Category Archives: Cass County

A failure to prioritize

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“No man’s life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session.”
― Mark Twain

Twain’s quote is still valid today and it means we must all be vigilant when the legislature is in session…as it is now.

I attended our local ‘Pub Central Committee meeting last night and one of our local state Representatives spoke and gave a summary of bills coming to the legislature.  One, a rehash of last year’s HB 653, a 911 tax, caught my attention. In December, a Missouri newspaper reviewed the proposal with a no-so-friendly conclusion.

It was originally advertised as an aid to smaller counties, smaller as in lower population, lower tax base and income, to provide 911 services by adding a 911 tax. What they fail to note is that 911 taxes are already present and many counties, like my own Cass County, has additional, county-wide sales tax to support 911 service.

Like most government initiatives, the money collected by this new 911 bill would go to the state to be ‘distributed’ to individual counties from the state treasury. The current 911 sales tax goes directly to the county, not the state and doesn’t give the state an opportunity to slice off their ‘administrative’ costs.

I fail to see why we, in Cass County, should pay for 911 services in another county? If 911 was such a critical need, I’m sure that county could find some way to finance their 911 service. In the end, that is the purpose of this bill, to have other counties finance 911 services of those counties who can’t or won’t finance the service themselves.

I also note that some counties, Jackson, St Louis and a couple of others, are excluded. Why? I would think if this tax was applied solely to them, there would be enough revenue to fund the ‘poverty-sticken’ counties without the need to soak the rest of the counties in the state.

I found, during my research, that this bill has been submitted before—every year since 2011 and has yet to survive to a vote on the floor. That bit of information right there should be a warning to anyone contemplating an approving vote for this bill. The more I look at it, this bill is nothing more than another state tax scheme to gather money to allow the state to dispense as largess to ‘needy’ constituent counties—bribe money, in other words.

There is a more troubling component to this bill. The bill would tax “every device” capable of calling 911. In this technological age, that includes land-lines, mobile phones, iPads, Android tables, personal computers, and laptops.  All of these devices, including the personal and hand-held computers with the appropriate software, can make a 911 call. For me, that includes one land-line, two mobile phones, three laptops, three…no, four android tablets, and four personal computers that could, if necessary, be used to make a 911 call.

If this bill was passed, just how would the state determine how many devices I actually had? Kick in my door in the middle of the night as has happened to others who had overdue library books?

Another provision of this proposal would be to invalidate county 911 sales taxes, a tax that my own Cass County passed as did Taney County and others. Prior legislation authorized counties to use a sales tax to fund their 911 facilities. Why would this bill, this new version of last year’s HB 653, do away with that?

The answer is simple, some counties aren’t willing to foot the bill and want a bill, this one, to allow them to use other counties as a funding source. In scientific circles, that is known as parasitism.

It’s an old adage: people get the government they deserve. If a county will not fund critical services, they should not attempt to steal funding from others and that, folks, is exactly why this bill has been submitted.

Call your state representatives and urge them to kill this new proposal. I haven’t been able to find the new house bill number, but when it appears, it will be easy to recognize by the legal gun in your ribs while the money in your wallet is taken.

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TGIM

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Thank God it’s Monday!  Why? Because now all the news that was hidden over the weekend becomes visible. It used to be, when the government, politicians, or celebs, wanted to put a low profile on something, they’d release it late on Friday after all the print media had passed their deadlines. Now, with electronic media, Drudge for example, late Friday no longer works. No, now they wait until late Saturday…and all those low-keyed items surface on Monday morning.

We have a local example hitting the headlines this morning. A democrat state representative from Kansas City was arrested by the Highway Patrol in Boone County over the weekend. During a stop, the Patrol found marijuana and paraphernalia in his car.

We shouldn’t be upset about this. After all, the law doesn’t apply to democrat politicians.

LaFaver to step aside from HDVC Chairmanship

August 26, 2013 / by / 0 Comment

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Kansas City Democrat Jeremy LaFaver, who chairs the House Democrat Victory Committee overseeing House races throughout the state, told The Missouri Times this morning that he will be stepping aside as chairman of the HDVC.

LaFaver was arrested Sunday in connection with a failure to appear in court warrant in relation to an expired license plate. He was then found with a small amount of marijuana as well as marijuana paraphernalia. He is currently out on a $310 bond.

LaFaver will be stepping aside, not stepping down permanently, sources close to the matter told The Missouri Times.

Perhaps LaFaver thought that since MJ was legal in California and Colorado, it was legal, for him, here in Missouri. I believe that thought has been corrected.

