Tax Incentives for Development. What Does USD 232 Really Think?

At the 8/12/13 council meeting, tax incentives were passed for the development of a townhome complex in western Shawnee.

The president of the USD 232 Board of Education spoke out against it, as a private citizen living in the area.

As the meeting progressed, there apparently was a question about whether the school district supported the plan or not.  Mitch Powers, the BOE president indicated that they didn't, while an attorney for the developer said that they did.

So, what is the truth about this?  Read the article in the Pitch, and the comments that their reporter quotes from the USD spokesperson.  I get the impression that the USD is not thrilled with the tax incentives and their corresponding effect on the district.


The article is here: 

http://www.pitch.com/FastPitch/archives/2013/08/21/how-does-the-de-soto-school-district-really-feel-about-a-proposed-housing-development

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Mayor Says "NO" to Public Input

Shawnee Mayor Jeff Meyers has responded to my email from the post immediately below.

When the October 28th Special Council Meeting is called to appoint a successor to Dawn Kuhn there will be NO public input permitted.

Specifically, this was the mayor's response:

*************************************

Ray,

There will not be public input. I believe the Council will have the best and most information with the process to make a decision for the appointment. As you know, residents may always contact their representatives to give comment about individuals who apply.

Jeff
*************************************

 

Since this meeting is just about 8 weeks away, and there are no names posted yet as applying, folks still have plenty of time to inform the mayor and council how they feel about this decision.

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Will The Mayor Permit Public Input?

The city has now published the info as to the procedures for filling the soon to be vacated council set of Dawn Kuhn.  See http://www.cityofshawnee.org

As a result of what has happened/not happened at previous meetings related to the appointment of council persons I have written Mayor Jeff Meyers and asked a very simple direct question.  Am curious as to what his response will be.

Here is the letter:


Jeff,

 The following info is from the city’s web site concerning the above subject:

• On October 28, 2013, each applicant will be asked to give a 3 minute statement explaining why they are interested in serving as the Ward III Council Member. Following their statement, applicants will be asked to respond to questions from Governing Body members.
• The order of statements will be determined by random draw.
• Immediately following all the statements, the Governing Body will have any discussion they deem appropriate. The Governing Body may vote on the appointment at this time, or may delay taking action.
• If an appointment is approved, the individual selected will be sworn into office at that time.

At the meeting which appointed Mr. Neighbor to the council, public input was allowed.
At the meeting which appointed Mr. Willoughby to the council, public input was not allowed.
Will public input be allowed at the meeting on October 28^th?

 Ray

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Something I Won't Miss When Dawn Kuhn Goes Bye-bye

Many articles about body language say that when a woman constantly flips her hair it means “look at me, I’m great”.  Well, that’s one thing I’m not going to miss when Dawn Kuhn goes bye-bye.

 

 

The city has posted the application process for picking her replacement, so now I'll definitely have to visit the Oracle of Shawnee at Gum Springs Park to see what the Oracle says about Kuhn's replacement.

 

 

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Awards, A New Hotel (finally) and Kuhn Resigns

Well, let's see what happened last night.  There were many things that came up, but let's hit some of the highlights.

First, congrats to Battalion Chief Ryan Pyle who received recognition for successfully completing FEMA's US Fire Administration's National Fire Academy Executive Fire Officer program (EFO) and has also been designated as a Chief Fire Officer (CFO through the Center for Public Safety Excellence.

Some of you might remember from a previous posting here that while I was on vacation a tossed cigarette started a fire on my balcony.  The crew that responded,was under Chief Pyle's supervision and they were able to contain the fire to the balcony with no structural or interior damage. 

Another item that came up last night was the issuance of industrial revenue bonds for the proposed Holiday Inn Express at Midland Drive and I-435.  This project has been in limbo for about 6 years and it's nice to know that it is finally getting closer to happening.

Then, Councilmember Dan Pflumm did a shout out for my 66th birthday, which was yesterday.  Thanks Dan.

