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WASTE IN CITY GOVERNMENT

I did a little research on the sizes of several police departments in Illinois and found that Springfield has more per capita than other cities of comparable size. My property tax continues to rise, mainly to support the police and fire retirements. There are really no investigative reports; those tough guys will be as relentless as a mongoose to expose fraud, duplication, deceit and poor government management. I would love to see Bob Gray continue his expose of waste.

Our neighborhood watch site reports burglary stories every day, and I have not heard of anyone being caught. Three cops live in my neighborhood but they sleep during the day. I support reducing the size of the police and fire departments and want to see more headline stories about waste in city government. I have emailed Joe McMenamin several times and all I get are the typical answers: I love Springfield, I love Illinois, I love the United States. Come on, get real. Max Schnorf Springfield

JUST KEEP DIGGING

Mr. Rushton, I read your commentary titled “A broken records unit” in the Dec. 14 edition of Illinois Times.

I completely understand your obvious frustration in dealing with the offices of the secretary of state and the attorney general. For reasons unknown to me, both Jesse White and Lisa Madigan are popular officeholders. While both of these officials will tell us how they are dedicated to open government and efficient administration of their offices, nothing could be further from the truth. They are first and foremost dedicated to being elected and retaining the spoils of their office. When it comes to doing the right thing, these public officials will always claim that their hands are tied. If they eventually do the right thing, it is only because they were forced to do so.

For now, not only does Ms. Wanzo’s court-ordered restitution remain unpaid, (despite attempts to discharge it in two bankruptcy filings) and despite the fact Ms. Wanzo was found to be misusing a state vehicle for her own personal use, and despite her guilty plea to theft and tax fraud, Jesse White continues to allow Ms. Wanzo to pick the taxpayers pocket to the tune of $7,278 per month after being escorted from her state office back in May. Shame on Jesse White.

I hope your article will remind people outside of state government of the scope of the waste and the gross mismanagement in these agencies, and I hope this lesson is remembered when we will again be told how lean and understaffed these offices have become and that we need more taxes and fees to support their great public works.

Just keep digging and never believe a word these people tell you. I am confident that you will eventually get to the bottom of what went wrong with Ms. Wanzo’s employment. But unfortunately, I doubt that justice will ever be done on behalf of the poor taxpayers. Shame on Lisa Madigan. Gary Hetherington Springfield

NET NEUTRALITY

Jim Hightower valiantly tries to dress up the pig in “Why net neutrality is an important democratic virtue,” Illinois Times, Dec. 14. The pig is the misnomer. Net neutrality is a bullying tactic that allows bandwidth hogs like Netflix, Google and Facebook to seize control of the internet and push aside the smaller users in the process. Think of it this way: The internet is a big pipe. The bandwidth hogs use fire hoses while the others use garden hoses. During times of high-volume stress on the digital network, net neutrality guarantees the bullies always win. Eliminating net neutrality eliminates bullying and neutralizes the hogs, allowing the network managers the freedom to regulate the traffic on the digital pipeline for the good of all. Each deserves an equal right to future success. Jim Proffi tt Jacksonville