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The
Paul Livius Report
Raytown
Board of Aldermen Meeting – May 2, 2017
Mayor McDonough proclaimed April 40 to May 5 to be
Detention Officers week.
The Board passed a resolution amending the budget related
to the police pension fund in the amount of $45,272. Each year the City contributes to the frozen
Police Pension Fund. The Police Pension contribution for FY16-FY17 was budgeted
by Finance at last year’s contribution of $562,862.00. Finance Director Briana
Burrichter reviewed the actuarial evaluation and found the annual contribution
rate for the City has increased by $45,272.00 for a total of $608,134.00. The
City is requesting a budget adjustment of $45,272.00. The budget for the frozen
Police Pension was funded 83% by the general fund and 17% Public Safety Sales
Tax. The same split was originally requested for the budget adjustment. The Board voted to fund the payment as 50% by
the general fund and 50% Public Safety Sales Tax.
The Board passed an ordinance amending chapter 50 of the
code of ordinances for the purpose of updating requirements for the placement
of communications towers within city limits. The Board voted to suspend the
rules and hear the second reading at this meeting. In 2015, the Missouri Legislature passed a new
statute cited as “Uniform Wireless Communications Infrastructure Deployment
Act” which was intended to encourage and streamline the deployment of wireless
facilities. Section 67.5094 prohibited many of the performance standards
contained in the existing Raytown zoning ordinance. In other words, many of the
existing standards were in conflict with state statute and could not be legally
enforced. Division 19 was created paralleling the new statute, however, many of
the existing standards were included if they complied with the new law.
Communications towers are rapidly being constructed in municipalities across
the country as cell phone and wireless networks continue to expand and increase
coverage to consumers. The location of these towers as they are constructed
often becomes an issue for local governments as they fight to keep them out of
historic or aesthetically important areas, or even public properties like
municipal rights-of-way. Without the proper proactive legislation, it becomes
very difficult for municipalities to restrict the placement of communications
towers once companies have already begun expanding their networks. In order to
address this issue, staff is presenting a proposal to amend the zoning
ordinance of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Raytown to give the City
more power in enforcing the location, number, and aesthetic design of
communications towers that networks may try to place in Raytown.
The Board passed a resolution approving the purchase of Panasonic
Toughbooks for police department vehicles from World Wide technology off the
state of Missouri services contract in an amount not to exceed $27,315. The Police Department has developed an IT
replacement and maintenance plan for the technology related equipment within
the Department. The plan encompasses the replacement of in-car computers in
marked/unmarked police cars. The in-car computers that have been purchased in
the past, the Motorola MW 810, are no longer being manufactured or supported by
Motorola. Research was conducted and we determined the Panasonic Toughbook
CF-54 was the best choice for in-car field use. Five were purchased last year
and are functioning fine. We are requesting to purchase six more computers this
budget year. Pricing for the computers and mounting hardware is under the State
of Missouri Prime Vendor contract through World Wide Technology, Inc. Total
cost for computers, support and mounting hardware will be $27,315.60. This
project was presented to the Sales Tax Oversight Committee on April 18, 2017
and was found to meet the intent of the Capital Sales Tax.
POSTED BY GREG WALTERS
Every Now and Then a syndicated columnist
will write a story so concise and spot on correct that it should be repeated.
Leonard Pitts of the Miami Herald wrote one such story last week. Though this
may be “old news” to many, it should be required reading for anyone who values
First Amendment Rights.
A little background is in order. Mr. Pitts is
writing about another public commentator name Ann Coulter. It would be fair to
say Ann Coulter is a champion of right wing politics. Leonard Pitts is a
champion of left wing politics.
The topic is a public speaking engagement Ms.
Coulter was to make at the University of California, Berkeley. Her address was
eventually called off by the school.
Ann Coulter is right. Period.
BY LEONARD PITTS, JR.
So here is what should offend you even more
than Coulter, particularly if you live in a place like Berkeley, with its
121,000 people and 170 police officers. A bunch of thugs just established that
you can bully a public institution in a relatively small town into disinviting
a controversial speaker. Which of our other freedoms will they come after next?
Coulter called Wednesday “a sad day for free
speech.” This next sentence will cause physical pain for some of you to read,
but you need to just the same:
Ann Coulter was right.
 |
| POSTED BY GREG WALTERS |
A little background is in order. Mr. Pitts is
writing about another public commentator name Ann Coulter. It would be fair to
say Ann Coulter is a champion of right wing politics. Leonard Pitts is a
champion of left wing politics.
The topic is a public speaking engagement Ms.
Coulter was to make at the University of California, Berkeley. Her address was
eventually called off by the school.
Ann Coulter is right. Period.
BY LEONARD PITTS, JR.
So here is what should offend you even more
than Coulter, particularly if you live in a place like Berkeley, with its
121,000 people and 170 police officers. A bunch of thugs just established that
you can bully a public institution in a relatively small town into disinviting
a controversial speaker. Which of our other freedoms will they come after next?
Coulter called Wednesday “a sad day for free
speech.” This next sentence will cause physical pain for some of you to read,
but you need to just the same:
Ann Coulter was right.
