{"id":1401,"date":"2016-08-27T21:25:00","date_gmt":"2016-08-28T02:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/truthinaddison.com\/?page_id=1401"},"modified":"2016-08-27T21:37:08","modified_gmt":"2016-08-28T02:37:08","slug":"the-2012-bond-campaign-meier-plays-the-blame-game-yet-again","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/truthinaddison.com\/?page_id=1401","title":{"rendered":"The 2012 Bond Campaign: Meier Plays the Blame Game Yet Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2012 Bond Campaign:<\/strong>
\nMeier Plays the Blame Game Yet Again<\/strong>
\nBy: Susan M. Halpern<\/strong>
\n(Addison councilmember 1992 \u2013 99)<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Addison\u2019s misguided mayor is again drumming up bad publicity for Addison.\u00a0 This time it\u2019s about the 2012 bond election that Meier orchestrated.\u00a0 Meier claims that the staff underestimated the cost of fixing Midway Road, and that\u2019s set off his usual search for a scapegoat.<\/p>\n

Essentially, what Meier is now saying is that he led the council to approve holding a bond election without sufficient information or an understanding of what they were doing.\u00a0 Personally, I think the real issue here is that four years later, Meier doesn\u2019t like the consequences of a risk he knowingly led the council \u2013 and Addison \u2013 to take.\u00a0 And of course, when Meier doesn\u2019t like the consequences, he always plays the blame game.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the thing: Meier was Addison\u2019s mayor during the entire<\/em> 2012 bond process, from formation of the Bond Committee all the way to leading the council to vote for the bond election. \u00a0If the process was deficient, then why didn\u2019t Meier act to correct the alleged deficiency back then?\u00a0 And, if he failed to do so, shouldn\u2019t he take ownership of the issue?\u00a0 How does Meier lead the process, claim it to be a success, and then turn around 4 years later and claim it to be a failure?\u00a0 You have to wonder:<\/p>\n

Does the buck ever stop at Meier\u2019s desk<\/em><\/strong>?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

Here, the situation is a little more complicated.\u00a0 The premise of Meier\u2019s current attack is that the amount included in the 2012 bond package was intended to cover the entire amount of the Midway Road project.\u00a0 But I don\u2019t believe that was ever the case.\u00a0 Rather, my recollection is that the committee made the decision to include only part of the Midway Road project, because of concerns that asking the voters to approve a larger amount would lead the voters to reject the entire bond package.\u00a0 I\u2019m not alone in this recollection.\u00a0 So, in my view, the present claims that the amounts were underestimated are, in my view, a case of comparing apples to oranges.<\/p>\n

If you add to this assertion the fact that construction costs have escalated significantly during the past four years, and consider an almost 150% increase in the price of concrete, you start to understand how we arrived at our current situation.<\/p>\n

Of course Meier\u2019s apparent claims that he didn\u2019t understand what he was doing in 2012 aren\u2019t new.\u00a0 After all, this is the same Meier who in 2014 led the council to approve an $8,000,000+ contract on a $20 million project, only to turn around and lead the council to rescind the contract because Meier and the council apparently didn\u2019t know what they were voting on.\u00a0 The \u201cready-fire-aim\u201d approach isn\u2019t new where Meier is concerned.<\/p>\n

This latest Meier-fueled controversy also brings the consequences of Meier\u2019s toxicity home to roost in a very demonstrable way.\u00a0 Key senior staff and management have voted with their feet, leading a mass exodus of unprecedented proportions to other municipalities or early retirement.\u00a0 Addison has been robbed of its institutional history by Meier\u2019s venomous tactics.\u00a0 Meier alternatively complains about it, but then uses it.\u00a0 After all, the dearth of experienced employees has permitted Meier to fabricate false history as suits his convenience and purpose of the moment.\u00a0 It is straight out of George Orwell\u2019s cautionary book \u201c1984:\u201d \u201cHe who controls the past controls the future.\u00a0 He who controls the present controls the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

And so it is here, as Meier again tries to convince Addison\u2019s residents that some political enemy has erred, rewriting history in an effort to make the facts fit his latest story.<\/p>\n

So here\u2019s the REALITY.\u00a0 In 2012, Meier and Addison\u2019s council were put to a choice: spend millions of taxpayer dollars to engineer projects (including Midway Road) despite the fact that Addison voters had neither considered nor approved those projects, or go with estimates.\u00a0 All involved understood the risks involved in proceeding with estimates, and Meier fully endorsed the decision to accept those risks.<\/p>\n

But then, since the estimates were never intended to address the entire Midway Road project, it is hard to connect these dots to Meier\u2019s latest campaign of misinformation.\u00a0 Regardless, if Meier now contends that there were problems with the 2012 bond process, as far as I\u2019m concerned, the buck on this issue stops with Meier.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the real challenge Addison\u2019s present and future councils really face: How does Addison fund repairs to Midway Road and other important projects on the heels of Meier\u2019s five-year tax and spend assault on Addison\u2019s taxpayers?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIn a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.\u201d\u00a0 Another quote from George Orwell that seems very apt these days.<\/p>\n

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