In a recent article on district elections [“State Legislator Moves to Force Asheville’s Hand on District Elections,” Feb. 28 online post, Xpress], [Asheville City Council member] Julie Mayfield thought it was “funny” that she hadn’t received any calls or emails on the subject after being told by [Sen.] Chuck Edwards that he was still receiving phone calls about it.
People contacted [former Sen. Tom] Apodaca initially, and now Mr. Edwards, because they no longer expect those who destroy their quality of life to have any interest in restoring it. We’ve seen this before during City Council’s forced annexation crusade. And on another stage recently. Any port in a storm.
— D. LaSpada Arden
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36 thoughts on “Letter: No mystery in bypassing City Council”
luther blissett
“because they no longer expect those who destroy their quality of life to have any interest in restoring it.”
Oh, please spare us this overdramatic silliness and have the courage to admit that it was a power grab.
Last time I checked, Arden isn’t in the city limits. Is the letter-writer also tacitly admitting that the campaign to carve up the city into voting districts was led by those in the county?
Lulz
Are you sure? While I’m paying 3 grand for trash pick up, those lucky enough to avoid annexation are paying 20 bucks a month lulz. And that only happened because it took the legislature to stop the greed of Asheville politicians in taking over the area. Lucky them.
luther blissett
“While I’m paying 3 grand for trash pick up”
No, you’re not. Absurd claims that take half a second to refute tend to stop people believing anything else you say.
Are you still bemoaning your terrible, awful $300,000+ gain from owning property within a booming city?
Lulz
Booming city? LOL, you’re betting that a bunch of drunks continuing to come here or that no one gets sick from the French Broad. Know any locals that go into that river? Everyone I talk to wouldn’t go near it. What happens when someone gets sick because of a sewage leak into it? I literally smell a lawsuit lulz.
Too bad your boom only benefits a few and has to be heavily subsidized by residents even though the money is really being concentrated into the hands of a few. I wonder how long that can go on.
luther blissett
“Too bad your boom only benefits a few and has to be heavily subsidized by residents even though the money is really being concentrated into the hands of a few.”
By “few” do you mean city residents whose property values have more than doubled in the past four years?
Lulz
Values doubled? When do they see this money dude? If they decide to sell or are forced out. Meanwhile their services are dwindling and the payoffs to the cliqued up is BOOMING FOR THEM RIGHT NOW.
NFB
“Too bad your boom only benefits a few and has to be heavily subsidized by residents even though the money is really being concentrated into the hands of a few.”
Wow! Never knew Lulz was a socialistic promoter of class warfare!
bsummers
“And on another stage recently.”
Oooh, mysterioso. On what stage did Council destroy people’s quality of life, recently?
Lulz
Phony bond issue. Pushed another tax on the backs of owners without being truthful.
Promotes downtown and the RAD/greenways above all else. These areas are overrun by millionaires and the residents are basically financing them.
Is corrupt. No one in their right mind can deny that former councilman and present commissioner Newman had/has conflict of interests in relation to his former solar company during his political tenure. The man became a millionaire while in government. If Bothwell was a republican, his DWI conviction would have ended his career on council. The mayor is employed by a major law firm in town who ironically represents some other high profile names in the area. Former mayor Bellamy is now making over six figures in a worthless government job supported by taxpayers. Local cronies do indeed prove that if you’re part of the clique, you will be taken care of. Newman of all people should welcome an investigation into his dealings while in government but alas, has been able to hide it all because people like the above refuse to push the issue. Democrats as well are all being shown, are the most corrupt people on the planet.
bsummers
Those fiends! Someone has to stop them! Why don’t we make being a Democrat against the law, and then deport them all?
Lulz
No, why don’t we stop the hypocrisy and bring about some real standards that apply to all that seek public office. If you think becoming rich while holding office and not questioning it because the guy is a hard core leftist and it somehow benefits you is a good thing, you’re simply wrong.
bsummers
Please do come forward with any actual evidence that any local elected official is guilty of malfeasance.
Huhsure
He left nothing but this box of crickets.
