Friday, August 14, 2009
Kuhn vs. McDonald, Wallace
Mell lashed out at Patrick McDonald as a commission workshop yesterday for telling the press about emails Mell sent to city officials criticizing a gun purchase in the police department. There's long standing static between these two. We've got the email exchange online, or at least part of it. What's interesting but hasn't really been reported is a broadside critique of Police Chief Sean Wallace for, Kuhn says, being egotistical and trying to turn the police department into a SWAT team.
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13 comments:
If you read the Kuhn / Wallace exchange, looks like Kuhn has a point, don’t we hate that? What prompted this?
I am a bit surprised by my recent reaction to this police department gun update issue and the fallout. I have disagreed with Mel Kuhn on several issues in the past year or two and campaigned hard for the end to the "3 amigos" and the election of Warren-Snell-McDonald.
I am starting to see both Mr. McDonald and the Traveler newspaper sink a little lower in its criticism of Mr. Kuhn. We need to all stay professional, and not do anything that is unethical or wildlly partial for or against one person. I do think these emails should not have been released to the public as they were. I also think the Traveler/Courier has been over the top lately in its criticism of Mr. Kuhn. You may not like him or what he does, but you still need to fight fair if you are going to fight.
Kuhn is in the public eye, plain and simple. If he doesn't want his actions scrutinized, he can quit any time.
Emails of public officials who work for us should be open record. I just wish the Traveler would put them in reading order. That link is a jumbled up mess.
I found it hard to deal with when a commissioner (McDonald) says that being a watchdog for the taxpayer is micromanaging. I want a commissioner who is mindful of who's money they are spending. I am just sorry that it seems to be that Kuhn is the only one who is speaking up for us.
Why do we need new guns why would Mr Archer approve such an expense. It is good and well for Mr. Wallace to ask but Mr Archer should have been a leader and said no. But Mr Archer is busy being a pal to the department heads and not a leader/city manager.
Thanks to Mr Kuhn we at least found out about this.
Aug 15, 12:53
It never looks like Kuhn is concerned about his actions being scrutinized, and yes he can quit any time.
If the emails are hard for you to read call the Travler in person they would be glad to help you understand.
Wallace says the money is from drug seizures. How does that fit into taxpayer money? How do you scrutinize what doesn't cost us anything?
I must have missed something. What is it McDonald did besides making it available to the public? Did I miss a comment or a claim?
Shouldn't all city operations be more transparent? Why is Kuhn so upset if he was just scrutinizing the taxpayers money? But according to Wallace it was drug money not taxes.
I don't know. I think it is all a lot of hullaballoo. We want to encourage our city officials to continue to keep everything public. Then we can decide if we like what our representatives on the city commission are doing.
Where did funding with “drug money” come from, Wallace claimed “other professional services” would be the funding source. This alternate funding was dreamed up after Kuhn questioned the unnecessary expenditures?
Is it true that the fire at the city building was caused by trucks that should have been replaced? Did our commission save us money there? Which commissioners are holding back from updating old faulty equipment? Is that really saving money? How much did SAVING money cost us this time?
I'm sure glad Kuhn is looking out for our tax dollars. Too bad he doesn't pay his own taxes on time.
I agree with Mel on this one. Someone needs to question spending, otherwise we will end up with monopolistic taxes also- just like the damn water bill that we can't do anything about now. I think there is quite a bit of waste in spending within the city, and it is an excellent point that they don't need to dress up like SWAT, if they would focus on being police officers instead of playing big time/big attitude then we would offer more support.
I don't see the truck fire as a good example here. The cause of fire was apparently, a faulty valve. This was a maintenance issue. The 3-Mile island melt-down was caused by a faulty valve, or perhaps more accurately, a faulty reading of a valve. Replace the valve, not the whole truck. Replace the sensor, not the whole nuclear power plant.
The City is driving around enough new vehicles as it is. The City has gone from its employees driving Corsicas and S-10's to quad-cabs and full size trucks. This does send a message, just not the right one.
Kudos to Kuhn for at least taking the baby step of questioning an expenditure.
How many times has a police officer in Ark City had to fire his weapon? Lets be real here folks, were talking about replacing guns that are basically carried around and only used for target practice- why the hell should we be spending money in these times for guns that are clearly not being used regularly to protect the community? If there were heavy gang activity, drug & prostitution rings, etc, it might be different, but this is more Mayberry that LA, they will be alright with the weapons they have (they do all have their own weapon right- and probably a couple rifles stored for special circumstances?). I would be willing to bet that Chief Wallace is a gun collector and that this is more of a status thing, or "gun envy' kinda thing rather than a true need to protect the community. And to that I say thumbs down and thank you to Mel for trying to point that out. Pat McDonald's chicken-poo behavior actually was a good thing here- I believe he exposed wasteful spending- not throwing Mel under the bus as it appeared- its almost like he was secretly trying to help his nemisis call attention to the issue but to coward to do it himself...hmmmmm.
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