Happy New Rear !!

Feel this?




It's the Local Dem machine feeling around for that last dime of yours from just voting for a tax increase.





Finish This:




City Alderman and the Mayor will save the taxpayers money by....
















.

Irony

Mayor John Spring said he was disappointed to see the council shoot down the proposal without even looking at the study.

“This doesn’t make sense,” Spring said after the meeting. “All we were asking for was permission to hold a public hearing.”

He said aldermen were willing to hire Teska to conduct a study, “but then you don’t want to hear the results of the study? It seems a little backwards to me.”


Kinda like when the taxpaying citizens elect aldermen and a mayor and then when in office do not want to hear from the people who elected them..

Yeah. That is kinda backwards.




.

Ethics Watch 12.19.09

A Quincy public schools bus driver has resigned after a four year old girl was left on a school bus earlier this week.


We spoke to Superintendent Lonny Lemon about the incident.

He says the driver was a good district employee, and this is the first time in 19 years this happened but the situation could not be overlooked.

Read it here.


Quincy Transit Lines authorities are investigating why an elderly woman was left on a city bus for a short time Friday morning.

Director Marty Stegeman confirmed the woman was left on the bus as it was parked inside the city's bus garage on Jennifer Lane. Stegeman said she was left on the bus "for a very short time."

"It's something that should not happen," said Stegeman, noting that bus drivers are supposed to check for passengers when they leave the bus. "They should look and determine if anybody is still there .... We are investigating and trying to get to the bottom of this."




Read it here.



.

Riding the Fence

“I’m against reducing public safety,” Spring said in an interview. “I don’t think that is a reasonable way to reduce obligations. I don’t think it’s in the best interest of the community to reduce the number of police or fire personnel. Public safety is, to me, the most important thing for our community.”

John Spring QHW 12.15.09

Guess the "attempted" firing of the three firefighters on 10.31.07 and the $400,000 legal bills don't count as public safety.

2010 City Budget Item

The Union Difference

A dedicated Machinists Lodge union worker was attending a convention in Quincy and decided to check out the local brothels nearby.

When he got to the first one, he asked the madam, "Is this a union house?"

"No," she replied, "I'm sorry it isn't."

"Well, if I pay you $100, what cut do the girls get?"

"The house gets $80 and the girls get $20." She says.

Mightily offended at such unfair dealings, the man stomped off down the street in search of a more equitable, hopefully unionized shop.

His search continued until finally he reached a brothel where the madam happily responded, "Why yes sir, this IS A UNION HOUSE!"

The man asked, "And if I pay you $100, what cut do the girls get?"

"The Girls get $80 and the house gets $20."

"That's more like it!" the diehard union man said.

He looked around the room and pointed to a stunningly young, thin, busty, attractive blonde.

"I'd like her for the night."

"I'm sure you would, sir," said the madam, then, gesturing to an obese, gray haired sixty-three year old woman in the corner, "but Pearl here has seniority."

That's the "Union Difference"

.

Conflict of Interest?

Even tho Quincy Pundit , QNO and UDN beat me to the blogs on last nights city council meeting, I did a search for what I thought was a conflict of interest of Duesterhaus voting 12-1 to establish a private corporation with his brother, Joe Duesterhaus, being brought in to handle the legal work of forming the corporation.

Didn't take 5 minutes to find this:

In order to understand what a conflict of interest means, it may help to examine what we mean by 'interest'. Almost all of us have personal or professional interests, whether it be a hobby, an investment in a business or a desire to help our friends and family members succeed in their own interests. Sometimes we base our decisions on whether or not they will ultimately benefit one or more of these interests. Most of us would not face a conflict of interest situation because our hobbies rarely interfere or intersect with our professional responsibilities.

But people placed in positions of judgement or power must take extra steps to insure that their private interests do not compete with their professional duties. A conflict of interest may arise, for example, if a city councilman awards a lucrative contract to a company owned by his brother. It would not be illegal to award such a contract to the best qualified company, even if that company were indeed owned by a relative, but the councilman himself could not be part of the decision making process. There would be an obvious conflict of interest, because the councilman's own family would benefit financially from his position of power.

I swear, you can read it here or click the Title.