Deplorable Infidel
…if we only could outlaw the most evil enemies of the state, the ‘crackkks, America would be so much better.
hopefully the $110 MILLION payback bond scam will be exterminated in a court of law soon.
bsummers
I guess I assumed that proposing sarcastically that we outlaw the Democratic Party, well, everyone would understand that that was ridiculous, fascistic, un-American… But Fred “Fisher” Caudle proved me wrong.
Lulz
You’re doing a fine job of eliminating yourselves. The corruption that is coming to define the democratic party is out there in the open for all to see.
If Newman were a republican and made his fortune during his tenure, would you still be silent about it? Of course not. See dude, the left has to cover up and lie in order to protect the corruption that’s happening.
The Real World
Barry – and do you feel inclined to support this premise?
“No, why don’t we stop the hypocrisy and bring about some real standards that apply to all that seek public office.”
bsummers
I feel inclined to support you, or any of the other anonymous accusers, to come forward with actual evidence that any local elected official is guilty of malfeasance.
Deplorable Infidel
easy to do.
The Real World
All I can do is ask and one always hopes for better but, not surprisingly, you won’t provide an adult-level answer to a direct question.
It’s usually games, contorting, misdirecting, devolving, avoiding, seeking to divide rather than unite and….the inevitable…..ultimately pawning-off responsibility to someone else. To quote someone I knew many years ago, “how’s that plan working out for you?” (Rhetorical — I know the answer)
bsummers
Nice try. You attempted to change the subject away from the lulz/FisherCaudle eagerness to criminalize political leftness. I declined to play along with your misdirection. And for that I’m the one accused of practicing misdirection. Classic troll behavior.
If there’s evidence of malfeasance on the part of local elected officials, bring it on. The problem is, it’s never produced, is it? It’s just a talking point thrown out there by anonymous accusers, who also BTW, just happen to want to criminalize being a member of the wrong political party. So their word doesn’t count for much, IMO. And I for one won’t be cajoled into tacitly supporting their (or your) baseless smears. You have evidence? Bring it on.
luther blissett
To yank this back on topic: smears and scuttlebutt aren’t simply directed at a couple of council members, but at the legitimacy of City Council and the capacity of Asheville to manage its own affairs. None of those spreading the muck seem willing to cough up $75 and run for office, and instead argue that Asheville’s voters themselves are too dumb and complicit to make the correct choices.
And so we have a letter-writer from Arden arguing that it’s right and proper to ignore City Council and instead get legislators from Henderson County to push laws in Raleigh to change the election system in Asheville. What a triumph of the democratic process.
bsummers
You’re right Luther – and they allege that things like the bond package, approved by voters, is in itself criminal. They remind me sometimes of the ‘sovereign citizens’ who act like any taxation is illegal and unconstitutional. Why? Because they don’t want to pay their share.
It’s similar to what some of them did during the fight over the water system – try to paint simple operational realities as evidence of criminal behavior. The City was transferring between one and two million dollars per year from water revenues to their general fund. Criminal thievery, right? Wrong – that’s what it costs the City to administer the water system, and it’s totally legal and appropriate that water customers pay for that. Even professional Asheville-antagonist Chuck McGrady admitted as much just a few weeks ago. The new bill he filed in his latest gambit to pressure Asheville to give up concessions on water, formally allows cities that run water systems to transfer ratepayer money…
Duh. But just a couple of years ago, the fact that Asheville was doing exactly that was claimed as evidence of fraud, corruption, theft, etc. by the yahoos that simply want to tear the City down, and de-legitimize any policy decisions they make.
Deplorable Infidel
the bond scam and the way they underhandedly promoted it to the ignorant paybackees was criminal…had AVL had decent leadership for the past several decades the city would not be in such a shambles…the fact that we should have to spend bond scam money on street repaving is an outrage.
luther blissett
“had AVL had decent leadership for the past several decades the city would not be in such a shambles…”
Past several decades? Please specify when AVL last had “decent leadership” in your estimation. Was it back when downtown was mostly shuttered and the Fine Arts still showed dirty movies? Are we talking about the 1950s, when public buildings still had racially segregated bathrooms, or the 70s, when it was okay to knock down entire African-American neighborhoods?
