things done as a City Councilman! And what has Sheila has done as a first-term member of City Council? What accomplishment is she most proud of during the same period of time? (Perhaps something she voted against? or for? Or something she did outside of City Council chambers, as a member of some other organization? Maybe I should ask her! I wish her well, you know, and hope she gets an important post in President Obama's staff in 2009.)
P.S. Message to Anonymous
Don't give Anonymouses a bad name by being a confusing dufus. Making unfounded accusations against me in anonymous comments does not accomplish your purpose of challenging Brad Cole's supremacy as a candidate for mayor. If there is some clarification that you require just write directly to dave at shawneenet dot net. As far as I can see, all "Anonymous" comments have been posted. If one of yours went missing, you could try resending it.
Words to live by, imo: Expect the best, and you just might get it! Expect the worst, and you're asking for it.
12 comments:
Simon is the leading proponent on the Council in support of the smoking ban in Carbondale, something that Cole opposes. In fact, Simon fought for open public discussion of the issue at a Council meeting, while Cole tried to limit public discourse to 3 public comments per side.
Simon was vehemently opposed to the purchase of the American Tap property, and as a result of her stated opposition to the purchase, Cole scheduled a vote on purchasing the Tap property while Simon was out of the country.
Simon opposes the city taking over utility responsibilities from AmerenCIPS. Carbondale does not have the money, the equipment, or the personnel to adequately oversee the provision of electricity to city residents.
Simon opposed the Community Clean-up program because of the vagueness of the program and the high cost. It turns out that most of the properties cleaned up under the Mayor’s program were owned by landlords, not owner-occupied homes, and many of the people doing the work were not high school students as the Mayor originally claimed would be the recipients of this money.
Simon proposed and supported the ordinance regulating noise from beer gardens near residential areas during the week. The hypothesized negative effect of that ordinance has yet to materialize.
Simon supported the Hidden Creek Estates Subdivision, which Cole opposed. Now why would the Mayor oppose additional owner-occupied housing in the City?
Simon supported the choice of CenBen USA as the health insurance provider for the City, while Mayor Cole opposed opening up the health insurance decision to competitive bidding. I guess Mayor Cole wasn’t interested in getting the best deal for city employees.
Simon has strongly supported, and even proposed, the annexation of many areas of land adjoining the City, as has Cole.
That’s a start. I can come up with more if you like.
Thanks for your contribution "Good Anonymous".... Some other jerk is trolling around using your name. ;-)
Keep those informative comments coming!
The anti-smoking thing is good, but that was driven by the money from an out of town PAC and local citizens. Still give Sheila credit there.
I'm fairly sure that this is revisionist history on the Tap. These votes can be seen coming for months. This was discussed in the paper for months. There was no surprise. Guess it would have been 5-2 if she was in town, but it is still a good deal for the city.
I like the idea that Sheila opposes the investigation of taking over the Ameren grid. I don't think it will fly, but why be against investigation?
I saw the cleanup program in NE C'dale picking up trash. They picked up the empty lots near my house.
What is Hidden Creek Estates? How about an address? What are the issues?
I bet that Lance Jack has a better record, if you are giving partial credit for voting on other people's ideas.
Hi Dave -
Was looking for something else and came across an old page of yours. Two things struck me about the page, first how many pictures you took and published! Wow, what is a lot of work. Second, was the photos of the American Tap.
Great idea to leave "The Tap" in place. The heck with Illinois Ave. businesses I guess. Good thing that cooler heads prevailed.
The American Tap episode is the number one reason that Sheila shouldn't be elected mayor, she will not put what is right for the city first. The world if full of Henry Fishers and once you get off the SIU reservation and start to do real work, you are going to have to deal with them.
Nice post by the way. I guess I would like to hear more about what Sheila has done or proposed that doesn't include showing up to vote at the city council. I like the last comment, Lance Jack could run for mayor on his voting record too.
I saw the cleanup program in NE C'dale picking up trash.
I believe you've missed both Anons point, and Simons as well. No one objects to cleaning up Carbondale; lots of people object to cleaning up after landlords, rather than making them clean up after themselves. Show me a program that helps people who cannot -- due to age or disability -- help themselves with cleanup, and I'll be the first one in line to support it. That's not what this program did. Some houses that weren't landlord houses got cleaned up; most of the houses that benefited were not owner occupied.
Peter writes,
Great idea to leave "The Tap" in place. The heck with Illinois Ave. businesses I guess....The American Tap episode is the number one reason that Sheila shouldn't be elected mayor, she will not put what is right for the city first. The world if full of Henry Fishers and once you get off the SIU reservation and start to do real work, you are going to have to deal with them.
True, but that should not include bending over and taking it. Overpaying for the Tap was the worst of a list of possible options. It was fiscally, morally, and economically irresponsible. How much should we pay to the next child molester that wants to hold the city hostage? Is $200,000 enough? How about a cool million? Your logic breaks down quickly once you realize you have to draw a line somewhere.
