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December 30, 2009
The main topic on viewers' minds over the past couple of weeks has been the threat of budget cuts and layoffs in Tucson. Prior to the city manager's report, a lot of people expressed concern about police and fire layoffs. And in the days since, others are unhappy about a proposed renters' tax. Susie Wright: "As a wife of a law enforcement officer I understand the need for more police officers NOT less.... The wait time for an officer called to a victimless crime can be hours and in some situations the next day, and this is with our current amount of officers on the street. There are times during the day there are only 15-20 officers on the streets (for the whole city of Tucson), this is outrageous! Cutting the police and fire department will cause problems we are not ready to handle... I have heard people saying it is time to buy a gun, be prepared. Tucson will become more like the Old Tucson of years ago. How very sad!!!" Lori Oien sent this detailed e-mail to City Council, and copied us on it: Gary Force also has some practical suggestions: "Stop the bridge project downtown. Stop the lab project for TPD. I understand they can make due with the old lab. Cut the pay a certain percentage for the City Manager and City Supervisors." We received this anonymous message via Blackberry, regarding the proposed renters' tax: "Where r we as citizens suppose to come up with that kind of money when the disabled, seniors and military don't get an increase in income and the price of everything is on he rise." Tony Potter of Tucson has similar concerns: "My question is, why hit renters with a double tax? We already pay property tax. A lot of people will claim that we don't but we pay it in our rent.... The only fair tax that everyone would pay is a property tax increase because the landlords pass that on to the renters. Why should one group of people be penalized for the mistakes of our governments, whether it is local, county, state or federal?" Our continued 9 On Your Side investigation of the Douglas School Board received more feedback. One viewer, who asked to remain anonymous, sent a long list of items and allegations she'd like to see investigated in the district, along with these words: "I am impressed with your station staying with this story and getting out the information to the public. There is a lot that has gone on in our district over the years that has always been questionable. It is a true loss for the IT Director, Business Manager, and OSI Director to all have submitted their resignations." While she was critical of superintendent Earl Pettit, she also had harsh words for some board members: "Patty Lopez seems incapable of speaking without the help of Chuck Hoyack.... I hope that you will continue to find answers to questions that the public has. Most of us have just figured this type of stuff was business as usual and that nothing really mattered because these people were going to do whatever they wanted...." Note to viewers: our commitment all along has been to get to the bottom of why three board members wanted to fire Pettit. At this point that mission has been largely accomplished, but the board is still hiding some documents in blatant disregard of the state's public records law. Our efforts to get them continue. Jennifer Symons wrote to take issue with one of Health Reform stories, which explored the issue of whether Congress should be giving special deals to some states in order to get health reform passed: "Your report presented as 'news' the information that politicians give-and-take in negotiations over various bills. I doubt if your reporters are so unfamiliar with the political process as to believe this is unique to the Health Reform bill and yet that was the implication of your report. In my opinion, your question of the day on this issue is not worthy of news reporting but more like the calls made by political operatives which convey a politically biased message in the form of a question. We are new to Arizona and as of this evening we will be looking at other local TV channels to see if every one here is willing to sacrifice presentation of news in order to provide free political advertisements for the Republican party." Ms. Symons is right that political "horse trading" is a normal part of the political process. However, what was new in this case is that some states are crying foul, some attorneys general are threatening to sue, which was the point of our coverage. Finally -- our humorous approach to finding Paul Bunyan's missing ax didn't sit well at first with this anonymous viewer, who wrote: "When, how and who decides when it is appropriate to make fun of others misfortunes and to make light of crime? Where is the line drawn as to when it is politically correct to make fun of crime? Is it a green light to make fun of a crime if the victim allows the crime to be made fun of?" I wrote back and explained that, with the blessing of the crime victim (Don's Hot-Rod shop) we decided to do that follow-up story about the missing ax in hopes that a humorous approach, combined with a "no questions asked" appeal -- might succeed in getting the ax back, where a more serious approach had failed. And fortunately, that is the way it turned out. The ax is now home. KGUN9 loves hearing from viewers. Send your e-mails to comments@kgun9.com.
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