Sail La Vie With Ellen O!!!!
The image to the right is how our mayor envisions the five French sailors planning their current voyage to the new American colonies where they are participating in Naval exercises as part of our sister-cities program.
By now you probably know how the mayor loves creating sister cities and how much she loves spending our money and using our staff time to do this. Now we learn from today's Capital that five French students have come here to learn to sail as part of an exchange program and that we the taxpayers, as in we the people, are footing part of the bill.
I think the boom just hit me in the head.
Could this be yet another reason why we need a city manager-council form of government?
I am going to focus on one issue. Our local paper says that, "According to information from the city, transportation to and from the airport will cost $372." Huh???? $372??? A round trip in a minivan-cab for five is way less than that, but WE HAVE A CITY BUS THAT GOES THERE...every weekday...every two hours!!!! That would have cost NOTHING. NOTHING.......They could have rented a car for less than that for the week and found a volunteer driver.
What was wrong with putting them on one of our buses?????? It was probably because the air conditioners were broken.
We host international sailing events here all the time and do we pay those folks to come here at city expense?? No. Why can't French students learn to sail in France? After all, France is one of the world's great maritime nations! Think of Jacques Cousteau, Bernard Moitessier, and how the French Navy for %&#()$@'s sake stood against the British in The Battle of The Chesapeake off the Virginia Capes and more or less secured the American Victory at Yorktown. If you are bringing French students here, have a real exchange program--but we already have a lot of them.
THIS IS JUST ANOTHER ONE OF ELLEN O'S PET PROJECTS WITH OUR MONEY. If there is anyone to whom we should be saying Bon Voyage, it is our mayor.
Read The Capital's article at: French-teens
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7 Comments:
When does it end?
$75,000 for a study on what would happen if the water level at City Dock rose in 100 years, $88,000 for a City Magazine that offers no value to Citizens, and now $5,000+ to bring teens from France to Annapolis as part of the Sister Cities program; which according to the City and the just passed budget, has NO funding. Yes, $5,000 is just a drop in the bucket when you consider it as part of an overall $86 Million budget, however, lets not forget that the City had to borrow $4.5 Million dollars via a bond issue just to balance the FY2010 budget and keep the lights on at City Hall. Not to mention the looming structural deficit that the next Mayor and Council will have to deal with.
It appears that cutting costs and reducing expenses is about as foreign to this Mayor and Council, as the English language may be to our visitors from France.
You got that right....it just goes on and on and on and on
Herb McMillan had it right--death by a thousand paper cuts!
And the kicker is these kids are already EXPERIENCED sailors according to the Capital--just not on a Hunter 36.
Paul - You've been spending too much time in the sun at your beachfront hide-away. There are just three--not five--French students here according to the newspaper, plus Mike Miron's paid intern, who are participating in this sailing boondoggle. That's not even $1,700 per kid for a whole week of fun in the sun (and humidity)! I wonder how many kids from public housing in Ward 6 could have been given an enrichment experience for that amount?--but I digress.
I also understand the kids came in to Dulles airport and that they can't speak much English at all, hence the need for limo transport. Assuming the mayor gave the driver a $2 tip, $370 isn't bad for ferrying three French kids all that way--especially if it was in a stretch Hummer. Got to show those Europeans what American life is all about, you know!
But does this stop with just this wasted 5 grand? Or did the mayor promise that we would continue this "friendship" relationship, as the mayor implied in her quote in the paper, making the new mayor look like a piker if he/she renegs? If there is a commitment for a return visit, I suppose Ellen and Dale can toddle off to Fwance in the Fall.
Greg Stiverson
Fwance in the Fall!! LOL.....thanks for the note...okay so there were three students and not five. But the painting I found was so perfect and it showed five so I said five. Three?
Five? Who is counting? I knew a French count once but..oh never mind...Do you think the mayor really gave them a $2 tip? What was wrong with BWI???
What's wrong with flying into BWI, you ask?
Well... there's no AC on the busline back to Annapolis. We can't have our guests gettin' sweaty.
There might be something mildly appealing to a certain segment of the population about being with sweaty, French teenagers..tout va bien....
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