Barrie Tilghman Achieves Goal
In her tenth year in office, Salisbury Mayor Barrie Tilghman has accomplished what most megalomaniacs only dream of. Tonight the Salisbury City Council will formally hand over all governing authority to the Queen of Barrieland.
Not a shot will be fired. Not a stone will be thrown. The only protest will come from a few concerned citizens and perhaps Councilwomen Debbie Campbell and Terry Cohen.
As the members of the Salisbury Council become TOTALLY irrelevant to the governance of a once proud city, people may question how Salisbury moved from a democratic government with checks and balances to a truly authoritarian regime. Was it Mike Dunn’s fault? Gary Comegys’?
No. History will prove that Mike Dunn was a transitional figure in Salisbury’s decade long decent to authoritarianism. While history will remember Comegys as Salisbury’s home grown version of Vidkum Quisling, he only bears a small portion of the responsibility.
Of course, we should blame Barrie Tilghman. Right?
WRONG.
Ambition is not necessarily a bad thing. Lust for power can be checked by others. It is when the checks and balances provided for in a nation’s constitution, or a city’s charter, are ignored and then ceded do we find ourselves in the situation which Salisbury currently faces.
Therefore the responsibility rests squarely on the shoulders of Councilwoman Louise Smith. Her lust for the center chair caused her to turn her back on the very people who put her in office. Her bizarre willingness to lick the boots of those who would destroy her in a heartbeat has allowed Tilghman to seize complete control of Salisbury.
Smith and her cohorts have already refused to provide ANY oversight to the Tilghman administration. There is seldom ANY hesitation to RUBBER STAMP any piece of legislation put before them by their Queen.
Now, their plan is to hand over COMPLETE fiscal authority to Tilghman. They FY 2009 budget allocates money to a couple dozen large pots of money. When Smith, et al claim to cut specific items in the budget (a disgustingly anemic $40,000 out of a $47 million budget or less than 1 tenth of 1 percent!) they attempt to mislead the taxpaying citizenry.
Smith and company have ceded all but the most basic budgetary authority to Tilghman. They can claim that program X is being cut, but Tilghman is not bound to cut money from program X. She need only cut the money from within whatever pot of money that program X lies in.
In other words. Lore Chambers can still get her raise. Tilghman can continue to waste money on T-shirts and specially labeled bottles of water. She is only limited to reduce her spending in the “Mayor’s Office / Community Promotions” pot of money.
As the year rolls on we will see that the city still can’t balance its checkbook. The audit can’t be done on time. Developers will still be subsidized, while some don’t even pay city taxes.
Thanks Louise!
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