DEAR EDITOR,
I am writing to strongly object to joining the 6/7 County Coalition.
The meeting on Sept. 17 came off like a semi-slick sales pitch. Many responses by Lynn Jackson’s “hired guns” on the panel, to public concerns and questions were morphed into justifications for joining the Coalition. One thing was clear, not one of those “hired guns” could answer how joining this coalition could help collect even one thin dime for Grand County.
The Council’s reasoning for selection of the panel makeup missed the most important point, that being, your panel’s appearance of impartiality.
The appearance that was given was of Lynn Jackson’s “hired guns” and an elected salaried partisan commissioner from another county, all three representing their own set of financial interests, not Grand County’s. It is a wonder that a person who was not truly elected can cause so much upheaval in our community.
The only elected person on the panel openly representing and advising all the residents of Grand County was Andrew Fitzgerald. Andrew was right on and presented an honest legal interpretation, warnings and advice that should not be ignored. At least four of you made your intentions known to immediately join despite warnings from our elected attorney.
The coalition attorney who drew up the “document” confused the issue by admitting there were “overlooked vestiges” of “prior drafts” remaining in the “final document,” you all are contemplating signing.
The more the community looks into this, the more the number of people who oppose this coalition grows. Though the “recall petitions” were not filed in September, there were a substantial number of signatures collected (about 500 in less than three weeks) and most of those signing also had a complaint regarding membership in the cooperative.
This coalition is a “socialist government cooperative” with no real oversight or public accountability. One that will be overseeing a paid professional staff to manage revenues and public “infrastructures” that are actually risky business venture’s usually done by venture capitalist groups.
Private industry has not built the “Short Line Railroad” perhaps because they know it can’t pay for itself. But what the heck, this is government money. There is always more, right?
“Government cooperatives” are not in any Capitalist philosophy or business models I am familiar with? This is how Mexico’s corrupt government does business. I once saw a bumper sticker distributed by a local GOP group against forming a local RTD. It read: if the government ran it, crime wouldn’t pay.
Joining this cooperative will (defer) our local funding from the CIB for many years. Duchesne’s latest CIB requests were deferred (denied). The CIB cited the Duchesne/6 county request for the ($55 million) seed money.
Suckering Grand County into joining this questionable cooperative and jeopardizing local CIB funding requests, just to allow Lynn Jackson to build “The Lynn Jackson Scenic Byway” through the “new Book Cliffs industrial and mining complex” is at least, shameful.
