Man am I glad that this week’s City Council meeting in Carl Junction is over. This whole CID thing has gone way beyond the bizarre. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing tonight when a citizen got up and compared the City Council’s consideration of the CID ordinance to what is happening in Washington with the Democrats pushing a healthcare bill through that a majority of the people don’t want. The fact of the matter is that this is exactly what the opposition has been doing. Consider for a moment if you will. The vote on a bond to purchase the Briarbrook property last April was just that, a vote to authorize the City to borrow money so it could purchase the property. It was at no time listed or advertised as a vote on Briarbrook itself. However since the opposition has wanted to use it in that context let’s do so. The fact is that a majority of the citizens of Carl Junction and an overwhelming majority of those in Ward 3 (the Briarbrook area) voted in FAVOR of the proposed bond. Since then a majority of Ward 3 have signed a petition asking for the formation of the CID. Yet the opposition has wanted the council to disregard the will of the people of Ward 3 in favor of their position and when that hasn’t happen they have tried just about every childish trick imaginable. The same person who addressed the Council on at least 2 occasions complaining about how she was being treated so badly by her neighbors through all this had the nerve to cross examine the City Clerk and treat her very badly in a public setting. It was shameful according to reports and tonight we’re told how she has been putting so much pressure on neighbors that they didn’t want her to know if they signed the petition or not.
The people of Ward 3 as a majority wanted this to happen. The ordinance is now passed. Let it lie or help make it work. Quit being such a sore loser. It’s not very becoming.
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Walter & Ginger Hayes of The Hayes Team
Keller Williams Realty of Southwest Missouri
619 S Florida
Joplin, MO 64801
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Tags: Briarbrook, Briarbrook CID, Briarbrook Golf Club, Carl Junction, Carl Junction Happenings, Carl Junction MO
March 6, 2010 at 1:45 am |
Boy are you full of it. If it isn’t the pot calling the kettle black. Where was THE OVER WHELLMING MAGORITY that you are talking about??? 52% is not that, that’s for sure. We the people against the C.I.D. did nothing wrong, not like the other side, going to peoples houses two and three times and getting a old woman with alzheimer’s to sign. We at least are telling people that we talk to the TRUTH, unlike the men of briarbrook or the city council. Going behind closed doors for meetings with each other, not telling people why the city really wants the 95 acres. But in a year when the golf course can’t pay for it’s self and we “GIVE” it to the city and then everyone’s taxes go up, we will see what your comments are then. And just to let you know we knew you council members were going to vote it in, we knew last year that if it ever made it to a vote none of you council members had the b_lls to go against the mayor and Toby. You sure talk big on here like you know what your talking about, but your just a tool for the mayor and Toby, do they even tell you what to wear at the council meetings??
March 6, 2010 at 2:49 am |
Boy are you so full of it, it’s like the pot calling the kettle black. The vote in April did not pass when voted on by the “WHOLE TOWN”. And if you remember (or can you think for yourself with out the mayor or Toby telling you what to think), the mayor said on tv, after you folks lost, that he done trying to get briarbrook. But then in June and again in August what is happening??? Closed door meeting, which were against the law, to talk to the owner and the men of briarbrook. And low and behold we’re trying to get briarbrook again. Then the C.I.D. petition starts, going to peoples homes two and three times pressuring people, not telling people the truth and even getting a woman with alzheimer’s to sign. And also why didn’t the city take the owner of briarbrook to court to get the back taxes he owes (three years and over EIGHT THOUSAND DOLLARS, that means every Carl Junction citizen should be able to do this also, right), or why hasn’t the city charged the men of briarbrook for all those letters that were sent out (over FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS there), when anyone from our side has the city do something WE PAY UP FRONT. I seem to remember a council meeting I was at when a persons water meter was read wrong by a city employee for what a year, and had a bill for around three hundred dollars and what was ALL the council members respond???? YOU USE IT YOU PAY FOR IT!!!!!!! Why is the city council playing favorites?? Or can you answer with out the mayor or Toby telling you what to say??? What’s going to happen in a year when briarbrook can’t pay for itself and is sold or given to Carl Junction, and that is going to happen with this pipe dream, are the people of Carl Junction going to be happy to know this was the plan all along???? Then the whole town will have to pay higher taxes, but this will be different than raising taxes to buy it, right????? At least when we are going out to get signatures we are telling the people the truth unlike some other group. I hope you council members can sleep at night knowing all the things you have done and are going to do to this nice town. You wrote about how long you have been on the council, when this all comes out the people of your ward might decide that’s been long enough (I HOPE). I hope to hear from you what the mayor and Toby want you to say to me. D.R.
