Category Archives: council

christmas, council, meeting, radio show

Christmas is almost here …

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… and I just got home from the last city council meeting of this year. We had to meet tonight to have the second readings and public hearings on a couple of items that needed to be signed and in force before the end of the year. Mostly contract related. We also allocated some remaining funds for projects that can be done with money from this year next year. One of them is an eagle scout project in one park, another is an expansion of the seating at the veterans memorial in another park, and the last is the minimal buildout of a curb cut on a state highway whose permit will expire if not built shortly. Pretty much standard end of the year stuff.

You know you live in a small town when … someone asks your mother if you are OK since you didn’t blog last night. Just to alleviate any concerns, I am fine. I was busy working on some computer stuff last night and it was too late to post by the time I finished up. But thanks for the concern. Mom called this afternoon to finalize plans for Christmas Eve and she mentioned that she had been asked about the absence of a blog post and was I OK? That is encouraging to me for several reasons, not the least of which is that there are actually people reading what I write. I always have the underlying fear that my blog bears a closer resemblance to post-nasal drip of the brain than a readable flood of interesting words. It is also nice to hear that people care!

I am waiting for my wife to get home from the mountains as I write this. It will be so nice to have her home for a few days. This time of the year can feel very lonely when you are batching it. But at least I got most of the cleaning done and tomorrow we can finish decorating the tree for the group gathering tomorrow night. Christmas will be pretty low key here at the homestead this year. The son is up in the mountains working over college break, so it will just be L, Molly, and me along with our moms and maybe a few other guests that would otherwise be alone over the holiday.

Tomorrow doesn’t look to be too busy. I’ll get up and walk down to the radio station for the radio show early in the morning. Speaking of which, I sometimes think that people care more about the radio show that about the city council actions it features. I can’t believe the number of people I run into that tell me that they heard the show and really look forward to it each week. That is amazing on several counts: 1) they actually listened to the show rather than turning that dial, 2) so many of them don’t live in this town,  3) the topics that they heard on the show prompts them to ask questions, and 4) they will at least listen to the radio show even if they don’t attend the council meetings. I was talking to the president of the local community college the other day and he was very complementary on my use of the radio show to keep the community informed. I found it kind of amusing. I do it because I like to hear myself talk! {*grin*}

After the radio show, I’ll walk back home and get some last minute wrapping done.  Then I need to start our traditional Christmas Eve oyster stew cooking so it can simmer and be ready to eat early. There is the church service for people to attend and then the gathering of people here to snack and talk and await Santa. Any more, the number of Santa unaware kids has shrunk to a few, so I doubt Santa will show up here at the house. He’ll catch them overnight at their own houses. On Christmas day we are migrating over to mom’s house for Christmas dinner. My MIL and mom worked it out amidst themselves so Thanksgiving was at MIL’s house and Christmas Day will be a mom’s house. (It pays to live in the same town as your mom and MIL – there is some else to cook!)

Well, Molly seems to think she hears a car so L must be here. Later.

council, prison, Tuesday

YATA

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Yet Another Tuesday Again. The acronymic titling just keeps on coming.

Today I spent a few hours at the prison listening to the gang intelligence unit. Some interesting stuff and some stuff that leaves you scratching your head and going huh? Probably pretty normal for a non-gang person listening to stuff about gangs and gang members. They covered the gamut from bloods to crips to seranos to nortes to kkk to war … Colorado is interesting in that the prisons don’t segregate by gang like California and some other states do. They practice a zero tolerance “you are all prisoners” strategy and isolate only trouble makers. Doesn’t make some of the gang members real happy.

