Do You Know Who Your COWs Are?

A few years ago I created an acronym, COW.  It stands for "Councilmember from Other Ward".

City councils are like any other legislative body.  Certain members are elected by citizens in specific areas.  As such, they are those citizens' councilmembers.  But, when the council takes action as a legislative body the councilmembers are acting on behalf of the entire city.  As such, even a person who lives in let's say Ward II has a definite interest on how a councilmember from, let's say Ward IV votes.  Just like somebody from Kansas can be concerned about how a member of Congress from Indiana votes. 

And just like with members of congress, the state legislature and other legislative bodies, citizens can express their approval or disapproval regarding certain members of the governing body.  And like with other legislative bodies, they cannot vote for or against a member outside of their area, but they can show support for or against them in many legal ways.  The most obvious being contributions to campaign funds, for them or against them.

So, get to know who your COWs are.  If you like the way they act and vote on items, support them,  If you don't like the way they act and vote on items, hold their feet to the fire, even work towards replacing them at the next election.

Update Regarding Letter to Dispatch

Well the Shawnee Dispatch may have closed down but their web site and Facebook page are still up.

So, if you want to read the original of my letter you can do so.

On their Facebook page it is here  Scroll down to November 25, 2018  There are about 15 or so comments posted to this one.

On their web site it is located here  There are not as many comments posted here.

Anyway, it is amazing that four of the original councilmembers have the arrogant attitude that they don't have to respond to a citizen inquiry.

Who are these four councilmembers?  Jim Neighbor, Matt Zimmerman, Stephanie Meyer and Mickey Sandifer.

Think about that.  You might have an inquiry for one or all of them.  What happens if they don't respond to you.  Are they really honoring their oath to support the Constitutions of the US and the State of Kansas?

From Section 3 of the Bill of Rights of the Constitution of the State of Kansas:

§ 3. Right of peaceable assembly; petition. The people have the right to assemble, in a peaceable manner, to consult for their common good, to instruct their representatives, and to petition the government, or any department thereof, for the redress of grievances.

Stephanie Meyer - Speaks Both Ways

Unfortunately I was not at the 10/22/18 city council meeting.  I was attending the Citizen’s Fire Academy. But, I do have eyes and have read the minutes of that meeting.

There was an item on the agenda which concerned spending funds for some of the preliminary work for the proposed community center.  Councilmember Stephanie Meyer went on a diatribe about how the city was spending funds for public safety, infrastructure, and other items and the city should be looking forward to spending money on and putting in this new community center.

She inferred how she was in favor of increasing PD staffing and the new Fire Station when those items originally came up.  What she didn’t tell folks was that when the question of funding came up she voted against it.  Yep, she voted against a mill levy increase for public safety to pay for the additional officers and firemen, the station, and truck but wants to push for a Taj Mahal type structure for the west side.  This gives Meyer the ability to pander to folks on both sides of the question.  Does she think that there are folks that don’t see her duplicity for what it is? That her 'support' is only political and not practical? Those items she 'voted' for could not have been in the budget to vote on without the funding.

She supports a mill levy increase for an amenity but not for public safety. So, if she mouths off about being in favor of public safety projects but doesn’t vote to support them financially, I would strongly recommend that the next time she wants to talk out of both sides of her mouth that she go to Cabela’s and purchase some hip waders for those sitting in the audience. Especially since Fire Station 74 is for Ward III and that area of town was seeing unreasonable response times for emergency calls (fire and health).

BTW, there are still many, many areas of Shawnee that need infrastructure upgrades to include streets, sidewalks, storm sewers etc. that all this community center money could be better spent on.

 

One Down.....Four To Go

If you read my previous post then you are aware that I sent a letter to the editor of the Shawnee Dispatch concerning how certain (five) council members appeared to be ignoring my question.

At that time I was not aware that the dispatch was going to go belly up.  As it turns out, the letter made it to their web site and Facebook page.  And now those are also gone.

One of the councilmembers, Lindsey Constance has subsequently responded.  I said any responses would be published here. I am waiting to see if the other four respond before publishing hers.  Not interested in the other four playing copy cat or performing plagiarism.

So what do I do about the remaining four who apparently think they are above responding to citizen inquiries?  Awful arrogant of them.  Let's see, who are they?  Jim Neighbor and Matt Zimmerman from Ward I, Stephanie Meyer from Ward III and Mickey Sandifer from Ward IV.

Do I contact the KC Star?  Nahhhh, they probably wouldn't be interested.  How about the local TV stations?  Nahhh, they would probably be like the Star.  How about the Shawnee Mission Post?  Not sure if they have made enough of an inroad into Shawnee readership yet.  So, again, how do I let the citizens of Shawnee know that they have five councilmembers who feel that they are above answering inquiries?

I know.  I've got it.  By George I think I've got it.  At each council meeting there is a subject called 'Business from the floor'.  This is for residents to bring up any item that is not on the agenda.  Lack of replies to citizen inquiries would fall into that category.  So, I can bring up a copy of my letter to the editor and put it on the overhead projector.  I can then put up Ms. Constance's reply and indicate that the other four have failed to respond.  Beautiful.  Then the matter would be a permanent part of the minutes of the meeting. Including adding copies of those documents to the minutes. Perfect for citizens to research and see.  I could also put up a copy of Section 3 of the Bill of Rights of the State of Kansas Constitution.  Sometimes arrogant councilmembers need to be reminded.

Now at which council meeting should I bring it up?  Time will tell.  There usually are two a month.