33 comments:
The Pitts article was an excellent read. Thanks for sharing Greg. I've always had a lot of respect for his integrity. I may not always agree but I do respect.
Clever little shell game you are playing. The new pension does not require contributions by the people participating in it. We are not talking about one from years ago from which pension funds were transferred. We are talking about going forward. It is not over-funded. It is too much for a city this size. The city has been robbing from street maintenance for years. What have they taken from the police department? By the way, calling people names will not make the realities of simple math go away. The city council is trying hard to fix things. That is fine. But they are going to have to make some dificult decisions if Raytown is to thrive. I have not seen any of those tough call yet. Have you?
No one is going to ruffle the Police Department feathers. Why do you think Ex PD officer McDonough ran and was put in place as Mayor? We aren't blind, but PD is allowed to get away with anything they darn well please, the citizens of Raytown, be dammed!
Dear Mayor and BOA,
Please take money earmarked for the PD's portion of the budget and bloated pension plan, and instead put a new sidewalk and repave asphalt street in front of my home.
Sign, Every homeowner in Raytown
P.S. You could easily enforce codes if you cut into the top heavy PD Administration desk jockeys and professional seminar attendees.
Alderman Mims made a very astute observation at the last meeting. She said city hall is a business and the board has to be business minded in how they handle things. They need to be cognizant of where the city is going and what the future will look like. I bet none of the other aldermen knew this. A huge thank you for pointing this out to them.
A saw an interesting comment on Pitts article -- it was on the Miami Herald's blog. The writer said he will have to check the weather in hell because he never thought he would agree with anything Pitts had written!
Hey 2:32 you're letting your ignorance of the election process and the conduct of municipal government show. Good job!
2:32
I don't know why you voted for Mike McDonough, but I voted for him because he wasn't Pat Ertz. Now, don't get me wrong. Pat is a nice guy. He did a lot of good things for Raytown. But, he was also an extension of Bully Bower. None of us wanted four more years of a mayor who was running off new businesses and hiring poor senior staff.
Pat Ertz was about as ignorant as the last board in letting the old City Manager do what he did at the pay he did it at. He is about as two faced as his mentor Bower, prentending not to be involved in the city council races while he really was. Someone needs to look into the Water Supply he operates, might find some issues.
A truly rich man is one whose children run into his arms when his hands are empty.
Food for thought.
It is our own fault, time after time the council gets caught re handed and time after time they simply say there is nothing to see here and we buy it like a storm trooper looking for droids. Just look at the past year; stealing from the sewer fund to support super splash....The City response, the wording was confusing. The Walmart TIF is a nearly bankrupt fraud which the city has failed to disclose for 5 years... The City response, The fire districts crazy in and later that was the former CA's fault and he's resigned . EMS cannot get people to want to work here and hundreds of calls had to be answered by Kansas City as a result . The cities response it was our standards are too high and we run an excellent service we are proud of . Now the police pension is a half $1 million a year short . In the city response is it's no big deal. When is enough going to be enough when are we going to stand up as a community and demand a clear and transparent city government when are we going to take or city back?
Let’s say for the sake of argument that you’re correct. Let’s say that at the next election, every incumbent is tossed out. Then what? The city will still have to fund the pension plan. State and Federal law prohibits closing the pension plan. What’re you going to do?
The city will still have to pay $3.5 million in principal and interest for the Walmart TIF bonds. The alternative is to default. Is that your suggestion? You claim the residents didn’t know about the huge principal and interest payments to the TIF fund. Why not? It was discussed a dozen times or more at the city council meetings. It’s the #1 item on the budget report every year. (This, btw, can be found on the city’s website.) Just because the residents choose not to watch the meetings on the government channel or on you tube or on the internet doesn’t mean the city was hiding the information. It just means the residents don’t get involved. How is that the fault of the BOA?
Shortly after being elected, the Board discovered the required TIF paperwork had not been filed. The mayor saw to it that it was done properly. The Board found out there was a problem with the TIF and the fire department. The one Board member who worked the hardest to resolve the issue was criticized, vilified, and darn near crucified by a former alderman. The criticism didn’t stop until a current alderman finally admitted nothing illegal, immoral, or unethical happened. So, now what do you want done?
You sound like you have drank from the same cup as the Raytown Times and/or Joe Creamer. If so, you are misguided, misinformed, and gullible.
Roger, Your right. 9:19 sounds like Randy Battagler or Joe Creamer. It's just sour grapes. They lost and they keep losing. The two candidates they backed in the last election have turned out to be duds. Neither one has uttered a peep at the city council meetings. So much for youth and enthusiasm or age and cunning. It would appear both are afraid of their shadows. The people get the representation they deserve.
9:47 Two of the elected officials you speak of have never been in city government. Ms. Mims is new, but she has held public office previously. Give the new guys a chance to get adjusted and I'm sure they will work out fine. There is always a learning curve when you get a new job.
10:14
I bet they are getting an education, learning that their guidence from Jimmy Aziere was a joke.
