Play the game

Local blogger Lasaro made some pretty good observations about my campaign this morning. "And besides, should he actually win and get elected, those people who's ring he wouldn't kiss, well he'll find out that they are all still going to be there, waiting to make sure he doesn't succeed. Why do you think you always see the same people running for office. They know how to play the game. Mark needs to get into the game before he can change the game." Lasaro is right about the power brokers still being there. They always will be. The question is how to avoid getting caught up in it. Before I announced my candidacy I went around talking to everyone I could trying to get the lay of the land and find out who else was going to be running. I met with one of the biggest power brokers in this town who was less than impressed with my idealism and grass-roots strategy. His advise to me? Run a nice, quiet campaign. Be nice to the "real" candidates. Get my name out there, and lose. Maybe get a PIAC appointment from the winner. Show everyone what a good little soldier I am. That will get me noticed and maybe someday it will be "my turn." My turn? So city council is some kind of reward? For what? I politely disagreed (okay maybe not so politely) with this person and took my leave. His parting words were something about me getting steamrolled by the big endorsing political organizations. I'm not convinced. I still believe in the democracy I was taught in 6th grade Civics. You run for office, you talk about the issues, you work hard and you get elected. Maybe I missed the chapter where it said you join the right political organizations, you network with the rich and powerful, and eventually you are rewarded with tons of campaign contributions and you buy your way into public office. There's a lot of money being contributed in this little 4th in-district race. Not to me! But there's a lot of money. I know who is giving what to whom. I really don't care. On February 27th we all get brought down to the same level in that voting booth. You know how many votes a big dollar contributor gets? ONE. Just like the rest of us. So to anyone out there that thinks this race is about fundraising and deal making? You keep counting your money. I'll count votes.

I am the very model of a modern day Rotarian...

When you're running for office you get invited to a lot of events. A lot of events. Today was no exception. I was a guest of the Downtown Rotary Club #13. It was your typical meet and greet type luncheon. Lots of name tags, lots of blue suits. Lots of handshaking and names I'll do well to remember half of. The speaker was former Senator Jack Danforth. I had never heard Senator Danforth speak before but I knew his reputation to be that of a fair and even minded public servant. Even some of my most liberal of friends refer to Jack as their "favorite Republican." What I heard from Jack today wasn't anything new to me. It was sobering though, to hear it described so eloquently. You see, Jack is sad. He didn't come out and say he is sad, but you can tell. Jack doesn't recognize the Republican Party anymore. His party. As he described it, the party of state and local control, a free market economy and a strong national defense. What he sees now is a party dominated by the christian right. A party bent on injecting religion into daily government. A party that seeks to keep power by demonizing the other side. He finds this disturbing, as I think most of us do. Senator Danforth longs for the days when Democrats and Republicans used to constantly work together. They had to. The Republicans were about 30% of the populace, the Democrats were about 30% of the populace, and the other 40% kept them in check and insured that they played nicely. It wasn't good versus evil. It was more like "we better get together and do some good or we'll all get sent home come election day." Jack didn't absolve the Democrats of pandering to their extreme base either. He just stuck to what he knows; or used to know; his party. He concluded with some Q&A from the audience including a not so subtle attack from a MO Right to Life advocate for his pro-stem cell research stance. He handled all questions with the poise and confidence of someone who knows he doesn't have to win any elections anymore. Jack still has faith that this country will swing back from the extremes and we can once again start working together for progress, instead of working against each other for political gain. I sure hope he's right.

Public figure, or public servant?

