Citizens of Paris Kentucky

5/16/2010

2010-05-16T20:55:00.001-04:00

To all the readers of this blog. I want to thank you for your encouragement and support you have shown me. I certainly found out through this blog that there is a silent majority out there that wants honesty, integrity, and transparency in government just like me. Not just in local government but at all levels in this great country of ours.

I have a family situation that is going to take priority over this blog. For those of you who known my family, you know why without me going into detail.

I will no longer be able to devote the time it takes to go to the commissioner meeting, etc and then write this blog. I expect that some, not all of the city officals will be delighted when they realize I am not attending the meetings anymore. This will be my last post for a long time.

I hope that all of you continue to speak out and perhaps even attend a commissioner meeting just to see what goes on. If you don’t speak out they will be deciding part of your future as a Citizen of Paris without any input from YOU !

Thanks
Still a concerned citizen
John Marshall

04/27/2010 Commissioners Meeting

2010-05-06T13:53:00.003-04:00

The first item on the agenda was a presentation on Paris website update from Mr. Dryden. He is the computer expert and webmaster for the City of Paris.

This was a pleasant surprise to me, since I did present a letter to City Officials back in September 2009 asking them to update their website. Here is a link to my letter if you want to read it http://pariskentucky.blogspot.com/2009/11/website-letter.html

Mr. Dryden was having difficulty with the computer he was using to show the new website design for http://www.paris.ky.gov/ to the commissioners so I didn’t get to see much of the new design.
What I really like is the fact that City Officials are actually going to add a lot of items I requested such as the Budget. For now the new website is still work in progress, but at least I know they are listening to the public now. I’ll write more on this as the city officials release the information.

Next item was Public Comment. The first to speak was Mrs Marcum about Blighted Property Ordinance. She ask the commission for an update. She stated that the house next door to her at 161 Woodmont Drive was in terrible shape. She wanted the city to enforce the ordinance. Apparently this has been going on for several years for her. City Officials assured her something will get done this time. I wish her GOOD LUCK with that answer from the city.

I spoke next on weed/grass ordinance and dirt bikes, 4-wheelers. I had to remind them again that as of the date of this meeting, no grass/weeds had been cut on vacant properties in our neighbor this season at all. The ordinance states 10inch height and most are already 20inch plus around my house. The city manager stated he had not sent a letter to the property owners about the new 10inch height in the ordinance. That letter was suppose to be sent at least 2 months ago.

Another example of excuses instead of action from City Manager Nagy. Mayor Thornton told Nagy to get the letters sent and send him a copy showing it was done. I told all city officials, they had their new ordinance, don’t give me excuses just enforce it! The mayor was visibly upset at the city manger for dragging his feet on this one.
The other problem that started this spring on the vacant lots around my house has been dirt bike and 4 wheeler riding. Captain Elkins of the Paris Police Department was going to help on this issue. The riding has slowed down now, and I did see Police Officers talking to the riders one evening after the commissioner meeting.

Next item on the agenda was new business. The City manager said that a lease agreement with P.A.W.S. had never been signed for the Dog Park on Ford Mill Rd. He stated the Dog Park is a success story for the city but the city attorney advised the lease needs to be signed. Details of the agreement have not yet been worked out it was stated. Apparently the city presently has a request to make a section of the park just for small dogs. It was stated nothing could be done about the request until a lease is signed. City Manager Nagy told the commission he would present the lease agreement for their approval when the details are worked out.

Another item under new business was the purchase of a Used 2007 Electric Distribution Work Truck. Mr. Nagy stated “that the electric department employees had looked the truck over already” He further stated ‘it nicely meets our needs as the old existing truck no longer does for the upkeep of electric wires, sub-stations and responding to calls.” Mr Nagy stated “the purchase price was 24,000. And he wanted to pay cash.” It was not stated if this was already in the budget or something that just came up? A vote was taken and all city commissioners and the mayor voted yes to purchase the truck.

Mr. Nagy also gave the commission an update on the two job position the city was advertising for. He stated “he had good responses for both positions.” He expected to interview in May and hopefully have the positions filled by June.

Until next time,

04/13/2010 Commissioners Meeting

2010-04-24T19:03:00.001-04:00

I apologize to my readers for not posting this sooner, but my wife has been seriously ill and she is my 1st. Priority.
I finally got a cd recording and listened to the commissioners meeting of 4/13/2010. The following is what went on. Commissioner Fryman was absent but all others were present. This was the last meeting for assistant city manager Matt Belcher, but it sounds like he is going to contract his services back to the City on an as needed basis?

Most of the meeting was centered around Cable TV Franchise for the City of Paris. The city wanted cable tv and high speed internet extended to the Business Park on Georgetown Road , Houston Oaks Subdivision, and any other areas within the city limits that wasn’t served now.

Time Warner representative Mrs. Deaton, gave a presentation to city officials explaining Time Warner position on these items. She noted the contract with the city expired December 31-2009. Mrs Deaton stated that roughly it would cost 60 to 70 thousand dollars to build cable to the business park. She explained that they would have to take a survey from the businesses in the area to see what their needs were first. If their needs didn’t meet Time Warners business model on [return on investment] they would not be able to provide service.

Next Mrs Deaton stated it would cost about 94 thousand dollars to build cable to the Houston Oaks area. Again she indicated if Houston Oaks needs didn’t meet Time Warners business model on [return on investment] they would not be able to provide service to this area either.

Mayor Thornton stated he didn’t look at it as just an investment in a geographic area of Paris, [talking about Time Warners return on investment model] but it should be an investment of the entire City of Paris. Mayor Thornton stated “he thought it was very crucial that services were provided to these areas.”

Commissioner Horne said he disagreed with Time Warners business philosophy. “He said he wanted to see aggressive action taken toward our community”.

It was also stated that channel 6 is the Community Channel that all of Paris could use. It was suggested that commission meetings, court session, high school ball games, all could be filmed and then shown on tv. The big kicker there would be getting enough people in the community involved to do it.

Next item was Communications. The Mayor and City Commissioners gave the ok to advertise two new jobs for the City of Paris. One position is for a Chief Finance/Utilities Official. The other is for a Human Resources Insurance Generalist. If you are looking for work, this might be one of those good jobs that our tax dollars pay for.

Next on the consent agenda the Little League baseball Parade is slated for May 8th.

Next item was the Landfill Contract Extension with Central Ky Landfill. City Manager Nagy stated ‘that the language had finally arrived at a satisfactory set of terms for the City and Central Ky to extend the contract for another year.” He stated that “Central Ky Landfill would provide the city with some additional containers with no extra cost to the City.” The Mayor and City Commissioners all voted yes to extend the contract for one year.

This meeting was rather short compared to others in the past. It was only one hour long? Maybe because I wasn’t their to ask questions? JUST KIDDING!
I was hoping this new weed/grass ordinance would help the situation around my house, but the weeds and grass are taller than the 10 inch maximum height stated in the ordinance at the writing of this post. I recall the mayor telling code enforcement people to make sure this gets enforced this year.

I didn’t want to fight with it this year again, but it better get mowed soon or else I will be on the door steps of City Hall asking why not.

Until next time,

Missed Commisioner Meeting

2010-04-18T17:03:00.000-04:00

I know it has been awhile since my last post for those of you that read my blog. I had every intention of attending the 4/13/10 commissioner meeting but family sickness prevented it. My wife was in the hospital again.
I am going to request a recording of the meeting from the City Clerk. After reviewing it, I will make a post on my blog about the commissioner meeting.

Until next time,

03/23/2010 Commissioner Meeting

2010-03-26T14:32:00.003-04:00

Tennis Courts at Garrard Park were on the public comment today. Mr. Earlywine, a school teacher at Paris City Schools spoke to city officials about doing some needed repair work to 4 of the tennis courts. He stated both Paris and Bourbon County Schools use the courts for their respective tennis teams.
He came to the meeting with a prepared list of items that needed repair. Mr. Earlywine also stated that members of each team along with himself and other volunteers were prepared to supply Free Labor to the project if the city would help. Mr Earlywine had estimated the material for the needed repairs would cost about $4,000.00
Mayor Thornton told him that this was a pretty good gesture on the schools part to help out and he didn’t have a problem as long as there was money in the budget to help. City Manager Nagy replied he had money in the budget.
Mr Earlywine thanked them very much for their support. Mr. Earlywine stated they wanted to do the work during Spring Break in order to get it done for Tennis Season.

