About
Town . . . WHAT MAKES RAYTOWN
SPECIAL
A stroll on
the walking trail located at Colman Park (59th and Lane
Streets) took us to this Little Free Library. The “library” was a gift to Raytown by Raytown Rotary. The handsome wood shelves hold a treasure of books covering
all sorts of subjects.
Doughboy’s
Restaurant (67th and Woodson Road) has been recognized by
Channel Nine Television as one of the top five donut shops in the metropolitan
area. We did a little investigative reporting and found out the truth.
Doughboys was not rated in the top five. It was rated in the top two! We would
have found out if that meant first of second place . . . but we ran out
doughnuts to bribe our informant! |
| BY GREG WALTERS |
City
Administrator Tom Cole
tenders resignation
Raytown City Administrator Tom Cole tendered his resignation in writing to the Mayor and Board of Aldermen last Friday (4/6/18).
Raytown City Administrator Tom Cole tendered his resignation in writing to the Mayor and Board of Aldermen last Friday (4/6/18).
In a statement
to the Raytown Report Cole said he wished to explore other career paths open to
him. He said he appreciated the friends he had made in Raytown during his nine year
long stint with Raytown.
Cole
gave credit to the Board of Aldermen for having to make some very tough
decisions during last year’s budget process and was impressed with the
professionalism the Board demonstrated during the process.
Mr.
Cole will serve the rest of the month of April as City Administrator.
Tom Cole will be
Missed BY GREG WALTERS
“Tom
Cole was an able and capable Administrator for Raytown City Hall”. It is fair
to say those thoughts are shared by all the members of the Raytown Board of
Aldermen.
He
shepherded the Board through some very tumultuous times during last year’s
budget. The situation was always tense. On one side he had a unified Board of
Aldermen (the budget did pass unanimously). On the other side a Chief of Police
and Mayor who were adamantly opposed to change.
Tom
Cole showed all of us what can be accomplished by working with elected
officials toward a common goal. Through his efforts and the efforts of the
Board of Aldermen, the city is now on fiscally solid ground. The result of
their teamwork is something that has not been done in Raytown for a very long
time . . . a abalanced budget.
He deserves
every bit of the praise he is receiving for his work in Raytown.
Revolving Door a Problem BY PAUL LIVIUS
Mr. Cole
is the ninth management team member at City Hall to leave his position since
the last Mayoral election.
In just
one year the following Department Heads have left City Hall.
MAHESH
SHARMA (City Administrator)
TOM
COLE (City Administrator)
MARK LOUGHRY (City Finance Director)
BRIANA
BURRICHTER (City Finance Director)
KATIE
HORNER (Public Works Director)
JOHN
BENSON (Community
Development Director)
KEVIN
BOJI (Parks and Recreation Director)
TED
BOWMAN (Major in the RPD)
BRENDA
GUSTAFSON (Public Information
Officer)
No
doubt, those individuals left for varying reasons. Still, the
overwhelming truth is that such a large turnover of Senior Staff is an
indication of serious trouble in any organization. It speaks of an environment
that does not nurture the desire for management employees to stay.
Such an atmosphere is like a cancer that spreads. When other office employees
see their peers bullied and forced out they begin to wonder, “am I next?”
The
Raytown Board of Aldermen did a respectable job cleaning up years of abuse in
the city’s budget last summer. Now they have a more arduous task before them.
They need to root out those who would use their position and power to
intimidate and threaten employees at City Hall.
TRUTH
WATCH BY PAUL LIVIUS
This past week has seen a number of
contradictory statements in the Blog portion of the Raytown Report. Though
contradictory, the statements are timely . . .
and, judging by the response from our readers, of local interest.
So we thought we would clear up some of
the issues.
SPEEDING TICKETS: How many speeding tickets does the Raytown Police write annually?
Ward 3 Alderman Ryan Myers set the record
straight. He told us that according to a Grant Application compiled by
the Raytown Police the Raytown Police Department issued an average of 2
speeding tickets a day in Fiscal Year 2017.
 |
| DOUBLE CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE |
Myers pointed out the statistics covered
Fiscal Year 2017, which ended October 31, 2017. This year’s budget cuts did not
take place until November of 2017. His point being that the Department was not
short-staffed during the ten months covered by the Report.
We wondered how many speeding tickets
other area cities of similar population and size wrote each year. Here is what
we found:
Alderman Myers never received an answer
from Lynch as to why Raytown only writes two speeding tickets a day.
ZIP
CODES: How many Zip Codes does Raytown have? One writer said there are five
zip codes serving the Raytown area. Another wrote there were only two. We went
to the source, the United States Postal Service official answer is . . . three. Those zip codes receiving mail
in Raytown, according to the USPS are 64129, 64133 and 64138.