Missourians really should inspect their political candidates more closely. LaFaver’s qualifications were…that he was a “Child Advocate”, whatever that means. Regardless, his background didn’t include anything about the law nor common sense.

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Mrs. Crucis and I attended the Cass County Young Republican’s BBQ and Fund Raiser Saturday night. It was a success. They raised more money this year than last year in the runup to the elections. Carl Bearden, Executive Director of United for Missouri, State Senator Ed Emery and U.S. Representative Vicky Hartzler (MO-4) were the featured speakers.

While I listened to the speakers, I thought of all the people across the country who are ignorant of the events that is driving this nation to destruction. They say they dislike politics. Many feel they have no power to affect change, so why bother?

I can understand those feelings. Some days, the antics of politicians enrage me and I have to step aside for awhile. But, I cannot abdicate my duty. The political world will not ignore me. I cannot remain ignorant, disaffected and inactive.

One day, those who have ignored the political scene will realize they are no longer citizens of a free country. While they dozed, ignoring politics, the nation slowly changed from liberty to tyranny. When they awake, they have no idea what happened.

The sad truth is that THEY happened. They abdicated their duties as citizens and thusly aided the tyranny in government, local, state and federal. People can ignore politics. Unfortunately, politics will not ignore them.

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I can across the following article in my morning inbox. I don’t agree with all of it, especially the verbal attack on Sarah Palin, but within the article is a nugget of truth. A very large nugget.

There are some giggles in the article, parts will make you angry. The last few paragraphs are truth.

CURL: The Grand Old Party is about to go ‘Boom!’

By Joseph Curl, Sunday, August 25, 2013

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

In the run-up to the 2016 presidential election, the Republican Party will explode. When the smoke clears, there will be four (four!) new parties.

First, there will still be the Republican Party, sort of, but it will change its name to the GOPPPP (Grand Old Party Of Perennial Pathetic Putzes). The new name, though, won’t change the fact that the party has failed to win a majority of America’s voters in five of the past six elections or that it keeps running candidates even its own members don’t like!

It’s top contenders? Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida; Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin; Gov. Rick Perry of Texas; maybe that guy who governs Wisconsin. You know, the polished politicos who say all the right things to get Republicans to like them, but who then go on to get slaughtered in the general election. Those guys.

Then, there’ll be a new super-combo-hybrid party joining the old GOP with the Democratic Party. No, not Republicrat — Demoblican. In this new abomination, there aren’t even Republicans-In-Name-Only — there aren’t even Republicans! There are just the truly enlightened public servants, here to serve us because they — and they alone — have been given The Gift from on high.

Sen. Rand Paul

It’s sole contender? Gov. Chris Christie. Sure, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush will tease a Demoblican run, but in an epiphany, he’ll remember that his last name is Bush and disappear forever. That, of course, will leave the portly New Jersey pol alone, but don’t worry, he’ll debate himself endlessly, move right, then left, like John F. Kerry windsurfing, until no one has any idea which way he’s going. And then he’ll disappear forever, too.

Meanwhile, out of the ashes, rising like a Phoenix, will be former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, ruler of (you guessed it) the Phoenix Party. She will rally her millions of minions with a wave of her tawny tan hand and her powerful ShePAC will haul in $100 million in nine seconds. But then, even before New Hampshire or Iowa, the slog that is a presidential campaign will hit her and she’ll remember she’d rather be poolside in Phoenix (or more precisely, Scottsdale). And remember, one thing the former governor does really well is quit.

Last, there will be the new Constitution Party. And this one, unlike the others, will be real. The two combatants: Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ted Cruz of Texas, heavyweights both. The two men can flat-out talk: The Kentucky senator held court (and his bladder) for some 13 hours on the Senate floor, and the Harvardy senator has won just about every debating contest ever held in English (and Spanglish).

They’ll battle through 2015, then across the country in 2016. The eventual winner? Both of them. One will win the nomination, and pick the other as his running mate. End of the GOP — and good day to you, Constitution Party.

This scenario most likely won’t come true. But the Republican Party — and the country — would be far better off if it did.

More and more, conservative, core ‘Pubs are ready to move to Curl’s Constitution Party.

***

When states violate and ignore the 1st Amendment, i.e., the “free expression” of religious beliefs…

EDITORIAL: A bad picture in New Mexico

State supreme court tramples Christian beliefs

By THE WASHINGTON TIMES, Monday, August 26, 2013

Cherished American values are under attack in New Mexico, where the state Supreme Court there ruled Thursday that a group of activists should be free to bully business owners into violating their religious beliefs.

