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Home My WebLink About2008-0415 Documents Submitted at Meeting Ambuja Rosen's speech in public forum, 4/15/08 For more than two years, the Break The Chain campaign has tried to get a significant limit to the unattended tying of animals at their homes in Ashland. Three councilors are still opposed to this: Kate Jackson, Russ silbiger, and Dave Chapman. These councilors don't even appear to want to dialogue with me about this. Months ago, I took Councilor Hartzell's advice and sent these councilors a questionnaire. All they had to do was check off what, if anything, they wanted the law to cover, or check off that they didn't want anything. I hand-delivered the questionnaire to the city, so the councilors definitely got them. I enclosed a self- addressed, stamped envelope, but not one of the councilors returned it to me. About 6,600 people have signed a petition asking council to heavily restrict the tying of animals at their homes. I could probably collect thousands more signatures, if time allowed. I told two people who have key positions in this community, "1 think if every single Ashland resident signed this petition, those three councilors still would not vote for a law." Each o.f these key people told me, independently of the other, "You're probably right. They probably still wouldn't vote .for it." What does this say about how democratic these councilors are when it comes to the tethering issue? One o.f these key people also told me that these three councilors are stubborn--that once they set their mind to voting a certain way, they usually won't budge. Kate Jackson told me two years ago that she opposed an ordinance partly because she didn't feel the city had the time or staff to create and enforce it. But since then, the ordinance has already been created, and our police chief has officially stated that based on other communities' experiences, he doesn't expect that Ashland will need any additional resources to enforce it. I e-mailed Kate Jackson, reminding her of this, but I got no response. If these three councilors are holding to their point of view out of stubbornness, what does that say about how they're doing their job? Councilors should be open-minded and willing to adjust their point of view once new information becomes available. These councilors may be different when it comes to other issues, but on the tethering issue, they remind me of President Bush. I don't mean that they're generally like Bush. Bush is a mass murderer, an evil person. I think councilors Jackson, Silbiger and Chapman are basically decent people. But like Bush continues to fight in Iraq despite what his constituents want, these councilors continue to fight a tethering limit despite what their constituents want. The way they're not representing their constituents, is a shame to democracy. I see another similarity to Bush's behavior with Iraq. Bush has shown a tremendous lack of compassion for the children, women and other civilians that u.s. troops bomb. Similarly, these three councilors seem to have shown a tremendous lack of compassion for the animal family members in Ashland who live on chains. If these councilors were chained up for all their lives, or even eight hours a day, this law would have passed in five minutes. It's lack of compassion that keeps the law from passing. Thank you. /~hT'> 1}5jo r TOT Discussion David Chapman - 4/15/2008 I modified Martha's spreadsheet of a possible distribution for the TOT at 9%. I rounded the numbers up to $2M for easier playing with allocations. I have explained my reasoning in the notes following the table. Total Estimated Collections $2,000,000 100% Total Non-Tourism Qualified $1,500,000 75% Total Tourism $500,000 25% Non-Tourism Qualified General Fund 1,000,000 50% Economic Development Department $125,000 Economic Development Grants $200,000 Chamber of Commerce E D $100,000 Cultural Grants $75,000 Total $500,000 25% Tourism Qualified VCB Grant $100,000 OSF Marketin~ $100,000 Tourism Grants $150,000 Qualified City Projects $150,000 Total $500,000 25% Notes: 1. Given the increase in revenue if we can reduce the percentage allotted to the General Fund to 50% from 66.6% and maintain about the same dollars. 2. If we decide to add an Economic Development position that could be partially funded with non-tourist dollars. 3. Divide the former Econ Cultural grant pool into three separate buckets. (Economic Development, Cultural and Tourism). ))tftl/d ~~ /~~d2 "//5/tJ? 4. Economic Development grants could be used for well-defined short- term proposals or for support of groups such as TRIEVE. The money for Visioning and Eco Dev plan would come from here for two years. Later the larger pool would allow us to target our goals and diversify our economy. 5. The Chamber gets support for general Econ Dev work with the expectation that they would receive funding for additional projects from the Econ Dev grant pool. 6. Cultural grants are now entirely based on Artistic and Cultural benefit for the community. 7. Funding for the VCB gets increased support the general operation with the expectation that they would receive additional funding for projects from Tourism grants. 8. OSF marketing remains about the same. 9. Tourism grants support increased targeted marketing and development for community groups such as the Film Festival, Science Works, the B&Bs, etc. Funding to SOV A may be granted to leverage local marketing money. 10. 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