There have been some people that have questioned the city about budgets and such and alledged that the city has in some way mislead the people of Carl Junction about the money used to build the new facility that we will be moving into in the next week. I thought I might make a stab at answering some of these questions since I spent considerable time this week researching and familiarizing myself with the history of the events leading up to the vote on the bond issue.
1 – The bond issue language. Here is what was on the ballot.
Question NO.1
Shall the City of Carl Junction, Missouri, issue its general obligation bonds in the amount
of $4,135,000 for the purpose of constructing and equipping a new building to house the
city hall, a senior center and a community center and related improvements?
Question NO.2
Shall the City of Carl Junction, Missouri, issue its general obligation bonds in the amount
of $365,000 for the purpose of improving the streets of the City, including without limitation
Briarbrook Drive?
You will notice that neither of these questions says anything about a budget or that this is the amount that each will cost, just that the citizens were being asked to approve the issuance of bonds in these amounts. This was an extension of a previously approved GO Bond and these were the amounts that could be raised without asking for a tax increase. It had nothing to do with a budget. In fact a budget wasn’t even decided on for at least 6 months or so after the approval of the bond issue. This is because it would have been a waste of taxpayer money to have been working on a building that we couldn’t pay for without the bond issue being passed. This doesn’t mean we didn’t have some money to go toward this, just not enough. Anyone that insists this was the budget just doesn’t understand the process or has refused to be part of the process along the way to see what was being done and just wants to criticize after the fact.
The fact is that 68.45% of the people that voted, voted in favor of Question 1. The fact is that 67.4% of the people that voted, voted in favor of Question 2. If there is anything at all to be upset about it would be the fact that only 681 people voted on the measure.
The ballot language had to cover the costs of building and equipping simply because had we been able to build the building for say $3,000,000 we would have not had the approval to use the bond money for equipping. To make the leap to this constituting a budget is just wrong.
2 – A Storm shelter was never mentioned in the ballot language. The only time this was ever even mentioned in anything that went out to the public was in a flyer from the Citizens For a Better Life. The city can’t campaign for approval of the measure. Not that the city didn’t or doesn’t want one, that’s just the way it happened. We did want to have one and still want to have one but it makes no sense to do that with local taxpayer money when we can do it with FEMA grants. There was no reason to hold off on the construction of the building when we were told it would take as much as a couple of years to get approval of the grant when we would not have been able to start on the rest of the building until that process was completed. There was also no pressing need to go forward with a storm shelter right this minute when we already have one at the Police department that holds up to 200 people and has not been utilized by more than a fraction of that number of people. The Chief of Police in a recent meeting said that no more than about 7 people have used this shelter. Is FEMA likely to grant money any time soon for a new shelter when the existing one isn’t being used?
3 – There has been a lot of talk about doing an audit on the city. I have no problem with that whatsoever if that’s what the people want. However, lets be clear on something. The city is already audited on an annual basis (that means every year). With that in mind what the people that want this are really saying is that they don’t think the firm we use can add and subtract. Otherwise what’s the point? All our accounting is done based on State and Federal law as well as advice from the company that does this annual audit. And if there is a problem with this company then please tell me why the City of Neosho just hired them for the audit of that city?
If these same people that constantly want to criticize about what the city is doing would spend that time and attention working with the city to make it a better place to live we would accomplish a lot more, and with their assistance probably accomplish it at a lower cost to the citizenry of Carl Junction. My real question is will these people be brave enough to step forward and be part of the planning process when we hold an open meeting on May 22nd at the new building, or will they be content to let others do the work for them then just wait for the opportunity to criticize from afar.
May 17, 2010 at 11:42 pm |
I like what you say, now to use your words against you. When you said the building was to be “EQUIPED”, would it not have been better to put in the work-out room equipment first not “5″ TV’s ??? As far as the building goes, what about the “LARGE” crack in the foundation, or that the basket ball courts floor sank 2 inches the day it was poured and they used cranes to hold it up, or all the contaminated dirt (was this not tested for before construction)???? I have been to the council meetings and have seen how you council people handle the meetings. If some one has a difference of opinion other than ours or the mayor the mayor threatens to have them removed by the police chief. You folks spend money that is not yours on thing that you should not (I am talking about ROUND-A-BOUTS), you folks are wanting 5 of them when only 2 are in Carl Junctions city limits. And as far as the audit, when the city’s own paper work, from what I am to understand, shows that the city is to date spending over $5,000,000 on the project do you not think that people should know where the extra money is coming from and where it is going???? Or do you think the council and mayor are the sheep herders and we the sheep and we ‘re not smart enough to know what is good for us and you folks should have card-blanc on all things and we should “JUST SIT BACK AND HOLD ON, BECOUSE THIS IS GOING TO BE A BUMPY RIDE”????
May 18, 2010 at 6:50 pm |
Let’s see if I can take these 1 at a time.
1 – The reason you put the TVs in first is because they’re hung on the wall and you want the contractors, that we’re paying to do this sort of thing, to do that before the job is finished. The exercise equipment can, for the most part, be wheeled in when delivered.
2 – There wasn’t just a large crack, there was a failure in the foundation very early on due to a ground water issue that was repaired, as was the foundation before anything was every built on it. I haven’t double checked myself on this one but that’s what I remember.
3 – This was just too ridiculous to even get into. To start with it would be next to impossible for the entire floor to sink 2 inches the say it was poured, if it did then we wouldn’t have needed to grind all those high spots off before putting the floor down. From there…. it would be impossible to hold up a wet concrete floor with a crane and not much more possible or practical to hold it up with a crane if dry. Hold it up until when? You really need to work on your sources. What you did see for some time was crane holding the wall panels in place for the gym as they were being set. The floor, however, was poured long after the walls were all up and I believe the ceiling was even in place.
4 – What contaminated dirt? Do you have something to back that up? I don’t think so. We did have some contaminated dirt on the site, I believe out in the parking lot, that was dug up and removed from the site. Why would the very people that are going to work in there every day, day after day, put something in there that would be harmful to them?
5 – The only person that has been cut off at all by the Mayor was someone at the last meeting (and he wasn’t cut off, just asked repeatedly to watch his tone as I recall) and that was primarily because everything he was going on about had already been explained to him, in detail, by the architects just 2 weeks prior. On the other hand, you have been allowed to stay in the room on multiple occasions while you were flipping people off that disagreed with your position and just being plain rude to them. Something that would not have been tolerated had I seen it. Lets not be the kettle calling the pot black here.
6 – We are doing a study on transportation that includes the possible placement of roundabouts at different locations. All are in the City Limits. At least 2 sites would also fall into what is now either the county or at Lone Elm, Airport drive. None of that negates the need for the study. We are growing, we will grow to the south. Something has to be done with the traffic on Fir Rd. This is one way to handle that. If implemented we would have to get cooperation from surrounding political subdivisions to make this happen or take that area into the city. If you bothered to participate in the planning process you would know this already. If you really want to be part of the process then come to the planning meetings. We’re having one Saturday morning at 9am. It’s currently supposed to be at the new building.
7 – The architects and the city showed in detail where the money is coming from to build the new building a couple of meetings ago. I’m sure that City Hall would be more than happy to supply that information to you if asked.
Its got nothing to do with sheep and sheep herders. What it has to do with is a representative form of government. We are elected by the people to do the best we can at representing the best interests of the entire city, not just Donny Rion or Walter Hayes. Sometimes Donny or Walter may not be happy about how it works out. That’s the way the process works. If you want to do sheep and sheep herders, move to China or Iran. Of course there the sheep herders carry big guns and they aren’t necessarily for the protection of the sheep.