Monday, January 28, 2008

Slow News Day?

It must have been a pretty slow news day on Sunday for the Tribune. The top headline of the day was about.....stop signs. I'm not making light of the story, because traffic control is important, but to be THE headline for Sunday's paper?

Let's see. What other topic could have made the cut:

1. More money to SME - We found out last week that the city just paid SME another $130,000+ for September and October "energy imbalances". We've discussed it here and here. The explanation given by City Manager John Lawton raised more questions than it answered. Nothing much new about that.

2. The City, SME and ECP - This relationship is just begging for an independent investigation. Gosh, the Trib. could maybe even win another Pulitzer Prize if it stepped up to the plate.

3. The City and water rights - I asked if anybody had a clue about this subject, and FireFly responded. Commissioner Jolley mentioned a report that was supplied by the city's water rights attorney that raised more questions.

4. City Commission Travel Fund - At the City Commission meeting last week, this issue was raised by Mary Jolley and prompted a response the next day from Assistant City Manager, Cheryl Patton. It's just another example of the city's caviler attitude toward our money.

5. Airport Authority - it seems everyday something new and exciting is happening with this organization. Just recently, they found out they couldn't keep information secret and now they want to get into the economic development business, but from the sounds of it, management is not qualified. What's really going on up there?

6. Fairgrounds mismanagement - After reading Commissioner Joe Briggs' comment here, my question is why this 'lack of fiscal control over spending" has not been addressed sooner? How responsible is local "management" for this apparent mismanagement?

7. The Animal Shelter - It would be nice if the Trib. would do an unbiased exposé of this entire story from ALL parties involved in animal welfare in Great Falls. As I've mentioned before, there are always two sides to every story and in this case, at least three or four.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Not going to get any help locally, call the feds.