I love being in front of a crowd. I'm the youngest of seven children. Youngest children almost always are the entertainers. The outgoing ones. I'm told by the age of 2 I could do a pretty good Beatles medly and was very entertaining at parties. I make no secret that you give me a microphone and a room full of interested people and you better bring a hook or pray for a power outage. I admit all this because I value my propensity for self-evaluation. Know your strengths and weaknesses. Admit what you are, and move forward. I told my wife last night that I wasn't going to blog on this. I told her that Katheryn Shields may end up mayor to my councilman and I certainly don't want to start off on the wrong foot. I tried. I really tried. Then I slept on it. Then I woke up this morning and I'm still bent. So I write. I blog, therefore I am. Now, where was I? Oh yes. "The mural." $100,000 for a fresco on the ceiling of the Jackson County executive offices. Absolutely ridiculous! Not the art mind you. I'm a huge advocate of the 1% for public art program. In fact, some cities specify 2% and that might not be such a bad idea either. My problems are as follows: 1. Why blow the whole budget on one art project? The whole courthouse renovation totalled $10 million. They could have taken the $100,000 and scattered several projects throughout the building. They could have included art and artists from throughout the county (that's county and not country). Paintings, sculptures, and yes even a fresco or two. 2. Only standing dictators create monuments to themselves. Saddam Hussein loved to see his likeness on walls of public buildings. So did Stalin. Having a sitting County Executive allow herself to be immortalized in a mural was a poor decision. Poor judgement. Poor policy. Poor taste. And in my opinion, pretty creepy. I know Katheryn Shields and her husband are very vindictive. If they even know who I am (I'm pretty sure Phil does) I know I've just made "the list." But you know what? I'm not afraid of them. What are they going to do? Not vote for me? I think that's a foregone conclusion considering I'm the grassroots, not taking any PAC money candidate. There are lots of powerful people who aren't going to vote for me because I'm not "playing the game." So what? Their votes count one at a time on election day, just like the rest of us. If you're a public official you have to withstand public scrutiny. Allowing herself to be a part of that mural was an amazing display of arrogance. There are public figures and then there are public servants. I'll stick with public servant, thank you very much.

Did you not see the memo on the TPS reports?

It seems like every time I read an article about policy at City Hall there's the mention of a consultant(s). In today's Star there are two articles that immediately jumped out at me. The first was the '07 budget approved by the Police Commission to be presented to the City Council. At one point the article says "The bigger budget reflects the recommendations of a consultant’s report released earlier this month.." The second article is titled "Is another study really needed to fix KC Municipal Court?" It goes on to say that the "city already has spent $227,000 on a 2004 study by legal and efficiency experts that looked at the municipal criminal justice system." Ahh, the good ol' efficiency experts. Anybody remember the "two Bobs" in Office Space? We burn a lot of money on consultants. A lot of money for recommendations and conclusions that could easily be reached by the people doing the work in the departments being studied. One of the main recommendations of that $227,000 study of the municipal court system? Better computer technology. Gee thanks! Didn't see that one coming. I spent many hours during the 90's taking classes in Total Quality Management. It was the big management fad back then. Fad or not, I learned a great deal. I think the primary lesson I keep with me is that in order to improve a process, you need to include the people in the process on your team. Who better to make recommendations about how to do a job better than the people actually doing the job? We should skip the consultants and rely on the talented individuals we already have. They have the most knowledge about what's going on. I have a feeling any municipal court employee could have told us we needed better computer technology. As my dad used to say, "You want to learn how to dig a hole? Talk to the guy with the shovel."

Who are these guys? Part II

Have you ever heard of the Downtown Economic Stimulus Authority? What about MODESA, the Missouri Downtown and Rural Economic Stimulus Act? I'm very familiar with both, but then again considering the job I want, I should be. I wouldn't expect the average citizen to know the intimate details but you should be able to find out if you want to. I actually helped lobby for MODESA down in Jeff City back when we were trying to get State buy-in for Kansas City's downtown revitalization. Even after the St. Louis delegation got through gutting it to try and prevent Kansas City from building an arena, the act still manages to provide funding for major projects which revitalize urban cores. Part of the MODESA act requires the establishment of an Authority to review projects that seek MODESA incentives and then make recommendations to the City Council and the Missouri Development Finance Board. The members of this Authority are appointed by the mayor. Once again, this is an extremely powerful organization recommending policy that affects tax dollars and economic development. Additionally, the Downtown Economic Stimulus Authority has the power to own and transfer property, borrow money and issue debt, and renovate, own, operate and construct public improvements and parking garages. That's a LOT of power for a group of people who have never stood for election. Not surprisingly the list of commissioners reads like a who's who among political insiders. And their qualifications for directing the redevelopment of our downtown? Well that's up to you to find out. There's no easy web page to go to with detailed resumes and biographies explaining why these people were selected to this important Authority. I have my own theories...