I was very pleased to hear about how our young people and adults were willing to volunteer there time to work on this project. I am sure all the people who enjoy playing tennis in Paris will greatly benefit from this.

Another item was communications. City Manager Nagy stated “that Assistant City Manager Matt Belcher plans for the future was that he is leaving the city at the middle of next month.”

It looks like to me this will leave yet another job opening the city will need to fill? But not so fast here John, later on in the meeting they started discussing the Finance Director position from past meetings they wanted to hire.
It seems now that City Manager Nagy’s recommendation is to do away with the Assistant City Manager position and replace it with a position titled- Finance/Billing Director. He also wants to hire a support person in addition to deal with H.R. issues and insurance issues.
The discussions that followed between city officials drummed up yet more disagreement between them in what to do? This time the mayor and 4 commissioners voted NO on Mr Nagys recommendation. They then decided to create yet another title-CFO/Utility Director and decided to advertise for this position!. The mayor and 4 commissioners all voted YES on this one.

I will add a comment about this position. Just like one of the many readers of this blog pointed out to me. We already pay the City Manager a Very Very High Salary. Shouldn’t this be part of his job already? Does he not have the financial background to keep the City of Paris Financials in proper order?

Another item was the 2nd reading of the weed/grass ordinance. In one of my previous post, I noted they tabled the issue until the City Attorney could review my recommendations. In this meeting the City Attorney stated, “I had some time to look at it, I don’t think we need to make those references.” There was some further discussing and then the mayor and all commissioners voted YES for the ordinance as the city attorney presented it.

Oh well I tried, Guess I will wait and see now if they ENFORCE the ordinance or I put up with 3 to 5 foot weeds again all summer.

One other item was the Fire Chief position. City Manager noted that Andy Roe has been the Interim Fire Chief now for several weeks since the retirement of the previous Fire Chief. He noted Mr Roe has dealt with the job very satisfactory and he recommended they install Mr Roe as the New Fire Chief. A vote was taken and all city officials voted YES for Mr Roe to become Fire Chief.

Until next time,

New Business on the agenda

2010-03-10T18:13:00.003-05:00

More 3/09/2010meeting
City Manager Nagy brought to the meeting his recommendation to begin the recruitment of a Deputy Clerk/Accountant. He stated, “this position is clearly needed to bolster the financial department and help other departments”.

Who would have thought this could cause such a misunderstanding or mis-interpretation with our city officials. What I am talking about is what the auditors from Ray, Foley, and Hensley told city officials when they presented the Financial statements to the City of Paris about a month back.

The auditors discussed items of concern to them. The auditor told city officials, “The City lacks experience in applying generally accepted accounting principles to transactions recorded throughout the year and determining appropriate financial statement disclosures” They said appropriate experience should be sought and recommended the City consider the feasibility of the addition of a Financial Officer.

Here is the interpretations of “Financial Officer” of City Officials.

Now back to City Manager Nagy interpretation it must be this Deputy Clerk/Accountant?

Commissioner Galbraith thought this person should have at least a Bachelor Degree in accounting not just an associate degree as Nagy had suggested. Galbraith thought this person should be on the same level as the present city clerk.

Commissioner Fryman said, “he thought this new person was an assistant for the city clerk and would be reporting to the present city clerk”.

Mayor Thornton stated, “he thought they were trying to hire a CPA, the top of the pyramid that the whole accounting department would answer to. This person would be the one to answer any financial questions that any department might have like a chief financial officer of any business.”

Commissioner Horne agreed with Mayor Thornton while Commissioner Brooks did not express an opinion. The city officials continued for quite sometime back and forth describing what they thought the duties of this new person should be.
It was finally decided that a Deputy Clerk/Accountant was not the position they needed.
Mayor Thornton and all commissioner voted no against city manager Nagys recommendation. They then decided to do much like Mayor Thornton idea. They would create a new position of Finance Director and then hire that person.

I will have to agree with Mayor Thornton on this. I was at the meeting when the auditors made their recommendation. To me they clearly meant the City of Paris needed to hire a CPA type person to take charge of the Cities Finances, not just a Deputy Clerk/Accountant.

Until next time,

03/09/2010 Commissioners Meeting

2010-03-10T12:19:00.003-05:00

One item on the agenda was a federal grant for the fire department which has been discussed in several previous meetings. This grant provided money and obligated the city to increase the total of employees at the fire department to 35. This was about 3 years ago when the economy was thriving. Since then the economy slowed and bottom line no extra employees were hired. Today it was stated there are 27 full time employees and several part time.
In this meeting City Manager Nagy recommended that the city cancel the grant. Mr Nagy stated, “it is not feasible or economical to do now” He also stated, “we are on the hook to refund the federal government around $75,000.”

Mr Nagy further stated, “they were down to 27 employees because of retirement and resignation they needed to hire 3 right away to get back to 30 employees. Then he stated, don’t consider going over 30 without additional grant activity to help us.”

After discussing the matter, the mayor and city commissioners all voted to cancel the grant and repay the $75,000.

Even though the city had to repay the money, it was sound fiscal policy to do at this time to me.

Another item was the 2nd reading of the weed ordinance. Of course, you know I had sign the public comment sheet on this one to speak up because this is what started my attending all these meetings in the first place.

After the ordinance was read by the city attorney, I was allowed to join into the conversation by Mayor Thornton. They actually listened and I think agreed with most that I said. We all had what I would consider a good open discussion on the issues and was not a shouting match. After our discussion at least they all voted to table the ordinance until next meeting instead of voting on it right now. That would give the city attorney time to consider my recommendations and hopefully re-write them into the new ordinance. I guess we will find out in the next meeting.

It sounds like a petty issue in one way, but my family and me have lived the past two summers with weeds and grass 3ft to 5ft tall constantly surrounding our house in the City of Paris. They are vacant lots for sale but the property owners refuse to keep the properties mowed liked the city ordinance states. And to compound the problem the city was dragging their feet all last summer to enforce the ordinance.

Next time I will continue with more on this meeting

Until next time,

More 02/23/2010 Meeting

2010-03-03T12:23:00.003-05:00

Another really interesting item was to approve a contract agreement with C.D.P Engineering to design a telemetry system for water, sewer, and electric for the City of Paris. They never stated out loud how much money the contract was for and I wasn’t told the amount.

For those of you who may not known what telemetry means in this case, here is a brief definition: Highly automated communications process by which data is collected from instruments located at remote or inaccessible points. Then it is transmitted to centrally located receiving equipment for measurement, monitoring, display, and recording. Transmission of the information may be over wires, or more commonly by radio.
Assistant City manager Matt Belcher told the commissioners “the system would be used to monitor and control pump stations, lift stations, over head storage tanks, and electric sub-stations.” Assistant City Manager Belcher also stated “money was in the current budget from each of 3 departments water, sewer, and electric of $ 40,000 each.”

That is a total of $ 120.000.00 I went through the copy of the budget the city manager gave me a few weeks back page by page. I could only find two line items on page 29 account number 506-telemetry for $ 35,000 and another on page 31 account number 575 for $ 40,000 These two items only total $75,000 ?? This telemetry system sounds like something useful, but were is the rest of the money coming from?

Commissioner Galbraith asked “In going forward with this project what could the city expect to save in terms of money.” The conversations that followed this question never gave any straight forward answers in terms of money, only what if scenarios with no exact savings.
Commissioner Galbraith stated “The whole scope of the project cost was unclear but a number that was tossed out was around $ 400,000"

Commissioner Horne stated “he agreed with Fryman that the proposal was kinda like pie in the sky with a lot of options with no estimates of on going expenses”.

City manager Nagy told the commissioners that he and assistant manger Belcher would get more details and bring the proposal back another time.

I certainly hope they get their costs lined out before starting a project of this magnitude of spending our tax dollars. That $400,000 could turn out to be double or even more if careful planning is not done.

Another item Mr. Nagy presented was three employees acted as interim department heads and were paid hourly during there service. Mike Withrow- code enforcement salary was adjusted to
$ 22.30 an hour. Mr. Rick Elkin was acting Police Chief, his salary was adjusted to $ 24.50 hour. Mr. Andy Roe is acting Fire Chief, and his salary was adjusted to $ 25.30 hour.

Sounds like working for the City of Paris pays a lot better than most other jobs around here.