Funny how Lovelace abstained from voting to approve Gomez-Lovelace's hiring in October by a 3-1 vote.

Seems it's not a problem at City Hall.

* Also seems it's funny how the City Hall Gazette failed to mention that Joe Duesterhaus is the brother of Alderman Steve Duesterhaus (D-2nd Ward)

Slight oversight I'm sure....

.

Wild Fire: Deer Season Edition

Deer Hunting Season open...

Bud. Bud Light. Air Bud.

Bar Pours

Three city of Quincy workers will face disciplinary action after using city equipment to pour new concrete on the north parking lot of the Spring Street Bar, 1631 Spring, during the week of November 1 for a private, for-hire construction job they did on their personal time.

Other Bars that have lined up for this service are:

Barney's
Kelly's
Backwaters
Instant Replay
Abbey
North End



.

For all you do....This Bud should be Through !!!

Really? Getting up and walking out of a school board meeting when your the president of the board?



The school boards function is to help the school district and the children, not act like one !!




Didn't Bud take an Oath when he was sworn in as a school board member? He should have, it's now law. Copy is here.




It says:






Although most school boards traditionally marked the seating of new members with some form of ceremony, there was no official oath of office required for school board members until Public Act 94-0881 was enacted into law in 2006. This law requires that school board members, before taking their seats on the board, take an official oath that is in substantially the form presented below.

"I, (name of member or successful candidate) , do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of member of the Board of Education (or Board of School Directors) of ( name of school district ), in accordance with the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the State of Illinois, and the laws of the State of Illinois, to the best of my ability.

"I further swear (or affirm) that:

"I shall respect taxpayer interests by serving as a faithful protector of the school district's assets;

100% on this one here. You have voted "NO" more times even when it benefits the school system. NEVER heard any hint of a suggestion of a solution....Just "NO"

"I shall encourage and respect the free expression of opinion by my fellow board members and others who seek a hearing before the board, while respecting the privacy of students and employees;

Fail. Fail, Fail. You fail to recognize any other opinions except yours. And on the latest QNO story you mention the hiring process of an employee that offended you. Nice respect of the employees. Wonder why they think so less of you?

"I shall recognize that a board member has no legal authority as an individual and that decisions can be made only by a majority vote at a public board meeting; and

More Failure here. You seem to be drunk with authority and think as board president you can have unlimited power.

"I shall abide by majority decisions of the board, while retaining the right to seek changes in such decisions through ethical and constructive channels."

Here's one you need to make into a label and tape it to your makeshift gavel claw hammer. Walking out of a meeting does not fall into the "ethical and constructive channels"

Grow up Bud, It for the children of the School District. You and your clan have an underlying agenda and have done less than Obama has for this country.

Time to grow up or get out.





Next time Bud walks out, Lock the door behind him !!

.

It's called Pick and Choose....

Quincy's property tax rate is among the lowest of 15 Illinois cities of comparable size, according to a survey compiled from data collected by the state comptroller's office.

The survey compares Quincy with 14 other cities in the areas of tax rates, tax levies, public safety expenditures and general revenue, based on comprehensive annual financial reports for the year 2008.

A copy of the survey, provided by city officials, shows Quincy's property tax rate of 0.98803 in the 2008 tax year was significantly below the 15-city average of 1.717.

More propaganda provided by the City Hall Gazette....

Only Algonquin, with an estimated 2008 population of 30,482 compared to Quincy's 39,983, had a lower tax rate, 0.48.

Kankakee (population 26,608) had the highest tax rate at 4.0 while North Chicago (35,918) was second with 2.491 and Galesburg (31,738) third with 2.3607.

"I think it's interesting to see the comparisons when it comes to the revenue stream," Mayor John Spring said. "One of the reasons Quincy is so attractive to people, and affordable to people, is we don't have near the multitude of additional taxes in our community to produce revenue for city services."

Wonder where the ex-mayor will be when the bills from the Hydo project will roll in ???

....and did the "revenue stream" include seat belt tickets, speeding and DUI fines??

Quincy is the only city among the 15 that doesn't charge a telecommunications tax on telephone or Internet services. All of the other communities charge a tax ranging from 2 to 6 percent.

