To the Editor:

Last Tuesday’s (May 9) John Day City Council meeting was a little perplexing to me. The manager recommended letting a grant for a solar project return to the authorities and not try to work it into the city’s already committed tasks. The holdover councilors decided to follow the advice of the former administration and move the issue down the road again. At the same time, I hear them cry that they have too much work now time and time again. I believe the last election showed that we need to get things done realizing the previous administration was incompetent. Their direction has taken more than they could get done in a timely manner.

Since the first of the year, we have entered a consortium which the city does not know how much the city will have to pay. The figure is 33½% of total cost? Also, this nonprofit CyberMill project, no set dollar figure, just get into it, then we will see. Still wasting time and treasures on ventures which the citizens removed the past mayor and councilors for. Ongoing projects need to be finished.

Timelines and fiscal ability in the present are the two most important figures in managing any project. Taxpayer money being involved in the city’s projects should be a higher priority. Yet we still travel down this road to the future blindsided by foreseeable problems.

Message to the city’s administration: It is OK to say No! At all these meetings I attend they all use government bureaucracy as an excuse. “We are so busy.” It is always somebody else’s fault!

No, it is your fault! This is plain to understand with this last decision, not letting this solar grant go back. Somewhere there are communities that could have used it while the city dives into the “creative financing” plan we have heard for six years now and using “grant percentages” to pay to employees as incentives. Election 2024 has started and at least three more councilors need to go. We need JD citizens to stand up. Kicking the can down the road with no plan yet for a wastewater plant in sight.

Bob Pereira

John Day