Please also specify whether you consider the citizens of Asheville capable of electing their own municipal government.
bsummers
the fact that we should have to spend bond scam money on street repaving is an outrage.
Although, let me guess – you supported the McGrady/Moffitt legislation that took away the City’s ability to use water revenue to do water system-related road maintenance. (Tear up a street to fix a leaking water pipe, use water revenues to repair it. Makes sense, right? Now those costs are paid just by City taxpayers.) http://ncleg.net/gascripts/BillLookUp/BillLookUp.pl?Session=2013&BillID=h252
That cynical maneuver took a lot of money away from the City, and then they added insult to injury by touting that as a takeover-related “savings” to ratepayers. And that’s just one out of a series of bills meant to choke the City financially. I don’t begrudge them turning to a bond package, given the abuse they’ve endured at the hands of a vindictive legislature.
The Real World
No, it’s in your world of games and disingenuousness that direct replies to valid questions won’t be offered.
It’s a simple as this, “Yes, there should be real standards. But, in this situation, I have yet to see compelling evidence that Newman did anything untoward.” That is a mature, respectful answer. You leave us to deduce that you do not feel any expected standards are necessary for elected officials.
bsummers
Stop playing ‘Do you still beat your wife?’. The expected standards are already there. The next step is for you or the other anonymous accusers to provide evidence of anyone in office having violated those standards. You haven’t.
Lulz
What standards are you talking about? Double? Substitute Mumpower for Bothwell and the outcome of being a public official and DWI conviction would be totally different. You know it, I know it, we all know it.
Substitute Mumpower for Newman and YOU’D be the one questioning how someone can become wealthy while in office.
Subtitute Mumpower for Manheimer and YOU”D be the one questioning how there could be possible conflicts of interest concerning a certain law firm and some very high profile names in the area.
luther blissett
You’d think that Mumpower was the only conservative ever to have been elected to City Council. What short memories some people have.
“Hoping” for “whistleblowers” is just underhanded smear tactics. Have the courage of your convictions to stump up $75 and run on that platform, and let’s see how many takers there are.
bsummers
Substitute Mumpower for Bothwell… Substitute Mumpower for Newman… Subtitute Mumpower for Manheimer,,,
So just to be clear – no evidence at all of malfeasance. Just innuendo. Do I have that right?
bsummers
You leave us to deduce that you do not feel any expected standards are necessary for elected officials.
The fact that I refuse to accept ‘TRW’s manipulative framing of the issue, doesn’t give him the right to libel me. I believe that standards are necessary. But just like the letter writer hasn’t justified bypassing Council on local elections, neither TRW or the other sockpuppets have produced any evidence of any local officials having violated those standards.
BTW, XPress – I question your allowing the letter writer to say that City Council has “destroyed” anyone’s quality of life. That seems over the top, unnecessarily polemic, maintaining the fiction that the leadership of the City of Asheville are evil, destructive people.
Lulz
LOL, the mere fact that they promote bond issues without being truthful about the other fees they raise is dishonesty at its finest. Why not say dear Asheville, we have been wasting money for a few decades now on things that don’t have anything to do with the role of government even though YOUR TAXES HAVE BEEN CONSTANTLY GOING UP. So knowing what suckers you really are, give us even more via a bond issue. And what’s even more disingenuous, during a revaluation when the county still had 3 years left to do it. Collusion, corruption, and misinformation is coming to define local cronies.
As far as Newman is concerned, the man became a millionaire while in government. Many of the contracts involved schools and downtown buildings that had incentives to install solar panels by his company. Things that make you go hmmmm. Hopefully a whistle blower comes forth one day and exposes this farce for what it really is.
luther blissett
“what’s even more disingenuous, during a revaluation when the county still had 3 years left to do it.”
The county’s argument was that downtown developers have been sitting on large property gains made over the past four years, which means that the average homeowner was paying that share as well as their own. The reassessment puts some balance back.
