Sunday, November 13, 2016

RAYTOWN'S LEADING NEWS SOURCE

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From Paul's Pen
The Raytown Board of Aldermen has moved its monthly meeting scheduled for Tuesday, November 15th to Monday, November 14th. The reason given is there will not be a quorum of six members to hold the meeting on Tuesday night. Six members are required by state law for pass any business before the elected body. The root of the problem can be found in the two vacancies that have remained unfilled in Ward 1 and Ward 5. Three members missing a meeting is not unusual. However when three members are missing out of seven, it is enough to force the meeting to be cancelled. If the two vacancies were filled, which can be done by Mayoral appointment and a simple vote by a majority of the Board of Aldermen to approve, the problem would be solved. There has not been any word from City Hall as to when Mayor McDonough will make the appointments.


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Winners and Losers BY GREG WALTERS AND PAUL LIVIUS
By this coming Tuesday Donald Trump will have been President Elect for one week.

Who were the losers and winners in this historic campaign?

It goes without saying the Democratic Party took this one on the chin. Not only did they lose the Presidency, they also lost a good opportunity to gain control of the Senate. As it turns out, the net gain in governors and Congressmen goes to the Republicans.

The major mistake made was when party leaders literally handed Hillary Clinton the nomination because it was “her turn”. As the surprisingly strong campaign by Bernie Sanders demonstrated . . . she was not a popular choice.

Some changes are in order. For the Democratic Party, the first order of business should be to do away with the super delegates in the nominating process. It is surprising that a party, notorious for opposing the electoral college, has embraced a nominating process that literally makes a farce of the popular vote in the way they choose a Presidential nominee. It is interesting to note that between the two major parties nominating process, the Republican process is for more “democratic” than the one used by the Democratic leadership. It is becoming very apparent that many of those Sanders supporters chose not to vote for either candidate in last Tuesday’s election. The hurt was felt most by Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

The Republican leadership needs to bite down hard and recognize how out of touch they have become with the rank and file of their party. Those of them who turned their back on the voter’s choice may have to realize that Trump won. He won because a large number of Democrats crossed over in both the primary and general election to support Trump. As it turns out, Trump took them to school on how to win an election. If they are serious about maintaining power, they need to mend the schism between the different factions of the party to do so.

If there is a big loser in this Presidential Election, the hands down loser is the national news media.

By far, the largest loser of the big three is CNN. One of their news correspondents leaked questions to be asked in national debates to the Democratic Party. On election night, they were light years behind MSNBC and FOX news in announcing winners. Their editorial guests almost unanimously called for a landslide by Hillary Clinton by 10 o’clock in the evening. They over-played fringe stories about voter registration along the nation’s southern border while ignoring what was taking place in the Midwest.

Worst of all, is the intense coverage of scattered protests in America after the election by those who do not like the result. The coverage on CNN reminds me of coverage from the 1980’s when Eastern Europe began to throw off the shackles of Russian Communist rule. Except in those European countries, most notably Poland, the protests were monstrously large. What I saw on three nights of what seemed like continuous loops from CNN was a disgruntled minority, angry that they lost an election.

Donald Trump won his election. He deserves the chance to govern and make his mark. He will not be sworn into office until early January. Until then, he deserves the same chance the 45 President elects ahead of him received.

BY GREG WALTERS
Bits and Pieces . . .
Translation Please!
I had to laugh when I read in the Raytown Times that Alderman Steve Meyers wanted to “dispel rumors of a moratorium on street resurfacing”. He said street overlay and the ever popular chip and seal works has only been postponed until next Spring,

We will translate this for you . . . it means there will not be any street overlay and chip and seal work done on streets this year.

By setting aside street maintenance for one year the Board has put their footing on a slippery slope that will only mean more deterioration to residential streets. I served on the Board for over 30 years and cannot remember one instance when streets were not routinely improved on an annual basis. If they do the work next year, as Alderman Meyers says, does that mean the amount of money spent on streets will be doubled to make up what was missed this year?

Way to Go Jason!
Ward 2 Alderman Jason Greene deserves recognition for standing his ground on the residency rule for the Raytown City Administrator. Seven of his fellow Aldermen (two seats are vacant) disagreed and voted to allow the Board to waive the law requiring the City Administrator to live within city limits. Greene is correct in his vote. If a non-resident is appointed to the position Raytown will be the only city in the metropolitan area whose chief administrative officer does not live in the city they serve.

Like police and firemen, city administrators are considered to be “first responders”. The “first responder” tag loses meaning if the holder of such a position is over a one hour commute away from the city.

Hopefully, the Board will begin a search for a permanent city administrator and find one who thinks enough of the city he will be leading to make it his home.

