Alright, I’m back from vacation and I had a number of papers to dig through. After reading them, it looks like the county newsmakers were on vacation, too! You all work hard - you’ve earned it. However, one thing of note did come up that I found interesting.
Harold Smith is running for one of three seats on the Kannapolis City Council - as he predicted in an earlier post on his website.
Here’s the text of his campaign pitch:
Harold Smith for Kannapolis City Council
On November 8, 2005 the voters of Kannapolis will have the opportunity to elect 3 new members on the Kannapolis City Council and a new mayor. I ask that you support me and vote for Harold Smith for Kannapolis City Council
I promise not to vote to raise your taxes and will fight to lower your taxes. Kannapolis taxes are too high!
I promise to work hard to correct the mismanagement of the water and sewer fund.
I promise to represent the taxpayers of Kannapolis. I will not accept any political contributions and will not be obligated to any special interest group.
I am qualified for the job. I have recently retired even though I am only 61 years old. I have the time to find ways to save taxpayers money. I have over 40 years experience in business. During the past 20 years, I built a company from zero sales to annual sales of $25 million and then sold the business on September 9, 2004. I accomplished this success by hiring people who were committed to my philosophy of quality service at the lowest possible cost to the customers. I know how to run an effective and efficient organization.
You can read more about my qualifications on my website: http://www.goharoldsmith.com/ under the section “About Harold”.
I realize that by running for Kannapolis City Council, I will be up against the “establishment”. In order for me to win the election, I must have the support of the working families and the senior citizens who believe taxes and local government have gotten out of control. The taxpayers must get involved or we will have more of the same.
Here’s what strikes me as being funny: Nowhere in all of this does he talk about how he will pull off what he’s talking about doing. Let’s do a little exercise…let’s take his statements to their logical conclusion:
Harold says: I promise not to vote to raise your taxes and will fight to lower your taxes. Kannapolis taxes are too high!
Does he expect that the natural revenue growth at the will exceed current spending? Is he proposing on cutting spending? If so, where? On an earlier post on his site, he criticized something along the order of about $100,000 in spending during the last budget cycle; but didn’t commit to cutting it.
Harold says: I promise to work hard to correct the mismanagement of the water and sewer fund.
He’ll work hard, but will he correct it? Also, what’s the root of this alleged mismanagement? Who is to blame? What will he do differently?
Harold says: I promise to represent the taxpayers of Kannapolis. I will not accept any political contributions and will not be obligated to any special interest group.
I love it when politicians talk about “special interest groups”, because it creates an us vs. them situation. In all reality, each and every one of us is represented by one or more special interest groups. If you’re over 55 - you’ve got the AARP, if you’re a teacher - you’ve got teacher associations, if you work for Phillip Morris - there’s the tobacco lobby…it goes on and on like that. Harold Smith will be representing the people who voted for him, and that’s about where it’ll stop with this guy. If you poke around his website long enough - you’ll notice that he really doesn’t give much consideration to people who think the way that he does or do things the way that he tells them to.
Another thing to notice - think long and hard about when Harold Smith talks about the “taxpayers” - how many people do you know who pay absolutely no taxes whatsoever? Even people who don’t own homes and rent get the tax bill passed along to them. It’s pretty hard to escape paying sales taxes. So, the “taxpayers” are everyone. He’s going to represent everyone. If that’s the case, then he needs to get everyone’s opinion and then make all of his decisions incorporating everyone’s opinion. I doubt that will happen.
Here’s the deal. I’ve personally never had a conversation with the guy. I can’t tell you what his motivation at taking another stab at the K-Town City Council is after coming in fourth in a three-way race in 2003. I can’t predict how the next race will go, what decisions Harold Smith will make if the people of Kannapolis elect him to one of the open seats, or how the rest of the community will or won’t accept him. I can point out some things he has said in the past and that might offer some insight into how he’ll run Kannapolis.
- When the county had more money than projected in the budget at the end of 2004, Harold Smith called John Day, Bob Carruth, and Carolyn Carpenter liars.
- When Marilyn Porter was replaced with Senator Fletcher Hartsell as the County Attorney, the best Harold Smith could do was to hurl an insult at John Day.
- When the county was trying to address the deficit of school facilities, Harold Smith suggested that the County fund home schools. Of course, he referred to it as “alternative schooling”
- When the Kannapolis City Council didn’t heed his “advice” - he proceeded to divine what was going on in the head of each of the Council members.
- He flipped-flopped on greenways…calling for them in 2003 and then criticizing the Cabarrus County Board of Commissioners in 2005 (go to June 10, 2005) for acquiring flood plain land at no extra cost for a greenway when purchasing land for a high school in Harrisburg.
- He states that he “has a dream…that all citizens will…work together…making Cabarrus County a great place to work, play, and worship”; but devotes much of his public statements ridiculing the County Manager, the Mayor and all but one of the City Council of Kannapolis, Cabarrus County School Board Members, Cabarrus County Schools Superintendent, the County Attorney and State Senator for Cabarrus County, and the Cabarrus County Register of Deeds. Do you think any of them will want to cooperate with the illustrious Harold Smith?
- Finally, there’s his rather strange view on debt. He seemed to have no problem when his friends on the Cabarrus County Board of Commissioners abandoned a pay-as-you-go plan outlined by a public commission in 1998, dropped taxes to levels that couldn’t support their spending, and borrowed $110 million over five years to build schools - calling such actions “fiscal discipline” (May 24, 2005). Then he opposed the school bond referendum - because it would increase taxes. He proposed a pay-as-you-go plan; but it disappeared from his website.
Bottom line: In nearly two years of Harold Smith has presented no concrete plan on taking Kannapolis into the 21st Century. Also, if elected, he would be relegated to a minority in the City Council and would not be able to reach out to most of the elected or appointed official in the community. Seriously, if you were involved in local government would you associate yourself with someone who shows no capability to reason or compromise with those who won’t follow his vague edicts?
I think it’s great when people keep up with local politics and current events. A healthy community needs that; but if people can behave like Harold Smith and win elections - we’re in trouble. We need to demand that our leaders deal with the whole truth, that they show a capacity to work with others - regardless of ideology, that they can effectively cast a vision of the future and lead the staff that answers to them with mutual respect, and that they respect all of the citizens they represent - not just those that agree with them.
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