The current parks bond fiasco reveals a lot about the management philosophy of Marietta's city officials. Remember Black Bart's gang of desperados that terrorized the town folk in the western movies back in the 1950s and 1960s? It would seem that Marietta's administrators are using Bart's playbook when it comes to running city government.

On Aug. 12, the City Council voted to put a $25 million parks bond on the Nov. 3 ballot. Voters will have to check either a "yes" or "no" box on the ballot.

On Wednesday the council was to get together to divide up the potential spoils in an effort to placate its disgruntled members and garner support for passage of the referendum. Dividing the loot in the movies usually resulted in one of the more greedy members of the gang shooting another greedy member of the gang.

The way the government process is supposed to work is to identify recreational needs first, determine the costs associated with these needs, identify the funding sources available to meet the needs, and as a last resort, augment traditional revenues by asking citizens to open their hearts and their pocketbooks to meet these urgent needs by passing a bond referendum. Even slick politicians follow this modus operandi, except they inflate the bond funding needs and divide up the spoils behind closed doors. Arbitrarily increasing Marietta town folks' household debt reveals how brazen, or clueless, city officials have become.

Forcing the residents of Marietta to determine by popular vote if they want to incur $25 million debt for the development of new recreational facilities and existing parks improvements is also pure Black Bart.

If things "Go south," it shifts the blame to the town folk for approving a waste of tax dollars.

The fact that the city council has not performed its due diligence concerning Marietta's actual recreational needs is revealed in its members' statements.

Councilwoman Holly Walquist recently told the MDJ that, "Over the past several days, we have been taking a hard look at the list to see where we could make cuts and come up with an itemized plan that would be acceptable to the council."

It is obvious from this that the city council has no idea where, or how much money actually needs to be spent to satisfy Marietta's recreational needs.

The original bond was set at $30 million, but was dropped to $25 million moments before the Aug. 12 vote. The military calls this type of decision making process " Pulling It From Uranus."

The 2009-19 Comprehensive Recreation Master Plan determined $54.6 million needs to be spent on recreation and suggested $31.5 million of this amount come from bonds, with the remainder coming from federal, state, private and other city sources, such as the General Fund ($3 million) Impact Fees (unspecified), User Fees ($1.6 million), Tax Allocation Districts ($500,000) and dedicated millage ($12.7 million).

According to this "Draft" plan, "The most logical sources of permanent funding at the local level could include a combination of the general fund, bonds and dedicated millage. In the event that a dedicated millage does not become reality, the amount of the bond referendum would increase."

What this means is a second parks bond referendum is coming, or the city wasted $60,000 on its document, or city officials are as confused as I am about why they are holding a bond referendum with a fairytale price tag in November.

One thing is for sure, a simple vote in November does not result in a simple solution to Marietta's future recreational needs. It only lets city officials off the hook and allows them to mask the spending of taxpayer money.

Voters like me, with a philosophy of "Throw it out when in doubt," will vote against the bond. Residents who feel that giving city officials $25 million in unencumbered funds is "good for Marietta" will support the bond.

The problem is both sides are wrong.

A simple mind would give the electorate a 50/50 chance of selecting the wrong option, but the odds change to 90/10 or less when one realizes that the $25 million is an arbitrary and inaccurate number, according to the city's own study.

Mariettans, raise your hands if you are confident that Black Bart's numbers are accurate enough to saddle your neighbors with $25 million in household debt. All the rest call your councilperson and tell them to postpone the referendum and give us some facts and figures we can hang a white hat on.

Larry Wills is a retired recycling consultant in west Marietta.