It attests to the boldness of the Democrats in this county that one could be a township assessor, then when one gets an assessment one thinks is too high, that one wouldn't tell the appeals board that there was an honest goof and could we revisit this anomalous valuation please, no. I'd be more "umble" than Dickens' Uriah Heep and quietly admit that in a county with hundreds of thousands of properties, boo boos do get made, and this one just happens to be my property, hey guys, isn't it funny I got bit too, now let's fix this? According to Bill Dolan's article in the Times on Saturday: no, no emphatically no!
Members of the Lake County Tax Assessment Board of Appeals expressed astonishment at their Friday meeting over Blumenberg's letter protesting that the assessed value of his residence was "improperly derived and applied contrary to ... state law."
Read that twice. Of course when you gripe, on paper, that the township assessor was inept and acted in a manner contrary to state law, and you were the darned fool assessor, you only open yourself to every Thomas, Richard, and Harold on the schoolyard at lunch recess:
A Times investigation found Blumenberg didn't lack training opportunities. He cost taxpayers at least $68,600 in travel reimbursements -- the second-highest total of any Lake County individual over the past decade -- to attend professional conferences, including training seminars at Walt Disney World Resorts in August 2009 and Miami the following month that cost several thousands of dollars alone.
New county assessor Hank Adams also found glee in the situation:
Adams said of Blumenberg's complaint, "He's apparently saying he did everything wrong. He was the township assessor. Why would he (as taxpayer) disapprove of what he approved (as township assessor)?"
No word in the article as to the look on Adams' face. You can't make this stuff up. Blumenberg, who couldn't stand his own office's assessment work, Katie Hall, whose office was so messy and disorganized the investigators couldn't get a picture of what was going on in the Gary Clerk's office, Rudy B the sitting sheriff who wore a skeleton mask under witness protection in corruption trials, the decades long story of not only corruption, but outright, blatant, UNAPOLOGETIC stupidity that comes from one party rule. There's no reason to do better because the people don't expect better when they vote.
How to turn the latent need of better, less expensive, transparent, responsible government into an urgent need that gets people involved for the long run? How to somehow possibly apply sales techniques to the job of selling another way (is there something that we can learn from the Seth Godins of the world?) since dry facts and bullet point campaigning haven't touched the emotions of machine voters the way tribal voting (eg.: I'm Black or Serb or Catholic and and Blacks Serbs Catholics always vote Democrat) or going with the vast majority since you're not cool if you don't (Republican's can win Lake County elections) have done?
Until we find a way to get people to realize they want better government, we'll get people like Blumenberg all the live long day.
Bibliography:
Bible Citation
Times Article
How to turn the latent need of better, less expensive, transparent, responsible government into an urgent need that gets people involved for the long run? How to somehow possibly apply sales techniques to the job of selling another way (is there something that we can learn from the Seth Godins of the world?) since dry facts and bullet point campaigning haven't touched the emotions of machine voters the way tribal voting (eg.: I'm Black or Serb or Catholic and and Blacks Serbs Catholics always vote Democrat) or going with the vast majority since you're not cool if you don't (Republican's can win Lake County elections) have done?
Until we find a way to get people to realize they want better government, we'll get people like Blumenberg all the live long day.
Bibliography:
Bible Citation
Times Article
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