INTERNET
SALES TAX ELECTION RESULTS: There has
been contradictory information as to how many cities held elections on April 3rd
with an Internet Sales Tax question on the ballot. We did a check of area
Election Board data bases and found three Internet Sales Tax questions on the
ballot. Those elections were in Blue Springs, Independence and Liberty.
Here are the results:
BLUE
SPRINGS: Shall city impose a 2.5% local
use tax on out-of-state and on-line purchases?
YES . . . . . . . . . 1810 (42.93%)
NO . . . . . . . . . . 2406 (57.07%)
INDEPENDENCE: Shall the city impose a 2.25% local use tax on on-line
and out-of-state retail purchases?
YES . . . . . . . . . 2406 (38.5%)
NO . . . . . . . . . . 3705 (61.5%)
LIBERTY: Shall the City of Liberty impose a local City Sales
tax rate, currently 3.75%, provided that if the local sales tax rate is reduced
or raised by voter approval, the local use tax shall also be reduced or raised
by the same action?
YES . . . . . . . . . 2839 (70.13%)
NO . . . . . . . . . . 1209 (29.87%)
BAFFLING
BALLOT LANGUAGE: You may note the
Liberty ballot language is, to say the least, convoluted and somewhat
misleading. It effectively masked that fact that by voting yes voters approved
a new Internet Sales Tax of 3.75% on all internet sales in the city. . . .
SNEAKY, SNEAKY!!!
Comments
Were these people forced out or did they just get better jobs? Seems like a point is trying to be made, I just can't figure out what it is.
We know why half the police department left and it wasn't for being bullied.
In just one year the following Department Heads have left City Hall.
MAHESH SHARMA (City Administrator)
TOM COLE (City Administrator)
MARK LOUGHRY (City Finance Director)
BRIANA BURRICHTER (City Finance Director)
KATIE HORNER (Public Works Director)
JOHN BENSON (Community Development Director)
KEVIN BOJI (Parks and Recreation Director)
TED BOWMAN (Major in the RPD)
BRENDA GUSTAFSON (Public Information Officer)"
NO . . . . . . . . . . 2406 (61.5%)
Vote counts reversed?
I get the feeling any bullying at City Hall was not aimed at Tom Cole. I do not know him well, but it is hard to imagine Mr. Cole being bullied by anyone. My guess is that other employees have been the target of harassment and bullying tactics.
Whatever the reason, given the high turnover in management, it must be unpleasant place to work.
Liberty is the same city where two of our former leadership work and just happen to be the two that helped take the citizens of Raytown for a ride with the Walmart TIF.
If you really think those two can be trusted you too deserve to be taken to the finance cleaner.
In the following paragraph I wrote -- in the last year -- in reference to those same individuals.
A number of people have jumped all over the typo.
GOOD NEWS!!! The typo has been corrected. The timeline is correct. There have been nine senior staff departures from city hall since the last mayoral election.
Another writer pointed out I transposed the numbers on the Independence vote totals. Apologies in that case as well. It too has been corrected.
On the bright side, I have not found any miss-spelled words in the story.
2:15
I have been reading the post on this blog as well as listening to the old buck conversations at the local morning coffee gatherings or late night adult beverage kick offs.
All the conversation have that same Wal-Mart theme of how the city had to move forward with a partnership with them or we would have no steady sales tax revenue.
For those new to Raytown or missed these same conversations several years ago as the Sue Frank administration force feed the 350 live project down everyone, we are just look at the same old song and dance.
Few dared to speck up against the attack on social justice and corporate welfare at that time, but based on the outrage and turnover of the Board of Alderman in 2013 the voters of Raytown are no longer silent .
With several questions on the ballot to increase taxes, now is the time to carefully review and justify the need of these tax increases.
Let me start with the property tax, which will clearly having you paying 195% more to the city.
More money to subsidize Wal-Mart!
Let's do the math together so that you my fellow taxpayers will understand how we are paying this corporate giant for the privilege of have them in Raytown.
1.) If you have not heard they have paid their property tax under protest, which means the county is holding the funds until the protest is ended. During this time they still get all of the city services including those services provided by the police department.
They are receiving city service without paying for them!
Doesn't sound fare to those of us who pay or fare share!
2.) If you have not heard they are the largest single user consuming our police services
Let's break that down on known facts. At the last board of Alderman meeting in March it was stated there are more than 850 arrest a year, but there is a struggle to obtain actual numbers along with other figures to justified an ongoing relationship with Wal-Mart.
