Agenda for Tuesday 5/8/07
The agenda for Tuesday's regular meeting was posted Friday night at 7:15 PM. Yes, that's more than two hours past quitting time. These deadlines always come as a surprise it seems, and employees must work late. It is a full agenda with a couple of surprises.
Interestingly, the minutes are missing. Sauceda made a strong request to withdraw five sets of minutes from last meeting so that "staff" could fix them. They will not be presented at this the last meeting of this council. Instead, he will present six sets of minutes to the new council at the end of May. This almost ties his record backlog of seven sets of minutes presented at one time.
Also missing is Doug Humble's easement issue. Not only is he not first on the agenda, he is not on the agenda. They deserve proper resolution of this matter, but that takes effort from Sauceda to document a proposal that council would find reasonable. This has been before council several times. Their position is well known. It should be trivial to draft something that they would find acceptable.
First up is a presentation from Terri Meyers about the results of her historic property survey of Marfa. This project was held up for months last year because Sauceda refused multiple requests to put the Visionaries in Preservation (VIP) matter on the agenda for council's approval. I'm guessing he will take credit for something he had no involvement with except to delay.
Then is a curious "State of the City" report from Mayor Lanman/City Council/Staff. Does anybody remember this happening before by an outgoing mayor or is this something new? Does anybody else find it odd that Sauceda refers to himself as "staff" instead of administrator or by name? It will be interesting to see if Lanman comes back for one last hurrah after his unexcused leave of absence. I'm guessing that we will be presented with Sauceda's oration of accomplishments, both of them if he can find one more in the next few days.
As expected, he has put the audit on the agenda for approval even though council has not had a chance to review it. It's possible that the preliminary version of it went into the packets. It is highly unlikely that the complete audit is available for their review. Council should not approve anything that is not finished. This has caused endless problems when they approved the budget without having a final printout before them. The following agenda item is to appoint the auditor for next year. It is not clear why the auditor is being appointed for next year when the audit cycle for this year is incomplete.
Council will consider approving Mother's Day activities at the MAC. Sounds wholesome to me.
There are three agenda items related to the $1.3M sewer loan: water conservation plan, drought contingency, and approving the revenue bonds. I am not sure if a public hearing is required before approving the bonds. It is clear that Sauceda is getting some help on putting this project together. Every single part of the still incomplete pool grant has been a disaster. Fortunately, Mr. Pink from the engineering firm has been helping Sauceda keep this thing moving.
There is utility fee abatement ordinance. It does not say who requested this agenda item, but I guess it relates to something Oscar Martinez mentioned about helping out some older citizens on fixed income.
There is something related to the TDH lease of the MAC on the agenda, but the dates listed on the agenda are "SEPTEMBER 1, 2007-AUGUST 331, 2007." I don't know when August 331st comes. Fixing that problem, I don't know what time period starts on the first of September in 2007 and ends the last day of August 2007. This sort of sloppiness happens when you put the agenda off to the last minute, make the staff work late (without overtime pay), and then fail to proof read before posting.
Next is to award a contract to purchase a truck and trailer for the recycling grant: "NEW OF USED TANDEM DUAL-AXEL GOOSENECK TRAILER AND NEW ¾ OR 1 TON TRUCK WITH V-8/GASOLINE OR DIESEL ENGINE." For the record, an axel is "a jump with a forward takeoff from the forward outside edge of one skate to the backward outside edge of the other, with one and a half turns in the air" and has nothing to do with trucks. And "NEW OF USED" indicates further lack of proof reading. After the blistering comments from council about the poor proof reading of minutes, this demonstrates a complete inability on Sauceda's part.
The council will act on amending the employee manual. I guess this is "council's prerogative" finally to take away Sauceda's vacation sales scams at the end of the year.
Council will be asked to approve the EMS Department's submittal of grant applications to DHS for a new ambulance.
Then there is an agenda item to repeal a 2005 ordinance on junked vehicles to replace it with one that declares them a "public nuisance" and allows Sauceda to implement stricter enforcement and bigger fines.
Then we have another chance for Sauceda to present useful financial information to council about accounts payable and expenditures.
That's it. The next agenda will be for the new council and mayor.
Interestingly, the minutes are missing. Sauceda made a strong request to withdraw five sets of minutes from last meeting so that "staff" could fix them. They will not be presented at this the last meeting of this council. Instead, he will present six sets of minutes to the new council at the end of May. This almost ties his record backlog of seven sets of minutes presented at one time.
Also missing is Doug Humble's easement issue. Not only is he not first on the agenda, he is not on the agenda. They deserve proper resolution of this matter, but that takes effort from Sauceda to document a proposal that council would find reasonable. This has been before council several times. Their position is well known. It should be trivial to draft something that they would find acceptable.
First up is a presentation from Terri Meyers about the results of her historic property survey of Marfa. This project was held up for months last year because Sauceda refused multiple requests to put the Visionaries in Preservation (VIP) matter on the agenda for council's approval. I'm guessing he will take credit for something he had no involvement with except to delay.
