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| BY GREG WALTERS |
Fire District Petition
Effort Gathering Steam
The Raytown Protection District has passed the half way mark
in its effort to petition the Missouri State Auditor to conduct an audit of the
City of Raytown.
The City and Fire District are in a dispute over the amount of
money paid by the Fire District to cover TIF obligations of the 350 Live TIF.
Most readers will recognize 350 Live as the TIF created (in part) to help finance
the Walmart store on 350 Highway.
Barb Schlapia, Vice President of the Raytown Fire
Protection Board of Directors, says anyone interested in signing the Audit
Petition can do so by stopping by Raytown Fire Station Number One located at 6020
Raytown Trafficway during regular business
hours.
RECOVERY OF CITY
RECORDS COULD BECOME COSTLY BY PAUL LIVIUS
Sources close to City Hall say the City has misplaced six
boxes of tax records regarding TIF projects in Raytown. A number of years back
the City of Raytown hired Williams and Campo Law Firm of Lee’s Summit to keep
track of all the records regarding the 350 Live TIF.
During the David Bower Administration It was determined by
city staff that the records could be kept just as well by City Hall. Six large
boxes of records pertinent to the TIF District were delivered to City Hall.
The problem faced by City Hall is that the records cannot
be found. The records are public documents and required be available to the
public. Sources close to City Hall say the city is considering hiring United
Missouri Bank to recover the records. United Missouri Bank handled the
financial transactions of the 350 Live TIF.
The cost to the city is set at $40 per hour. Banking
industry officials tell us the anticipated time needed to recover such a large
amount of documents could take up to three weeks.
The anticipated cost to the City of Raytown . . . . Close to
$5,000.00.
Six Candidates File for
Missouri House District 28
A large field of candidates has filed for the seat being
vacated by Representative Tom McDonald for the Missouri House of
Representatives – District 28. McDonald is term limited out from running for another
term of office. The 28th District includes 95% of the City of Raytown and the area between Raytown's northern city limits and Interstate 70.
Five of the candidates filed are running as Democrats. One
has filed as Republican. Following is a list of the candidates.
REPUBLICAN:
Bill Van Buskirk is the only candidate who has filed as a
Republican. He currently serves on the Raytown Board of Aldermen (Ward 4). He
also holds a seat on the Jackson County Republican Committee of Jackson County.
DEMOCRAT:
Jim Aziere is
currently serving on the Raytown Board of Aldermen (Ward 2). Aziere has run for
the seat twice before as Republican. He has switched parties to run as a
Democrat in this year’s race.
Josh Greene is
serving his first term on the Raytown Board of Alderman from Ward 1. This will
be his first attempt at running for a state office.
Jerome Barnes is
currently serving as a member of the Raytown School Board. This is his first
attempt running for a state office.
Pat Riehle is a
former Raytown Alderman (Ward 5). This is Riehle’s third attempt to run the
Missouri House of Representatives. He ran against the incumbent, Tom McDonald, in
2010 and 2012.
Diane Krizek is
the owner/publisher of the Raytown Brooking Eagle. This is her first attempt at
running for public office.
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28 comments:
I see Jim Aziere has once again swayed with the political breeze and is now running as a Democrat for the seat he's lost twice at as a Republican. The problem isn't the party but the politician. This simply is another example of how Aziere waffles.
How convenient! Sounds to me like the city should rent a bank vault to store important paper records! Would the state or the TIF district have copies of these documents? Were none of these records scanned?
Andy Whiteman
The race in the 28th District should be an exciting one, Greg thank you for pointing out the Aziere is really a Republican, who does he think he is fooling? Diane seems to be the most qualified, well rounded candidate for the job, all the others have too much baggage.
To anonymous 4:19 am
Where did you find the facts to back up your comment about Josh?; I'm sure we would all like to see that.
4:19 AM
If you are correct on flip flopper doesn't that mean any of the current office holders any place in MO would be too that fix this shoe?
Will you be calling them out too?
6:22 AM
You are correct only one choice now and that is Diane.
Others are either do nothings and only like to put their name on the ballot, but have done nothing to improve Raytown.
Diane gave us a true paper and cannot not be tied to any do nothing campaign
Brenda Gustafson quit PIO of Raytown
Flip flopping. Do you mean like Chris Koster, Democrat running for Governor? He used to be the darling of the Republican Party. Now he is the darling of the Democratic Party. You would think that some Dems would be glad that people like Jim Aziere have seen the light and moved over to their party!
