To leave a comment use
this link POST A COMMENT
-- BREAKING NEWS --
Raytown City Finance
Director Tenders Resignation
Mark
Loughry, the Finance Director of the City of Raytown has given his notice of
intention to resign effective May 21st.
According
to a memo from City Administrator Mahesh Sharma, Mr. Loughry has decided to go
into private business.
Raytown Charter Commission Update
The Raytown Charter
Commission will be sworn in and hold its first meeting on Tuesday, April 29th at
6:30 p.m. at Raytown City Hall located at 10000 East 59th Street. The meeting is open to the public.
 |
| By Greg Walters |
Charter
Commission
Off to a Quick Start
Nine years ago
the Raytown Charter Commission began its work with a swearing in ceremony
following a regular meeting of the Raytown Board of Aldermen.
The 2014 Charter
Commission appears to be more anxious in its quest to write a Charter for the
City of Raytown.
Plans are in
motion to hold a swearing in ceremony on April 29th at Raytown City
Hall. It is important to stress that the date and time are tentative. As soon
as a time and place is selected the Raytown Report will publish in the
information.
In
an email to fellow Charter members Steve Guenther asked if all other
members of the Commission could make a meeting on that April 29th meeting. Not all members
of the Commission have responded to the request.
A consensus is
building to broadcast meetings of the Charter Commission on the Raytown
Government Channel and re-broadcast them along with Raytown Board of Aldermen
meetings on a weekly basis. Discussion with city officials has also been held
to create a link of re-broadcasts of Charter meetings on You Tube.
Ward 2 Alderman Jason Greene, who was also
elected to the Commission on April 8th, has opened discussions with City Hall
to tape and re-broadcast Charter Commission meetings on Raytown’s Government
Channel 7. A link between the city’s webpage and YouTube rebroadcast is also a
possibility.
The Raytown
Report has offered to link to all re-broadcasts of the meetings, and, if they
are available, publish copies of the official minutes of Charter Commission
meetings.
One
Charter member has suggested that the Missouri Municipal League provide an
informational seminar for newly elected Commissioners. The idea has come up
against opposition from Charter members who are opposed to creating a cookie
cutter type of Charter. Commissioners are quick to point out they were elected
to take on the responsibility of writing the Charter and are not likely to
delegate the task to others.
Paul’s Rant
The internet has
been humming this past week with emails between recently elected Charter
Commissioners. It is interesting to watch as some jockey for position for the
upcoming election of the officers who will lead the Charter effort.
I counted over
16 such messages. There are probably more. Undoubtedly, other messages were
probably sent between individuals and not shared with the entire Commission.
No harm there.
Until the Commission is sworn in, they are not covered by the Missouri Sunshine
Law. It is a good sign to see that some members have expressed a desire to make
this process a truly transparent Commission by televising meetings and
publishing timely minutes of the meetings.
Greg Walters
summed it up best when he wrote to fellow commissioners:
“ . . . I have noted that
all of the city department heads have been included in the stream of email
activity in the last few days. Let’s make this a Raytown event in which we give
as much consideration to the taxpayers who vote and are most affected by what
happens in the City.
The first meeting of the
Charter Commission is a ceremonial event. We can wait one week so that the
public can share in the event as well.
It would also send a very
good message showing support by the Board of Aldermen for the Charter
Commission’s work.”
I noticed the
inclusion of the city department heads in the email stream as well. It is
ironic that they be included in the messages since they did not participate in
the recent election because none of them live in Raytown.
I did some
digging and traced the original inclusion of them in the email traffic to the
City Clerk’s office.
One final
observation . . . I whole-heartedly agree with those Charter members who said
they are responsible for the task ahead of them. That “can-do” mindset is
exactly what is needed to hammer out an effective Charter for the City of
Raytown.
 |
| By Paul Livius |
The Paul Livius Report
Raytown Board of Aldermen Meeting – April 15, 2014
Pat
Jackson, from the First Baptist Church, gave the invocation. He also said May 1 is the Raytown Mayor’s
Prayer Breakfast. It starts at 7:00 am. He also thanked Chief Lynch and Officer Holt
for helping one of the families at his church.