March 6, 2010 at 7:38 pm |
I’ve tried to be respectful and courteous to you in the past but since you seem to not know how to be either lets also work on your math and english skills.
The fact is:
1- The vote last April was not about whether the Briarbrook Golf course was a good thing. It was about whether the City would be allowed to borrow money via a bond and an increase in taxes to purchase the land and buildings that take in the Briarbrook Golf Course and the 95 acres. This vote needed to pass by 57% or a super majority. It only garnered somewhere between 52% and 53%. What I said in my blog was that since Mary Schillaci has insisted on making that a referendum on Briarbrook lets at least get it right. A majority of the city as a whole voted in favor of it (disputing that may make you feel better but its about like telling me the sun is cold and the moon is made of cheese, it doesn’t alter the fact). If you also assume that Mary’s own numbers are correct and that’s what I’m using, an overwhelming majority of Ward3 residents voted in favor since, according to Mary, the motion garnered less than 50% in the other 3 wards. This is just simple math. You can get a good feel for what that number was by seeing that Richard Zacardelli got over 70% of the vote for re-election to the council.
2- It was absolutely a majority of the City. The fact is, and you can look this up as I did, the measure passed by a greater margin that either George W. Bush or Bill Clinton won the presidency by in any of their elections and I’m not really sure that Obama got a higher majority of the country as a whole either. A majority is a majority, like it or not.
3- The city didn’t go after Briarbrook so what the Mayor said was absolutely valid. We did have a closed meeting after we were approached which was perfectly legal and the contents have since been fully disclosed.
4- I don’t know how many times I have already explained that property taxes are attached to and run with the property so we will recoup those taxes when the property is sold, whether to the CID or someone else. If you don’t wish to pay your taxes, don’t, the city will get them eventually in exactly the same manner. Its called the law and while on the one hand you accuse of breaking the law you turn right around and advocate that we do break the law in some form or fashion. That makes no sense.
5- There is nothing in the State statute that gives the city the ability to recoup any of the money spent on the formation of the CID if it fails. The fact is that since it has been formed the city can and will collect up to 1% of the total income received by the CID to reimburse the City for expenses involved in the creation of and operation of the CID.
6- There has been zero proof of any harassment on either side of this outside of the direct word from Karen Rutledge who spoke at the last council meeting. If you have something prove it. Again, you accuse us breaking the law on one hand then want us to break the law in another.
7- I’ve never had a direct conversation with Toby Teeter and so far as the mayor goes we are friends even though we are on opposite ends of the political spectrum. The fact is that politics has had very little place in Carl Junction for some time at a city level. We all do what we think is best for the city.
8- You and Mary and others that were opposed had well over a year to come up with any number of alternatives to the CID. NO ONE did that. We acted on what the majority of Ward3 citizens asked for and wanted. If you don’t like that then I suggest you move to Russia or China where the majority doesn’t get to decide anything.
9- I’ve waited until the absolute last day of qualifying the last 2 elections to see if anyone else wanted a turn at being on the council. No one has. I’ve gotten 0 phone calls from any of my constituents on the Briarbrook issue and have had only a couple of emails about. I did exactly what I told you I was going to do several months ago when I told you I would not vote against the people of Ward 3.
You may not like the outcome but it was done fairly and according to the law as currently prescribed within the State of Missouri.
Walter Hayes