Sunday, November 21, 2010

Every Picture
Tells a Story . . .
Port Townshend, Washington is located on the Olympian Peninsula. Originally founded in the 1850's, the town was expected to grow into one of America's largest port cities on the west coast. However, those plans fell through when the railroads decided not to connect to the city. It now thrives as a tourist destination known for the many Victorian buildings remaining from its late 19th-century heyday. Though situated on a peninsula that is known for its rain forests, Port Townshend has, by comparison, little rainfall because it is located in the rain shadow of a mountain.

A Question of Residency by Greg Walters

The Raytown Board of Aldermen is the legislative branch of the City of Raytown. They are the final word on the laws in Raytown. They set the standard of how the city is to be run.

The actual running of the city on a day to day basis is left to city staff. In Raytown, the city staff is led by the City Administrator. Directly under him are the various department heads. These are considered to be professional positions with a broad base of knowledge on how to run a city in a professional manner.

Some, like the positions of City Clerk and City Prosecutor, are required by state law.

Others, like the City Administrator, Community Development Director, Economic Development Coordinator, Public Works Director, Finance Director, City Attorney and the Director of Parks* are positions created by the Board of Aldermen. They have duties unique to their field of expertise.

They all have three things in common.

1. They are all appointed by the Mayor and approved by the Board of Aldermen.

2. They are the highest paid positions in the city**.

3. None of them live in Raytown.

The cost of these eight positions to the tax payers is $497,333.12** annually.

That figure DOES NOT include the cost of insurance, auto allowances, or federal and state employment taxes paid by the city. It is fair to say that the pay out by the taxpayers comes to well over half a million dollars a year.

All cities within the Metropolitan Kansas City area have residency requirements for their department heads. All cities, that is, except for Raytown.

The reason for having department heads live within city limits is simple. It fosters pride in the community. It also helps for those individuals to learn about the community they serve and give them the experience and knowledge to help make sound management decisions.

A good example is the recent debacle on Willow Street. More than likely, a department head who lived in the city and was aware of the ebb and flow of traffic in residential neighborhoods, would have known better than to turn a two way street into a one way street. What is worse, when the decision was made to create a one way street, it was pointed In the wrong direction.

A QUESTION OF PRIDE

I am reminded of an experience I had when the city hired its first City Administrator. The Mayor at the time was Jack Nesbitt. The Board of Aldermen had just hired our first City Administrator, Andy McCown.

The Mayor took me aside and confided that Andy, who was relocating from the Denver area to Raytown, was having trouble finding a house suitable for him in Raytown. I told the Mayor that Andy would just have to look harder. The majority of the City Council agreed.

Mr. McCown found and made his home in Raytown.

The lack of pride in the community by the current City Council baffles me on this subject. I have yet to hear one reasonable explanation as to why the city has been set on this path.

COLLATERAL DAMAGE

The collateral damage of this poor decision to not use the tool of residential requirements when hiring department heads is also economic.

As stated above, over half a million dollars leaves this city each year to places like Lee’s Summit, Raymore, Gladstone, Kansas City, Shawnee – even as far away as Harrisonville!

Do the math. The above collectively works out to over $240 per hour that is being taken out of the city because the Board of Aldermen does not have a common sense rule regarding residency requirements. This loss of revenue is part of the collateral damage to the city's bottom line at budget time.

What is worse, in the one case where there is an ordinance requiring residency, the position of City Administrator, the Council has twice voted to waive the law for a collective period of six years.

There is an election coming up next April. If ever there was an issue that is important to our city, this question of pride and simple economic sense fits the bill. It is the question of residency of senior members of the city staff.

As we draw nearer the April 5th election candidates will knock on your door asking for your vote. When they come round to visit you, ask them where they stand on the issue. If they are an incumbent, ask them why they have not enforced a residency requirement in the past.

Then go out and vote on April 5th.

*The Director of Parks is appointed by the Raytown Park Board. The Raytown Park Board is appointed by the Mayor and approved by the Raytown Board of Aldermen. Though technically and independent governmental body, there is no doubt that without the City there would not be a Park Department.

**Salary figures based on information acquired from Raytown City Hall through a Sunshine Law Request. Information correct as of August 1, 2010.

