Friday 5/8: (okay...that's been more than a week...sry) I gave a presentation to North Elementary's 2nd grade class. My bonus kido, Karter, attends school there and his teacher, Mrs. Amstutz, asked me to speak on local government. Apparently, 2nd grade is the only grade our kids get any local government education (sad). It was a great time! You can read more here.
Later in the day, I had a meeting with developers of the Downtown Redevelopment area, Plazacorp. I spent about 3 hours with these guys looking at plans and going over numbers. The meeting was very informative and the project is impressive.
Saturday 5/16: Council Retreat at the New OC. If you haven't been to the OC, you need to go. The meeting went from 8:30 - 2ish and was jam-packed with information to help catch everyone up on what's been going on. Highlights from the retreat include: Code Enforcement, Letters of Credit, Financials, Public Safety, Parks and Rec, MS4, DNR, and my personal fav. G.I.S. You can get a play by play here.
Monday 5/18: Interview on KSGF mainly concerning Council Meeting Agenda Item Resolution 1587. This resolution dealt with the Downtown Redevelopment area and the redirection of certain tax dollars within that development area. The piece of the resolution that I took issue with was Section 2 that read:
Section 2. The appropriate officers, agents and staff of the City are directed to take all actions necessary, including the execution of all necessary documents, to apply to the State of Missouri for funds pursuant to the Missouri Downtown Economic Stimulus Act pursuant to the financing plan and revenue projections as set forth on Exhibit A.
Exhibit A included a foot note at the bottom that read:
5. Captures 100% of the City's 2% sales tax through 2017, 1.75% sales tax through 2026 and 1.375% thereafter.
Currently, through the TIF rules, the project will capture 100% of the new property tax, and 50% of the new sales tax generated in the redev. area. If we give the other 50% of the sales tax, that means that the sales tax for the OC, which the people voted for in 2006, would be captured in the redev. area, but would not be used for the OC. Instead it would be redirected back into the project. That is where I took issue with the resolution. Although, the resolution would not be binding, if passed, it sends a message that the city is okay with using your vote as a bargaining chip. You can hear more about my position on this resolution here. Special thanks to KSGF and Vincent David Jericho for letting me come on the show.
Later in the day, we had our city council meeting. I will be posting the video this weekend. The afore mentioned resolution was removed from the agenda by its sponsor, Mike Esterl. Since most of the Aldermen had not read the finalized version of the resolution until Saturday, I was not sure how this resolution would be handled. I was thrilled that Mike decided to do remove the Resolution all together. I think it was a good move, and shows the citizens of Ozark that the board of aldermen will be doing what is necessary to protect your tax dollars. You can read more on this decision here.
Tuesday 5/19: State Audit. Susan Montee's office did a great job on this. All I can really say is: Yes, there was some damaging stuff, but nothing fraudulent. I think the worst part was not knowing what was going on, not so much that it was going on. If that makes sense. Now that it's all out on the table, it's not such a big deal. That is the power of transparency in government. Now we know what needs to be fixed and we can all move forward, together as a community. Kudos the the City Admin. and the rest of the city staff for working hard to get many of these issue resolved already. There is a ton of press on this so just check out any of the local media websites. You can also read the entire audit here.
Let me know if you have any questions. You can post a comment or call me 417-231-1045, or send me an email melissadwagner@gmail.com.
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