Radical Solutions

It has been an interesting turn of events in Duluth since Connect Duluth started driving the point home that we, as a City, are facing what could truly be a devastating unfunded retiree health care benefit liability. Various solutions have been proposed by assorted groups and individuals. Finally, prodded by Connect Duluth, the City Council and Mayor decided it may be time to deal publicly with this issue. The Mayor went on a Friday bus ride for a few weeks, attended numerous conferences, visited a Sister City, went to the GLBTQAI celebration both at Bayfront Park and The Main Bar in Superior, stopped attending City Council Meetings, terminated the employment of perhaps the only individual who could actually get his head around the issue and generally buried his head, eventually resorting to acohol and getting a DUI in Wisconsin.

The Council, lead by Donny Ness took the brave and bold step of appointing a task force to point out to them what some already knew, few understood and all of us will pay for for decades. That realization is that the City of Duluth has been bankrupted by the irresponsible pandering to AFSCME for four decades. Also, the stunning revelation that this is going to cost somebody something.

The final nail in the coffin of Duluth has been the willful back-turning to the issue of outrageous promises made in exchange for pitiful concessions since the lifetime health benefit, with no provision for funding it was made two decades ago. The question nobody seems willing or smart enough to ask is, "if the City had no idea it was going to be such an astronomical windfall for the Union and huge expense for the City, why were the Unions the only ones to figure it out?" My point is, if they were willing to concede wages in exchange for lifetime healthcare, why couldn't our appointed and elected leaders of the time, understand to the degree that the Union did, how much greater benefit there was in the lifetime benefit? Is the seductive allure of something paid for over time or by somebody else so great that responsibility to the voting public becomes secondary to appeasing AFSCME? More importantly, does the total abrogation of responsibility begin to pale if the politician of the day can simply say, "it won't cost us anything more...now"? This is and has been the long standing tradition of Duluth's Politicians. Give now and pay later.

Perhaps the most important questions we must answer at this stage of the debacle created by our appointed and elected leaders is whether any of those responsible for creating this monster are or were:

1. Still in Office?
2. Supported by anyone still in Office?
3. Campaigned for by anyone still in Office?
4. Up for re-election any time soon?

There should be swift and decisive political consequences as well as decisive action to stem the growth of this behemoth. What is not being screamed to the hills is that with every passing day, this debt grows. With every indecisive act of the Council or the Mayor, Duluth's debt grows. It has already grown beyond manageable proportions but the question must be asked, if this has been ignored for so long and is a growing problem, why is there not any action on the table, other than a rhetorical rubber stamp of the task force recommendations? There still has been no action taken. What will it take to get the Mayor or the Council to act? What must be done immediately is to put into motion, a recall of this Mayor. He has grandstanded on various issues including this one, yet has done nothing. Maybe if he sees the natives getting restless enough, he will take some kind of action.

If somebody did something and it was challenged by the Union, at very least, there would be action. While the Mayor stands scratching his head and Donny Ness attacks everyone who disagrees with him or his party, this debt grows. It is time for the collective bunch to say, "this is our solution" and take steps to actually implement it, or step aside and let somebody who can, lead. This is not a time for positioning or rhetoric, it is a time for definitive and decisive action. It is time for bold leadership. It is time for the current leaders to lead, follow or get out of the way.

Happy New Year to all. My best wishes to everyone.