Wednesday,September 3, 2003

Council's city manager decision an unwise choice

I am an old man, not the politically correct euphemistic "senior citizen," if being 89 years old would qualify as old, and a veteran of depressions, World War Two, and the gradual growth of insufferable government.

As our Constitutional Fathers were well aware of, government by its very nature has an insatiable desire to grow, and grow, and grow. But every instance of growth, as every action, has an equal reaction. That reaction can be the loss of freedom to the people who are a part of that government, or a loss of property, or means.

I voted against the tax exemption because I do not favor exemptions of our citizens in time of diminishing revenues, and I certainly do not favor expanding our city government by the employment of another city manager, call his or her title what you may. If the new manager be not capable of performing the duties assigned to him, or if he be unwilling to share his salary with an assistant, I would recommend that he be replaced.

Certainly, with Peachtree City in the final phase of build-out, the duties of the city manager could not compare to the complexities and problems faced and surmounted by his predecessor.

I see no reason that City Hall can't cut its expenditures, when it is asking the people for more help. Surely, it should not expand.

William H. Cooper, Jr.

Peachtree City, Ga.