At last week's city council meeting, the mayor and council were asked if Moody's Investors Service was about to lower the city's bond rating. Everyone on the dais acted as if he/she knew nothing about it. [the Record Pilot was] kind in your report on the meeting, indicating that the mayor had no comment until something was officially released by Moody's.

The fact is that when the question was asked, the mayor and the council knew exactly what was coming. As of August 20, four days before the council meeting, the city's bond rating was downgraded from A3 to Baa2, a drop of two grades. Although Moody's did not officially report the downgrade until Friday, August 27, several of our city leaders had been conversing with Moody's to discuss the city's financial condition trying to persuade them not to downgrade. This is the second downgrade the city has suffered in the last 14 months.

Obviously, the mayor and council did not want to discuss this matter at the last public meeting. Instead, they chose to keep us in the dark about the downgrade as well as a budget deficit of, according to Moody's, $3.35 million in 2003, up from $2 million in 2002.

What they have also left us in the dark about is a new water and sewer rate increase. Did you know that according to the Moody's report, the mayor and council passed an 18 percent water and sewer rate increase as of August 1? Our taxes (for the increased water rates are just that: a tax) keep going up, yet our bond rating is spiraling down.

From all accounts, this administration has proven time and again that it is incapable of leading our city and making the hard fiscal decisions that need to be made. Instead, they opt to place the burden of their deficiencies on the backs of the Glen Cove taxpayers. We are in desperate need of new leadership. Vote for Grady Farnan, Republican candidate in the Glen Cove City Council special election.

Tip Henderson

Chairman, Glen Cove Republican Committee