RAYTOWN'S LEADING NEWS SOURCE

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BY GREG WALTERS

A BloggerTalks Back

AND OUR RESPONSE

We received an email challenging last week’s lead story about the missing records at City Hall.

In that story we reported the City of Raytown had lost six boxes of public records concerning Raytown TIF projects. The missing documentation last known whereabouts occurred when the City took possession of six boxes from the Campos Law Firm of Lee’s Summit. Campos had been contracted by the city to maintain the records.  

At the time, City Staff had determined they could maintain the records in house thus relieving the Campos Laws Firm of the responsibility of maintaining the public records.

The records were delivered by Campos Law Firm to the city.

The blogger wrote . . .

Maybe this is too obvious, but how did the City Finance Director complete 7 years worth of project finance reports last month without the records to do so? Either your source is wrong or the reports that were submitted 7 years late are completely made up numbers... I know which I would be.

The confusion the blogger is having is understandable.

He (or she) is correct in his statement about the delinquent seven years of reports. The City Finance Director recently completed the reports. However, those reports are only summaries of transactions required by the Missouri Department of Economic Development. 

They do not include the detailed records and agreements between the City, Developer, and other taxing entities like Jackson County, the Raytown School District, the Mid-Continent Public Library and most notably, the Raytown Fire Protection District.

The City is currently involved in a dispute with the Fire District over the misappropriation of sales tax receipts from certain TIF Projects in Raytown. 

The dispute could spell serious trouble for the City and some TIF Projects in Raytown. So far, the Raytown Fire Board has decided to withhold payment of tax receipts to the City until the issue is resolved. Just as important is news that petition gatherers calling for a state audit of the city have passed the halfway mark in gathering petitions for their effort.

The six cases of documents that have gone missing are required by the State of Missouri to be kept by City. The City can delegate this duty another entity like Campos Law Firm. But it is still the city’s responsibility to maintain the public records. 

It is why the City has held discussions with United Missouri Bank (UMB) to provide copies of the missing documents. 

As we reported last week, banking officials have estimated the cost of recreating the files at $5000.00.

Failure of Accountability 
Unfortunately, this latest failure of accountability is a continuation of missteps at City Hall this past year.

Last summer it became clear that City Staff had not been apportioning sales tax revenue for a Storm Sewer/Park Sales Tax as promised the voters in 2010 when they approved the tax. City Staff had been awarding 100% of the sales tax revenue to City Parks for over five years! Storm sewer issues were not addressed.

The point is that for over five years City Staff allowed the misappropriation of tax dollars to continue. No one was aware of the problem until a newly elected Councilman, Ward 1 Alderman Karen Black blew the whistle on the error. 

The result was that five years of flood prevention was not built in Raytown.

The City Administrator and City Finance Director are (collectively) paid in excess of over $250,000.00 annually.

Their job is to make certain city business is conducted in a prudent and efficient manner. The costly mis-steps by City Staff reflect poorly on the City and are costly as well. Misplacing six boxes of public records that eventually cost upwards to $5,000.00 to replace is not a confidence builder. Neither is misappropriating sales tax dollars. 

The resulting dispute between the Fire District and the City is not good for anyone in our town.

Blaming the problem on staff turnover is a false excuse. If City Staff cannot be trusted to conduct the collecting of taxes and proper storage of important public documents then it is time to start searching for someone who will.

From our point of view, the taxpayers are not receiving a good return for their tax dollars. The Board of Aldermen and Mayor should take steps to make certain there is not a repeat of sloppy business practices at city hall.

Paul's Rant BY PAUL LIVIUS 
Cost Over-runs are becoming all too commonplace at City Hall. Two meetings back the back the Board appropriated $97,000 additional dollars to the Downtown Landscape project. Public Works forgot to include the cost of a project engineer to oversee the project. The project has been on the books for well over two years.

At the last meeting the Police Department asked for and received $76,000 additional dollars for new furniture for their renovated headquarters. How could anyone forget you will need furniture when upgrading a facility?

You can add these costly mis-steps to sloppy business practices. The next question needed to be answered is who is responsible.

• Brenda Gustafason, Raytown’s Public Information Officer has resigned her position at Raytown City Hall. The question remaining is will the position be filled. The position was created by former Mayor David Bower. Before that time, the city did not have a PIO since it was founded over 50 years ago. We asked Mayor Michael McDonough if he intended to keep or eliminate the position. Ever the diplomat, the Mayor responded. “I will not make any comments about that right now. It’s something we're going to look at soon.” 

• Cost Over-runs are becoming all too commonplace at City Hall. Two meetings back the back the Board appropriated $97,000 additional dollars to the Downtown Landscape project. Public Works forgot to include the cost of a project engineer to oversee the project. The project has been on the books for well over two years.At the last meeting the Police Department asked for and received $76,000 additional dollars for new furniture for their renovated headquarters. How could anyone forget you will need furniture when upgrading a facility?

• Secret Meetings . . . Someone has filed complaint with the Attorney General’s office over Board members meeting with Fire Officials last month. Raytown Board members met individually or at the most (three at a time) to discuss concerns the Fire District had over sales tax collections and billing by the City. We checked the law books on this one. No quorum was created, not motions were made, no vote was taken, not business was conducted. In other words, nothing even approaching illegal happened.

