Ruell Chappell: Standing Under the Missouri Restoration Party Banner

Announced for Democrat Incumbent Sara Lampe's Seat; Nick Sibley: "Love is Like Cornbread"

Springfield, Missouri - The Well-Fed Neighbor Alliance (WFNA) introduced the Missouri Restoration Tour (and party) at the Gilloiz Theater on Saturday, January 30, 2010. The introduction is important because it is the party banner WFNA hopes to see many candidates consider as those candidates contemplate running for local, state and even federal offices in the future.

In fact, WFNA co-founder Ruell Chappell, who originally announced his intentions to run for Missouri's 138th District against Sara Lampe at a WFNA meeting on October 14, 2009, is now "standing" under the Missouri Restoration Party banner. Originally, Chappell had indicated he would run as an independent.

"My plan is to stand for election in the 138th. I'm not running from or for anything." Chappell wrote in an email. "It is because I know politics to be nothing more than distraction, producing no real plan or leadership to solve our food security and economic issues, that I'm inclined to campaign."

Chappell informed the crowd at the Gilloiz he would not be just another politician. After spending time with many politicians promoting the WFNA and WFN Farmers' Cooperative, he said most realize the sad fact that Missourians are no longer in a position to feed themselves.

"Behind the scenes, the people in power know that we are sadly lacking in food security," Chappell said.

"I will represent the Missouri Restoration Party, dedicated to local food security, a vibrant sustainable local economy, and a reduction in our local carbon footprint."

Both Chappell and WFNA co-founder Galen Chadwick want to see Missouri become food and energy sovereign.

"We are all about food and jobs and the right of everyone to be who they are," Chappell said.

After spending some time telling the audience about the Well-Fed Neighbor Alliance, and showing a short WFNA film about the agricultural history of Missouri, one of the bands Chappell plays with entertained the crowd for about an hour.

Nick and Ruell and Ned The Band, Chappell said, have been working on some new songs about food. The band hadn't had time to rehearse Nick's new food song much but, "lack of rehearsal builds character," said band member Ned Wilkinson. The song, along with every other song performed that night, gets rave reviews from JackeHammer's attending reporter and that reporter's sometimes consultant, Fred Ellison.

Fred and his wife Janice, who are active with the Grant Beach Neighborhood Association (GBNA), and also members of the WFNA, were in attendance to provide information about how GBNA is partnering with WFNA on some upcoming projects and events. The Ellisons hope to provide a sort of template to other neighborhood associations on how they can partner with the WFNA too but, back to the music (or lyrics)....

Nick's "food song" went something like this:

Love is like cornbread, it's better when it's hot.
Love is like cornbread, it crumbles when it's not....

Makin' it is half the fun...12 - 15 minutes and it's done....

The cornbread song is sure to be a favorite (of course, it loses something when not accompanied by music) as the Missouri Restoration Tour continues on its way. The plan is for the tour to hit the 27 counties which make up the Well-Fed Neighbor Farmers' Cooperative.

"We have to go back to making things right one city, one county, one state at a time. The only way we can make the United States strong again is by growing food locally everywhere. We want Springfield to be a template for the country," Chappell said. "Food and Jobs are, and always will be, my vision, my plan, and my end-game. I will owe allegiance to no party, religion or belief system, other than the Missouri Restoration Party, regardless of how the requirements are met to get on the ballot."

The other big news of the night included the announcement that past Lieutenant Governor Joe Maxwell, who has been instrumental in forming food coops in other areas of the state and country wants to serve as the WFNA's Chief Counsel.

Maxwell could not be at the Gilloiz on January 30, due to weather conditions but, Ruell Chappell was proud to quote him from a phone conversation he had had with Maxwell earlier in the day.

"I am excited that Ruell and Galen have asked me to be part of their team as we work together to launch the first step in securing our food system--organizing (a) new farm to table food cooperative which will be responsible for connecting the consumer to their farm family, verifying and tracing their products from farm to table," Maxwell had said.