Hint #1 for further revenue stream....

In addition, 10 of the 15 communities charge a gas utilities tax, nine charge an electric utilities tax, seven charge a food and beverage tax, five charge a water utilities tax and two charge a liquor tax.

Hints #2,3,4 & 5

Quincy charges none of these taxes.

Not yet......

"We take pride in providing great city services* without additional burden on the taxpayers by some of these additional taxes," Spring said.

* see # of city employees down further....

Gary Sparks, the city's director of administrative services, said the survey shows Quincy's equalized assessed valuation (EAV) of $517 million "is very compatible with other communities our size."

The EAV combines with the city's tax rate to help determine the local tax extension, which is smaller than many other cites of comparable size. The survey shows Quincy's total extension of $5.1 million was well below the 15-city average of $7.3 million.

Sparks noted that the city's total General Fund expenditures of $17.2 million in 2008 also was well below the 15-city average of $23.7 million. Only four communities spent less from their General Funds.

In the area of public safety expenditures, Quincy's total of $12.8 million came in below the 15-city average of $13.1 million. While eight cities spent more on public safety, Quincy was at or near the top in the number of firefighters and police officers.

Quincy's total of 66 firefighters exceeded the 15-city average of 46.6, and its 72 police officers exceeded the average of 60. But Sparks said the average may be misleading because of the way some communities reported figures.

OK...this is misleading but the previous is not???

Three of the largest communities listed in the survey -- Champaign, Galesburg and Pekin -- were all shown to have zero firefighters and zero police officers. Algonquin, meanwhile, was shown to have zero firefighters but 51 police officers, while Rantoul was shown to have zero firefighters and 31 police officers.

Sparks doesn't know why there are disparities in the statistics. He said some communities may contract for emergency services and report their numbers differently. He said some cities, such as Quincy, may have more firefighters because the community's geographic size may call for having more outlying fire stations to improve response times, but the survey didn't provide any data on geographic size.

The survey indicated Quincy had 369 full-time employees in 2008, which is well above the 15-city average of 265. Sparks couldn't say why Quincy's number was so high. "It may depend on how they submitted the information," he said.

HELLO !!! CAN YOU SAY NEPOTISM ????

Sparks said the employee count for Quincy is skewed somewhat. Sparks said Quincy's full-time employment number is actually 346 now, which is down several positions from where it would have been last year.

Maybe family members with the same last name should all be counted as one?

Quincy Comptroller Ann Scott said the city doesn't typically count the 21 employees at the Quincy/Adams County 911 center as city employees because those workers are employed by both the city and the county. But on this particular report, she said, "they probably were" counted.

...and that makes a BIG difference of 104 MORE than average ???

Sparks noted that some communities in the survey have an unusually high number of part-time employees. The 15-city average for part-timer positions was 145 -- more than double Quincy's total of 61.

Part timers don't get full ride from city coffers....Here aldermen's families get the full ride !!!

Normal, a community of 52,495 residents, was listed as having 364 full-time employees and 627 part-time employees. Galesburg, with a population of 31,738, was listed as having 264 full-time employees and 425 part-timers.

• Nothing says "Good News" like handing the media a fluff piece.



• Nothing says "Good News" like the writer not asking questions.

Propaganda is communication aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position. As opposed to impartially providing information, propaganda in its most basic sense, presents information primarily to influence an audience. Propaganda often presents facts selectively (thus lying by omission) to encourage a particular synthesis, or uses loaded messages to produce an emotional rather than rational response to the information presented. The desired result is a change of the attitude toward the subject in the target audience to further a political agenda.







.

Freedom of the whaaa ???

.......campaign's strategy to make media cover only what they wanted.......

Glad we don't have that problem here !!!

Decisions..Decisions...

Let's see.....

Back up water supply for the city of Quincy....

vs.

A 2 million dollar A/C unit for the QPL.

No brainer.

U would think.......

Get one for your car today!

"For hire shall mean and include an acceptance of any consideration of any kind".

.

Taxi. Oh Taxi

Here a copy and paste of one I did on 12/12/06 Link.

Didn't like it then, don't like it now.

