Does
anybody remember Bo Jackson? Bo Jackson was a Heisman Trophy winner from
Auburn. He played in the NFL with the Los Angeles Raiders and played Major
League Baseball with the Kansas City Royals. In the late 80's and early 90’s
he endorsed Nike cross-trainers with the successful "Bo Knows"
advertising campaign. Some of the famous ads were; Bo Knows Football, Bo Knows
Baseball, and then there's the time he went on stage and played guitar with the great Bo Diddley. Bo Diddley states afterwards,
"Bo, you don't know diddley."
Well
Bo may know football, but Alderman Art knows BS.
Before
I begin let me give you my qualifications for being an expert in BS.
First
and foremost we have to look at education. I have a BS degree. In
fact, there is a gold foil stamp under my BS degree that indicates I graduated magna cum laude. This means that I
excelled in the pursuit of my knowledge of BS.
Work
experience. I sold used cars for nearly a decade in the toughest
automotive market in the world...Southern California. To be successful in
such a competitive marketplace means you will have tons of BS experience.
Recently,
I completed a three-year appointment to a national USPS advisory board.
This meant that I was able to travel to Washington DC several times a
year and sit at the big table with high-ranking federal employees. This
experience enabled me to hear and partake in BS at a national level.
With
all of this BS experience, I must say that the BS served up by the opposition
is low grade. You see, speaking as an expert, quality BS should have some
elements of truth in it.
The
opposition talks about stagnant. I would suggest they look up the meaning
of that word instead of selling the public their BS.
The
mayor dealt with a 4-million dollar lawsuit from the EPA because the previous
people practiced their "Ostrich Politics" of burying their heads in
the sand and ignored 4 years worth of letters.
She
acquired new computers and greatly enhanced the network environment at City
Hall because the previous people again buried their heads in the sand and
pretended obsolete operating systems, viruses, and an unstable network was the
way to conduct the business of the city.
She
allowed the Redevelopment Agency to be disbanded because when you put your head
in the sand and hold the city hostage with your promises, don't meet to discuss
the future, and then state you were looking at developers pretty pictures, you
lose faith with the citizens of Derby.
She
formed a blight subcommittee to deal with blight rather than to talk about it.
By the way, the former people were funded to do exactly what we've done,
but instead, once again chose to bury their heads in the sand and do nothing.
To date, three buildings have been torn down, with several more on the
way. The blight subcommittee has led to a clean and lien program which cleans up blighted properties and bills the owners. This has also led to the formation of a
volunteer group called Derby Cares. Derby Cares will help residents with light
maintenance needs to either get off or prevent people from being added to the
blight list.
On
the mayor's watch we have seen the development of Pershing Drive and the clean
up of the blighted former Dworkin Chevrolet. The Derby Cellular property
has been sold and we are in the final negotiations of acquiring a property in
the redevelopment zone.
Our
mayor made cleaning up our city a priority. Look at the wonderful work
our Public Works Department has been doing. Have you seen the entrance to
Witek Park, the Ryan Athletic Complex, and the many repainted crosswalks
throughout the city?
This
mayor worked with the tax office and collected over a million dollars in taxes
that were owed. The others chose to bury their heads in the sand and just
let this cycle of uncollected debt drain the city coffers.
This
mayor dealt with our sewage treatment plant and roads by allowing the citizens
of Derby to decide what to do by going to referendum. Despite having a
referendum ready to go two years ago, the others kept their heads buried in the
sand because they didn't want to deal with these real challenges during an
election year.
She
conducts weekly open hours for the citizens to meet with her, has hosted
several public Discover Derby events to seek input on the direction of our
city, and she has consistently let the best people lead. Mayor Dugatto
doesn't care if your name has a D, an R or a U after it.
So to
the opposition, I would like to say go peddle your low grade BS somewhere else.
The people of Derby are sick and tired of your petty divisive antics and
see that this city is becoming vibrant with each day Mayor Dugatto is at the
helm...and that my friends is no BS.