All five of the court’s justices told Elaine Huguenin, co-owner of Elane Photography in Albuquerque, that she had no choice but to provide wedding photography services for the “commitment ceremony” of any homosexual couple that asks.

They ruled that Mrs. Huguenin had run afoul of the law when she turned away a lesbian couple, forcing them to look elsewhere to find someone to snap some photos. Matters should have ended when the couple found a willing photographer, but we live in a society and culture accustomed to seeking judicial redress for the most minor of inconvenience. Here the aggrieved customer, to whom no actual damage was done, filed a complaint with the state Human Rights Commission accusing Elane Photography of discrimination based on “sexual orientation.”

The complainant wasn’t seeking a job at Elane Photography. She wanted to buy a particular service, and the seller declined. Such proposed transactions are refused thousands of times daily for a variety of reasons: a provider may have a scheduling conflict or the price offered may be too low. Often, the “Gosh, I’d love to, but I’m all booked up” excuse is offered as a polite way of saying a firm would just rather not accept that assignment.

It makes sense for a business to sell as much of its products or services to as many people as want them, but if a baker decides, for example, to sell only 12 loaves of rye bread a day, that’s his choice. There’s no need for the government to step in and dictate the terms of sale.

Important issues of religious freedom can be at stake when bureaucrats intervene in the marketplace. A kosher butcher should not be required by the state to handle and sell pork products because one customer has a craving for bacon. A Hindu grocer, professing vegetarianism, shouldn’t have government come in and decree he must sell steaks and chicken to committed carnivores.

In his concurring opinion, Justice Richard C. Bosson peddled his judicial activism as an act of compassion and the price of citizenship. “At its heart,” he wrote, “this case teaches that at some point in our lives all of us must compromise, if only a little, to accommodate the contrasting values of others.”

Mrs. Huguenin’s attorney, Jordan Lorence with the Alliance Defending Freedom, found the court’s reasoning to be dangerous. “The idea that free people can be compelled by law to compromise the very religious beliefs that inspire their lives as the ‘price of citizenship’ is a chilling and unprecedented attack on freedom,” he said after the verdict. “Americans are now on notice that the price of doing business is their freedom.”

An appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court is needed to overturn this misguided ruling and restore the First Amendment right to free exercise of religion. Compromise and tolerance shouldn’t apply exclusively to customers whose sole gripe is a momentary rebuff. Activist groups shouldn’t be able to impose their views on the rest of society simply because they’re able to come up with the noisiest protests and most determined lawsuits. Judges must not lose sight of the moral and religious views of business owners. That, too, is the price of citizenship in a free society.

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Today’s post is getting long. Instead of posting another article, I’ll just provide a link to it.

When Mark Levin published his latest book, The Liberty Amendments, he released a firestorm. His book is an outline how to restore the Constitution, to add amendments that will constraint government and keep it “small and lean.”

Sen. Tom Coburn: We need a constitutional convention to take back our country

Go and read it. It’s an idea whose time has come.

Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn has taken Levin’s book and is running with it.

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Nepotism strikes again in Cass County

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The Cass County Clerk’s office has a record of nepotism. In the previous case, County Clerk Janet Burlingame was charged with paying family members to move voting equipment during an election. The Presiding Circuit Judge at that time, Jacqueline Cook, dropped those charges because they had occurred during Burlingame’s previous term.

A new act of nepotism has been discovered and the report of this new case was released last Friday, August 9, 2013. This time it is an act of nepotism in Burlingame’s current term—she hired her niece, Marissa Scott, to work during the April 2011 election and paid her $120 according to documents filed with the county. Those documents were delivered to the Cass County Commission and to the County Prosecutor, Theresa Hensley.

I received a copy of that public report. You can find it here.

http://www.crucis.net/CC_Auditors_Report/Nepotism-JB-042011.pdf

Prosecutor Hensley, a democrat, refused to charge fellow democrat Pam Shipley when she was charged with nepotism previously. In this new case, Hensley has had the documents for a week and what have we heard from her? 

** Crickets **    ** Crickets **

Yes, that’s right. Nothing.

We now have another instance of nepotism that fulfills Judge Cook’s definition—paying a first-degree relative, in this case her niece, Marissa Scott, to work an election during her current term in office. Will Theresa Hensley follow the law and file nepotism charges this time? Or, will she follow the democrat party rules to never charge a fellow democrat with crimes committed in office…like she did the last time.

We, Cass County, made a significant step in 2012 by electing new county officers and removing corrupt ones. Now, it’s time to remove the last vestiges of corruption in the County Clerk’s and Collector’s office.

