Friday, November 23, 2007

Bluntly Speaking - We Need Blunt

This was posted to "Auditing The Auditor" 11/22/07 10:21pm by Anonymous -

We need to find that direct link to Jefferson City to go right to the govenor to order the State Audit on Kansas City. There are so many areas in which need to be audited! From construction accounts in CIMO, 1 Percent Art Program, the MBE/WBE program, WC himself, Phillip Yelder, Ollie Johnson, Councilman Riley, just to name a few. There needs to be an audit on the MBE/WBE program on how it is handle the goals that are set forth for participation. There are two BIG BULLYS on the 4th floor Phil Yelder and Ollie Johnson! You talk about racist! And when did those two men have the added job description of negotiation with minority contractors? Why does Phil Yelder get to ask a contractor "How much will it cost the "City" to keep you in business? The "City" does not want you to fail! Now if that is not opening the check-book, then I don't know what is. Aren't all contractor suppose to be able to perform the job that is specified without it costing the "City" extra, because WC says make this problem go away!So yes there is racial tension in the City of Kansas City, MO, and it all started when WAyne Cauthen came to town. He has an agenda and one adgenda only! So if you are a white professional then don't apply for a management position with the city, because he won't hire you! Sad to say but everyone in the metropolitan area knows that! Mayor and City Council wake up!!!!!!! What is in the "BEST INTEREST OF THE CITY?" My tax dollars are not being spent wisely!

Monday, November 19, 2007

"Leadership is action, not position" Donald H. McGannon

Submitted by Sir Humphrey Appleby

To the Mayor, City Council, and citizens of Kansas City,

As a long-term City employee, I cannot understand the lack of leadershipthat is being exhibited by the current Mayor and Council. You have beenpresented with multiple examples of racial impropriety and downright insubordination, yet you do nothing.
There have been some very disturbing allegations involving pornography on City computers and the use of racially offensive "nicknames" for members of the Mayor's staff. How can this behavior be condoned? Why is it acceptable fors ome people to get away with this sort of behavior and not others? All Ican say is "thank goodness" that most City employees have the good sense andawareness to know that neither of these types of behavior belong in the workplace. But again I ask, who's in charge here? I have always supported a City Manager form of government, and I think the ridiculous behavior of the current mayor and his wife bears out why this provides us a protection of sorts. But, where is the protection when the City Manager also decides to flout the policies and conventions that provide civility to this organization? How do you set a standard for the community and have any credibility, when you cannot set the standards of behavior for this organization? Regarding the pornography issue, it either exists or it doesn't. If you, the Council, feel that adequate documentation has been provided, then you owe it to yourselves, the other City employees, and the citizens to direct the City Manager to follow the dictates of the established City policy with this employee. If she's smart enough to be an Assistant City Manager, then she sure as hell better know how to read a City policy and know the difference between right and wrong; otherwise what qualifies her to do her assigned job? If the City Manager refuses to appropriately and adequately follow through on this established policy, then he, too, should be dealt with. We, the employees don't see the problem -it seems pretty cut and dry to us. If it were any one of us, how likely do you think it would be that we would get to argue our case in a closed sessionbefore the City Council or intimidate you with racial tyranny?
Mr. Mayor, I understand that your position is that you think you can'manage' the City Manager into doing what you want done and what you think needs to be done. On what do you predicate this position? You can't even handle your wife's dangerously stupid antics and Wayne Cauthen is intelligent enough to dance circles around Gloria. I voted for you twice because I thought that your experience in this organization would provide you the perspective to see the destruction in this City and in this organization that has been waged from the 29th Floor. But, unfortunately, because of your unfortunate decision to not cut the apron strings, you and your spouse are in the unenviable, unfathomable, and unconscionable position of putting this City into yet another the center of yet another racially-based circus. And you think that you can' handle the City Manager? You can't even control or counter the three Councilmembers who insist on framing every issue within the context of race. I think that it's time you wake up and smell the coffee! About the only way that you can redeem yourself at this point would be to stand up to the City Manager. You're the only one who can and I think that you'd be surprised that others would stand behind your leadership in doing so.
Allowing this arrogance to continue is unacceptable. What kind of example does this set for the rest of us City employees? Why should we strive to do our best when incompetence, waste, and a**-kissing has been rewarded time and time again, and diligence and hard work apparently account for nothing in this organization.
Someone needs to step up. There is all kinds of talk about recall elections for the Mayor and members of the City Council. It's not yet too late, but the time to act is now.

