Michael Morris – In Focus

The candidate who so boldly proclaimed himself the best possible candidate for City Commission in District 7 is either a pathological liar or is handing down an astounding indictment of the golf course area in which Ron Griggs finds his base of support. Ron Griggs has a big mouth. Ron Griggs has a small mind. Incumbent Ron Griggs has some splaining to do regarding City Manager Pat McCourt’s comments last evening declaring a near emergency requiring draconian spending cuts called necessary in the wake of a projected $1.5 million to $2 million shortfall in the FY 2009 budget. This austerity plan is not quite the kind of economic reform most had envisioned.

Having been given the chance the Alamogordo City Commission has squandered every genuine opportunity to grow the local economy, not to mention a few million of your tax dollars. Now the city is broke. Surprised? Why? Cities where the wise leaders have chosen to erect a government dependency tie the fate of that community to government spending. In this case we have a city leadership that greedily thought itself awfully shrewd by planning all its growth around the military and retirees also largely the result of government pensions. The only hitch was not one of these leaders seriously considered such trivial matters as what happens if Holloman scales down or, say, the Gross Receipts Tax on groceries was repealed. So much for their brilliance.

I think the new library folks might want to find another outlet for their energy for a while. I am not sure where tennis courts will fit into the new austere Alamogordo. Surely there will be some reductions in services. The problem is what services can accommodate reduction. From statistical and anecdotal evidence it is plain that services are about as reduced as they can be without the fire department responding with buckets on bicycles. At the same time Ronnie wants you to give him another .25% increase in the GRT in order to see that the roads in his neighborhood are maintained smooth enough for makeup application. The funny part of this is that the idiots that supported Griggs based on his promises of a golden paradise for the duffers are about to be bent over due, in large part, to Griggs inability to bring home the bacon to pay for the pie in the sky.

You have a choice in the 7th District. Vote Griggs and buy a 4x4 for the new road standards. Vote Heredia and cause needless controversy. The guy is thinking 20 years ahead of this place. Or you can vote for Bill Brogan. Without question Brogan is the smartest guy in the field and Griggs the least. Ron Griggs is just not man enough to do what a community leader needs to do – lead. More of a gelatinous indecisionate seems more appropriate (Watch the Video).

Had the money given by this Commission to their owners at Alamogordo Federal, Rabon, French, Lynch and others through the scams of Sunbaked Biscuits and Precheck been used to actually effectuate economic growth instead of for a ransacking of the public treasury to enrich the old boys there would be no shortfall. This shortfall is solely the result of negligence by a rather small minded commission. This Commission, but most vocally Ronnie, has refused to rid the city of the architect or this disaster, City Manager Pat McCourt. The commission refused to get your money back from the perpetrators of Sunbaked Biscuits though they approved court filings alleging fraud by Alamogordo Federal. The list of improper and incompetent bungling goes on and on. The result? $1.5 million to $2 million short.

In business if you cannot match wits with your competitors you lose. The same is true of economic growth. Griggs is not alone in these failures. Don Carroll gave up all that ever made him matter this year in order to dodge this. Marion Ledford sells accountant services to the public yet he was not even smart enough to see through the Roberts’ Sunbaked scam. Or was he? Unfortunately the only of these folks you get to change on Election Day is Ron Griggs. The Commission you have is unable to bring you anything worthwhile because it is beyond their abilities. Running one scam after another to enrich a member of the club with tax dollars is not. What else are they going to do with your money? It is not like this Commission has the intellectual capacity to make prudent and well considered decisions about your money. I mean, what can you get for that?

Leadership or manicured jellyfish? It is your choice. It’s your future. Vote Griggs for a leaner tomorrow.

Please remember that even if you do not live in District 7 all Alamogordo residents are able to vote on the “roads” tax to be entrusted to the guys $2 million in the red.