Mr. Brown’s letter to the editor — “Political virus in our
midst,” Oct. 23, 2008 — criticizes the existing city council’s
direction.
Since November, I feel Littleton has made significant progress
increasing the transparency of its government and accountability to
the citizens of Littleton. I don’t want to go back to a city
council that doesn’t listen to citizens. I don’t want to go back to
a city council that shuts out its citizens from participating in
city government. I don’t want to go back to a rubber-stamping city
council that doesn’t carefully evaluate issues in front of its
members. I don’t want to go back to a city council that blatantly
ignores city and state laws and disrespects its citizens. And
finally, I don’t want to go back to a city government that is not
accountable to the citizens of Littleton. The old way of doing
business has no place in Littleton’s future.
Mr. Brown is incorrect when he says Littleton has no new
businesses. In these tough economic times, the city has managed to
welcome Merle’s, Hampton Inn and Spectrum Assisted Living Facility.
Aspen Grove is expanding retail pods. Trammel Crow is building a
350-unit apartment complex adjacent to downtown. Nevada Place is
selling upscale transit-oriented condominiums. In addition, there
are new stores in downtown Littleton, including Kate’s Wine Bar,
Ciao Bella Day Spa of Littleton, and Curtis Street Studio Gallery.
If you read the City’s Economic Notes on the city’s Web site, you
will see Littleton is not closed for business.
The new city council is leading Littleton’s government out of
years of stagnation and neglect that occurred under purview of
previous councils. An example of neglect from the previous council
is the city’s finances. Since last November, there have been
significant improvements in accounting and transparency of
Littleton’s city government. Monthly financial reports are now
published on the city’s Web site, general ledger accounts are being
cleaned up, and the budget process now uses actual existing year’s
expenditures and revenues instead of budgeting off the previous
years’ budgets.
Cleaning up the general ledger accounts allows you, the voter,
to see how the city spends its money. I don’t know how you call
this stagnancy. I would call this progress.
Linda Knufinke
Littleton