Other Papers Discuss
Former Ward 1 Alderman Joe Creamer has been writing a string of letters accusing the Raytown Police Department of irresponsible spending. Apparently he has come to the realization that if you overspend in one area of the budget, the rest of the budget suffers. It could very well be one of the reasons our streets are being covered with a slurry seal type of finish rather than repaired properly with asphalt. Another loser is those who wish they had more street lights in their neighborhood.

Everyone wants an effective and professional police department. But with that wish comes the responsibility of managing a budget correctly. So far, Creamer has been a lone voice on the topic. His friends at the Raytown Times and some of his old allies on the Board of Aldermen have not publicly broached the subject. Granted, it is a political hot potato, but it comes with the territory when addressing budget issues. Still, it is an issue that deserves a public debate.

Proper Disposal of Leaves
Fall has arrived and you can tell by the work Raytown homeowners are putting in to clean up the leaves in their yards. The best place for your leaves is to mulch them up for your lawn. It will pay dividends next year. One final word on leaves . . . we have noticed that some homeowners are using the street in front of their house as the final resting place for dead leaves. That is not what streets are made for, and, it is illegal. A note to the Raytown Police Department . . . it is your job to enforce that law. If the leaves are left on the street they will eventually make their way to the storm sewers. If the storm sewers become clogged with leaves (and they do) there will be flooding of our neighborhood streets 

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39 comments:

Paul Livius said...

Andy,

You may have exceeded the memory of the blog with too many words. I just ran a test on the comment section and it worked fine. Try cutting your comment in half and publishing it in two different comment blocks.

Anonymous said...

Should that be dec instead of nov Paul ?

Anonymous said...

Mayor McDonough needs to get with the program and appoint aldermen to the two vacant seats that are now open. The is NO reason to allow these positions to go unfilled. The voters of ward 1 and 5 deserve full representation instead of just half as is now the current situation. These appointments SHOULD have been made within days of the vacancies occurring, not dragging it out for weeks.

Steve Meyers said...

Greg,

I think I can clear up some of the uncertainty concerning my comments and your notes about the annual overlay/chip seal project being moved to the spring instead of it's usual fall project time. Due to some late MODOT grant funds from the street scape project not being available for collection and credited to our public works accounts in time to book/pay Vance Bros this fall, it was decided to move the project to spring. Couple the fact that Vance will be coming back to finish the overlay for 63rd St Streetscape in the spring anyway, it made some sense to just combine the timeframe.

Now the valid reason for my strong statement and clarification of the chip seal overlay during my Budget Committee report at the last BOA meeting. The previous meeting when the 2017 Budget approval was on the agenda and Board discussion opened, Alderman Jim Aziere under the bright lights and rolling TV cameras of Channel 5 who had been summoned to appear by former Aldeman Joe Creamer started in on some doom and gloom statements regarding the present state of revenue stress he felt the city was enduring. One of the statements he made that was pure FICTION and could not have been more inaccurate was the city was putting on a "Moratorium" on the overlay projects for 3 Years.. Yes you heard that right 3 years...As you might imagine this would send a fear factor and troubling signal to the residents and other possible investors in our community concerning the health of our finances.

In taking the high road and not wanting to highlight the obvious culprit of the glaring misstatement by Aldeman Aziere, I simply attempted to calm the revenue rumors and explain the overlay project will be picked up in the springtime. And yes I do expect that a fall overlay project will follow as well, so other than a few months there is no skipping of the planned streets on the project list.

Hope that helps clarify the topic and your questioning the process was certainly valid Greg.

Steve Meyers,
Alderman Ward 4

Anonymous said...

Great point on the street being the dumping ground for the leaves. Mothher nature does a pretty good job of pushing them to my yard already.Novel thought... Mulch them as suggested and maybe even pick them up. Blowing leaves in street... Don't be that guy!!!!

Paul Livius said...

Anon 10:03 pm
We're not sure what you mean when you say dec instead of nov. Please clarify.

Anonymous said...

Why don't they do what a lot of places do - appoint the dead politician's wife to fill out the rest of the term? Then they can have an election later.

Anonymous said...

4;02 Clearly like so many who voted this past Tuesday you are uninformed.

The appointment you speak of was after the election, but prior to anyone being sworn in. In this cases the party who wins the election has a say in how the seat is filled.

Now to our city, which is still a 4th class city and therefore must follow the great laws of the state and not have home rule.

Because of this it is the mayor's job to appoint someone with the approval of the Board of Alderman. The talk around town is the mayor had decided some time ago being those seats are up for election in April to allow the people to decide.

You also should keep in mind opening date to file for a candidate is about a month away.

It is therefore time to find quality individuals to file and with luck no tie to anyone currently at city hall elected or former employees, which should help for a more diverse thinking bunch.

Greg Walters said...

