Took a moment to speak to Mr. Conley a few days before the Meeting on the 22d. I had told him I would look up the reference that Mr. Rapp used to shut the Council Members down. That being the Open Government Meeting Law. Mr. Rapp just demoted the Council to the status of being members of the Public who have no right to speak except at pleasure of in this case His Royalness- Mr. Rapp.
Don't know how to even get ahold of Mr. Elem if I needed too? Can't think of any of the rest I would want to call?
In any case, I asked why with all the hoopla on doing away with Mr. Thornton's Econ. Dev. position, which of course gets rid of him. This even though he is a great guy who has done a lot for the City, why neither he (Roger), or Mr. Elem at the 8th or 15th Council meetings brought up the issue on the VFD Retirement/ Pension/ Incentive/ Retention payments. These are I believe Illegal and have been for the whole 20 years? Yet, again, out with the Econ. Dev. position which is Legal?
He noted he had talked to Skogstad who said the payments were okay (Legal?), but to get another opinion from the State Auditors. Now my opinion of them would put them about two steps up on the useless scale above Mr. Rapp and his crew. In any case, he said he called, spoke with one who was up on the ladder there and he would get a call back, this never happened per Mr. Conley. I advised he had dropped the ball. Mr. Conley said "no he had not". He had called them, but no call back. I am sorry Roger, but I cannot believe that you in your position as a very successful business owner would call a potential client, get a "I will call you back" and just let it go at that? That does not make sense to me in either a Private or Public Venue?
In my naïve exposure to the real World, it has been my experience that any business that wants to get their foot in the door of another for a piece of their action stays after that business in the hope of "try me, you'll like me"?
Simply put, he got snookered again by the Rapp machine where Mr. Skogstad told him the payments were "okay', they are not since no one knows any approval for them? Then he failed to follow up once he did not get a return call from the State in a timely manner. Ergo, that ball you see bouncing right now is the one he dropped.
Sadly, even after that exchange, neither of them again addressed the issue and have rolled over to become part of the "Machine" to only obey a Law they approve of, rather than make the very tough decisions to do the right thing and OBEY the Laws- ALL of them. This is NOT about the VFD folks, it is about obeying the Law. For twenty years it seems to have been the practice of the B&F Committee, the City Council, the Fire Chief(s) and some or all of the other Department Heads to have been part of a conspiracy to use City Tax Dollars Illegally? This is not on the VFD Rank and File. They are just the victims of past and present Administrations.
If they don't agree, there are processes to change Laws and ignoring them as has, is and will for the foreseeable future be the way the Vienna City Council operates is NOT the answer. Mr. Conley's comment to me that they are good guys ( I will add "good gals" also), is different from doing away with the Econ. Dev. position in what way? I seem to remember Mr. Thornton being noted by Mr. Conley and Mr. Elem as being a great guy who has done good things for the City? It is not hard to follow the logic when people seem to be weasels about doing their jobs?
I with a lotta years of being in Managerial Positions in the Real World and in the Military had to make tough decision everyday. But I have taught myself that the "job" is why I am or was in the positions to start with.
It is a sad state of affairs when a Community 10,000+ strong will year by year; Election by Election allow themselves to be used and abused Morally, Emotionally and Financially. But keep coming back for more. If it were a couple, it would be called "Domestic Violence".
When a person chooses to not do the "Right" thing, he/ she than does the "Wrong" thing. Our two new Council Members who got on Council to change things have because of a lack of Morals, Ethics and Integrity as well as Legal issues chose to do the "Wrong" thing. Once they chose that path, they became part of the very "Machine" they ran against.
As for our ever effervescent Ms. Powell, her nonsensical ideas have only caused a lack of foresight to rule what is going on here. No matter how well intentioned her ideas, her path to Hell is probably assured?
So what we are going through now is a mish mash of misdirected efforts and for now failures.
Will be interesting in how Mr. Rapp will sandbag him on his Council/ Public Forum issue? It sadly also only became an issue when it directly affected "him" (Mr. Conley). I made a major point in 2016 the Public Forum would be immediately reinstated in 2017 as it should have been. The Council "inviting" the folks to address Council, subject immaterial.
It would not have been a 1 1/4 year delay until whatever happened? But we will see? I was at first not comfortable with the sign in board, but since we have been fortunate to have more people showing up even if it is seemingly only by some to do a second same time meeting while the Council Meeting is going on, is still an improvement of no one but me, has some reasonableness to it. The 30 minutes and only 6 speakers at 5 minutes each bothers me if as usual Mr. Rapp were to just let anyone talk, be they at the Podium or not, those minutes would rapidly get eaten up.
There is a move afoot to do a removal of Mr. Rapp, that will in effect only protect his incumbency. However, here is the appropriate process:
§6-6-7. Procedure for removal of county, school district and municipal officers having fixed terms; appeal; grounds; cost.
(b) (2) In the case of any municipal officer:
(A) By a duly enacted resolution of the governing body of the municipality which sets forth therein the name and office of the challenged officer, the alleged wrongful acts, the dates the alleged acts occurred and the grounds for removal as provided in this article;
(B) By the prosecuting attorney of the county wherein such municipality, or the greater portion thereof, is located; or
(C) By petition of a number of qualified petitioners, which number shall be:
(i) In a Class I city, the lesser of two thousand or ten percent of the number of registered voters who participated in the particular election in which the challenged officer was chosen which next preceded the filing of the petition;
(ii) In a Class II city, the lesser of five hundred or ten percent of the number of registered voters who participated in the particular election in which the challenged officer was chosen which next preceded the filing of the petition;
One can look up the Law and follow the rest of the process. Since Ms. Powell does not believe in the Court System or to "waste" City dollars, I don't see how this can go forward? Maybe all get in a circle, throw their arms up in the air and howl at the Moon? That for sure should get Mr. Rapp and Crew out also to howl with them? Everyone loves a good Moon Howl. 'nuff said'.