These comments center on how morally and ethically wrong it is for the city to think of ways to bring in more revenue rather than impose a tax increase. A fitness center would mean competition against other gyms in the community. Monument sales would mean competition against funeral homes in the community.
If that’s the case, then let’s look at the extremes if we really examined what the city does daily. If we took this thinking to its ultimate end, there would be no city government because everything the city does, from preparing budgets to collecting trash, is really competition against some private business.
By the thinking advocated by many, the city is competing against companies like Waste Industries for collecting trash. Why aren’t people upset about this? By the city collecting its own trash it is taking jobs away from private trash collection firms. That is wrong, yet no one complains.
Surely, the city has better things to do than pick up people’s garbage and a private firm must have more experience in this than a city government.
Let’s eliminate vehicle maintenance which is done at the city garage. They’re competing against any number of mechanics in the Roanoke Valley, yet where are the throngs with pitchforks and torches protesting this? The city is taking business away from business by maintaining its own vehicle fleet.
The city has a cemetery? This is surely competition against private cemeteries and churches and every town which has one is taking away business from a yet unknown firm which could run a graveyard more efficiently than the city does. City council, please sell the cemetery now.
When it snows, city employees are out with snow plows. Doesn’t DOT do this? Aren’t there private individuals who could do this job? Somewhere there is some entrepreneur wringing their hands nervously because the city is taking away his or her snow plow business. Let’s eliminate this. It’s competition.
The city has planners. Why do we need this department? Hire engineers to do the planning. There are firms that specialize in this. The bureaucracy of the planning department is competing against highly paid planning firms. Don’t need it, it’s competition.
Then there’s the finance department. Why should the city pay people to do its finances when it could just bring in a CPA firm? The finance department is competing against private business. Let the revolution begin to hire an outside firm to do its finances. They’re already doing the city’s audit, so why not let them run the whole show? Wonder how much that would cost?
Every meeting I go to at city hall I see someone cleaning. There are private cleaning businesses that must be fuming the city has the audacity to let one of its own employees clean when a private business could do it more efficiently. This is disgusting. Hire a private firm now.
Someone asked me what if the city decided to start its own newspaper. I can’t remember what I said but it garnered a chuckle, something like if they did they would probably hire me to do it.
By taking this thinking, this notion that if the city does go with the fitness center or start selling monuments, to the extreme, the only thing left in city government would be police and fire.
Wait a minute. Maybe there’s someone thinking of starting a fire suppression business. When they do, the city will be competing against it. They’re already competing against the volunteers and maybe it’s time the city just hire rent a cops to investigate and solve murders, break-ins and property damage — LM