Hey, didn't I try to tell you to be there? I'm so sorry if you missed it because, having missed it, you also missed picking up some Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. Baker Creek was giving the heirloom seeds away after the show. You also missed mingling with some other great people involved with the WFNA, including the City of Springfield's Director of Planning & Development, Ralph Rognstad.

Rognstad didn't exactly agree with some of Chappell's comments about the Urban Garden Task Force process the City was a part of in 2009. I thought Chappell exaggerated the role WFNA's Galen Chadwick played in some of the situations he cited, Rognstad simply thought Chappell was wrong but, he appeared to be somewhat good natured about it.

"It's his story," Rognstad said. "It sounds good, it's just wrong." Rognstad did not say where he believed Chappell had erred.

At a recent Springfield City Council meeting, Council bill 2010-006 was read. The amendment intends, "to clarify the requirements for Community Gardens for operation of mechanical equipment and parking and to exempt park land and community gardens from the requirements for bufferyards." A motion was made to remove a section of the amendment which changed the machine operating hours to operating hours, period. Councilmen Nick Ibarra and Dan Chiles voted in favor of a revision to the amendment but, it failed when the other seven Council members voted against the revision. The bill is scheduled to be voted upon at the next Council meeting, on February 8.

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Cross posted at "Well-Fed Neighbor"

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Save Our Springfield (SOS) Citizen's Coalition Calls for City Manager Burris' Resignation

The headline in a "Springfield News-Leader" article, published in the Thursday, April 9 issue speaks volumes: "Police, fire support affects election wins."

But, what would you think if you knew that Springfield's City Manager Greg Burris had directly effected the Firefighter Union's choice of candidate endorsements? Would it give you pause to question whether the City Manager had inserted himself into a City Council election? Would you consider such actions, if true, to be unethical actions for a city manager? If so, you might be be in agreement with the positions of SOS spokesmen Darin Chappell and Mark Wright.

If, as the winning (and the losing) candidates seem to agree, police and firefighter union endorsements and support effect election wins, and the City Manager's actions contributed to the Firefighter Union's decision not to endorse General Seat A and B, City Council candidates Tom Martz and Fred Ellison, certainly, the losses of the firefighter union endorsement factored into their slim losses to their challengers. General Seat A candidate Robert Stephens beat opponent Tom Martz by about 500 votes. General Seat B candidate John Rush beat opponent Fred Ellison by a mere 208 votes, Chappell noted at a press conference early Thursday.

According to Firefighter Union President Tony Kelley, the receipt of an email forwarded to him by City Manager Greg Burris without sender Fred Ellison's permission, caused the Firefighter Union officials who decided which candidates the union would endorse, and which candidates they would not endorse for Springfield City Council, to suspect Martz and Ellison, "were lying to us to try to get our endorsement."

In the email Kelley referred to, General Seat A and General Seat B candidates Tom Martz and Fred Ellison were kicking around ideas which they thought might enhance voter support for a 1 percent sales tax initiative to fund the police and firefighters pension plan, Ellison said. Kelley understood the email to suggest the two candidates favored either reducing or cutting completely their return of contribution pension benefit.

Kelley called the Vincent David Jericho (VDJ) Program the day before the election and said, based on that email forwarded from Burris, the union chose not to endorse Martz and Ellison. At one point, Kelley asked Jericho, "Why would we endorse candidates that lied to us?"

On the VDJ Program Kelley explained:

"What had happened was, we received an email dated December 7th where Mr. Martz and Mr. Ellison were discussing back and forth about benefit reductions, basically, doing away with the return of contributions aspect of our pension plan," Kelley said. "Whenever we had a candidate forum, one of the questions was, do you support benefit reductions to police and firefighters, and their answer was no, they don't support it. We found that to be disturbing, that I have an email where both of them were exchanging back and forth about what would be a benefit reduction and, you know, two weeks later we have a forum and they both say, 'no, we're not in support of that,' so that played a lot into our decision to not endorse Martz and Ellison."