Turkey Day Rituals by Jenn Walters

Last year for Thanksgiving, we reviewed a KILLER workout DVD that promised a huge calorie burn, which was, you know, totally appropriate for a day that is centered around food and watching football. Earlier this week, Erin gave some great tips for tackling the table on turkey day, but we also wanted to get some reader feedback on this day of thanks.

So today we are sharing what you do to be healthy and happy on Thanksgiving. We recently polled ourTwitter followers and Facebook fans for their Thanksgiving day rituals, and here’s what we came up with.

Reader Rituals

mnupp: I used to organize a football game in my hometown, but last year nobody had a football. This year, we’re turkey trotting.

jacaranda67: Every Thanksgiving morning, I walk 5 miles around a nearby lake.

HealthyLoserGal: Not a ritual, but I’m doing a 5k turkey trot fun run/walk to benefit a local food pantry on Friday morning after turkeyday!

befitnpretty: Family 5K Turkey Trot!

Runeatrepeat: My Thanksgiving fitness ritual is running on the treadmill while watching the Macy’s Parade. I rack up the miles!

FitnessToGo: Me and my parents (in their 60s) run our annual family turkey trot around town, which is 4 miles.

LenetteNakauchi: I give my muscles some recovery time by sleeping in! LOL.

spring4fal: I like running the Thanksgiving Day 5k with my 13-year-old daughter. Helps feed the hungry. Slam dunk!

Love2Mags: I do the turkey trot! This year my brother is running with me! He’s a great runner.

Sandy ‘Maloy’ Gaier: I walk the local 5-mile turkey trot in the AM.

Christine Case: I’ll be in Punta Cana this Thanksgiving!!!

Christina Stetler: Last year I ran a mile Thanksgiving morning. It got me in the groove of running and lead me to run my first 5k and 8k this year.

Cristin Slattery Chao: I just signed up for my first ever two-hour turkey day spinning class! I just hope I don’t have to eat standing up!

Hope LaFrazia: I usually try to teach the turkey day spinning class.

Patty Jasper: My gym has a super duper all in one cardio session (combo of Body Step, Body Pump, full-body workout) that goes just less than 2 hours on the morning of Thanksgiving. It’s packed, and it’s a great class. I’m already looking forward to it.

Chrissie Balding Tune: I always start the day off with a turkey day 5K! It makes me feel better about all that eating (and drinking!) I’ll be doing later on.

Jenny: This year I’d love to start the day off with some relaxing yoga, which I’ve recently taken up. I think it’s going to be crucial to centering myself before what is always a hectic day. It’ll also save me some calories if I can cut back on the wine! After the feasting, I go for a powerwalk with the dog and wind down with some stretching.

Happy Thanksgiving and happy fitness holiday rituals to all no matter what they may be! And thank you, dear readers, for coming back day after day! We are most thankful for you.

Jenn Walters and Erin Whitehead jointly publish Fit Bottomed Girls. To read more of their thoughts on lifestyle choices and fitness go to Fit Bottomed Girls

Raytown Holiday Lighting Ceremony

Mark your calendars for the Raytown holiday Lighting Ceremony held in Downtown Raytown. This year's Ceremony will be held on Friday, December 3, 2010 from 6:15 to 7:30 p.m. Meet at the Pocket Park located at the Southwest corner of 63rd Street and Raytown Road.

Please join Santa Claus and his elves and the downtown businesses as they kickoff the holiday season in Raytown.

The Holiday Lighting Ceremony includes the lighting of the Pocket Park, the arrival of Santa Claus and holiday music provided by Little Blue Sing-O-Gram Team from Little Blue Elementary School

Tour Open Houses in the Downtown Businesses Visit Santa inside UMB Bank and listen to music provided by Raytown Community Band Flutes Hop on a hay ride around downtown Sit by the fire at 62nd Street and Blue Ridge Boulevard (across from Mr. Goodcents) and listen to holiday music provided by the carolers. Stop by the Gingerbread House at 62nd Street and Blue Ridge Boulevard (across from Mr. Goodcents) to enjoy a cookie and sip some cider.

High School Sports . . .

To catch up on O'Hara Sports use this link O'Hara High School

To catch up on Raytown South Sports use this link Raytown South High School

Last Week’s Poll Results . . .

Last week's polls asked readers to "grade" the five aldermen up for re-election next April. The poll question(s) set a historic high water mark for poll participation in the Raytown Report. The results are interesting. Some members received high positive marks while others received high negative marks. Here are the results . . .