Walking is definitely not running for office

If you've read this blog over the last few months you know I'm an avid runner. Monday through Friday, rain or shine I typically do about 5-7 miles a day. It's a great time to get out of the house (I work from home), breathe some fresh(?) air, do a lot of campaign strategizing, and most of all stay in shape to burn off all that milk and ice cream my wife worries about me eating. The interesting, and painful lesson I've learned over the last few weeks is that running and walking door to door are two completely different things. I can run all day with nary a twinge or aching joint. A few hours of walking is a completely different story! Stamina is not the issue. I'm never short of breath when a voter answers the door. There's just something about the physiology of walking that brutalizes my legs. I was trained to run. I was a fairly successful sprinter in high school and had the good fortune to train under some of the best coaches in the metro. I was taught how to jog, run, sprint and everything in between to maximize performance and minimize body stress. You wouldn't think something like jogging needs to be taught, but if you don't do it the right way you can do some serious damage to yourself. Sad part is, either I wasn't paying attention or we never got around to the whole "walking" thing. Maybe I should ditch the shirt and tie, put on my shorts and running shoes, and really "run" for office? Or maybe not...

No sense taking yourself seriously...

Every time I leave the house to knock on doors, I come back with a story. Today is no different. I had one of those classic "me" moments. I had just finished leaving a house, stepped out into the street only to have my walklist binder go one way, my nominating petition clipboard the other. As I crouched in the street gathering my scattered papers, an SUV pulled up next to me. Finally I gathered my composure only to look up and see my next door neighbor looking down at me with an ornery grin. "How's the campaign going?" Nothing like being caught in your finest moment.

Gone Mild - Right on Mark Forsythe?

Many, many thanks to Gone Mild for a complimentary post this morning. From everything he wrote that I said, I must have been pretty far down into that Latte by the time I said this: He dismissed prior council members who acted as though being on the losing end of a 12-1 vote meant that they were taking a courageous stand. "That's just stupid, and a failure," Mark says, shaking his head. I'll admit that does sound a lot like me, but sheesh! I have to learn to tone it down a bit or switch to decaf! I read a great argument on a blog comment somewhere a long while back. I don't remember where but I thought the point was well made. Losing 12-1 in a council vote does nothing but get your name in the paper. What you've just done is shown the whole city that you are such an inneffective legislator that you cannot sway even 1 other person to see things your (and consequently your constituents') way. That's not leadership. That's grandstanding. That's not consensus building (I despise that phrase), that's playing the martyr. I'm no martyr. Being the youngest of seven I will admit to some youngest child grandstanding tendencies, but not when it comes to the business of leadership. If you ever see my name in the paper on the losing end of a 12-1 vote, I can assure you that it will be accompanied by a sincere apology to you the voters for having completely failed you. I will do all I can to make sure that situation doesn't happen on my watch. Have a great weekend everybody! I have some door-knocking to do.

How much should a vote cost?

One of my table companions at the Downtowners luncheon last week turned out to be a very interesting guy. We hit it off right away, finding common ground in that we both live in old houses that we are currently rehabbing. As talk turned to politics (imagine that) we glossed over the subject of campaign finance reform. Turns out another thing we had in common is we're both staunch grass-roots politics supporters and believe that money, those who have it, and those who can get it have too much influence on our democratic process. He suggested one of those "I wish I had thought of that" ideas which are my favorites. In the case of local Kansas City politics he thinks that a cap should be put in place that prevents a candidate from raising too much money. Something like $1/resident. I took it a step forward and suggested $1/registered voter. Maybe even .50/registered voter. The squirming and eye rolling of some of our more politically connected table mates told me we were on the right track! Our 4th District has about 50,000 registered voters. At .50/voter, you could raise up to $25,000 for an in-district election. That's a pretty good chunk of change for some push pieces and yard signs. It also puts every candidate on a level playing field financially and brings the race down to issues, ideas, creativity and hard work. (Begin sarcasm) But then again, who wants to vote for the most qualified, creative, hard-working, dynamic individual? Wouldn't you rather just vote for the person with the most money?! (end sarcasm)

Got milk? YES!

