The assignment: To change something’s texture; to make it out of something it shouldn’t be made out of.
The finished product:
A gingerbread house made out of cardboard, extra coarse sandpaper, caulk (for icing), wire caps for gumdrops, a hinge for a door, biscuit shims for shingles and vent filters for snow. If there had been more than two (event-filled) days to work on it, the craftsmanship would have been better.
Yum!
The difficulty I have discussing any form of Oak Ridge politics is that, well, I don’t know much about Oak Ridge politics. Traditionally, I’ve liked it that way, but in the same way that Days of Our Lives will slowly suck you into its mindless vortex when you’re home with a broken leg and nothing to entertain you but daytime TV, politics works its evil voodoo, and unfolds its secrets to the patient (and attentive) viewer.
Not to say that I’m a politico. Noooo nohoho. Nein. No, I’m what would be called a gadfly. Being involved in politics would mean I’d have to wear a tie, and as anybody who knows me could testify, wearing a 
tie deprives me of all my strength. And, people, I need my strength.
Because I don’t know the Oak Ridge/Anderson County score, I do my best only to jump in when I feel a jolt is needed. I don’t want to turn my part of this website into incessant whining about who did what and what said huh, because other people do that better (and, if not better, than more endearingly Machiavellian), and because I don’t think thats very entertaining reading. Unless you’re really into politics. Personally, I’d rather write about the dumbass things that are within my sphere of influence.
That said, there needs to be some very public, very obvious, very explicit conversations said about the state of the political world in this weird little town. The county has its own problems, and I’m not even about to get into them, but it seems that Oak Ridge itself needs saving.
Whats the problem, you ask?
The problem appears to be that City Council only listens to (and addresses) the problems that they want to listen to.
We’ve seen two different members of council (including Mayor Bradshaw) write articles to the paper about how, despite objections from citizens in Woodland, a hotel in Woodland would be good for Oak Ridge. One of the arguments Bradshaw cites is the Spockian “needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few” line, but while I don’t have a horse in the race here, and actually do see the appeal of that area for commercial interests, I fail to see why it’d benefit anybody but Patel and business interests to put the thing there. You’d think there’d be some kinda incentive that could be offered to the Woodland denizens.
However, I don’t really care about the Woodland thing per se, as I think I’ve mentioned before. What I do care about, tho, is that the council seems to be picking and choosing their battles, trying to appease public sensibilities in one corner, while ignoring the public in the other.
Like when the public suggests anything that contradicts the “Strategic Plan“.
Whoo boy, thats an ugly topic. Word around the campfire (heard from about a dozen differnet sources, but who reads blogs for citations?) is that the City and the School Board had a meeting last month, (only two elected officials were there, Mayor Bradshaw, and SB Head John Smith, Jr, so as not to disrupt the sunshine law’s delicate sensibilities), where the school board was told to cut teacher salaries, or cut raises, depending on who tells the story, because the city “will not have another budget fight”.
This is for the 2007 budget, for those keeping score at home. The one that starts about 11 months from now. Its been decided without input from me, you, or anybody outside of their circle, a full year before its due.
The city is so caught up on the Strategic Plan that they will currently not entertain the idea of either cutting money from another spot in the budget for the school system, which is already hurting, or raising taxes.
Thats their prerogative, provided that the citizens of the town have given them a mandate to make these decisions in this manner. Thing is, there never was a mandate on the Strategic Plan, and the citizens of Oak Ridge can’t verify that the departments of the city are living up to their budgets, because the city won’t show us a line item budget.
They have it, but we’re not good enough to see it. In fact, the city has told the school board that they need to stop doing line item budgets.
Transparency in politics? Wheres my necktie?