Posted by: Kim_Hamilton on 01/08/2011 01:38 PM
Updated by: John_Hamilton on 10/14/2011 09:01 AM
Expires: 01/01/2016 12:00 AM
:
Letter to the Editor~by George Fry
WHEN WILL YOU EVER LEARN - CRAIG TURCO & JACK LYNCH? An Open Letter to the Residents of Angels Camp: This is not a personal attack on Jack Lynch and Craig Turco. It is about their performance while serving on the City Council. Jack Lynch and Craig Turco’s performance as City Council members is absolutely pitiful. First off, the Sierra Sentinel called Lynch, Turco, and Downey “the Three Amigos”. Many of the residents in Angels Camp are calling the three of them “the Three Stooges”. During the run up to Election Day in Angels Camp, many residents throughout Angels Camp were saying “I hope we are not going to get “LYNCHED” for another four years.” Well, the residents ......
will probably be “LYNCHED” for another four years unless Jack changes his behavior.
Then you have Craig Turco, whom many of the residents of Angels Camp call the “School Yard Bully” and the “Hatchet Man”. It is apparent that Craig does not care one bit about the employees in the City of Angels Camp, as demonstrated by his actions and behavior in cutting the employees wages by 35%. That is a house payment or rent payment for many people! Many employees are paid out of the Enterprise Fund and not the General Fund, which means that they are costing the City nothing, so their salaries should not be touched at all.
Jack and Craig are both outrageous micro-managers. You know, Jack and Craig, micro-managing went out in the 70’s because it doesn’t work. You two came from huge structured existing companies where that out-of-date management style was in place. That style didn’t work then, and it certainly does not work now, and in a small city of 3,100 residents. You have the best employees, and you HAD other best employees. It appears, as shown by your actions, that you like to destroy the employees’ morale intentionally. I was once told 40 years ago, “Hire the Best and let them do the Rest”. I have managed hundreds of employees by doing just that. Both of you should be ashamed of yourselves, but your egos and your inflexibility prevent you from doing the right thing. I have lived in this City for over 22 years and the morale has never been as low as it is right now!!! These are dedicated employees. They are the Best so let them do the Rest! Many of these employees were born and raised here, and they take pride in their careers and their City. You “Johnny Come Lately” folks, as some people would call you, who want to run OUR CITY without being grounded by living here for 20 years and knowing the “flavor”, have continually disrespected the residents of this wonderful City. YOU ARE DOING A GREAT JOB OF RUNNING THE CITY INTO THE GROUND!!
Craig has made the BIGGEST BLUNDER of all by trying to wrongfully charge the Visitor’s Center $2,000 a month rent when the State gave the building to the City as a Rest Stop and Visitors’ Center at no rent! After the Visitors’ Center protested that that would put them out of business, Craig dropped the charge to $1,100 a month with additional unacceptable conditions, and didn’t understand why the Visitors’ Center had to leave. Then he told the reporter, “It was a shock to me that they left”, and Jack Lynch said, “I personally was very surprised”. Craig and Jack, the Visitor’s Center has been telling you ever since Craig suggested charging them rent, that this would hurt them and their Marketing Program. Where have you been? Under a rock? Then, Craig, you have the unmitigated gall to accuse the Visitor’s Center Board of Directors of bad faith, saying, “if this was in the cards all along, I think they should have been more forthright…and here we have a flip-flop at the last minute”, when, in fact, the Visitors’ Center Board has been telling you all along that they couldn’t pay rent?! How dishonest of you to try to shift the blame to them
Craig, you have continually put down the Branding Leadership Team. Yet, at the last Council meeting, you and Jack were talking about using Transient Occupancy Tax money to support tourism and economic development in Angels Camp. The Visitor’s Center has been doing this for the past 11 years! The Branding Leadership Team, funded by a grant, has also been increasing tourism and economic development for the last three years. How can you talk out of both sides of your mouths? Now that you have chased the Visitor’s Center away, who will direct Visitors to local businesses and to the Museum, something that was established between Bob Rogers, Lisa Mayo and her staff, and ACBA? If you really want to support Tourism/Economic Development, then first find the money by taking the stipends of Council members and Planning Commis-sioners, which amount to $18,000 per year. Then, reconsider your position on the Visitor’s Center!!! It is IRONIC the council members said in February 2010 that everything is on the table when you asked Department Heads to take a 20% cut in their departments’ budgets, and yet your stipends were never discussed.
