11/24/2009 Commissioners Meeting

As I already mentioned this was a long meeting that covered several important issues.
I will talk a little on each, but will focus on 3 topics more in detail.

To start with there was a development company interested in possible building 30 to 40 town homes in Paris. They gave a presentation to city officials. My take was it could be a good thing for growth and development in Paris.

Another was a sewage lift station issue caused by the state highway project that is going to widen route 68 towards Millersburg. Seems like an over sight from the state highway department, along with private property owners around the corner of Ruddles Mill Rd and route 68 has created a problem for city officials. It is no fault of city officials but now they have to deal with it.

Again a sewage issue to deal with at our neighboring city of North Middletown. It seems the state of Kentucky has approached Paris City Officials to temporary take over the operation of North Middletown sewer plant. They must have some very serious issues and are desperate for help. Our city officials said they would be glad to lend a hand as long as Paris is reimburse on any expenses incurred.

Then there was an issue of extending the tree trimming around utility lines for another month.  It was stated the trimming was skipped last year and if we have an ice storm it could cause power outages.

The city has finally hired a new engineer which was necessary because of retirement of the last one. They are stilled faced with two other retirement replacements which means a lot of interview time. The city needs to hire a new Chief of Police and a Fire Chief.

The following issues are more concerning to me because they deal with Budget issues and Internal Procedure issues.
1.   There is a issue about overtime with the city fire department and the E.M.S department.  I certainly don’t claim to know what is going on, I am only commenting on what was said in the meeting. It is my understanding that both the City of Paris and Bourbon County both provide funds for the E.M.S. jointly. The City of Paris funds the city fire department 100%.
Because the fire department and E.M.S. works hand in hand most of the time yet have separate budgets they can’t keep track of them properly. They are talking thousands of dollars here that they can’t keep proper track of! That is your tax dollars! Apparently this has been going on for a very long time with no end in sight. It was stated they were way over what was budgeted. Who knows for sure without the transparency in government they should be providing to the public?

2.   Next on the agenda was approving the monthly bills. Commissioner Galbraith pointed to several discrepancy in the General Fund statements he was looking at. No one was able to really explain why the discrepancy in the discussion that followed. He noted also that there was nothing on the Utility Fund? City manager said he had staffing issues to explain it away. Commission Galbraith noted that was 2 times in a row. Galbraith also noted they were over budget in several areas.
They also discussed problems with ordering new police vehicles that maybe wasn’t needed because of poor communications internally during the budgeting process? It was stated mistakes were made because of assumptions. Again Your Tax Dollar!

3.  At the very end of the meeting Mayor Thornton actually acknowledged me sitting in the audience. He said they still needed to address the weed/grass ordinance that I have been vocal about all summer long.

He even mentioned the A.B.C. questions they haven’t answered since August 25th when I presented the question to the city commissioners. He seemed surprised thinking city manager Mr. Nagy had already given me answers?? After a conversation back and forth he said they would provide answers. I still don’t have answers, but at least they finally publicly acknowledged they will answer me.
All I want is that they give answers to the public when questions are asked of them, instead of just acting like they don’t even have to respond. Who wouldn’t be discouraged at them for being treated in such a manner.

Until next time,