"LAWYERS IN LOVE" jackson browne
At the last council meeting Councilman Flock asked the law director if anytime the city manager is involved in a high dollar project if there could be an ordinance that one or two councilpeople could be present at certain negotiations. Law Director Gurley made the analogy that would be the same as two Senators sitting in on a Supreme Court decision? The Constitution would be in violation if this happened since we have three branches of government.
Now its not like councilman Flock wanted to sit in Municipal Court while Judge Mike Cicconetti decided a case. The Seven councilman hire and fire the City Manager. The city administration has no elected officials. Funny I guess my boss can sit next to me every day, yet the people that hire the city manager have zero oversight? Every year councilmen are asked to evaluate the city manager, how do you evaluate anyone you can't check up on? I'm willing to bet there's something in the charter that forbids council from looking over the shoulders of any city employee.
I guess I'm feeling councilman Flock doesn't completely trust what he has been told by the administration. Too many questions have been asked without suitable answers for most of them. Along with six other people he has to vote on spending money; from power plants to trucks to hedge clippers, and at the same time knowing the city manager is paying $100,000 in invoiced legal payment he and the rest of council know nothing at all about.
Meeting business owners who tell him about certain deals never brought before council along with other community leaders explaining how hard it is to work with Painesville. This is what happens when you have no oversight on people, they do as they wish and only show you what they want.
Someone at the fromt table said "Andrew you have a problem with trust?" Really?
We will have a charter review in a few years... wonder if its time to make a few charges?
posted by terminator1 @ 2:32 PM
26 Comments
26 Comments:
What happened at the Amp meeting?
Flock and Term are way off base and wrong on this one. Term, When you hire someone to haul material in a truck at work do you demand to sit on the seat next to him?
The SEVEN members of council have thwe right to fire the CM if they feel she is doing something wrong. If Flock is the only one with a problem then maybe it is HIS problem.
If you and other residents feel council isn't doing their job then quit electing the same people for 28 years!
That is the way checks and balances of government work, we may not like it but it has worked for over 200 hundred years to make this a very wonderful nation, yes, we have our problems, but we are still a very desirable nation to live in.
I heard a rumor, Dollar Bank is moving from their downtown location. Is this true?
Just a thought....but has anyone talked to other municipalities to compare what kinds of oversight (if any) they have over their mayors or city managers? What is standard procedure in local government? And if council is expected to vote to approve these large expenditures...why can't they follow up to make sure the money is spent properly? Sorry Mr. Gurley, your explanation sounded good for a minute but once you think about it, it sounds rather patronizing; like local citizens can't see a few differences between the federal government and our local arena. And with the present state of low confidence in our national government maybe some cross-branch oversight is long overdue there too. Since there isn't any procedure in place at this time one would think that the head honchos would break their necks instituting something in the name of open and good government. Seems like a no-brainer to me but then we're talking about Painesville aren't we? Can't wait until the charter review comes around....
$100,000 in legal fees council knows nothing about? What are you talking about? How could council NOT know? What law firm? For what - you said invoiced - invoiced for what?
Dollar Bank added on an office for the drive-thru. Also the building they are in is for sale, expanding the parking garage i think.
Kathy stay tuned, or you could ask for public records of billing from the city to outside legal firms for the past say four years, Who and Why.
The Council approves a budget, the administration spends money within that budget, it is no different than a business.
When I look at the members of our council it would scare the s**t out of me to think we would let them decide how to spend money.
Okay I will Term.
2:24, The city council approves the budget. How do these bills get paid if it doesn't come out of the general fund? What fund does it come out of? Utility funds? Why?
This one is simple The city manager hires and fires the law director. Who do you think he looks out for council or the city manager?
A Dollar Bank worker in the downtown office told me two weeks ago that they are moving to the building near Giant Eagle in Painesville Township. The specific location is the storefront that's currently being remodeled, on the far left. She said that the office was added to the drive-through building for the convenience of customers who either couldn't, or didn't want to, go to the new location. She didn't know a specific date for the move, but speculated that it could be May or June.
To Kathysak.
Here's one for you
P.O. Number CTO84566
P.O. Date 11/04/09
PROFESSIONAL LEGAL SERVICES
THROUGH DECEMBER 2009
CONTRACT ON FILE
DO NOT MAIL PURCHASE ORDER
$55,090.00
101.151.53107 $11.018.00
710.711.53920 $13,772.50
720.721.53920 $11,018.00
730.731.53920 $19,281.50
TOTAL $55,090.00
95413
Funny the things left in my mailbox.