Given that some people’s property values have more than doubled in four years, while others have seen only a 5-10% increase — don’t you agree? Ah, no: you repeatedly dodged the question of whether you’d sell your property at its old assessed value, and you’re still dodging the topic of how much you’ve personally gained from rising property prices. Things that make you go hmmmmm, hm?
Obviously council is not going to change the very system that elected them the way it is without an outside push any more than the legislature will take the initiative against state gerrymandering.
“because they no longer expect those who destroy their quality of life to have any interest in restoring it.”
Oh, please spare us this overdramatic silliness and have the courage to admit that it was a power grab.
Last time I checked, Arden isn’t in the city limits. Is the letter-writer also tacitly admitting that the campaign to carve up the city into voting districts was led by those in the county?
Are you sure? While I’m paying 3 grand for trash pick up, those lucky enough to avoid annexation are paying 20 bucks a month lulz. And that only happened because it took the legislature to stop the greed of Asheville politicians in taking over the area. Lucky them.
“While I’m paying 3 grand for trash pick up”
No, you’re not. Absurd claims that take half a second to refute tend to stop people believing anything else you say.
Are you still bemoaning your terrible, awful $300,000+ gain from owning property within a booming city?
Booming city? LOL, you’re betting that a bunch of drunks continuing to come here or that no one gets sick from the French Broad. Know any locals that go into that river? Everyone I talk to wouldn’t go near it. What happens when someone gets sick because of a sewage leak into it? I literally smell a lawsuit lulz.
Too bad your boom only benefits a few and has to be heavily subsidized by residents even though the money is really being concentrated into the hands of a few. I wonder how long that can go on.
“Too bad your boom only benefits a few and has to be heavily subsidized by residents even though the money is really being concentrated into the hands of a few.”
By “few” do you mean city residents whose property values have more than doubled in the past four years?
Values doubled? When do they see this money dude? If they decide to sell or are forced out. Meanwhile their services are dwindling and the payoffs to the cliqued up is BOOMING FOR THEM RIGHT NOW.
“Too bad your boom only benefits a few and has to be heavily subsidized by residents even though the money is really being concentrated into the hands of a few.”
Wow! Never knew Lulz was a socialistic promoter of class warfare!
“And on another stage recently.”
Oooh, mysterioso. On what stage did Council destroy people’s quality of life, recently?
Phony bond issue. Pushed another tax on the backs of owners without being truthful.
Promotes downtown and the RAD/greenways above all else. These areas are overrun by millionaires and the residents are basically financing them.
Is corrupt. No one in their right mind can deny that former councilman and present commissioner Newman had/has conflict of interests in relation to his former solar company during his political tenure. The man became a millionaire while in government. If Bothwell was a republican, his DWI conviction would have ended his career on council. The mayor is employed by a major law firm in town who ironically represents some other high profile names in the area. Former mayor Bellamy is now making over six figures in a worthless government job supported by taxpayers. Local cronies do indeed prove that if you’re part of the clique, you will be taken care of. Newman of all people should welcome an investigation into his dealings while in government but alas, has been able to hide it all because people like the above refuse to push the issue. Democrats as well are all being shown, are the most corrupt people on the planet.
Those fiends! Someone has to stop them! Why don’t we make being a Democrat against the law, and then deport them all?
No, why don’t we stop the hypocrisy and bring about some real standards that apply to all that seek public office. If you think becoming rich while holding office and not questioning it because the guy is a hard core leftist and it somehow benefits you is a good thing, you’re simply wrong.
Please do come forward with any actual evidence that any local elected official is guilty of malfeasance.
He left nothing but this box of crickets.
…if we only could outlaw the most evil enemies of the state, the ‘crackkks, America would be so much better.
hopefully the $110 MILLION payback bond scam will be exterminated in a court of law soon.
I guess I assumed that proposing sarcastically that we outlaw the Democratic Party, well, everyone would understand that that was ridiculous, fascistic, un-American… But Fred “Fisher” Caudle proved me wrong.
