Mile High Madness Part II

Previously I wrote and indicated what our council members spent while in Denver. Now, it's time to break down some of those expenses.

Let's look at hotel costs. This is one area that definitely needs to be looked at much closer. As previously pointed out, the rooms are primarily for sleeping, showering and changing clothes. Most of the folks' time is taken up eating, attending seminars and socializing with individuals from other cities.

Our people stayed at the Hyatt Regency. That is the hotel directly across from the Denver Convention Center. The discounted group rate was $240/night. Now if we take the mayor and city manager out of the equation we had 4 council members who between them had 16 nights at the hotel. At $240/night (including taxes) that becomes $3,840.

Now, the folks who went from Lenexa got a group rate of $137/night (including taxes) at the Crowne Plaza. Granted that was a block or so away. Golly, they had to walk a little. If our council reps had stayed there, they could have saved $1,648. And how much could those four have saved if they doubled up? Allowing for a $30 surcharge for 2 in a room they would have paid approximately $1,336 or a savings of approximately $2,500.

How much would have been saved if the mayor and the city manager had also stayed at the lower priced hotel? Naturally in separate rooms, I’m still estimating another $500 could have been saved.

The Crowne Plaza is not exactly a notel motel………it would have served the primary functionality.

The next question is how much more could have been saved if we didn't have a six person delegation? Reduced per diem charges, reduced transportation charges, reduced registration charges for the conference and reduced charges for the number of people attending the various paid seminars. That could have been in the thousands.

This becomes important for another reason. In less than two months, the National League of Cities "biggie" is going to be in Washington, DC. And, considering the time line, arrangements are probably being made right now. Will we be sending another oversized delegation? Will they be staying in the most expensive of all the convention hotels, in individual rooms?

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Representation at these conferences is good. We just don't need to send an army. And, they can walk a little and stay at a better priced hotel.

Letter to Council 1/20/11

Below is a copy of an email I sent earlier today to all members of the City Council, the Mayor and the City Manager. If any of them decide to respond I'll be happy to post the response(s) here, without editing it(them).




This email is being sent to the City Council, Mayor and City Manager

Just prior to the end of the recent PW & Safety Committee meeting, Messrs. Sandifer & Vaught thought to mention the importance of the NLC conference with regards to info about audio capture of meetings.

Immediately following their comments, the committee Chair, Ms Kuhn, advised that there would be no comments about any items that were not on the agenda. What I wanted to say at that time would have been relevant, but decided not to push it.

The record needs to be set straight. Or, shall I say a reminder.

At the 11/8/10 City Council meeting these same items (method of preserving and communicating meeting minutes) came up after previously being reviewed by the PW&S committee.

Various items were then presented at that council meeting, to include the use of audio similar to the way Fairway was doing it. And, yes, it was me that brought that up. At that time, because of that and other info, Mr Neighbor moved that the item be tabled until staff had reviewed the additional info. This can be confirmed with the item in the Shawnee Dispatch from 11/10/2010 at:

http://www.shawneedispatch.com/news/2010/nov/10/council-delays-vote-cutting-minutes/

I bring this up, because the use of audio was brought up well in advance of the NLC conference. Naturally, I wouldn't expect either Messr. Sandifer or Vaught to mention that. Especially considering who brought it up. I will concede that the info from the NLC conference did show other methods of audio capture which could be better than the one currently employed by Fairway. The question is: If the item had not been tabled because of citizen input would the city even have looked at the audio concepts at the NLC conference? And if yes, to what extent?

Ray Erlichman

Don't Forget Tuesday 1/18/11 Meeting

Don't forget the Public Works and Safety Committee meeting at city hall Tuesday 1/18/11 at 7PM.

Changes in how the minutes of city council and council committee meetings are kept will be voted on. Transparency must be kept.

Be there.

For info on exactly what is going to be on the agenda see the post with the link below.

Important Meeting - Council Transparency 1/18/11 Tuesday

There will be a meeting of the Public Works and Safety Committee on Tuesday 1/18/11 at 7:00PM.