Another item was financial business. Commissioner Fryman raised the question of “How is it that the estimated income was showing $ 6,405,000 and the expenditures showed $ 7,447,000. He stated “he knew they didn’t pass a budget that the expenditures exceeded the income by over a million dollars.” After further discussion the city clerk nor City Manager Nagy had an immediate answer for Fryman. Even though this error could not be explained during the meeting, all commissioners and the mayor voted yes to approve the financial as presented?

Sounds like we really do need a financial officer with the required background to keep track of things like the auditors suggested!

Until next time,

02/23/2010 Commissioners Meeting

2010-02-27T20:17:00.000-05:00

This was another 2 hour meeting and I actually got there a couple minutes early!

First item on the agenda was a Proclamation for American Red Cross. Mayor Thornton presented a Plaque to the local Red Cross Volunteers for their tireless efforts of helping families in need. The Mayor declared the month of March, American Red Cross Month.

Another item of interest was new playground equipment for two of our city parks. Rucker Village and Chief Reed Park will be getting new playground equipment at a cost of $19,000. This cost would also include a swing for Garrard Park which is handicap accessible .
It was noted there wasn’t enough money in the budget to also have a handicap swing included with the equipment being installed at RuckerVillage and Chief Reed Park.

Mayor Thornton asked "how much extra was needed to include a handicap swing?" It was stated each of the 2 swings would cost an extra $ 500.00 each. The lady who was presenting the information to city officials stated that Mayor Thornton last year donated his personal money for a handicap swing at Claysville Park.

Mayor Thornton then stated, "he would donate his personal money for 1 swing this year also."
Commissioner Fryman then stated "the other swing money could be donated by the 4 city commissioners."

I want to thank Mayor Thornton and the Commissioners for donating this money for our kids. THANKS!

Another item was to advertise a bid package for the Cable TV Franchise in Paris. It was noted it’s been 10 years since it was last bid. It was stated there are several areas within the city limits that still have no cable service. This time it will be part of the bid package to extend coverage into these areas. It was noted they also wanted a local access channel so schools and civic organization could have access to broadcast events if they wanted. This local channel could even be used to show commissioner meetings. I am sure for that!!

Next time I will continue with more on this meeting.

Until next time,

Bourbon County Regional Jail Ordinance

2010-02-13T20:02:00.002-05:00

I decided to attend the Bourbon County Fiscal Court meeting this past Thursday night 2/11/2010. They were going to have a Second Reading of the Regional Jail Ordinance. The Regional Jail concept has Bourbon County entering into an agreement with neighboring Nicholas County. There was a lot of interest and the court room was full.

I wanted to hear both sides on this issue because I pay taxes in Bourbon County too. The jail and it’s problems seems to make the news more often than not. Several people signed the public comment sheet to speak including myself.

One of the biggest concern to Bourbon County tax payers should be that Nicholas County will have two voting members on a regional board that will hire an administer to run the jail instead of the elected jailer.

To me this is a problem because the jail will still be funded 100% by Bourbon County Tax Dollars yet Nicholas County has a vote on how Bourbon County taxes are spent?? I have a huge problem with that. If Nicholas County is going to have a say, bring some Nicholas County tax dollars to the bargaining table.

Another problem with this idea is that no one really knows the cost on this, they only think it will be better. To me the Bourbon Fiscal court members should have asked for an independent study and get the facts on regional versus local county jails.

When questioned at this meeting fiscal court members agreed they needed more information but went ahead and voted 6-2 in favor of the regional jail. Magistrates Overly, Hay, Foley, Dawson, Offutt, and Smoot voted in favor of the ordinance. Magistrate McCarty and Judge Foley voted no.

I will say that Judge Foley ask all the magistrates before they voted, did they want to postpone the vote until they could provide the public with more information. They declined, went ahead and voted . After the vote Judge Foley said they would be working up an agreement with Nicholas County within the next 30 to 60 days. Judge Foley indicated the agreement would be shared with the public. He also said the regional jail would start at the beginning of 2011.

I was told that now it takes about $ 1,000,000.00 of our tax dollars a year to run the jail. The worst part of all this is, both sides agree running a jail whether it is local or regional loses tax payer dollars. Tax payers of Paris/Bourbon County our Fiscal Court Magistrates owe it to all of us to provide information showing were our tax dollars are going. Again, I urge more of you to speak up, the era of fiscal responsibility is here.

Until next time,

02/09/2010 Commissioners Meeting

2010-02-10T19:42:00.003-05:00

Again I was about ten minutes late for this 9 a.m. meeting. It seems no matter what I do this morning meeting instead of evening doesn't work for me. When I arrived there were two gentlemen talking to city officials. As I listened I realized they were talking about the City of Paris Financial Statements fiscal year 2009 which started 7/1/2008 ended 6/30/2009. This time frame was only a partial 1st year in office for our present city officials.
The following is a brief summary of the auditors- Ray, Foley, Hensley & Company.PLLC.
The auditor started out with their Findings Related To Financial Statements conditions. They discussed three items of concern to them.

Item 1. Auditors stated Condition was- . Bank reconciliations are not being performed timely or reviewed by the appropriate level of management.
Auditors stated Criteria was- Internal controls should be in place that provide reasonable assurance that bank reconciliations are prepared in a timely manner and reviewed by the appropriate level of management.
Auditors stated Cause was- There are no policies and procedures to require timely preparation and review of bank reconciliations.
Auditors stated Effect was- Errors and irregularities may not be identified on a timely basis.
Auditors recommendation was- Bank reconciliations should be prepared monthly and reviewed by the appropriate level of management.

Item 2 Auditors stated Condition was- The City lacks experience in applying generally accepted accounting principles to transactions recorded throughout the year and aid in selecting appropriate financial statement disclosures.
Auditors stated Criteria was- Appropriate experience should be sought to more effectively apply generally accepted accounting principles to transactions recorded throughout the year and aid in selecting appropriate financial statement disclosures.
Auditors stated Cause was- The City’s growth necessitates additional expertise in this area.
Auditors stated Effect was- This results in a number of year end adjustments to bring records in-line with generally accepted accounting principles. Also additional assistance is required to produce the statements.
Auditors stated Recommendation was- We recommend management consider the feasibility of the addition of a financial officer with the required background or retain additional consultants to aid the city with the necessary help.

The City of Paris stated Response to item 1. & item 2. was- The City is currently considering reallocating and / or adding resources to more effectively monitor and oversee the financial reporting process. This should also serve to strengthen year end closing procedures.

Sounds like to me, there might be a job opening with the city if you have a financial background.

Item 3 Findings and questioned Costs for Federal Awards-Assistance to Firefighters Grant.
Auditors stated Condition was- The city did not file required reports timely for the Assitance to Firefighters Grant.
Auditors stated Criteria was- Internal controls should be put in place to assure timely filing of required reports.
Auditors stated Cause was- No procedures were in place to monitor compliance with reporting requirements.
Auditors stated Effect was- Grantor may delay further funding or request reimbursement.
Auditors stated Recommendation was- We recommend management design control policies and procedures which aid monitoring all aspects of grants with emphasis on compliance and reporting requirements.

The City of Paris stated Response to this was- The city was in a period of transition. During the transition, reporting requirements were not met due to employee turnover. At present, responsibility for monitoring grants has been consolidated under the assistant city manager. Ongoing assessment is being conducted by the office of the City Manager.

The auditors noted to the city officials they should have been called earlier so they could be presenting the audit to them much sooner. The auditor stated “ We should have presented this in Oct-Nov time frame instead of February.” He noted more than half of fiscal year 2010 is already over and that doesn’t give the city enough time.

Commissioner Galbraith agreed they needed a financial system in place to remedy the present problems. He also said, “that it was city officials responsibility to not have repeat offenses year after year, because that meant we aren’t doing our job.”

I want to again thank the mayor. He had an extra copy of the City of Paris Financial Statements audit. He got up and came to where I was setting and gave the copy to me so I could follow along as the auditors explained the financial statements.

Over all the auditors stated that the turn around from fiscal year 2008 was very good. He felt this group of city officials did a good job of fiscal responsibility.

Mayor Thornton asked the auditors could they give city officials an idea how they measured up to other cities that they audited. The mayor asked are we average, below average, or above average?

The auditor replied he would give them a grade point B just a little above the middle of the pack.

I was pleased to hear what the auditors said, it makes me think they must be doing some things right. Now lets hope the present fiscal year of 2010 which ends June 30th will show an even better job of fiscal responsibility by our city officials.

