2. Legislators
3. Letter
May 20, 2003
1456 East Philadelphia Street, #144
Ontario, CA 91761
Daily Bulletin
2041 East 4th
Street
Ontario, CA 91764
Re: Acker vs. city council
I am really confused over this Acker situation.
Is she not the people’s elected
representative? Is this not a democracy, where the people elect other
people to be
their representatives? Ms. Acker may be a genuine total “pain in the gazouch” to
the
“old boys club” of our city government, but did we not elect her?
Why do we bother having a city
council? It appears that in a city manager form of
government, the city manager really runs the government and the city council is
only a
rubber
stamp. The only thing they appear
to do is appoint (hire/fire) the city manager
and
then step aside. Are we really a representative form of government or have the
civil
service employees actually usurped the role of government?
Under a rather stupid
interpretation, civil servants have “ownership” of their jobs under the 5th
and 14th
Amendments, so they are in a position to ward off any attempt to direct,
control, or
admonish them. It appears to me that we have a dictatorship of the “non”
elected civil
service. I certainly didn’t vote
for any of them.
Further on this subject, is not
the government supposed to be transparent?
What
information is being withheld from Ms. Acker, and why? Or from any citizen for
that
matter?
Why are the names of the accusers being withheld? It appears to me that
the
city
council and city manager ran all this behind “closed doors”, and have
greatly
curtailed Ms. Acker’s ability to represent the people who elected
her. Did the city
council
authorize the expenditure for the “secret” investigation?
If not, who did and
under
what authority?
Why do we not have a city administrator form of government where the mayor, an
elected,
official responsible to the people, runs the government?
What we have here
is
non-elected executive branch of the city government. I expect that if you
publish this,
I will
be subject to retaliation and harassment from the “boys”.
If so I will be happy to
work
for a full-scale State and Federal investigation (and/or a recall effort) of
what
appears to me
to be a situation possibly rife with corruption (else why all the
camouflage?).
RICHARD G. LITTLE
By the way I am a Southern White Anglo-Saxon protestant,
heterosexual male. I was born in
Fort Worth, Texas in 1932, but I have been a Californian since 1956, which is
longer that most people in California. So,
I believe that I speak with some knowledge on the “old boy” thing.
I just completed a Masters Degree in Public Administration at CSUSB in
December of 02, and I am appalled at the executive power in the hands of
non-elected civil service personnel.