Laurel Burchfield - Hot Air Extraordinaire

 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.

Five Months Left to Put Up With Distler's Trash

At a recent  city council meeting our not so illustrious mayor, Michelle Distler, seemed to possibly be suffering from CRAREC syndrome.

First, she was bemoaning the fact that the council voted to suspend any new board appointments until after the mayoral election.  She semed to think that the Planning Commission would suffer by being one member short until January.  Question for the mayor:  If you are so concerned about the Planning Commission being short why don't you inquire as to the pervasive absenteeism on that body?

At these PC meetings, here are the numbers for how many Commissioners were absent:

July 17.............2 members absent

July 3..............3 members absent

June 21...........2 members absent

June 5............meeting cancelled

May 15..........all present

May 1..........2 members absent

April 17......4 members absent

April 3........1 member absent

Second, let's talk a history lesson.  A member of the council questioned why the mayor chose the person she did, when another individual, Dave Myres had also expressed interest.  The mayor responded that previously when Mr. Myres had applied a member of the council had thought it was a negative since he had run for office (council) and lost.  Hmmm, is running for office and losing a reason not to be appointed?  Stand by, the history lesson is coming.  The fact that a person chooses to run for office does, IMHO, show that they are interested in serving the city.  OK, here comes the history lesson.  The year that Mr. Myres ran for the city council (Ward III) there was a primary in that race.  Mr. Myres was the top vote getter, and Justin Adrian was #2.  The individual who was the sitting council member at that time Jeff  Vaught was #3 and therefore bounced from running in the general election.  Now we get to the general election, and yes, Mr. Adrian beat Mr. Myres.  But how come Mr. Adrian didn't complete his term as a city council member?  How come he resigned?  The reason for that is an easy one to answer.  That is because Mr. Adrian was convicted of doing things that a teacher (yes, Olathe School District) is not supposed to be doing with a male student.  He wound up doing time in county lock up.

Now, let's look at those numbers:

Primary election (2017)  Dave Myres  609  Justin Adrian  415   Jeff Vaught 308

General election (2017)  Justin Adrian  1128   Dave Myres  1058

Over the years folks have lost elections and then gone on to win other elections or be appointed to various positions of responsibility all over the United States.

Transgender Brainwashing and Young Children

 OK, it was going to come out of my mouth eventually.  Why not now?

All of this stuff about teachers "educating" young children about transgenderism is starting to get to me.

This is absolutely pure out and out brainwashing and manipulation of young minds.  And remember, these so called educators don't want the parents to be involved.

A young child, can, IMHO, really be guided down the road that these folks are trying to lead them.  First, they are an authority figure.  Next, are they making it sound like something these kids might want to try?  Little Bobby thinks it might be nice to become a girl, and little Susie thinks, "wow, if I become a boy maybe I can play football some day."

So, I asked myself, I said "Self, instead of readin', ritin' and rithmatic, why are these supposed educators doing this.?"  And the answer hit me like a ton of the BS that they are tossing around out there.........it's a concerted effort to reduce the population by insuring that more and more of these kids, as they grow up, will be unable to procreate.  Now who wants our population to become a bunch of eunuchs down the road?  Would it be the commies sitting in Beijing?  Or Moscow?

How many of our current group of educators lean so far to the left that their cheeks could almost touch the ground?

Some parents have already seen the light and they are challenging school districts/boards/commissions on this trend.  It's time that more parents, grandparents and others get involved to stop this malicious sick attack on the children of this country.  And when it comes time to elect folks to school boards, commissions or what ever they are called in your area, don't vote for those that support brainwashing kids about this subject.

If ya wanna teach, then teach, but don't indoctrinate, especially something that could destroy lives.  Yes, like the folks who transitioned early in life and then realized it wasn't what it was cracked up to be.

Eric Jenkins for Ward 2 - Shawnee City Council

 The city has been fortunate to have an individual with Eric's background on the council, and who is currently serving his second term as council president.

As the city council has evolved many positive things have materialized with Eric leading the movement on many of these.

With regards to preserving our neighborhoods Eric has chamioned and been successful in defeating multifamily developments in areas adjacent to and inside of our peaceful and family-oriented R-1 zoning districts. A multi-family proposal at 54^th and Nieman was turned down and replaced by the developer with single family homes.  The developer did not just walk away as some would say that Shawnee is not friendly to developers.  We are.  But it needs to be the right kind in the right part of the city.

He sees the absolute most important needs as being Public Safety and Infrastructure.  Efforts by him and the rest of the current city council focuses on these areas first.  A salary analysis was conducted and determined that our police and firefighters were significantly underpaid in comparison to our competitor cities.  Those salaries were raised to remain competitive and not lower our police or firefighter standards. With COVID federal dollars the city acquired a mobile command post for our police department.  These efforts have placed Shawnee on the leading edge in the metro in public safety. 

I'll have more things to say about Eric as we go forward.  For those that may not be aware of it, Eric is a retired US Army Colonel and also retired from FEMA.  While with FEMA, he was that agency's man on the site in charge of supervising the rebuilding of communities after a disaster.  He knows what it takes to make a city function.  We need him to continue to represent the citizens of Ward 2 on the city council, and as such to represent the city when the council needs to take action on various matters.

Megan Warner for Shawnee Council - Ward 4

 

Megan Warner is definitely a person we need on the Shawnee City Council to represent Ward 4.