Until next time,

02/03/2010 Special Meeting

2010-02-04T14:01:00.003-05:00

Special Meeting of City Officials

This was an early 8 a.m. meeting. It really played havoc on my normal morning routine to get to this meeting. I especially wanted to hear the discussion on the weed/grass ordinance proposal.

Here were the 3 items on the agenda, Little League Baseball Program Bids, Take Home Fleet Policy, and weed/grass ordinance.

The Little League Baseball program had 2 bids for the council to consider. Commissioner Brooks excused himself from voting because one of the bids was from a family member of his. It was stated that the bids were very close and after a short discussion the contract was awarded to Mr. Rodney Roe. The Mayor, Commissioner Fryman, and Horn voted yes. Commissioner Galbraith voted no.

Another item was the Police cruiser, Take Home Fleet Policy. This policy describes the do’s and don’ts to the police officers of Paris. Each officer will have to sign the policy in order to participate. At first there was slight confusion among the council about the contents of the policy.
They then decided because Chief Sutton had just been hired to go ahead with what was presented so all voted yes for the new policy. It was stated, come budget time this issue would be re-opened again.

The next item drug-out for over an hour discussing the high weed/grass ordinance. After sitting and listening to there discussions it became very apparent to me they hadn’t read the present ordinance. The questions they were asking each other about adding in the ordinance were already in the old ordinance. Here are some examples of things they wanted to add in the ordinance, send a letter to property owner, post a notice on the property, put the property owners name in the paper, etc.

They knew ahead of time this was going to be discussed in this special meeting, why didn’t each one of them take the time to know what was in the old ordinance before coming to a meeting to make changes in it??
One good thing they decided to add was a specific height because the old ordinance just said a reasonable height and that leaves it to an individual discretion.

I will say that the mayor was very vocal about saying, “ the city was very slow about responding to issues and this needed addressed as an internal issue.”

I also thank the mayor for allowing me to speak when I held my hand up. He allowed me to enter my thoughts about the city just enforcing the ordinance instead of letting it drag on the whole mowing season.

Until next time,

Paris-Bourbon County Elections 2010

2010-01-29T19:45:00.002-05:00

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,

01/26/10 Commissioners Meeting

2010-01-28T08:35:00.002-05:00

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,

Paris Kentucky City Budget 2009/2010

2010-01-19T15:03:00.003-05:00

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,

01/12/10 Commissioners Meeting

2010-01-15T16:09:00.002-05:00

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,

More12/22/09 Meeting

2009-12-28T17:21:00.002-05:00

Different police cruiser issues just kept coming up in this meeting. Next item on the agenda was to surplus 3 old police vehicles. With little discussion city officials all voted yes to surplus them.

Next issue believe it or not was the purchase of 4 new police cruisers. Commissioner Galbraith expressed concern about purchasing Ford Crown Victoria which apparently are being phased out by the manufacturer. Police dept. spokesman replied that it saved two thousand dollars per vehicle because special equipment such a cages , brackets etc would be a direct change out with no extra cost just on these 4 police cruisers. Commissioner Fryman replied, “won’t you still have the extra cost in the future on all police vehicles?” The reply was “yes sir, we will.”
Mayor Thornton said, “why are we buying 4 new cars when we don’t know yet what we are going to do with home fleet?”
Mayor Thornton, Commissioner Galbraith and Horn voted “no”.
Commissioner Brooks and Fryman voted “yes”

Next issue was paying the monthly bills. Commissioner Galbraith questioned overtime in Police Dept. For the month it was stated there was 52% overtime. Part of it was explained by having 3 officers in school.

Another budget issue was with the Fire Department. Commissioner Galbraith questioned “why the retirement match was running at 67.7% when other departments were running about 35%?” The stated answer was this was under estimated during the budget process.

Again my fellow tax paying citizens, Where is all the money going?

Next issue was City of Paris Little League Program. There was discussion about getting the contract bid early mid-Jan in order to get an early start for Spring sign-ups. All agreed they would get it done by Jan 12th

Big Surprises happens to me toward the close of the meeting. 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. He then turned and ask me was that ok.
Yeaaaahhh!! Finally they are acknowledging the public request.

Then City Manager Nagy looks at me and says, “Mr. Marshall I have a copy of the budget for you, and he then stated he had a copy of the budget on the hallway wall outside his office for all to see.”

It has taken several months of my persistence, but this is a small victory to get city officials to realize the public really does want to know what is going on in our local government.

Until next time,

12/22/2009 Commissioners Meeting

2009-12-23T22:41:00.003-05:00

This meeting was about 2 hours 45 minutes long. There again was a lot of discussion it seemed about possible budget short falls in several topics that were discussed.

One of the first items on the agenda was to approve a lease/purchase agreement for a 2010 Ford F-150 truck. It seemed as they read through the “lease agreement language it really didn’t specifically mention the truck the city was to lease/purchase” commissioner Galbraith stated. The City Attorney questioned some tax language in the agreement. After a short discussion city officials decided to postpone the lease/purchase of the truck

Next on the agenda was the approval of a Holiday Gift Card for all city employees. Commissioner Fryman question why a gift card instead of just money. Fryman stated “a gift card limited how each employee could spend it” He pointed out with money they had a better choice as to what they would use it for. All city officials voted yes to give cash instead of a gift card. It was stated that the city had 120 full time employees, each to receive $100.00 cash. It was also stated city had 30 part-time employees, each to receive $50.00 cash.

Next all city officials voted yes to promote city employee Mr. Sexton to Electric Superintendent. It was stated his hourly wage would be 27.50 per hour.

Next item was a hot issue on the agenda. It was about Paris Police Officers taking police cruisers home with them when they are off duty. This is were things began to heat up because of the budget information provided to the commissioners and mayor by the city manager and acting police chief.

Commissioner Galbraith stated “they presented a lot of information in the reports, but no where does he see the same number twice. There needs to be hard numbers to be able to make a decision one way or the other he stated.”

Commissioner Horn expressed concern there was no inventory system in place to track police vehicles the city owned.

Commissioner Fryman stated “he felt there was mis-management going on in the police dept”.

Mayor Thornton was critical about several things in the report. He pointed out he was told they were paying insurance on 44 vehicles instead of 33 stated in report. He stated the number of vehicles keeps changing for home fleet from 6 then 11 and now 14? What is going on? The mayor also pointed out that since 2005 until now the Police Dept budget has double from about $1,000,000 in 2005 and it is over $2,000,000.00 now. The mayor stated “were is the money going.” The mayor stated “how can we tell the people of Paris that gross revenues have gone down 9% but the Police Budget increased 72% ??

I should point out that about 4 citizens were allowed to make public comment on the Home-fleet issue. All who spoke were in favor of the police officers taking the cruisers home with them
A motion was voted on to keep the home fleet for about 3 more months until more research on the matter can be done and presented again to the city officials. The vote was 4 to 1 to keep the home fleet for now. Mayor Thornton was the lone no vote.

Several others issue were discussed related to the budget that I will comment on in my next post very soon.

Until next time,.

Taxpayer Transparency Act 2010

2009-12-18T15:07:00.009-05:00

This is what my September 2009 website letter to Paris City Officials was all about. http://pariskentucky.blogspot.com/2009/11/website-letter.html Transparency in our local government. Now it's time for some of you to voice your support of my website letter to Paris City Officials. Let them know you want to see were your money is being spent!!! Tell your friends, get them involved too.

Now it is happening at state level-Taxpayer Transparency Act 2010
It is great to see that we have State Representives and State Senators that believe our Kentucky State Government should have transparency too!
State Senator Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, and State Representive Jim DeCesare, R-Rockfield, announce prefiled legislation (BR 290 and BR 128) on Dec. 15, 2009, in Room 327 at the state Capitol that would require online posting of all state government expenses in a searchable database.
This is a "Must See" press conference video for you to see and hear on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/user/FreedomKentucky#p/a/u/2/uhmXqYjJ4YE

“I think this is an issue whose time has come,” State Senator Thayer said. “I think this bill can restore some trust and confidence in state government.” link to senate bill 290 http://www.lrc.ky.gov/record/10RS/SB40.htm

“We feel it’s important for the citizens of Kentucky to see where every dime of their tax dollars is going,” State Representive DeCesare said. “It can be done though an executive order, but we feel this needs to be mandated by law, so it can never go away.” link to house bill128 http://www.lrc.ky.gov/record/10RS/HB128.htm

We need to e-mail and make sure that our State Representive Sannie Overly e-mail sannie.overly@lrc.ky.gov and State Senator R.J. Palmer II e-mail http://www.lrc.ky.gov/Mailform/S028.htm vote yes on these bills so it will become law!
It is sad to say, but to much corrupt spending at all levels of government is going on in this country. YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE, BUT YOU HAVE TO SPEAK OUT TO BE HEARD.