Then is a curious "State of the City" report from Mayor Lanman/City Council/Staff. Does anybody remember this happening before by an outgoing mayor or is this something new? Does anybody else find it odd that Sauceda refers to himself as "staff" instead of administrator or by name? It will be interesting to see if Lanman comes back for one last hurrah after his unexcused leave of absence. I'm guessing that we will be presented with Sauceda's oration of accomplishments, both of them if he can find one more in the next few days.
As expected, he has put the audit on the agenda for approval even though council has not had a chance to review it. It's possible that the preliminary version of it went into the packets. It is highly unlikely that the complete audit is available for their review. Council should not approve anything that is not finished. This has caused endless problems when they approved the budget without having a final printout before them. The following agenda item is to appoint the auditor for next year. It is not clear why the auditor is being appointed for next year when the audit cycle for this year is incomplete.
Council will consider approving Mother's Day activities at the MAC. Sounds wholesome to me.
There are three agenda items related to the $1.3M sewer loan: water conservation plan, drought contingency, and approving the revenue bonds. I am not sure if a public hearing is required before approving the bonds. It is clear that Sauceda is getting some help on putting this project together. Every single part of the still incomplete pool grant has been a disaster. Fortunately, Mr. Pink from the engineering firm has been helping Sauceda keep this thing moving.
There is utility fee abatement ordinance. It does not say who requested this agenda item, but I guess it relates to something Oscar Martinez mentioned about helping out some older citizens on fixed income.
There is something related to the TDH lease of the MAC on the agenda, but the dates listed on the agenda are "SEPTEMBER 1, 2007-AUGUST 331, 2007." I don't know when August 331st comes. Fixing that problem, I don't know what time period starts on the first of September in 2007 and ends the last day of August 2007. This sort of sloppiness happens when you put the agenda off to the last minute, make the staff work late (without overtime pay), and then fail to proof read before posting.
Next is to award a contract to purchase a truck and trailer for the recycling grant: "NEW OF USED TANDEM DUAL-AXEL GOOSENECK TRAILER AND NEW ¾ OR 1 TON TRUCK WITH V-8/GASOLINE OR DIESEL ENGINE." For the record, an axel is "a jump with a forward takeoff from the forward outside edge of one skate to the backward outside edge of the other, with one and a half turns in the air" and has nothing to do with trucks. And "NEW OF USED" indicates further lack of proof reading. After the blistering comments from council about the poor proof reading of minutes, this demonstrates a complete inability on Sauceda's part.
The council will act on amending the employee manual. I guess this is "council's prerogative" finally to take away Sauceda's vacation sales scams at the end of the year.
Council will be asked to approve the EMS Department's submittal of grant applications to DHS for a new ambulance.
Then there is an agenda item to repeal a 2005 ordinance on junked vehicles to replace it with one that declares them a "public nuisance" and allows Sauceda to implement stricter enforcement and bigger fines.
Then we have another chance for Sauceda to present useful financial information to council about accounts payable and expenditures.
That's it. The next agenda will be for the new council and mayor.
posted by RobC at 10:11 AM
22 Comments:
I have heard that the Humble affair might have been postponed by both parties. The odds are not good that there will be a meeting on the 8th..how lame can you get...Does city business stop two weeks before city council and mayor change office?
Flo was in Alpine on Sunday, 5-06, in the City of Marfa car. City business on Sunday? Returned with a bicycle. Will he soon be seen riding a bike around Marfa enjoing his Vista?
Hope is that the new mayor and city council will see the wisdom and economy in getting rid of him immediately. As for city business, it stopped quite some time back, at least in a progressive form. The
mayor will, hopefully, pass into oblivion, remembered only for the egocentric madness which seems to have possessed him with his promotion to a position of seeming power. Ah, The illusions by which we are deceived. Ojala, que empieza dia nuevo.
Get ready for the dog and pony show! Its gonna be all about how much the mayor and staff have done for the city. How many grants they have gotten (only 1 without help and the other two were written by somebody else and are badly botched by Flo), the loan (that was brought up by the engineering firm who had worked on the issue in the past and all paperwork has been and will be done by the cast of experts: a financial advisor, two law firms, and an engineering firm) The landfill that brought only a recycling effort. And some blah blah about EMS. He had better never mention the Spider Car!
The Vista, which should be the last of priorities, is the only thing Flo can point to and I believe it is a costly boondoggle. All this clean up is being done at the city's expense and there is no followup to collect from the owners.
Here comes another quorum stack just like last week. This time Flo is going to try and appoint another auditor, and get back his favorite, Painter. He had a department head meeting this morning and bashed the audit over and over again. He said the numbers are wrong, that the auditor doesn't know what he is doing, that he is auditing the city like a corporation which is BAD. BAD BAD. Not to mention the fact that the audit shows the city to be in peaked health!!!
