Schwab's House Deal was BOGUS

The House Deal that Tom Schwab, RDA Director and City Manager arranged for himself with council approval was in fact a deal that was done with improper use of the RDA Funds. The home was purchased with Low and Moderate Income Funds, and then transferred to Schwab who in fact was far from qualifying for a Low and Moderate Income Housing of any kind.

This situation was brought to the Attention of our local District Attorney's Office and it was ignored or dismissed. Go Figure.

Well, the City Council finally cleaned up the last bit of that paperwork and Mayor Stanckiewitz remarked so the Citizens who filed a complaint about this situation were correct. The Staff did not want to respond regarding the action of their former boss Tom Schwab, and the City Attorney, said he was not prepared to make an assessment without review of the documents. Hello he was there when the land deal was going down and was negotiated behind closed doors. His judgement stunk then and his comment stunk again last night.

Schwab used his personal position to gain advantage. This is called in most circles corruption and should be a criminal charge sufficient to rid the community of any further obligation to pay for his retirement other than say in a jail.

The Staff is guilty of going along with Schwab's Bad Practices, after all they too enjoyed the inflated top salaries and benefit packages he negotiated for them also behind closed doors. The Schwab Legacy Costs need to be carved down to what the City General Fund can afford, independent of the RDA Funding Scheme he and the past council played.

When there are criminal charges against Mr. Schwab, and he is tried in a court by the State's AG we may be able to put all this behind us and be a city that is self supporting with out an RDA Dependency Problem.

It is time to say to the employees that are paid with RDA Funds, you no longer have that portion of your income and retirement package. Thanks for your service, if you can't stay there is the door. Any City Employee earning more than 50,000 per year is earning more than the Average House Hold Income, (2 people working). Think about it folks. A government can not support such costs if the base is not sufficiently supported. Schwab and the Past City Council has been gaming the RDA system to inflate the cost of city operations. Hold out hope that the new council can get a grip on the reality, and start the real work of building a government we can afford.

Or yes, we should not exist as a city. We will always be a community.