I know TKC will give me tons of grief over this but I'm addicted to Shatto milk. Not the skim or the 2% mind you, but the full-blown 100 proof stuff. The last couple of weeks I have been unable to get any at the Brookside Market. Today, joy of joys the shelves were stocked again! I just can't drink heavily processed milk anymore. It tastes like chalk water compared to Shatto. The explanation from the Shatto family makes perfect sense. When the weather's hot, cows don't produce as much milk. Since the Shatto farm is 100% natural, they don't use any hormones to stimulate the cows milk production through the hot spells. They give what they give when they feel like it! Anyway, I know this is not political post, but I was just really happy to get my Shatto back! All is right once again in this unashamed milk drinker's world. Besides it's my blog and you're not the boss of me! (yet) Oh yeah, by the way. Don't be like my neighbor (Jimmy) and buy the milk for weeks on end (Jimmy) and take the bottles to the recycling center (Jimmy) all the while never realizing that there's a $1.50 deposit on every bottle! (Jimmy) Update: I received an email last night from Leroy Shatto thanking me for the post and extending a personal invitation to come tour the dairy. I think we're going to take him up on it. Even my city girl wife wants to meet the cows! In his words "I would love to show you around and allow you to meet the happy girls that produce the milk you enjoy so much." Good product and nice people. What a concept.

And they told me it couldn't be done...

A couple of years ago a resident in my neighborhood came to me for help. A neighbor of his had built a garage addition. Not just a garage but a multi-car garage topped with a party deck. It pretty much occupies the property's entire back yard. I wasn't making any judgements about the addition, but suffice to say I'm glad it wasn't backing up against my kitchen window! The neighbor wasn't asking for the additon to be torn down, he just felt the process had some holes in it and thought it could be changed for the better. The current process goes something like this. If you want to build an addition or outbuilding that violates zoning laws, you have to obtain what's called a variance. That means you have obtained permission from the City for your specific project. First you have to develop your plans and submit them to the City Planning Department where they make suggestions and possibly request revisions. Once they have approved it, all your surrounding neighbors are notified of your intent and are given a chance to review your plans and protest them if they want before the Board of Zoning and Adjustment (BZA). If nobody shows up to the BZA hearing to complain, the project is generally approved. It's the part about the opportunity to review plans that my neighbor had the problem with. If you've never received one of these notifications it's usually a scale map of the property with an outline of the proposed project. No pictorials. Nothing very descriptive. In this particular case it described the project as a "garage addition." You're also told the entire project plans are available for your review at City Hall during business hours (maybe). I'm not kidding about the "maybe" part. My neighbor felt that if he had seen the entire project plans he would have surely gone to the BZA hearing to express his concerns. He didn't feel like he should have to take a day off of work to go to City Hall for a "maybe". I agree. I was able to get a meeting with my City Councilman who invited the acting head of City Planning. I wanted to know why the plans couldn't be made available online. In this day and age almost all architectural plans and renderings either start or end up in electronic format. I didn't feel it would be too much of a stretch to send out a URL in the neighbor notification letters that would allow people to go to a website and review the plans at their leisure. The city staff at the meeting listened. They nodded agreement, but in the end it was one of those "maybe someday" type answers implying that it would be too difficult to implement and the technology didn't yet exist. I knew better but I was just a lowly constituent. Well guess what? According to the press release I received last week and borrowing a phrase from The Six Million Dollar Man, "we have the technology." Courtesy of the City and the Builders' Association, the Kansas City Plan room will launch October 1st. The Web site (kcmoplanroom.org) will allow contractors to download and print construction plans and bidding documents for free. So now we have the capability, we have the technology, how about making BZA plans available on this site too?

Can't see the (urban) forest for the trees

Back in the 1970's the city's Elm tree population was devastated by Dutch Elm Disease. Once beautiful tree-lined avenues were reduced to barren roadways as a large percentage of our street trees happened to be Elms susceptible to the disease. Since it was the 1970's, pollution was something we all thought we were just going to have to live with. Because of that the city arborists searched for a suitable replacement tree that would be disease resistant and able to thrive even in a polluted environment. The Sweet Gum seemed to be the logical choice at the time. Hardy, relatively fast-growing, long-lived and very colorful in the Fall it seemed an ideal replacement for the City's decimated Elms. The only downside of the Sweet Gum as an urban street tree was it's spiny seed pods which cover the sidwalks in the Spring, causing tripping hazards and clogging stormwater catch basins. I'm told by people within the Parks and Rec department that the original nursery from which we bought all these trees assured the City that they were the non-fruiting variety, meaning no spiny seed pods. The only problem there was it takes several years for this type of tree to mature and begin producing seed pods. As we all now know our particular variety of tree is not what the nursery promised. I doubt the City kept the receipt... We need a plan for the care and replacement of our street trees. Our aging tree stock is beginning to decline and we have no established policy for their replacement. The City frequently tells residents we have no money for new street trees. That may be true. We don't have the money for a lot of things, BUT... Here's another one of my "crazy, young guy, you just don't understand the way things are done" ideas. First, we relax the current policy that requires any tree planted on a right-of-way have a two inch caliper. That's fancy arborist talk for a two inch diameter trunk. A 2 inch caliper tree is about 6 foot tall and can go for around $500 to $700. Little saplings are much less expensive. More in the $25 and under range. Much less costly to replace if they don't survive the first few crucial years. Second, we utilize volunteers to inventory our street tree population so we can anticipate when the trees will need to be replaced and where we need to plant trees to replace ones that have already been removed. Finally, we plant saplings. Lots of them. On seldom used public land, even Land Trust lots which don't seem to be doing much anyway except racking up codes complaints and mowing bills. We organize volunteer groups and even individuals who would be willing to host a sapling. We can maintain this tree inventory at little or no cost to the taxpayers and when we need a tree somewhere we'll have one, for free instead of six or seven hundred dollars to some nursery. As the old saying goes, the best time to plant a tree is 25 years ago. The next best time is today.