Therefore for simple math we will use the following numbers:
1,000 arrest per year
$200 per arrest for any related cost, which would include court cost as well as payroll for the corresponding personal in the police departments and courts.
100 arrest serving time (10% of those who cannot bond out)
$135 daily cost of housing a prisoner
90 days the amount of time same prisoner spends in jail waiting on court
1000 X $200 = $200,000 just for the initial processing
Now here is where is gets costly to the taxpayers
100 X $135 X 90 = $1,215,000
Using those two figures we are spending close to 1.5 million as the figures didn't include transportation related expense being we do not house prisoners in Jackson County.
Wal-Mart would then have to bring in more in sales tax and property tax than 1.5 million before the city makes money on them and that is on top off the debt on the TIF.
NOTE: I would be nice to get the actual figures from the city along with a break out of how many of those same arrest are for less than $100.00
I would love for some sensible debate to occur here, even if we disagree.
Of course those comments are ok with the blog admin..so maybe this is the wrong forum.
You go and do the research and bring "FACT" of other departments that have as many officers as you want per sq mile.
While at it make sure you have a clear proof of their actual duties along with the number of daily tickets that are being written.
Don't forget to ask have they be caught giving over time not worked as well as having the senior staff take all the overtime to pad their retirement payouts from their pension plans.
Is the newly retired Major Ted the husband of the former mayor?
If so, it looks like (as a previous poster predicted) he will be going for mayor or chief soon.
Just keeping the good old boy train moving, I suppose.
5:13 pm
Where is that on Raytown Unleashed? It's not there.
Not good to lie. Shame on you.
As nasty as your attitude is, falling out of your chair might make you a nicer person!
What would be interesting is to see how many per day were issues the year before Lynch took office.
I beat there is a story within those numbers that will have Lynch doing a lot of explaining what his department has really been doing.
Senior staff don’t get overtime
Haven’t you paid attention
I think people are beginning to tire of boorish behavior.
I have even seen them out all winter long. So what gives?
C'mon, THINK!!!
Next thing you know, there is a small avalanche of apologists rushing to defend the indefensible.
The Board of Aldermen, with the exception of maybe two members, act like they have not seen or heard the evidence, even though it was given an discussed by one of their members in a public meeting. The time line in the application/report shows the low speeding ticket production was going on for ten months BEFORE the police department was reduced in size.
The Chief of Police offers not credible explanation for the low speeding ticket production.
Then come the apologists. They blame Ferguson, they blame Walmart, they blame a guy hiding behind a tree. I would not be surprised if they blamed a guy on a grassy knoll!
Is there any level some of you will not stoop to instead of fixing a problem?
Word from city hall is we have not traffic division and the MC your speak of are up for sale.
Doesn't make sense, but what does when Lynch is part of something.
Could be they don't get overtime as they don't put in enough hrs.
Word around town is Ted Bowman spent most of the last couple of years at his house and Lynch is always doing something else.
Should either of them been getting paid to start with
Notice how quickly Lynch and is unleashed are hush on getting to the truth.
I know this goes counter to the unhinged facebook crowd, but perhaps there have been mistakes in how the Raytown PD is run. Do you think that maybe, just maybe, they could do better?
Agreed!!!!!
I thought "we" wanted fewer police. Or maybe we just wished we lived in Grandview? this is nuts.
This would allow Raytown to hire a true professional.
If you would take the time to educate yourself and not listen to the lies from Lynch you would learn the following:
1.) The police blotter doesn't support the officers are as busy as some want us to believe.
2.) The police officers like to hide in the back of parking lots and write reports.
While other cities too write reports officers are required to do it at the entrance of streets, which makes them highly visible and they can set the radar to identify speeders while working on reports.
There will be a Coffee with a Cop on Friday, April 13, from 9-11 am at the McDonald's on 350 Hwy.
Come meet Raytown's finest and bring your questions! Ask them about radar, tickets, writing reports. We would love to see you all there.
Also I would like to invite you all to the next Citizen's Police Academy starting in the Fall. FREE on Wed nights at the Raytown Library.
Sure makes one believe it was you or a fellow officer as who else thinks the poor police officers are over worked.
Never did you making any comment about the issue with tickets and the options to better this issue.
Hmmmmm.. Let me get this straight. You want officers to write reports, with their heads down, while at the same time leaving the radar gun on??? Unless radar guns take photographs, how is the officer going to know what car is speeding if multiple cars are passing by?
Not making sense here.
Under the so-called Macks Creek law, which state legislators stiffened in 2009, cities are restricted from deriving more than 35 percent of their operating revenues from fines for traffic violations on state or federal highways. If the revenues from traffic cases go over that cap, the cities must send the excess revenues to the Department of Revenue.
