The St. Albans Peoples' Party has , once again, demonstrated why my April 12 2011 post called St. Albans an "apathariat" - a people whose government's existence depends on the apathy of the citizenry. In yesterday's Charleston Gazette, Kristin Ledford reports why Ward 2 still doesn't have a city council rep 4 months after the resignation of J. D. Adkins. According to Ledford, a representative of the Peoples' Party called the city recorder and said the party did not want the responsibility of finding a new city council person to fill Adkins' unexpired term.
Council selected Former Ward 2 councilman, J.D. Adkins, after Xrisanthi C. Hess abruptly resigned from Council and left the ward meaning that twice in a 4-year period Ward 2 is without a city council person to represent them.
It's worth mentioning here that, so great was Ward 2's apathy about their ward's last council race that Xrisanthi C. Hess ran unopposed and won her council seat with a whopping vote total of 4.
Last night a city council member told me the open council seat will be advertised. I'm not sure what that means but I hope it means that Ward 2 will soon have a contested council race between candidates who will stay in the ward for a while.
And I hope Ward 2's next council person will be 20-something or 30-something.
For more on St. Albans' shameful apathy, go to my blog archives and see posts from 10/2/12, 4/19/11 and 4/12/11.
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Showing posts with label Apathariat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Apathariat. Show all posts
09 January, 2013
12 April, 2011
New Words For Old Problems In St. Albans, WV: Apathariat, Apathocracy, Callagarchy, Opaqracy
Here are some new words for some old problems in St. Albans, WV:
Apathariat - Those ruled by a government whose power is dependent on the apathy of the governed.
Apathocracy - The government that results from an apathetic citizenry. An apathocracy is arrogant, unaccountable, opaque, unresponsive and perpetuates itself by restricting the flow of information in the well-founded belief that the apathariat won't notice or won't care.
Callagarchy - Rule by the few St. Albans residents who agree with or fear Mayor Dick Callaway. This includes council members who think they work for Dick Callaway and not for the people.
Opaqracy - The opposite of a transparent government. In an opaqracy, such basic information as which ward you're in, who your council person is, what's going on in your ward, how to participate in your city's war on crime, where your neighborhood watch meets, audio and video (or at least minutes) of the last city council meeting, and an org chart of who does what in city government are not made available on the taxpayer supported website.
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In my weekend posts I called upon St. Albans city council members to insist that the Callagarchy upload the ward map to the city website so residents can figure out which ward they're in and who their council members is. I'm happy to report that one city council member emailed me to say he supports my "suggestion". We'll see. If he's willing to go on the record as a supporter of uploading a ward map to the city website, I'll publish his name so that voters who Google him in the next election year will find that he is a transparent government man, not an advocate of opaqracy.
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HigginbothamAtLarge reads all submitted comments but only PUBLISHES comments from identified submitters. No Ring of Gyges for you. Frankly, HigginbothamAtLarge has no respect for people who won't sign their name to their opinions.
Apathariat - Those ruled by a government whose power is dependent on the apathy of the governed.
Apathocracy - The government that results from an apathetic citizenry. An apathocracy is arrogant, unaccountable, opaque, unresponsive and perpetuates itself by restricting the flow of information in the well-founded belief that the apathariat won't notice or won't care.
Callagarchy - Rule by the few St. Albans residents who agree with or fear Mayor Dick Callaway. This includes council members who think they work for Dick Callaway and not for the people.
Opaqracy - The opposite of a transparent government. In an opaqracy, such basic information as which ward you're in, who your council person is, what's going on in your ward, how to participate in your city's war on crime, where your neighborhood watch meets, audio and video (or at least minutes) of the last city council meeting, and an org chart of who does what in city government are not made available on the taxpayer supported website.
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In my weekend posts I called upon St. Albans city council members to insist that the Callagarchy upload the ward map to the city website so residents can figure out which ward they're in and who their council members is. I'm happy to report that one city council member emailed me to say he supports my "suggestion". We'll see. If he's willing to go on the record as a supporter of uploading a ward map to the city website, I'll publish his name so that voters who Google him in the next election year will find that he is a transparent government man, not an advocate of opaqracy.
--
HigginbothamAtLarge reads all submitted comments but only PUBLISHES comments from identified submitters. No Ring of Gyges for you. Frankly, HigginbothamAtLarge has no respect for people who won't sign their name to their opinions.
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