Tuesday, August 28, 2007

If You’ve Got a Last Will

The poor you will always have with you,... Matthew 26:11 (New International Version)

There was an interesting piece in the Ideas section of the August 26 Sunday Chieftain. Jessie Ulibarri is “director of the Campaign for Economic Justice with Colorado Progressive Coalition in Denver. (progressive coalition.org)”

His article sounds reasonable at first glance, but funny things start occurring in the first paragraph.

Ken Salazar co-introduced legislation to modify the estate tax by exempting farms. As a rancher himself, and as an elected official who strongly represents the interests of rural Colorado, his interest in this matter is understandable. Unfortunately, this legislation is based on misinformation and fear of one of the most important sources of revenue we have as a country.

Fear of an important source of revenue for the country? It took me quite a while to figure out that the writer assumes that Salazar is afraid of the estate tax decreasing his own or his heirs inheritances.

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Thursday, August 23, 2007

The Citizens Must Act — I

Getting OUR act ‘together’.

A rather blunt, but accurate, call by Blunt Instrument.

The same thing applies in a number of different areas I’ve been hearing about around our fair city as well.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Open Questions to the Pueblo City Administration

A list of queations directed toward decisions made, future expenditures, needed changes, etc.

Open Questions to the Pueblo City Administration
The Questions that are submitted need to be answered to let the public know the City’s Administration is;  Visionary, Ethical, Accountable, Transparent, Professional, Responsible, Respectful, and with a “Can Do Attitude”.  In addition, the City Administration needs to gain Public Trust.  This can only be done by not being afraid to answer questions directed towards; issues, decisions made, future expenditures, needed changes, etc.  The questions submitted at this time are most likely not the complete list that require answering. 
The questions are being made available to the City Council members, City Manager, City Attorney, Pueblo Chieftain, Internet Web Sites, and the general public.

1. What is the City’s total outstanding bond debt?
2. On an annual basis, how much of the City’s revenues, approximately $64 million, go toward paying the bond debt?
3. What is the existing capital fund requirements for the City to maintain, infrastructure, buildings, etc.?
4. How much did the City pay for the properties which will be used to locate part of the new City campus?
5. The City purchased land from the Catholic Church, were the funds used for the purchase in the budget?
6. Where did the City get the $1 million plus to buy the property?
7. What does the City plan to do with the property?
8. Did the management of the City’s golf courses go through a bid process?  It is known that the City is planning to turn over the management of the city pools without a bidding process.
9. How long has the Jagger Law firm been the acting City Attorney?
10. Why have there not been a maximum term set for the City Attorney and/or the services of a law firm gone out for bid?
11. When did the YMCA first go to the City for help and what did they ask for?
12. Why does the YMCA need the tax payers money?
13. The first contractual agreement dated December 6, 2006 says nothing about the City paying the YMCA capital funds for the construction of the aquatic center and the YMCA in turn managing the four city pools.  Why and how did this come about?
14. Since the YMCA claims to have raised approximately $11 million and they say the cost of the aquatic is around $4 million, why has the City specified that the funds are to go towards the construction of the aquatic center?
15. If the YMCA needs the tax payers money as a prerequisite for gaining additional funds, the funding source(s) should be made public.  Why would the source(s) require a City that is already in debt to spend money they don’t have?
16. How much does the local YMCA annually pay to the YMCA National?
17. The non-profits that go through the CSAC process are required to make public the salaries of their executives.  As the City’s highest paid non-profits, the Chamber of Commerce and the YMCA as part of their qualifying for city money should also be made to disclose what their executives are paid.  Why haven’t they?
18. The City budget for police and fire protection is being cut.  How can the City justify giving the YMCA $2 million?
Submitted by:  Ted Freeman,  425 West23rd St,  Pueblo, CO 81003, 719-544-4479

Something I Was Curious About

A Public Notice in the newspaper announced a hearing on a liquor license at the local university.

So I went to the web, found a phone number, and called up the State Liquor Enforcement office to find out what was going on.

A nice lady explained that the State was handling the license because the CSU-P is state-owned property and the local government (City of Pueblo) had decided to opt out of licensing liquor serving on state property. Which makes sense when you realize that includes the State Fair grounds and the local liquor board would be inundated every year with requests for special licenses, along with complaints from folks who didn’t get theirs because they didn’t apply in time. Anyway, she said she would have preferred to have had the hearing in Pueblo. It is scheduled for the state office in Lakewood.

Apparently someone wants to open a cafe on the campus, and serve alcohol.

Anyway, the nice lady explained the hearing process and said that the applicant would have to present a “need” for the liquor license in the neighborhood.

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Saturday, August 18, 2007

Don’t Bother Me with the Facts, My Mind is Made Up

Once a resolution comes out of Executive Council the City Council"s minds are all ready made up.

