Citizen-Times led attack on candidate, ATPAC says

Yesterday (March 9), Asheville Tea PAC learned that Lewis Clay would be dropping out of the race for Buncombe County Commissioner - District 3.

While Mr. Clay was not an Asheville Tea PAC-endorsed candidate, he had begun the process for possible endorsement. We support Mr. Clay’s decision to do what is right for him and his family.

However, to say that we are concerned about the events that led to his departure would be an understatement. 

It is apparent to many that the Asheville Citizen-Times led a deliberate and persistent attack on Mr. Clay that was meant to embarrass him and his family in a purposeful attempt to damage his campaign.

While Mr. Clay’s Facebook “likes” are scrutinized, the current county Board of Commissioners operates with only the barest of journalistic oversight by the AC-T, despite spending millions of dollars in taxpayer money on projects with the flimsiest of justification, or none at all. 

It is abundantly clear that the AC-T is not in the business of informing the public, but rather providing cover for business as usual, and when necessary, destroying the candidacies of people who threaten to impede the systemic corruption that goes on in Buncombe County.

This past week, Asheville made the top 10 list of the most unaffordable cities in the U.S.  Thank your City Council and the Board of Commissioners for killing affordable housing and for business growth in the city and Buncombe County by continuing to raise taxes and passing regulations. 

ATPAC remains undeterred in its mission to support candidates who can best advance the principles of fiscal responsibility and limited government.

Tenure termed cop-out for poor performance

Paying for performance is what most of us have lived with forever. Few have a secure job based on something other than our worth to our employer. Unions obtain contracts making it almost impossible to fire or lay off poor employees, one thing causing their demise over the years. Private business cannot keep an employee who is not producing, whatever reason.

In government jobs, profit is unimportant, but product should be; individuals not producing should not be retained. Arguing that teachers are unique and their job performance cannot be evaluated flies in the face of a teacher being able to evaluate individual student performance. Arguing that treating individuals differently and encouraging competition defeats teamwork doesn’t stand up; look at sports teams where your job depends on individual performance on a team.

Industry works as teams and evaluates as individual; our performance has improved product through the years (costs down, quality up). Job security based on tenure is a cop-out for poor performance, and not being able to evaluate performance and turning to a lottery is an admission of incompetent supervision. Reward good teachers, and let poor teachers re-evaluate why they are teaching.

Caution urged in moving forward on I-26 connector

 EDITOR’S NOTE: The following was to be presented to Asheville City Council at its March 25 meeting, but is appearing here as a letter to the editor because the author was unable to attend because of the weather.

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My name is Steve Rasmussen, and I’m a participant in the I-26 ConnectUs group. Yes, let’s fix the bridge. But let’s do it smart. Asheville needs MORE greenway, LESS freeway. This is the 21st century now, not the 20th.

In the last century, “progress” was the catchword that justified every massive roadbuilding project in our state regardless of its impact on our environment and communities.

Today, as we’re facing urban sprawl, pollution-induced climate change, lack of public transportation, and other consequences of putting profit before planet and people, “sustainability” has to be our watchword for surviving and thriving into the future. And long-range sustainability of our environment, our communities, and our local businesses is the basis of Asheville’s 2025 Master Plan.

Unfortunately the regional DOT division engineer recently told our group he’s never even looked at the 2025 plan. And the main priority of the state legislature’s so-called new Strategic Mobility Formula is still the 20th-century one of ramming ever more freight traffic through our state at ever higher speeds, which will bypass our local businesses and benefit only big corporations that have their sights set on transshipping more goods and jobs overseas.

All the Section B alternatives DOT is proffering us for the I-26 Connector Project still hinge on blasting eight to 10 lanes through West Asheville in Section A. They still involve massively overengineered structures that violate our local plans.

Alt 3C does not even fully separate interstate from local traffic — it still combines  I240 with Patton Avenue traffic. In 25 years, DOT has still not done an Environmental Impact Study for any of its perpetually retreaded proposals.

 The last traffic study for this project was done in 2008. In the wake of the recession, auto travel nationwide has been declining as people commute less, teenagers socialize on smartphones rather than in cars, and forward-looking communities direct federal and state infrastructure funding into multimodal transportation, which by the way generates 70 percent more jobs than building new roads and freeways, according to a recent Smart Growth America study.

Recent traffic statistics at the Tennessee border suggest that our regional traffic is also declining.

But the Catch-22 is, no traffic study will be done for this I-26 expansion until it’s already been approved. Even then, will it incorporate these factors, or will it be geared toward justifying a massive pork-barrel project for the construction and developer lobbyists who dominate Raleigh? Perhaps we need to do our own independent traffic analysis just to find out what we really need as opposed to what APAC and (state Rep.)Tim Moffitt say we need.

I’ve heard impatient freeway advocates claim we have a mountain saying, “Just git ‘er done.” I’d counter that with a wiser, more prudent mountain saying: “Measure twice, cut once.”

Ron Moore’s re-election as prosecutor supported

Ron Moore has served this community capably for more than 20 years without even a hint of scandal or impropriety.

His leadership and reputation as a district attorney are second to none. The announced supporters to date for his challenger paint a clear picture of why a small group of people want to displace Moore as our DA.

Asheville needs a DA who will not subordinate the prosecution of criminals to a political agenda. The resolute prosecution of those who commit crimes requires no less than our very best. Keep Ron Moore as DA.

JOHN MIALL

Asheville

Moffitt termed intelligent, capable and hard-working

Progressives sure are desperate to find something wrong with Rep. (Tim) Moffitt.

They even convinced their candidate (Brian) Turner to make a mountain out of a molehill (or lie) out of the meeting — requested by Turner — with Moffitt and Commissioner (David) King.

Even the liberal newspaper (the Asheville Citizen-TImes) did not think the meeting noteworthy until ACORN Progressives changed the story.

Trained in nasty ACORN philosophy and tactics, they like to try to set people up because they know they cannot win on the issues and are losing control. Progressives shadowed Moffitt and his family on vacation and harassed his kids.

After ruling North Carolina for almost a century and a half (143 years), tax-and-spend progressives perhaps cannot bear the fact that good, responsible, honest legislators are now in Raleigh.

There is not a finer man than Rep. Moffitt. He is intelligent, capable, effective and hard-working for his constituents.

After inheriting billions in debt (unapproved by taxpayers), failed computer systems in the works for decades, obsolete and job-killing business and agriculture regulations, and much more mess, legislators have begun to turn our state around in only one year, including lowering taxes for all residents..

BETTY BUDD

Asheville