Speak Out 12/3/14

Wake up PB

2 weeks ago, a parent of one of the suspended soccer players went on a rant about the Poplar Bluff school system on Facebook. This person's final post made sure that every one knew that "ONLY Steve Sells, Gary Simmons, Kent Eyler, and Rob Rowland" were to be thanked. The posts were soon removed by this person. I find it odd that this very emotional parent only recognized those board members, praising them even, never even mentioning Hon, yet Sells wants to publicly throw Hon under the bus. I guess he probably thought he was safe since he had the parent remove the evidence of his involvement. Also, did he not contradict himself in his letter from what he had said in an interview with the DAR? Wake up Poplar Bluff! Quit electing the local "big names" and get real for once!

Who's running our city?

Let's take a look at our city council members -- who have taken on the task of running our city!

These new city council members ran on the premise of total transparency and ridding the city of corruption. Well, guess what?? Now they are talking about raising our utility rates and probably our taxes are next. The big issue seems to be because Kaplan insists on co-mingling the utility reserve with the general funds. There has not been a problem with our municipal utility reserves before he blew into town.

Now our council members -- one has been bankrupt numerous times; one worked in maintenance at the school one insists on clearing his throat constantly and calling himself a Doctor (when actually he is a chiropractor!) Another one resigned from the council (for one day) after he was accused of sexual harassment by a co-worker. Oh, and don't forget the mayor who has been fired from at least three jobs since she has been on the council. These people have absolutely no expertise with handling money -- theirs or any one else's . . . so this is what we get! A city manager who has absolutely no respect for us (the people) or our local newspaper. He doesn't even live in the city. He spends our money like there is no tomorrow. He refused to answer his phone or return phone calls -- we have got to get rid of him (them) ASAP or we will be in Chapter 9 -- as he indicated.

Trim budget;

begin at top

Kaplan stated at Monday's council meeting that our city is headed for Chapter 9 Bankruptcy and that cuts will have to be made and utility rates raised!

#1 -- if the city borrowed 5 million from the Municipal Utilities to purchase the city cable -- why wasn't this money repaid when city cable was sold? It wasn't borrowing if it wasn't repaid! This would bring the utilities reserve up to where it should be.

#2 -- If Kaplan wants to start cutting -- I have an idea--let's cut the grant writer, her assistant, all of the consultants and financial advisors out of Texas and Michigan, hire a local attorney who is capable of doing the job for the city so we don't have to pay one out of St. Louis. Kaplan has sent thousands/millions of our tax dollars out of state in the short time he has been here.

#3 -- name just one thing that he has done since he has been here to help our financial position? -- just one thing!

#4 -- when Kaplan was hired we were lead to believe that he was educated and capable of managing a municipality. Obviously that is not the case, he has not done one thing on his own -- not even prepare the budget -- we had to hire someone out of Texas to do that for him. Now we are hiring a consultant to tell him how to manage the utilities . . . totally unbelievable, if we weren't witnessing it with our own eyes we wouldn't believe it.

Thank you Mr. Bagby, Mr. Bach

Thank you Mr. Bagby and Mr. Bach for saving money up for our city. During the ice storm and the two floods, Poplar Bluff citizens were taken care of quickly. It is my understanding that Mr. Bach is an electrical engineer and he climbed poles and pulled wire alongside the lineman to get power returned to the citizens as quickly as possible during the ice storm. The former city manager and Council protected the city and put disaster plans into place just in case something catastrophic happened. It saddens me to see someone empowered to spend the city and the taxpaying citizens money frivolously. He has no vested interest in money and leave as he's done in every state and city that's he's worked for. In googling his name, you will find that he has raised utility rates as much as 25% in many cities and was basically rode out of town on a rail. People, save your money because you will need it in case of another disaster. Again, thank you, Mr. Bagby, Mr. Bach, Ms. Susan McVey, Ms. Betty Absheer, Mr. Ed DeGaris, the late Loyd Matthews and Mr. Ron Hendrix for protecting our city and putting the people first, before making your offices "comfortable."

Assistants

doing job

Apparently when we hire someone incapable of doing the job that they were hired for we then have to hire assistants to do the job for them. City manager (Kaplan) comes to mind . . . assistant, grant writer, grant writer assistant, etc., etc., etc.,

This is Missouri

[Kaplan has his "M's confused -- this is not Michigan -- this is Missouri -- "The Show-Me State." He must be using Detroit as his role model because we are well on our ay to becoming Detroit.