Greeley comes to their senses, or is forced to


So the headline today from the Greeley Tribune comes as a welcome relief, following two months of head-scratching behavior on the part of the Greeley town council.

"Son, we live in a world that has walls," Jack Nicholson's character Nathan Jessup barks out from the witness stand in "A Few Good Men", and then proceeds to admit, having denied it up to that time, how he violated these walls.

Greeley has a rule in their original charter against people with felonies holding public office.  So when Edward Mirick was elected to a seat on the town board, despite having a felony forgery conviction from California, despite the electors knowing about this prior to the election, it made a certain segment of the Greeley population, those who pay for their speeding tickets and eat their vegetables, wonder what the world was coming to.

Similarly when the majority of town board members fell in line late November to swear in Mr. Mirick after he "won" the election.  Umm, what about the original charter, Mayor John Gates?  Well, golly, it's not that simple, we lack the expertise to know if a felony conviction means an actual felony conviction.  Plus Eddie is such a swell guy, after all.  He got more votes than his opponent, and isn't that the ultimate determinant?  It's not as if he killed someone, or did something dishonest with another person's money.  (Note:  Eddie did something incredibly dishonest with another person's money.)

The fact that private citizens had to fork over $10,000 of their own money for a judge to tell the mayor and town council that, yes, indeed, a felony conviction does really mean a felony conviction is a travesty for Greeley, and a slap in the face to everyone who pays their taxes and gets their kids to school on time and doesn't confuse breakfast with brunch.

Now the mayor wants these private citizens reimbursed.  Umm, Mr. Mayor, how about getting yourself some onions and reimbursing them from your own pocket?  Taxpayers shouldn't be forced to reimburse other taxpayers for doing the job you were elected to do.

BTW, Greeley and every other community who elects individuals they know absolutely nothing about:  There is this wonderful thing called the internet, and if you can unearth felony convictions with the click of a few buttons, taxpayers (the rule-following ones, anyhow) are all for that.


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