Tomorrow's the big day. Don't forget to vote NO on the Earnings Tax.
Glad to hear Raytown's Public Information Officer has quit. Getting information from her was almost impossible. This is a great opportunity to save money by not replacing her. The position was created by Bower, she was his "snitch". After all, the City Administrator makes more than enough to give out information as requested and he by no means is overworked.
My thought on flip flopping is Frank White.
Speaking of him, now that he is county executive had he quit the T-Bones or is that the best place to call to find him.
I personally can't see any of the Democrats as good candidates. As for Diane's paper it is a total joke. She doesn't print any Raytown news only KC and what she does print quite often is only half truths.
I don't get to vote on the earnings tax. I just get to pay it for the privilege of working in KC.
Great news!
1 down at city hall and many more that need to go either on their own for for not doing their job.
I don't know abut your list but mine
1.) City Administrator
2.) City Development and Public Affairs Department
3.) City Clerk
4.) Park Director
5.) Finance Director
6.) Director of EMS
Yes, that is only the start and if you don't understand why these need to go all you need to do is drive around Raytown and / or read this blog about the Wal-Mart TIF mess.
Boy and Girls that is just the starting point. We have a bunch of non-department heads that need to go as they cannot explain why they are here or what they need for them is.
Glad to hear Raytown's Public Information Officer has quit. Getting information from her was almost
impossible. This is a great opportunity to save money by not replacing her. The position was
created by Bower, she was his "snitch". After all, the City Administrator makes more than enough
to give out information as requested and he by no means is overworked.
April 5, 2016 at 6:49 AM
Also so glad to hear the info on the PI officer, a complete waste of money for a city close to going under.
Please do not replace her.
We have three current alderman that are running for state rep and I hope everyone joins me in NOT voting for them.
They have done nothing to address the issue with city administrator and failure to file reports with the state and the missing paperwork that was brought to light on this blog.
Clearly they have a justification to fire the city administrator and by not doing so they are part of the problem.
We have enough problems in this state without sending one of these three to Jefferson City to do nothing like they have in Raytown.
I was just at the 63rd St Price Chopper.
They most have over 12 cameras pointed at that parking lot and the police need someone to come forward.
I thought the best witness are cameras I mean when did they start to lie.
Maybe they don't work, but seems like something more to what happened at the PC.
I'm voting for Aziere. If that what it takes to get him out of Raytown, then so be it. He can't do any worse than the other bozos in Jefferson City.
Whoa whoa whoa....wait a sec. I thought the last election was a mandate to change things at City Hall (whatever is perceived to be wrong), yet the comments on this site seem to indicate nothing has changed.
Just another example of what is wrong in Raytown.
You don't elect someone to something just to get them out of being an Alderman.
Do you really want to send that kind of message to the rest of the state that this is not only the type of people we have in Raytown, but this is the best thing we have to send?
Wait until he opens his mouth and flip flops on things like a state wide smoking ban that is right he was the Alderman who brought it up to end up voting against the ban for our city.
Wait until they find out he wants to turn all of the state back to 4th class cities, just has he has done at least 3 times to us.
Wait until they find out the condition of our schools and learn he is not only a former teacher, but still the swim coach.
NO Jim Aziere shouldn't hold any elected office.
Agreed. We should choose the best candidate. As it stands right now it looks like a field of equals. No leader stands above the rest. They have four months to show us who is the best candidate. The only exception is VanBuskirk. He has already won his race since he is the only Republican filed.
Maybe this is too obvious, but how did the City Finance Director complete 7 years worth of project finance reports last month with out 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 on.
Anyone that thinks the playing field is equal really doesn't know anything about the 5 candidate running as Democrats.
Let's see. One candidate has never run for public office. One candidate's experience was in a school board race, one candidate is a first term city councilman, one candidate has abanondoned his political party to run as a democrat and the the last candidate has run twice before and lost both times.
Please tell me which of the above sounds like they have a lock on who is going to win a five way primary?
Don't forget that flopping candidate who now thinks he is a Dem also has loss twice.
He changes is position at city hall like a teenage girl changes her clothes daily.
Clearly he is at the bottom of the pool.
Pun intended as he cannot swim, but is the swim coach
To me none of the Democrat candidates look good to me. It goes from no experience to changing parties to get elected. They must think we are pretty dumb voters.
This year I am doing exactly what Green and Aziere did, I always voted Democrat but this year I'M voting Republican. Especially at the state level and I can assure you I will do the same at the national level.
Jerome Barnes is the best choice .
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