Agenda and packet information is available at
http://www.cityofshawnee.org/WEB/ShawneeCMS.nsf/vwContent/Agendas?OpenDocument

Item 2 on the agenda would appear to be very important with regards to council transparency. This is where they will be discussing the format that the minutes of meetings will be taking. Minutes are the primary memorialization of what goes on at these meetings. Disclosure to the public is keeping within our framework of democracy. One item also includes the possibility of online audio availability.

Another part of item 2 (eventhough it doesn't show on the agenda, it is in the packet for that item) are rules for public participation in meetings. You would think that one short sentence about that could have been included in the agenda. Guess there wasn't enough room to mention that.

It is important to maintain maximum tranparency about what goes on in these meetings. It is also important to preserve citizen rights.

It would be nice to see a good public turnout for this meeting.

I Hated To Do It................But...............

............because of Vaught's letter to the editor of the Shawnee Dispatch of 12/22, I just had to respond there. http://www.shawneedispatch.com/news/2011/jan/12/letters-word-play/

His original letter is at http://www.shawneedispatch.com/news/2010/dec/22/letter-witness-or-see-wording-question-affects-res/

Back in 1974 at the Academy Awards a streaker ran across the stage. David Niven, a very gifted British actor, handled the situation with much aplomb and said “The only laugh that man will ever get in his life is by stripping ... and showing his shortcomings.”

So, why did Vaught want to show off his vocabulary shortcomings to the world?

Mile High Madness

In previous posts it was mentioned that 6 individuals were going to represent Shawnee at the recent National League of Cities conferenec in Denver.

First, let's see how Shawnee compared to some other communities in the area with regards to number of individuals sent. In the past, listening to various presentations, there seems to be a trend to compare our city with some of the others. So why not this one? OK, so, how many folks represented each city?

Olathe...........................8
Lenexa..........................7
Shawnee.......................6
Mission.........................3
Merriam.......................3
Prairie Village..............3
Overland Park..............1
Roeland Park................1
Leawood........................0
Topeka..........................0
UG WyCo&KCK.............0

Now, what did this cost the citizens of Shawnee?

Jim Neighbor, Ward 1................................$2,711.60 5 nights
Mickey Sandifer, Ward 4..........................$2,677.60 5 nights
Jeff Vaught, Ward 3..................................$1,544.52 3 nights
Jeff Meyers, Mayor....................................$1,459.52 3 nights
Carol Gonzales, City Mgr.........................$1,254.57 3 nights
Neal Sawyer, Ward 2...............................$1,044.52 3 nights
=======
Total......................................................$10,692.33

I've always felt that conferences of this kind can be useful. The big question is, in these tough times how many folks do we need to send? I said it before the conference and I'll say it again, my opinion is that two would have been enough, 3 for this one since Mr Sawyer's registration was covered by a previous conference that he couldn't attend.

Note that 2 reps (33% of the city's delegation) accounted for over 50% of the expenses. This is not the first conference where Mickey Sandifer's expenses were near the top of the group's.

Another interesting note is the cost of the hotel rooms. At $240/night why couldn't the four council reps have done what private comapnies have gone to? Doubling up. Neighbor and Sandifer were there for 5 nights, they could have doubled up. Sawyer and Vaught were there for 3 nights. They could have doubled up. Even if there was a surcharge over the $240 for a second person, in most hotels that would not be anywhere near the cost of a separate room. Also, at a conference like this what is the need for separate rooms? One gets up, showers, has breakfast, goes to meetings, has lunch, goes to meetings, has dinner, socializes, then hits the sack. Unless the rooms are being used for mini-conferences/lectures what's the need?

My original comments, months ago suggested that just the mayor, city manager and Councilmember Sawyer should go. Look at the numbers above............the city could have saved approximately $7,000.

In March there will be another National League of Cities conference in Washington DC. It will be interesting to see how many of our city officials go to that one, and what the cost factor will be.