Steve
Banks, with the Raytown Tree Board, invited all citizens to the 25th
Arbor Day celebration at the Coleman Park Veterans Memorial on April 26. It starts at 10:00 and he said he has a tent
if it rains. This year, they will honor
all veterans. The American Legion will
provide the Honor Guard and 21 gun salute.
Terry
Landers said the annual golf tournament will be May 30 starting at 11:00. This year, they will have a “virtual
tournament.” He said they will be paired
with an actual golfer and what the golfer wins, the virtual golfer also wins.
Pam
Clark and Phyllis Goforth said the Egg Extravaganza will be April 19, starting
at 10:00.
Mayor Bower told
Board members Google Fiber will have three crews in the City next week to start
the task of installing permanent repairs for the many street cuts. The contractor anticipates several weeks
before the work will be complete.
The Board passed an ordinance granting Kansas City Power & Light Company the
authorization to construct, operate, and maintain all appropriate facilities
for carrying on a light, heat and power business in the City. Mark Loughry told the Board the Kansas City
Power & Light has been providing electrical service to the City ofRaytown
for a number of years. They obtain the
ability to serve our community through a franchise agreement. The last franchise agreement was entered into
20 years ago and needs to be renewed. This
agreement will establish a 7-year agreement.
They want to bring the expiration date of this agreement in line with
agreements in other cities.
The Board passed an ordinance to adopt the re-codification of ordinances of the
city. Teresa Henry told the Board the
City of Raytown Code of Ordinances have not been codified since original date
of adoption which was October 7, 1969.
In addition to the above scope of work, the Zoning Code, and the
Subdivision Regulations, has been integrated instead of being held as separate
documents. The Personnel Code, which was
previously incorporated within the Code of Ordinances has been removed and will
now be held as a separate document.
Normally we put the city's link to the You Tube site if anyone wants to view the meeting reported on this page. We checked and found that the city's link does not work! We did some digging and here is the correct link to view last Tuesday's City Council Meeting:
Normally we put the city's link to the You Tube site if anyone wants to view the meeting reported on this page. We checked and found that the city's link does not work! We did some digging and here is the correct link to view last Tuesday's City Council Meeting:
USE THIS LINK BOA MEETING / APRIL 15, 2014
 |
| BY JENN |
FIT BOTTOMED EATS
Some Yoga, Some
Healing
Typically my eats
are pretty standard: a green smoothie for breakfast, a salad for lunch and
something fun for dinner with a glass or two or wine. But this day? This day
was weird.
First, the night
before my stomach wasn’t feeling so great, and I woke up to some serious
unpleasantness. (Details aren’t necessary, but I’m guessing I had gluten
somewhere … ) So, I decided to have something pretty basic and bland — and
starchy. Gluten-free bread with an egg to the rescue. And, yes, the only way to
make gluten-free bread tasty is to drown it in olive oil and then brown it à la
grilled cheese. It’s fabulous this way. READ MORE
To leave a comment use
this link POST A COMMENT
To leave a comment use
this link POST A COMMENT
30 comments:
Would it be possible to reprint the emails going from
Charter members on this site?
Paul Livius wrote, "Normally we put the city's link to the You Tube site if anyone wants to view the meeting reported on this page. We checked and found that the city's link does not work! We did some digging and here is the correct link to view last Tuesday's City Council Meeting:"
So yeah, sure, entrust city hall to timely publish video of the charter commission meetings and see where that gets you.... Not A Good Idea is it! Anybody with 2 thumbs can upload video to youtube. We don't need to have city hall messing that up.
Talk about messed up; comments from this week are still posting to last week's blog
We checked our internal links to make sure they are working properly. This week's posts are going to the current page as they should.
We have found that sometimes readers will post to the previous stories by hitting on the "Post a Comment" link from the previous week's posts.
We did notice that (coincidentally!) the city's website links were "fixed" this morning.
Glad to be of some help!
Pat Casady wrote and asked if it would be possible to post all of the emails that were sent out by members of the Charter Commission.