To top it off, I got one of the best birthday presents ever.  Councilmember Dawn "Motormouth" Kuhn announced her resignation last night, effective at the end of the October 14th council meeting.  That should reduce substantially the length of many council and council committee meetings.  She claims that it is because she is passionate about things.  I say it is because she is self absorbed and likes to hear herself talk.  Even though the process for submitting applications hasn't been posted yet, I might just have to go to the Oracle of Shawnee at Gum Springs Park to see if the oracle has any thoughts about who might wind up getting appointed to replace Kuhn.



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Jim Neigbor Incapable of a Direct Reply

Please see and read my blog post of 8/12/13 (almost two weeks) at http://shawneeray.blogspot.com/2013/08/public-meeting-policy-review-city.html which is titled Public Meeting Policy Review-City Stonewalls Reply.

This is NOT the first time that Councilmember Neighbor has refused a direct response to a direct question.  And, it probably will not be his last.  It seems that if certain members of the governing body do not want to answer a question they just ignore it. 

They don't like being questioned at council meetings, and then they either dance around or ignore answering questions directly.  In this case, who is pulling Neighbor's strings?

Come next year this might get real interesting.  City Manager Gonzales has gotten approval to spend $70K for a public information officer.  Now will we be paying $70K of taxpayer money to get the run around from that individual?

Neighbor is not the only one who has refused direct answers to direct questions..............the list grows.

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New Museum May Close

Back in February the Shawnee Dispatch ran an article about the new Medicine’s Hall of Fame & Museum located in western Shawnee in the former Harley Davidson dealership.

The article is quite interesting and can be read here http://www.shawneedispatch.com/news/2013/feb/26/new-medical-museum-opens/

It has now come to my attention that the museum may close because of its inability to obtain a tax exemption.  I'm not familiar with this subject, but I thought that museums did get special consideration with regards to taxes.

Anybody want to jump on this and check it out?  You could check with Dr. Bruce Hodges and/or his wife Cathy at the museum, 6801 Hedge Lane Terrace, telephone 913-888-0777.  BTW, that's  near the southwest corner of Shawnee Mission Parkway and Kansas Highway 7.

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Shawnee Gets Recognition From DoD

Last night the city was presented with its certificate for being one of the 30 finalists for the Freedom Award as part of the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve program

There were 2,899 nominations for this very prestigious award.

As a vet, I really would like to congratulate the city for this recognition.

For more background please go here  http://www.nationalguard.mil/news/archives/2013/05/052213-support.aspx


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Public Meeting Policy Review-City Stonewalls Reply

First, let me apologize up front for the length of this post.  It is lengthy because I want to quote some items completely:

For some background, one might want to read this article in the Shawnee Dispatch http://www.shawneedispatch.com/news/2013/aug/10/kendall-what-shawnees-public-meeting-policy-review/
On Wed, 8/7/13 I emailed Councilmember Neighbor since he is the current council president and as such serves as chairman of the council committee:

From: Ray Erlichman
Sent: Wednesday, August 07, 2013 5:30 PM
To: Jim Neighbor
Subject: Public comments at Committee meetings

 

Jim,

 The below is taken from the brochure that is handed out to the public concerning meetings.

 Please reply as to why do you not ask for public comments?  I believe some folks might have had comments last night.

 Going forward it would be nice if you complied with the info in this brochure.

 Ray

 City Council Committees

Much of the actual work of the Governing

Body is done in the Council Committee.
The Council Committee Meetings are
held on the first Tuesday following the first
Monday of the month and begin at 7:00 p.m.
Additional meetings can be called by the

Council Committee.

