Mayor, city council, Wednesday you not only embarrassed yourselves, you embarrassed the city of Columbus. Some of you need to be reminded that you are paid employees and public servants of the city. You are paid to perform, not for a performance. It was very obvious that conducting city business was not the biggest issue; you were more concerned about your feelings. Grow up, be professionals and remember you are in charge of running a multi-million dollar business. You are representing thousands of people, so at least dress the part and try to present yourselves as though you understand your roles. Your actions do not portray that you are concerned about the growth of our city at all.
Approximately 21 years ago, I was moved to Columbus by Lowes for the construction and opening of the store on Military Road, and closing the old location. The company was committed to making it happen no matter what. The small stores were closed and larger ones opened. I stayed here approximately two years and moved to other corporate assignments. I was privy to the conversations with city leadership and the corporate executives that make the decisions. Twenty one years ago, there were questions about Columbus leadership and the direction of out city, but I can assure you from someone that has been there many times, if a large corporation was looking to expand into the city of Columbus and was not already committed, it would look at the actions of our current leadership and be more concerned about when the next flight leaves GTR than where to buy property.
The audit, I guess is the cause of this. It’s very obvious some seem to be scared of what will be found; there is no other logical reason. If it can be done free of charge, why not let it happen? I look at it as a very cheap insurance policy. The city spends millions of dollars yearly and these audits only need to be conducted every five years. Council think: For $200,000 spent every five years, you can ensure all our taxpayer’s money is spent properly. It’s well worth it.
If you had any ethics at all, then the ones that have been in office over a year should have recused themselves from the vote. The audit is nothing but a review of past performance, the same thing all professionals go through yearly in employee reviews. What are you afraid of, may I ask?
Next meeting, we should expect well-dressed city officials that can discuss issues with intelligence and open minds and leave their personal feelings at home.
Bill Lewis
Columbus
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