Evidence - This Mayor and This Council have neglected their leadership duties

As a friend points out, "Still a lot of old and sometimes angry white guys around.  Father time and a
few more elections will take a toll on this." That is what I mean by time being on our side. Too bad that so much of it is wasting away, when so much could be done to help the community go forward. We have a community with a lot of potential that has been stifled.

After reading this article, people will have to decide if Ignorance and Dogma are Bliss or whether it's time to start speaking up and out about what is being allowed to happen by the leadership in this community. If I didn't care, I wouldn't be down in this rabbit hole.

I was sent an interesting e-mail last week, that shows that not much has changed in the Whitener building over the last few years. The e-mail contained a link to a site called Concerned about Hickory.  There is only one article on this site and it was published on March 27, 2013.

The article is entitled - Mismanagement. Well Hidden. 

You need to go to this site and read about the accusations that need to be answered to. We have some big issues in Hickory with the way City Hall is being administrated. This is not the first time that I have read such information as is contained in this Concerned about Hickory Website.

As you may recall, I was sent a letter a few years ago that detailed similar information. That letter became an article that I published two years ago on September 6, 2011 entitled What is Going on at Hickory City Hall?!?!?.

Please go read this information. Our Mayor and City Council have completely invested in the City Manager style of Government to the point that Mick Berry has Carte Blanche to do anything he wants to do without question. It is to the point that Mayor Rudy Wright says that we can't have a splash pad unless Mick Berry says we can. The rest of them have said it multiple times throughout the years; that we can't have this, that, or the other, because Mick said we can't have it. Their job is to instruct the City Manager as to what the City wants and tell him to bring the various options; not to tell our elected officials what we can and cannot have.

The people of Hickory elected this Mayor and City Council to lead Hickory. They did not elect Mick Berry to lead Hickory. The City Council hired Mick Berry 8 years ago. The majority of the present council were responsible for that hire and they all have continuously renewed his contract. By all accounts, Rudy Wright sent Gary McGee packing and I haven't ever heard much bad said against Gary McGee by the people that worked for him or who dealt with him... On the other hand go read the articles.

This gets back to several items in the Agenda for a 21st Century Hickory. When we talk about Public Information, the Lack of Communication and Transparency, and the Conflicts of Interest. There is a circular conflict of interest in which the City Administration  and the City Council protect one another's interests and they must rise above all of that - They Haven't. The City Manager Form of government is supposed to be a partnership with the elected body - The City Council. This is the United States of America. We don't need no stinking Commissar.

Upon further review, a note led to more discovery:

You may find it interesting that Mick & Mike (Bennett) have put the hiring of  an I.T. Manager "on hold".    I think they are laying low, and did not want to hire yet another Mormon (Mike Woods) before the election, so as not to give any candidates any more ammunition.

Mike Woods... hmmm - where have I heard that name before?

The Picture is from the Hickory Daily Record. The caption reads:
Mick Berry (left) Stake President and Bishop Michael Woods of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, look over scripture on Wednesday afternoon. Jeremy Detter - Hickory Daily Record

We have a pattern on several fronts here folks. Does this sound like the way a city should be run?