Last Monday, the Keene Sentinel ran a letter to the editor from petty-tyrant Fred Parsells titled Stealing from Keene taxpayers. Fred writes, in part, “Since my earliest years, I have always been of the belief that the English folklore tale of Robin Hood was about a man and his band of merry men who stole from the rich and gave to the poor.
Fast forward 60-plus years and now I, and those of us who live and pay taxes in Keene, are confronted with a variation on the theme in that a modern day group of individuals, who have adopted the name Robin Hood(ers), are in my opinion stealing from the people of Keene, of which the overwhelming majority are surely far from rich… The end result is that Keene property taxes will be raised accordingly in order to balance the loss of revenue.”
I wrote a response to Fred’s letter, which was published today (Pumpkin Fest day – which likely means more paper sales) which reads:
On Oct. 14, The Keene Sentinel published a letter to the editor from Code Enforcement Officer Fred Parsells, in which he said “I have always been of the belief that the English folklore tale of Robin Hood was about a man and his band of merry men who stole from the rich and gave to the poor.”
He then went on to say that the Robin Hooders who plug parking meters are “stealing” from the “far-from-rich Keene taxpayers” by plugging parking meters and saving those same “far-from-rich Keene taxpayers” from $5 parking tickets.However, Parsells begins on a flawed understanding of the tale of Robin Hood. Robin Hood did not steal from the rich and give to the poor. The poor were having their wealth confiscated by Prince John, so Robin Hood stepped in to take that wealth back from the king’s men to return it to the poor.
Parsells also claims to be concerned about the taxpayers, yet he receives a taxpayer-funded pension as a retired member of the Keene Police Department, and a paycheck as a code enforcer. Fred claims that by preventing people from getting parking tickets, the Robin Hooders will cause property taxes to “be raised accordingly in order to balance the loss of revenue.”
If Fred were really concerned about the taxpayer, he would not only resign his position as a code enforcer and surrender his pension, but he would advocate for the City Council to eliminate the code enforcement department. Inhabitants and business-owners spend nearly $3 million per year on licenses, permits and fees, and untold amounts of money complying with various zoning regulations and other ordinances that dictate how one is to live or work.
The two code enforcement officers, of which Fred Parsells is one, make a total of $122,588 per year. This directly costs the taxpayers more than any amount of Robin Hooding will ever supposedly cost (assuming that helping people comply with the parking ordinances — i.e. preventing the collection of a fine — actually costs money).
As a candidate for mayor, and the only opposition to Kendall Lane, I fully support the abolition of the code enforcement department and all zoning ordinances. There are several municipalities in New Hampshire that have no zoning. Nationally, there are large cities that have no zoning, Houston being the largest city without zoning ordinances.
Homeowners care about their safety, and have an inherent interest in making sure they live in a house that won’t fall in on itself. People should not be forced by government dictate to live in a building that meets someone else’s standards.
I would like to make one slight correction, Fred is a Housing Inspector, not a Code Enforcer. The 2012-2013 budget listed 1.34 Housing Inspectors at a total cost of $56,585. The entire budget for the Health & Code Enforcement Department for FY 2012-2013 is $903,663.
