Fred Warchol: New faces on Atwater council are draining a fiscal swamp

With the recent Atwater city election, it appears there is a new sheriff in town; actually two new sheriffs. Last November, by an overwhelming margin, citizens voted for change – electing Cindy Vierra and Paul Creighton. People are disgusted with a dysfunctional city government that acted like an unguided missile and failed to address critical issues. One symptom of city hall’s insanity was its plan to to continue city workers’ furloughs for the next five years – that’s nine years of employee furloughs!

Both Vierra and Creighton have hit the road running, demanding a full and comprehensive accounting of our miserable financial condition. The new sheriffs have focused on the millions of dollars of debt that continues to pile up. They, along with Councilman Brian Raymond, have proposed new innovative ideas to address the city’s malaise. Their job is bound to be messy. I suggest our new sheriffs wear hip boots as they drain the Atwater swamp.

This story was originally published February 13, 2017 at 5:29 PM with the headline "Fred Warchol: New faces on Atwater council are draining a fiscal swamp."