Wednesday, April 19, 2017

You Grant My Back, I'll Stab Yours

Smooshing together two well-stated comments from the previous topic, owing to their high truth content...

It isn't one person. It is the result of grant culture, and the people who have to hunt for grants to pay for things now.

The City and County fund all kinds of things because a grant will pay for it. Think of those fake beaches. Does anybody know of a documented reason they were important enough to spend millions on? Were they on any kind of priority list developed by the citizens? No, but staff at the city found some grant that they could apply for, to design and build them. Of course, being a "distressed" county, building fake beaches are important, right?

We see the same thing with the various non-profits in town, and the First Nations in the area. They have staff dedicated to finding, applying for and managing grants.

And, grants often provide funding for staff to manage the project. Oh?! Bingo.

So, this creates a circumstance where grants are a source for funding staff. A circumstance where staff has to find grants, to keep being employed. Where creating un-needed multi-million dollar projects, like fake beaches and outdated mega CSO construction projects become very desirable, because they fund a lot of salaries.

The need of the project becomes incidental. The amount of money generated for salaries becomes the priority.


AND...

"Funny" how the powers-that-be are using the lady's desire and money to build an arts center for Port Angeles to try to accomplish other goals they have had for years, but have been otherwise unable to do by other means.

For how many years have we heard about building a convention center at the Oak street property? All the twists and turns of that effort.

But, with the support of "arts," what otherwise couldn't be supported, suddenly is resurrected. Once again, people ask "Where are the studies to show a convention center in Port Angeles is viable?"

If any one of us went to a bank for money to fund such a project, we would be required to provide detailed documentation from verified professionals in the appropriate fields, to assure the financial success of the proposed venture.

In Port Angeles, we build fake beaches, spending millions, that sit virtually empty every day of the year. We spent millions building the Gateway Transportation Center, that sits empty most of the year. (If it were not for the Farmers Market, it would be empty virtually all the time).

18 comments:

  1. A question for any city or county candidate: How do you intend to move us a little further away from Grant Culture, and more into regular business revenues like a real city, eh?

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    1. An excellent question for candidates. Get them to talk about "economic development" but without using the word "grant."

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    2. There are a lot of problems that come with funding everything with grants. Virtually all are for single projects. "Economic development" requires a long range vision and related planning. Not a hodgepodge of patched together grant projects.

      It gets down to HAVING a vision and a plan, instead of having full-time staff hunting for grants to pay for their salaries. Elected representatives are supposed to be the ones in government with the visions and plans, and city staff are the ones who implement them.

      Elected representatives' visions and plans are supposed to represent the desires and goals of the citizens. Not just nodding their heads every two weeks at a council meeting to approve everything city staff put in front of them. City staff that (here we go full circle) creates projects because their employment relies upon the grants that fund them.

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  2. PA is an armpit that most of Washington laughs about. Believe me I know. There's no hope or no future. Get out folks.

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  3. Wow! There is the truth of the situation!

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  4. Wait a minute, there are some great people here. Too bad they don't vote. Because the leadership we have is made up of lackys and hacks who cowtow to the ruling elete. Then you have an egg-sucking lap dog newspaper that backs up the lies we are told. I suggest, if we elected only those people no one has heard of we would have a better city council and county commission. Our population is much greater than our electeds.

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  5. PDN supports criminals.
    In today's PDN is a story on the criminal conviction of Adam Chamberlin, leader of the criminal element in Our Town. The PDN lied saying Chamberlin had no prior felony convictions. In fact he has two prior criminal convictions. Just because former judge Brooke Taylor restored his rights does not magically make these two prior felonies go away. Just because prosecutor Mark Nichols drops three out of four charges just before trial does not make these crimes go away nor comfort the victims. PDN also advertises his internet group and his funding mechanism each time they do a story so it is obvious they are promoting his fundraising which supports his crimes against the homeless and the most vulnerable people in town. The prosecutor said they would have trouble housing Chamberlin in jail because he would be in there with with some of his victims, people he has assaulted and they might want some 'payback' Why not let them out and put the real criminal in instead? Chamberlin is a text book example of Our Town hypocrisy when they commit all manner of crimes against the poor and vulnerable while pretending to be fighting crime. Sad to say there are numerous "leading citizens" who got caught up in this mess. Former chief of police Terry Gallaher chief among them. They have even infected the administration of the new chief of police, Brian Smith whose department just looks the other way when victims of Our Town's criminal bunch come in to file complaints. Somehow these complaint never get investigated. Even if they did and law enforcement places charges the prosecutor will not prosecute. On it goes.

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    1. I know everyone loves to blame Nichols, but it's likely that they dropped the pepper-spraying and harassment charges against Chamberlin because the main witnesses - the victims - are part of a demographic that juries won't listen to or respect in this town. Nobody knows it better than Nichols. The state can't say this stuff, but insiders can tell you, yeah, that's quite often why charges get dropped. They've seen it before, many times. The homeless, the poor, the addicts, the people struggling to even hold their heads up, are not recognized as people with rights, by the rest of us. They're just not going to get a fair shake at a trial. Nobody says it out loud but everybody thinks it: tough shit, losers.