(PS. Happy Birthday Servergate)


Denied a request from David J. Peterson for a taxicab/limousine owner's license. Police Chief Rob Copley recommended denial based on the results of a background check. He also said Peterson does not have a permanent address in the city. During a public hearing in November, several representatives from other taxicab/shuttle services said they felt there is not enough business in town to support an additional service.

OK...This burns my ass.

1st. Has anyone read the city code on taxi service ?? It's 12 pages long !! WTF ?? The only thing that this guy didn't have to submit to City Council is a sperm sample !! This is WAY too much for a simple taxi service. Here is Springfield IL Taxicab operator's license and registration. Here is Rock Island city Code. Seem like they are more inviting to a new taxi business.

2. A check with the circuit clerks page shows only one David J. Peterson and has 1 citation. And it's for animal at large ??? Don't seem like a felon to me...

3. "Peterson does not have a permanent address in the city" ?? When did business owners have to live within the city ???? Must of missed this one. Wal-Mart, Sears, K-mart, pack up, you guys are out of here !!

4. "several representatives from other taxicab/shuttle services said they felt there is not enough business in town to support an additional service" Really ??? If you asked current retail stores if Quincy really needs a Sam's store and you'll get the same response.

Is this the way we want to regulate business in the city ??? Hope not.This city could use another taxi service and if there is not enough service..? Let the free enterprise system work. I will have to say, seeing that the QPD is hammering DUI's in this city and when another cab company tries to start up and the Police Chief denies it, it looks bad.What has this city done to free enterprise ???

Definition: Business governed by the laws of supply and demand, not restrained by government interference, regulation or subsidy. also called free market.



.

New carrier for Quincy Regional Airport ??

A Massachusetts-based airline makes me think of ........

Un-Freaking-Believable

Gardner Denvers cuts 40.

Harris lays off 15.

Titan lays of 35.
Knapheide lays off 158.

Huber lays off 15.

Manchester tank lays off 68.
Prince-Agra cuts 5 jobs.
Ameren cuts 55 jobs.
Blue Cross cuts 14.
Broadcast Lays off 10.

City Council passes $14.2 Million in bond ordinances

“This is a great night,” Mayor John Spring said.

Clerk call the roll:

Larry, Curly, Moe,................

.

37.79%

That’s the percentage of days that the Hydro project will not be producing any electric.

This information comes straight from the VLF website.

The operating head for this turbine design is between 1.4 and 2.8 meters of head.

Seeing that the Corp of Engineers measures river levels in feet, this translates into 4’7.1” and 9’2.2”

Did some quick number crunching from the COE Rock Island web site on river levels. Take the pool level at L&D 21 and subtract the tailwater at L&D 21 and you get the “head”.

In the last 12 years the level that falls below the minimum operating head pressure design of these turbines would amount to them not operating 39.79% of the time. The worst years would be 1998 of not operating for 177 days ( 48.5% )and the best would be 2006 when they would only be down 55 days ( 15%).

If you want to look at the sheet I have done, let me know and I will paste it up.

Oh....and if this doesn't pass, there's a excellent chance that the city will save 6.6 million dollars.

That's better than the turbine company coming to town........

.

No Risk Testing

From the WTF files.....

I was wondering....

When Ed does a story, does he walk into the meeting and the person being interviewed says

"Just write this down"?

Wild Fire: Hydro Edition

What are some of the Questions you would ask on Quincys Mississippi Hydro Project?










Link to Keokuk dam information: http://www.ieee.org/organizations/pes/public/2009/may/peshistory.html

More on Hydro

First off, Kutos to Mr. Sparrow for standing up and asking for information on the hydro project.


QNO first broke the story, and QHW did a story Sunday.




Fire did a story on this back on 12.14.2008 titled Watch my Dam Money.




Really? I don't remember seeing any of these "discussions" that were open to the public?

......after a quick learning from the Illinois Open Meeting Act, I don't see where any of the exceptions would qualify for a closed door session? What would you be hiding?


Another quote from the King Duece ""Most all of it has been made public. But you can't force people to listen," That's Funny! From the King of "I-don't-want-to-hear-from-the-people" himself........

