RAYTOWN'S LEADING NEWS SOURCE
Charter Candidates Stepping
Up BY PAUL LIVIUS
When the petition to form a
Raytown Charter was first presented to the Raytown Board of Aldermen only eight
people had filed petitions to run for the Raytown Charter Commission.
Now, with only about two
weeks left until the filing closes for spots on the Commission, the number has grown
to 15 candidates.
According to information
received from the Raytown City Clerk’s office, those fifteen candidates are: Joe Burton, Janet Emerson, Lisa Emerson, Jason Greene, Mark Moore,Chris Rathbone, Robbie Tubbs, Susan Thorsen, Jim Aziere, Richard Koop,Sandra Hartwell, Steve Guenther, Greg Walters, Charlotte Melson,Susan Dolan
Candidate Forum Offered
on Raytown Report
Candidates who have filed
for either the Raytown School Board or the Raytown Charter Commission are
invited to send a short biographical essay about your candidacy to the Raytown
Report for publication. Please include a photograph with your essay.
Stories can be emailed to gregtwalters@sbcglobal.net
CHARTER NOTES BY GREG WALTERS
Some interesting observations about the candidates who have filed for the Raytown Charter Commission.
- If there is a glass ceiling in Raytown politics this group of candidates has shattered it. Over one half of the candidates filed are female. Contrast this fact to the historical reality that all previous charter commissions were definitely boy clubs in gender.
- It stands to reason that candidates seeking to serve on the Raytown Charter Commission would be supportive an attempt to move the city forward. Which is why many local observers of City Hall were surprised to see Ward 3 Alderman Charlotte Melson file for a seat on the Charter Commission. The Ward 3 Aldermen had very little good to say about the Charter attempt when petitions to place the issue on the ballot was voted on by the Board of Aldermen.
- The same can also be said about Ward 2 Alderman Jim Aziere. Mr. Aziere served on the last Charter Commission. In that election, Aziere turned against the work he and other members of the Charter Commission had spent a full year creating and actively campaigned against its passage.
- The latest person to file for the Charter Commission has some interesting thoughts on the subject of term limits. Susan Dolan pointed out that both Kansas City and Lee’s Summit have instituted term limits and wonders if they would be a good fit for Raytown. Mrs. Dolan continued by saying there are pros and cons to term limits. She pledged to bring the subject of term limits to the table if she is elected to the Raytown Charter Commission.
- There are still about two
weeks left until filing closes. It will be interesting to see who else steps forward
in the closing days before the filing deadline arrives in January 21st.
THE FOLLOWING IS THE
FIRST IN A SERIES OF ESSAYS BY CANDIDATES FOR THE RAYTOWN CHARTER COMMISSION.
Greg Walters for Raytown Charter Commission BY GREG WALTERS
 |
| GREG WALTERS |
On April 2, 2014 Raytown
voters will decide whether or not to form a Charter Commission.
There have been four
attempts to change Raytown’s form of government from a Fourth Class City to
that of a Charter City since Raytown was incorporated.
This time it is different
in a very important way.
The previous attempts were
all initiated by City Hall. In those instances it was the action of the City
Council that caused the election.
This Charter Election is
taking place because Raytowners just like you and me, empowered themselves by
gathering signatures to force the city to hold the election.
Had they not done so, it is
almost a certainty that there would not be a Charter question on the April,
2014 municipal ballot.
For those unfamiliar with
the Charter Election process, here is how it works.
On April 2nd
voters will be asked whether or not create a Charter Commission. At the same
election, voters will choose thirteen Raytown citizens to serve on the Charter
Commission. Those 13 candidates who receive the most votes will l be sworn into
office to write a Charter for the City of Raytown.
Provided, of course, the
question of whether or not to form a Charter commission receives voter
approval.
Once elected it usually
takes up to a year to write and perfect the Charter before presenting it to the
voters for final approval.
My name is Greg Walters and
I hope to be one of the Charter Commissioners.
Here is what I can bring to
the table.
I served 27 years on the
Raytown City Council. I also served on one of the past Charter Commissioners.
So I like to think that I can bring experience to the Commission.
Part of that experience has
been in learning what will and will not work in a complete package eventually
placed before the voters.
Compromise is a key word
that every Charter candidate should learn. Experience has taught me that we
need to spend more time listening to each other and finding the middle ground
we can all accept.
That is not to say that I
do not have issues that are very important to me.
For instance, I believe
very strongly in the following:
- I am a big believer in the right of people to petition their government and the right to recall politicians that have strayed from their oath of office. Both of which are not allowed under our current Fourth Class City status.
- As a fourth class city Raytown is what is called a statutory city. Plainly stated, it means that the city can only be governed as allowed by the statutes (laws) of the State of Missouri. The rules under a Charter government empowers the citizens of a community to make changes to laws, even in the face of opposition from their elected officials.
- I also believe it is very important senior staff members employed by the City of Raytown make Raytown their hometown.
Raytown remains one of the
few communities in the Kansas City area that does not have residency
requirements for its upper management.