Nepotism is a political sickness that must be eradicated. No good ever comes from it.

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Random Shots for Wednesday

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I’m surprised how many readers liked my post for Monday, August 12, 2013, titled, Planes. Many were pilots…or inactive pilots like me. There are no ‘former’ pilots, only those who are current and those who aren’t.

I was rushed for time Monday morning. I could have written it better. I wish I had, especially that sequence of landing a small plane. It’s difficult to describe for those who’ve never done it…the feel and feedback from the rudder pedals, slipping to compensate for a crosswind, the flare…those last few floating feet before touchdown that seems to last forever.

I thank all you pilots, active and inactive, who liked the post.

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I  am a Mark Levin fan. I usually listen to the first hour or so of his dailyl broadcast on KCMO-710, 5PM. He has been hitting the ‘Pub establishment hard this last week…harder than usual.

Part of it is PR for his new book, The Liberty Amendments. His book outlines a plan to restore the Constitution to that originally envisioned by the Founders.

But the book isn’t what has Levin in the news. No, it’s his prognosis for the ‘Pub party and that prognosis is poor…very poor.

Mark Levin: ‘Entrenched’ Republican ‘losers’ may cost GOP the House in 2014

Jeff Poor, Media Reporter, 12:17 AM 08/14/2013

Conservative talker Mark Levin blasted Republican House leaders on his Tuesday radio show, warning that by attacking more conservative members of the GOP, Speaker John Boehner and prominent Reps. Paul Ryan and Eric Cantor are throwing away the 2014 midterm elections.

Levin, author of “The Liberty Amendments: Restoring the American Republic,” said the GOP establishment’s disparagement of conservative colleagues, could be a disaster in a midterm “turn out the base” election.

“This is my great fear,” Levin said. “My great fear is that guys like Boehner, and quite frankly Paul Ryan, and Eric Cantor and his goofball [Kevin] McCarthy — they don’t get it at all. Midterm elections in particular are base elections, they are turnout elections. And they’re doing everything they can to turn us off, to turn us off. Where are they standing ground and keeping ground and fighting? Instead it’s, ‘No, no we’re not going to shut down the government.’ Even if that’s your ultimate view, why do you reveal that to the leftists and the media? It’s like playing poker and the idiot shows his cards — and that’s what he does. ‘Hey, look at this.’”

“And also, amnesty?” he continued. “Pathway to citizenship? This is their number one issue. No. And then we have Obamacare. The president of the United States, rubbing the Republican’s nose in it,acting like he’s king, and as I’ve been saying and now others, an imperial president. ‘No. we’ll follow this part of the law. No, I’m suspending this part of the law. No, I’m deferring this part of the law.’ What the hell is that? And what are the Republicans doing about it? Now the typical Republican response would be ‘well what do you want us to do about it?’”

The conservative talker encouraged Republicans in the House and Senate to use any means necessary to draw attention to President Barack Obama’s attempts to thwart the law and/or the Constitution, including obstruction tactics.

“Here’s what I want you to do,” Levin said. “You fools should have been, time and time again, every time he has violated the Constitution, you should have made an issue about it,” Levin said. “You should have punished him in some way — denied him some appointee, obstructed some piece of legislation. Draw attention to this lawlessness so the American people after a year, or two, or three of you consistently explaining it and hammering away at it would in fact be aware of what you’re trying to do and say! But instead, what do we get? What do we get? We get John McCain attacking Ted Cruz. What do we get? Chris Christie attacking Rand Paul. What do we get? Karl Rove attacking Mike Lee. The same dug-in entrenched losers who may well cost us the House of Representatives in the next election.”

Levin speculated as to what would happen if the Democrats regained control of the House and who the so-called Republican establishment may blame for it.

“And do you know what Obama will do again if he controls the whole damn thing?” Levin added.  “And he’s banking on it. That’s why he’s putting all these things off. He’s sucking people in to vote for him and then he’s going to drop the hammer. Then what do we do? ‘We don’t control any — one half of one third or anything else.’ And what are the Republicans going to do then? Blame the conservatives? Blame the tea party? What are they going to do then? ‘We can’t control anything. We don’t even have one half of one third — of course you don’t. Look what you’ve squandered, the opportunity. This president is pathetic. His policies are a disaster. We have sustained high unemployment, sustained housing problems. The economy is still on its back. He won’t secure the damn border. He’s hollowing out the military. He’s hollowing out NASA. What the hell? He’s handing you the issues to run on. And what do you do? You attack conservatives. Brilliant.”