Great idea to leave "The Tap" in place. The heck with Illinois Ave. businesses I guess. Good thing that cooler heads prevailed.
So, what's happening with development on the old American Tap site? What's it been 3 years since the city bought it, and who has moved into that spot? What other development has that empty lot led to on Illinois?
Nice post by the way. I guess I would like to hear more about what Sheila has done or proposed that doesn't include showing up to vote at the city council. I like the last comment, Lance Jack could run for mayor on his voting record too.
I didn't realize that there was so much support for Lance Jack in town. Maybe someone should have encouraged him to run for Mayor as well.
I've listed a number of things that Simon initiated or took a strong stand on in her role as a City Council member.
Cole supporters have cited one thing - the property tax cut - that Cole did on the City Council prior to becoming Mayor and they would have us believe that he did it all by himself. And here, I thought that a majority of the Council needed to vote for something for it to pass.
I was laughing about paying more for the Tap building. You are right, the city might have paid more (or less), but they didn't. You will not see anything beyond a parking lot in the Tap spot and that will happen when the doctor on the corner sells. The lot has no parking.
I guess when the first Anonymous said that he could come up with more Sheila accomplishments if we wanted, he really couldn't then?
Kind of fun to play the game isn't it? You just ignore what people have written, marginalize all accomplishments, don't look at the documents, and then your candidate is the best by default. Now you can see the Sheila campaign strategy a little more clearly I bet?
I don't think that Lance Jack's record is that different then Sheila's. Both have taken "strong stands" and worked very little for the city. Sheila is up in a couple of areas, but Lance has a far better pro-business record. Of course, Lance isn't the kid of political royalty, isn't a Democrat and doesn't seem to have a job. But beside that, their voting records are about the same.
Nothing better then being on city council when someone else is working hard. Success without the effort. Standing on the shoulders of Brad and looking tall.
Everyone can play the marginalizing game with other people accomplishments, the honest people even understand they are doing it.
Of course, Lance isn't the kid of political royalty, isn't a Democrat and doesn't seem to have a job.
Peter, your ignorance is showing -- Jack has actively sought the endorsement of the Jackson County Democrats and, if I'm not mistaken, is a precinct committeeman. I'd say its another shot at your credibility, but I'm not convinced you have any left with the average voter.
I guess Lance really is unelectable if he is a Dem. If you are supporting our current governor, that classifies you as a fool doesn't it? I have learned that being a Illinois Democrat makes you an optimist, Chicagoan, fool, historian or idiot. The Green's are looking good aren't they?
Still doesn't answer the question, does Lance has a better record as city council person then Sheila or any more (or just any real) accomplishments than Sheila?
This is like shooting fish in a barrel. The only comment about Sheila's record you can make is that she doesn't have much of one because she works part-time. But, that means when she becomes mayor, since she will work part-time, she won't have any accomplishments then either. This will be really noticeable without Brad's work to usurp or complain about.
Simon opposed the Community Clean-up program because of the vagueness of the program and the high cost. It turns out that most of the properties cleaned up under the Mayor’s program were owned by landlords, not owner-occupied homes, and many of the people doing the work were not high school students as the Mayor originally claimed would be the recipients of this money.
I happened to live across the street from where the summer clean-up crew noisily assembled every morning before going out on their daily rounds. Despite my written request last June to the Mayor to get the old high school properties cleaned-up of graffiti and tons of trash and debris, nothing much was done about it and both the trash and graffiti remain today. What’s with that? It makes me wonder who were the real beneficiaries of this expensive taxpayer funded largess?
If you are supporting our current governor, that classifies you as a fool doesn't it?
This might be the biggest non-sequitor yet. No one has brought up Blagojevich but you. But if you want to start tagging the candidates with partisans, we don't even have to make insinuations about Brad. Want to go down that road?
This is like shooting fish in a barrel. The only comment about Sheila's record you can make is that she doesn't have much of one because she works part-time. But, that means when she becomes mayor, since she will work part-time, she won't have any accomplishments then either. This will be really noticeable without Brad's work to usurp or complain about.
I've already provided a list of things that Sheila did in the span of three or four months on the City Council, and rather take any of those issues to task, you continue to claim that she has done 'nothing.'
Since this isn't your blog Peter, I won't be providing you additional material on Simon's accomplishments. I'd first like to hear some people take issue with what Simon has done. She has proposed and championed a number of those issues I listed, so I'm not sure how it is that she has 'done nothing.'
And until you can list anything that Cole did while on the City Council other than propose that the city end the property tax, it looks like Sheila's a lot more qualified than he was when he ran for mayor in 2003. That also leaves out entirely her educational and work career, both of which are better than Cole's. Despite coming from 'political royalty,' Sheila has actually worked hard for what she has and where she is in life while Cole's been living off Mommy and Daddy.
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