I'm back!

The forces of nature and technology were conspiring against me. First it was a flu virus. One that I've been fighting for a week. Then it was a Blogger upgrade that exposed some flaws in my code and kept me from publishing for days. When you're stuck in bed and all you have is daytime television and no blogging capability, you're in double trouble. Well for better or worse, I'm back. I can tell by your reaction you're happy about that. (sarcasm included) I have the flu on the run and my Blog code tightened up and running smoothly. I've got plenty of posts in the can so they should be coming daily this week. Thanks for being patient! Edit: Special thanks to my friends at BlogKC, Tony's Kansas City and Gone Mild for their offers of help, suggestions and words of encouragement. Much appreciated. If you're not reading their blogs, you're missing out.

Go Speed Racer Go!

First a confession. I've had a speeding ticket pled down to faulty equipment in Kansas City. I'm not proud of it. I'm not ashamed either. It was an option available to me at the time and I took it. The advantage is you pay a higher fine for a faulty equipment conviction but it's a non-moving violation so it doesn't show up on your driving record which could lead to your insurance premiums being raised. The rationale is the City gets more money in fines, speeders are still punished and only the insurance companies get duped out of possible revenue increase. Recently the City Council voted to reinstate the practice of allowing defendants to plead down a moving violation to a non-moving violation. There's been a small dust-up over at kc buzz blog regarding the "weak-willed City Council" and the "black hat" defense lawyers. I'm sure we could all argue for days over issues of public safety, ethics, economic disparity and the like. In my opinion I think something is getting lost in the discussion. Whatever happened to prosecutorial and/or judicial discretion? It's up to the prosecutor in each case to negotiate the plea deal. The prosecutor and defense attorney then jointly present the arranged plea to a judge. At this point the deal has gone through two public officials. Do they have no responsibility or accountability? We can pass all the laws we want. In the end it's up to the judiciary to enforce them. Isn't it? A good friend of mine had her vote swayed on election day by a visit from Jolie Justus. It was Jolie's stance on protecting the independent judiciary that cinched the deal. I also give two thumbs up for Jolie's stance on animal welfare too but that's the subject of another post. I agree with the protection of the judiciary, but I want more accountability too. Instead of blaming the defense lawyers for cutting the deals, and the lawmakers for not stopping it, why aren't we criticizing the prosecutors and judges for allowing it?

Who are these guys?

In a Chamber of Commerce newsletter I receive they start off with the promise of highlighting an area agency and answering the question, "Who makes up this agency, and what do they do?" "Finally!" I thought. Someone has heard my calls for transparency and will lay bare the inner workings of one of the scores of mayoral appointed committees that recommend policy. This particular installment was on the Port Authority. Part of the Economic Development Corporation (EDC) the Port Authority oversees riverboat gaming, development of the riverfront, and the Richards-Gebaur International Freight Gateway. The article went on to explain that the Port Authority is governed by seven commissioners appointed by the Mayor. It even listed the commissioners. Finally it provided a link to the Port Authority website. Surely I thought, you can go to the official website and find out about these commissioners? Nope! It's up to you to Google the names and try and find something about their backgrounds. It shouldn't be that hard, but it is. These people deal with casinos handling millions of dollars of revenue. They oversee an international freight hub. These things sound pretty important to me. Shouldn't the commissioners be qualified? Shouldn't we as the constituency know a little something about them? A simple bio page is all I'm asking for. Each City Councilperson has one. Just tell us all a little about yourself, your background and what your qualifications are to serve. Too much to ask? I don't think so.

