With no prior notice, or public warning of any kind, someone (but we don’t know who) decided that it was time to make a sweep of the entire city looking for what The Middletown Journal has described as “various issues” and “property code infractions”.

Doug Atkins, whose title I believe to be “interim director of the Community Revitalization Department”, seems to have inherited quite a mess, what with the “rehab versus demo” debacle, the $1 houses that have gone way over budget being rehabilitated and seem to be sure money losers for our city, and the like, so why would one of his first moves (as an employee just transferred into a new slot and just getting oriented) be to open this new city-wide can of worms ?

City Hall has emphasized to the public that staff has been cut to the bone, that staff is over-worked, and that staff is performing in an Herculean and exemplary manner just to keep the city running, given the severe budget cuts that have been made. Yet, somehow the manpower and time was found to make this city-wide sweep, process all of the paperwork, issue the letters, offer finance processing assistance, and (presumably) follow up on all of the inspections and enforcement that these “various issues” will require.

With the economy being what it is and unemployment skyrocketing, it seems like a most inopportune and mean-spirited time for the city to be taking this action, especially with no warning.

According to The Journal, the city admits that they expected "to be beaten black and blue over this" and expected citizens to be “calling in angry about receiving the letters,". So why do it without at least “celebrating an opportunity” to show “pride in action” by advising the citizenry well ahead of time with frequent reminders to lessen the adverse reaction?

Has overtime been required for this and ensueing operations? Will it be?  Will overtime be necessary for these employees to catch up with whichever of their normal duties had to be neglected to perform all of this extra work?  If not, is the city overstaffed?

This “sweep” and its attendant paperwork has NOT been performed in the past, when the city was more fully staffed. What were these employees doing for this period in years past? Why didn’t these same employees have time to enforce the sign ordinance at Hizzoner’s now defunct joint? It shouldn’t have taken long…many high muck-a-mucks from City Hall had to walk right by egregious violations in order to enter the place--and they DID enter the place.