Small city government soap opera.

[dentheman]

After the Rahm Emanuel mayorial eligibility controversy it looks like someone looked into the eligibility of our Lubbock city officials. The city charter does not allow anyone to hold elected office if they owe the city money.

One city council member owes the city $10,000 in back taxes. The District Attorney is working on prosecuting that. Then a few days later we find a second council member owed back taxes. NOW, it turns out the DA working the cases ALSO owes the city! So the city is going to look for an outside attorney. Maybe they will all be dismissed, but I suspect the 'good old boy' system will somehow allow them to stay in office. But that would likely bring on lawsuits, so I will wait and see.

Every couple of years something like this hits Lubbock. Our previous mayor lost his reelection bid by backing red light cameras and getting them installed, against the will of the people. When a stink was made about it, he called the citizens "cavemen". The new mayor's first act was to get the cameras removed.

[Water Warrior 2]

A skeleton in every closet seems to be the norm today.

[JWR]

I spent a month in Lubbock back in 1965. We put up a TV tower.

A lot of view from 350 feet.

[alanmcorcoran]

While I support the general idea that people should live where they represent (see Hillary Clinton and New York) I thought the Rahm Emmanual thing was sort of political bullshit. Okay, so perhaps the guy is a hard nosed asshole (which I don't really have a problem with) but to claim he's a resident of Washington D.C., when he went there to serve in the Obama Administration directly FROM Chicago, where he lived previously and still owns his house (he temporarily rented it out and the people in it refused to vacate it when he went back) just sounded like underhanded political maneuvering by the opposition. This kind of thinking might prevent many congressmen from CA from claiming to live in CA unless they maintained an (unoccupied) house here as well as DC, which they maybe can't afford to and is, frankly stupid.

I spend a lot of time in Chicago - However, I don't know a lot about the other candidates but I sense that Rahm is the clear front runner and I'd put my money on him to win. Given the sordid history of city, county and state government in that neck of the woods, I suspect there are far worse things about some od the candidates (and maybe the winner) that will be uncovered in the course of the election or afterwards. (Some of their governors currently reside in... prison.)

I do find it annoying when city, state and federal officials do not follow the laws they wrote to apply to the rest of us. All those scofflaws in Texas should get a nice municipal kick in the ass and pay their back fines, penalties and interest.

[jonathan180iq]

I wonder what people would dig up on us if we were to run for office?

=

[alanmcorcoran]

I don't. I wouldn't make it past round one of the vetting. With the exception of the Foot Tapper, I'm pretty sure I have most of these guys beat. Any improprieties involving Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll just don't seem to fly with either party.

But I do pay my taxes.