Until next time,

Please Don't Drink and Drive this Holiday Season

2009-12-14T16:52:00.002-05:00

The alarming stats below comes from our Kentucky state govt website. If you see a person operating a vehicle while impaired, please call your local law enforcement agency or the Kentucky State Police at 1-800-222-5555.
In Kentucky last year there were more than 5,000 alcohol-related crashes, resulting in 2,754 injuries and 160 deaths. Twenty fatalities - eight involving alcohol - occurred during the Christmas and New Year's holidays.
Read this entire article at http://migration.kentucky.gov/newsroom/kytc/2009+OLUA.htm

Don't let someone you care about Drink and Drive!!

12/08/2009 Commissioners Meeting

2009-12-09T18:33:00.003-05:00

Let me start by saying this 9 a.m. schedule for a meeting isn’t working to well for me. I was late again getting to the meeting because my morning schedule conflicts with it. The meeting was still going at 10:45 a.m. when I had to leave because of another commitment.
They just started discussing the flood plain ordinance when I arrived. It sounded like the mayor and commissioners were all sensitive to the idea that our city has enough problems with floods without adding anything to the ordinance that might create the possibility of more flooding.

There was a lady at the meeting who spoke out against the language in the ordinance that is being drafted. She made some very good points. I’m sorry for not remembering her name, but it was apparent she had researched the matter very throughly and knew what she was talking about. She raised a very valid point saying the language in the new ordinance seemed to imply ways to build in the flood plain fringe instead of just saying No Building In the Fringe period!

I must say she and another lady both were very convincing. The mayor ask that the two men from the company that is working for the city to draft the new language have a separate meeting with the two ladies. Hopefully this will happen and the new language will be clear and say “No Building and No Exception. That way a room full of lawyers can’t pick it to death and find a loophole for someone to build in the flood fringe. There is plenty of land for future expansion of our community outside the flood fringe area it was stated.

The next issue was deciding on who the city was going to use for city employees health benefits for 2010. There was several city employees attending the meeting to hear what was going on.
It seems several companies were asked to bid on a health benefit package, but the city only got two responses. Again this was a lengthy presentation to city officials on the proposed options for city employees.

After hearing all options open to them at this time, city officials decided to stay with the same company temporally for the first six months of 2010. During that time they will explore other options. Bottom line insurance premiums were going to be about 9 ½% higher next year. It was decided that employees would be response able for 50% of the increase and the city the other 50%.

I have no idea what other issues were discussed because the above two items consumed all the time I was present at the meeting.
I still am waiting for answers from city officials on my questions dated 8/25/2009 about the ABC administrator issues? Mayor Thronton acknowledge this at the 11/24/2009 meeting but they are still dragging it out for unknown reasons!
I still want city officials to address items I suggested in my letter to them about putting city financials on their website. I will continue asking questions and sooner or later they will have to answer them.......

Until next time,

City of Paris Budget?

2009-12-05T22:01:00.000-05:00

I seem to re-call a newspaper article back in May/June time frame about a potential short fall in the 2009/2010 Budget. Since then very little has been said about it. It would be nice to know if our City of Paris budget is ok? Are they running in the black, balanced, or in the red? Who Knows?

As you know I requested City of Paris to post the financial information on their website this past September. This was just one of several items in my “Website Letter to City Officials.”

I noted to you in my post of 11/19/09 they did finally post the minutes of the commissioners meetings on the web. If you take time to read through the minutes they have a little financial information listed. They have Bills for Approval to the General Fund and Utility Fund.

One thing I see they are constantly doing is taken money from the Utility Fund and putting it in the General Fund. Some times they call it an advance other times it’s called an Allocation? Either way this looks a little fuzzy? Why are they doing this? I thought each fund was independent of the other?

Obviously this is just an observation from me, I certainly am not indicating wrong doing. I only am a concerned citizen wanting to see our tax dollars are being spent in the best interest for all.

Until next time,

Election Year 2010

2009-12-01T11:22:00.000-05:00

This coming 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!

I realize it is the Holiday Season and Christmas is just around the corner. It is not to early to be thinking about your future for the next couple of years. Enjoy the Holidays but think about issues that concern you and plan on casting YOUR VOTE.

Until next time,

Another Item from 11/24 Meeting

2009-11-27T16:33:00.001-05:00

I overlooked an important item in my last post. The city commissioners are about ready to draft a new ordinance about the 100 year Flood Plain for our city. This pertains to all the property that is subject to be flooded during heavy rain storms, etc.
Those of you who have an interest of making a public comment about this matter may want to attend the next city commissioners meeting Dec. 8th at 9:00 a.m. They had a presentation from a couple of men that I guess are working on this for the city. It sounded like they would have it ready for the city commission by there next meeting.

Until next time,

11/24/2009 Commissioners Meeting

2009-11-26T00:35:00.002-05:00

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,

A brief comment about todays meeting

2009-11-24T23:53:00.002-05:00

Just a few lines today to let everyone know I did go to the city commission meeting today.
It was extremely long meeting “3 hr” this morning. They covered a lot of interesting issues today that I will comment about next time.
The Police Canine Dog issue was settled today. The vote was 5 yes to allow the dog to be given to the Bourbon County Sheriffs Dept. It turns out that the Paris Police officer that handled the dog, no longer works for the Paris Police. He is now employed with the Bourbon County Sheriff.

I decided to conduct a straw poll and get you to vote on city officials job performance?

Until next time,

Some Praise For Our City Officials

2009-11-19T11:20:00.006-05:00

It’s be awhile since I posted my last comments about our local city officials. I was giving you the Citizens of Paris time to read my blog and give me your feedback. I must say that I am very encouraged by the amount of people visiting my blog.

A few of you have made positive comments on the blog for all to see. A larger group of you sent me e-mails of support with a lot of very good feedback.
As I stated on my blog, I will not publish e-mails for all to see unless you specifically ask me to in your e-mail. I am encouraged to keep this blog going and hopefully our city officials will allow the public a lot more information about what our local government is doing. We deserve full transparency from our City of Paris Officials.

I DO NOT WANT TO KEEP UP THIS NEGATIVE ATTITUDE THAT HAS DEVELOPED BETWEEN MYSELF AND CITY OFFICIALS.
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.

Just like the title line of this blog says: Give city officials praise when they deserve it, but don't be afraid to speak out when you think they are wrong.
I am now going to give them some praise because they have done a couple of the items I ask them to consider in my "Website Letter to City of Paris".
On their website the Commissioners Tab: They have finally posted the Minutes of the regular Commissioners meetings and Special Meetings!
I want to take this opportunity to thank them and ask that they continue posting more of the items I requested in my letter to them for all to see.

Until the next time, THANKS FOR YOUR ENCOURAGEMENT

John Marshall

11/10/09 Commissioners Meeting

2009-11-10T17:08:00.006-05:00

Tuesday Nov. 10th I attended the 9:00 a.m. city commissioners meeting. I will have to admit city officials have made it hard on me to attend this early morning meeting. I was again a few minutes late because my morning routines are more important to me than these meetings.

I am a Grandfather who has 6 wonderful grandchildren. Like a lot of other grandparents these days I have 3 of my grandchildren ages 5, 6, 17, and their mother my daughter who live with my wife and me. Our daughter works in Lexington, so I help with the 5 and 6 year olds every morning getting them ready for school and help get them on the school bus each morning.
After that my attention turns to my wife. My wife has serious health problems. She can’t walk and is in a wheelchair. I have a lift that I use to get her up and about. By the time I do everything for her to get our day started, it’s a pretty good rush to get to the meeting on time.

I will tell you when Commissioner Fryman seen me come into the room, he interrupted the conversation that was going on to recognize me and ask:" Did I have any public comments to make". I told him no thanks. I really do appreciate the fact Mr. Fryman gave me that courtesy.