Thank you for your comments Steve. I have to admit what you wrote (and said) does show things in a different light. Something we both left out of our comments is the effect of Walmart on 350 Highway. If it was producing money for the city coffers instead of to pay off debt, our streets would be paved in gold. Still, the police department should be held accountable if there are large cost over-runs. All of us paying the bills through our taxes have to follow budgets. So should ALL of the departments at city hall.

Anonymous said...

Mayor Mac thinks he can do what ever he wants.

Anonymous said...

FYI, the city has already selected a New City Administrator, they are just not making it pubic for who knows what reason. The new CA is Mark Laughry and guess what he lives out of town. I guess they can not learn from the errors of the past.

Anonymous said...

When Mahesh Sharma was promoted to CA, he agreed to move to Raytown when his daughter graduated in the following spring. He lied. He never intended on moving to Raytown, no matter how often he said he would. The fact that the BOA has added a clause to the ordinance giving them the right to suspend the residency rule tells us Mark Loughry has no intention of moving to Raytown. He has been honest and above board with everyone. BIG difference. I can respect a man who is honest from the very beginning. Mark has already started making changes that will benefit Raytown for years to come. I believe we have an excellent management staff in Raytown, and they'll finally be allowed to work up to their potential, instead of being held back by a short-sighted leader who was only interested in his paycheck.

Anonymous said...

The Police Dept needs oversight. If you knew the political bull-C that Lynch, Bowman and X-Mayor Franks pulled to get Lynch elected so Bowman could become whatever rank he declares himself these days, you would know that they are all corrupt as hell.

Anonymous said...

We keep hearing how corrupt the police department is. No one has yet shown us any proof. You are, to quote the BOA, "a mosquito.” You and all the other talking heads sound like a bunch of small minded, jealous half-wits who want attention. Well, boys, it’s time to put up, or shut up.


Anonymous said...

11:45 If you don't find $400,000 in overtime a concern; I don't know what more someone could do to prove there is an issue (Downstairs).

Keep in mind the high turn over and under staffing EMS faces. I am sure $400,000 would more than fix there issues.

Hope you family doesn't ever need EMS as only first responders maybe PD and are they properly trained for EMS issues?

Anonymous said...

I'm not saying there is or there isn't a $400,000 problem in the police department. I'm saying you have not PROVED there is. Why should we believe your flapping gums when you won't even sign your own name?

Anonymous said...

Overtime does not equate to corruption
I would bet none of you "citizen oversite committee" folks have walked in and talked to the finance director or your chief of police to even find out why. Until you do I would call you a whiner. Go find out IF you are truly interested

Anonymous said...

Hey 8:48 what the heck does that even mean?
Our system is the board having the vote not the Mayor
If the guy is doing something wrong then tell us about it, but tell us the truth.
So far you oversight folks seem like a bunch of jr. high gossips

Anonymous said...

2:40 is a joke,

They don't sign their name, but want others to sign with names.

What they don't understand is the BLUE hate in this Nation and attacks against those of color regardless if we speak out against them or not.

Bob Schwinn said...

I don't see why 2:40 has to sign his/her name. They're not the one making all the wild statements. Someone who hasn't the courage to sign his/her own name is accusing city hall and the police hall of wrong doing. They may be right, or then again, maybe they're not. Who knows. If that person wants to be believed, they need to grow up and sign their name. I think that's what 2:40 was trying to say. IMHO.

Carl Maier said...

My grandson was over last night and he was wearing a safety pin on his shirt. I asked him why, but his little sister kept interrupting us. Anyone know why the kids are wearing safety pins on their clothes?

Anonymous said...

Carl,

The safety pin is a symbol to keep us as a Nation safe from the hate and other negative comments the President elect campaigned on.

Anonymous said...

Such nonsense. It never seems like it never ends. The safety pin shows support for minorities. It's message is not meant to disparage or send a message as contemptuous and hateful as the one before this. Please quit twisting everything you read as a message of hate. The safety pin does not represent hate. It represents support.

Grow up. If you don't like the results of the election. Wait for the next election to make yourself be heard. I am so tired of the sour grapes of those who lost an election they thought they had in the bag! The only real message from the election is a statement of how out of touch our leaders have become of most Americans.

Anonymous said...

Well ain't that a crock? The city administrator is good enough to take our money, but not good enough to live in Raytown.

What a joke

Love "Trumps" hate! said...

12:18

What in "God's name" are you talking about?

You and 5:41 are saying the same thing.

The "Safety PINs" are a sign to support anyone, which includes minorities who don't feel "safe" because of the "hate" that came out of the campaign of one candidate that shown we are in a troubled place.

For clarification being you clearly appear to be a "Trump" supporter. This is much more then about minorities. It is about social justice as a whole. That is why you have a side that is become very active and protesting.

