By Pete Brunson Posted on HJ News on 7/26/2007

To the editor:

The three incumbents up for re-election in Logan are a likeable group. They work hard in workshops, meetings and maneuvering behind the scenes (unfortunately, the norm for our local government).

Elections are about representation!

This election we will replace three members of the Logan Municipal Council. We will replace them because they have not represented us, the regular folk that must bear the financial burden of this most expensive council trio in our history. Public input did not call for increasing taxes, increasing fees or incentives. There were no groups of residents saying “Please raise our taxes, we are not paying enough!!” at council meetings.

What has happened is a series of votes by these three incumbents that represent special interests, city government, a misplaced political philosophy, and outside influences. No polls were taken to find out what we, the taxpayers, were thinking. No efforts were held to reach out to the citizens in settings where the concerns of the citizens were paramount. Public input is now primarily the realm of the lobbying special interests. We need to know our councils care more about what we think than what special interests lobby for.

We have an excellent power department that works very hard to serve Logan. No matter how we configure our power department, no matter how we develop our power system, Logan has little chance of being competitive in the rates we must pay. Residents currently pay 12 percent more for electricity than residents of surrounding cities. We need three new council members that realize Logan residents are not being economically well served in our current situation.

Mass transit is a problem. We need three new council members that understand increasing taxes to support a system that has negligible impact on pollution and congestion is a waste of taxpayer money. A transit system with five people on a bus is not the answer to congestion. A five rider bus is a pollution increasing vehicle not a pollution decreasing vehicle. Convenience routes that try to accomplish political goals cannot increase the efficiency of the transit system.

The General Plan is full of problems — We need three new council members that recognize with each increase in city power and control there comes both an economic and social downturn for the citizens. Code enforcement should be in response to citizen requests never the police state tactics proposed by those trying to impose their vision of what is best for our neighborhoods. We need council members willing to represent us in ways we can see the benefits not the losses.

We thank the incumbents for their hard work.

Their voting record speaks for itself.

Now let us vote them out of office.

Pete Brunson
Logan