August 1, 2009

MY THOUGHT ON MAYOR HERENTON

My thoughts on Mayor Herenton are many but I think the following are the most important after almost 5 years of research on local government and open records access.
• He is the poster child for the value of term limits. His first two terms were reasonably good. After that it has all been downhill. It takes about two terms or less for politicians to get a handle on power. After that, it is all arrogance and entitlement. Look at Washington DC and the need for term limits.
• His administration is all about jobs, not about governmental operational efficiency in the spending of taxpayers’ money. This is how politicians maintain power, by their ability to hand out jobs. This is also true of the school system and to a lesser extent our County government.
• I don’t expect anything to change, regardless of who wins the election. Until someone addresses reform of pensions, OPEB and benefits, nothing will change and our City and County will continue to decline.

Regards, Joe Saino, memphiswatchdog.org and shelbywatchdog.blogspot.com