One often hesitates to complain about the state of affairs as it stands among the powers-that-be who have been entrusted to "run" this municipality...seemingly I am but a single rooster crying out at the wolves baying at the door of the chicken house.
And the more things change, the more a hand-picked and selected group of insiders benefit from the malfeasance that permeates the barnyard from stable to pig sty.
The bottom line? The apathy I encounter stems mostly from the fact it doesn't matter what you do, say, expose or question... the enrichment of the rich and famous by the manipulation of the system though their dancing bears, continues and tomorrow is just another yesterday
Example: Yesterday I am online at the local post office when the gentleman in front of me, who is a longtime employee of the city, was complaining to the postal clerk about "the ridiculous way the city does things this days".
Now, this person was a front line, grunt employee and not one of those hand-selected for a cushy job in order to make a diversity statement or satisfy the personal and societal whims of someone who just happens to be in a position of hiring.
I engaged this city employee in conversation after they finished their business with the United States Postal Service. When I told them my name, I didn't have to add "with Today in Fort Smith" at the end of the sentence.
"You're that guy with the ' Fort Smith Today' page (close enough), right?" was the first thing out of their mouth. "We (collectively meaning this person in particular and co-workers in general I learned later) read your stuff all the time!"
"I could tell you a lot of stuff," said my new willing confidant. "but you really ought to write a story sometime about how they screwed the old hands out of half their retirement." (I seem to recall some manipulations back in 2015 under then city administrator Ray Gosick to cut pension funds paid by the city from 10% to 5%, but I'm not fully aware if that was what was being referenced. That all happened before my shift.)
But this "stuff" you mentioned? Do go on....
"They all need to go...starting with that city administrator, the board of directors, most of the department heads and the majority of the people who have been hired for the wrong jobs for the wrong reasons," said the employee, who shared that they have been working for the city 'for decades'.
"Lots of disgruntled employees," said the obviously disgruntled employee. "but what are you going to do? Many of us are too far in to get out short of retirement so we put up with it the best we can."
Not exactly a ringing endorsement of the city as a desirable working environment, but then again, it's nothing we haven't heard before.
Take, for another example, the ex-chief of police who is now flexing the same sociological muscles in his new job. albeit one in which the demographic make-up of his new community better suits his vision of "community policing" than Fort Smith did.
I yelled until I was hoarse about the initial hiring of the ex-chief because I did my research. He was "allowed to resign" from jobs in Pine Bluff and New Albany, Georgia amidst some serious allegations but in this era of political correctness, it was all covered up and he was sent down the road in both cases. (This is not up for argument. I have talked to people who made the allegations in both places.)
He apparently successfully worked in law enforcement on a federal level before landing in Fort Smith. But he was never in charge in that job.
We ended up with him here because we paid a "recruitment" firm thousands of dollars that said he was the best man for the job. Obviously, no one in that recruitment firm knows how to use Google (or a telephone for that matter).
Just yesterday, I was reminded online (once again) of my "racism" which led to "the best chief Fort Smith ever had being run out of town on a rail".
No. Just no on all counts.
He wasn't the best chief we ever had and he left on his own accord. In the politically correct environment that has been evolving since "Off Broadway" took over, he could have stayed forever and twinkled the keys of diversity, quotas, and favoritism ad nauseam until the concert ended.
Given what I knew from the day he was hired, I would have been opposed to his hiring regardless. Race had nothing to do with it. Common sense did. And time proved me right.
If you want to give me credit for being the only person who stood up to the tyranny, I'll take it. But the fact that 85% of the force (that didn't retire or quit out of frustration) hated his guts for a myriad of reasons should tell you all you need to know as to why he's "down in Georgia picking them peaches".
He got while the getting was good and replaced the longtime chief down there who was under fire for "racist policies"....sound familiar? And we are still having issues in the aftermath of his employment decisions.
We didn't hire (or rubber stamp) his approval but we're the ones who continue to be punished for the loss of a lot of good cops, departmental changes that hamper operations and a crime rate that was hidden from us by manipulated figures.
That's on those that allowed the hiring in the first place. With just a few ineffective changes within that circle, the same critters populating the swamp then are still swimming in the murky waters of municipal manipulation.
Want to know why three high-level department heads have jumped ship in recent weeks? Well...here's your sign!
My new friend at the post office also got into some personal and lifestyle issues about some of the inner circle, and once again, it was nothing we haven't heard before.
It's also nothing that should have any bearing on the way a person is perceived when it comes to the ability to handle the tasks you have been entrusted with.
And it's also nothing, at the end of the day, that is any of my business.
I don't want city employees or elected officials to "be" anything other than competent and devoid of outside influences that effect they way "we" live in a city that was "ours" long before it was "theirs".
That's not the way it is. If you don't believe me, hang out at the post office for a little while.
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