Ellison spoke to JackeHammer after the press conference in which SOS spokesmen Darin Chappell and Mark Wright called for Burris' resignation.

"My entire intent in forwarding the email to Mr. Burris was to suggest to him an additional basis for supporting or ensuring the success of the 1 percent sales tax initiative." Ellison said. "I felt like the return of contribution benefit is one of those that many citizens have expressed significant reservations about, and that had the police and firefighters been willing to accept some modification to that benefit that would have, as it were, played well with the voters of Springfield."

Martz and Ellison, members of the Missouri Liberty Coalition, had made several suggestions which were later included in a resolution the City Council passed with the intent to honor if the voters had approved the 1 percent pension sales tax initiative. That initiative failed in February.

Ellison said Kelley had not given him any indication, until the day before the City Council election on the Jericho Program, that he and the other Union officials who decided against endorsing him and Martz for City Council had suspected them of being dishonest with union members.

At issue for Chappell, co-SOS spokesman Mark Wright and KSGF radio talk show host Vincent David Jericho is not who won the election but, that by the forwarding of that email, City Manager Burris had injected himself into the City Council election. An action they view as unethical.

According to Chappell, whether a particular city manager is a member or not, the International City Manager Association's (ICMA) Code of Ethics is the national standard of ethics for city managers. Chappell cited Tenet 7 of the ICMA Code of Ethics:

"Refrain from all political activities which undermine public confidence in professional administrators. Refrain from participation in the election of the members of the employing legislative body."

Chappell, who holds a degree in public administration and teaches public administration, public finance and budgeting at Drury University,* believes that by forwarding an email, unsolicited, to the President of the Firefighter Union, Burris affected the election, and such an action is unethical. He made clear he was not speaking in connection with the university, but as a member of the Save Our Springfield Citizen's Coalition.

Chappell said he spoke to Martha Perego, ICMA's director of ethics. "She was shocked that any City Manager would insert himself into a political campaign such as Mr. Burris has clearly done," Chappell said. According to Chappell, Perego said such behavior would cause an ethics investigation to be considered immediately, which might result in censure or even loss of membership in the ICMA, however, Chappell said, "Mr. Burris is not a member of the ICMA, to my knowledge."

In response to a question, Chappell said that while he had not identified the city or named Springfield's city manager specifically when speaking to Ms. Perego, he had informed the Director of Ethics that the email was an "FYI," and, he reported, "she asked if the City is in active negotiations with the Union concerning a renegotiation of benefits and I said no, not at all." Chappell said she said, "there is absolutely no reason that the City Manager should have been in contact with the Union officials about the positions or possible positions or thought processes of two candidates for City Council. There is no justification for it whatsoever, from an ethical perspective," he said.

Co-SOS spokesman Mark Wright said such action also violates Springfield's City Charter, Wright read from Section 6.11 of the Charter, which, in part, reads:

"No appointive salaried officer or employee of the city shall during the hours when he is on duty engage in any form of political activity calculated to favor or improve the chances of any political party or any person seeking or attempting to hold political office, nor shall he engage in any political activity when not on duty to such an extent that his efficiency during working hours will be impaired or that he will be tardy or absent from his work."

"Candidates that may have been assisted in their campaigns, and who were elected, may feel beholden to the City Manager and lose their effectiveness as public officials," Wright said. "Other Council members may feel intimidated by the action of the City Manager and feel less inclined to challenge him or her on positions that may not be in the best interest of the citizens they represent."

The forwarded email in question was generated by Burris at 7:48 a.m. on Monday, December 8. Burris forwarded it to Tony Kelley, Deputy City Manager Evelyn Honea, Assistant City Manager Collin Quigley, Assistant Fire Chief David Hall, and Mike Evans. While earlier portions of the email Ellison had blind carbon copied to Burris included several earlier exchanges, and as many as 12 email addresses, including the Missouri Liberty Coalition's google group address, the email in question was only sent by Mr. Ellison to three other email addresses. Those three recipients were Tom Martz; Carl and Linda Herd; and James Hornaday Jr.