• Speaking of the Secret Meetings . . . at last Tuesday’s meeting the Board went into executive session to discuss the Attorney General’s letter. But they almost did not. There were nine members present (Alderman Jim Aziere was absent). Four of the Board members voted to discuss the item in open session – those four Meyers, Jason Greene, Black and Moore obviously did not see the sense in discussing such a non- issue in private. They fell one vote short – voting to go into close session: Mock, VanBuskirk, Teeman, Josh Greene and Emerson. Kind of ironic . . . those last five wanted to go into a secret meeting to discuss secret meetings!

• Speaking of Jim Aziere . . . As reported Aziere was absent from the meeting. Which is correct – to a point. The Ward 2 Alderman was seen entering City Hall at the close of regular business. Apparently, he did make it in time for the closed session.

The Paul Livius Report

Raytown Board of Aldermen Meeting – April 5, 2016 

Reverend Pat Jackson, from the Blue Ridge Presbyterian Church, invited everyone to the Mayors’ Prayer Breakfast.  This year it will be at the Good Shephard Community of Christ on May 5 at 7:00 am.  He also said he has been working on an Interfaith Directory.  The committee tried to include all faith communities in the Raytown area.

Mary Tate said she needs help with resources.  She is retired and doesn’t know who to contact for the help she needs.  Mayor McDonough gave her his card and said she should call him and he will help her.

The Board approved a resolution approving an agreement with Midwest Animal ResQ for animal adoption services.  The City of Raytown provides animal services which include impounding animals.  When animals are impounded the City strives to return them to their owners. There are times, however, when the owners are not able to be found. When this occurs the impounded animals are currently released to the City’s veterinary services provider following the City’s 10-day impoundment period.  This results in each respective released animal being owned by the veterinary clinic.

While the veterinary services provider has provided animals for adoption they have limited kennel space and, therefore, it has limited the time an animal is available for adoption. Upon approval of the agreement, animals that are not returned to their owner will be released to Midwest Animal ResQ rather than the City’s veterinary services provider. Midwest Animal ResQ is in the process of opening a pet adoption center at 10312 E. 63rd Street, which will provide an increased number of kennels and enable animals to be available for adoption for longer periods of time. Based upon the number of animals impounded in 2014 and 2015, minus those animals that were returned to their owners, it is estimated that there will be an estimated 280 animals available for adoption.

 In comparison, over the same time period an average of 79 animals were adopted. Therefore, it is anticipated that the agreement will result in significant increase in the City’s live release rate of impounded animals.  Midwest Animal ResQ will charge an annual fee of $7,000.00 for the animal adoption services, which will be paid by the City on a monthly basis.  The total fee amount is based upon a cost of $25.00 per animal with an estimate of 280 animals being released to Midwest Animal ResQ per year. John Benson said Raytown has a poor image in the Kansas City area due to the poor adoption rate.  Last year, the city impounded 471 animals.

That was a 20% increase from prior year.  The number of Raytown Animal Hospital kennels has not increased.  Alderman Van Buskirk said if an animal is picked up and not claimed, the city has to pay the cost to treat the animal if it is sick or injured.  He said he could not support this resolution.  He does not believe it is an appropriate use of tax dollars. Alderman Meyers said he will support this resolution.  No one has convinced him there will be a significant number of sick or injured animals unclaimed.  Alderman Emerson said the city has been paying Raytown Animal Hospital to care for impounded animals for years.  The only difference now is there will be fewer animals euthanized.  Alderman Moore said he disagreed with Alderman Van Buskirk.  He believes tax money must be put to good use and this does that.

The Board passed a resolution approving the purchase of workstations and equipment from knoll off the U.S. Communities Cooperative Bid in an amount not to exceed $76,208.  The Police Department recently underwent substantial interior renovation. These renovations included many work spaces used by officers, detectives, command staff, as well as citizens who have occasion to visit the Police Department. The Department is now in need of equipment and workstations to best utilize the renovated space. Much of the office space equipment is decades old, and designed for a floor plan that no longer exists. Many of the old pieces of equipment suffered severe physical stress by being moved out, and then back in, as part of the construction process. The included furniture proposal from Knoll shows a design plan of both the layout and models of furniture/equipment selected for this project. The Department is able to utilize the U.S. Communities cooperative bid, which provides deeply discounted pricing. Knoll products include an excellent warranty, covering lifetime parts and service on the workstations and 12 years on chairs.

Knoll also maintains a non-obsolescence policy, making future renovations and service possible within this same product line.  Alderman Mark Moore asked Chief Lynch if they could wait another year and put it in next year’s budget.  There are too many other needs, such as street repairs and the police department needs to wait.  They have newly remodeled offices and new police vehicles.  Alderman Van Buskirk said he would support this resolution because the money to pay for this comes from the Safety Sales tax, not the general fund.  The Safety Sales tax dollars can’t be used for street repairs.

How they voted: Purchase of New Furniture for Police Department.

YES:         Bill Van Buskirk, Janet Emerson, Josh Greene, Steve Mock, Steve Meyers, Eric Teeman,

NO:           Jason Greene, Mark Moore, Karen Black

ABSENT: Jim Aziere

A discussion on moving into Closed Session was conducted.

How they voted:
MOVE INTO CLOSED SESSION:

Bill Van Buskirk, Janet Emerson, Josh Greene, Steve Mock, Eric Teeman

HOLD DISCUSSION IN OPEN SESSION:

Jason Greene, Mark Moore, Steve Meyers, Karen Black

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