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....
















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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.




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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.



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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"

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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....

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