This candidate for Shawnee city council has, IMHO not lived in Shawnee long enough to understand certain things about this community.
This is from her web site:
Shawnee has seen significant turnover in city staff. In less than two years, six managers and directors have resigned their positions. City council members should listen to the expertise of skilled staff while balancing staff recommendations with community input as well as their own expertise. I will work to instill trust between our council members and staff, and be a good steward of the funding, resources, and talent of our city.
Golly gee willikers Burchfield, who writes your literature? Kamala Harris?
OK, I've covered most of this before, but will try it again for you who does not understand what has happened. First, there will always be resignations after a change in governing bodies. It happens at all levels. Duhhhhh, Laurel did you fail to take government 101 in school? We have a great staff, but, they are human, they can make mistakes, and they are not answerable to the people. Your suggestion that the council should listen to staff, "while balancing staff recommendations with community input as well as their own expertise" is EXACTLY what this council has been doing. See what happens when you haven't been here long enough to understand what is happening.
Additionally some of the staff losses have been because some of them were "trained" under a previous city manager who thought she ran the city completely. Well, of course she thought that, because members of previous councils had abrogated their responsibilities to her. Heck, we don't need that again. When that happens you really don't need a council, well, except to rubber stamp everything. Heck, because of the council's push, the Midland project is going to be $4 million less with a project that substantially more people can live with and accept.
Now the council is pushing for another mill levy reduction. Naturlly, left leaning folks don't want to see that. They want more tax dollars coming in. Heck, a mill levy reduction would fit right in because home values are rising and the city has substantially more in reserves than what is considered to be "safe".
Laurel is really too new to Shawnee and JoCo to know what has been going on. She needs to live here for a few more years to understand things.
Is it true that former Council Member Lindsey Constance supports Laurel Burchfield? If so, that should, IMHO be an automatic disqualifier.