Burris, Chappell said, had "warned" the 5 recipients to whom he forwarded the email with the note, "FYI, so that no one gets blind-sided by upcoming comments or suggestions by the Missouri Liberty Coalition."

Whether Burris intended it to have an effect on the City Council election or not, it is clear that it, in the words of Tony Kelley, "played a lot into our decision to not endorse Martz and Ellison," and as the News-Leader reported, "Police, fire support affects election wins," so, in essence, by effecting the Firefighter Union's choice of endorsement, whether intentional or not, Burris affected the City Council election.

Fred Ellison does not intend to challenge the election, "With regard to the election, the election is water under the bridge at this point so, there's nothing that's going to change the outcome of the election but, I certainly wish that this had not been a factor in the decision of the voters," Ellison said.

"I think it's very unfortunate that Mr. Burris has placed himself in this position and I really regret all of the negative sentiment that will result in the continuing damage to trust of the citizens of Springfield and their city and their city government," Ellison said. "That's the most dangerous thing that these actions have done, in that it's continued that atmosphere of mistrust the citizens feel toward the city government."

Beyond calling for the City Manager to resign or, if he refuses to resign, calling on the Council to fire Mr. Burris, Chappell and Wright have no plans to take other action but, Chappell believes a line must be drawn, "When the Director of Ethics at the ICMA (International City Manager Association) is shocked by this behavior, the City Council should be as well, the citizens should be as well," he said.

The City of Springfield issued a press release late Thursday afternoon with Burris' statement in response to the charges that he had acted unethically by forwarding the email exchange between the two City Council candidates to the Firefighter Union:

"It’s disappointing to me that this group is trying to shift the focus of the City Council election outcome to one single e-mail exchange from four months ago instead of urging the community to pull together to support the newly elected Council members. There is simply no basis for their allegations. Nor have they approached me directly with their concerns since a phone call from a Journal Broadcasting radio show host on Monday asking for my recollection of the e-mail, which I didn’t even remember from December.

The e-mail they are citing already had several Missouri Liberty Coalition members copied on it and there was no indication it was supposed to be considered confidential, especially considering it was sent to a public official and would be open under the Missouri Sunshine Law. I simply forwarded it to the appropriate staff members who were involved in the police-fire pension tax proposal as an FYI to let them know points that Coalition members may raise at presentations or elsewhere. I’ve worked very hard to establish trust and open lines of communication with all of our employees, including representatives of our employee groups.

I’m also disappointed because I have similarly tried to respect the mutual interest I share with the SOS group in solving our pension underfunding problem. I have stated repeatedly that their proposal would be forwarded to the Citizens’ Task Force for their review and consideration and I forwarded a whitepaper prepared about the Capital Improvements Program to Mr. Wright and Mr. Chappell for their background information as a courtesy." - Greg Burris, City Manager

General Seat A Candidate Tom Martz said the email exchange was part of an ongoing discussion the candidates had been having for months as they sought solutions to the underfunded pension plan. "What I said prior to that forum (December 18) has no bearing," Martz said. "I've been consistent."

Chappell pointed out that the candidates had never deviated from their position that they did not favor a reduction in return of contribution benefits after December 18, 2008.

It is unclear why the Firefighter Union did not question them for clarification on the issue.

*Correction: Darin Chappell is an instructor at Missouri State University. Yesterday, during the news conference Mark Wright stated Chappell was an instructor at Drury University, I regret the error. -Jackie

Related:

"April 10_Hour 2_Who is Vince calling out and why" (KSGF podcast)

"April 10_Hour 3_Free For All" (KSGF podcast)

"Save Our Springfield group calls for resignation News-Leader.com Springfield News-Leader"

"busplunge: Group Calls For Springfield City Manager Called To Resign: Allege Ethical Breach"

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Firefighter Union Reaction Unmerited and Unreasonable

Correction:

Considering I just got word the attachment I wrote about yesterday was not attached to the original email sent to Tony Kelley, I have removed the original posting entered here last night.

