Unbelievably, last night the Roswell City Council by a vote of seven for and two against, went forward and approved an $11.1 MILLION taxpayer-financed loan without sufficient time for it to be fully debated and understood.
There were no public hearings held until the day of the vote, so the public had no opportunity for input.
Do you think giving a multi-million-dollar low interest loan by the city to a private company should be done without giving the public time to scrutinize it? This is very serious business, and taxpayer dollars should not be treated like Monopoly money.
The final terms of the deal weren’t even presented to the council at the meeting!
One of the two councilors who voted against it said her opposition to it was based on “not understanding the movement of the money…not sure about the money and the way it’s being moved around.”
As a citizen of Roswell, I am very alarmed by the way this city council does business. Rushing through multi-million-dollar deals where the city council is asked to rubber stamp their approval because of unjustified deadlines is unacceptable.
In this case, the company involved has acted honorably – it’s the mayor and the city council’s fault for not having timely public meetings and fully disclosing the loan terms and asking the citizens if the city should act as a bank.
If you are outraged about the way Mayor Kintigh and the city council does business and you want it to stop, then please vote for me as mayor. When I’m elected, I’ll fully disclose city business and give the public an opportunity to give input.