How do you rate Ward 1 representative Joe Creamer's performance on the Raytown City Council?

Good: 22% Fair: 9% Poor: 51% Don't Know: 16%

How do you rate Ward 2 representative Jim Aziere's performance on the Raytown City Council?

Good: 15% Fair: 21% Poor: 54% Don't Know: 7%

How do you rate Ward 3 representative Charlotte Melson's performance on the Raytown City Council?

Good: 29% Fair: 27% Poor: 27% Don't Know: 15%

How do you rate Ward 4 representative Pat Ertz performance on the Raytown City Council?

Good: 53% Fair: 10% Poor: 24% Don't Know: 12%

How do you rate Ward 5 representative Michael Lightfoot's performance on the Raytown City Council?

Good: 23% Fair: 35% Poor: 23% Don't Know: 17%

33 comments:

Salamander said...

“The voters need to be educated properly…” – Cindy Circo
“The voters must be informed…” – Deb Herman, Councilwoman and mayoral candidate
“Hogwash.” – The Salamander

Telling us we need to be “educated and informed” in order to vote the right way on the E-Tax is insulting. We’re smart enough to make the money which provides funds the city needs to maintain its wastrel lifestyle.

Does Cindy Circo actually believe we are so stupid we must be “educated” about our duty to support those squandering money in Kansas City?

I’ll give it to Deb Herman. She is right. We need to be informed about where the two hundred million E-Tax dollars collected annually go.

If Kansas City is so broke, Deb can tell us why we send 2.5 million dollars to the billionaire ball team owners annually. This generosity has been going on for over 40 years. Total expenditure for our gesture of good will: near 100 million dollars.

Surely there are some who will defend this waste. They will say “2.5 million is not a lot of money in a big city.” True. True. In the overall it is not a real lot of money but the Salamander guarantees that the first time some fool makes such a remark he will shut up if you say “If 2.5 million is not a lot of money, would you turn it down if someone offered it to you.”

Perhaps Ms. Herman can tell us why it is necessary to have such a humongously large cadre of assistant city managers. The figure of 25 assistants to the GM keeps cropping up. Each makes a salary of over $150,000.00 annually. This adds up to $3,750,000.00.

While on the subject of city management, can someone tell us what the final payout to the last city manager was when he was fired? And fired he was. He received a severance pay which was mind-boggling.

Why anyone who gets fired for not doing his job should receive severance pay is beyond comprehension.

Care to talk about throwing money away? How about the episode when Mayor Funk’s wife was sued for harassment. Gloria, lovely lass that she is, denied the allegations. Did the city use one of its rooms full of full-time attorneys to defend her and the city’s good name?

Absolutely not. The deal was more complicated than that, around $530,000.00 as a settlement was paid for by the taxpayers.

The Salamander wonders: why, with all those lawyers warming chairs, the council and the mayor didn’t defend the first lady’s name and honor. Since the counselors are already on the payroll there surely could not have been much additional cost.

Want the inside on KC’s budget busting Tif program? Keep reading the blog.

We should all keep the following in mind.

THE EARNINGS TAX IS NOT JUST ANOTHER TAX. IT IS A THIRD INCOME TAX.

First, the Feds take every cent they can; then, the state moves in for its bite. We have the chance to eliminate the third income tax. It is not needed. Kansas City got by without it for almost 150 years.

A parting thought. There are 100 senators in Washington. 49 of them are lawyers. The problems in Washington are not legal. They are economic.

Helpful Tax Payer said...

Mr. Walters,

I agree our elected officials should require the department heads to live in the city. The lack of this has had a very negative impact on the way of life for those of us that live here and support these individual’s salaries.

I am one that likes to offer compromises and in this case believe we should put the potential earning within the associates control.

I call it the Associate Residential Plan and it simply comes down to this.

1.) The department heads are given the option of maximizing the earnings by living in the city. Those who do not should have a 25% reduction in salary.

2.) Auto allowance would be removed, but a city vehicle would be available daily at city hall and would have to be checked in and out with usage only for city business and millage verified for misuse. The vehicle could never be taken home as home is outside of the city of Raytown and they decided not to live in Raytown

3.) Contracts to those not living within the city to be employed at will, which would solve the problem of some not wanting to fire non-productive or non-responsive department heads because of the by out.