We talked and thought about this for some time and finally decided not to.
Most of the messages were simple inquiries as to when will the first meeting be, who can make different times, etc.
Some of them, like a message from City Clerk Teresa Newton, which was copied/replied to city officials as well as charter/elect members, was very lengthy.
Re-printing them would be a lot of work, and, upon reflection, shed little light onto the process of determining when to have the first meeting.
In other words, people would find them major boring.
The good news is that nearly all of the members of the newly elected Charter Commission are showing a healthy interest in what is before them.
Stay tuned. We will keep you informed as the process plays out in the months to come.
Last week information leaked out about the land developer who put in the shopping center that Aldi's is in. I heard it has gone belly up. Can anyone tell us more about it and how it effects the money the city gave to help finance this project?.
The readers who are on Facebook should check out Flaherty & Collins Properties on Facebook. One month ago Lakrissa Trujillo wrote, "I lives at Prairie Apartments in South Bend for four years. All I can say is horrible management. They replaced one lady with another horrible one. They don't train the office employees well either. I paid a good amount for rent just for people to live there, not pay rent and sell drugs! Management knows about it but nothing gets done there. Glad we are purchasing a home. That place was a nightmare and we just moved from there in October." Readers these are the high class developers the city officials want to give your green space away to free of charge and then bank roll them on all of our backs with a TIF to build apartments like Lakrissa Trujillo moved from.
We heard the rumor as well. So today I contacted City Hall to check out the story. The city's exposure is limited because the payments from the loan come from what is the equivalent to a CID tax paid for by a sales tax collected on items sold at Aldi's.
The only way for the city's revenue stream to be affected would be if Aldi's were to close down its operation at that location.
Something that is not anticipated.
It does, however accentuate one of the pitfalls of public/private partnerships. The risk of default is always present in a speculative operation.
Municipal governments should take care to make certain their partners in such ventures have a clean record in business.
The Mayor's favored Flaherty and Collins development in our town square gives that land to the developer for free. What's wrong with that?
What is eminent domain?
Eminent domain is the power of the government to take private property belonging to its citizens. It can also be called "condemnation" or, in some states, "expropriation." The 5th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states, "...[N]or shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."
Can eminent domain be used to take my property and give it to another private party?
The federal and state constitutions all say that property may only be condemned for "public use." For many years, governments applied that term to mean that property could be taken for things like roads, schools, and public buildings.
Then, courts allowed eminent domain to be used for private corporations that had public utilities, like electric companies and railroads. Starting in the 1950s, eminent domain became increasingly used for "slum clearance." Once an area was declared to be a slum or blighted, it could be cleared using eminent domain, and the property could often then be transferred to another private party. Increasingly, over the second half of the twentieth century, local governments have tried to use eminent domain in order to transfer land to other private parties. Whether and under what circumstances courts will allow this abuse of eminent domain is a matter of state law. Several states permit condemnations for economic development, but some do not. You will have to research and/or consult with a local lawyer to determine if the particular condemnation in your situation is legal. It may violate your state constitution. Also, sometimes agencies fail to comply with state statutes or required procedures, and such failures will also make the condemnation illegal. But even if you happen not to ultimately prevail in court, however, you still have morality and justice on your side. The purpose of the Castle Coalition is to give people the tools to prevent condemnations for the benefit of private parties without having to resort to legal proceedings.
Educate yourself > http://castlecoalition.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=24&Itemid=128
If I were the BOA and Mayor I would take a hard look at the Flahery and Collins deal. Giving city property away is bad enough.
Those stories I read in other publications would give me pause to wonder if this development is really in Raytown's best interest.
educate yourself:
http://southtownstar.suntimes.com/news/7292245-418/building-anxiety-in-orland-park.html#.U1euWKKylEM
Greg, you seen to be able to get answers. If the Flaherty & Collins development (CID) in town square is paid from tax revenue from Aldi's and Aldi's has defaulted on their loan from the city, where does that leave things?
Many are using the word consensus more frequently, a word that bears clarification and once understood for what it is, should be avoided.