If you’ve ever listened to Levin on the radio, or via his pod and internet ‘casts, you’ve heard this theme before. The Republican Party is dying, poisoned from within. It is a Truth and many in the party, in and out of Washington, refuse to listen.

***

A Colorado District Judge ruined that state’s liberal scheme to derail the recall elections of three democrat legislators. In his decision, the mail-in ballot scheme and no-show voting was rendered ineffective. How? The Judge ruled in accordance to the Colorado state constitution.

Judge rules to uphold the Colorado Constitution

Tuesday, August 13, 2013 – Red Pill, Blue Pill by Al Maurer

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., August 13, 2013—Monday evening Denver District Judge Robert McGahey ruled in favor of the Libertarian Party’s lawsuit to allow candidates up until 15 days prior to the September 10 recall election to qualify for the ballot. This ruling upholds the state constitution, which mandates it.

Under the recently-enacted House Bill 1303, state election law was changed to allow all mail-in ballot recall elections. To meet the deadlines imposed by such an election, candidates were given only until July 29 to collect 1000 signatures—10 days from when Gov. Hickenlooper belatedly set the election date.

Potential candidates now have until August 26 to gather enough signatures to get on the ballot, making it impossible for county clerks to then print and mail ballots to voters. The election, therefore, will now be an in-person one.

In choosing between the state constitution and the recent statute calling for mail ballots and early voting schedules, Judge McGahey said it would be an “absurd result” to ignore the constitution’s direct wording on recall candidates.

In addition, Judge McGahey ripped the legislature for “Writing an election law so clearly non-compliant with the state Constitution….With all due respect to the legislature, it did not consider or ignored the clear language of Article XXI – I find that both sad and, frankly, shocking.”

The major parties did not agree.

The dems protest because their vote fraud scheme was foiled. The ‘Pubs don’t like it either because it ruins their plan to be the only opposition to the dems. That ‘Pub view may have some merit if the votes to oppose the dems are diluted among several candidates.

There is a companion article here. I suppose it’d be too much to hope for that the ‘Pubs and Libertarians jointly submit a candidate against the dems. Yes, I suppose it would, and, that’s too bad, because now the opposing votes against the dems will be diluted among two or more candidates.

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I’d like to make a followup to a post I made some months ago. That post was about the Cass County Lincoln Day dinner and guest speaker Tom Schweich, Missouri’s Auditor. In the last two paragraphs of that post, I wrote:

I applaud Schweich’s attempt for unity. He has a steep road to walk. I like Schweich. I voted for him in his last election and will probably vote for him in the next one. However, his attempts to heal the party will fail as long as the state’s party hierarchy maintains their paternalistic attitude and their continued efforts to control the central committee.

Unless there is significant change, they will fail. Ed Martin unseated David Cole as Chairman of the MO Central Committee. Martin ran for Attorney General as a Tea Partier. I’ve met him and I was impressed with him. He now has a formidable task, the reunification of the Missouri Republican party. I await him to begin that reconciliation—before it is too late.

Since April, when I wrote the post above, I’ve met a number of times with Ed Martin‘s Political Director Steve Michael. At one meeting, he was joined by Bob Evans, the Heritage Action Regional Coordinator for Missouri who was formerly a member of the St. Louis Tea Party.

In a different meeting, he met with some grassroots folks to expand and reinforce Ed Martin’s links with the conservative base—a base that is losing its ties with the Republican Party. Another brief meeting was when Steve Michael spoke at a Cass County ‘Pub gathering last week.

In April, I asked if Ed Martin was willing to reach out—and listen to, the conservatives, Libertarian Republicans and those whose loyalty isn’t necessarily with the Republican Party. I can now say, “Yes, he is.”

There’s hope yet for the survival of the ‘Pub party in Missouri…but only if Ed Martin and the ‘Pub state central committee really listens and heeds those who are feeling disenfranchised with the ‘Pubs.

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It’s Friiiday!!

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And that means it’s time for the Follies. Today we have several entries for the Follies. First, Obama has been slapped upside the head again by another federal judge. This time, it’s about Domino’s Pizza. The judge ruled that Obama cannot force Domino’s Pizza to offer birth control to its employees.

Judge: Feds Can’t Make Domino’s Founder Offer Birth Control

March 14, 2013 6:31 PM

DETROIT (WWJ/AP) — A federal judge has blocked the Obama administration from requiring Domino’s Pizza founder Tom Monaghan to provide mandatory contraception coverage to his employees under the federal health care law.

