Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Pueblo Neighborhood Partnership Meeting — 051004

Goings in at the Pueblo neighborhoods…

The monthly meeting of the Pueblo Neighborhood Partnership (PNP) was interesting, as usual. Here are some observations…

The 2010 Commission

We had a nice presentation from Paul Brown, head of the 2010 Commission. They’ve been at this business for 13 years now and are continuing to press on in their efforts to get people motivated towards working to make the city and county a better place to live.

They’re going to keep at it too. And that’s a very good thing.

Seems that their true strength comes from their volunteers. Under appreciated people who do things because they love this place. Now THAT’S ‘motivation’. A lot of us don’t have time to volunteer. Either that or we’re entirely too tired after a day or week of work to do much more than lay back and relax. In many cases that can be easily recognized. Been there myself, in another life. However, I would suggest that if you find yourself sitting in front of the boob tube for more than three hours a day, you might seriously consider broadening your experiences by volunteering to be on one committee or involved with one task force or work on one project.

I know, it can be hard to break a well-established routine—work, dinner, tube, bed—but you’ll find that once you get there and start doing something, it’s really not that hard and you’ll meet some rather interesting people and learn something to boot.

On a more serious side, there seems to be a growing love-fest between the PNP and the 2010 Commission. Many members of PNP think it would be beneficial to affiliate our activities more closely with the 2010 Commission. Paul seemed to think it would benefit the Commission to have PNP affiliated with it.

Between now and the next meeting, we’ll be cogitating on the advantages and disadvantages of formalizing a closer relationship.

As usually, we invite your comments here on this idea.

Public Health Department — Recycling

Later this month, October 29th, there will be a lawn & garden refuse ‘trash day’.

From what I understand, the people who operate the land fill will open their gates to people who want to dispose of leaves and small parts of trees; up to 8” in diameter and less than 8’ in length.

Apparently they’ll also be doing some paint recycling too, as you should not dispose of paint while it is still fluid. There will be someone at the gate to take the paint and they’ll filter and remix it, then apparently give it away to whomever shows up and wants it. It’s a win-win situation.

District 60 Equipment Reuse Program

Seems that there is a great program that is suffering from a lack of funding. But then again, who isn’t these days. [Note: Sounds like another ‘job’ for volunteers.]

The program involves reutilization of equipment. Evidently, they get offered equipment from all over the place, e.g., Rocky Flats, which is closing down. Their mission seems to be to determine who needs what sort of equipment and then get that equipment into the school system where it is needed most. Seems that a lot of computer equipment has been brought to our kids in the schools through this program.

Unfortunately, with the loss of funds, they’ve lost their full-timers and now need volunteers to take up the slack and keep the program going. Heck…I may do something myself…..

That pretty much covers the main topics of the day’s meeting. Stay tuned for future notes. And, please, do contribute.

Monday, October 03, 2005

The District 60 Board Vacancy: Some Thoughts

The Board wants names of potential appointees for a vacancy. Shall we start with the current candidates?

The School District 60 School Board has declared a vacancy because it decided that one of it’s members was no longer a resident. According to the Chieftain, Kitty Kennedy, the Board President, would like to appoint the replacement before the November 8 election (except I thought the school board would be part of the November 1 County General Election, not the City mail ballot election whose deadline is November 8). She’d like to start a list of names of possible appointees as soon as possible.

The School Board has 60 days to name a replacement, so there’s no legal obligation to get the job done before the election. It would seem to me that since there’s two positions and four candidates, that you simply wait until after the election and appoint the first runner-up. After all, the current candidates have expressed an interest in the job, to the point of gathering signatures for their nomination petitions, printing signs, attending the forums, etc.

Except, of course, that two of the candidates are incumbents, and one of the incumbents, Gil Montez, has been censured by the Board. It would look kind of funny for the Board to appoint Mr. Montez, if he’s the first runner-up, after censuring him. And if Ms Kennedy is the first runner-up, she couldn’t serve on two seats simultaneously, so I guess I can see why the Board wouldn’t want to commit to appointing the first runner-up.

However, two people who have expressed a genuine and sincere interest by becoming candidates, Christian Piatt and Stephanie Garcia, are pretty much off the list, unless they are willing give up the possibility of a full term in exchange for the guarantee of serving a part of a term. Or could the Board appoint one of them, then declare a vacancy again if their selection is elected? Of course, appointing one of them now would pretty much be an endorsement, which I don’t think they’d be allowed to do, as a Board.

On the other hand, filling the vacancy before the election could be interpreted as a “dis-endorsement” of both Stephanie Garcia and Christian Piatt. I.e., they’re trying to fill the vacancy before either of those individuals would be eligible.

So, after all that convoluted reasoning, I’m back to where I was. Wait until after the election. If Mr. Piatt or Ms Garcia comes in third, appoint that individual to the Board (providing the vote count shows a reasonable amount of support). If they are both successful in winning seats in the election, go to the list and select another individual, and allow the winners to give their input, since they’ll have to live with the choice longer than the incumbents.

Candidates’ Forum Report

People who came to the candidates’ forum came away feeling that they knew the individuals better.

First, a public service announcement. Gina Dutcher, City Clerk, came to the meeting and very kindly gave a presentation on the upcoming elections. There are two, the County General Election, November 1, and the City mail ballot election, whose deadline is November 8. More information can be found on the City’s web site.

All the candidates, Judy Weaver, Steve Nawrocki, Mike Occhiato and Barbara Vidmar, presented well and all seemed to be informed on the issues, for the most part. Those people who attended the meeting did feel they knew the candidates better afterwards. Certainly THEY participated in the process and deserve to be commended for showing up.