If this information is for the public, Why is it not on the citys Hydro Web Page? I can gleen more information from a gum wrapper. Maybe your IT dept. can take a break from the golf course and his soccer site to put some of this information out there?





.

New !!!! City Hall Sugestion Box

Alderman Steve Duesterhaus, city Democrats and the Mayor have installed a new suggestion box at City Hall...

After all the mayor says.....

I want to hear from you on how we are doing, and especially on how we can do things better here at City Hall.

Feel free to let us know what you think anytime. This Mayor and City Council are looking forward to hearing from you.

John A. Spring
Mayor

Fire took a photo of it:

.

Another Circus in town.....

Like the School Board and City Council wasn't enough.

SILENCE !!!

Comment moderation has been enabled.

All comments must be approved by King Deusterhaus!

"If I Want Your Opinion, I'll Give It To You"

Meanwhile, watch me piss away

10 million dollars into the Mississippi

.

Stamps?

SO.... I need one measly stamp.

I stop buy the post office on 36th street about 6pm only to find out......

They don't sell stamps from the machine anymore.

Vending machine is gone.

No stamps.

So, if you need stamps after hours, don't go there.

That's Bullsh*t !

.

Feedback for the City

Republican 3rd Ward Aldermen Kyle Moore and Paul Havermale have started a new Website for 3rd ward residents.

Third Ward Quincy

Not to be outdone, the Mayor, Corporation Counsel, and the city's democrats have posted their own web page for feedback.

Feedback for Quincy






.

Investigation

Don't think this is enough to stop the clock yet.

Report:

It has been determined that at sometime somebody somewhere used something to do something to this server.

270 days for this?

.

Quincy doesn't get it....

Springfield IL:

All 10 Springfield aldermen on Wednesday said they are willing to give up eight days of their own city paycheck, as many other city employees are being asked to do. Read here.


Mayor Tim Davlin continues to cut the budget for fiscal year 2010 by eliminating several programs, some of which involve overtime for city employees. In a continuing effort to find areas that can be reduced or cut, Davlin has eliminated the weekend neighborhood clean up program, eliminating the live cable casting of City Council Committee meetings, and has halted the recruitment process for entry level police patrol officers and firefighters. Read the whole story here.

Wild Fire

Too damned busy to post anything of interest.

What's on your mind?

Open season.

To Renew or not to Renew.....

So.

My subscription to the City Hall Daily is coming up and I don't know whether to renew it or not.

So, like anything else I do, I will weight the pros and cons of it:


Pros:

• Weekly Ads
• Starts fire for grill.
• Recycles
• Protects floor while painting.
  

Cons:

• Can get ads on-line.
• Mondays edition often blows of the porch with a slight breeze.
• Often "in bed" with city hall.
• Tired of seeing the same people every week.
• Too many "feel good" page fillers.

Your Thoughts?



.

This thing is F****** Golden !

Director of Administrative Services

Check for Job listing here.


Place your bets.








.

Wild Fire

Increased Water rates....

City Council...

Department Raises...



Where does one start?








.

Hydro Payoff

Ameren to cut Illinois power rates as costs fall

The city would make enough money to cover the bond repayments for 50 and provide power for city services and residents. Repaying the bonds could cost $2.6 if one plant was built and $8.5 million if three plants were built.

"When we looked at this in 1983, there wasn't the public support for it," Klingner said. "Now we have interest from the utilities to buy power from us. We looked at windpower, but the utilities weren't interested and that's why it wasn't feasible."

Repaying the bonds over a 50 year period would cut into the gross revenues, which could reach $13 million annually.

Each plant will has $675,000 in operational, management and maintenance costs built in. Alderman Steve Duesterhaus, (D-2nd Ward), asked if the hydropower plants would be a major permanent job creator for the city, besides the jobs created in building the facilities.

"I don't think it's too soon to talk about how we hold this asset," Duesterhaus said.

“Those two (Clarksville and Winfield) have even greater potential because they have much more drop (in water elevation) than the ones we’ve been entertaining,” he said. That could translate into even more production of electricity.

In the News.....

City Council Meeting

Well ?

City Hall Celebration

Raises for all my Employees

Let's all take the afternoon off.






.

