Just a reminder about our political forums.
Wednesday 6 p.m. is city commission
Thursday, 6 p.m. is school board
both are at the senior center.
we will be living blogging, kacy will be broadcasting.
you may also attend.
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A blog by Managing Editor James Jordan about the newspaper. So far it's mostly about city commission, but I hope to delve into other local issues.
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About Me
- Traveler Editor
- I have been at the Traveler for 4 years. I have been in the newspaper business longer than that. I came here from South Carolina. Apart from that, I am an unapologetic Jesus Freak. I am not, however, Republican.
16 comments:
I met one of the commission canidates at a hosted gathering last night at a local eatery downtown. I had been told a lot of things about him and how he is and what he is like. The room was not filled with people of notible names, or from executive titles. I kept wondering why was I going I was not going to fit in, but them I got there and I was one of the crowd.
But I was so off base last night changed my opinion and the way I will vote April 7th. I am not trying to sway anyone to my way of thinking. But I do want to let people know that before you give your vote to the 'pie in the sky' 'cure all be all', make sure you have the real person in your mind. Make sure that they represent what you want and need as well as what your family needs. Don't vote the way someone else is telling you, vote the way you know is right. As for me I have completely changed the way I will vote. The person I met last night not only has my vote they have my trust to lead.
I just finished looking at the following report:
http://www.arkcity.net/data/Report%20of%20Norms.pdf
Please look at this thing and vote for your city commission wisely. This report is proof of the problems and complaints voiced everyday by average citizens. By comparision we are grossly mismanaged and have been for years. The only way true change can occur is to start with yourself and work outwardly. We can make a change by getting/retaining the right people in office and removing the dead weight. Please Please look at this report so that you can see the truth. Look at the section on water rates. We are WAY below the norm in quality, yet pay more than most. This is the very things we should be outraged about and demand that the city do something. On almost every catagory we are below the norm, yet our city employees are some of the highest paid in the state. I am just sick looking at this and thinking of how much advantage the city is taking on all of us. It is dispicable and they want more!!! Where is the shame? I want to send copies of this report to every arroogant fool that proposed the water hikes, and to those who are responsible for our quality of life ratings being so low. They should be held accountable or at least to a standard. The city managment and commission is failing us miserably and this report is proof.
that report is a crock and your are not reading it correctly, the report was used for data acumulation to accomplish a task and just like all data that is compiled, is just that data which is ment to be maipulated for the usesers cause
the only City employees over paid sit in City haul,30% of the rest of them are on welfare
one thing you misinterpret about this data is who it is a referendum on. it could not possibly be based on who was on the commission at the time because when the survey was done, the commission and city manager who were there at that time hadn't been there long enough for people to have formed a valid opinion abou them one way or another.
With the talk of transparancy- this deserves attention. I did not say this was the current commission- I said let it help you make educated votes in the future. By learning about the potential candidates position you can improve the quality of life of our community. This report is proof of everything being said about the water issue and many other things. These explotations can be stopped if the right people are in office. People that don't want in our pockets but will work to improve our community. You may not believe there are people like that with that type integrity out there, but I do and retaining them in office or voting in new people can improve this obviously negative situation. I don't feel that this is a commission issue (although who you vote for has an affect on the outcome) I believe this goes all the way up to city management. I think that if this report is reflective of our community, then someone should be held accountable and have to answer for why these things are and what are they actively doing to improve the situation. It's not that hard. The average person cannot continue to pay and pay more. When there is no face attached the city has been very arrogant about the use of taxpayer money. They charge ridiculous rates and the quality is below the norm. People should question that to the point of getting a real answer- not the BS passed around at commission meetings. Yes, they did improve the disconnect/reconnect fees, but convienently let the real issue of unreasonable rates fall to the wayside, in light of a small victory. It's not right- they should be working towards a better solution instead of telling us how much it costs to retain an old system. As humbling as it may be maybe- just maybe they should look at Winfield's system and try to understand how that works so efficiently, but much cheaper. Questions should not just be asked- they should be answered appropriately and completely and accurately- that's what these people are voted in office for and when one of them says publically that they don't care what we think then they don't deserve our respect or vote in the future. All I am really trying to do is help people become aware of issues and get them involved and vote. (And I'm sorry that the truth hurts to the angry city employee poster that is in denial of the report)
Strange how one should pick a report from 2007 when the commissioners were concerned enough to gather the information. That would have been about the time the commissioners had hired a new city manager (Russell?) and trying to find out what citizens wanted most to change. I haven't heard anything about it in the past couple of years. Do you suppose that the newer commissioners don't care as much about the concerns of the citizens?
Ask yourself, who thought it was important enough to go after this information in the first place?
Good question. Who was it? The city manager?
I'm glad the "Smith Residence" on
1st St. has flyers posted regarding who they support. Makes it easy for me to know who not to support.
Good question. Who was it? The city manager?
..
It was his puppy.
No one has done anything with it since.
Could be a useful tool.
take a close look at when this survey was conducted. it says 2007. find out WHEN in 2007. you will see that this is a referendum on prior commissions and prior city management since the attitudes and opinions being gauged were formed over time and could not possibly reflect on the folks who were in elected office or city administration at the time since they had not been there long enough for the opinions expressed to be reflective of them. so yes This is an interesting and informative sampling of what citizens think but it is not especially significant without comparing what it expresses to a new study asking the same questions so you can measure what has changed over time. You are correct in pointing out that it is worth noting that the CURRENT COMMISSION (and the city manager at the time) cared about the truth enough to have this study performed. The initial intent for commissioning the study if I remember correctly was to make sure we would have a baseline to compare against in the future so that progress could be measured.
Ok, Pat. Noted.
unless it was late 2007 and we remember the meetings this commission held and how some listened to us so well...
The study was done when Doug Russell first arrived. I think in 06 and compiled and the report was presented and dated in early 07
Yeah, this was done back when they actually sorta cared what we thought. Imagine how bad it would be if it was taken today.
Running Russell off was a bonehead move.
He left becasue of the big hoax. The commision didn't give him the power he thought he was going to get either. He wanted to call all the shots instead of being an employee.
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