my impression of council meeting 6/16/08

There were visitors in the common area from Wyandotte County Kansas (home of Kansas Speedway), these young folks were taking part in a program put on by Missouri State University and were a welcome addition to the audience. Ralph Manley handed out some of his books to these students and was his very merry self.

This bill was quite odd in nature as the city will start using money granted to the city as a means to repay the loans of which the grants cam from, but it still leaves money left over to help provide for lunches to children since the schools are closed. "yes I know my parents were required to feed me as well and did this without government assistance even though we were dirt poor".

The night was kind of hum drum until council bill 2008-153, this is the ordinance which assesses fees on restaurant owners for the government mandated inspection from the Greene County/Springfield Health Department. This fee schedule has been on the books since 1993 however the restaurants have been given this inspection at no cost. Most people feel that these restaurant owners are paying taxes for this service, however council and the health department say that people who don't eat out are subsiding the restaurant owners via taxation for this "service".
I really don't believe you can call a government mandated inspection a service since the restaurant owners cannot opt out of this or pay a private sector entity for this inspection.

Councilmen Burlison made a motion to delete the section of this bill which assess these fess onto the restaurant owners, this motion was seconded by council lady Rushefsky.

I have been extremely hard on Doug since he was elected since it didn't appear to me or many people I know that he is a smaller government type individual. The tricycle park is one issue people point to on how he has turned into one of the good ole boys, however upon further review Springfield/Greene County Parks Department has there own funds so spending this $$$ didn't impact the general fund, and council really has little to say in the expenses of the parks department when the issue comes to point.

She was not in favor of removing the fees completely however she mentioned a phase in period would be appropriate and with some incentives if the restaurants received a clean bill from the health department upon inspection.
This is where the meeting got fun. Councilman Whayne spoke out about the ever increasing cost placed on businesses and how the health department should look at other ways to phase this in.
Council members Deaver, Colette and Mayor Carlson all spoke out in favor of the fees as a means for these restaurant owners to start paying for a service that is provided to them for nothing, once more see bold portion of this blog.
A vote was taken and on a 7-2 vote the measure was defeated, then the vote on the actual wording of the council bill was taken and passed unanimously.

Another item on the docket was COUNCIL BILL 2008-170. (Collette) A special ordinance amending the budget for the Springfield-Greene County Health Department for the fiscal year 2007-2008 in the amount of $35,000 to provide spay and neuter assistance to local animal rescue organizations.

This was another contentious issue as Councilman Manley jumped on this like a snapping turtle after a fig leaf. He along with Burlison and Whayne were opposed to giving this organization this money since the cities revenue coffers aren't in the best of shape right now nor will they be for years to come.
Rushefsky snarled this up like a trained pitbull going after a robber and by the time she was finished Collette almost felt foolish for trying to follow up her comments. Once more this issue was sold to the people as a means to save money since it will cut down on the stray population of animals which ravage the city by night. This measure will also be able to limit the amount of animals which are being "put down" and hauled off to the city dump. Measure passes 6-3 and that about wraps up the meat part of the council meeting.

Upon thinking this through quite thoroughly I have discovered a way to save money for the taxpayers of this fair city. Simply by taking the animals of which have been "sentenced to death" anyway, we grind up the remains of these animals after they are skinned and deboned and give the meat to the poor children which have no food to eat since the schools are closed. The money saved from the grant fund is then used to help pay off the loans faster thus costing the taxpayer less money.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED !!!!!

quite a contenious city council meeting

Arrived at city council meeting right around 7:00. Approximately 60 people in chambers. Meeting started off like so many before with the mundane task of approving bills and reading minutes and approving minutes of past meetings but soon the excitement would begin. I see about 10 or so people from the Save the Castle group in attendance

A landowner is developing a piece of property for a wholesale/retail type of business which is well within the zoning classification of said property. Some land owners to the south of this property are concerned about the noise and the light issue from that property into their houses. Very legitimate complaint however the landowner has doubled the buffer zone from 20' to 40' to make sure these residences aren't impacted in any way. I applaud the developer for this action has it seems they want to be good neighbors.

Next up is the city with the future spending on the various projects for the next five or so years. Andy Furiday presented the cities case for this spending. Council Burlison decided once again to be the lone ranger and he dared question some of these expenditures. That is when Ralph Manley hit the roof. According to Councilmen Manley the city hires and retains professionals to which draw up these plans and the city council shouldn't question the position of these authorities and he wasn't happy that someone on city council dare question spending over 575 million dollars in the next five or so years on improvements to various city projects.
Council lady Collette defended Councilmen Burlison and offered up a resolution to give Councilmen Burlison two weeks to provide a list of items that he deems wasteful. Other council members agreed to this and a voice vote to table was held with the only dissenting vote being Council Manley.
Councilman Manley I respect your service to country and community, but please don't tell me I don't have the right to question the expenses of a city that can't control the expense sheets for many a city project. That sir is very unAmerican and I'm quite sure you didn't get 6 purple hearts defending this nation and Europe so you could tell people the freedom of speech doesn't exist.

The fireworks at this point had only just begun.

In the recent past numerous news articles have been written in conjunction with the Pythain Castle issue. The Springfield News Leader also carried a piece from our Assistant City Attorney with a time line to the events which have transpired with this building, although not all of the information in this piece is correct and the records keeping on the cities behalf is lackluster at best. Mayor Carlson hit the roof he was told that three private citizens were in attendance to address the issue of the castle. Of course this wasn't on the agenda, but we the people have a right to redress our elected leaders, get used to it Mayor.
The owner of the castle was the first to address the issue and she had a couple of barbs and dingers in there to irk the mayor and the city. You could tell Mayor Carlson was none to happy to listen, but to his credit he never interrupted the speakers. Next up Neva and Bill Schroeder from Marshfield with there remarks and then session was closed for business.
Having more insight into this than most I've kept my mind open without forming an opinion, to which this has gotten me slammed from both ends, but now with a little more detail and even more soon to be released this seems to the modus operandi of the zoning department with our fair city.

For much more info into this please visit lifeofjason.com