From: The Lebanon Daily Record
City slashes budget projection again
Ken York kyork@lebanondailyrecord.com
May 27, 2009
“The budget projection was a dream that didn’t come true,” said Mayor C. P. Craig at the City Council meeting. [It seems that Mayor Craig knew all along that the city’s projected income was not realistic. Is this an example of a politician’s being so gullible as to believe the lies he tells the voters?]
. . .
Cuts to programs included the deletion of a $100,000 transfer to economic development, slashing the amount given to the street department by $90,000, a reduction of $85,000 in the amount transferred from the general fund to the Cowan Civic Center, and the elimination of a transfer of $81,000 to the Parks Department. Other items cut by various amounts were the administrative fund, the airport, and employee benefits. [While the budget cuts are listed by the reporter, the effects of those cuts are utterly ignored. Such are the standards of Dalton C. Wright, owner and publisher of The Lebanon Daily Record. What "Economic Development" programs will be eliminated by the $100,000 cut? Will the "Street Department" repair only every other pothole now that its budget has been cut by $90,000? What services will the "Cowan Civic Center" reduce or eliminate to save the $85,000 it can no longer count on? How will the "Parks Department" deal with the $81,000 reduction in its budget? More litter, shabbier bushes, and higher grass, perhaps? What are the particulars of the remaining $94,000 in cuts that will be spread over the administrative fund, the airport, and employee benefits? Why does The Lebanon Daily Record always report only half (if that much) of the story? Perhaps they should be schooled by broadcasts of Paul Harvey—would they understand the phrase "rest of the story"?]
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The council rejected for the second straight meeting a demand by a local landlord for an ordinance prohibiting children from playing in city streets. . . . Again, Mayor C. P. Craig told Dozier that instituting a law banning kids from the streets could be seen as a violation of civil rights and could open the city up for a lawsuit. . . . ”It’s called ‘civil rights,’ sir,” Craig said. “I’m not going to take this city into one more court case.” [No further proof is needed to establish that Mayor Craig is a great fool. Who else on Earth would argue that it is a child’s ‘civil right’ to play in the streets? This is an example of the intelligence, education, and experience leading Lebanon, Missouri, into the future. Of course, when an automobile kills one or more of the children exercising his 'civil rights' in the street, the wrongful death suit against the city and personally against C. P. Craig, he’ll be livid when everyone with a grain of sense says ‘I told you so!’]
. . .
Al Shepherd, who lives at 432 East Fremont Road, asked city leaders if something could be done about a flooding problem in his area. . . . ”There’s a ditch that’s got a cement wall blocking it. . . . That water comes right back into my basement,” he said. Councilman Allen Richert explained that the walls were in place for a reason, to slow down the storm water runoff so the deluge won’t overwhelm people at lower elevations than Shepherd’s. “Whenever you build in the city and increase the runoff, you have to control that,” Richert said. “Whenever you build in the city and increase the runoff, you have to control that,” Richert said. [Again, this shows that Mayor Craig’s shallow mentality is contagious. Not only is Councilman Richert not concerned about the problem caused by a flawed flood-control plan, a plan that clearly doesn’t work, but he also displays the sensitivity of a public toilet seat and closes with a seeming admonition for Mr. Shepherd to do what Richert and the City Council refuse to do: control the runoff.]
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The council heard a presentation from the mayor on “The Great Coffee Controversy.” Some residents have expressed shock that the city provides free coffee for its employees. The current yearly expenditure is $6,000—not $10,000, as has been rumored, Richert said. Craig said eliminating the free coffee would have an adverse impact on employee morale and present a poor professional and personable experience to visitors. Councilman Ralph Pitts said he is in favor of “anything we can do to promote morale. . . . These people are hard workers, and I believe we need to take care of them as best we can,” he said. The council took no votes on the issue, electing to leave the current policy in place. Craig said he would attempt to shave the expense down to $4,000 or so. [The coffee costs the city about $23 per day, including holidays. That is high. No one wants to anger the bureaucrats. After all, it’s a small perk (pun intended), but, if you don’t drink coffee, does the city provide you with bottled water or a few soft drinks every day? That’s unlikely. While it’s clearly a brouhaha (pun intended) everyone on the City Council wants to avoid, the matter isn’t dealt with properly by The Lebanon Daily Record. Why aren’t we told exactly how many employees take advantage of the city’s coffee program? Does the city provide the coffee makers and the coffee, cream, artificial creamer, sugar, artificial sweeteners, cups, stirrers, napkins, trash disposal, and electricity? Are all those costs bundled into the estimated $6,000 costs? Too bad the reporter didn’t think this is important. For all we know, people take coffee supplies home every day, thereby increasing the costs. It needs to be looked into, but it seems to be unimportant to The Lebanon Daily Record.]
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The City Council voted to appoint Councilman Chase Waggoner, who was absent from the meeting, the head of a committee to revamp the tuition assistance program. Waggoner had brought up the issue two meetings ago, saying he had heard that the mayor had suspended tuition reimbursements without consulting the council, and Waggoner believed issues involving employee benefits should be decided by the council. Craig said Tuesday he put the program into abeyance because it was draining training funds from department budgets. If it comes to a choice between training that is mandated for a particular position or providing tuition reimbursements, the training has to come first, he said. During the past five years, the city has paid $15,943 to reimburse the tuition costs of employees, according to Kathy Milliken, human resource director. It was Richert who suggested Waggoner direct the committee. “You show up at every board meeting so you don’t get selected for all the legwork,” Richert said. “He was very passionate about this at the last meeting.” “He was chewing hard; he ought to jump right on top of it,” Craig said. Waggoner wrote in an e-mail to the other council members and the media Tuesday afternoon that he would be unable to attend the City Council meeting because of a scheduling conflict with a class he is attending out of town. Normally the meetings take place on Monday, but the Memorial Day holiday prompted the city to change it to Tuesday this week. [With political colleagues like Mayor Craig and Councilman Richert, Waggoner certainly doesn’t need any political enemies. Craig’s and Richert’s taking advantage of Waggoner’s unavoidable absence from the rescheduled City Council meeting to appoint him to head the committee to revamp the tuition assistance program is the sort of bullying tactic one should not expect from well-meaning politicians concerned about issues. It seems, then, that neither Craig nor Richert are so much well-meaning politicians as they are petty despots and shallow political bullies. Richert’s comment that "You show up at every board meeting so you don’t get selected for all the legwork" clearly explains Richert’s motivation to attend Council meetings; and, regrettably, Craig could not refrain from providing what he deemed a zinger when he said, "He was chewing hard." You can take the bumpkin out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the bumpkin.]
Tags: Councilman Allen Richert, Councilman Chase Waggoner, Dalton C. Wright, Lebanon Budget, Lebanon City Council, Lebanon Daily Record, Mayor C. P. Craig