The reason I was there this time was just to hear what was going on in our local government. That way I could express my opinion about the meeting agenda on this blog.
I found two different topics of discussing rather amusing that our city officials were having among themselves.

1. One item on their agenda that came up was for them to approve the surplus of Police Department Canine Dog. I must say I wasn’t aware that Paris Police Department no longer had their Canine Dog Unit, it doesn’t seem that long ago that we finally got one and now we don’t.
So my comments are only about how they were handling the subjects.
They actually voted on to surplus the dog. The vote was 2-yes and 3-no so the dogs fate is still undecided.

This was early in the meeting when they voted. Later on toward the end of the meeting the mayor brought the subject about the dog up again. They got into a pretty heated discussion about the dog among themselves trying to talk over each other.
I thought for a moment I would speak up and remind them their meeting was run by "Roberts Rule of Order" [for those of you who may not be familiar with this: The short answer it is a book of parliamentary procedure of how to run an orderly meeting] but I didn’t say anything, I’m sure they would have just told me I was out of order. Whatever they decide to do with the dog, I wish the dog well because I am an animal lover.

2. The other item on their agenda was the sale of City of Paris water to Harrison County. It sounded like an issue that certainly needed some attention about a contract proposal. Again it didn’t take them long to start talking over each other on this topic.
The discussion sounded like one of those internal issues were the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing?
This could have been another time to remind them of "Roberts Rule of Order " like I was told in one of the meetings back in the summer.

The rest of items on the meeting agenda seemed to go pretty normal .

Just a couple closing statements,
It has now been 12 weeks since I ask questions to city officials about Chapter 62: Alcoholic Beverage Ordinance and they still have not give me answers.
It has been 8 weeks since I ask city officials to update the city of Paris website. I still have no response back to me from city officials.

That’s all for now,
John Marshall
　
I welcome your comments
　
　

September- Pictures of Developed Lots around My House

2009-11-10T13:11:00.002-05:00

We moved into our new home late March of 2008. We spent the summer of 2008 with tall weed problems the entire summer. I didn't like it but didn't say anything.

In May of 2009 the tall weed problem started all over again so I decided to ask the city officials to enforce the city weed ordinance. Here it is November 2009 and all I got from the city was a lot of excuses and the same tall weed problem all summer long again.

August- Pictures of Developed Lots around My House

2009-11-10T13:07:00.003-05:00

June- Pictures of Developed Lots around My House

2009-11-10T13:02:00.002-05:00

May-Pictures of Developed Lots around My House

2009-11-10T12:45:00.004-05:00

Website Letter to City of Paris

2009-11-05T22:45:00.005-05:00

September/2009

To: City Manager of Paris, Ky
Mayor
City Commissioners
525 High Street
Paris, Ky 40361

Subject: http://www.paris.ky.gov/ website

Dear Sirs:

Communication- How can we live together without it?
I would like to see you start giving us a chance to view a lot more of our government online. This is a Great Communication Tool for the City of Paris to let all citizens know what is going on in our local government. Currently you do have good information on this site, but it could be better. In this age of instant worldwide information you are missing a great opportunity to communicate to all Paris citizens that own a computer, the inter- workings of their local government on a daily basis.
Since I have attended several of the city commissioner meetings this year it has become very apparent to me, that city officials seem to be only fulfilling legal obligations by running ads in the Wednesday edition Bourbon County Citizen. This does satisfy state laws for you, but really doesn’t reach a majority of the local citizens to inform them what is going on in their local government.
The Bourbon Citizen does report on your commissioner meetings and it reaches all the people who actually pay for the paper. This paper does not reach every mailbox in this city. It’s counterpart, The Citizen Advertiser, which is free does reach every mailbox but doesn’t contain information about local government. So this leaves a lot of the people uninformed.
Remember always, That all residents of the City of Paris are your employer and you are the employee. We want to know how you are spending our money to keep our city safe, building our infrastructure, showcasing our town to the world, creating a better economy, and future plans you might envision to help our city.
I have spent time looking at other city/county website in Kentucky. Some are just absolutely loaded with information of their local government for their community. Others are just there with little information, few pictures and not much else. I believe with minimal effort your webmaster could turn http://www.paris.ky.gov/
into one that is absolutely loaded with information for us. The website needs to be maintained with current information and archives of past information.
I would like to offer the following list of items to be added to the website. Main menu tabs could be added for these items just below the existing Important Notices tab upper left hand corner of web page. This would enhance user friendliness of the website.
I am sure you already have electronic copies and it would just be a matter of uploading the files to the server. Then it would be minimal effort for the webmaster to produce web pages of the documents. This will be a great way to show transparency in our local government by posting them online. Other local government websites in Kentucky already do this and much more.
Items
A. Annual Budget for this Fiscal year, past years

B. Total Revenue and Sources

C. Accounts Receivable/Accounts Payable- Monthly

D. General Fund- Summary of expenditures by department- Monthly

E. Combined Utility Fund- Summary of expenditures by department- Monthly

F. Commissioner meetings -agenda and minutes of each meeting

G. Special Meetings- agenda and minutes of each meeting

H. Legal documents that you have to post in the newspaper, also post online.

I. Keep all ordinances current online

J. Salary -City Mgr.-Mayor -City Commissioners

K. All Salary Classifications of City Employees- With min./max. salary range of each class

Posting this information online will greatly improve communications between local government and the residents of this city. I know if you take time to really look at the website, you will see endless ideas yourself that should be posted to help inform citizens of this fine city.
This should be a great marketing tool for you. You should add the website url address http://www.paris.ky.gov/ to all your official documents if it isn’t already there. People will recognize it more and start using it for information.
Advertise the website in the local papers and encourage people to visit you online. Doing this will help get more people aware that there is a website they can visit and learn what is going on in their local government. I think you will see a lot more traffic to the website when enough people realize your website is full of good information.
You should also contact our state government and ask them to add a link from Kentucky official website http://www.ky.gov/ To your site. They have a link to cities & counties on their home page but Paris is not shown. This is just another way to communicate to more people and showcase Paris.
I would ask that you formally accept a copy of this letter and act upon it’s contents.

Thank you
John Marshall
Resident of Paris, Ky
　　
　
Just a few of many {Website Examples} below that post this Information
　
budget example- http://www.richmond.ky.us/ Click on Budget Documents
budget example- http://www.lexingtonky.gov/ Click on City Government
meetings & agendas- http://www.cynthianaky.com/
meetings & agendas- http://www.georgetownky.gov/
salaries & classifications- http://www.danvilleky.org/ Click on e-services - Document Center - Legislative/Executive - Ordinances - Ordinance1756
salaries - http://www.spencercountyky.gov/ Click on County Government - Financial Reports - Salaries

Disappointment Part-Two 11/11/09 Newspaper

2009-11-05T21:49:00.010-05:00

This is the entire letter to the editor, not just the short version that was in "The Bourbon County Citizen " 11/11/2009.

Paris Resident Disappointment "Part-Two" With City Officials Actions

I want to tell you that it troubles me even more to be writing another letter to the editor about our city officials. I’ll refer to this letter as Disappointment Part-Two and hope there doesn’t have to be a Part-Three. The time frame of Part-Two starts were my first letter ends from August 19th

Dear Editor and Citizens of Paris

I want to share some more of my experience with "city officials." After attending all these commissioners meetings and seeing how city business is conducted as it relates to the public information side, I didn’t like what was going on. Very little information about city business is getting to the public.
I decided we the tax paying public deserved more information passed on from city officials, so I have been voicing my concerns at the commissioner meetings on several different issues. They want to call me "out of order" when they don’t want to answer my questions.

On Thursday August 20th -Just across the street from my house, there was a man on a golf cart that used a weed eater to cut down the 4 ft. high weeds just around the fire hydrants, nothing else. The rest of the 4ft tall weeds were left standing. This was after my letter to the editor was published in the newspaper on August 19th saying the weeds were back and you could barely see the fire hydrants.

On Friday August 21st - I went to the city office to obtain a copy of the letter asking the city to consider Sunday Alcohol Sales and a copy of the proposed Sunday ordinance. Cheryl Dryden the city clerk gave me copies of each. I am against Sunday Alcohol Sales and decided to take action against it. I ask for the copies in order to research this matter. I was concerned that it would pass at the next meeting if the word didn’t get spread to other concerned citizens that were against Sunday Alcohol sales.
"little bit of humor"The city manager was there while Mrs. Dryden was getting copies for me. I jokingly told him that the weeds around the fire hydrants had finally been cut, he replied yes I know. This is just another example of city officials ignoring the city weed ordinance that I had been asking them to enforce for the last 2 ½ months.

