{"id":2309,"date":"2012-09-11T17:27:43","date_gmt":"2012-09-11T21:27:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=2309"},"modified":"2012-09-11T18:04:55","modified_gmt":"2012-09-11T22:04:55","slug":"seven-more-layoffs-needed-in-coatesville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=2309","title":{"rendered":"Seven more layoffs needed in Coatesville"},"content":{"rendered":"

Actions \u2014 or lack of \u2014 by City Council are unacceptable. Take your city back, folks.<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/span>
\n\"\"<\/a>I honestly wish I were making this stuff up.<\/p>\n

Imagine this: a city on the edge of insolvency and a City Council member decided she had too much stuff to do around the house to stick around for crucial votes? And then failing to hire a new, surprisingly qualified police chief \u2014 despite the recommendation of the new City Manager?<\/p>\n

But all of it, every last little bit of it, happened Monday night in Coatesville.<\/p>\n

Not shockingly, State Police Major John \u201cJack\u201d W. Laufer III \u2014 the top candidate to lead Coatesville\u2019s police department \u2014 said \u201cuh, thanks, but no thanks\u201d to the city last night.<\/p>\n

Frankly, as the city goes through police chiefs and city managers like most folks go through Dixie Cups, it\u2019s a little stunning that anyone would want to take a job in Coatesville. But up until Monday night’s circus, Laufer thought he might be able to make a positive difference in the city.<\/p>\n

So to recap: the city is a couple of million bucks short of making it through the end of the year, lost the chance to hire a capable police chief and \u2014 bizarrely \u2014 can\u2019t seem to find enough people willing to show up regularly and do the job they were elected to do: serve as City Council members.<\/p>\n

OK, maybe it sounds like we\u2019re picking on the city, but we (unlike other media outlets teetering on the edge of fiscal insolvency themselves) go out of our way to tell the good stories that happen every day in Coatesville. We walk the streets, grab a cup of coffee at the Little Chef and see first-hand how many people offer their blood, sweat and tears to make the city a better place.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s City Council. Rarely has there been a Gang of Seven seemingly more dedicated to steering the iceberg into the ship than this gaggle of twits. Instead of public service \u2014 as I clearly remember at least three of them talking about passionately back in 2009 as they sought support and backing from the county Democratic Party to run \u2014 it has again become a festival of \u201cwhat\u2019s in it for me?\u201d<\/p>\n

Before it comes up, let me be blunt about this: this ain\u2019t about race, it\u2019s about stupid, weak and inept. At best. There are those who argue that criticism of City Council and its members is a racial thing. Bullcrap. And frankly, that\u2019s highly insulting to capable, passionate people of every color, creed or sexual orientation who badly want to see the city succeed.<\/p>\n

A very wise man in Chester County politics once gave me this sage advice: \u201cjudge people by what they do, not by what they say. That will always tell you what they really think.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what the actions of City Council make me think these folks \u2014 at least some \u2014 really want: they want the city to fail. They, or someone important to them, profits by chaos in City Hall, a weakened police force and citizens afraid of the other shoe dropping. They, or someone close to them, profits and even thrives by the growth of the city drug trade, by the failure of the city to redevelop and grow and the continued misery of thousands of residents.<\/p>\n

I get that the city has issues: The culture of corruption runs deep, and the challenges since the steel industry went belly up seem almost limitless. But I also know how many good people live there, people who care about the city and its future \u2014 they deserve better.<\/p>\n

They deserve better than a City Council that shirks even its most basic duties and then points the finger of blame elsewhere and tries to use the politics of division to distract folks from that simple fact.<\/p>\n

They \u2014 you \u2014 deserve a City Council that gives a damn about the city. If any of these folks had something resembling a conscience, they\u2019d resign. Since we know that\u2019s not happening, it comes down to people of Coatesville.<\/p>\n

You have a voice. And you have the right to use it to demand your city government start acting like one, rather than a cookie jar for the elite and a pathetic excuse for cronyism. Get angry and let those empty suits on the dais know of your anger.<\/p>\n

Enough is enough.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s your city, folks. Take it back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Actions \u2014 or lack of \u2014 by City Council are unacceptable. Take your city back, folks. By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times I honestly wish I were making this stuff up. Imagine this: a city on the edge of insolvency and a City Council member decided she had too much stuff to do around the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2310,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[112,3],"tags":[776,126,24,186,775],"class_list":["post-2309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-featured","tag-budget-gap","tag-city-council","tag-coatesville","tag-police","tag-resign"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}