This year can be the year that your vote can make the difference. All the local and county offices are going to be on the ballot for you to cast your vote. This is the time to make your choice on who you want to make future decisions about Paris and Bourbon County Government.
They will be in charge of making decisions that can effect your personal day to day life. So put some time in the thought process before you cast a vote. Only you can decide what is best for you and your family. The main thing is to make sure YOU VOTE don’t let others decide your future without having your voice heard.
The past couple years has been tough on all of us with all the economic issues are country is facing. We need people in office making solid good decision for the whole community, not individuals who are just it for the “what is in it for me attitude.”
If you are not sure about how a candidate stands on an issue, don’t be afraid to speak up and ask? If they share your values then vote for them. If not vote for the one who does. Just because you think someone is a nice person, they may not share your same views on a particular subject. In that case, if you vote them in office, don’t be surprised when they do the opposite of what you thought!
Here is a list of names who filed for office at the Bourbon County Clerks office. The following list of names were provided to me by the Bourbon County Clerks Office.
Mayor- City of Paris- Non-Partisan
Michael J Thornton
Neil Jackson Crump
Janet S Patton
Paris City Commissioner- Non-Partisan- No Primary
Stan Galbraith
Tim Gray
Bart Horne
Wallis Brooks
Mike Fryman
John Alan Plummer
Bourbon County Clerk
Richard Stipp Eades [Dem]
Bourbon County Attorney
G Davis Wilson [Dem]
Bourbon County Corner
Rosemary G Kitchen [Dem]
Bourbon County Property Valuation Administrator
Woodford Wayne Turner [Dem]
Bourbon County Sheriff
Mark L Matthews [Dem]
Robert Guy Turner [Dem]
Bourbon County Judge/Executive
Donnie R Foley [Dem]
Tony Franklin Horn [Rep]
Bourbon County Jailer
Jeff Cain [Dem]
Brandon Barnett [Dem]
Joe Patrick [Dem]
John S Ransdell [Dem]
David Keith Ratliff [Rep]
Magistrate- Hutchison
Donald R McCarty [Dem]
Magistrate- Centerville
Barry Lee Hay [Dem]
Daniel J Ison [Dem]
Magistrate- Ruddles Mills
Martha Overly [Dem]
Jimmy Mason [Dem]
Magistrate- North Middletown
Cecil E "Junie" Foley [Dem]
Jim Long [Dem]
Magistrate- Millersburg
John N Smoot [Dem]
Magistrate- Clintonville
Mark D Offutt [Dem]
Magistrate- Little Rock
Marion “Buddy” Dawson [Dem]
Constable- North Middletown
Garrett W “Gary” Cannon [Dem]
Gregg Barnett [Dem]
Constable- Clintonville
Timmy Walker Sosby [Dem]
Constable- Flat Rock
Ralph F Tobin [Dem]
Constable- Ruddles Mills
Rory Lee Clark [Dem]
Constable- Hutchison
Norman R Clark [Dem]
Constable- Centerville
John Ward Ballengee [Dem]
Constable- Millersburg
Daryl B Kelly [Dem]
I would like to here from all of you about this list of candidates. Share your thoughts pros/cons on any of the above. What issues are you concerned with? What makes your candidate the best choice?
Until next time,
Friday, January 29, 2010
Thursday, January 28, 2010
01/26/10 Commissioners Meeting
The wait is over for those of you who wanted to known who the new Chief Police of Paris would be. At their Tuesday morning meeting, the mayor and all city commissioners voted yes to hire Kevin Sutton. After the vote Mr. Sutton told city officials, “thanks so much for the opportunity and I will work hard for you”.
It was stated by City Manager Nagy that “Mr. Sutton had retired from Lexington Police Department were he was an Assistant Police Chief”. He also stated “Mr. Sutton has a college degree and F.B.I. training.” “ He still has a commitment to police work and wanted to be considered for this job”.
Commissioner Fryman stated about Mr Sutton saying, “he is very experienced in all aspects of police work starting out as a patrolman with the Lexington police force and worked his way up through the ranks of Sargent, Lieutenant, Captain and then Assistant Police Chief”.
Another item on the agenda was financial business. Commissioner Galbraith ask several question about financials of the general fund. Certain line items he was calling attention to the fact of discrepancies of actual vs budget.
The mayor responded to Mr. Galbraith, “the budget was very very generic until we got on board”. When Mr Nagy came in he started appropriating the right line items, with the right numbers”.