NOTE: These clauses where put in place to help individuals in these positions offset the cost of relocation with in a short amount of time if things didn’t work out. When these same individuals fail to invest in the city that hires by not residing in the city, the city shouldn’t be responsible in helping them relocate to some other place by some contract requiring a buy out.

These to steps would not only give the department head flex ability of decide if they want to live in the city, but start saving the city a lot of money.

Greg Walters said...

The following email was sent to Mr. Mahesh Sharma, Raytown City Administrator this morning.

Dear Mr. Sharma,

A number of people have contacted me regarding all of the burned out lights at the Blue Ridge and 63rd Street Gateway entrance to Raytown. They wanted to know if the city was aware of the lights being burned out AND how soon would they be repaired.

The also asked about burned out street lights on the new 63rd Street Bridge.

A quick reply would be appreciated.

Greg Walters
gregtwalters@sbcglobal.net

Anonymous said...

I wasn't sure how to vote on the City Collector question. So I checked out the city's website to see what I could learn about the position.

Couldn't find any information there either. But I did read up on allof our elected officials. They all have bio information except for the City Collector. All that is listed there is her name.

If the job is so unimportant then they should do away with it. Or at least give it someone else. I read that it pays $100 a month. Not bad for doing nothing!

Andy Whiteman said...

7:06AM, She gets much more than $100 a month. She doesn't do nothing. She has to sign her name which creates a legal responsibility. She has the option to buy into the city's health care plan. It is unknown to me if she elected this option, but it is worth a lot more than a $100 since the city pays part of it. If I had known about the insurance, I would have run for city collector years ago.

My vote was "DON"T KNOW" because her work is not obvious to the public.

I am short of time and may get back to Helpful Taxpayer tonight. I am more or less in agreement.

Salamendar, Welcome back!

Andy Whiteman

Anonymous said...

Raytown is required by law to have a City Collector. This office signs appropriations approved by the Board of Alderman. The person holding this position may not work as many hours as other positions in the city (hence only $100 per month), but we have no choice in the matter.

Robbie Tubbs said...

There was a very nice article in last week’s Raytown Times about Russell Box. Mr. Box celebrated 50 years of working as or with area Boy Scouts. Congratulations to Mr. Box. He has been a great role model for our youth.

Anonymous said...

Actually, Raytown is the only city that pays the City Collector. The rest of the few Fourth Class Cities left in the area do not pay theirs.

Maybe one of our Board members will bring an ordinance to abolish the salary. Gotta' keep up with our neighborhing cities!

Andy Whiteman said...

The pay of the City Collector came up at the BOA with elected officials salaries. It may have been a few years ago. A study was done and I believe if I remember correctly the staff said she was at city hall 15 minutes a week to sign documents. I figure travel time should be added to that. Most businesses have a minimum call out time such as 2 hours or 4 hours or even 8 hours. Considering that I would give her credit for 40 hours per month.

I do feel that the position does entail a level of personal responsibility since she is responsible for the documents that she signs.

The consensus of the board at the time was the position is required by state law and if the salary was lowered or eliminated, there is a good possibility that no one would run for the office. That should be in the minutes but we have summary minutes so it may only state that there was a discussion.

If I had known about the health insurance, I would have run in the last election. So I suggest anyone needing insurance could put their name of the ballot against her.

Helpful Taxpayer,
I feel ALL department heads should be required to live in the City of Raytown. A salary reduction of 25% is a thought which gives them a choice since moving is costly and some don't have an option such as spouse required to live in another city.

NO department head should take a vehicle home unless they are subject to call out such as EMS or Police. Vehicles should be for city business only. I know of jurisdictions where the Police officers take vehicles home because so they can respond more quickly from home. I don't know where the vehicle subject came from but it would be more economical to reimburse for mileage for city business rather than issuing the person a vehicle.

I used to receive a flat $5 per day for using my vehicle to deliver mail. That was back in '70 and to me that was good money for driving less than 10 miles.

If any change is made to regulations to where department heads live, it will have to be done after the present contracts expire or when new department heads are hired.

Department Heads have a contract but they can be fired for just cause. I remember when one City Administrator was said to have resigned after bad press coverage and a citizen complaint at the BOA. I wonder if maybe he was told to resign or be fired?