Consensus is arrived at by diluting people's differing opinions into one big grey area. Hegel first introduced the term and it was put into use by MARX, a well known socialist. It is used to modify people's belief systems and to circumvent fact-based reasoning.
CONSENSUS is based on the Hegelian Dialectic and is the opposite of Didactic reasoning.
Didactic: 1) man is not good, 2) he does not will to do good, 3) and his passions are not right. Therefore man's heart must be change. Individualism. Didactic reasoning is deductive reasoning. "Deductive reasoning holds to a very high standard of correctness ... In a deductive argument, the truth of the premises is supposed to guarantee the truth of the conclusion; the truth of its premise guarantees the truth of its conclusion, there is no middle ground." Garth Kemerling
CONSENSUS is reached as a result of applying the Hegelian Dialectic, or Dialectic reasoning.
Dialectic: 1) man is basically good, 2) he wills to do good, 3) and his passions are right. Therefore must make the environment healthy for man to actualize his goodness. Socialism: The praxis (practice) of Patricide and Incest. "In the eyes of dialectical philosophy, nothing is established for all times, nothing is absolute or sacred." Karl Marx:
"...'good teaching' is the teacher’s ability to attain affective objectives through challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and getting them to discuss issues." Benjamin S. Bloom Taxonomy of Educational Objectives Book II: Affective Domain (1964) p. 54
"By dialectic, I mean an activity of conscious, struggling to circumvent, the limitations imposed by the formal-logical law of contradiction." Norman A. Brown in Life Against Death, 1959
When you're told something was done because consensus had been reached, you will know that the facts were circumvented in order to reach a pre-planned outcome. Those who use the word CONSENSUS are exposing themselves for what they are.
To all elected charter members:
In an effort to eliminate anyone claiming minutes from the charter meets are not properly documented, I recommend that you hire a court reporter or have the meets recorded and sent to a transcriber to type up.
Although this information is great for those who might be thinking about using a roofing company form Kamas, the thing that really caught my eye was "Open records help keep government in check"
As posted in The Wichita Eagle Sunday, Jan 19, 2014
Each Monday, The Eagle highlights a government record that is available to the public. Open records help people keep government in check and help them better understand how government affects their lives.
For a complete list of You Oughta Know columns, go to www.kansas.com/oughta.
The records: A database of roofing contractors registered by the Kansas Attorney General’s Office to do business in Kansas.
Why you’d want it: To protect yourself and your home. A law went into effect July 1 requiring that roofing contractors obtain a registration certificate from the Attorney General’s Office to legally provide commercial or residential roofing services for a fee in Kansas.
Where you get it: The attorney general’s website, www.ag.ks.gov/in-your-corner-kansas/your-home-car/roofing.
How much it will cost: The information is free.
There has been a lot of talk this week about the developer for the property where Aldi's is located.
All this talk has reminded me about something with the property and statements our Mayor repeats often. For those that might not shop Aldi's, the parking lot is falling apart with pot holes all over the place and based on the number of large cracks many more pot holes are to come. The parking lot as well as things with the building should have been monitored and approved throughout the construction by the city inspector.
So what was inspected?
If the parking lot is any clue, is the building safe to be in or is it another Hyatt skywalk tragedy waiting to happen.
This leads to the question for the Mayor on how can he continue to claim we have professionals at city hall when our own eyes clearly see the problem with the Aldi's parking lot and have to ask what was not inspected that the parking lot is already failing.
4/23 6;27p that would be a certified legal stenographer, to record a legal record.
Shame on us:
I’m sorry the way this town is being run.
I’m sorry that this town’s city hall insists on doing
business with bad developers. Most of all I’m sorry
the people of Raytown have to keep paying for the
dumb mistakes the elected people keep making.
It is clear they can’t or won’t learn from their past
mistakes. They feel they are right no matter how wrong
they are. i.e.:
WalMart costing the taxpayers millions over a 23 year span.
Bad developers costing hundreds of thousands with nothing
being done, and another in line waiting to shaft the taxpayers
yet again.
Thousands of dollars wasted on surveys.
Tax increases being used for other than what they were
supposed be used for.
Streets falling apart.