After the mayor made this statement I was very surprised, so I held my hand up to ask permission to speak. The mayor allowed me to speak. I ask the mayor was he suggesting that prior city officials never had a line item budget?
The mayor responded “it had line items, but it was very very generic and that was probably the best words to use for it”. “It actually had line items that we saw huge increases in the police and fire that was due to budget numbers not having FICA match, retirement, health insurance which increased the budget about $ 500,000.00
City manager Nagy added, “the copy of the budget he gave me the last meeting probably had 4 times the detail of the budget he was given last year.”
If you can believe what the mayor and city manager said about the budget, at this point I have no reason to doubt them, this is a totally unacceptable way to keep track of our tax dollars!
How can they effectively run our city without a detailed line item budget for each department? Who is responsible for this outrage if not our city officials? I encourage all of you to speak out with me. It can make a difference.
Another item of interest will be a special meeting Wednesday Feb. 3rd at 8 a.m.
The topics of discussion will be the Baseball Contract Bids. Another will be on the final reading on Usage Policy for Police Cars.
And a personal favorite of mine will be the discussion about High Weed/Grass Ordinance with a possible 1 st reading to take place. If you want to have any public input on these topics you should attend this meeting.
Until next time,
It was stated by City Manager Nagy that “Mr. Sutton had retired from Lexington Police Department were he was an Assistant Police Chief”. He also stated “Mr. Sutton has a college degree and F.B.I. training.” “ He still has a commitment to police work and wanted to be considered for this job”.
Commissioner Fryman stated about Mr Sutton saying, “he is very experienced in all aspects of police work starting out as a patrolman with the Lexington police force and worked his way up through the ranks of Sargent, Lieutenant, Captain and then Assistant Police Chief”.
Another item on the agenda was financial business. Commissioner Galbraith ask several question about financials of the general fund. Certain line items he was calling attention to the fact of discrepancies of actual vs budget.
The mayor responded to Mr. Galbraith, “the budget was very very generic until we got on board”. When Mr Nagy came in he started appropriating the right line items, with the right numbers”.
After the mayor made this statement I was very surprised, so I held my hand up to ask permission to speak. The mayor allowed me to speak. I ask the mayor was he suggesting that prior city officials never had a line item budget?
The mayor responded “it had line items, but it was very very generic and that was probably the best words to use for it”. “It actually had line items that we saw huge increases in the police and fire that was due to budget numbers not having FICA match, retirement, health insurance which increased the budget about $ 500,000.00
City manager Nagy added, “the copy of the budget he gave me the last meeting probably had 4 times the detail of the budget he was given last year.”
If you can believe what the mayor and city manager said about the budget, at this point I have no reason to doubt them, this is a totally unacceptable way to keep track of our tax dollars!
How can they effectively run our city without a detailed line item budget for each department? Who is responsible for this outrage if not our city officials? I encourage all of you to speak out with me. It can make a difference.
Another item of interest will be a special meeting Wednesday Feb. 3rd at 8 a.m.
The topics of discussion will be the Baseball Contract Bids. Another will be on the final reading on Usage Policy for Police Cars.
And a personal favorite of mine will be the discussion about High Weed/Grass Ordinance with a possible 1 st reading to take place. If you want to have any public input on these topics you should attend this meeting.
Until next time,
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Paris Kentucky City Budget 2009/2010
I told you previously that City manager Nagy gave me a printed copy of the budget. Pages 4-24 is the GENERAL FUND, and pages25-38 is the COMBINED UTILITIES FUND. The following information was taken from the printed copy he gave me.
Here is General Fund Revenues Final Proposal 06/23/09
Taxes- 3,336,521.00
Licenses/Permits- 2,137,330.00
Miscellaneous- 146,866.00
Gov’t Agencies 34,085.00
Restricted Rev.- 372,428.75
G.F. Revenue total- 6,027,230.50
Here is General Fund Expenses Final Proposal 06/23/09
City Commission- 212,075.00
Asst City Mgr.- 376,650.00
City Clerk- 169,500.00
Police- 2,072,700.00
Fire- 1,721,288.00
Streets/DPW/Parks- 689,866.00
Engineer/Inspection- 327,935.00
City Mgr.- 458,955.00
G Admin- 114,000.00
EMS- 192,000.00
911/Dispatch- 120,000.00
Projects/Cap Bud/Debts- 92,372.00
Insurance- 650,000.00
Legal- 68,000.00
G F Expense total- 7,265,341.00
When you do the math that is 1,238,110.00 OVER BUDGET GENERAL FUND?