Will Rogers: "Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there."

Friday, November 16, 2007

A Countdown for Recall?

This was posted by Toadstool Watch on 11/15/07 t 11:30 am
Nuts and bolts.
1. How many signatures do we need?
2. How is this divided between the counties?
3. Do we start a political action committee to take this needed action?
4. Are city employees barred from signing or distributing a petition?
5. Next steps...organizing this effort. Can we put together an online meeting?
6. Can there be an online poll to count the initial participants?
7. And last, aside from city hall hierarchy, who else would work against this action?

We skunks will work out the math on signatures per county. Let's hear responses to the other questions.
As to the question of "Who else would work against this action?" we would venture almost anyone in this city that has something to lose with the Hooterville Trio and the Denver Vampires.
The flip side of this is who do we know that would run for Mayor that would be an honest, capable leader? Any names to throw into our imaginary Mayor's ring? (How about Ed Wolf - just kidding)

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Auditing The Auditor Mayor

The Garden Partiers have spoken - the blog will continue to be there for City Hallers on the quest for, to paraphrase Superman, 'Truth, Justice and Honesty In Government." We will set up a mail forwarding account. Your written tips may circumvent the world before we receive it but we will eventually get the mail. When it is set up within the next week or so we will provide you with the mailing address to GPS. We're a team, we're a winning team - if it takes us the next 41 months to weed out the bad players, the corrupt players, then that's what it takes.

If we are serious about asking the State Auditor to step in then we can begin to take the steps to make that happen. There are two ways to request the State to do a municipal audit. One is to get petitions signed. The number of signatures required is a percentage of those who voted in the last gubenatorial election - so we would need a certain percentage from each of the 3 counties that KCMO includes. The second way to get the State to do a municipal audit is a direct plea to the Governor but we would have to have a smoking arsenal - just not the smoking gun. It can be done if we're serious. The State Auditor's Office would come in and audit the entire City operation - every single department. Municipal audits are time consuming and very expensive. We have the paperwork from the State Auditor's Office if we're serious about this. As stated previously, we would need people working to get the required number of signatures or we need the proof. In the meantime the State of MO Auditor's Office - Confidential Hotline Number for Fraud, Waste and Abuse 1-800-347-8597 or go to the website: http://www.auditor.mo.gov/
Let's discuss.

It Ain't Al Jolson's "Mammie"

Anonymous 7:33 PM left this comment in To Be Or Not To Be that we didn't want buried in the comments :

When is Mayor going to realize that he has a time bomb ticking right outside his office? Does he know what his wife calls the two black women that work on HIS staff. Mammie and Bernie Mac! Enough is enough Mayor you need to tell your wife to go home and stay home! The citizens of KC elected you to the Mayoral position not your wife! Now that these racist names have been made public by a discrimation complaint to the EOC, then I think you need to WAKE UP!

Well, well, well it seems that The First Family Funk-Squitiro Of Kansas City are on a roll - the Archie Bunker Family of the new milenia. Funk ticks off the Hispanics/Latinos nationwide; Funkette, some months ago, in an article in Kansas City Magazine implied that all Italians were on the take and part of the Mafia and now, those from the "black part of town" are Mammies and Bernie Macs - (and she's the one that knows about birthin' babies, humm). We should nominate her for some sort of recognition award for cultural insensitivity. All of this in just a mere 7 months; we can hardly wait to see what unfolds over the next 41 months. We still have the Native Americans, Chinese, Laotian, Arabs, Irish, French, Indonesians, Canadians etc, etc to insult. What a World Class City they are making us.