Based upon the information I received, Ellison and Martz never, in public, suggested to the police or firefighter pension unions that they would reduce any benefits to the pension plan, therefore, the opinion posted that the Firefighter Union reaction was unmerited and unreasonable stands.

If you missed the posting yesterday, this entry may not make much sense to you as it stands.

I will write more on this topic later, and I regret any misunderstanding. - Jackie

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Report: Resolutions and Emergency Bills Passed Monday Night and Council Luncheon Notes

Resolutions passed by the City Council February 9, 2009

2009-031: Approved the plans and specifications for fabrication of the Springfield Wayfinding signs.

At the City Council luncheon today, February 10, City Manager Greg Burris passed out a document, provided by Director of Public Works Marc Thornsberry, to the City Council for the purpose of clarifying the objectives of the Wayfinding Signs. Following is the content of that document:

THE OBJECTIVES OF A WAYFINDING & CROSS MARKETING SYSTEM

> Increase the number of people who visit/use the City of Springfield

> Identify the City of Springfield as a destination from area highways

> By defining its boundaries, announce to visitors their arrival to the City

> Reflect the City's structure and vision

> Make visitors' experiences more memorable

> Further enhance Springfield's public image through distinctive, helpful graphics; to make the area more "user-friendly: and desirable to visit

> Remove visitors; anxieties

> Provide visitors a safer environment

> Improve vehicular, and pedestrian safety by better informing visitors

> Guide visitors into, through and out of Springfield along the most convenient and desired routes promoting safer traffic patterns

> Provide the information people need to comfortably access area businesses, attractions, parks, historic buildings and meeting venues

> From area highways and throuroughfares, identify the primary Springfield destinations as Bass Pro Shops, Battlefield Mall, Jordan Valley Park, and Downtown

> Reduce the number and length auto trips, and the associated pollution, by providing better and timelier information and increasing pedestrian walking ease

> Reduce visitor frustration in Springfield by reducing unnecessary circulation resulting from misdirected travel to destinations and parking

> Make the defined destinations more identifiable by their consistent presentation in the wayfinding system's graphic messageing

> Direct visitors to the most convenient parking

> Where applicable, properly orient visitors as they leave the parking garage or surface lots becoming pedestrians

> Improve the connection between transit users and destinations in the defined areas

> ADA legibility guidelines in the design of the program

Source: City of Springfield

The resolution passed Monday night, however, three members of the City Council voted against the passage of the resolution. Those members were, Councilman Doug Burlison, Councilman Ralph Manley and Councilman Dan Chiles. Mayor Tom Carlson was not present at the meeting.

Manley didn't feel it was a good time to spend money on the approved Capital Improvement Project.

Chiles didn't know what the Wayfinding signs were, "What is the wayfinding?" He asked.

Mr. Chiles was also interested in whether funds were included for maintaining the signage. The answer to his question came from Thornsberry, the signs, 126 in all, will have a warranty of 5 years.

At the luncheon meeting, Mayor Pro Tem Deaver pointed out the Council receives a package with the background on all the bills no later than the Thursday preceeding the Council meeting. He reminded the Council that they could call on the Monday when the meeting was scheduled to ask questions regarding any of the bills brought before the Council, and staff affirmed they would be more than happy to answer any questions any of the Council members might have about any item on the agenda.

Councilman Burlison wondered if GPS systems would make the Wayfinding signs obsolete. He also asked about liability if some business owners complained that their businesses were not one of the businesses chosen to be promoted by the signs.

"It's not, 'Go visit Bass Pro,' it's ' if you're going to Bass Pro, this is how you get there,'" City attorney Dan Wichmer responded.

Later, in the ensuing discussion, Councilman Wylie said, "The Wayfinding tells you where we want you to go."

Councilwoman Collette said while visitors may be coming to Springfield for one reason, "When they see the signs, they say, 'why not go there?'"

It should be noted: the Wayfinding program is also identified as a "Cross Marketing System."