The gang that was the strangest to me was the Juggalos. The key for membership seems to be a liking of the Insane Clown Posse, often acronymized as ICP in signs and tattoos, and a preference for hatchet or ice pick violence, and/or a liking in general for the music akin to ICP like Dark Lotus, Twiztid, Anybody Killa, Jumpsteady, Psychopathic Rydas, etc. They are one of the rare gangs that accept all religions and races and even allow concurrent membership in other gangs amongst their members. What makes them troubling is that they are a small subset (est. 15%) of all the people who follow ICP in a manner similar to the Deadheads that followed the Grateful Dead. That 15% subset is the actual violent gang, the rest are just somewhat demented music followers. It is also troubling that they are one of the fastest growing gangs in Colorado and in the prison population. The gang logo is a dread locked running hatchet wielding man, often stylized with dripping blood, etc. The iconic image of hatchetman looks like this

This gang is also troubling in that it has a strong middle school  following. The members like to dress in black, wear hatchetman regalia, have tattoos of ICP and the hatchman, and wear clown makeup. Not exactly an inconspicuous crew.

The city council meeting was of the normal variety.  We went through the agenda in a business like manner, had a brief discussion on a couple of upcoming topics, and adjourned. I did try to convince the reporter for the weekly news paper who arrived after the meeting was over that she missed the wildest meeting of the year. I told her that the entire council had stripped naked and danced the can-can on the council bench. She didn’t believe me. She just said that she was really happy she missed it and proceeded to quiz me about the agenda items one by one. Oh well. Maybe I just need better lying skills.

council, election, politics, radio

And now …

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The city council meeting last night was not too bad.  It ran a little long, but it didn’t turn into a 6 hour marathon like they sometimes were before I became mayor. Thank heavens for small miracles!

Today was a Wednesday, and like every other Wednesday, I have a show on one of the local radio stations early in the morning. I am a brave soul and take all callers on an open mike (live, no less) about issues or complaints in the city.  Generally tends to be pretty quiet since things got under control a few years ago, so now I mostly use it to keep the community appraised of what happened in the council meeting and the issues of interest to the area. I am not noted as being one to call a spade a “portable entrenching tool” and my approach seems to work well with the people here.
The League of Women Voters gave a program on the ballot issues this year at a local church this evening. I was there to address the charter amendments for the city on the ballot this year. This is one of the longest ballots in local history with initiatives and proposals covering 46-59 and L-O on the state part of the ballot and a similar number of items related to the city charter on the municipal side. Add in the presidential, congressional, and county commisioner races and the ballot is beyond hefty.
One major concern is that people may not be able to complete their ballot in the statutorily allotted 15 minutes. We are all encouraging people to take their crib notes with them to the polls, utilize early voting, and use mail in ballots. Because of the presidential race, local congressional races, and all of the above, voter participation may be very high (some predictions in the >90% of all registered voters range.) This should be interesting. I’m certainly glad I’m not a county clerk who has to make sure all this runs smoothly and certify the results rather shortly after the vote.
I’m off to make my crib sheet for the election before I forget all the good information from the League analysis. {*grin*}
budget, council, mandate, project

Busy Season

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This is the busy season for town councils in Colorado and ours is no exception. That is because there are statutory time frames for approval of the town budget here and the time is is now. So we all get really busy for a bit here.
The process at the council end is straight forward, if lengthy.  The budget is officially presented (in our case tonight) and then a public hearing is scheduled for 2 weeks hence. That is when the public gets their chance for direct input and to lobby for their favorite programs. Then the council must haggle it’s way come to agreement and approve the budget for the coming year.  We are required to have the public hearing no more than two weeks after presentation and are also required to make the presentation essentially in this time frame. A lot of the hassling and adjusting have already been done through the discussion of preliminary and unofficial trial budgets before today. But tonight’s council meeting may be lengthy as each council member tries to make the case to change the official presentation to their preferences.
Needless to say, it is an interesting time for financial affairs in general and the city in particular. It is complicated in our case this year by the requirement to undertake an upcoming project that will likely be in the $14-20 million range. Since the annual budget of the town is less than $20 million, we will have to bond the project. We have to start the project planning this year before the bond can be brought forth to the voters next year, so we have to find $480,000 in the budget to pay for the engineering studies that need to commence this year. This is a federally mandated project, but guess how much money they are supplying?Â