I think we have to say that 2010 is the final year of spin for Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. Facts began to punch through the Potemkin destination location facade, revealing basic fundamentals in local governance coming apart at the seams.

Recall that 2010 started with the Marcus Jackson affair. Some of us said that it was a window on both the dysfunction in Chief Rodney Monroe’s CMPD and the borderline psychotic detachment by Charlotte city council members. We said the public would never get answers to how Jackson came to be on the force given his disciplinary record and that justice would not come to his victims as Official Charlotte had every incentive to hide its misdeeds with a plea deal.

By the end of 2010 — Jackson got a plea deal that will likely spring him in 2011. The public is still in the dark. But don’t worry, our so-called leaders tell us, everything’s fine at CMPD.

And so it goes…

  • Handpicked panel of Uptown insiders — not that nay-saying Meck Deck loon — find 65 percent of the city of Charlotte General Fund — only a little item called public safety “unsustainable” in a matter months. But other than that, everything is fine with city finances…
  • The CRVA admits its NASCAR Hall of Fame is a wholly fraudulent operation, on its way to missing operating revenue targets by $10 million — or 62 percent — but everything’s fine as it makes a great loss-leader…
  • CMUD literally banked on federal pork dollars to finish required sewer and water lines, comes up millions short. Rate-payers will have to make up the difference for system that has been used and abused by the city and county, but other than that, everything is fine…
  • CMS spends impossible amounts of time and energy treading water when faced with finally having to prioritize spending, cutting $3m. here, $5m. when a complete re-jigger of the institution is years past due. But don’t blame the top staff for the bungles, they are wonderful and everything is fine…
  • CATS admits that a $9.5 billion transit plan adopted in 2006 in “unsustainable,” cuts all of $200m. out of a pointless run to UNCC, wishes and hopes for new tax revenue. But everything is fine, no reason to go back and start from scratch with a new plan…

  • Tax county assessors are warned repeatedly that real estate values are falling faster than they can imagine, blow the critiques off as uninformed. Only to rush back to do a massive downward adjustment in some values in the closing weeks of the year, but don’t worry, when that new valuation hits your mailbox, everything will be fine…
  • Scandal after scandal rocks Mecklenburg County’s social services sector, but as County Manager Harry Jones still has a job, everything must be fine…
  • Local employment gives up gains from the spring to fall back down to the employment levels of January 2009. Mecklenburg remains about 30,000 jobs short of pre-recession levels, but everything is fine as the workforce is so very educated…
  • County judges refuse to jail violent repeat offenders, but everything is fine because the local bar uses threats and intimidation to keep from alarming the general public about the risk of this deliberate policy…
  • The Panthers field a Big Lot’s team but still charge Belk’s prices, but everything is fine because a new head coach and Andrew Luck will make Marty Hurney smarter and Jerry Richardson less passive-aggressive — just as soon as the owners break the union and the lockout ends…
  • The city-owned airport has not a clue how how a teenager secreted himself in a wheel-well of a plane bound for Boston. But everything is fine as the city-run police force is investigating…
  • Charlotte is ground zero for a massive manhunt after the daughter of a local police chief turns up dead. CMPD caught and charged their man — and everything is fine with the case even though no toxicology report has been released to establish if a crime actually occurred.
  • One of the accused killers of Ira Yarmolenko up and dropped dead, hours before his trial, leaving the Gaston County DA with no way to prosecute the other supposed killer, the one with no DNA link to the murder weapon. But everything is fine because the SBI and local authorities are certain that Yarmolenko was not kidnapped and driven to the banks of the Catawba River by a killer or killers unknown to them.

And so on. I’ll pop up on WBT tomorrow morning to talk 2010 with Wayne Powers. I’m sure I left out stuff, but everything will be fine…