When fairly middle-of-the-road folks like Matthews Mayor Lee Myers say that they do not support the CMS bond package, said bond package might be in trouble. The thing is, Myers is not alone.
Here’s more from a Southern Mecklenburg Neighbors section story that is more telling than anything yet written about the $620 million bond proposal:
Lee Myers, mayor of Matthews and a fan of CMS’s new regional offices plan, questions whether enough change has happened to win over voters.
“If I had to vote today, I would vote against the bond,” said Myers, who voted no in 2005.
“Do we trust a majority of the school board to do what they say they’re going to do” by building and renovating schools where officials say they will?
A key to securing bond support, Mint Hill Mayor Ted Biggers said, will be whether town leaders and voters believe the project list reflects true needs around the county — and not politics.
“I think the public recognizes that we’re … in need of funds to build new schools and renovate the old schools,” Biggers said.
“But I still think there’s a frustration (among voters), which almost reaches a disgust level with some of the politics involved.”
Biggers and Myers have it almost exactly right. I would only amend their comments to say that there already exists “a disgust level” with CMS politics among local voters.
When local voters and taxpayers see that the bond is built upon wholly political machinations, they know that politics will continue to drive the process after a bond is passed. This might not be a big deal to the 1.6 percent of the population who relish fighting CMS political battles, but to the rest of us the cost of voting “yes” becomes ginormous.
Then there is the CMS reform angle Myers touches on. Recall that former Butler high principal Joel Ritchie was tapped by CMS superintendent Peter Gorman to go downtown and manage the decentralization plan that Myers says he likes. If a plan crafted by a former Matthews principal, let alone Ritchie’s status as a handpicked Gorman insider, isn’t enough to sway the mayor of Matthews on CMS’ plans, well…
Said CMS bond package might be in trouble.