You’re doing a fine job of eliminating yourselves. The corruption that is coming to define the democratic party is out there in the open for all to see.
If Newman were a republican and made his fortune during his tenure, would you still be silent about it? Of course not. See dude, the left has to cover up and lie in order to protect the corruption that’s happening.
Barry – and do you feel inclined to support this premise?
“No, why don’t we stop the hypocrisy and bring about some real standards that apply to all that seek public office.”
I feel inclined to support you, or any of the other anonymous accusers, to come forward with actual evidence that any local elected official is guilty of malfeasance.
easy to do.
All I can do is ask and one always hopes for better but, not surprisingly, you won’t provide an adult-level answer to a direct question.
It’s usually games, contorting, misdirecting, devolving, avoiding, seeking to divide rather than unite and….the inevitable…..ultimately pawning-off responsibility to someone else. To quote someone I knew many years ago, “how’s that plan working out for you?” (Rhetorical — I know the answer)
Nice try. You attempted to change the subject away from the lulz/FisherCaudle eagerness to criminalize political leftness. I declined to play along with your misdirection. And for that I’m the one accused of practicing misdirection. Classic troll behavior.
If there’s evidence of malfeasance on the part of local elected officials, bring it on. The problem is, it’s never produced, is it? It’s just a talking point thrown out there by anonymous accusers, who also BTW, just happen to want to criminalize being a member of the wrong political party. So their word doesn’t count for much, IMO. And I for one won’t be cajoled into tacitly supporting their (or your) baseless smears. You have evidence? Bring it on.
To yank this back on topic: smears and scuttlebutt aren’t simply directed at a couple of council members, but at the legitimacy of City Council and the capacity of Asheville to manage its own affairs. None of those spreading the muck seem willing to cough up $75 and run for office, and instead argue that Asheville’s voters themselves are too dumb and complicit to make the correct choices.
And so we have a letter-writer from Arden arguing that it’s right and proper to ignore City Council and instead get legislators from Henderson County to push laws in Raleigh to change the election system in Asheville. What a triumph of the democratic process.
You’re right Luther – and they allege that things like the bond package, approved by voters, is in itself criminal. They remind me sometimes of the ‘sovereign citizens’ who act like any taxation is illegal and unconstitutional. Why? Because they don’t want to pay their share.
It’s similar to what some of them did during the fight over the water system – try to paint simple operational realities as evidence of criminal behavior. The City was transferring between one and two million dollars per year from water revenues to their general fund. Criminal thievery, right? Wrong – that’s what it costs the City to administer the water system, and it’s totally legal and appropriate that water customers pay for that. Even professional Asheville-antagonist Chuck McGrady admitted as much just a few weeks ago. The new bill he filed in his latest gambit to pressure Asheville to give up concessions on water, formally allows cities that run water systems to transfer ratepayer money…
“To a fund within the city to cover the public enterprise’s portion of any costs shared across city funds, including salaries and benefits of shared personnel.”
http://ncleg.net/Sessions/2017/Bills/House/HTML/H718v1.html
Duh. But just a couple of years ago, the fact that Asheville was doing exactly that was claimed as evidence of fraud, corruption, theft, etc. by the yahoos that simply want to tear the City down, and de-legitimize any policy decisions they make.
the bond scam and the way they underhandedly promoted it to the ignorant paybackees was criminal…had AVL had decent leadership for the past several decades the city would not be in such a shambles…the fact that we should have to spend bond scam money on street repaving is an outrage.
“had AVL had decent leadership for the past several decades the city would not be in such a shambles…”
Past several decades? Please specify when AVL last had “decent leadership” in your estimation. Was it back when downtown was mostly shuttered and the Fine Arts still showed dirty movies? Are we talking about the 1950s, when public buildings still had racially segregated bathrooms, or the 70s, when it was okay to knock down entire African-American neighborhoods?
Please also specify whether you consider the citizens of Asheville capable of electing their own municipal government.
the fact that we should have to spend bond scam money on street repaving is an outrage.
