To the Editor:

I was somewhat confused at the March 28 John Day City Council meeting. The balance of power still is leaning toward the last administration. It is the idea that the “tax, borrow and spend” hypothesis is the road to travel. They have deviated from the purposes of a city government and eliminated them altogether. This is what instilled the community to this point of divisiveness. At least 54% of the voters think we need to turn the ship in another direction. Yet they still seem to be focused on a problematic URA program and the unimaginable (in my book) R3 inclusion.

Their URA solution is a project paid for by county taxpayers outside of their boundary. The “immediate” solution is to take it out of the city’s hands completely and run it as a separate agency, as defined by ORS rules, and add a sunset clause of five more years. Then let the chips fall where they may. At that point the city should make up any losses to the taxpayers that they have instilled upon us.

This R3 project needs to just be dropped as soon as possible. (Simple common-sense solution.) This is a contract brought on by Nick Green to put more money into his pocket and apparently a small number of local contractors who are already getting tens of thousands of dollars from the URA program. It is a bureaucratic nightmare with absolutely no set rules, and no costs mentioned. The contract, as written today, has very vague clauses with unknown costs for the startup as well as future costs.

When have we ever seen any government run anything better than private citizens? This is the next booby trap for the city to fall into. The greenhouse is just one example of failure which has led to more than twice the expected cost of the building of the project and less than 10% of the revenue created that was projected. This project was designed by the same person.

There has absolutely been no increased revenue in the past six years following this path, only debt, by the past administration. Probability vs. reality.

Bob Pereira

John Day