Robbie Tubbs, You are on of the lucky few who receive the Raytown times! I rarely go out and if I do the places I go are out of the Raytown Times. I have furnished the publisher of the publication self-addresses stamped envelopes. I sent him 10 envelopes with a total of $6.10 and he only mailed me 3 issues. I don't know what his problem is. I feel that is a reasonable accommodation for a person with a disability.

Andy Whiteman

Anonymous said...

Bad businessmen don't pay their bills. They don't keep their promises and eventually fail in business.

That probably explains the Raytown Times.

The other end of it is that since Walmart has run off most small businesses in Raytown there is no one left to advertise.

I guess it is part of the Bower plan on how to run a city. Let's see:

1.Break your promises to the voters.
2.Raise taxes to pay off debt for mega retailers.
3.Refuse to take care of business like codes enforcement, proper police protection, etc.

In business such a track record would lead to failure and bankruptcy. I wonder if those rules apply to city government as well?

The Helpful Taxpayer said...

Mr. Walters,

I want to think you on behalf of the citizens of Raytown for pointing out to the city administrator about the lights out on the 63rd street bridge. To me this is kind of an embarrassment being it has not been that long ago that the bridge opened one would think the lights still would be functioning. Either way it clarifies there is no unity at city between departments.

However, you and our city officials should note that there is at least one street light at almost every intersection in Raytown with traffic lights. After the number of years that I have seen this I have just concluded the city really doesn’t care about our safety or the fact working or not we are paying around $150.00 a year per street light.

There is no reason and no excuse that our police officers while out patrolling at night are not calling these lights into dispatch that is then passing them off to public works each day. This would make our streets safer and help deter crime. Remember our own city marshal campaigned for the “Public Safely Tax”. So here we are two years later and he and the department he manages has made no policy changes that provide us, the public, with visual results that our safety is being increase.

Our city marshal must be reminded that he is elected and therefore needs to start showing he is responsible to the public that elected him to provide for their safety. This is a simple way to show he actually cares without creating any additional expense to us.

If he is unable to do this then the Board of Alderman needs to remind him that they control his budget just as they did when he felt it was okay to ask for a raise when so many of use who pay his and his department’s salaries through personal property, real estates and sales taxes.

By the way if our elected city marshal doesn’t like the complaining he could at least do one thing right in his carrier and resign. However, I am sure 100,000 annually has him thinking more about him self and less about you and me.

Point in case is you never see him leading the pack for getting public feed back on the criminal activity the homeowners in the Southside of our city are forced to face by his lack of policies.

Okay… I don’t mean to be on a role about the lack of caring from our city marshal even though that is a major issue in our city!

The point is the departments need to start working together for the betterment of everyone.

Andy Whiteman said...

10:16 PM, The State of CA as wells as several cities around the country have been reported near bankruptcy. If this country remains on its wild spending streak, eventually it will be bankrupt. In my opinion, it already is. It keeps creating more money as a cover up.

Raytown has grandeous plans that make no sense economically. I would like to see an economist run for city office and put some sense into city management. It needs to be run as a business.

Andy Whiteman

Andy Whiteman said...

The Buck stops here!

Anonymous said...

The sad fact is that most of our elected officials
would not make it in business. You couldn't continue
to give away income and expect your employees
(the taxpayers of Raytown) to pick up the loss by
increasing taxes. It's the same with the school district.
They put millions in artificial turf and then raised taxes
because they said they were out of money.
In a business they would have been fired for wasting
money on something NOT business related.......that turf
had nothing to do with education. Which, if I'm not
wrong, is supposed to be their main objective.
Another sad fact is, this is a very small town. But,
our elected people want to treat it like it's a big town with
enough income to squander.
To the helpful taxpayer,
Yes, Mr. Lynch did push for the "safety tax" we were all told
it would all go toward the police department to help hire more
officers and get new equipment. We were, as he was, told
that none of the new tax money would go into the general
fund. He and we were lied to. If the money would have gone
where it was supposed to go and the city leaders hadn't
given so much away, and worse now, they have turned you the
taxpayer into a finance company for big corporations, this town
would not be hurting for money and cutting police and city services.
Until the people of Raytown wake up and vote in people that
will think only of this wonderful town and not some big corporation,
we will have to watch this town go further down the crapper.

Anonymous said...

Andy, I am not positive that the city collector has to or does sign every license. From what I was told they have a rubber stamp with her signature on it and they can just rubber stamp it. Good pay for doing NOTHING.

Anonymous said...