After apologizing for not being as prepared to address the Council as usual because, the background of the bill was unavailable due to the City's fight with a computer virus, Fred Ellison, a General Seat B Council candidate, raised a concern about new projects being started at a time when the public appeared to be indicating a desire that priorities of the City's spending be reevaluated, "I hate to see us start project after project. This is Phase 1 of this project, no one has said what the other phases' costs will be," Ellison pointed out. He was also concerned about the company being awarded the bid, "Valley City Sign is out of Michigan," he said. He wondered about such a large contract being awarded to an outside company.

According to the background provided to the bill, though Zumar Industries, Inc.'s (Zumar) bid was $75,817.45 below the Valley City Sign bid, Zumar could only provide a 2 year warranty and did not comply fully with the sign's fabrication requirements. Valley City Signs met all fabrication requirements, provided a 5 year warranty and was almost $100,000 below the City Engineer's estimated cost.*

City Manager Burris reminded the Council the Wayfinding signs were something the City said would be done with the 1/4 cent Capital Improvement's tax, "This is a part of doing what we say," Burris said at today's luncheon.

There was no further comment added today, as to the future cost of installation of the signs or any future phases of the project.

2009-032: Certified the results of the Tuesday, February 3 election.

City Manager Burris apologized for remarks he had made to the media regarding bringing the pension sales tax issue back to a ballot in June. He said he will not be recommending the tax initiative be brought back to a ballot so quickly as it would not allow enough time to consider public input prior to bringing a new initiative to Council for approval for a future public vote, "We're not sitting back singing woe, what we're doing is planning action," Burris said.

The resolution was unanimously approved by the City Council. Mayor Carlson was absent.

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Emergency Bills

2009-033: Authorized the Department of Aviation to apply for and accept a grant of money for the purpose of purchasing an emergency vehicle for use at the airport.

The bill was passed unanimously by the City Council. Mayor Carlson was not present at the meeting.

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*Contractors and their bids for the fabrication of Wayfinding Signs:

> Zumar Industries, Inc. $259,671.00

> Valley City Sign $334,488.45

> Harmon Sign, Inc. $358,820.00

> Architectural Graphics, Inc. $465,287.00

> Poblocki Sign Company, LLC $559,569.80

> Interstate Highway Sign Inc. $563,290.00

> Nordquist Sign Company, Inc. $732,245.00

> Engineer's Estimate: $431,100.00

Source: City of Springfield

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A City Council Primary Candidate Responds to Councilman Burlison's Statement Regarding the Pension Sales Tax

Fred Ellison, a City Council primary candidate for General Seat B, forwarded an email to me, in which he has responded to Councilman Burlison's statement on the Spfd Police/Fire Sales Tax:

Mr. Ellison's response:

I believe that approval of the 1% Pension Sales Tax would be a huge mistake. As a matter of fact, Tom (General Seat A, City Council primary candidate, Tom Martz) and I discussed yesterday that this would be a 38% increase in the city/county portion of the sales tax (2.625%) that we already pay.

There are several specific reasons that I cannot support this proposal:

1) The proposed rate is too high for the economic situation that currently exists. To date we have a better economy than many other areas and will risk aggravating the downturn in our local economy.

2) If the sales tax is approved, all incentive for City government to improve efficiency, reduce wasteful spending, and get control of personnel and benefit costs will be eliminated. It will be back to 'business as usual'. Automatic wage and benefit increases will resume and the deferrred compensation of City management will be 'reviewed' (as approved in the Council Bill 2008-368, ( http://www.springfieldmo.gov/egov/agenda/2008-368.pdf ) see item #6 at line 128. (Is it any wonder that city staff supports the sales tax proposal? They are also being told that if it doesn't pass, they will risk termination.)

3) City management and the City Council are betting that the 1% Pension Sales Tax will get the funding level of the Police and Fire Retirement Plan (the legally correct name of the pension plan which was not used in the ballot language) back to reasonable levels before the settlement of the Telecommunications Sales Tax Lawsuit. If the settlement is received after the majority of the pension sales tax funding is received, the settlement funds will not go into the Retirement plan and thus can be spent on other 'priorities'.