New ordinance is the pits

I blogged on this already, but now it's official. The KC Council passed a mandatory altering ordinance stating that all pit bull and pit bull mix dogs that reside in the City limits and are more than 8 weeks old must be spayed or neutered by December 1st. I don't think I have enough space or you have enough patience to read everything I think is wrong with this ordinance. I'll try a simple list and then I'll give my conclusions. The list: 1. The ordinance will be ignored. The kind of people who are the problem owners are not the kind of people who bother with little things like City ordinances. Remember the guy in Independence whose pit bulls attacked so many people? He said he let his dogs loose because wanted to "stir things up." Real model citizen. I doubt people like him will be rushing to the vet to have their dogs spayed or neutered. 2. Because the ordinance will be ignored, there will be an enforcement problem. At last count I think we have three animal control officers. Let's see. 317 square miles and 3 people. Yeah I'd say we're going to have an enforcement problem. 3. The ordinance will cause undue administrative problems. There is the question of what constitutes a pit bull or pit bull mix? According to the ordinance you can appeal a judgement that your dog is indeed a pit bull. Now you get a hearing, an appeal process and perhaps another hearing. It all costs money folks. We've done nothing but create another layer of bureaucracy that will do nothing towards solving the very real problem of thousands of cats and dogs being killed every year because of overpopulation. We can try and soften the language and call it "euthanized" but facts are facts. There's a reason animal rescue organizations call government run animal facilities "kill shelters". After a few days, if the dog or cat is not adopted they have to kill the animal in order to make room for the next batch. This happens daily. I've said this before and I'll publish it in a policy paper (look for those coming soon). Mandatory spay and neuter should apply to all cats and dogs. It's the responsible thing to do. It's the humane thing to do. It's the right thing to do.

New Crossroads Parking Policy

The City Council recently approved an exemption for the Crossroads District that allows restaurants under 2000 square feet and retailers under 4000 square feet to bypass the regulation that requires them to furnish off-street parking. IMHO this is a pretty progressive move for a city government that still seems so enamored with the automobile. The current parking ordinance dates back to the 1950's when GI's (including my dad) were fresh home from WWII and the American dream consisted of a car in every driveway, an attached garage and large suburban lots sprawling out as far as the eye could see. The public was enamored with drive-in restaurants, drive-in movies, drive-in everything! In that spirit Kansas City's ordinance was created to mandate that any business had to provide off-street parking. One parking space for every 75 square feet of restaurant space, every 400 square feet of retail space and every 50 square feet of bar/tavern space. Have you ever wondered why we make drinking and driving illegal yet require taverns to provide the most parking spaces? Hopefully our leadership is beginning to see that 1950's policies might not make sense in 2006. Think about all the cool, hip, walkable urban areas across the country. Haight-Asbury in San Francisco. Greenwich Village in New York. These areas could not exist under Kansas City's parking ordinances. What a shame. I think it should fall to the business owner as to whether they can prosper with, or without a parking lot. Granted there are issues with only so much parking on the street and all businesses must share, but the point is if you want to do business in an urban area you have to think like an urban business. We can't continue to tear down buildings and build multi-level parking structures just to satisfy a half-century old way of thinking. Is that really the legacy we want to leave for future Kansas Citians?

Great day and bad day for City departments

The City of Kansas City announced several personnel (oops, I mean human resources) moves today. I read with mixed emotions that the Finance Department has hired Judy Hadley to its management team as the City's manager of revenue. Judy Hadley is one the good ones. I've known her for quite a while in her role as manager of the Regulated Industries Division. You might know that department better as "Liquor Control." With all the bad publicity that City Hall gets I think it's important to remember that there are some pretty darn good people there too. You may have your issues about liquor regulations in this town (as do I) but I can assure you it has nothing to do with Judy's leadership. You play the hand you were dealt, so to speak. So on the bright side we now have one of the sharpest individuals I've had the pleasure of dealing with in charge of collecting the City's taxes and enforcing the tax code. On the down side we now no longer have one the sharpest individuals I've had the pleasure of dealing with in charge of our Regulated Industries division. Good people deserve to be promoted and certainly need to be in a position where their skills can be best utilized. Judy was a great hire for our Finance department. Hopefully the opening in Regulated Industries will make way for some other talented individual to rise and begin accomplishing things. We can always hope... Congratulations Judy!