Craig, you and the Council wait until December 7, 2010 to pass the budget for 2010-2011. You make derogatory comments about the State and County and their budgets, yet both of those budgets were passed before yours—the County budget passed 90 days prior to Angels Camp Budget, and State budget 60 days prior, while you continued to sit on your hands.
Craig and Jack, you are not fooling anyone in Angels Camp that you are about the best interests of the residents. It is obvious you have other personal agendas. You give lip service to wanting public input at City council meetings, then you cut residents off before their three minutes are up by saying “we are running late”. If Jack Lynch didn’t spend so much time pontificating, then you wouldn’t have to cut off citizens who are trying to finish their 3 minutes. Jack Lynch, I have timed you on many nights with the 3 minute rule. I have observed that if you like people and what they are saying, you let them speak for as long as 28 minutes. Yes! 28 minutes!!! If you don’t like them, you let them speak three minutes or you have cut them off before their three minutes.
In the Summer of 2007, when the first jolt to the economy occurred, Jack Lynch should have been alerted and planning forward on the City Budget for the effects of a bad economy and diminished revenues on the City for the next few years. The signs that the Economy was taking a nosedive were very evident at that time. Why did he wait until 2009 to take serious action?
Another outrage was Craig Turco’s snide comment at the last City Council meeting about the CCOG audit done by an outside auditing firm. Craig’s comment was, “are they using an abacus to do the audit”? Craig, you need to ask yourself why it took you 10 months with your “I am the financial person on the city council” to get a budget approved. Were you using an abacus? Maybe you need a new abacus!
Thank goodness Rick Downey is gone! Lynch appointed him to CCOG and at the first meeting he verbally attacked the Chairperson and one of the other members. I have been going to CCOG meetings for years and I had not seen him at a CCOG meeting until then. Then Lynch appointed Rick Downey to the Museum Commission, supposedly to help the Museum. That was the fox guarding the henhouse! Craig Turco even publicly called Rick Downey the BABYSITTER to the Museum Commission. I have been to several Museum Commission meetings and Rick certainly was not there in mind, only in body! I was astounded when Rick Downey made a motion to re-appoint Bob Petithomme to a new three year term. Bob Petithomme’s actions have demonstrated time and time again his incompetence to be on the Commission, micro-managing the very capable Museum staff and failing to complete his own projects. Bob Petithomme is not even a resident of Angels Camp, and shouldn’t be on a City Commission, supervising a valuable City asset. Also, Jack Lynch, you as Mayor have the responsibility to see for yourself what is going on at Museum Commission meetings. Petithomme and one other person need to be removed, and be replaced by commissioners who are City residents, are competent, and have the best interests of the Museum at heart. The City Council blew it when they no longer used the extraordinary talent of Bob Rogers.
Craig Turco wants to limit BIG BOX stores to a maximum size of 40,000 square feet. Craig, I have news for you! 40,000 square-foot stores are not called Big Box stores! I believe you are the epitome of “NO GROWTH” in Angels Camp. This is typical of people who recently moved to Calaveras County and Angels Camp. I know, as I have watched it for over 40 years. In fact you have demonstrated to the residents of Angels Camp that you are a “NIMBY” (Not in My Back Yard). If we don’t have a minimum of 80,000 square feet, we will not get a store in Angels Camp that can provide the necessary goods to the residents (like all of us in this room) who are driving to Sonora, Jackson and down Highway 4 to the Valley, taking all the sales tax dollars with them. I guess you want to continue to go “down the hill” or to Sonora and Jackson!
Craig and Jack, your EGOS are so HUGE you are not cognizant of how disliked you are throughout all areas of the City, as well as Greenhorn Creek. I am reminded of the Comic Strip in the 70’s called POGO. One day POGO said, “We have met the enemy, and they is US”! I am saying that about YOU, Craig and Jack, who continue to destroy the quality of life OUR Residents had and would like to have again. You both should be recalled!
I will end this letter with the following quote by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:
“OUR LIVES BEGIN TO END THE DAY WE BECOME SILENT ABOUT THE THINGS THAT REALLY MATTER”.
So I am speaking out!
George Fry
Angels Camp Resident
Backed by 266 Voters"
Letter From the Editor...Due to the timing of this letter, with the tragedy in AZ today, we are disabling anonymous comments.
Sincerely,
John Hamilton
|