4) The fundamental cause of the Retirement Plan under funding is that benefit increases granted in the late 1990's, as a result of poor personnel management (which continues today), has caused the liabilities of the Retirement Plan to spiral upward long before the investment losses that have occurred in the last six months. These benefit increases include: 1) The 100% return of employee contribution. 2) The inclusion of payments of accumulated leave, holiday, sick and vacation pay at the end of employment and overtime compensation in the calculation of pension benefits. The Police Officer and Firefighter Associations (Unions) need to accept their share of the responsibility for the unrealistic increases in these benefit costs. In 1996, the City's Annual Required Contribution was $2,578,429. In 2006, ten years later, the ARC was $9,834,917 an increase of almost 400%.

Based on these facts and that the 1% Pension Sales Tax will not be a permanent solution to the problem until the basic causes have been addressed, I cannot support the proposal.

Fred B. Ellison
Council General B Candidate

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Note: Any other City Council member or City Council or Mayor primary (or otherwise) candidate who wishes to respond to Mr. Burlison's statement, or simply make a statement on the police/fire pension sales tax issue, may do so by contacting me at JMltnMO@aol.com - Jackie

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Clarification on City Manager versus Council's Internal Auditor Searches

Vincent David Jericho of KSGF had Tom Martz and Fred Ellison of the Missouri Liberty Coalition on the program this morning. The gentlemen did a fine job covering the high points of the City Council meeting scheduled for this evening, and it's easy to make a mistake, when sorting through information from past City Council meetings. There was a slight misunderstanding about information given by Interim City Manager Evelyn Honea's comments at the last meeting, on June 2.

Having one "coalition," with limited members who, in many cases, have their own jobs and responsibilities but are tasking themselves with watching and holding our city government accountable is a good thing, but, in some ways, they find themselves in the same position as our City Council, they are unpaid volunteers.

I appreciate the efforts they are making on behalf of other citizens who are not taking the time to pay attention to city issues. In fact, I appreciate them so much that I attend many of their meetings and cover them for the Community Free Press, and, so others don't think I'm looking for a chink here, I once mistakenly said that attendance of a MoLiCo meeting by Representatives Shane Schoeller and Bob Dixon was a surprise. In fact, I found out later, it wasn't a surprise visit, maybe a surprise to me, but not to the MoLiCo. MoLiCo does a lot of good work and I like that they are watching our local government, it gives me good material to report.

In the case of their suggestion that the City Manager Search firm, Arcus Public, has not been receiving adequate applicants for the position and that the advertisement for the position has been expanded, there was a bit of confusion. Honea, when she spoke of advertising expansion, was speaking of the internal auditor search, not the City Manager search.

"The internal auditor, we made a few changes to the job description and expanded the advertisement that we had earlier put out and when we advertised a couple of months ago, we had very few candidates who qualified for the position and we really wanted to bring a larger slate of candidates back to the Finance Committee...." Interim City Manager Evelyn Honea said on June 2. Honea then suggested Gary Deaver, Chairman of the City Manager Search Committee would be better to answer questions regarding the City Manager search.

Deaver did update the City Manager search process:

"I've had conversations with the search firm principals the last two weeks. Actually, in 6 days time they had doubled the number of candidates that qued up for our consideration...."

"One thing that they (Arcus Public) pointed out to me, they said, "Gary, you know, this is going to be an easy search for us," and I was silent because easy wasn't what I'm looking for but they went, "When we say easy, it's because your community has so much to offer. We feel so positively about your community that it's easy to sell the attributes that you have to candidates who have the skills that we feel your community deserves." - Gary Deaver, June 2 City Council meeting.

You can listen to the podcast, here.

Vince, who did mention that "JackeHammer" was challenging that information, in the meantime, is checking with Public Information Director, Louise Whall.