In my day job, we often say "under-promise and over-deliver" as that is truly the only way to earn the trust of our clients. When you think about it, this is pretty much my mantra for life -- set realistic, clear expectations and then blow them away. It's not that my goals are too low of a bar -- it's just that I want to make sure that if I promise something it is something I can deliver.
And then we look at the promises of our current administration -- the ones asking you to let them promise you things for the next four years. What's been promised and what's been delivered:
Phil Promised: Lower Taxes
Phil Delivered: Historic low taxes for our president's home. The rest of us?? Well -- perhaps, not so much.
Phil Promise: Travel Center Opening the Summer of 2021
Phil Delivered: Whether you agree or disagree with Phil's claim of historic revenues from the travel center, I think we all agree that it would need to be built to be open and to opened to generate a single dime in village revenue, right?
Keeping in mind that Phil told us in late summer that grading was beginning in September of 2020. This is the current status of the "largest commercial development" in Village history:
This is one of TWO lake/ponds on the land. I believe the concept is that one, perhaps the one below, is staying and the other will need to be filled in to make room for the travel center.
And do not forget, this travel center is a gas station, in order to build a gas station, you have to bury very large tanks in the ground to hold the fuel. More than one tank, in fact. So the process of building is not just grade ground and put up a building.
Phil Promised: Haligus Road Park is 'underway'
Phil Delivered: As of this typing there has been no agreement to transfer the land from the village to the park district brought to the board for approval. As of this post, there has been no public discussion of what will be in the park or if it is to include a splash pad, how much water that would use, where the water would come from, who is paying for the water, and where the water would go to drain. Those seem like pretty giant questions to me -- for something that is supposedly 'underway.' So, here's the current status of the land that is to become this park:
Is this what 'underway' means?
Phil Promised: Fix the drainage in the Gates
Phil Delivered: No strategic plan to solve the problem. No public facing timeline to accomplish this not-strategic plan. No funding identified to pay for this plan that doesn't exist. And the success Phil likes to claim is the model to solve all of the problems looks like this after a rain:
Empty detention area and flooding pushed further down the street (as the BW study predicted). Hmm. Or maybe the grading on Hampshire itself needs fine-tuning as we have puddles after a rather light rain that aren't draining into the storm drains:
Phil Promised: Building great roads
Phil Delivered: We've listened to our Village President tout that "we are building roads that last." This is a portion of the late last summer patched Broadway:
There is no explanation for why this section of Broadway wasn't at least patched from edge to edge. The patches themselves are not even a year old. This road is literally crumbling away and slowly becoming the gravel road it once was.
We've had two years of Un-Phil-Filled Promises. We've had one year of incredibly public harassment of staff and residents. Some may try to argue that the ends justify the means -- but from where I'm watching -- his ends don't look very good either. So, if his methods are poor and his promises are not coming true -- why exactly does he deserve 4 years to do 'more' of this??
Phil has overpromised and underdelivered his entire public service. It is time for a change.
We need a leader who has a REAL track record of getting the work done --- you don't get to be Chief Operating Officer without accomplishments. Dave Stavropoulos is that guy! He's the pragmatic leader who can make promises, deliver on them, and exceed your expectations.
Vote for Dave. Vote for the entire United4Lakewood Team!