Todays Funny

Saw this over at QNO:

Left out the name and address tho

reported on 04-16-09 that numerous items were stolen from her residence sometime between 0230 and 1600 hours on 04-12-09. Campbell stated that she had a party at her residence on the night of 04-11-09 into the morning hours of 04-12-09. Campbell stated that when she woke up on 04-12-09 she noticed that her blue digital camera, her Comcast cable box, her black/silver alarm/CD player, her wireless internet router, and her Weber charcoal grill were stolen from her residence.

With Friends like this......






.

Blog Visits

150,000 Visits
Woo Hoo!

4 More Years of......

The Good....

• Quincy Fire and Local Bloggers will have 4 more years of incompetent fodder from local officials to Blog about.

The Bad....

• 4 more years of the same administration......

The Ugly....

• Millions of taxpayer money being wasted on Hydro, Servergate, Firegate, Puppygate, Amtrak parking, City Hall improvements...............

stay tuned !









.

Elections

What, then, is ethics?

Ethics is two things. First, ethics refers to well based standards of right and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do, usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or specific virtues. Ethics, for example, refers to those standards that impose the reasonable obligations to refrain from rape, stealing, murder, assault, slander, and fraud. Ethical standards also include those that enjoin virtues of honesty, compassion, and loyalty. And, ethical standards include standards relating to rights, such as the right to life, the right to freedom from injury, and the right to privacy. Such standards are adequate standards of ethics because they are supported by consistent and well founded reasons.

Secondly, ethics refers to the study and development of one's ethical standards. As mentioned above, feelings, laws, and social norms can deviate from what is ethical. So it is necessary to constantly examine one's standards to ensure that they are reasonable and well-founded. Ethics also means, then, the continuous effort of studying our own moral beliefs and our moral conduct, and striving to ensure that we, and the institutions we help to shape, live up to standards that are reasonable and solidly-based.

Jedi Mind Tricks

I Think Pundit calls these Springisms:

In the fictional universe of Star Wars, a Jedi mind trick is a Force power. Jedi who know the power can, by using the Force, influence the actions of other "weak-minded" sentient beings.

Jedi typically perform this ability with a wave of the hand and a verbal suggestion. If the trick is successful, the victim will reply by restating the suggestion and will immediately think or do whatever the Jedi suggested.

The hand wave may not be required to use the power.

Spring said the incident involving the conviction was "15 years ago" and stressed he didn't hire Murphy but said, on more than one occasion, he's doing "a terrific job."

Murphy has filed a police report alleging a hack into a Web site on the city's computer server. The FBI is
handling the investigation of the Web site hack.

IT director job responsibility's:

Oversees the implementation of network security at the corporate level.



Quincy airport has an average of "50 to 80 planes in and out of the airport" daily

Maybe he meant weekly?


Spring also said Director of Administrative Services Ken Cantrell is back at work but "needs to watch himself."

Gough: I have never misquoted you. Spring: Well...you twist things and...you'd better watch yourself.

SPRING: ................ Call me. I'm in the book. Nobody has taken me up on that.

Spring: I also don't appreciate you call my police chief on a Sunday and asking for my private number. (Stresses on the MY's)

We like to be as transparent as we can

QuincyNews.org requested Spring's travel information on Jan. 22 and did the story last week.







Updated 4/1/09 ( April Fool's Day )

Right now if three of these were up and running, it would produce enough electricity to electrify, not only every home in the city of Quincy, but Adams County. This is going to produce a great deal of power," says Spring.

True statement? If all the dams were producing at 100% capacity this would be a true statement.

Problem is, that the river conditions that will produce 100% designed power only occur 12 % of the time. Don't know about you, but I enjoy my lights being on more than 5 mins every hour.






.




.

Wild Fire !!!

Do as I say,

Not as I do.....

Quick Study

Pool 21 level: 17.23
Tail water : 17.10

Total head for this photo:

00.13 feet

Total head needed for power:

> 2 feet

Total power produced in this photo:

Zero


Congressman Phil Hare, please send $200,000 for this study to:

Porkbarrel Projects
c/o Quincy Fire


(only one person was employed during this study)








.

WTF ?

Just got my Comcast bill and my Broadband 10.0


just went up 10.00 dollars?




