Post by befortruth on Nov 1, 2013 8:24:59 GMT -5
I had someone ask for more information after receiving one of our flyers. It was suggested that it might be good to post my response to her on the Forum. Here it is.
Thank you for your interest in VOICE, Voters Organized In Civic Excellence. I will try to answer your questions, as we didn't have room on the flyer to cover everything.
First, the late Ivan Blough founded VOICE in 2008 when we worked to establish the Lowell Cable TV Endowment Fund after our cable TV utility was sold without a vote of the residents.
Ivan was my brother-in-law and a man who gave to the Lowell community all of his life. He was killed in accident and then our organization lost a bit of momentum, but we continued to try to work for positive things in our community. One of those projects was to attempt to establish a yard waste program, similar to what they have in Greenville. That program collects yard waste from residents, at no cost, composts it and then gives it back to the residents for use in their gardens. All leftover mulch is sold to pay for the program. We were not successful in getting our city council to consider a similar program here in Lowell. We still pay $2 a bag to have our yard waste hauled away.
Last year some of our members saw the "support our Lowell Light and Power workers" signs in yards around the city. We went to the city council and asked what was going on. They wouldn't answer our questions. After many meetings with no answers we went to talk to the workers. They explained that the new city manager had met with each of them and basically threatened them and their jobs if they didn't like the way he was going to run things. According to the workers he was the one who made all decisions and if they didn't like it they could go elsewhere. He also told them if they went over his head to the council they wouldn't like what would happen. The workers felt their jobs were threatened and joined a union. VOICE members went back to the council and stated their concerns; still the council would not talk to us.
VOICE members began meeting with the union workers and were able to obtain copies of the proposed contracts that were under negotiation. It was clear to us that the city was not negotiating in good faith since their contract held the same language that the city manager, Mark Howe, had threatened them with. In essence, he has the final say in any grievance and he can fire anyone "at will" without cause. We don't believe this is right or fair to our loyal workers, most of who have worked here faithfully from 12 to 24 years.
Mr. Howe was also brought up on charges by the union for unfair labor practices since some of his threats violated the workers constitutional rights and laws governing employers/employees. He was found guilty and the judge's findings were published in the Lowell Ledger on October 16, 2013. There was also a state fact-finding meeting held where the impartial fact-finder determined that the city was not bargaining in good faith and that the contract the city proposed was unfair to the workers. The Lowell Ledger also covered that.
The city council has continued to ignore the citizen's pleas to direct their employee, Mark Howe, to bargain in good faith and end the stalemate. They don't answer our questions, refuse to talk to the workers involved and simply say they support Mr. Howe and what he is doing.
We have interviewed Jeff Altoft and Matt Mayer. Mr. Altoft was on the council several years ago but didn't run for reelection when his wife became ill. He now feels he is needed, as he believes that a councilman must always be familiar with both sides of an issue before he votes. He will not simply vote "yes" on everything brought before him.
Matt Mayer, who works as a manager at Ace Hardware, has not served on the council before but feels exactly as Jeff Altoft about the problems our city is facing. Through his work he has heard all sides of the issues and feels he should step up and serve the community that he cares deeply about.
Unfortunately Matt did not decide to run in time to get his name on the ballot. He did however register at the city as a write-in candidate. A person wishing to vote for him must write his name clearly and spell it correctly in order for that vote to be counted.
We are asking voters who agree with us and wish to support these men to vote for only these two. There are three seats open on the council. If people vote for three it may weaken the chances of Matt Mayer's write-in candidacy to be successful.
As for the proposals in question. There is one for school millage. We are not taking a stand on that one. One mill is equal to 1/1000 of a dollar. If your property evaluation is $50,000 and the millage is 32 mills you would pay .032 X 50,000 = $1,600.
There are three proposals that pertain to our City Charter. Our charter has been in place since we became a city with very few amendments. The ones that we are questioning, Proposals I, II and III are asking voters to change the charter for reasons that we feel don't make sense. Proposals I and II are asking to change when council members take their seat after an election or appointment. We believe the charter has served us well all these years and question their motivation in this one.
Proposal III is the one that worries us the most. They want to change the charter so that residents no longer vote on the sale, lease or purchase of property owned by the city. This would give the council total control over all of our current and future assets. They could decide to sell Lowell Light and Power or our Boy Scout Cabin property without approval of the citizens.
To help you understand these proposals you can find a sample of the Nov. 5 ballot on page 15 of this week's Lowell Ledger.
You do not have to join VOICE to be included in our email group. We keep our supporters informed in what is going on through emails and our web site. I would be happy to add your name to our email list if you would like. Just let me know. Our web site is voiceoflowell.org. There is also another web site that has some very important information as well. It is lowellcityhall.com.