On the agenda, there is the audit presentation, and next is an agenda item to choose or reappoint auditor. Premature??? Yes, just like what happened with the municipal judge. While he has Oscar, Petrosky and Gloria to back him he is picking favorites. This is not kosher at ALL!.
I happen to know that this auditor has audited little towns like Marfa for a thirty some odd year career!
Check out the purchase of the truck and trailer for the recycling grant. He already advertised for bids last week before he got councils approval that evening. Now wait and see: Will he put the bids he receives on the agenda for council approval or will he buy the car and start driving it with no bids and no approval like he did with the code enforcement car. Which by the way, I heard today he has justified using the car any way he wants to when the grant is up (this summer but in February he had 18,800 left in the grant to spend before summer. I wish we could find out what he does with that money). The car has really never been used for code enforcement work, it was modified to have all the police car gear on it. A code enforcement officer was not hired until this March.
In the ad for the truck and trailer, it says contracts will "tentatively" be awarded May 8. "All bids and specifications have to be approved by RIO COG Solid Waste Division."
On April 26 he advertised to solicit bids on the truck and trailer. On May 8, he is going to award one??? After advertising approximately 1 week? Again, a quorum stack.
Is the audit public info yet? Let me take a wild guess, are there a lot more 'lines' with descriptions that can be understood? Fewer things simply lumped under 'administration'? More realistic 'revenue' lines?
Seems to me to be rushing things to have the audit presentation, acceptance AND the appointment of an auditor for next year all at the same time. Even if council has the audit to study beforehand, and has an opportunity to question the auditor, I would think that they would want time to reflect on it, and perhaps ask more questions before deciding on a new auditor.
We don'tknow if there IS an audit. Surely by this afternoon somebody has tried to get one and found out the scoop.
The council didn't get their packets until this morning with no audit and no audit papers in them. Oscar never seems to be perturbed by not having advance material to review. Could it be because he is in the Inner Sanctum and sees advances?
Anonymous at 5/7/07 2:51 PM said...
the audit shows the city to be in peaked health!!!
Sauceda said this is BAD. BAD BAD.
This is bad how?
blah blah about EMS.
Who is not happy with EMS.
Gosh Rob, Is it that time of the month? Your blog today sounds like a total rag on what is wrong with the world. As bad as it might seem, there's light at the end of the tunnel with the "new" members of the council. Maybe. Who knows? Time will tell.
Incompetence is one thing, obsession is another.
Un Paisano, some audit background so you will understand some of the hysteria regarding the audit. Last year, the Mayor, Flo, and Oscar had a premeeting before the city council meeting with Painter the auditor. He reported to them at that time unwelcome news, like the city was spending too much, etc. This is what happened at the council meeting. Painter addressed the audience, said he had gone over the numbers with the Mayor and City Administrator, they knew the status of the city and left the meeting.
Evidently the current audit is not flattering (as in "peaked health")so we have Flo making disparaging remarks about the auditor yesterday to department heads...the opening artillery barrage to line up anti-auditor support...and then we have, yes indeed, the premeeting scheduled this afternoon with the auditor, the Mayor, Flo, and thank goodness Dan Dunlap has been invited.
Most assuredly we are all confident in the new Mayor and Council. But we can't breathe a total sigh of relief until we can get past this last minute push by the incumbents to get everything voted in their way, as evidenced by the reappointment of the municipal judge.
Gotta clear up the "blah blah EMS" Not to disparage EMS with blah blah but to disparage any claim Flo may make about how much he has done for EMS.
Yes, that's it! It's the auditors fault the finances are 'peaked' and the report is BAD,BAD,BAD. If Painter had done the audit the report would have been much better. Everyone wants a good report, so that is the perfect reason to hire Painter for next years audit.
The appointment of the municipal judge is only good until the new mayor takes office!!!!!!!??? Who knows the new administration will reappoint and really make it right.
I wonder if the audit will show that until recently there was no petty cash at city hall for cokes, breakfast burritos, lunch pizza and sub sandwichs and of course shirts for staff with embroidery-names, etc. etc. all of these extras were never done before and I do not think the cost is cheap to citizens of Marfa. All of the above would be ok if the City was doing great and had alot of extra money to spare... I would like to know what else besides the attorney fees are shown as a waste of money from the audit done.....
Apparently Rob is out of town. Who has a report on Weds. nite's city mtg?
I am anxious for a report too. Been checking and checking. Don't want to complain about not seeing a report, just want to know what is going on. It's so inconvienent in so many ways when I have to be out-of-town.
Man, it never ceases, does it? Amazing. Truly incredible.
Would love to hear the farewell speech of the outgoing mayor...well, I probably couldn't restrain myself from uncontrollable laughter.
And ole petty cash coke drinking can't spell or proof Flo? Priceless.
As a blogger once said, it's really not funny but sad.
Gosh! It is getting so boring.
Hang on, sports fans. Another grant possible coming down the pike for ORCA. 240,000 to fix Water Well and some alternative to the water infrastructure. Flo did not write this. It was put together by the engineering as Parkhill Smith. Gotta get a grant administrator.
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