The devout Roman Catholic says he considers contraception “gravely immoral” practice. His lawsuit also lists as a plaintiff his Domino’s Farms, an office park outside Ann Arbor.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Lawrence Zatkoff granted a preliminary injunction against enforcement of the law against Monaghan and Domino’s Farms.

Monaghan has sold most of his controlling stake in Domino’s Pizza. He offers health insurance that excludes contraception and abortion for employees.

The new federal law requires employers to offer insurance including contraception coverage or risk fines.

Michigan has a large contingent of Catholics—30-40% of those who claim to be religious. This suit was only for Domino’s Pizza but it can be used to support similar lawsuits filed by the Catholic Church and other religious organizations.

The Michigan Catholic Conference and other Catholic entities also sued over the new law, saying it violates religious freedom by requiring many religiously affiliated hospitals, schools and charities to comply.

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Obama met with some of the GOP for lunch…except he wouldn’t eat with them. You see, he didn’t have his food taster with him. 

Really! Here’s the story from The Daily Caller.

Obama couldn’t eat at Hill meeting without food ‘taster’ [AUDIO]

4:39 PM 03/14/2013

 WASHINGTON — Following President Obama’s lunch meeting with Senate Republicans on Capitol Hill, Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins described the food served and said the president was not able to eat since his “taster” was not present.…

“Unfortunately, you know, the president can’t,” said Collins when asked if Obama ate at the lunch meeting.

“He looked longingly at it,” Collins continued. “He honestly did look longingly at it, but apparently he has to have essentially a taster, and I pointed out to him that we were all tasters for him, that if the food had been poisoned all of us would have keeled over so, but he did look longingly at it and he remarked that we have far better food than the Democrats do, and I said that was because I was hosting.”

Unbelievable!

***

Local elections are coming up next month. Here in Raymore, the Mayor and several city council seats are open. I haven’t seen the ballot yet, I’ve not seen who is running for what for every position. There has been a shuffle with the resignation of my ward’s councilman, Jeff Cox, who was elected as our county’s Presiding Commissioner last November.

I’m supporting a friend for Jeff’s seat but overall, I’m not sensing much…excitement. More like…”Ho-hum. Just routine.” That’s very unfortunate.

Why? Because there is the potential that some of the new councilmen will chuck the fiscal conservatism that has been the city’s policy for some time. That policy has kept the city in the black and maintained a very comfortable cash reserve and emergency fund.

There are some council members who lust to spend those reserves.

One former councilwoman, who lost her seat in the last election and is running again, wants to spend those reserves, put the city into debt, to build a community center—with a pool, fitness center, inside basketball court and meeting rooms. She ignores the fact that one exists only three miles away. A center built by our sister-city, Belton.

I’m concerned that all too many of these so-call fiscal conservatives are RINOs who will twist and bend under political pressure. The county has a history of political corruption. Our city has been spared from that political taint. But…we must never forget we’re only one election away from returning to those “bad, old days” when the county was ruled by a political oligarchy more interested in filling their own pockets than in the welfare of their constituents.

There is more to this election than just city of Raymore. There is also an election for the Ray-Pec school board. I’ve only heard of one candidate in this election and he’s the darling of the teacher’s union and has their active support.

Can we say, “Fox guarding the henhouse?” My recommendation is to vote against ANYONE who has the endorsement and support of teacher’s unions. Remember, the primary interest of the teacher’s union is the union, not education and certainly not educating our children. Anyone who tells you differently is woefully ignorant or is lying.

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The End of the Story…

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The Cass County Commissioners ended the horror story of the Cass County Broadband Initiative Monday of this week. The initiative was sold as bringing high-speed internet to everyone, every rural resident, in the county. Unfortunately, the supposed return on the county’s investment was a fantasy. The initiative would never have been self-supporting and would have been a fiscal anchor in the county’s budget for the foreseeable future. I’ve written about this project before, here and here, as well as having a few Letters-to-the-Editor published in our county newspaper.

In a 2 to 1 vote, on Monday of this week, the Commissioners voted to disband the project.

Unfortunately, the spending can’t end yet. While the project existed, it put the county deeply in debt. The county will have to cover those debts or declare bankruptcy. The up side is that no more money will be thrown down the rathole.

The legal investigations on where the money went, for what, and who benefited, is ongoing. Several millions are still unaccounted for. At least three, at my last count, former county politicos, are under investigation. The FBI is involved because some of those missing funds were provided by the USDA.