Here is Combined Utilities Fund Revenues Final Proposal 06/23/09
Electric/Power Prod-Distri- 4,223,000.00
Sanitation/Recycle- 917,560.00
Water- 1,331,926.00
Sewer- 1,716,740.00
Interest/Other- 185,000.00
Comb Utilities Revenue total- 8,374,226.00
Here is Combined Utilities Fund Expenses Final Proposal 06/23/09
Power Plant- 2,436,103.00
Electric Distribution- 797,820.00
Water- 1,045,145.00
Wastewater- 1,303,970.00
Sanitation/Recycling- 1,095,830.00
Special Projects Cap Bud/Debts- 352,108.00
Utilities Admin/Management- 1,343,250.00
Comb Utilities Expenses total- 8,374,226.00
On page 36 of the printed budget shows l,238,110.00 of the Combined Utilities Revenue being TRANSFERRED to the General Fund making up for the 1,238,110.00 OVER BUDGET GENERAL FUND listed for that fund.
The total City Budget 2009/2010 is 14,401,457.00
Here is the bad part about all the budget numbers I have stated above. These are only projected Revenues and Expenses for each of the funds that make up the total city budget.
In order to make sense of it you have to see the Actual Revenues and Actual Expenses. So far they have not shared that information, so how does the public know what is going on? The simple answer is you don’t. That is why you, the voter/taxpayer needs to get involved in these meetings more. Let City Officials know that you are concerned about our community.
Until next time,
Here is General Fund Revenues Final Proposal 06/23/09
Taxes- 3,336,521.00
Licenses/Permits- 2,137,330.00
Miscellaneous- 146,866.00
Gov’t Agencies 34,085.00
Restricted Rev.- 372,428.75
G.F. Revenue total- 6,027,230.50
Here is General Fund Expenses Final Proposal 06/23/09
City Commission- 212,075.00
Asst City Mgr.- 376,650.00
City Clerk- 169,500.00
Police- 2,072,700.00
Fire- 1,721,288.00
Streets/DPW/Parks- 689,866.00
Engineer/Inspection- 327,935.00
City Mgr.- 458,955.00
G Admin- 114,000.00
EMS- 192,000.00
911/Dispatch- 120,000.00
Projects/Cap Bud/Debts- 92,372.00
Insurance- 650,000.00
Legal- 68,000.00
G F Expense total- 7,265,341.00
When you do the math that is 1,238,110.00 OVER BUDGET GENERAL FUND?
Here is Combined Utilities Fund Revenues Final Proposal 06/23/09
Electric/Power Prod-Distri- 4,223,000.00
Sanitation/Recycle- 917,560.00
Water- 1,331,926.00
Sewer- 1,716,740.00
Interest/Other- 185,000.00
Comb Utilities Revenue total- 8,374,226.00
Here is Combined Utilities Fund Expenses Final Proposal 06/23/09
Power Plant- 2,436,103.00
Electric Distribution- 797,820.00
Water- 1,045,145.00
Wastewater- 1,303,970.00
Sanitation/Recycling- 1,095,830.00
Special Projects Cap Bud/Debts- 352,108.00
Utilities Admin/Management- 1,343,250.00
Comb Utilities Expenses total- 8,374,226.00
On page 36 of the printed budget shows l,238,110.00 of the Combined Utilities Revenue being TRANSFERRED to the General Fund making up for the 1,238,110.00 OVER BUDGET GENERAL FUND listed for that fund.
The total City Budget 2009/2010 is 14,401,457.00
Here is the bad part about all the budget numbers I have stated above. These are only projected Revenues and Expenses for each of the funds that make up the total city budget.
In order to make sense of it you have to see the Actual Revenues and Actual Expenses. So far they have not shared that information, so how does the public know what is going on? The simple answer is you don’t. That is why you, the voter/taxpayer needs to get involved in these meetings more. Let City Officials know that you are concerned about our community.
Until next time,
Friday, January 15, 2010
01/12/10 Commissioners Meeting
Let me start out by saying thanks for returning to my blog. I know it has been awhile since my last post. Just had a lot of other things going on and couldn’t find the extra time I guess. Anyway I did attend the last commissioners meeting.