I promise not to make ridiculous promises.

Today's mail brought one of the first pieces of mayoral literature I've seen for the 2007 campaign. Considering I'm counting on the winner of that election to be my next boss (after my constituents of course), I'm paying pretty close attention to what they have to say. I can honestly say I really don't dislike any of the mayoral candidates personally. I've met almost all of them and find them to be fairly decent people. That being said, I've met and liked thousands of people in my lifetime, it doesn't mean I think they'd all make a good mayor. This particular candidate lists his/her campaign points, and boy are there a lot of them! I guess if you can't promise one thing, promise everything? Paraphrasing a bit to protect the innocent(?) this particular candidate is going to improve law enforcement, fix our infrastructure, keep our credit rating in good shape, fix our billion dollar sewer problem, clean the air, provide better health care, build a mass transit system, AND lots of other things. I don't like to be a pessimist, but come on! There's only so many budget dollars and so many usage taxes you can implement. At the end of the day you have to go with what you can afford. A transit system (ie: light rail) has been estimated at about $1 Billion. Ditto for upgrading our 19th Century sewer system. That puts us at a cool $2 Billion before we even think about filling one pothole. Since I know the sewer issue is going to be a "have to" and not a "want to" during my tenure, I have been through the budget repeatedly and guess what? There's not a spare billion to be had. This may come as a surprise to voters who actually believe empty campaign promises. I'm trying to stick to things I think I can accomplish. In the business world of flashy can do seminars this is what is known as going after the low hanging fruit. Start with the easy things that save money like improved efficiency and then from those savings you might have a buck or two to spend. Political promises are cheap. Believing in them can be expensive!

Don't be that guy

I'm glad to be upright and back at my desk this morning. Last week I had what I thought was a terrible allergy attack. My sneezing fits were so violent I actually pulled muscles in my back! Finally on Thursday I could take no more and went to see my doctor. He looked me over, stuck a thermometer in my mouth and matter of factly informed me that allergy attacks are rarely accompanied by a 101 degree fever. Who the heck gets the flu in summertime? I guess the answer to that is "me". Today I'm finally feeling human again but it was a bummer of a weekend. Speaking of bummers, my Wornall Homestead neighborhood picnic was Saturday. It's an event a lot of us look forward to every year. Good eats, good friends, good times. I drug myself out of bed long enough to walk down to the park and say hi to everybody, at a comfortable distance of course. I didn't want anyone to think I was blowing them off. One of the neighborhood board members jokingly approached me and warned me that there would be no politicking allowed. He said he wasn't going to let me turn a friendly gathering into an unwelcome political event. I laughingly agreed. We parted ways and I ambled back home and right back to bed. That night I received an email from a neighbor informing me that one of my opponents had shown up campaigning at the picnic! Apparently he was shaking hands, handing out literature, the usual. The thing is this guy knows that I live in the neighborhood. He also knows I've served on the board for years and would most likely have been at the picnic but for my pesky flu bug. Maybe he was trying to make me angry. Maybe he's just clueless. I don't know... The emailer thought my opponent's actions were outside the limits of good taste, these being my friends and neighbors. I myself was invited to an ice cream social in my opponent's neighborhood but politely declined because I didn't want to be "that guy". I just don't want to be the annoying political candidate trying to shove myself in my opponent's face. Maybe it's just me. What are the limits when it comes to campaigning? With my tiny budget I certainly don't want to miss a chance to meet voters, but then again I don't want my campaigning to backfire on me and have people thinking I'm an overbearing jerk. What do you think loyal blog readers? Should I be showing up to these picnics? Even if it's literally in an opponent's backyard?

Why don't we steel away...