I was sorry to hear of the death of Jack Norman owner of Raytown Jewerly. We are now losing another business and a very important one. My sympathy to his family.

Andy Whiteman said...

Street lights out? Personally I never noticed the ones mentioned on this blog were out. Maybe it is because there is other lighting in the area or maybe it is because I am concetrating on driving. The lights I notice that are out are the individual neighborhood lights. The light by my house has been out 3 times in less than a year! The second time took OVER 2 WEEKS to repair. I had to demand to speak to a supervisor before anything was done and she didn't sound like a supervisor to me.

I questioned a credit on the city's bill and was told "no." I contacted Jeremy Wilmoth and was told that per contract, there is no credit for street lights out.

The street lights are one big KCPL ripoff!

I am waiting for my street light to be repaired. Clearly something more than the bulb is wrong since it is out 3 times in less than a year!

Andy Whgiteman

Andy Whiteman said...

8:50 AM, I don't know if a rubber stamp is used with the city collector's signature. It was suggested a BOA meeting. I can sure tell you that if it was me, I would inspect each document and sign each myself. Each document is a LEGAL document and I would want to know what is signed. A stamp could be used for illegal purposes.

My condolences to Mr. Norman's family. Hopefully the family will operate the business or find someone who will keep it in its present location.

I did see some street lights out tonight. The area was so light I really had to look for them. If it wasn't for this blog, I never would have noticed. On the other hand, if I was walking that area, I sure would notice!

I wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving. Please drive safely whether it is local or out of town. Always assume the other driver is a complete idiot since you don't know what he/she will do.

Andy Whiteman

Anonymous said...

It is nice to know that David Bower is working so hard to provide services to the citizens of Raytown.

This week is just another great example of his inablity to manage anything.

Come on Mr. Mayor does it really take that much effort to make sure the lights we are being billed for are actually working.

Again the issue may be that you are never spotted shopping in Raytown. I gues if we want to have a talk we will have to hang out in Lee Summit or maybe you could start answering calls every now and then as you are an elected official.

Anonymous said...

You know I hate fireworks, but I hear the bring alot of money to Raytown.

I just wonder why we cannot find out how much money the have truely generated for the city.

However, we would have to keep in mind the number of related expense like the the police and fire ging out on calls and fining people for not having premits or for shotting some kind of firework that was not allowed in the city.

Some how I think the quite approach indicates this firework issue in Ratyow has been one very costly mistake.

Up In Smoke said...

Hello all,

The name is Joe and I sure made a “Lucky Strike” when I moved to Raytown from “Malibu”. Everyone I met from “Nashville” to “Cheyenne” said, “Somkin Joes” if you want to go to the “Rave” of the Midwest and “Now” is the time to remain “True” to your “Natural American Sprit” and move away from the “Ocean”. What could I do, but “Max” my horizon and head for this “Carnival” that you all know as Raytown. It has been a “First Class Ride” that a “Basic” guy like me could find a “Classic” place like Raytown where “Custom Blends” are the in thing and everyone has a “Top” time at “Eclipse”. I only wish in the “West” I could have found a “Smoke Friendly” place as Raytown.

Hope you all stay “Kool” and enjoy the “Midnight Specials” you little town has to offer all the “Somkin Joes” that are out there.

Raytown is surely the “Maverick” of Greater Kansas City, being the only “Smoke Friendly” city within the Metropolitan area.

A special thanks to those on the Board of Alderman that keep the “Monarch” alive and provide a “Smoke Friendly” “Market” to all of “Dave’s” supporters.

Raytown is a “True” place for all of the Smoking Joes” and enjoy another “Decade” of the “Old Glory” Pride that has made Raytown Great.

From your smoking frineds and the brands that have made Raytown Great. We want give Joe Creamer and David Bower a high five of thanks for the leadership they provide every day.

Anonymous said...

Roses are red and violets are blue
Raytown is broke and what will Bower do

Higher tax you can bet are coming our way.
Happy smile on Bower face when taxpayers are treated that way

Weather is gray and cold
Bower seats at home thumbing is noise

Complain citizens all that you want
Bower is mayor and can take as much as he wants

April rains will clear the way to new things
And so end Bowers reign

Andy Whiteman said...

Every 4 years the Mayor, City Collector, muni Judge, and town Marshall are elected. Why aren't the muni judge or village Marshall on the ballot? Or is it in 2 years?

