Its Saturday and the Red Phone
’s been ringing again this week – sending the Crimson Crusader
out to answer your queries. Got a question, comment or concern?
Dial up the Red Phone at 779-4106 ext. 206 or e-mail the Crimson
Crusader at re******@*************es.com.
Its Saturday and the Red Phone’s been ringing again this week – sending the Crimson Crusader out to answer your queries. Got a question, comment or concern? Dial up the Red Phone at 779-4106 ext. 206 or e-mail the Crimson Crusader at re******@*************es.com.
Crazy council, consultants are for kids
A Morgan Hill Times reader is frustrated with the city for hiring a consultant for the community “conversations.”
“I just read the article about the city of Morgan Hill going to spend $74,500 to hire a consultant to tell residents their side of the finance story. I can’t believe this!
What is the city manager’s job? What is the mayor’s job? Or how about the whole city council getting together and telling us? $74,500! They’re going to cut city services. I’m sure they could fill a position or two – or whatever with that money. This is unbelievable! If they can’t tell us something, I believe they should step down and get someone else in there to do their job.
I wish you guys would write a good article about that. This is ridiculous. This is crazy.”
We did write an article about that – the city hiring a consultant, not being crazy. But in all fairness to our fine council, the city staff – with the council’s blessing – didn’t hire the consultant to merely tell residents about the budget deficit. The Times has already taken that step. The consultant will facilitate the meeting and help the council interact with the public in a positive manner.
“We will develop a set of materials to guide the process so people can work on trade-offs and grapple the pros and cons,” said Heidi Gantwek of Viewpoint Learning, Inc., the firm selected to design and manage the conversations. In talking with the city council and people in the community, she indicated the firm hopes to help the council provide a real choice for the community.
“This is not about spin of persuasion. There is learning in both directions. The Morgan Hill City Council really wants to know what you think, what you really like. We hope to have a rich, lively and engaged conversation so people in city government can learn from the population,” Gantwek stated.
That doesn’t sound too crazy – or does it?
More traffic comments and angry pedestrians
It wouldn’t be a week for the Red Phone without at least one comment on the speed demons ruining life for pedestrians:
“I also would like to comment on the traffic situation downtown. Drivers are upset now because of the speed bumps, they seem to go faster before they get to them and on the side streets downtown. I cross the street every day at Monterey and Fifth street and sometimes I’ll stand there for at least one minute before someone will stop or notice me.
I’ve even had a driver beep at me because he had to slow down to let me cross. Even the Morgan Hill Police Department has passed me before. What, are we invisible? I know there’s a shortage of police, but when they were enforcing downtown people were actually stopping for the pedestrians.
It seems that in the heart of the downtown area, drivers are more aware of what’s around them, but the closer they get to Dunne, the faster and less observant they become. Please remember that the speed limit is 25 from Main all the way to Dunne.”