Those that won "CANNOT" complain when for the past 8 years the "Republicans" have done everything to hurt this Nation and turn around and put a spin on it that it is Obama's fault.

So if folks find comfort in showing there unity by wearing a "Safety PIN" let them and rejoice they are not spreading the lies we have had to deal with for the past 8 years.

Those that need to "Grow Up" are folks like you that are unable to clearly understand how "Trump" and the "Republican Party" has divided this nation and only by them following the teaching of Christ will they "Make America Great Again" as saying your a "Christian" and not following the teaching of Christ just makes you a "False Prophets.

Angela Miller said...

My daughter is 9 years old. She's been watching Michelle Obama for as long as she understood who Mrs. Obama is. She admires the First Lady and thinks she might like to be a lawyer like Michelle. She's watching and listening to all the talk about Melania Trump. How do I explain to my daughter that she can't grow up to emulate the new first lady?

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

I think I can help you with that. First, do not prejudice your daughter because you do not like who she admires. Second, remind your daughter that Mrs. Obama is not an attorney in the sense of one who goes to court to try defend or prosecute others. She has a degree. Whether or not she has continued to maintain her law license I cannot say. But my guess is that as the First Lady she has been too busy to spend much time in court.

You do your daughter a disservice by even suggesting she cannot be all she wants to be.

I have read many of the comments on this blog and am dismayed by the hatred being expressed by so many. On the other hand I have seen very little evidence of gloating by supporters of the recent winner of the election.

The intolerance on the left is not a good thing for this country. Take a breath, and remember that all have the right to an opinion. But none really have the right to degrade or try to humiliate another because they do not agree with that opninion.

Anonymous said...

Some of the frustration comes from the fact that more people voted against Trump than voted for him. And yet you people keep throwing around words like mandate. You can't have a mandate if 52% of the people don't want you!

Anonymous said...

So 11:22.......

Are you really saying a woman who goes to school and becomes a lawyer is on the same playing field as a woman who is a college drop-out? That's like saying a doctor who does research instead of treating patients is the same as an ambulance driver.

Anonymous said...

The electoral college was created so every part of the country has a say rather than just New York, Florida, Texas and California choosing the president.

Andy Whiteman said...

From Fact Check .org:
Q: Did Barack and Michelle Obama “surrender” their law licenses to avoid ethics charges?

A: No. A court official confirms that no public disciplinary proceeding has ever been brought against either of them, contrary to a false Internet rumor. By voluntarily inactivating their licenses, they avoid a requirement to take continuing education classes and pay hundreds of dollars in annual fees. Both could practice law again if they chose to do so.

Andy Whiteman said...

There is a problem with Blogger: If I enter a comment, go to preview, then click ENTER, I get a 500 Error. But if I click ENTER without doing a preview, the comment is accepted. In the past, I always used preview just to proof read my comment. I wonder if others do this also?
Andy Whiteman

Anonymous said...

Bloggers here continue to amaze me with their comments. For example, one person wrote, "The electoral college was created so every part of the country has a say rather than just New York, Florida, Texas and California choosing the president." Let's keep in mind the electoral college is in article 2 of the constitution, which was signed in 1787. Florida, Texas, and California didn't become states or even territories until the 1840's or 1850's. If you're going to quote Fox News, make sure you know what you and they are talking about.

Paul Livius said...

Andy,

We did receive an announcement from Blogger the other day which read: Your HTTPS settings have changed. All visitors are now able to view your blog over an encrypted connection by visiting https://raytownreport.blogspot.com. Existing links and bookmarks to your blog will continue to work.

Other than that announcement, we are unaware of any other changes.

Andy Whiteman said...

As I remember from school the Electoral College was originated due to distances and a lack of communication. Since the votes could not be tabulated quickly and transmitted as quickly as now, electors were elected to meet in one place to cast their votes to elect the President.

Andy Whiteman

Andy Whiteman said...

Paul,

Thanks, since I use a bookmark to reach this blog, I deleted my old bookmark and saved the new "https" url. It made no difference and I still received the 500 error. The only difference I noticed is that now blogger will accept cut and paste while in the past, it did not. Maybe I will have to reboot to notice a change. In all honesty, I have anti-malware software which may cause this error but I am unable to determine if one is doing it and override it.

Andy Whiteman

Anonymous said...

I don't remember the specifics, Andy. All I know is the electoral college was thought of long before California, Florida, or Texas. It really makes me mad when the conservatives and fox news put out this nonsense. It's even more maddening when people read it and don't recognize false statements when they see it. Don't people have to pass their constitution test to graduate anymore? Perhaps you are right after all. The dumbing down of this country is in full force, as seen in the Raytown school test scores.