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    2. I think you underestimate the fine people of this county. Even if you are correct the charges need to be faced just to show the kind of behavior this community will punish--or attempt to punish. Prosecuting ALL the charges against Chamberlin would not have made it more likely the jury would acquit on the shotgun charge. This is crazy talk. Chamberlin has snitched out so many people they didn't want to put him in jail with them. If the jury had heard all the charges against him they would have to lock him up a while and then he might get hurt and so forth and so on. Now it is only the homeless likely to get hurt with him on the street with a get out of jail free card. Nichols thinks this rat pack might be mined for a few votes.

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    3. "Nichols thinks this rat pack might be mined for a few votes."

      Bullseye!

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    4. Yes, but. Who besides me is puzzled by this rationale:

      "The prosecutor said they would have trouble housing Chamberlin in jail because he would be in there with with some of his victims, people he has assaulted and they might want some 'payback.."

      And: " Chamberlin has snitched out so many people they didn't want to put him in jail with them. If the jury had heard all the charges against him they would have to lock him up a while and then he might get hurt and so forth and so on."

      It seems the prosecutor believed Chamberlin guilty of charges that warranted him being put in jail, but declined to press charges and hold Chamberlin accountable for crimes that would have resulted in jail time in order to protect Chamberlin from possible harm while serving a justifiable jail sentence??

      I've never spent any time in jail, nor been charged with anything, so I'm a bit ignorant about the whole jail scene. But, it is my impression jails are known to be less than wonderful places. Inmates do all kinds of nasty things to each other, I am lead to believe.

      So, if it is acceptable for the prosecutor and/or judge in Port Angeles NOT to send a convicted criminal to jail because they fear for his safety, why are ANY criminals being sent to jail?

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  6. Another problem with grants is that they allow us to build larger projects than we would otherwise be able to afford. Larger projects inevitably have higher ongoing maintenance costs. This keeps us in a "distressed" state with no escape.

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    1. Yes indeed, excellent points. The debt is for a generation. Ah, but the maintenance costs, those are for eternity.

      I'm thinking about you, Turd Tank...

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    2. Yes, but we see the City and its' supporters joyfully trumpeting that the CSO project works.

      A bit like saying "See? We solved the problem of that pesky mosquito; it is dead!" And omitting that an atom bomb was used to accomplish this great deed.

      As if there would be any doubt?

      And, it is not just maintenance costs. Bigger projects have bigger impacts. Unneeded projects generated unneeded impacts.

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  7. More on that topic...

    http://portocallpublishing.com/2017/04/is-clallam-county-a-kleptocracy/

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  8. CK, please consider another of your dedicated posts to the new POC article about Kleptocracy. That word is an excellent framing term that needs to be put out there by any & all means.

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  9. Does anybody.. Oh, I think I just answered the question I was going to ask.

    I was going to ask: "What changed? When did public services and projects become dependent upon this Grant Culture?"

    Then I remembered the take over of governance by business interests, over the last 30 years or so. Sure, business and profit have long directed public policy. The US has been at war 93% of the time, since 1776, mostly to gain control of land and resources for business interests to profit from.

    And, as we hear almost constantly, politicians campaign on platforms to "reduce taxes and regulations" so that the "job creators" will make our country great.

    So, there has been a steady pattern of de-funding services and programs government used to provide through the taxes we pay. "Cut the size of big government", we also hear. Except the military, and the businesses that make it possible. The US military is the largest in the world, and the US is the largest weapons manufacturer in the world. Priorities. Can't control access to the world's resources and markets without it!

    Not surprisingly, as once government provided services were de-funded, the same business interests made sure tax laws were changed so that they could get write-offs against their incomes by creating foundations, and offering grants. How nice. More advertising, and an opportunity to appear benevolent.

    And, as we also see, grants are also used as a means to force certain agendas.

    If this all is such a great idea for society in general, why are services and programs so under-funded? Why are there bigger homeless populations, and more people on the streets in need? No more after-school music and arts programs?

    But, we have more advertising! And more wealth is controlled by fewer people, than ever before.

    See? I answered my own question.



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  10. Geeez. Reading about all the things that go on in Port Angeles, I wonder why anybody moves there, or stays there!

    Crazy so-called leadership that fights with it's own citizens. A city council that votes against the wishes of the people that elected them. A staff that seems so dependent on grants for their jobs, that they drive the city into massive debt. Roads and other basic infrastructure in such bad shape, while the city spends millions on "fake beaches". A city that ignores the basic needs of the homeless and other vulnerable populations, while spending millions on "waterfront improvements" virtually no one uses. A city that spends millions every year on "economic development", but sits stagnant for decades. A city where the sitting mayor was allowed to receive payments from "clients" doing business with the city. A city where the Port of Port Angeles, even after being given waterfront lands almost 100 years ago to manage, still can't show a profit. A city that has consistently had such bad economic circumstances, despite millions being spent on economic development, as to be deemed "distressed" by the State for decades. A city where the finance officer tells the residents the city's policies have taxed them to the limits.

    A city where residents literally brand their children with searing hot metal, like cattle. A city where residents settle fence disputes by literally bulldozing down the neighbors house. A city where the leadership supports vigilantes attacking the homeless. And so much more.

    A city where even the mayor tells the media she is depressed when she returns to Port Angeles.

    No kidding.

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