One of them ran on the campaign idea that he was younger and more energetic than the incumbent. All we see is a bump on a log. There is no energy. Just blank stares. Maybe it's like 10:14 said - he's in shock to find out his mentor is a liar.
Such nonsense. There are not a state or federal laws that prohibit a pension fund from being changed, short-funded or even experience of reduction in benefits. Check out Detroit. Check out Puerto Rico. The governor there cut pensions by 10% and did awway with a perks like paid extended personal time off. The city council could do somehting about it. But will they? Overtime is allowed to run unchecked. Eventually people will vote with their feet and leave the city for better government and accountablility.
8:50 -
Vote with our feet? There are fewer empty houses in my subdivision every day. In the past year, there have been five young families move into my area. Before you start screaming that someone had to leave - yes they did. Some went into nursing homes and some died. No one moved to Lees Summit or Independence.
There have been six new restaurants open in Raytown in the last two years. Freddie's just opened. The town is growing and recovering. Things are looking up here. The feet are coming here, not away.
I suppose you want to blame the closing of the Radio Shack store on the current mayor and city council. Go ahead. Then we'll start laughing at you the way we did with the former alderman.
Randy's candidates on the BOA should have spoke up about the police pension after all they have had a piece in Randy's paper about the spending of the police department.
One of them was also on KCTV5 outside the police department complaining about lack of oversight.
Seems they both should now have a lot to say, but maybe Joe Creamer and Jim Azierer having written their comments for them.
Can Steve Meyers or possibly Doc explain to me why it is the standard practice ic the Fire Department to park in the lot like everyone else when shopping at HyVee, but on a Friday evening the Raytown EMS unit 302 thinks they are entitled to block half the drive and park in the fire lane to do their shopping? It's hard enough to get in an out of that lot without a big red box blocking the drive. And before everyone jumps on the what if bandwagon I clearly watched the crew milling around the store shopping and you will not convince me the extra 50 feet they have to walk by parking in the lot is a matter of life or death. There is a reason they are called fire lanes people, not ambulance workers who don't like to walk lanes. If the fire trucks can do it why can't the ambulances?
6:47 PM
I think your rational questions are as good anything I can come up with at this time. I'm sure the response time would be the main rebuttal for the parking. Of course a Fire Truck is just a "tad" larger than an ambulance and the only logical parking spot is where they park in the far spots at Hy-Vee.
Steve Meyers
Because the driver of the fire truck stays in the truck and will pull up to get the rest of the crew and the ambulance only has two authorized to drive and were both inside.
6:29 -
That's what we call a ah-ha moment. :)
And the fire zones can be used by any emergency vehicle whether on emergency call or not sense logically they would be the first ones to be had an emergency call if they were already there hope it simple enough
I have received a couple calls this morning about the post yesterday regarding the use of the firelanes at HyVee and thought it best to weigh in on this. Firelanes are required by the adopted fire code of the Raytown Fire Protection District to provide access by emergency vehicles when they are responding to an incident at that structure. I do know know if the ambulance was responding to a call yesterday, if they were it would be standard proceedure for them to utilize the firelanes and we encourage them to do so. That said if they were there shopping it would be a misuse of the firelanes, just as it would be if they had used their lights and sirens in order to get to the store faster to shop. When not responding to emergencies, emergency vehicles are required to follow all the same rules as ordinary vehicles and the laws governing firelanes are no different. As far as the questions about why the firetrucks park in the lot, it's because we have a policy against non emergency use of fire lanes by firetrucks. We stress the importance to our personnel that they set the example for others to follow, which includes not blocking firelanes. Matt Mace, Fire Chief
The first letter writer wrote he witnessed EMS personnel doing their shopping at HyVee for an extended period of time while the ambulance was left out front blocking one of the lanes in front of HyVee. I certainly hope someone steps up at city hall an has a talk with the ambulance personnel involved. Another question that comes to mind is why are they shopping while on duty in the first place. I think we could find better use of the ambulance than to use it to make a grocery store run!
"ah ha" indeed.
Same reason fire depts do
They work 24 hour or longer shifts and have facilities at their stations to cook
That's been a standard for all fire for over a century and for EMS since they have existed
Ah ha and duh
The head of EMS thinks he is better than anyone else.
Therefore are we really surprised about those that report to him believing they too are not special and can do what they want.
You are upset because EMS was blocking your access to the grocery store? Please let me know how you feel about that when you need emergency treatment for a cardiac arrest or stroke. Time matters when saving a life.
No Cushman is not there anymore.
If you have a problem with the ambulances at EMS then why don't you be a big boy and complain to the city or the director instead of posting it on a public forum. It appears your maturity level needs some work.
You're right people who work on ambulances have super powers and they don't need food for 24 to 48 hours at a time. *ah ha*
Well considering your pumpers don't have to worry about response times to the outskirts of the city because Kansas City is sending their PUMPERS to those calls then I don't see how it would be an issue for your huge PUMPER to park 300 feet from the door. And considering your driver could pick them up closer to the door....2nd time I've tried to comment on this and it isn't getting approved. Hmmm?
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