Here's the Harold Logsdon method:

1. Promise tax reform and don't even try to deliver

2. Watch a railroad parking lot being built at the entrance of the city for six months and wait to respond until it's finished

3. Pursue annexations on both ends of town - one generating $40,000 in taxes and creating $80,000 in city services - all out of the public eye

4. Rabidly pursue TDK with Coweta netting over $1 billion while PTC gets $0 in taxes and ends up with major traffic and millions in unbudgeted road improvements

5. Cut the employees' benefits and move to double your own salary

6. Micromanage the city staff and call extra short notice meetings so the public can't attend

7. Pay a million tax dollars to a bunch of crooks for violating the law

On the face of it, I am at a loss as to why the Logsdon leadership method hasn't worked. He's going down as one of our all time greatest ____________.

OK I’ll take a shot at this.

1. I got elected by the majority of the people that voted. That’s all that matters.
2. PTC is a town that is into recreation. You had to know this going in.
3. If the city employees are being paid mid range with 5-7% increases I see nothing to address here.
4. Employee’s benefits costs are increasing everywhere. Most private companies are passing at least part of the increased costs on to employees. Personally I’d like to hold that to a minimum.
5. If someone built something for the city they should be paid in accordance with the contract.

So how do I pull this off when the residents don’t want a tax increase and there’s no room in the budget for cuts?

1. Make TDK a four lane TOLL road.
2. Let the residents that use the recreation facilities pay a small fee. (Or a small increase in fees)
3. Then and only then raise taxes the minimum necessary.

I beleive in the pay for what you use approach to the extent that it's possible.

This is intersting in the fact that you said that there's no room left for expansion, yet we have developers at the door. Also, we are still expanding. Isn't the city considering annexing further on Hwy 54? However, in the interest of this I will give it a try.

***If I was only voted in by 4,000 people voting for me then I shouldn't really be worried about a second term; but for argument's sake let's say I am going to run again.***

#1-I would not accept the debt of another just to avoid a lawsuit. Gee, that's a no brainer there. Go for the lawsuit. I can defend not accepting $1.5mil in debt and spending $100,000.00 doing than to say "Well, I was worried we'd spend more money that we're going to pay in the end."

#2-I would make sure that the city employees got their pay raises and COLA so that we could retain the ones we already have.

#3-I would decline and fight off any attempts to raise the pay of council and those in the city making over average wage for a city our size.

#4-I hate it, but taxes need to go up. I would defend this with surveys of the surrounding areas and justify it with logic rather than smoke and mirrors.

#5-I would allow the construction of the TDK extension on the following conditions. It be declared a State Highway rather than a four lane road. Since it becomes a highway, wouldn't that mean that the state would be responsible for its construction and maintenance? (asking, not sure about that one)

#6-The barbarians can sit down and take a break while we re-evaluate the budget and see where needless spending has been done. If only 4,000 citizens are actively involved with athletics then why do we need more and more fields, air-conditioned toilets, and places like that? That's only (roughly) an eigth of the population and we should reassess what the citizens really want. Not just the noise makers. Do they want more safety in their community or more places to have the understaffed employees keep clean, the police to patrol, and fire/EMS to answer calls to. We already have them overworked and understaffed. Why create more problems before repair the existing damage?

#7-STOP SPENDING NEEDLESSLY ON THINGS THAT ARE NOT NEEDED.

#8-Make sure that everyone knows why.

I know this is an odd way of looking at it, but it's a thought and what someone operating with morals and integrity would/should do. I consider myself a person of high morals and would like to believe that I would, and could, do these things.

Mr. Know,
Please tell us how you would contain the hemoraging of employees and money. I'm sure you're waiting for someone to ask or suggest that. You're posts I've read indicate a that you are somewhat closed to any other opinion than your own, so I'm sure you have hatched THE master plan to cover all of the bases you've just laid out before us. After all, why else lay the scneario down as you did?

We await with baited breath....

Well, first I focus on what is important.
#1 is that the fact that only 4,000 people voted in the election or voted for me or whomever is not relevant - so I ignore that.
#2 the fact that there are 35,000 people living here is also not relevant. 1/3 are kids, 1/3 are not registered to vote (who knows why) and the other 1/3 is in fact registered to vote and somewhere between 10% and 40% of them do. Know that and move on. That is only important if I plan to run for reelection.
#3 I will not run for a second term and do not think about it.
#4 I get to work and run the city.
#5 I pay the tennis center debt back.
#6 I give the deserving employees a raise.
#7 I hire more police and firefighters.
#8 I get rid of Bernie and let Colin retire gracefully, then I hire
a real city manager who doesn't care about politics - say, Jim
Williams, just to pick a name out of the air.
Now, here comes the big one - look out!
#9 I RAISE TAXES TO PAY FOR IT ALL!!!
#10 The 4,000 who want to vote me out cannot because I am not running again.

So, how hard is that - unless I have an ego and a need to advance politically?
Our taxes are about the lowest in the entire US (except for Nebraska, but who wants to live there) and we can all afford another $500 to $800 per year which would solve all the problems.