The state is then supposed to send that money to schools in the county where the fines were collected.
Maybe the BOA need to set a new policy establishing that 100% of fines levied would go to PD costs... then watch and see if more tickets are written.
One time was when the 16 officers showed up at the Board of Alderman meeting.
The last time I checked padding a time card (pay) was a crime and would fall under fraud.
Now those who took part in the the act need to have criminal charges brought against them.
Here is were it gets even more concerning is if the time cards are padded so would be the overall hrs / pay as related to retirement, which now is fraud against the retirement / pension plan.
Sounds like we really might be paying way to much to former officers if in fact the reporting of their salaries wasn't correct.
Sounds like it should be reason to kick them out of the plan without any additional pay outs.
I hope someone from the state reviews this and those guilty just loss their pension as that would hurt worse than anything.
From what I have seen you are good at doing your homework and taking care of business. I wish you the best in your new position as Mayor Protem!
By the way, who is this Raytown Unhinged group? Is it true their leader does not even live in Raytown! I don't know about the rest of you out there, but never have had much use for carptebaggers!
7:59 am
Some comments are so outrageous (like yours) that they deserve to be ignored.
We'd still like to see you on Friday! :)
The "murderer" living near the city park committed his crime in the tony Kansas City neighborhood of Brookside. An attorney, shot dead on his front porch in a revenge killing. Plenty of PD in Kansas City and it did not stop the crime. At least he has been apprehended and is not a threat to any Raytowner.
To suggest that someone commuting to work should not be obeying speed limits and other traffic laws is inane.
Oh and the other shooting today? Double or triple the Raytown PD and the shooting still happens.
Moderators:
All comments are not published on this blog.
Perhaps the position of the poster doesn't agree with your position???
Why don't you publish all comments?
Make that two shootings, in one night. The discussion about the number of speeding tickets is like rearranging the chairs as the Titanic goes down
good point. keep up the great job, RPD!
I know I don't and I support Walmart paying for shoplift under $100.
Maybe here is the solution the tax collecting entities on a set day and set location. Individuals bring their property tax reciept alone with and sign a form that states as long as they own the said property they agree to substidise Walmart.
At the end of the day all those individuals will be sent a bill from the city to cover the extra enforment expense divided by number of individuals like yourself who signed up for the program to get your portion due.
Those not paid by a set date will have the value added to the property taxes so that if your tax bill is not paid the normal process starts.
You know why it wont fly because you are all talk until you and individuals like you put your money where your mouth is.
Anyway the Mayor has tried to do his job and the above voted no. Sounds like their problem not his. Oh and information from City Hall was that he gave them several months to talk with her before he brought her forward. Shameful!
I see on the city website the Mayor has a new person to bring forward, Derek Ward. Let’s hoe the board will do the right thing and give their approval
Steve Meyers lost. Just as Mayor McDonough lost when he tried to force an unqualified candidate for Board approval.
Please tell me where the "smarts" are in that attitude.
Steve Meyers did not beg for votes. Here is a news flash for you. He did not ask for them either. His arrogance cost him the election. I wonder if that has settled in yet.
Oh well. Ryan Myers is a fine young man. He does not deserve the hatred and an angst demonstrated by the Unhinged faction. Give the young man a chance.
One final note for the unhinged group. Has it occurred to you that you are not in the majority in Raytown? Do you know that Mayor Michael's value as a leader has dropped dramatically? Perhaps it would be better if you were to focus your attention on solutions instead of a constant stream of anger and hate.
Certain parties on Unglued are supremely overconfident and keep falling deeper into the rabbit hole, in our opinion.
We hope that their comments are being archived for future legal review if their behavior escalates to a point in the future where it negatively impacts an officeholder or a citizen.
You say look for solutions not hatred????
And you say that on this blog with a straight face I bet
Wow
So many misguided.
More things than speeders are caught writing speeding tickets (traffic stops), but you just keep dreaming how the world really works.
Didn't the police catch Stones killer from a traffic stop where a gun was found.
I noticed. Also, Mims said, during public comments, that she was a union member and the union stressed that to her when they went to her. IF a vote is ever taken about this union and walmart, Mims cannot be allowed to vote due to the very clear conflict of interest that she pointed out, herself.
The finance department is responsible for all monies and all the budget in the end game. The board and PD aren’t responsible they go by what Finance tells them they need to do. Clearly you didn’t read the same audit notes
It falls on the shoulders of the finance director
yes, love our guys (and girls) in blue. That's one of the reasons we moved here.
FTE = Full-Time Employee