Although, let me guess – you supported the McGrady/Moffitt legislation that took away the City’s ability to use water revenue to do water system-related road maintenance. (Tear up a street to fix a leaking water pipe, use water revenues to repair it. Makes sense, right? Now those costs are paid just by City taxpayers.)
http://ncleg.net/gascripts/BillLookUp/BillLookUp.pl?Session=2013&BillID=h252
That cynical maneuver took a lot of money away from the City, and then they added insult to injury by touting that as a takeover-related “savings” to ratepayers. And that’s just one out of a series of bills meant to choke the City financially. I don’t begrudge them turning to a bond package, given the abuse they’ve endured at the hands of a vindictive legislature.
No, it’s in your world of games and disingenuousness that direct replies to valid questions won’t be offered.
It’s a simple as this, “Yes, there should be real standards. But, in this situation, I have yet to see compelling evidence that Newman did anything untoward.” That is a mature, respectful answer. You leave us to deduce that you do not feel any expected standards are necessary for elected officials.
Stop playing ‘Do you still beat your wife?’. The expected standards are already there. The next step is for you or the other anonymous accusers to provide evidence of anyone in office having violated those standards. You haven’t.
What standards are you talking about? Double? Substitute Mumpower for Bothwell and the outcome of being a public official and DWI conviction would be totally different. You know it, I know it, we all know it.
Substitute Mumpower for Newman and YOU’D be the one questioning how someone can become wealthy while in office.
Subtitute Mumpower for Manheimer and YOU”D be the one questioning how there could be possible conflicts of interest concerning a certain law firm and some very high profile names in the area.
You’d think that Mumpower was the only conservative ever to have been elected to City Council. What short memories some people have.
“Hoping” for “whistleblowers” is just underhanded smear tactics. Have the courage of your convictions to stump up $75 and run on that platform, and let’s see how many takers there are.
Substitute Mumpower for Bothwell… Substitute Mumpower for Newman… Subtitute Mumpower for Manheimer,,,
So just to be clear – no evidence at all of malfeasance. Just innuendo. Do I have that right?
You leave us to deduce that you do not feel any expected standards are necessary for elected officials.
The fact that I refuse to accept ‘TRW’s manipulative framing of the issue, doesn’t give him the right to libel me. I believe that standards are necessary. But just like the letter writer hasn’t justified bypassing Council on local elections, neither TRW or the other sockpuppets have produced any evidence of any local officials having violated those standards.
BTW, XPress – I question your allowing the letter writer to say that City Council has “destroyed” anyone’s quality of life. That seems over the top, unnecessarily polemic, maintaining the fiction that the leadership of the City of Asheville are evil, destructive people.
LOL, the mere fact that they promote bond issues without being truthful about the other fees they raise is dishonesty at its finest. Why not say dear Asheville, we have been wasting money for a few decades now on things that don’t have anything to do with the role of government even though YOUR TAXES HAVE BEEN CONSTANTLY GOING UP. So knowing what suckers you really are, give us even more via a bond issue. And what’s even more disingenuous, during a revaluation when the county still had 3 years left to do it. Collusion, corruption, and misinformation is coming to define local cronies.
As far as Newman is concerned, the man became a millionaire while in government. Many of the contracts involved schools and downtown buildings that had incentives to install solar panels by his company. Things that make you go hmmmm. Hopefully a whistle blower comes forth one day and exposes this farce for what it really is.
“what’s even more disingenuous, during a revaluation when the county still had 3 years left to do it.”
The county’s argument was that downtown developers have been sitting on large property gains made over the past four years, which means that the average homeowner was paying that share as well as their own. The reassessment puts some balance back.
Given that some people’s property values have more than doubled in four years, while others have seen only a 5-10% increase — don’t you agree? Ah, no: you repeatedly dodged the question of whether you’d sell your property at its old assessed value, and you’re still dodging the topic of how much you’ve personally gained from rising property prices. Things that make you go hmmmmm, hm?
Asheville Districts Bill Passes Committee
http://bit.ly/2q4ZIdu
Obviously council is not going to change the very system that elected them the way it is without an outside push any more than the legislature will take the initiative against state gerrymandering.