I know metal plates are a big annoyance in this town. I have blogged about this before. Rarely if ever are they properly installed. Sometimes they're not even anchored correctly and will shift when a vehicle drives over them. Not only is that dangerous but it makes a lovely sound all day and all night for the people living close by. At the bottom of the hill from me there are two steel plates that have been covering a utility cut for close to two weeks. Forget the fact that my street was resurfaced last summer. It seems like utility companies and even City departments can't wait to dig up a freshly paved street. In our case, I'm pretty sure it's the gas company. Yellow markings on the street usually indicate gas lines and there's plenty of yellow around these plates. What I'd like to know is what magical part or material are they waiting on that requires a two week wait? What I'd also like to know is how much longer we're going to wait for the removal of the plates? You would think it would be easy to find out about a project. Permits have to be pulled, inspections need to be made. The City has to have a record somewhere. I'm pretty good with KivaNet and I couldn't find much on this project. Here's another "no cost to you the taxpayer" proposal. First, we need to adopt a comprehensive and practical policy for utility street cuts. I'm not much for re-inventing the wheel so I'll just borrow from New York's ordinance. City regulations require all metal construction plates to be large enough to cover street cuts and to be firmly anchored, countersunk or ramped to prevent movement and rocking as well as provide a smooth transition with the street; plates must also have skid resistant equal to or greater than the adjacent road surface (DOT Highway Rules Section 2-11, e 10). In addition, contractors must stamp their name on the plates and post signs with their contact information at construction sites. During winter months, contractors must also post signs stating, "Steel Plates Ahead Raise Plow." Make sense? I'll take it a step further. Somewhere easily visible at the project site should be a permit or project number so citizens can look up what's going on. I don't care if it's spray painted on the plate, or the contractor's sign. It's a project taking place on a public street, it should be readily available public information. Next, the website to look up this information should be simple. You shouldn't have to be a computer geek like myself to find information. Readily available information will encourage contractors, utility companies, and city departments to complete their work in a safe and timely manner. Plainly marked project sites will keep everyone informed. Finally, keeping the metal plates from becoming permanent fixtures at any one site is a benefit to everyone.

The new postcards are here!

Sometimes it's the little things that bring excitement to your day. My first real campaign literature arrived today. We picked these colors and a friend designed the yardsign over a year ago, but this is the first I've seen it done professionally. Up until now I've been printing business cards and thank you cards with an old broken down printer. Now that we have a little seed money we've gone legit! My colors are not just a random choice. My heritage is very important to me. The name Forsythe is an ancient Scottish name. Our family name appears on the role of official Scottish clans. We have our own family tartan that is unique from any other. The "Forsythe Blue" of my sign background is the primary color of our family tartan. The gold (more of a yellow) lettering comes from the crown on the griffin that appears on our family badge. Probably a little corny to most, but I'm proud of my heritage. I was wanting to do Forsythe tartan yardsigns but the cost of that many colors was through the roof. You know us thrifty Scots! It's way too early for yardsigns but be on the lookout for Forsythe Blue. Coming soon to a yard near you!

The Return of the $700 Hammer?

Some people call it being cheap. My dad used to refer to us as "thrifty Scotsmen." I have to admit I've really been stewing over this $150,000 traffic signal thing. A little background. The other night at a meeting about the Westport Road and Genessee-Bell intersections, the City traffic engineer informed us that a pedestrian pushbutton traffic signal would cost somewhere in the range of a $150,000. As I said in a previous post, I could have an entire house built for that. Granted, not the Taj Mahal but a house nonetheless. It would have a concrete basement that would require crews to come in, dig the hole, lay the forms and pour the concrete. It would have walls, requiring different crews to come in and construct them. It would have windows, a roof, plumbing, electrical and maybe even some carpet. I get all that, all those workers and materials for the same price it takes to put up one bolt-together mast arm with a traffic light hanging off of it?! Not to mention the builder would make a profit at the end of the day. How much profit is involved in one stoplight? I think sometimes we lose track of the value of a dollar in our workplaces. I really think we lose that insight in government. For example at the Westport Road meeting I didn't really see too much of a reaction from anyone when the $150,000 figure was mentioned. I think people figure they don't know much about traffic signals so they'll just "leave it to the experts." What if the experts are getting ripped off? A quick Google on traffic signal cost revealed figures significantly lower than $150K. I even found a site detailing the cost savings of using LED instead of the traditional incandescent lights. To me, $150,000 is a LOT of money. Government should always be looking to do things better and less expensively. I intend to pull cost out wherever I can. It's what I was taught to do. First by my "thrifty" father, then by my business school professors. I think it's time to elect someone cheap, err... I mean thrifty. Like I always say, $150,000 here, $150,000 there, pretty soon you're talking real money!