Again, thank you for your inquiry and interest in our community
Thank you for your interest in VOICE, Voters Organized In Civic Excellence. I will try to answer your questions, as we didn't have room on the flyer to cover everything.
First, the late Ivan Blough founded VOICE in 2008 when we worked to establish the Lowell Cable TV Endowment Fund after our cable TV utility was sold without a vote of the residents.
Ivan was my brother-in-law and a man who gave to the Lowell community all of his life. He was killed in accident and then our organization lost a bit of momentum, but we continued to try to work for positive things in our community. One of those projects was to attempt to establish a yard waste program, similar to what they have in Greenville. That program collects yard waste from residents, at no cost, composts it and then gives it back to the residents for use in their gardens. All leftover mulch is sold to pay for the program. We were not successful in getting our city council to consider a similar program here in Lowell. We still pay $2 a bag to have our yard waste hauled away.
Last year some of our members saw the "support our Lowell Light and Power workers" signs in yards around the city. We went to the city council and asked what was going on. They wouldn't answer our questions. After many meetings with no answers we went to talk to the workers. They explained that the new city manager had met with each of them and basically threatened them and their jobs if they didn't like the way he was going to run things. According to the workers he was the one who made all decisions and if they didn't like it they could go elsewhere. He also told them if they went over his head to the council they wouldn't like what would happen. The workers felt their jobs were threatened and joined a union. VOICE members went back to the council and stated their concerns; still the council would not talk to us.
VOICE members began meeting with the union workers and were able to obtain copies of the proposed contracts that were under negotiation. It was clear to us that the city was not negotiating in good faith since their contract held the same language that the city manager, Mark Howe, had threatened them with. In essence, he has the final say in any grievance and he can fire anyone "at will" without cause. We don't believe this is right or fair to our loyal workers, most of who have worked here faithfully from 12 to 24 years.
Mr. Howe was also brought up on charges by the union for unfair labor practices since some of his threats violated the workers constitutional rights and laws governing employers/employees. He was found guilty and the judge's findings were published in the Lowell Ledger on October 16, 2013. There was also a state fact-finding meeting held where the impartial fact-finder determined that the city was not bargaining in good faith and that the contract the city proposed was unfair to the workers. The Lowell Ledger also covered that.
The city council has continued to ignore the citizen's pleas to direct their employee, Mark Howe, to bargain in good faith and end the stalemate. They don't answer our questions, refuse to talk to the workers involved and simply say they support Mr. Howe and what he is doing.
We have interviewed Jeff Altoft and Matt Mayer. Mr. Altoft was on the council several years ago but didn't run for reelection when his wife became ill. He now feels he is needed, as he believes that a councilman must always be familiar with both sides of an issue before he votes. He will not simply vote "yes" on everything brought before him.
Matt Mayer, who works as a manager at Ace Hardware, has not served on the council before but feels exactly as Jeff Altoft about the problems our city is facing. Through his work he has heard all sides of the issues and feels he should step up and serve the community that he cares deeply about.
Unfortunately Matt did not decide to run in time to get his name on the ballot. He did however register at the city as a write-in candidate. A person wishing to vote for him must write his name clearly and spell it correctly in order for that vote to be counted.
We are asking voters who agree with us and wish to support these men to vote for only these two. There are three seats open on the council. If people vote for three it may weaken the chances of Matt Mayer's write-in candidacy to be successful.
As for the proposals in question. There is one for school millage. We are not taking a stand on that one. One mill is equal to 1/1000 of a dollar. If your property evaluation is $50,000 and the millage is 32 mills you would pay .032 X 50,000 = $1,600.
There are three proposals that pertain to our City Charter. Our charter has been in place since we became a city with very few amendments. The ones that we are questioning, Proposals I, II and III are asking voters to change the charter for reasons that we feel don't make sense. Proposals I and II are asking to change when council members take their seat after an election or appointment. We believe the charter has served us well all these years and question their motivation in this one.
Proposal III is the one that worries us the most. They want to change the charter so that residents no longer vote on the sale, lease or purchase of property owned by the city. This would give the council total control over all of our current and future assets. They could decide to sell Lowell Light and Power or our Boy Scout Cabin property without approval of the citizens.
To help you understand these proposals you can find a sample of the Nov. 5 ballot on page 15 of this week's Lowell Ledger.
You do not have to join VOICE to be included in our email group. We keep our supporters informed in what is going on through emails and our web site. I would be happy to add your name to our email list if you would like. Just let me know. Our web site is voiceoflowell.org. There is also another web site that has some very important information as well. It is lowellcityhall.com.
Again, thank you for your inquiry and interest in our community