Thursday, November 1, 2007

To Be or Not To Be Skunks

To all who wrote your concerns we’ve been busy and busy musing and we’ve been thinking what we need to do with this blog.

It was quite a to-do at the Council meeting last week. Not a proud moment for many we would say.

Terry Riley’s thuggery needs to stop. He’s a verbal bully and still is not accomplishing anything of note. If he’s interested in a political legacy he’s running out of time and allies. He’s a smart man who could have done a lot of good. Unfortunately he chose to play the games.

We started this blog for several reasons. One reason was to have a safe place for good City Employees to vent their frustrations, disappointments, rage etc because personally, I don’t want to lose any more good people, good and true and talented civil servants. We thought we could be the release on the pressure cooker.

We also thought we could be an instrument for positive change not solely an “Agony Aunt” venue. We have a metropolitan newspaper that for political and economic reasons has essentially opted out of any true investigative reporting. People had great hopes for the piece they did on the Citadel mess but the editor(s) whimped out or the reporters did a half-ass job or both. So the Star is not a help.

We have an impotent internal auditor, so there is no recourse there.

We have a new, naïve, inexperienced, gullible, uncourageous City Council. And of course, then there’s Gloria, Mark & Tara……

We hoped that this blog would entice, encourage those who have the power to change City Hall by exposing the abuses, the incompetence, the thievery, oh, the thievery. And this is not happening. Those who have the power to ‘fix’ City Hall have chosen to stay silent in their hell and want to be rescued. Nobody can ‘rescue’ you if you don’t give us something to hold on to.

We know there is suspicion that there is no true pornography on LT’s computer. It could be just incredibly poor taste or poor judgment. If true, what does this say about Wayne fueling the fire, adding to the intrigue and suspicions with blocking access to the computer, threatening Roy etc? If true, LT is still guilty of using City property in an inappropriate manner and as an Assistant City Manager her punishment should be more severe.

It doesn’t help anyone when a City employee writes in to the GPSs with stories of sexual harassment, verbal abuse, bullying bordering on violence, stealing (everything from padding the expense accounts to walking off with equipment, or using equipment for a private business or running a business on city time with city equipment etc) and then say “But you can’t print this because they’ll know I’m the one who told you.” What do you want us to do with this information? As we’ve stated before, you are a participant in the creation of your own reality. If it’s awful – then you have to take the risk to facilitate the change that you want.

This Mayor and City Council need a 2x4 between their eyes ‘to get it’. Watergate had ‘Deep Throat’ who led the investigators to the smoking guns. We need the same thing. Whether it’s this blog, the Star or going to the State Auditor’s office.

We skunks, want to be agents of change to help make City Hall the environment it can and should be for the sake of the citizens of Kansas City and for those who choose to be civil servants. We’re not interested in being the Ann Landers of the blogs.

Wayne Cauthen has been the focus because we are a strong City Manager form of government. If the head is corrupt and incompetent the body follows. We know there are others who deserve attention. We did not want energies to be diluted we wanted to focus on the most important position. Unless the City Manager changes, nothing else changes or gets fixed.

The Citizens of KC have very critical issues to deal with that will cost us all Billions of dollars. We need the best leadership and the best team to pull this off. If Wayne’s not the man then what can we do?. What are you willing to do?

We can be the diamond of the Midwest – or we can be west Detroit or Denver East – whichever you prefer. It’s up to you.

So this takes us back to the opening. To be or not to be the Agony Aunt or to be or not to be a viable tool facilitating change for true blue civil service and making Kansas City government the envy of all, not the laughing stock, wink, wink, nod, nod (for the Monty Python fans out there) corrupt joke we’ve are now.

We’re close to completing setting up a series of forwarding mail services. But before we pay for all of this – we need to know from you whether or not we should continue to be the Skunks at the Garden Party of KCMO City Hall. Let us know – let’s do a poll.