On Tuesday August 25th - I attended the city commissioners meeting to speak out against Sunday Alcohol Sales. I was delighted to see all the other citizens of Paris that came to the meeting to speak out against Sunday Alcohol Sales. I researched the matter and had prepared a written statement along with some questions about the City of Paris-Chapter: 62 Alcoholic Beverages Ordinance.
Everyone that signed up on the sheet for public comments was allowed to speak at the meeting.
I had signed my name first on the sheet and was the first one to speak when the city officials allowed public comment.{ Note-I gave a copy of my prepared speech to city officials} I gave my speech, ask my questions but never got answers to all of them. The questions were very specific about Chapter 62: City of Paris Alcoholic Beverage Ordinance. The answers that I did get were troubling to me because they were different than what the ordinance said. I was also told by the mayor that they probably couldn’t answer my questions.
Thanks to a lot of other good citizens comments the city officials voted no and the ordinance failed. I guess at that point I should have just let it go, but let me explain to you why I didn’t. It seemed to me our city officials just added a paragraph in the ordinance to allow
Sunday Alcohol Sales without reading the rest.
I told you that I had researched Chapter: 62 Alcoholic Beverage Ordinance and if they had even read their own ordinance, I see no reason they couldn’t answer my questions. City officials are writing changes to an ordinance that effects all citizens of Paris, Shouldn’t they understand it first, before they impose it on all of us?
Here are the questions that I asked
The statement below is from the ordinance:
Whereas: Economic concerns cause the city to authorize Sunday Alcohol Sales
Question #1 -WHAT CONCERNS ? EXPLAIN? No answer to this question

Some general questions about: Chapter 62: Alcoholic Beverages Ordinance
Question #2 -section 62.003 - Who is the alcoholic beverage control administrator? And 2 deputies ? I was told Jimmy Jones was the ABC administrator and the chief of police named one deputy. The answer seemed ok, but the city ordinance clearly states that the city manager appoints the ABC administrator and that the two deputies would be Paris Police officers. I find it strange and disturbing that city officials told me they don’t have anything to do with the ABC Administrator and deputies in this meeting? It is plainly stated that they do in their ordinance.
Here it is:
62.003 CITY ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE CONTROL ADMINISTRATOR; DEPUTIES
(A) There is hereby created the office of the City Alcoholic Beverage Control Administrator (hereinafter in this chapter referred to as the administrator), who shall have the duties and functions prescribed by KRS Chapter 241. The administrator may or may not be an officer or employee of the city, and shall be appointed by the City Manager. He shall also have such further duties and functions as are prescribed by this chapter.

(B) There are hereby authorized two (2) Deputy City ABC Administrators for Enforcement, who shall be ABC qualified city Police Officers, appointed by municipal order with the approval of the city ABC Administrator. The duties of such deputies shall be as determined by the city ABC Administrator, and are in addition to Police Officer duties of the city, but shall primarily consist of enforcement of state and city laws, ordinances, and regulations in the area of alcoholic beverage control.

Question #3- section 62.005 - How often if ever are the books, records of alcohol sales looked at? No answer to this question

Question #4 section 62.105 - How do they prove to the city that 50% or more of their gross annual income from the dining facilities comes from the sale of food and not alcohol?
No answer to this question

On Thursday August 27th - I decided to call State ABC office and ask them if the City of Paris ABC administrator reported to the state. I spoke to a lady who identified herself as Lisa Moorman. Her title was General Council Lawyer for the state ABC.
She was very nice and listen patiently as I explained the nature of my call. After looking up several things on her computer as we were talking. She did identify Jimmy Jones as the city of Paris ABC person. She said at that time she didn’t believe the state ABC was Mr. Jones boss. She said more time would be needed to verify it 100%. I said for now that was enough. I thanked her for listening to me and we hung up.
Her answer just left me still thinking this is strange that neither state or city officials could answer my question. Does it not stand to reason our city officials voting on an ordinance of Sunday Alcohol Sales would know what the language in the whole ordinance says? So I ask you, is it not a legitimate question that needs answered?

On Monday August 31st - I went to the city office around 11:30 a.m. and was able to have a meeting with the city manager Mr. Naghy. I spoke briefly about the unanswered questions but mainly on the original subject that started all of this, weed/grass ordinance and getting the vacant lots mowed next to my home. He told me he was reluctant to try to enforce the weed ordinance because of his past experiences in other places. He then said he was going against his gut feeling and do it anyway. He said he would call me in a couple days because he needed to get an estimate from his supervisor what it might cost to have city employees mow the properties and then bill the owners. He didn’t call like he said he would, but later he shared a cost estimate that his supervisor provided.
The estimate he showed me wasn’t just for the vacant lots near my home which are about 3 acres total. The estimate was for about 42 acres which covered other properties on my street. I have misplaced the copy he gave me, but the cost I think was around $1,900 dollars. I told him I did not expect tax money to be spent on private property upkeep. They needed to make land owners obey the weed/grass ordinance. Mr Naghy again had city workers mowing and weed eating the extremely tall weeds and grass from around road curbs and fire hydrants.

On Wednesday Sept 2nd - I was out around my house taking more pictures of the tall weeds and grass. At about 7:45 a.m. a red pick-up truck stopped in front of my house while I was taking pictures. It was Mr. Naghy, he spoke and told me he was just looking to see if any mowing had been done. He really never told me if he had spoken to the property owners. The property owner that same day used a tractor and bushhog to mow the vacant lots down to about 1 ft height. The weeds were so tall that on a vacant lot the bushhog actually ran over and destroyed a telephone box. The telephone boxes are about 3 ft tall but the weeds still had it covered. Several A.T.& T. phone customers didn’t have service until about 7 p.m. that evening when the phone service man finally got the box replaced.

On Tuesday Sept 8th - I attended the city commissioners meeting. I told them I had spent the whole summer fighting weed problems surrounding my house. I ask about the answers to my question on the ABC administrator. Needless to say, they skated around the questions again just saying they appointed him but didn’t control him. I asked then who is his boss?
At this meeting they announced a first reading of an ordinance moving the time of commissioner meeting from 6 p.m. to an early start time of 9 a.m. I questioned why the change of time because most people are working that time of day and wouldn’t be able to attend. Their answer was that it would be a cost savings to the city. When I asked how much savings it would be, Mr Naghy replied he would present the savings at the next meeting. My thoughts on changing the time is it’s just another way our city officials can minimize public comment.

On Tuesday Sept 22nd - I attended the city commissioners meeting. They voted and passed the ordinance to change the meeting to 9 a.m.
I asked again about the cost savings. Mr. Naghy had promised showing how much money it was going to save the city. I was told there would be a coming press release about it. Again broken promises, shut the public out.
At this same meeting I presented a letter to city officials about their website that I had been working on for awhile. Believe it or not The City of Paris has a website. http://www.paris.ky.gov/
It has useful information on it now, but other local government websites shares a lot more information to their citizens than does Paris.
My thought is that this would be a great communication tool for city officials to allow all citizens access to information about what is going on in their local government. I told them this would be a great way for them to show transparency in our local government by posting information online. I offered several suggestion in my letter of items to be added to the website. I Encouraged them to review their website and they too might realize other items to share with the public. I asked that they formally accept a copy of my letter and act upon it’s content. They did formally accept my letter.

On Tuesday Oct 6th - At around 1:45 p.m. I went to Mr Naghy’s office and ask to see him. Mr Naghy agreed to meet with me. I pressed him for answers on the weed ordinance and ABC questions. He ask me what I wanted him to do?? "HELLO"- enforce the weed/grass ordinance and answer the questions about the ABC administrator I asked 7 weeks ago.
He indicated to me that he was going to get the Chief of Police that day to issue citations to the property owners for weed/grass violation. Did they really issue citations-your guess is as good as mine?
I ask him again was the ABC administrator a city employee? He said he didn’t know!

On Monday Oct 12th - I received a phone call from Mr Naghy’s secretary inviting me to a meeting with Mr. Naghy and the ABC administrator. I told her all I wanted was for city officials to answer my original questions. I didn’t see a need for me to attend a private meeting between the two of them.