Don’t Bother Me with the Facts, My Mind is Made Up
The YMCA and the Pueblo City Council appears to have negotiated for a year or more to develop the resolution the Council voted and passed on August 13, 2007.  The City Attorney who works for the City Manager, wrote the terms and conditions of the contractual agreement stating the YMCA will be given $200,000 per year over ten years and turning the management of the four city pools over to them.
It was the City Manager that was responsible for negotiating the deal and formulating the resolution. He gave direction to the City Attorney. It makes sense that their minds were set even before the resolution was brought to the floor on July 23, since it was their own resolution. This entire deal was drafted behind closed doors.  Several people spoke against the resolution, then the Council President said because Councilman Larry Atencio was not present the vote on the resolution would be postponed and an open public meeting would be held the following week.  It was not until Friday, July 27th that it was announced that the public meeting would be held on Monday, July 30th.
The public meeting started with the YMCA making a presentation which primarily consisted of them stating how great they are and how much they help the under privileged, etc. .  This lasted for an extended period of time.  Then the City Manager, Dave Galli made a presentation basically stating what a great deal this is going to be for the City.
After the presentations the public(around 200 people) was allowed to write one question per card and turn them in.  Over 100 were submitted and depending on the subject of the question it was either answered by the YMCA or by the City.  Many people felt they did not have adequate time to formulate meaningful questions because of the short notice of the meeting.  Also, a large number of people felt that many of the questions were not answered satisfactorily.  Overall, the questions indicated a real concern about the City giving the YMCA $200,000 and in turn the management of the city pools.
Next people from the audience were given the opportunity in five minutes to give their opinion for or against, or concern about the City’s resolution.  The ratio of for and against the resolution was approximately one to four. Disregarding the Life Guards, more people spoke out against the YMCA proposal than spoke in favor.. 
It was absolutely clear by the size of the public attendance, by the number and subject of the questions, and the comments from the audience that the public is not in favor of the resolution.  The public meeting was a farce.  The City Council had no intentions of listening to the public, their minds were made up well ahead of the formal City Council meeting.
Between the time of the public meeting and the City Council meeting of August 13th many people emailed, wrote letters, or telephoned their objections to the resolution to the City Council members.  A local radio station ran a poll that over 4000 people responded.  The result was 66% against and 34% for the resolution. 
All of the public outcry has fallen on deaf ears.  The resolution was developed and basically voted on in the Executive Council behind closed doors.  A member of the City Council with the longest tenure has indicated that it is extremely rare for a resolution to be defeated when drafted by the City Administration.
Don’t bother me with the facts, my mind is made up.
Ted Freeman  


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City Council and Longterm Goals

How long will the YMCA project last?

Regarding the City Council decision to fund the YMCA, I would like to make a few comments.

The first is that a commitment of this nature should have been brought before the voters with a proposed mill levy increase. The city infrastructure is not in the best of shape, several non-profits which add substance to the ambience of this community may have a harder time, vital city departments such as police and fire may well suffer, programs necessary to the neighborhoods may be cut, and our older parks are not being kept up in a manner which would foster tourism and pride in our city.

The second comment is that there is a mind-boggling lack of continuity from City Council to City Council, even though there is an overlap of councilpersons every year. Several years ago, I sat in a council meeting where a project was praised and even solicited. Now, that project (actually there are more than one) hardly makes it as far up as the dimmest recess of the mind of the Council. I hesitate to mention the specific projects by name, as I have no direct authority from those projects to do so.

I am very pleased with the beautification of the city idea that is being put forward by this Council. At the same time, in addition to the YMCA, we have invested in a new park by Lake Minnequa. Please understand that I am not against this park. I just do not want the other parks to then be shoved off the back end, which is what seems to be happening as each Council wants to start in on something new.

How long with this Council’s agenda last? We need to finish what we start, as long as it is still deemed worthwhile. I am afraid that the money going to the YMCA will cause a great many things to be pushed aside, with the funding of those projects being for naught.

Sunday, August 05, 2007

OHNO Bi-Monthly Meeting Report — June 5, 2007

What happened at the last meeting.

OHNO Meeting Minutes
June 5, 2007
Temple Emmanuel

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OHNO Board of Directors’ Meeting Minutes — May 29, 2007

What is the OHNO BoD doing?

OHNO Board of Directors Meeting
June 20, 2007
Susan and Chuck Pelto Residence

Attendees: Susan Pelto, Janet Dash, Kerri Farmer, Chuck Pelto, Angela Giron
Absent: Georgine Booms, Heather Norton
Others: Yolanda Butler, Carolyn Lowrey, Susan ?, Steve Nawrocki

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Saturday, August 04, 2007

City of Pueblo, Where is Your Money Going?

The people of Pueblo need to know where their tax money is going.

Do you know where your tax money is going and to whom it is benefiting?  It can safely be said that 99.9% of the people can’t answer that question.  It’s not that all people are apathetic and don’t care but it’s the system and politicians that do not allow the public to be informed about monetary issues in a timely and open fashion.

Most people understand that the functioning of the City government is the primary responsibility of the City Manager and the City Council and that dozens of decisions must be made on weekly, if not, on a daily basis.  Under the circumstances, most people recognize that not every decision concerning operations or monetary issues can or should be under close public scrutiny.  Little if anything would ever get accomplished.  But when there are issues that set precedent,  when money is to be spent that was not included in the budget, and when major projects are to be considered the public should be made of aware of these prior to the City Council voting on them.  There needs to be some form of checks and balances and transparency in the City government.  Dollar limits need to be set and if the City wants to spend money not budgeted above that limit it should go on the ballot.

The City Council meets in what is termed the executive session behind closed doors to discuss new ordinances(laws) and resolutions and decide which ones will go before City Council to be voted upon.  Under the Colorado Sunshine Law the City Council is not obligated to make public anything that was discussed during an executive session.  Though the City Council has the discretionary power to make public anything they desire.  They negotiate deals to give our money away in secret.  An example of this is the deal between the City and the YMCA which is setting a precedent for paying capitol funds to go towards the construction of the YMCA campus.  Where is the two million dollars coming from?  Another example is the purchase of property from the Catholic Church for over a million dollars while the City hasn’t sufficiently funded the Parks and Recreation Department to maintain existing City properties.

No one knows where our money is going, except for maybe the City Manager and the City Council.  If they know,  they should make the public aware of who been awarded large contracts and why they awarded to them, as an example.  The City claims that because of the lack of money, when a position is vacated it is not being filled.  That position existed for a reason, what going to happen to the service it provided.

The City needs more policeman, better fire protection, improved infrastructure on a planned short and long term basis, and many other things which will improve the quality of life of the citizens of Pueblo.  We need to know where our money is going.

Ted Freeman