Here's what I think of Louise...

Since I was "called out" by Joe Albero (even though he keeps spelling my name wrong - no "ch" there pal!) I suppose I'll answer the question.

Insofar as civility and running meetings goes, it sounds like she's somewhat of an improvement over our last City Council president. But the more important side is financial and there she's been a disappointment.

I'm a recovering pack rat, but I make an exception when it comes to saving stuff like campaign literature. And here is just a sampling of what she campaigned on, in the words of her own handout. This is what I take as her promise to the voters of Salisbury.

"I am Louise Smith. I an asking for your vote in my bid to win a Salisbury City Council Seat. I am running for office because I believe that Salisbury's elected officials should be more responsive to citizens and more responsible with our tax dollars. During the past four years, our council had presided over the giveaway of millions of our tax dollars to subsidize developers, incurred fines for environmental violations from the Maryland Department of Environment, and has earned a reputation of favoring special interest groups over ordinary citizens."

As far as being responsive to citizens, I'm curious to know if she (or any other city employees, or city-based politicians) have signed the petition for referendum regarding the city's property tax hike. To me, that would certainly be responsive to the citizens in allowing them a say over their tax rates. It goes without saying that I'm not impressed with her being responsible with the city's tax dollars. If the additional tax revenue is necessary, that should be the LAST resort and not the first as it appears to have been.

"The city is halfway through this fiscal year without last year's audit being completed. Using my experience in audits and contract compliance, I will focus on the important role that a council member plays in passing the city's budget and determining how tax dollars should be spent."

Thus far I fail to see that she's done her homework, or at least has done as much as her cohorts Debbie Campbell and Terry Cohen.

"I am equally concerned about public safety. The upsurge in violent crime has been described in the Daily Times. Non-competitive police salaries and high turn-over rates have been identified as core issues that must be addressed in order to deliver police services at the most efficient and effective level."

I'll grant her that she's made it a priority to give the cops a raise, but she's not spoken out insofar as I know about the firemen, who endorsed her but are not due a raise under the Tilghman budget. As Bill Reddish noted this morning, there's five priority items that the city needs to take care of: police, fire, water/sewer, garbage, and streets. I think the problem with the budget is one of 'well, let's just take what we spent last year and add 5% to the numbers' and it truly needs to be stripped to bare bones and rebuilt from scratch. Perhaps that way we won't get $250,000 errors in the police budget.

"Do you have a sense that the city has lost touch with its citizens? I do. I ask for your vote so that I can work to create an atmosphere of accountability, responsiveness, and confidence that your elected officials are working for you."

Now I will note that the people who have complained the loudest are obviously the ones who were most dissatisfied with the previous City Council. There are some out there who think Louise Smith is doing a good job under difficult circumstances and some who just plain don't keep up with the issues anyway.

And I know Louise in passing, as she served prior to me on the Central Committee. In my dealings with her, she's been pleasant but I certainly wouldn't call her a good friend of mine. I actually ran into her the other day in the elevator at the GOB since I was there to get a building permit and she obviously doing city business. We just exchanged the usual pleasantries and I got off the elevator at the second floor. In short, I don't hang out with her; however I did donate some money to her campaign.

So I'm probably more tolerant than most because it's a four year term and I continue to have faith she'll learn from her mistakes. The trouble is that she's not doing well at what she ran her campaign on, based on her blind support for a tax increase and, while I'm not familiar with the procedures behind writing applications for grants, I've yet to hear about any we've secured (or even applied for) in the time since she's assumed the position on City Council.

And when you look at the other newcomer to City Council (Terry Cohen) and how she's done since coming on board, Louise's work with the budget doesn't look very good.

Since the names of Louise Smith and Bill Reddish are now entwined in the annals of Salisbury radio history, I'll take a moment to comment on my appearance this morning. As always I enjoyed it, and I think the main point I managed to get out talked about my feelings toward both the city's and state's budget process. (I also got out my comment above about Louise Smith and her prowess at securing grants.)

But astute listeners may have noticed that I alluded just to the budgets in the city of Salisbury, state of Maryland, and federally. I intentionally left out Wicomico County because they are forced to live within means by a revenue cap - instead of a 12 cent rise in property taxes, I'll enjoy a 6 cent drop because I live a stone's throw into the county. I know my "partner in crime" this morning, G.A. Harrison, does not like the revenue cap, but from what I understand about the budget situation previously in Wicomico County, it was the only method a frustrated public could lay its hands on to say to the county, enough!

So in essence this referendum drive can be thought of as a group of citizens wishing to put a revenue cap of sorts on the city.

It may be Polyannish of me, but I think that if Louise Smith just comes out and admits that she didn't do her homework on the budget originally, but comes at it in a second pass with the tenacity of a bulldog and helps to cut out enough to avoid all or most of the tax increase she originally deemed necessary, she could get through this situation with reputation repaired and intact. If not, it's going to be a long four years.