On Tuesday Oct 13th - This was the city commissioners first 9 a.m. meeting. Because my wife was very sick, actually she spent several days in the hospital, I was unable to attend this meeting.
‘Little bit of humor again"I would like to have been a mouse in the corner to see the smiles on their face when they realized I was not at the meeting. Aaah- finally got rid of that public nuisance!

On Wednesday Oct 21st "In Bourbon County Citizen paper" Finally the big savings for moving the commissioners meeting to the 9 a.m. start time is announced. I won’t get into the details, but if you read the article it wasn’t very convincing to say the least.

On Tuesday Oct 27th - 9 a.m. City commissioners meeting. - I was late getting to the meeting and arrived 9:07 a.m. I wanted to ask if they had taken any action on my letter concerning updating their website. I sat through the rest of the meeting thinking they would allow me to speak at some point in time. Wrong, they decided to go into executive session. I raised my hand and ask to speak and was told,” we are now in executive session” by the mayor. I replied that they were doing everything they could to minimize public comment. The mayor replied “thank you for your comment and turned away”.- To me that meant all public nuisance-get out this is private City of Paris affairs

To say the least, it is a shame that our city officials seem to forget that the tax payers who voted them into office is their boss. They make it seem like the old days, good ole boy politics-"It is none of the public’s business what we do" Speaking of good ole boy politics- Follow the logic in this example.
After my good friend and Mayor, Don Kiser Passed.
The 4 city commissioners were left with the task of naming a new mayor within 30 days. This is my understanding of how the process occurred.

Mike Thornton was mayor pro-tem because he received the most votes in the commissioners race. The commissioners decided Mr. Thornton should be the new mayor. Logical step I agree.

Next they needed to make a new mayor pro-tem. Stan Galbraith received the second highest vote. The commissioners decide he should be the new mayor pro-tem. Logical step I agree.

Next step is were they threw logic out the door and "good ole boy politics" took over.
They needed to appoint one new commissioner. The logical thing to do would have been this.

There was a total of 8 people in the general election that ran for the office of city commissioners of which only 4 could be elected.
Obviously the 4 other people who lost were interested in serving in public office because their names were on the ballot when you the public voted. Each of these 4 candidates on the ballot had good support because they got a lot of votes, just not enough to finish in the top 4. The logical next step would have been offer the vacant commissioners seat to the next highest vote getter in the election. Meaning the 4 that ran on the ballot of the general election. Number 5,6,7,8 in that order. I sincerely believe one of the four would have accepted their offer.

Instead they use the good ole boy system and seated a new commissioner who’s name was no where to be found on the general election ballot.
You the public voters never cast the first vote for him. How is that for following the logical solution?

The message in this for all of you, is get involved more in your city government. Don’t just set back and be part of the silent majority. You can make a difference if you speak up. These city officials have the power to effect your day to day life in a very serious way with the actions they may take or may not take. Go to these meetings and demand more information about your local government. I have attended a lot of the city commissioners meeting and there is a surprising low total of the general public attending the meetings. They are supposed to be working for you. These people are making laws that you must obey. They are spending your hard earned tax dollars. They are molding the future of the city you call home. There is suppose to be transparency in government meaning easy access for the public to view everything without a bunch of red tape.
All I really wanted was for them to enforce the city weed/grass ordinance and it has turned into this.

Sincerely,
John Marshall

Sunday Alcohol Sales Letter

2009-11-05T21:38:00.005-05:00

This is the letter and questions I presented to city officials at commissioners meeting August 25th

To: Paris City Officials

Sunday Alcohol Sales

Why are you in such a hurry rushing this through, without given adequate time for people that oppose it to voice concerns!

You approved this in two weeks or less. This was not enough time for the word of Sunday Alcohol Sales to spread in the city for everyone to even know about it.
You are now ready to pass it, less than a month after it was requested.
This can not be acceptable, responsible behavior for our city officials to act in this manner. You have a responsibility to all citizens of this city to fully inform them of such issues. You don’t have the right to rush this through without first explaining why it is necessary.
WHY?
How can this possibly help us as a community? It only allows the possibility of more drunk drivers on the road to possibly kill one of our loved ones.
We seem to have enough alcohol and drug problems in our city already for our police officers
to deal with Monday through Saturday, without adding the Lords day too.
Time Frame:
1. Requested Tuesday July 28th
2. Published Wednesday August 5th in the paper
3. Approved-1st reading Tuesday August 11th
4. Published Wednesday August 19th in the paper
5. ? Tuesday August 25th

{ It is my belief that Wednesday Bourbon County Citizen is a good paper- but it probably doesn’t have adequate circulation to reach all citizens of Paris like the free Monday Advertiser does} Maybe the city & county should consider placing their legals in both in order to spread the word better.

The statement below is from the ordinance:
Whereas: Economic concerns cause the city to authorize Sunday Alcohol Sales
WHAT CONCERNS ? EXPLAIN?

Some general questions about: Chapter 62: Alcoholic Beverages

62.003 Who is the alcoholic beverage control administrator? And 2 deputies ?

62.005 How often if ever are the books, records of alcohol sales looked at?

How do they prove to the city that 50% or more of their gross annual income from the dining facilities comes from the sale of food and not alcohol?
　
Concerned Citizen,
John Marshall

Paris Resident Disappointment With City Officials Actions

2009-11-05T20:33:00.005-05:00

This is the letter published in the "Bourbon County Citizen on August 19th "
Dear Editor,
I want to share my experience with "city officials" when I attended several of the Tuesday evening commissioners meetings.
On June 9th I took what I thought was a simple request. That they enforce the City’s Weed and Grass Ordinance on 6 developed lots for sale on Cross Creek Drive near my residence. I even took pictures and a plat drawing showing the specific lots. The lots were over grown with weeds and grass 3 to 5 ft tall. The 3 fire hydrants nearest my residence were so covered with weeds you couldn’t even see them! At first they seemed concerned and promised to look into the matter and get back with me.
On June 17th issue of the Bourbon County Citizen there was an article in the newspaper about my request to the city officials. The lot owner was very quick in sending a letter to my residence about "HOW VERY HARD SHE TRIED TO KEEP THE WEEDS DOWN"
At June 23rd meeting I was told certified letters were mailed just that day to the owners of the lots too clean them up. The mayor even spent some time with me after one of the meetings talking about this problem more in depth. On June27th the city manager even came to my house to discuss the issue.
You could image my delight at that point! Thinking how concerned they were with my request about a simple weed problem. The city, about 5 weeks after my original request did send a crew one day to weed eat and mow around the road curbing and fire hydrants. The city workers did a good job. The property owner did a pretty sloppy job about this same time. They bush-hogged the lots down to about a 1 ½ foot height.
At the meeting on July 28th I thanked city officials for there help so far, but reminded them that because it had taken so long, weeds and grass still grow fast and the lots were ready for a mowing again.
NOW FOR THE REST OF THE STORY.
I attended the August 11th meeting. They city officials did a 180 degree turn about on me. I was told nothing else could be done. I was also told that in these hard economic times, it would put a hardship on the lot owners to expect them to comply with a city ordinance!
When I expressed my disagreement with their answer, I was told that my comments were close to being "OUT OF ORDER" so I didn’t say anymore. The weeds are back, you can barely see the tops of the fire hydrants again.
But take heart my fellow citizens, You don’t have to worry about hard economic times much longer, these same city officials are working hard and fast on another city ordinance for us. SUNDAY ALCOHOL SALE ORDINANCE ! Just say no thanks my fellow citizens at their next meeting.
Sincerely,
John G. Marshall

Reason for this blog

2009-11-05T20:23:00.003-05:00

I have created this blog to express my thoughts about Paris City Officials lack of sharing information with the public. It is also for all citizens of Paris Kentucky to post your comments.
I wanted to share my experiences with city officials this year by publishing them as a letter to the editor through our local paper "The Bourbon County Citizen"
They where kind enough to publish my first letter of about 500 words in the August 19th paper that was titled: Paris Resident Disappointment With City Officials Actions.
I spoke to the editor of the paper on Thursday October 29th about publishing another letter for me. He said they could, so on Monday November 2nd I took a long letter of about 3000 words to the news paper office. I spoke to the editors mother and she indicated that they would publish it but could I shorten it down some.
In fairness to the paper, my letter was way longer than what their guidelines state it could be. They were willing publish it for me at the rate of 300 words each week. It would take about 2 1/2 months to get it all published. I didn’t want to drag it out that long so I created this blog.