For the last forty years, Cass County has been controlled by a political oligarchy—mostly democrats. That ended in 2010 when the ‘Pubs won all three commissioner seats. Unfortunately, one, the newly elected Presiding Commissioner, was ousted by the democrat Prosecutor, and the other two ‘Pubs were members of the oligarchy. Nothing changed except for the political labels. The only member who espoused conservative principles was the one booted out.

The vote to end the project did not go by party lines. Jeff Cox, the ‘Pub Presiding Commissioner, and Luke Scavuzzo, the dem South Associate Commissioner, voted to end Broadband. Jimmy Odom, the ‘Pub Northern Associate Commissioner, voted to continue spending and the project.

Scavuzzo had originally been in favor of the project. In favor, that is, until it was disclosed that the county did not own the Right-of-Way on the roads that were to be used to lay the fiber. The county had been maintaining these roads but did not own them. When the cost of adding easements for the fiber was added to the existing cost projections, it was too much.

I didn’t vote for Luke Scavuzzo. He’s in the county south and I’m in the north. I must say that he has impressed me since his initial appointment a year ago and his actions since winning his current position last November.  Not that I’d vote for him. He’s still a dem.

Still, in this case, Luke Scavuzzo has demonstrated fiscal restraint and good practices. I wish I could say the same for the other ‘Pub associate commissioner.

Here’s the official report as it appeared in the Cass County Democrat Missourian.

Cass County broadband project dies

By Bethany Bashioum, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013

The Cass County Broadband Project initiative has lost all of its steam.

Cass County Commissioners decided Feb. 25 that there is little to no feasibility left for the county’s broadband project, and made the decision to ultimately kill it during a public meeting by a 2-1 vote.

The project, conceived two years ago, looked to build a broadband fiber network in order to bring high-speed Internet access to 11,592 households and 701 businesses in rural areas of the county.

But after swiftly moving through a short list of other agenda items during Monday’s meeting, Presiding Commissioner Jeff Cox entertained a motion to approve a resolution in regard to the county’s Request for Proposals with general contracting firms to take the broadband fiber to homes in rural Cass County.

Associate Commissioner Jimmy Odom made a motion for approval, but the question quickly died due to the lack of a second.

In response to the previous motion, the following agenda item, a resolution to authorize the publication and release the broadband project’s RUS Form 515 became moot.

A few moments later, Cox then asked the Commission for the authority to disband the project.

Associate Commissioner Luke Scavuzzo seconded the decision.

In a brief statement, Cox cited a number of reasons for his decision after spending nearly two months studying the project.

Part of the decision, he said, was linked to the issue that although the county has requested a 60-day extension to the United States Department of Agriculture for the county’s 2011 audit as well as releasing a reimbursement of $326,000 that the county has spent on recent engineering costs.

Cox said that to date, the USDA has refused to release those funds.

“USDA funding is still frozen and we’re continuing to incur engineering costs that are not being reimbursed from the federal government,” Cox said. “We’re basically at the point where we can either take the monies out of the general fund to pay the engineers or we can just default on our contract with the engineer. Or, we can take the money out of the Certificates of Participation, which are supposed to be used for non-USDA eligible costs.”

…

When Cox opened the floor for the other commissioners to voice their perspectives, Odom, who has supported the project for it’s prospect to enhance economic development in the county, said he wants to hear more about the audit issues and why the USDA funds aren’t being released.

“I’ve never seen anything like that in government where we’re that far behind and I would like to know why,” he said.

On the other hand, Scavuzzo voiced his disapproval of the project, but thanked Freeman for her work.

…

Concluding the discussion, the Commission carried the vote to disband the project 2-1.

Cox and Scavuzzo voted in favor of ditching broadband.

“Initially, what I will be doing will be notifying all the parties involved now that the Commission has given me the authority to do that,” Cox said. “We will then have to deal with getting all those final bills paid.”

Cox said that there are few options available to deal with the debt that’s been accumulated, one being that it can be rolled into the county’s existing COP funds since the county is already paying the full interest on those funds.

“I think we need to return our focus to providing the core services that county government is responsible for,” he said. “I think it’s important that we get out now while we still can afford to do so.”

The county should have never gotten into this project. Jeff Cox restated that this project did not fall into any core responsibilities of the county government.

“I think we should return our focus to providing the core services that county government has a responsibility to provide, such as road and bridge and law enforcement. The things that the people in the rural areas, that this initiative was meant to help, are the people that I have seen hurt the most out of all of this because all the money that has been diverted from those core services.”

