MMF & Election issues

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With all of the other discussion, we have ignored one VERY IMPORTANT issue lately that is key to this election, that being Moving Middletown Forward Committee and its infamous flyer found in the CITY literature rack in the CITY MANAGER’S OFFICE!

I would like to refresh everyone’s memory on a few items that I will QUOTE EXACTLY from that flyer for your consideration before you vote on Tuesday.
From the flyer under “Candidate assistance”:

• Workshop for selected candidates: public relations, speech coaching,

establish issues, raise funds ($3,000-$5,000 needed for competitive
campaigns for each and establish budgets)

Which candidates have run well financed, big budget campaigns, all backed by some of the VERY SAME entities? Also keep the “”wards/no wards” issue in mind as you ponder the who invested in MULTIPLE candidates and which ones. Which candidates will be “beholding to no one”? (NOTE: Remember, accepting campaign contributions is not necessarily a bad thing but it is one aspect to consider, especially in view of the apparently unethical and possibly illegal MMF flyer.) During the “Candidate Forums” did any of the candidates sound “coached”?

FOLLOW THE MONEY!!!
From the flyer under “Campaign suggestions”:

• Announce committee formation and its objectives, not giving away its main goal of recruiting and quietly helping groom selected candidates and making sure they get on the ballot before announcing campaign support for the four candidates. Keep issues to a minimum and goals for candidates. When recruiting, make sure candidates are on board concerning objectives and issues.

Well, at least in my view, issues certainly were kept to a minimum during this campaign. In fact, some candidates tried to take of the main issues OFF the table! How often did we hear such themes as: “WE already are doing all that we can” or “WE’ve brought over 1,000 jobs to Middletown in the last couple of years” or “WE have spent millions paving Breiel and plan to spend millions more next year paving Sutphin and University” in the areas of economic development, jobs, and infrastructure??? Do you think that is enough??? Do these replies sound “coached”??? Do they sound like they might be “on board” with well-financed other council members with two years (or possibly less) left in office??
From the flyer under “Other goals”:

• Consider ballot issue which would change the makeup of City Council. For example: Four wards and mayor, eliminating at large seats. Wards only would make a more manageable and responsive Council.
In my opinion, this pretty much says it all!!! Make council “more manageable” by whom”??? Make them “more responsive to whom??? Well, certainly NOT to the CITIZENRY, so apparently they mean to this clandestine group of people that leave flyers in the CITY literature rack in the City Manager’s office!!! Regardless of any arguments in favor, this reason ALONE DEMANDS a “NO” vote on ISSUE 26 (Issue 18 in Warren County)!!! 

• Consider future ballot issue which would make Butler County Commission more responsive by adding two members and dividing commission in what would essentially be wards.

People of Middletown, you have NOT heard one word about this during this election cycle (except, of course, by me here on MiddletownUSA.com). Here is why: If they tried to push for this issue to INCREASE THE NUMBER OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS and divide the county into WARDS right now, during this election cycle, they would be forced to make the very OPPOSITE arguments to the ones that they are making to DECREASE THE NUMBER OF COUNCILMEN AND eliminate the WARDS, as they SUPPORT ISSUE 26, THUS EXPOSING THEIR HYPOCRISY!!!

People of Middletown, NO ONE has ever been able to explain away this flyer and how it could have been found in the CITY literature rack in the CITY MANAGER’S OFFICE, not five feet in front of the receptionist’s desk!!! Several people have TRIED to say that they are “SURE” that “Moving Middletown Forward” is a “second” group completely distinct and separate from “Middletown Moving Forward”!!! But these very same people who are so certain of the “second” group claim that they have NO IDEA who, what, or where this second group is…or how they got their flyer into the City Manager’s City literature rack!!!

Yet THEY claim that I am the one putting forth a “conspiracy theory”! It certainly seems to me that THEY ARE THE ONES INSISTING ON A PHANTOM SECOND GROUP ON THE GRASSY KNOLL THAT NO ONE ELSE HAS SEEN OR CAN FIND!!! 

You can’t blame them for ducking all of this, though. After all, it could rise to the level of a FELONY!! I’m not sure, but maybe Attorney Picard can tell us??? 
How about it, Mr. Picard? When a supervisor instructs a supervised city employee to telephone to one of the private citizens who has revealed the contents of the “Moving Middletown Forward” flyer and tell him that “you guys would be better off to let things go!”, does that rise to the level of a felony?
(And, YES, I DO have corroborating contemporaneous documentation and I am willing to swear under oath, in court, just as you outlined during the Candidates’ Forum at the Community Forum last Thursday.)
PEOPLE OF MIDDLETOWN, please consider all of the above before you cast your ballots on Tuesday. Discuss this with other voters, your friends, family, and associates that may not be as aware of such goings on as you are. 

This election is crucial to our city and to our futures and the futures of our children and our children’s children. Please consider ALL of the information and cast your vote as if your life depends on it…it does!
Just as a matter of disclosure, I am retired. I have absolutely no employer, no business, no business interests or investments in Middletown or the surrounding area (other than our single-family home, where we reside), no income from any source in Middletown, in short, absolutely no “conflict of interest” of any kind in any of the issues or with any of the candidates in this election. I was born and raised here. Moved around quite a bit during my career, and returned here in 1998. I began taking a keen interest in civic affairs in 1999. My SOLE GOAL is what is best for the CITY and CITIZENRY of MIDDLETOWN.