Extremely high pay raises given to a department that
clearly doesn’t follow the promises he made to the people
when he took the job and their money.
Codes not being enforced and good citizens being told to
handle code violators face to face.
City hall lending and giving away your tax dollars as well
as city owned property.
Most of all I am sorry that you the voters keep re-electing
the very people you complain about. You even elected several
to be on the charter commission that clearly don’t want any
of the above to change.
8:03am - You're right. Shame on us. Just remember that we get the kind of government we elect. We keep electing Joe Creamer, Bill Van Buskirk, Pat Ertz and Jim Aziere. When the people keep electing these folks, it means they don't care that the streets have holes in them, that we are paying millions to keep Walmart afloat, or that businesses are defaulting on their loans. So - yes, shame on us.
The reason they're letting our streets go to ____ is so that they can declare blight on the areas where the streets decay. After that, they move in and start grabbing the land from the property owners for next to nothing.
In addition, they don't want us to have the mobility and freedom cars provide so streets are low priority.
Think that's not true? Listn again to Bower's 2014 State of the City address. In it he says, "Raytown citizens don't want to drive cars."
Truth be told, Bower and MARC don't want us to drive cars and have the freedom to travel in them at-will. They want us on foot, on bicycles or in railcars. Next they'll be herding us to 'the showers'.
It's truly strange to see what is happening to Raytown in the three short years that I have had my donut shop. We just had a Egg Extravaganza here and not a Easter Egg Hunt. In a city that has more churches I am told then any other city in the state of Mo. We just had the election and most of Raytown did not even take the time to vote. Raytown citizens enjoy cars but maybe Bower can make them think they don't. Anything can happen. It's all truly amazing to me.
Finance Director resigning. No surprise there, given the mess the current administration has made of city finances. We may see rats jumping ship like crazy. A regular mutiny on the bounty... at least on the part of the smart rats.
I hope Mike Downing won't be taping the charter commission meetings. Due to the fact that he was dead-set against forming the charter and would be a poor choice for the job.
My wife works at Spring Valley Elementary. Of the whole school, only three teachers are returning next year. The teachers have not received a raise in 9 years. At least they will have new restrooms and a nice football stadium.
Easter and churches in Raytown? Yes Easter is the celebration of the reserection of Christ and all the local churches did celebrate and had times on their marque. Easter eggs dates back to pages origins. The many Churches in Raytown the one blogger commented about May have not noticed their Marques . I did even notice that last week several bloggers wished others a Blessed Easter,
Yes agreed it has been the past three years; coincidence?? Maybe
I would like to know where someone is getting information that the teachers at Spring Valley didn't get a raise in 9 years.
The school district announced a year or so back that after three years teachers got raises.
If your point is true why didn't you bring it up before the April 8th election and get people out to vote "NO" on the tax increase.
Sounds like more to this story.
If it is true, which I don't believe I hope it is the first step in pay for performance as we have several schools in the district that could do better on test, but I am also not sure how much of that is the teacher's fault and how much is just another example of useless parents.
To Elisa the event called Egg Extravaganza had numerous activities; parade , booths, story time, car show , Easter Bunny, Egg hunt to name a few. Also all the churches in Raytown had services; some go several days and of an evening for those who work sat/sun. ... Yes things have changed in the past 3 yrs since you have had a bussiness here but it sure wasn't what you projected about Our Easter Celebrations in Our Town
12:12
Raytown teachers have had their pay frozen for several years while several more upper management was hired and the class ratio to actual instructor increased. My neighbor used to work for the district and is why they left. It's truely sad that folks didn't even challenge this "just nod your head" school board.
It's truly amazing to me how much a resident of Independence has to say about what happens here in Raytown. Also how she berates us with comments such as "we just had an election....." we??? indeed? Why not say "you just had an election..." which is more the truth. BTW.... Elisa, I see that the amazing voters of your city of Independence who were voting for mayor among other things turned out way less than 50% of eligible voters. I hope you scolded them appropriately.
To Raytown Newbie
I sooo agree with you!! And then there are some people who just live their life to bereat
Post a Comment