Governmental Intimidation
It may not be uncommon for someone dealing with city, state or the federal government agencies to feel intimidated by government officials. Some do this through their tone of voice or through physical acts and body language.
Reasons for such intimidation vary. Sometimes pressure and vague threats keep residents and citizens from taking action against certain government officials, departments and individuals.
Some governments seem to pick and choose which of their laws they will enforce and which ones they will not. Cities have local, state and federal governments providing them with laws by which they should abide. In this mix of laws, some officials do not feel certain laws should be enforced and some enforced more than others.
The city government of the small town of Alliance Neb. is one such place. City Managers, city councils and various departments apply the law inconstantly. Some residents receive citations and fines for having “junk” in their yards while a large amount of the residential lots contain such “junk” and never receive the same citations.
Former City Manager J.D. Cox explained such actions are complaint driven. That is to say the city allows residents to decide when laws are followed and they are not. It is the government that should make such decisions and not the citizens of the city.
The people elect local, state and federal officials to perform proper enforcement. One person should be treated with the same respect as any resident. In Alliance, municipal codes are written in such a way as to contradict what they tell residents.
Officer Peterson of the Alliance Police Department explained someone can push the snow in the street in front of someone else’s home. His excuse for this is it is the city’s job to remove the snow from the road. Peterson stated it was okay for someone to perform duties of the city workers, who should have removed the snow already.
With Peterson’s explanation residents can perform the duties of the city, Peterson was asked who he worked for and at that point turned around and walked away. Peterson neglected to comment on the fact that he is a city employee. Going by the explanation Peterson provided, it is okay for anyone in the city to perform the duties of a police officer.
If it is okay for a resident to perform the work of the city, then it would be logical then to say it is okay for someone to work on the power lines. Performing work on the street is okay for residents to do. Handing out tickets, warnings and citations is something the common person may do.
Chief of Police John Kiss declined to return any phone calls or emails making himself unavailable for interview. Even what may seem like small questions, like what definition the city uses to for the word “unlawful” went unanswered.
An answer for the term “unlawful” could neither be obtained from the city manager, the chief of police or the city clerk.
Finally the firm the city utilizes as their attorneys provided a definition for the term. In this communication one of the people acting as a city attorney, the term “unlawful” was defined by state statute. It would seem the city officials contacted did not know what the term means.
Some situations or actions defined by the city’s municipal code contain the word unlawful. Although many of these codes are termed as unlawful, the city claims it cannot do anything to enforce that law until residents complain. The state definition for unlawful; unlawful under federal law or the laws of this state shall mean contrary to or in defiance of the law or disobeying or disregarding the law.
If the government wants to claim a specific ordinance cannot be enforced, it may make a bit of sense for the city government to look over its own ordinances and amend the code.
A popular park in town is the dog park. Individuals and families can be seen playing with their pets. The park is city property, but somehow a private group of individuals run the park. Recently the city clerk was contacted to find out about the dog park board and the reply was a copy of the state statutes for how to sue for the information.
This publication then asked if the board for the dog park had term limits. The city was also asked how much money this private group pays to lease the city property, but no reply was received. Contacting the parks and leisure director Shanna Brown also received no answer.
A private group comprises the board even though the park is on city property. It appears the city has no idea record of who is on this board.
These are only a few of the many things local, state and federal governments do which are contrary to their own words or actions. Action or the lack there of can be a major problem in government. On the local level, residents can have much more control than on a national level. If the residents are placated with the state of things in their community, it is likely there will be an uneven enforcement of the law.
Paying attention to the city council, government departments and government employees can help residents maintain more control. Paying attention can also help residents make sure the law is applied evenly to everyone.
What a bunch of whiny rambling, moaning, and complaining.
You want more control for citizens by the end of your writing, but the begininning complains about how the government needs to take control and enforce the laws. Which is it? And the dog park? Really? What concerns you about who governs the dog park? Go take your anonymous closet rants to a city where there are more people who still don’t care about your ramblings. Sweet tits if I could get back the three minutes of my life I wasted trying to find sense in this slop, I’d be happy.
Thank you for your opinion.
You are a liar and a drunk. You were causing a disturbance and brought up rambles of snow. Tell the whole truth…
Thank you for your opinion. We will take it into consideration.
I get it with the drunk thing, but I am not a morning drinker. My day starts out around 1:30 to 2:30 am. 11 am is what would be equivelent to someone who rises as 6 am,as their 5 pm, and that makes 1l am to noon is getting to the end of my day. I hit the bed at 5 a.m. To you it was morning, to me it was about time to eat dinner and go to bed.
If you got outside of your little bubble, you will see that not everyone works on your hours “concerned citizen.”
Good day Officer Peterson
Very good write up. Laws are supposed to be upheld towards anyone and anything. They are not supposed to be in use only if you don’t have any money. There have been issues that have been brought up of people maybe having stuff in there yard. And anything in your yard, can be labeled as junk and the labeling of junk, go against the city code. The city will target and harass you about this code violation. But, if the property own owned by a bank, the city, including city manager will not enforce the law. If the city would enforce the laws when the banks are breaking those laws would help create work for local contractors. And in this way, its a more positive outlook. The city isn’t going after a individual and making their life miserable. They are going after the Banks and Realty Brokers to make sure they are keeping up the Bank owned or REO property with in accordance of city code and FHA code, which they are paid to do. This is something that they have to do, but haven’t been accountable to do for the past 4 years. IF they were held accountable this would add $50,000 to $300,000 in contract work to our area. But, i can’t get our city management or city council to do there job correctly. And city council refuses because they say they can’t afford to fight the banks. City manager won’t do this correctly, because he don’t like taking advise from a citizen. City Clerk won’t allow me to speak about this in a city council meeting because she marks it up as a personal manner. I’d like to see our government representatives held responsible to do there job and held accountable when the don’t and thats why i’m running for Congress.
Thank you.