Judged:
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3
Micky Webb is an expert at sometimes making things look the way he wants everyone to see them. Go to a commission meeting and you will find times when commissioners have to look to him for guidance or for help in answering questions they don't know the answer to (if they decide they're going to answer a question). For this reason, the city manager has a lot of power and knowledge that he can use to "manipulate" commissioners' views and decisions.
The answer to this would be to elect at least two commissioners with some prior knowledge about the city's business. When Webb gave them some guidance, they could use their prior knowledge to question him and make a decision based on what they already know, what he is telling them, and what is best for us.
Four commissioner candidates already have some insight into matters relating to the city: Chappuie, White, Stichman, and Caflisch. White has shown where he stands and Chappuie might be more than willing to carry Micky's water bucket. We might be stuck with more of the same if we elect those two.
The only two candidates left that may have enough prior knowledge to represent US instead of Micky are Stichman and Caflisch. If you think Ned is only running to get back at Webb, you need to put that out of your mind. He has a great understanding of how the city SHOULD and COULD operate efficiently and effectively, and he would work FOR US. If you're still upset with him because he sued the city, you need to put that behind you if you don't want more of the same bad behavior, poor decison making, and endless spending sprees at City Hall.
Caflisch has a great deal of knowledge about ADA and other matters which may save us money in the long-run. We may actually be able to get all the ADA work done the first time instead of paying expensive consultants twice for doing the same job (because they didn't do it right the first time).
Ultimately, your vote is your decision, but this election is crucial for the City of Independence. We have the opportunity to elect people with some solid understanding of things related to city government, so we should seize that opportunity and take back control of our city.
