What a discourtesy to taxpayers and overworked city
employees
– because of being short staffed – when the council voted to
contract additional outside police officers for the 2005 Rally.
Taxpayers should be up in arms over this frivolous vote. You
must require taxes be spent on adequate city service employees on
the job. That’s why you pay taxes, and that must be the city’s No.
1 priority!
Editor,
What a discourtesy to taxpayers and overworked city employees – because of being short staffed – when the council voted to contract additional outside police officers for the 2005 Rally.
Taxpayers should be up in arms over this frivolous vote. You must require taxes be spent on adequate city service employees on the job. That’s why you pay taxes, and that must be the city’s No. 1 priority!
You know, there’s nothing much louder then the squeal of someone desperate for a party at someone else’s expense. Hence, Hollister Independence Rally Committee representatives along with interim City Manager Quilter and Councilman Scattini meeting with State Sen. Jeff Denham in an effort to get taxpayers to pay for a portion of the law enforcement. Are you kidding me? The state and city are in an ongoing budget deficit. There’s no money to waste on a Rally! Do you get it, or are you giving new meaning to the words dense, irresponsible, ignorant, selfish and myopic? You give new meaning to misplaced priorities and poor judgment.
Who’s paying for the 2004 $25,000 Rally debt, and when? In view of budget constraints and lack of city service employees, it had better not be taxpayers.
Most locals don’t enjoy this disturbing, disruptive weekend, but are forced to endure it. They feel overrun, overwhelmed, hijacked and held hostage in their own town and justifiably so. It’s a shame they’re afraid to speak up.
Other rallies (Laughlin and Sturgis) are held in desolate areas cutting down the necessity of strict law enforcement and having no negative impact on a community. Each individual state and municipality have its own concept of law enforcement. You can’t compare sites because they’re all unique.
As far as generating sales tax, chances are slim to none. Rally vendors, like farmers market vendors are nothing more than peddlers. They have no connection to the State Board of Equalization and have no identification number to report sales.
Rally disturbances have continued to escalate each year. Between 2003 and 2004 citations went from 178 to 319.
The 1997 50 year reunion was quiet and special with very little commercialization. Corbin designed and sold the commemorative shirts, a collectors item. The 1998 Rally became a nuisance.
Get out of town if you can afford to. Let the next Rally be held in the year 2047, the 100th reunion and let it be as special and uncommercialized as the 50th.
Noreen Martin, Hollister
