What Tucker Looks Like Through LCA-Colored Glasses

I took a little time away from my family recently to attend a portion of the latest Lakeside City Alliance meeting, held last week at Briarcliff United Methodist Church.  

I recorded part of the Q&A portion of the meeting, which I must say seemed fairly odd.  I likely missed the part where the people in the audience actually wrote down their questions in order to get answers by the end of the presentation.  But, I cannot actually say for sure that all the questions being asked and answered were actually questions that came from "real" folks who were there that night.  I also can't say whether or not some folks had questions that they may have written down that the speaker opted to just skip over and not address at all.  I can't even say for sure that the speaker was looking at anything that had actually been written down by anyone other than himself.  

That's one step in the non-transparent direction for the City of Lakeside in my book.  At least when you attend County Commissioner meetings, you can actually address the commissioners in person, look into their eyes and ask your question or make your statement.  It might take 30 days or more to get an answer, but at least you are making a direct, human to human contact when you engage in the process.  There's something about this whole "note passing" trend among these city meetings that I just don't trust. 

I've been engaged in the city formation process and with every meeting I attend, I become less and less enthusiastic for any of the proposals.  In fact, the more the city advocates talk, the more their cities begin to sound the same.  The proposals are mundane, lackluster, pointless almost to being trivial, but don't let them fool you.   

No one goes to this much time and effort, or raises this much money, if there isn't something really big at stake.  It isn't that tiny portion of your property tax statement for "city services" that they want you to believe is their only concern.  It's that big hunk of money that is about 70% of your total property tax bill that's set aside for the school system.  

The removal of the school board by the Governor was like adding chum to the already shark-infested waters off the Gulf of Mexico.  We all knew they were out there, but it wasn't until now that we could actually sense their moving in for the kill.  I'm talking, of course, about the opportunistic investors, the for-profit education companies, the virtual schools, the predatory lenders, the friends and family network, the good ol' boys, the politically scorned, the ethically challenged and the lobbyists, non-profits, foundations and whatever else they want to call themselves in order to sound better when they take your money.

They are out there.  Keep an eye out.  It is with this warning that I offer this brief video from the Lakeside meeting, perhaps the longest eight minutes of my life.

PLEASE CLICK THIS LINK FOR THE LAKESIDE CITY ALLIANCE'S COMMENTARY ON TUCKER:  http://youtu.be/YErvc086aGI
To keep up with this issue as we move forward in the process of city formation (or not), please join our discussion on Facebook:  www.facebook.com/SaveTuckerFromLakesideCity.