Wish they knew your address?
I looked up the line items in the 2009 city budget posted on line at painesville.com, and I have posted the pages applicable to your post of 2:14 pm to my web site http://kathysak.com On my home page to the left click on public records and it will take you to the page you want to see. Now, I have to go to city hall and ask for the purchase orders - those of course are not on line. Also, page 319, which lists info about line items 730.731, is blackened out on the city web site, just as I show it. I don't know what this is about but I guess it must be important so I will begin checking into it. As to your post, yes it is funny what ends up in the mailbox. All I get are bills but hey, they're pretty funny too. Thanks for passing this on to me!!
Yes things in the mailbox.
I will pass this little tidbit to the employees of the city of Painesville. Another resident has informed me through my mailbox that he has been video taping employees with his cell phone as he finds members of "ALL" departments screwing off. Somehow this phone has a card that can be removed and the video transposed to a disc?
Now I know no city employees read the blog. So if you know any tell them to stay on there toes. To the message leaver? Theres a spot on this site where you can start your own blog. I don't need extra liability as it is.
TERM...better put up a separate box (like the old milk boxes) that you can receive 'donations' in ...before you get in trouble with the feds for using your mailbox illegally. I am only half-kidding....you've had the heat cranked up on you already...CYA.
Whats is 730.731.?
What are you talking about?
730.731 is an account number listed under Administration, City of Painesville Annual Budget 2009. Go to kathysak.com and click on public records (menu on the left side of my home page.) Then click on the symbol PDF on the very first entry. When that opens go to page 349 and you will see Administration 730.731 and a big box which has been blacked-out. I posted these pages to my web site after TERM asked me to look it up in a comment he made. Simply put, we are talking about the city budget.
If all this is public record. I might understand blacking out names or such. Really the whole section?
If it is public record I don't understand blacking out ANYTHING. When there is an error or empty pages in an official document they generally insert something that explains why....like 'this page was left blank intentionally' or a similar disclaimer. I don't like to question anyone's intelligence nor do I want to contribute to any conspiracy theories so I won't compare this to President Nixon's secretary erasing 19 minutes of tape...but I DO want to know what was blacked out. Official documents are proof-read and vetted so I can't accept that its an underling's typo that was unprofessionally erased either. So again, what was it? Kathy and TERM, thanks for asking the hard questions and digging for the real answers.
Alice thanks for the comment, I can't speak for Kathy but I have to wonder out loud "does anyone in town care?"
This is a city that brags about its financial record keeping, what am I to think when I see this?
I once was told that outside law firms are brought in for union negotiation? Then why does the law department take credit for the negotiations further down in the records?
It is not just 1 page redacted.
I found 26 pages of large blocks of text blacked out in the 2009 budget.
Why? What is so confidential?
Link to budgets
http://www.painesvilleoh.govoffice2.com/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={5B118E23-E48E-4FB1-89C4-34B9838E8182}
examples pg. 304-309, 329, 330, 341, 349, 350, 352, 357, 366, 376
I also looked at the 2008 budget, no blacked out text.
Heres another easy one.
Term, broke into city hall with the help of city employee#007 and with a gross of Sharpie magic markers, got into the city budget and blaken the city manager section. The only purpose was to embarrass the CM.
I have forwarded this site to the C.I.A. to inform them of Terms many talents. I think you hit the nail on the head Term Who cares?
I went and looked at the budget and I thought it was clear what was blacked out.
304-309 was the dollar amounts payed to gristmill condo owners as part of that settlement fund, I would agree that there is no reason the city should make that public, if I was an owner I would not want that published either.
The rest up until the last two pages were all the pages that had peoples names attached to wages listed as part of a budget. I can see why that page was blacked out, but it is no big deal, other areas of the budget have wages listed to job positions, you just have to spend a little time to figure it out.
The only ones that make me wonder is the last 2 pages, the miscellaneous budgets.
Maybe thats what Kathy and Term should be looking at?
Bury something in with legit items. I am willing to bet that invoice is somehow mixed in with the miscellaneous items?
Weren't those Gristmill owners paid with public dollars? And if you sell a private dwelling in Lake County, that figure is public record that is easily found on the Auditor's site so why redact this item? If I were to post something and intentionally left part of it out....I would certianly post an explanation as well....if only to avoid the appearence of impropriety.
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