On THEIR Terms

Yesterday I spent a considerable amount of time going through stacks of public information we've collected regarding Nexus' and Onamia's mission to keep the Mille Lacs Academy from leaving town. Personally, I'd rather be reading the new Michael Crichton novel I haven't had time for, but - oh well. We do what we must. There will be time for other things after This Too Has Passed.

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Anyway, in the beginning, nobody connected with the Nexus Project was out to "get" anyone. Decisions were based on economic needs of our area. When Nexus originally decided to relocate the Mille Lacs Academy, Onamia officials scrambled to compete with Brainerd. In horse-trainer lingo, Nexus made everyone "move their feet." Nexus has always been in charge.

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The mayor, members of the city council, the area CDC, and others all bent over backwards to meet the requirements dictated by Nexus. They courted Nexus hard to win the coveted prize - 94 convicted sex offenders. If only they had stood back and looked at the entire picture, maybe they would have seen that Nexus was playing them all along. Nexus has always been in charge. And many feet have moved.

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You can't see the forest for the trees.

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The problem was that this group of local decision-makers, most of them elected - but not by us, of course - concentrated so hard on meeting the terms of one and only one "tree" that not only did they miss seeing the "forest", they completely forgot there were other "trees". They never considered anyone else. Never even gave us a thought. That pissed us off.
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By the time they noticed us at all, they'd spent some time, some money. At this point, they really should have cut their losses, abandoned the absurd idea of putting sex offenders into this residential neighborhood and found land on the commercial east or south side of town. Instead, they decided to sacrifice We-The-Saplings in order to appease the Great Nexus Tree. We were in the way. They decided to chop down the Not-Nexus-Never NIMBY Naysayers. The Bradbury Idiots. The Dirty Twelve. *

Looking at documents from the past couple of years, it troubles me that nobody bothered to research the company or its impact on our community - other than the jobs issue, that is. The city council became so intent on winning that they never asked: Is the prize worth it?

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Our research indicates that Nexus has a pattern of telling lies and spreading propaganda in order to get what they want. Like their "clients", Nexus is adept at deception and are masters of manipulation. For example: Nexus claims to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in Onamia, when in fact very little of the money actually benefits the community. When it comes to numbers, Nexus seems arithmetically challenged. Things just don't add up.

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In my opinion, the mayor, the city council, the commissioners, and others who were involved in the Nexus Affair were obligated to thoroughly examine this company before both the city and the county gave thousands and thousands of dollars for years and years of property tax abatement. They based their decision on unsubstantiated, unconfirmed information supplied by Nexus. They simply accepted everything Nexus told them as fact. Face value follymeisters. To me, their failure to research Nexus was horribly irresponsible. It was dumb.

You can't see the forest for the TREE. The one, omnipotent NEXUS TREE.

All other trees need not apply.

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They should have definitely considered the rights of and impact on individual citizens - after all, this is still America, isn't it? But they didn't.

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Since realizing the depth of our discontent, the gravity of our grievances, the city council has been on the scramble again - no... not to find a solution that might please us.... This time they're scrambling to rewrite city ordinances to circumvent the law in order to permit the sex offenders to live beside elderly widows and daycare. They've been abusing their power.*

One of the problems with small town government is that there is a limited well from which to draw public servants. Our well runs dry after only a few buckets. Few people are interested in such things.

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"One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors."

Plato

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At the last election, Bill Hill won by "write-in". Jerome Kryzer spends the winters in Arizona. Bob Mickus, who ran unopposed, misses so many council meetings that you have to wonder why he took the job in the first place. Mark Loch doesn't say much, just goes through the motions. The Zoning Administrator didn't even show up for the recent zoning public hearing. Our rude, bitchy city clerk doesn't even live in the county. Even though the town has gone to hell over the past twenty years, Larry Milton remains mayor. Unless they stack the deck with Nexus employees, usually the only citizens who attend the meetings are from Bradbury Township. Its all so sad.

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All of these people in our local government have forgotten the "servant" part of "public servant." Sadly, they have also forgotten the "public" part as well. They are now the private agents of Nexus.

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When it comes to dealing with them on their terms,

we need term limits.