Because of this simple
fact, very few of the tax dollars paid to this select group makes its way back
to Raytown in the form of tax revenue from sales by local merchants,
grocery stores or housing.
It is a “no win” situation
for the City of Raytown.
It is also a “no win”
situation for the rest of us who call Raytown home. That is because the current
policy lacks a sense of community. There is not any local pride fostered by
those who could help by making Raytown their home.
Please consider casting one
of your thirteen votes for Greg Walters to serve on the Raytown Charter
Commission on Tuesday, April 2, 2014.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Phone: 816-517-6852
Email: gregtwalters@sbcglobal.net
 |
| KRISTEN |
FIT BOTTOMED EATS
Kristen’s Favorite Recipe:
Ginger Curry Roasted Cauliflower
Just like yesterday and the
day before that, today we’re sharing another one of our fave healthy recipes in
celebration of our birthday and the New Year!
I was never a big fan of
cauliflower as a kid. It just seemed like the ickier version of broccoli, and I
only sort of liked broccoli, so I’m pretty sure I never even gave poor
cauliflower a try.
Read More
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Comments
1. She only works part-time.
2. She is a pawn for the Mayor, look at how she sabbatoged the recent Fire/EMS proposal.
I will vote against her.
Includes TIF's and giving the land to the developer!
Is that just a story or reality?
Someone from city hall should let the public know what is going on.
I know I will not vote for any alderman it is like asking the fox to guard the hen house.
I didn't trust them on Wal-Mart and sure enough they didn't tell us the truth so they have no business on the charter.
By now Bower has them scared into being accussed of leaking info to the public.
I would not worry about another Walmart coming in. If the plans are really to build yuppie apartments and condos they will have a hard time filling them up with a walmart across the street.
Meaning the mayor and our aldermen. It was clear
that the mayor pushed the thirty thousand plus a
year pay increase and dropped the requirement for
the city administrator to live in Raytown because he
needed someone in that position to back his every
move. How better than to buy it! It’s been a long
time tradition that our aldermen, for the most part,
don’t think for themselves. So with the mayor and
his bought and paid for ca to tell them what and how
to do and vote we the people lose big time.
My suggestion is, any elected official that wants to be
on the charter should not get even one vote!
especially Aziere and Melson!
Let’s make 2014 a great year for Raytown and vote
out and incumbent elected officials and elect some
people that will work for the people for a change!
I was appalled by the arrogant repeated refusal of a most senior city official to relocate and then being handed a huge raise by the mayor... Makes my blood boil. I was a newcomer here last election and gave the mayor permission to place signs in my yard. Guarantee it won't happen again.
The April Election will decide whether or not to form a Charter Commission. If the voters approve forming the Commission -- the Commission will then write the Charter.
The end product of the Charter Commission's work -- the Charter document -- is either approved or not approved by the voters at another election.
Typically, the voters have approved the formation of the Charter Commission.
However, in Raytown's history, the final work of the Commission, the actual Charter, has never been approved.
If everything goes as we plan but, somehow it
gets turned down by the people, (the opponents
have the edge from lack of voter turnout) we do
just like our elected officials and keep trying until
it is passed. Even if it takes years to do, it would
be worth it.
I honestly don’t know why some of our leaders are
against a Charter. As I understand it for a recall
on an elected official, they have to have done something
really bad or against their oath of office. Just because
someone doesn’t like an elected official doesn’t mean
they can have a recall. However, I can see why several
of our officials would have something to worry about.
Funny thing, the officials that complain about the Charter
and want to get on the Charter just to sabotage it, are indeed
the one’s that probably need to worry the most.
While I am on this, does anybody have a copy of the
oath of office our elected officials have to take?
Pass a charter than come back with those things that have keep Raytown from having a charter.
No man is an island and Raytown doesn't exist in bubble. There are events planned and unfolding at a blazing pace, from both in and outside Raytown, that are having a detrimental impact on every man, woman and child in this city. Few are aware of their carefully crafted, planned implementation and the direct, devastating impact they carry.
A researcher, I bare no intent other than to benefit others with view of what goes on behind the closed doors. A Raytown resident, I have a vested interest in what becomes of this city. I had expected a far different reception given so many, for so long a time, justifiably voice frustration over the secrecy of city government who treats them like ignorant children.
No sympathies are due to anyone except the people here who wanted to benefit from the truth.
Pat, in answer to your request. Following is the text of the Oath of Office as given on April 19th, 2005.
I, Greg Walters, do solemnly swear that I possess all the qualifications for the Office of Alderman, as prescribed by law; that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the State of Missouri; the provisions of all laws of this State affecting cities of this Class, and the Ordinances of the City of Raytown, Missouri an faithfully demean myself in office.
So help me God.
The thought has occurred to me that, given the Mayor's stance on public acceptance of the Christmas holiday season, ... he may have had the last sentence removed.
January 17, 2013 at 6:56 AM
How about writing about what you think would be important to be included in a new Charter. This is a great place to bounce those ideas off each other.