Her life began at Shawnee Mission Medical Center, now Advent, and she grew up in the neighborhood of 69th and Stearns.  After graduating HS she joined the US Army Reserves, served eight years including a one year deployment in Operation Iraqi Freedom II (2003-2004). As a heavy equipment operator (mostly with HETs), she was eventually honorably discharged as a Staff Sergeant (E6).

Her college education was at JCCC and Friends University in Wichita maintaining a 4.0 GPA at both.  After college she worked as a police dispatcher in Prairie Village while living in Shawnee.

Upon returning from her military duty in Iraq, and while living in Shawnee, she took classes to become a real estate appraiser.  She earned her state appraisal certification and MAI designation for appraisers. Megan is the owner of Keystone Appraisals here in Shawnee.

In 2006 she married Jeremy and they moved to Olathe where she opened her own real estate appraisal business in 2012.  They moved back to Shawnee in 2020.  Here they raise their four children.  Having volunteered for many years to be foster parents they adopted two of their foster children. This means that these two children could live a normal family life as opposed to being shuffled around the foster system.  The family attends the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Shawnee.  Community involvement includes volunteering for Shawnee's Neighbors Helping Neighbors.  She also volunteers for Catholic Charities and Mission Southside, helping refugee women to learn English.

As a city, we would benefit from her experiences as a business owner, a combat veteran, an engaged community volunteer, and a wife and mother.

Unlike her opponent, Laura Burchfield, Megan has spent her life in JoCo and mostly in Shawnee.  Her opponent moved to Shawnee only two years ago after spending fourteen years out of state and out of the country.  We need someone more familiar with local happenings to represent us.

For the record, I'm a Ward 4 resident and Megan gets my vote!!!!

 

It's July 4th and Time to "God Bless America"

 OK, I'm gonna say it.......today is the 247th Anniversary of the greatest country on earth.  Do we have our problems?  Sure, who doesn't. By the same token I am getting sick and tired of those individuals that desire to tear our country down.  Those who belong to the "cancel culture" the "woke" mobs and definitely those that try to turn this country into a socialist institution.  And last but not least, those supposed educators, who, instead of teaching the three R's (reading, riting and rithmatic....showing my age) are trying to indoctrinate our youth with some of the most abhorrent philosophies ever imagined.

Yes, this is the greatest country on earth, and no other country can compare to it.  And those who don't believe it are free to try and see what it is like in other parts of the world.  Not just fancy vacation spots, but everyday living.  And I might also add, many out there need to consider signing up for some time with our military to defend what has been won with the blood, sweat and tears of those who have gone before us.

GOD BLESS AMERICA

Shawnee Ward 1 - Tammy Thomas vs Sierra Whitted

 The Ward 1 city council race in Shawnee is on.  Tammy Thomas, the current incumbent is being challenged by Sierra Whitted.

This is really funny.  Thomas is in her first term, and yet she has been on the council longer than Whitted has lived in Shawnee.  That's right, this Lawrence KS transplant does not know what it means to really live or work in Shawnee, as she still works in Lawrence.  You know Lawrence, the city where most folks are indoctrinated with the super left ideology.  Is this the best that the "opposing" forces could muster?  Someone still wet behind the ears about Shawnee.  Oh, and who is her campaign treasurer, and probably the person that recruited her to run?  None other Lisa Larson-Bunnell, who leans so far left that she makes Joe biden look like a conservative.

OK, on with the good stuff.  Tammy Thomas knows Shawnee, from ALL aspects.  As a resident, she has lived here for a total of 28 years.  As a parent, all 3 of her children had their entire K-12 education in the De Soto School District.  As an involved member of the community Tammy and her husband Bryan, have spent countless hours working and volunteering with the Shawnee Sharks Swim & Dive Team. She is currently the Kansas State Director for a nonprofit "Safe Families for Children".  their mission is to keep children safe and families together, working to keep families away from the foster care system and state engagement. Prior to that Tammy was the Kansas City Regional Director, for the Kansas Department for Children and Families.  She also served on the USD 232 Board of Education from 2009-2013.

Her husband's family has been in Shawnee since the 1960's and ran successful businesses during that time.

Tammy does know Shawnee.  She knows what it takes to live here, get an education for your children and to work here.  Yes, she is conservative in nature.  She has shown that she is a concerned, involved member of the council, unlike her rubber stamping predecessor.  And yes, one of her major accomplishments was to vote to stop the possibility of outside developers, buying up single family residences, and then converting those residences into mini apartments, by remodeling and adding 5, 6 & yes 7 bedrooms.  But left  leaning liberals have chosen that item to erroneously attack those that supported it as being against individuals with differing sexual preferences.  Stopping developers from converting single family residences was and is not anti gay life style.  It was meant to stop the deterioration of residential neighborhoods.  

Unlike her predecessors on the council Tammy has and will continue to question expenses.  That money is property of the citizens of Shawnee.  The city has no money of its own.  That is what a council member is supposed to do.  Not rubber stamp every item that comes across the council dais.  Standing firm with other council members the city will be saving over $4 million on the Midland Drive rehab project and still getting a safer roadway, curbs, gutters, a new sewer & wastewater system, bicycle lanes and a sidewalk so folks don't have to navigate ditches.

Tammy deserves to be reelected to the Ward 1 council seat.  Sierra needs to learn what it is to live and work in Shawnee and not virtually just move here and feel that she is qualified to represent Ward  1 on the council.