Friday, June 24, 2011

Councilman Mandel: Sewer Program a "Huge Success"

Haven't heard back from Mayor Rotering yet, although am confident she will reply in due course with her considered response.  I remain hopeful that she will live up to her campaign stances.

Meanwhile, Councilman Mandel responded promptly, on June 22, copied to City Hall and the others on my initial list.  His response is provided in full, without comment. Wishing to avoid you having to read too much in any one sitting, my response to this e-mail will be provided later today.  

In the meantime, please provide your comments directly to the Mayor and your City Council representatives, hopefully sharing your comments with us on the blog.  If necessary, the blog will publish comments anonymously, but only if you provide us with your name and address and we can verify you are a "real resident" here.  There may be some who fear commenting on this issue publicly, especially from the many who do, or wish to do, business with the City.  Nonetheless, their voices should be heard...

E-MAIL FROM COUNCILMAN STEVE MANDEL TO DEBRA RADE, 6/22/2011

"Thank you Debra for representing my position of why I am opposed to funding…NOT! My parents are not the only folks over the years that have been made to pay for public improvements. There have been thousands of residents that helped build the PUBLIC streets that we all drive on.  I do resent your tone on suggesting that my logic is based on a personal matter and find it extremely offensive. You could not be more incorrect. I spent countless hours on this issue working for resolution and you have a lot of nerve writing off my opinion on a personal note….

Now, YOU’RE not even asking for reimbursement of a public improvement that is owned by the City of Highland Park. You are asking for reimbursement of a PRIVATE line that was leaking and causing back up in other people’s homes because of massive water infiltration that was overloading the lines from broken pipes like yours. And many folks in Sherwood forest (many more that 45) spent money on their laterals and private lines due to flooding issues without the city subsidy that you received.

Even though I personally requested we put the program on hold and asked that we look at changing our policy, the policy which caused you to fix your broken sewer line was the opinion of the entire council without one no vote. This decision was based on factual data presented by the staff and was enacted to protect the citizens that had basements that were flooding. The City has also spent millions of dollars of all of our taxpayer money in your and other effected neighborhoods. We instituted a master plan to address these matters across the city and continue to have a robust spending policy to deal with flooding.

Finally the program was not a failure, and quite the contrary a huge success since many that were having water issues are now without flooded basements. Sorry you’re so upset but please do not represent my thoughts for me. If you want to change city policy, run for office and see how well your rant is accepted by the voters.

Steve"

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