If you want to know what's going on or want to be heard all you have to do is to get involved.
Where's all that money coming from that they're spending anyway? I don't see a lot of rich folks in town. City hall seems to think they can tax and spend without end. I think a state audit would reveal we're darn near bankrupt. It sure would be good to know the truth about the finances.
Who helps to write the Charter is very important and that's why we'll elect them.
No, that's not true. We don't control how posts become published. Some posts are omitted when received. I complained about my posts not going up. They were added but not until it was too late for people to notice them much and some were duplicated by the editor, not by me..just as a new week was beginning.
I have no idea what you are saying. Please clear it up for us.
The truth is we rarely delete comments sent to the Raytown Report.
The only ones that do not make copy are those with profanity or ones that defame another individual.
Paul and I have agreed that if someone wants to go toe to toe with another blogger, that is fine. But we expect them to sign their name to do so.
Paul told me that he had found instances of posts ending up in our "spam folder". This was news to me because I was unaware we had such a folder.
He told me where to find it -- and, by golly, there it was!
It had five blogs that were, for reasons that we do not understand, identified as "spam" by the Google gods.
So, from now on, we will be checking the "spam folder" on a regular basis.
If tonight's discovery is any indication, you may see an increase in comments on this page as a result.
Blogspot, which is the software provided by Google that we use to run this page, does not show the email address of those who send in comments. I point this out to make sure that everyone knows that if you send in an anonymous post, it truly is anonymous.
It also illustrates that we cannot determine what is spam unless we read through the text of messages before we post.
Now that we have identified the "spam" problem it will be very easy to manage.
Our apologies to anyone who believed their post was arbitrarily blocked from publication.
Incidentally, the last two posts before this one were found in the spam folder!
One of those two posts suggested that someone is "editing" comments after they have arrived at the Raytown Report.
I can assure you that neither Paul or myself do any editing of comments. If there is a controversial post that either of us finds we confer on whether or not to publish it.
There has been occasion where we have changed a vulgar word in an otherwise "clean" post. We only do so to conform to our no profanity rule.
WELL, EXCUUUUUUUUUSE ME!
I didn’t remember writing and asking that
last year.
I surly didn’t remember the answer given.
I’m old, deal with it.
However, I’ve got it now, thank you. I’ll
keep it next to my memory pills.
Greg, I was wondering about the posts. A few weeks ago I wrote 2 posts that did not appear, but they were there a day or two later. Seemed strange to me. Sometimes there are so many posts that I try to remember the date and time of the last post I read so I don't have to go through all off them. BTY each post I write usually takes over 1/2 hour to write and hopefully do a good job of proof reading.
When you post a post in a delayed manner, they still appear in the order they were written, not the order that you posted, hence may never be seen by the average reader who doesn't start from the beginning each time.
The spam folder is something that I elect not to use in my ISP settings but my spam folder still gets emails that I want to see. I found out that if another person or persons clicks that an email is spam, the ISP considers it to be spam and it goes to everyone's spam folder. This has been a big problem in the past with newsletters going to everyone's spam folder on AOL because one or more people forgot they subscribed and clicked on spam. Kim Komando fought that issue for a long time and put out notices asking people to please unsubscribe and NOT click spam.
I have set up my own spam filter which filters to trash. I found that I was deleting email that I wanted because the filter is very sensitive. If 3 letter of a single number match, the filter picks it up. For example if I filter "owned.com" the filter will pick out any 3 letters. Hence it will also filter it would the filter will pick out Raytown (because of own, Ned or anything containing those 3 letters, as well as all .coms. I have to me careful what names or letter I chose to filter. Likewise if I filter 4sale by owner, anything with the number 4 will be filtered.
When emails that I want are filtered it takes me 2 hours to try to figure out what letters are being captured and to go through the filter to delete those sets of letters which may be rtepeated several times. My filter list is so long that I have to do a key word search and each delete can take the serve several minutes to delete because my filter probably contains thousands of entries.
Andy Whiteman
Or was that Mary, Queen of the Scotts?
Seems like anonymous can be spelled many, many different ways!
My favorite sentence is the one that reads (in part) "we have been told many review the comments".
Clever play on words but not too clever.
"Many" do not review the comments. Either Greg or I review the comments. If we happen to be on line when a comment is posted we review it immediately.
Would you rather we waited a couple of hours?
You must be one of those writers who resents other people giving their opinion!
Rather than intelligently discuss a subject your kind can always be counted on to take the low road and spend all of their effort on attempting to disparage our efforts at the Raytown Report.
Pot shots.......... Often times pot shots turn personal and ugly
I scrolled back toward the beginning of this week's posts and saw that someone had answered Pat's request for an oath of office and poked fun at him but read no verbal attack... is that what you're talking about?
Someone else, 11:49, talked about disclosing information about what goes on behind closed doors in reference to city hall....is that what you're talking about?
I guess I don't see the problem here. Will you do me a favor and direct me to the posts that have been upsetting please? If you will note the date and time of them it will be a big help as I am really trying to understand this. Thanks