Street lights still out. I don't go out often, but I have started inspecting them as I pass. BTW my street light has been fixed. It is a rip off that the city is billed for non-working street lights. If my phone service is out one day, I get a credit. I had a ground on the line and got over a week of credit.

6:13PM, Good question! My understanding WAS each stand pays $1000 for the permit so count the stands. I would assume that there are sales tax on the fireworks so check with the sales tax department. If they claim that there is no tax because a non-profit is making the sales, I class that as a rip off. Even if they are a non-profit, they are selling merchandise.

Anonymous said...

From the Kansas City Star:

"Kansas City did hole onto the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and its 460 employees in October, but city leaders had to offer to reimburse 50 percent of the earnings taxes paid by its employees for 10 years."

And some people wonder why businesses move from Missouri to Kansas!

Greg Walters said...

On Thanksgiving Day it is appropriate to say what we are thankful for. With that in mind, I wanted to let all of the readers who regularly visit and comment on the Raytown Report that I am thankful for their participation.

Collectively you are a voice that is heard in Raytown.

You make a difference.

You make the effort worthwhile.

Anonymous said...

Anon 10:13

Nice poem about David Bower.

I sure wish he would have been the mayor he promised and not the excuss we are force to deal with.

Anonymous said...

Nov. 24 8:10p.m. The problem, there is no leadership from our Mayor and Joe tries but just doesn't have a clue what leadership is. All he knows to do is praise staff for the "wonderful job" they are doing, he doesn't have a clue that they are paid to do this wonderful job. I might add paid damn good for it too.

Anonymous said...

Alderman Joe Creamer from ward one should have never ran for an elected position as he has never done anything thing for the people.

It is good to praise the city employees but this this should be done when they go beyond their normal duties. This wouldn't have him singing praise everytime you turn around. As 8:50 PM 11/25 said the city this is their job.

It is time we the tax payers got some praise in the form of a tax break for have to deal with the stuff that is allowed to go on at city hall.

Phone calls are not returned

Codes enforcement doesn't know what a code violation is

Bower is giving anything and everything away to any business that ask

Department heads that don't live in the city

Cancer sticks still allowed to be lit in any building.

I could go on and on, but I am sure there is a limit of space on this blog.

It is time Raytown once again has an Alderman from Ward 1 that does what is right for those that elect him. It is time Ward 1 has a leader that has the ablity to think. It is time for change!!!

Andy Whiteman said...

November 24, 2010 10:13 PM, Try looking at the real high tax culprit: THE DYSFUNCTIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT. Even though my tax bill went down from last year the Dysfunctional District received 75% of my tax dollar instead of the 69% they received last year. This is outrageous! It is the dusfunstional district wasteing our money and taxing our homes to the point of unaffordable!

I never saw a notice of public meeting because if they publish a legal notice, it is well hidden.

The people really need to focus of this high dollar money sucking farce of a school district.

The city tax collection is minute compared to our Dysfunctional monney grubing, wasteful School District. It is not for the children. I wonder if it fills someones pocket? Obviously it fills contractors pockets, but who else?

Andy Whiteman

Anonymous said...

City Hall apparently was closed today. Didn't know this until I got to the front doors. There were others that showed up also, thinking the same thing that it was a normal business day.

BTW, they should perhaps check the doors, one was unlocked and still open, as I even pulled it open (It was not closing properly). Where is the accountability anyway?

Was someone in too big of a hurry to check the doors before they left the building on Wednesday???

Andy Whiteman said...

It is common for many businesses to observe the day after Thanksgiving as a holiday. The Red Star listed only the trash schedule but neglected to list any of the city/county offices. I guess trash is more important.

I expected they would be closed so called 737-6000 and received a recording.

BTW: The state of Misery for the first time in years WORKED Friday due to budget issues.

Andy Whiteman

Anonymous said...

Mayor Bower suggested that city employees get another paid holiday because they didn't receive a raise this year. What a crock. Wake up, alot of people didn't get raises this year or last. Quit being a bunch of cry babies.

Anonymous said...

The Mayor did not offer a holiday to the employees where he works (Populis) when they laid off workers there.

Oh, that's right. That was HIS money. Not the taxpayers.

Mr. Mayor, quit the pandering and start acting like you give a damn bout this city. Productivity at city hall is a joke and you know it. Giving another holiday will not solve any of your problems.