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Local Election Analysis

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It’s been a few weeks since the election. It’s time to look at some races and see if we can determine which campaign tactics won and which didn’t. Let’s look at the races for the county Commissioners, Sheriff and Public Administrator offices.

One commonality is that “Word-of-mouth” works. I’ve been asking some folks who they voted for and why. As expected, most said they voted for ‘Pubs across the board. With a 55/45 overall split of the voters in the county for the ‘Pubs, it isn’t unexpected for ‘Pubs to win. I wanted to see if I could find other factors that helped.

Melody Folsom beat her opponent 61% to 38%. A few write-in votes lowered Michelle Cornforth’s percentage. What helped Melody Folsom to beat her opponent so handily? From the responses I received it was her treatment of her clients—she acted like a parent when necessary and her clients responded well to that approach.

Melody Folsom said, in a public forum, that she viewed her position as a service ministry to those in public care. They weren’t numbers in a file folder to her. She knew each one personally and they knew her. In reality, in was those clients—and their families who re-elected Melody Folsom. The client’s families spread the word. When the opposition attempted to use smear tactics, it back-fired.

Michelle Cornforth lost due to two issues—her filing for bankruptcy a few months ago and her performance in the public forums.  On first issue, if she couldn’t manage her own finances, how could she be expected to manage the assets of her clients better than her own? It was an important question. The forums were important, too. Those attending the forums made opinions and spread those opinions. Cornforth came across as a cold bureaucrat who had more interest in collecting a paycheck than serving her clients.

That bureaucratic impression affected the Sheriff’s race as well. Dwight Diehl has been Sheriff 16 years. He’s a known quantity and has acquired respect throughout the county. He has created a personal relationship to many of the county’s residents. A family friend told me how Sheriff Diehl personally kept the family informed when a family tragedy struck. That personal attention was appreciated…and spread by word-of-mouth.

Doug Catron, on the other hand, was perceived as a transient. He was using the Sheriff’s position as a stepping stone to something else. He spoke a “making alliances” as if that action was the solution to all ills. The public, on the other hand, viewed it as politicking. Dwight Diehl was seen as the county’s chief law enforcement official whose primary interest was the safety of the county—not his next job.

The Commission positions were different. To some extent, all the candidates were known and most had public resumes. Jim Hoke was the exception. Jeff Cox, running for Presiding Commissioner, was a Raymore city councilman. His opponent was Terry Wilson, long-time mayor of Pleasant Hill. North Commissioner candidate Jimmy Odom was mayor of Belton and his opponent, Phil Ducan, was a past mayor of Belton. Luke Scavuzzo, the current South Commissioner, was a former Missouri state representative and local businessman. His opponent, Jim Hoke, was a local lawyer.

That lack of public exposure was a hindrance that Jim Hoke did not overcome.  There were few in southern Cass County who did not know Luke Scavuzzo. There were few in southern Cass County who knew Jim Hoke.

The three winning candidates, Jeff Cox, Jimmy Odom, and Luke Scavuzzo, all had one think in common—ideas and accomplishments. Luke Scavuzzo repeatedly mentioned selling surplus county property to reduce the county’s large debt. Scavuzzo was not involved in the creation of that debt but was seen as attempting to resolve it.

Jimmy Odom spoke of using tax incentives to bring more businesses to Belton. It took little to notice the new Price Chopper, Target, and all the business growth along MO-58. Jimmy Odom seized that growth to project his acumen in drawing business—and jobs, to the county.

Jeff Cox formulated a plan to bring transparency to county government, improve public confidence in the county Commission, and a plan to reduce the county’s debt and resolve the failed broadband initiative. Terry Wilson’s response was, “What Jeff said.” Wilson was appointed Presiding Commissioner last Spring and since that time had yet to do anything to improve the county’s fiscal condition. During the runup to the election, all Wilson did was to repeat Jeff Cox’s talking points. Luke Scavuzzo was appointed like Terry Wilson. He, at least, reminded the public of his acts to resolve the county’s debts. Terry Wilson did not and that cost him the race.

In short, the winning county commissioners had a track record of meeting their public goals. They had a plan, skimpy in some cases, and presented those plans to the public. They were seen as being prepared to act. Their opponents failed to present a plan and had no track record.

The editor of the Harrisonville Democrat-Missourian, John Beaudoin, said, “I am not saying electing a Democrat over a sitting Republican [in Cass County] is impossible. It’s not, and we’ve seen it happen.” Yes, it did happen. Democrat Luke Scavuzzo won the South Commissioner race.

‘Pubs take heed. It could and can happen again if your candidates are unprepared and have no plans to resolve the issues of the day.

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