The Police Cruiser home fleet was again a hot topic of discussion between city officials. Acting Police Chief Elkins presented to city officials for their approval a two page home policy requirement list. Each officer would be required to sign it before taking a cruiser home. One item of concerned from the commissioner was taking cruisers outside the city limits. It was stated that Georgetown allow officers to take cruisers home only if they live within the city limits, not in the county or beyond. Our city officials sounded a little divided during there discussions on this matter. It was decided the home fleet policy would undergo several changes and be decided upon at the next meeting.
Another item was to approve a project of extending the sidewalks. The new sidewalks would be from corner of Lexington road at the school, out Bethlehem Road to at least Castle Blvd-Bourbon Central School area. After some discussions why this area was chosen instead of other areas, all city officials voted yes to go ahead with the needed design work. The money will come from a grant of about 245,000.00 dollars.
Another item on the agenda was to authorize a letter to be sent and apply for a state money grant. The money would be used for renovating the old train depot on 10th street. The property then would be leased and turned into a Horse Museum Center. Approval was given by all city officials to send the letter.
Other items that City Mgr Nagy talked about was “the need to create a employee hand book/HR manual because the city does not have one”.
Another item stated by Mr Nagy “to create a city ordinance per statutes in Kentucky that has salary steps for various types of skilled positions. Then plug in those skilled positions with various steps of salaries. We do not have a document like that and it has just been slipping though the cracks. It is something I want to fix in conjunction with the HR manual.”
This one struck me as kinda funny. Because in my letter to the city about their website back in September of last year, one of the items I ask them to post was- All Salary Classifications of City Employees-with min/max salary range of each class.
Another item Mr Nagy discussed was the tall grass/weed ordinance. He stated “they were re-assigning money for code enforcement this year and they would be pro-active with code enforcement.” I don’t understand the need for more money, but I sure do agree they just need to do their JOB and enforce the ordinance like I ask them to do all spring/summer last year!
One good thing Mr. Nagy stated was “the budget was improving and all departments were working together and doing more with less.”
I told you in my last post about Mayor Thornton gave assistant city manager a deadline of Jan 8th to give me answers to all my questions of the past several months that city officials have just ignored. I did finally receive the letter in my mail on Jan 7th. I’ll discuss it’s contents at a later date.
Until next time,
The Police Cruiser home fleet was again a hot topic of discussion between city officials. Acting Police Chief Elkins presented to city officials for their approval a two page home policy requirement list. Each officer would be required to sign it before taking a cruiser home. One item of concerned from the commissioner was taking cruisers outside the city limits. It was stated that Georgetown allow officers to take cruisers home only if they live within the city limits, not in the county or beyond. Our city officials sounded a little divided during there discussions on this matter. It was decided the home fleet policy would undergo several changes and be decided upon at the next meeting.
Another item was to approve a project of extending the sidewalks. The new sidewalks would be from corner of Lexington road at the school, out Bethlehem Road to at least Castle Blvd-Bourbon Central School area. After some discussions why this area was chosen instead of other areas, all city officials voted yes to go ahead with the needed design work. The money will come from a grant of about 245,000.00 dollars.
Another item on the agenda was to authorize a letter to be sent and apply for a state money grant. The money would be used for renovating the old train depot on 10th street. The property then would be leased and turned into a Horse Museum Center. Approval was given by all city officials to send the letter.
Other items that City Mgr Nagy talked about was “the need to create a employee hand book/HR manual because the city does not have one”.
Another item stated by Mr Nagy “to create a city ordinance per statutes in Kentucky that has salary steps for various types of skilled positions. Then plug in those skilled positions with various steps of salaries. We do not have a document like that and it has just been slipping though the cracks. It is something I want to fix in conjunction with the HR manual.”
This one struck me as kinda funny. Because in my letter to the city about their website back in September of last year, one of the items I ask them to post was- All Salary Classifications of City Employees-with min/max salary range of each class.
Another item Mr Nagy discussed was the tall grass/weed ordinance. He stated “they were re-assigning money for code enforcement this year and they would be pro-active with code enforcement.” I don’t understand the need for more money, but I sure do agree they just need to do their JOB and enforce the ordinance like I ask them to do all spring/summer last year!
One good thing Mr. Nagy stated was “the budget was improving and all departments were working together and doing more with less.”
I told you in my last post about Mayor Thornton gave assistant city manager a deadline of Jan 8th to give me answers to all my questions of the past several months that city officials have just ignored. I did finally receive the letter in my mail on Jan 7th. I’ll discuss it’s contents at a later date.
Until next time,
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