The Council President serves as chair of the

Council Committee. The Vice Chair of the
Council Committee and Council President are
elected on by the Governing Body annually at
the first City Council Meeting in April.
Agendas for these meetings are generally
available at City Hall from the City Manager’s
office at (913) 742-6014 or on the City website
at www.cityofshawnee.org by 8:00 a.m. on the
Friday preceding the meetings.
Committee meetings are generally less
formal than council meetings and discussion
is generally more comprehensive. The
chairperson of the committee will invite
comments on an agenda item from speakers in
the audience. The committees do not take final
action on a topic they discuss; however, they
forward their recommendations to a regular
City Council meeting for formal action by the
entire Governing Body. The Committee does
not entertain comments from the public on
items that are not on the meeting agenda.

 

I then followed that up with an item of additional information:

 

 

Jim

 Just in case you feel that the info in the brochure is not sufficient, the following is extracted from PS-7

 Order of Business, Point of Order, Obtaining the Floor, Public Comment

 D.        No interested person in attendance shall speak more than twice to any question, nor more than five (5) minutes each time, except where such other limitations may be imposed by action of the Governing Body, or the Council Committee, prior to hearing such questions.

 

Ray

 

This is the reply I received:

 

 

Ray, thanks for your comments. As I mentioned in my opening comments Tuesday night, the PS-7 will be discussed at a future committee meeting.

 

I expect that staff will have a revised draft ready by the October or November Committee meeting.  This will be the opportunity for more committee discussion, and public input before the final version is forwarded to  the Council for approval.

 

Jim Neighbor

 Well, I remember when  Mayor Jeff Meyers once said if I didn't get an answer I liked I'd ask the question again.  Well, it's not an answer I don't like, it's the stonewalling and the non-answers that bother me.  The bovine scatological attempt at not responding to a direct question. 

 My reply yesterday:

Jim,

I noticed that you have failed to reply to my original email, not the “part II” below

I still would like to know why public input was not asked for last Tuesday night, as indicated in the brochure handed out by the city with regards to meetings.  I will again quote from that brochure

“The chairperson of the committee will invite

comments on an agenda item from speakers in the audience.”

Saying that it will be discussed at a future meeting is insufficient.  There were no limitations imposed by the committee.  It seems that your actions were arbitrary and capricious.

 

Again, I asked a specific question, and expect a specific reply, not a dance around.  It was an agenda item and comments were NOT asked for.  Did you ever give any thought to the idea that maybe, just maybe, citizen input might have been helpful towards the staff preparing a draft? And that could actually result in reduced staff time in that preparation?  Or maybe you feel that citizens don’t have the ability to suggest workable solutions to various situations.

Thank you

Ray




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Another Rodrock Development Comes Into Question

Last year there were questions concerning park space at a Rodrock Development in Crimson Ridge.

Now there is a question concerning a swimming pool at the Greens of Chapel Creek.

For more information please read this letter in the Shawnee Dispatch http://www.shawneedispatch.com/news/2013/aug/07/letter-shawnee-officials-should-keep-eye-greens-ch/

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Shawnee Government - Open or Closed

On next Tues, 8/6/13 at city hall, the council committee will have their regularly scheduled meeting at 7:00PM.

One of the items on the agenda is:

DISCUSS PS-7, CONDUCT AT A PUBLIC MEETING.

PS-7 covers various items.  Among them how the council president is selected, vise-chairman of the committee, AND how input from the public is handled at council meetings.  I'm curious if certain members of the council are going to try and restrict citizen input.  At a council meeting a few weeks ago Jeff Vaught tried to stop a member of the public from coming back to the podium to address some of Vaught's comments.  Since the mayor didn't interject I had to be rude and mention from the audience that the individual was entitled to a second comment period under PS-7.  Ironically, in the next item on the agenda the mayor reiterated that folks are permitted up to two times of no more than 5 minutes on any one subject.  Guess Vaught thinks he runs the council meetings.  Just like he erroneously thought when he was council president that other members of the council had to go through him to request the city manager put items on the agenda.

It will be interesting to see what changes, if any, the council considers making to this policy statement.

The city inquired of other local governments what their policies and procedures are for meetings and the results of those inquiries are available at

http://www.cityofshawnee.org/WEB/ShawneeCMS.nsf/vwContent/PS7Research?OpenDocument
 
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