Coatesville City Council has improved but it’s not there yet

This could be subtitled:

It's not easy being a Coatesville City Council member. Just ask some former city council members. 

The City of Coatesville has a reputation among developers as having a dysfunctional, erratic and unstable City Council. That reputation and not so much Coatesville’s crime problems might, at this moment in time, be the main impediment to revitalizing Coatesville. 

They are not being led from outside anymore by what I believe was an unusual combination of drug dealer leaders, corrupt landlords, con-men and white supremacists but they are still taking off the wall and often illegal actions. 

The city solicitor and city management seems to be afraid to give them advice for fear of losing their jobs. 

Some city council members appear to believe it's easy and simple to be a city council member. But city council is a dangerous place. 

"Our public officials have and always will be held to a higher standard to maintain their positions of trust."  FBI - SAC Stephen L. Morris - U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Texas

 

As a Coatesville City Council member you make decisions that can affect thousands of people. It's like walking in a minefield. You need some guidance. 

I believe Ed Simpson and Ingrid Jones know what they are doing, but the rest are flying blind. 

Coatesville City Council is walking mostly unaided in a legal minefield.

Please understand that I don't believe any Coatesville City Council members have a malicious intent, they are trying to do the right thing, they just don't know how.

City Council members that want to learn what they can and can't do and what they should be doing could take some courses on their own. Training in municipal government is offered by the PA Local Government Training Partnership.  It's also an opportunity to interact with other local government officials. 

If you lived in Coatesville in the early 21st Century you are a casualty of the “war on environment”

Pat Sellers was a “warrior” for the John Birch Society here. 

The U.N. Agenda 21, a planning document for the 21st Century, came out of the U.N. Conference on Environment & Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. It is a list of suggestions to deal with pollution, overpopulation, poverty and resource depletion. 

The basic principles of Agenda 21 have filtered down to local planning in U.S. communities. Think of things like stormwater management,  energy efficient buildings AND HERE IN COATESVILLE, PA REVITALIZATION OF MORE DENSELY POPULATED COMMUNITIES TO SAVE FARMLAND FROM RUNAWAY SUBURBAN TRACT HOUSING. 

The John Birch Society sent a contingent to monitor the Rio conference. 

Agenda 21 as a conspiracy to overthrow the U.S. and take our guns away is like all John Birch Society conspiracy theories completely made up with no basis in fact.  That didn't stop the Republican Party from making resistance to Agenda 21 part of the GOP platform in 2008. 

When Did Republicans Start Hating the Environment?

Roughly 1991, according to a new study.

—By Chris Mooney | Tue Aug. 12, 2014

AGENDA 21

The UN, Sustainability

and Right-Wing Conspiracy Theory

A Special Report from the Southern Poverty Law Center

Montgomery, Alabama

APRIL 2014