What people don't seem to be noticing is that the city governments are providing fewer and fewer day and night recreational programs for youth. That kept kids off the streets. It exposed them to adult mentors, and a social network. It taught them skills, and kept them out of trouble. But public funds that used to be available for youths in arts, theatre and sports, etc., have been shifted to corporate welfare, such as services for developers through Chattanooga's Regional Planning Agency, and for fat insider contracts. When I was a kid, you could play at the city gyms for no fee. When my mom was a kid, there were dances. There were sports teams. That could keep a lot of kids out of gangs. The civic centers were once used for the public, not overpriced for private rental, making our public assets more off limits, and increasingly exclusive. If we're going to let America's social network and moral fiber fall into disrepair, and give our public funds and assets to government insiders and the elite, then we need realize what we're taking from our youth: their present; and their future.

Our Recalled Mayor Ron Littlefield is wasting unknown amounts of our tax money in our courts and legal offices, so he can delay a legal recall in which more registered voters signed to recall him than voted for him. Where is the story in which the media quantifies the costs of his frivolous appeals? Also, why hasn't the city council replaced Littlefield with their chair, as the charter specifies? Why are they ignoring our city charter, and letting him pull a salary beyond his last days in office? This bubba network has got to go. They're enriching themselves on our dime, while they hand off fat contracts, pork and patronage positions to their inner circle.

If you think Skillern should consider leaving politics to become a comedian, instead of a laughing stock, here's his contact information: Fred R. Skillern Chairman Pro-tempore

Home Address:
P.O. Box 340
Soddy Daisy, TN 37384
Phone: (423)332-1335

Business Address:
401 Courthouse
Chattanooga., TN 37402
Directions/Map
Phone: (423)332-3143
Fax: (423)332-3153

You can also email the commissioner through the county commission website at http://www.hamiltontn.gov/commission/EmailForm.aspx

Would Skillern think it was a funnier joke if he made it to a woman or person of color? He has nothing but contempt for the voters to make a joke like that. Two of the men in the elevator with him were there to fight for all of our right to vote. And they watched him and his fellow bubbas laugh at the idea of repealing a new law designed to strip unsuspecting voters of their rights in 2012!

I know two people who were in the elevator with Skillern yesterday. It's no joke, and no laughing matter that he has such contempt for the people he was elected to represent. Skillern and his networked fellow bubbas can't be trusted to represent any of us, white, black, female, male, propertied or landless. Vote the bubbas out of office. They're robbing us blind to enrich themselves. And clearly this voter ID law is intended to keep at least 126,000 unsuspecting registered voters from voting, a step towards reaching Skillern's likely goal of reducing our ability to vote: http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2011/sep/13/b1-voter-id-law-defended/?print

Skillern is known to walk around using the N-word freely. I know two people who were in the elevator with Skillern yesterday. It's no joke, and no laughing matter that he has such contempt for the people he was elected to represent. Skillern and his networked fellow bubbas can't be trusted to represent any of us, white, black, female, male, propertied or landless. Vote the bubbas out of office. They're robbing us blind to enrich themselves. And clearly this voter ID law is intended to keep at least 126,000 people from voting, a step towards reaching Skillern's likely goal of reducing our ability to vote: http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2011/sep/13/b1-voter-id-law-defended/?print

Hiring outside legal counsel to tell us what our charter says might cost more than just having a new election, prior to August. We've already paid a lot out to lawyers and courts just to get the city to follow its own charter. I'd like to know what taxpayer have already paid for the mayor to appeal, and delay, including the cost of the courts and the mayor using our city lawyer to represent him, not us. The charter seems specific that the chair should serve out the interim of the mayor's term following recall: Sec. 8.30. Succession to office of mayor. In the case of the mayor’s death, resignation, inability to serve for any reason, recall or removal of his or her residence from the city, upon such fact being certified by resolution of the council, the chairperson of the council shall become the interim mayor upon being administered the oath and making bond. Such person shall hold the office of the mayor on an interim basis until a new mayor is elected as provided in this Charter and qualified. The interim mayor shall have the authority to cast a vote to break a tie in the city council. A vacancy in the office of the mayor shall be filled by election at the next regularly scheduled election to be held in the city not less than ninety (90) days but not more than one hundred twenty (120) days after the vacancy is certified by the council. If no such election is scheduled, a special election shall be held within not less than ninety (90) nor more than one hundred twenty (120) days. The person so elected shall serve the remainder of the term vacated by the mayor.

The mayor isn't threatening to sue the city council. He's threatening to sue us. We pay the legal costs, not the city council! What a whitewash. How does the press get away with this, while failing to enumerate the cost of his delay tactics in the county and appellate courts, and through the city's legal services?

I hear a lot of folks say it looks bad for Chattanooga to have the mayor recalled. I say it hurts our city worse, and not just its image, to have a corrupt government. And the folks wanting to cover up the corruption probably feel like the corruption gravy train, or at least the system surrounding it, benefits them in some way. The status quo of corruption is not worth holding up to anything but the light!

Can someone, perhaps a beat reporter, produce the charter verbiage that provides for this removal of the mayor until recall, so we can see it? What does it say? Or are we just supposed to trust the verbiage of politicians all the time? Perhaps a reporter could even ask what the mayor's fighting the charter with taxpayer resources is costing us in the courts and in legal fees some time!