HELLO ATT.......





.

Mayors' Things'

The main purpose of an apostrophe is to show ownership or possession of an object.



Example:

Mayors' Cell Phone
Mayors' Chief of Police
Mayors' Newspaper

If you haven't read the JRG Blog for 3/10, you need to click on over there and read it.

Go ahead, I'll wait.



If this isn't a classic, most arrogant display from a public official to a member of the press, I don't know what is.....

First of all, thanks to Bob and the QNO team for allowing the public a rare peak of the transparency of the current city administration. I have absolutely no reason not to believe this event didn't happen.

Too bad Ed and Doug over at the Mayors' citys' paper don't have the stones to ask a question, yet even think of a question that concerns the finances of the city that led to this event. Sorry to say that I will be ending my paper subscription as the weather has turned warmer and I don't need the kindeling and I don't own a bird.

Spring: I also don't appreciate you call my police chief on a Sunday and asking for my private number.

Sorry to say mayor, unless you produce evidence that YOU PERSONALLY pay for that cell phone, it's not yours' it the TAXPAYERS!

Which brings up another point....

Of the several multiple cell phone that the TAXPAYERS of this city pay for, which ones are made public? Every alderman has one, yet when the public needs to contact one, where are these funded numbers listed?





.

Mayors stance on Guns....

QNO has the latest....

.

What did you sign us up for?

Didn't know WTF our Mayor signed us all up for in all this Tiahrt Amendment/ Mayors against illegal guns crap so I did some info check.

When a mayor commits his city's loyalty, I would expect he sought some public input into what he was getting into. My phone never rang so maybe my input was not important.

After about a two hour search, I can't see a single reason that he would commit the city's name to such a amendment. Maybe to get trace the background of this LEGAL gun owner pictured here..........


First of all, This amendment did not block any law enforcement agency from getting trace information provided they were conducting a bona fide criminal investigation. The language clearly allowed law enforcement to do its job, but prevented rogue politicians or anti-civil rights groups from conducting vigilante fishing expeditions.

Second, What it does do is let anti-gun politicians use this information for their own agendas. The trace data is only useful in direct conjunction with a criminal investigation. Any other use would not yield viable results because of the nature of the data. For example, a trace might be run on a firearm that had nothing to do with a crime, such as to verify a firearm isn't stolen. This would yield a false positive if attempting to use the data out of context on a witch hunt to try to find problems that don't exist.




That is all I could find. Two hours, two facts, and you slapped our city's name to this?

How about getting the city's IT department to create some kind of interactive public input/ feedback page that could gauge the "citys" true voice and go from there?

Oh, that's right, hackers could break in and skew the information.

Tick, Tick, Tick.



.

Wild Fire

Been preoccupied with major changes in my life and mind has been else where.

Only thing that keeps on ticking is the servergate clock.....

So it's time for your input.

What burns your ass?

Jobs at IDOT!

IDOT crews will be busy replacing the greeting signs coming into Illinois Friday!

Times Up, Pencils Down

Poll Results:

Should the city spend hundreds of millions of dollars in the pursuit of hydroelectric power if it means having to cut back on other services, such as infrastructure?

70% said No (70 of 93)

Should Quincy mayoral and aldermanic candidates take campaign contributions from city employees, people who do business with the city, PAC's or unions who represent city employees?

80% said No (76 of 94)




But don't let polls like this affect your vote,
City Hall does listen......




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Independent Poll

Waaayy to much pissing and moaning over at QNO about how unfair the poll taken Sunday night. I for one was not home and wished they would be calling back.

So, I sought some advise today on exactly how to word this so no one would offended, pissed, accusing each side, and maybe to see if the numbers do indeed change if it was worded differently.

First, some background. I am neither a republican nor a democrat. I vote for the best person regardless of party affiliation.

Second, I have made my thoughts about the Hydro project, you can read them here. I think it is a high cost, high risk, with returns dependent on Mother Nature.

Third, the only two answers here are Yes and No. Not "I don't know". No "I don't understand the question". No "Maybe". Just 2 available answers.

YES or NO.

Will run this for 10 days.

Thanks 4 Playing.




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