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http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5090982JFN1 (1000+ posts) Thu Feb-19-09 02:54 PMOriginal message Please Advise. Advertisements [?]I have to give you some background, so please be patient with me, as I really need your advice. I don't normally ask this, but if you think it worthy, please recommend this post so I can get as much feedback as possible. Thank you.I live in a small town (about 17,000 people) in south central Illinois. I was born and raised a few miles south, and consider myself a native of Illinois, despite my decade-long sojourn on the West Coast. We moved from Oregon, to help care for our niece Brittani, who just completed her second double lung transplant in less than two years. I've lived here in Shittyville (I'll just call the town that for now) for about two years.So out West, water conservation is king. You conserve water, else you may run out. Literally. So I learned, living there, to be frugal with water.The past two years living in this town, we've found our water consumption to be, well, horrendously high.Typically, we use about 3500-4000 gallons of water per month. Looking at my past bills, this has been our average usage for more than ten years.Since moving to Shittyville, our average usage has been 7200 gallons per month. That is almost twice our historic average usage.So about five months ago, our old washing machine had died and we'd replaced it with a brand new, higher efficiency washer, and consequently, we expected our water bill to go down. But the bill actually went up after the first month of having the new washer.So when I went to pay the bill that month, I took a bunch of my bills from Oregon with me to show the city water manager what our historic usage was, and to complain that we did not see how our water usage could be so high. I explained about the new washer, too, and how I felt that using it instead of our 20 year old washer should have lowered our consumption, and thus our bill.The city water manager agreed to have our old water meter checked for accuracy. They pulled the old meter, and put a brand new one on in it's place - it actually read 'zero' when they hooked it up.Over the last four months since the meter change, our water usage has averaged 3700 gallons. Our usage is now right in line with what it had been for more than a decade in Portland.So I went to the city water manager and asked him how the meter had tested out. he told me the meter had been reading - are you ready? 66% SLOW. Meaning, that according to him, my actual usage - per month - would have been in excess of 20,000 gallons.I told him obviously the meter was broken, and had been over registering my consumption. He said, and I quote. "That's not so. How do I know you didn't have another family living with you and they moved out when we changed the meter?"I won't go into the arguments that followed, as there were plenty over many days, but that is the city's position. It can't be the meter. it has to be that I was trying to cheat the city somehow, even though I have ten plus years of evidence to the contrary. The city water manager told me, with the mayor and the city manager in the room, that it was IMPOSSIBLE for a water meter to over register consumption. Not unlikely. IMPOSSIBLE. About five seconds on Google debunked that piece of misinformation.So, now why I need advice:The city manager called me yesterday to inform me that the city had retested the meter, and that no, I could not have the meter for an independent test. I told him, fine, thanks for the call, will you put it in writing for me?He replied, "No."So I went to the mayor today to ask her for the letter. She refused, as well, despite the fact that she knows me - though I wouldn't call us more than friendly acquaintances.I told her the city manager had been quite rude to me on the phone, and he interrupted me, saying, "That's not true. I had you on speaker phone and the mayor heard all of it." I asked the mayor if this was true, and she answered, "Yes." (Oooops!)720 ILCS 5/14-2: "Knowingly and intentionally using an eavesdropping device {which, under the statute, would include speaker phones, video recorders, and tape recorders} for the purpose of hearing, or recording, all or any part of any conversation . . . unless the participant does so (A) with the consent of all of the parties to such conversation." 720 ILCS 5/14-4 makes the first offense under this statute -- a Class 4 felony.So the mayor and her city manager committed a Class 4 felony yesterday.Should I file a criminal complaint? I like the mayor, but the city manager has been city manager for 12 years. He's the power behind the throne. He lost the last mayor the election by pushing him to support the building of a $57 million high school - for our town of 17,000. A town down the road a piece, Carbondale, with a population of 45,000, recently built a new high school there - total cost, $4 million.I don't think any elected official should get a free pass, but doing this opens me up to harassment by the police (again, the city manager owns this town, its a small town, I wasn't born here, so I'm a 'foreigner' here - I'm not kidding), publicity I don't want or need (I live a very quiet life with my disabled vet husband), and possibly lots of other problems.But it is my duty, I think, to file a criminal complaint for this. And I've had my fill of elected officials breaking the law with no accountability, and to have it happen right in front of my face...well...I am very afraid. Please advise...
There's a reason why patriotism is considered a conservative value. Watch a Tea Party rally and you'll see people proudly raising the American flag and showing pride in U.S. heroes such as Thomas Jefferson. Watch an OWS rally and you'll see people burning the American flag while showing pride in communist heroes such as Che Guevera. --Bob, from some news site
