Mell Kuhn is back in full form.
Only he could offer up this type of playground put down, as he did in remarks today about the auditors who looked at the city's organizational issues.
Some of his criticisms are surely valid, but these bold, over-the-top statements are childish and poison the atmosphere and fracture any unity on the commission.
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18 comments:
Maybe we didn't understand what an audit was, but $30,000 and $8,400 more to take facts and figures from our administration that were already in question to some degree and simply reenter them as fact. Does make it a little hard to take.
I don't blame the audit company they got the numbers from here.
I think they are charging a lot for the audit. As I read it there were a few things that made food for thought, but I think Mr. Kuhn was also right there was nothing that the city manager and the commission didn't know. The fact that they didn't act to fix any of it is another matter.
As for KS Water group that came in, go to the internet and look them up they are a very real group, with very real specialists. And the way the city administration, is acting, like they are scared that something will be found out, something they don't want the people to know, pieces of the truth are dripping out, there are some city workers who love this community and don't want to see the citizens abused by power and greed.
Leadership requires both responsibility and accountability.
Likewise, with authority comes accountability.
It seems that there is less willingness to be accountable. The prevailing attitude from inside City Hall is "It is so because I said it is so."
A huge irony is that we boast that our State Representative Kasha Kelley led the charge for transparency in government. I would like to see her accompany someone to City Hall and watch as a citizen seks to gain access to any public information.
The Administrator is the absolute most uncooperative and evasive person ever to hold the position. His staff offers no help, their demanor is defiant and the result is that people leave with only a lecture and frustration while information and the Representative's transparency are mocked.
Yeah, lets have Rep. Kelley (R- Arkasnas City) witness a local example of tranparency. Perhaps she could video it and take it back to Topeka to show other legislators how it should work.
Kuhn may not be the most graceful dancer in the show but he knows the steps.
He is loud but he knows what he is talking about.
The audit was/is wrong on several points they are not right about the amount of water we are losing or the money tied to that.
Well your question of the day is flawed. If the audit hadn't happened than we wouldn't have found out that we needed that KWRA to come in, if the KWRA had not come in than we wouldn't have learned the truth about what was really going on and what was really needed.
So was Mell right, well..... as much as I hate to say yes just let me say that he wasn't wrong.
But if we hadn't had it then we would not have turned the lights on so to speak about the real things that are relly going on!
Mell if you would find a more diplomatic way to say what's on your mind more people would listen. You may be right but if no one is listening who cares.
Don't say this SUCKS say,
after reviewing the documents presented I have reason to question the validity of this presented document. Furthermore the numbers contained do not reflect the blah, blah,blah..... but say it with a smile.
Comeo on guys. If Mell spoke the political babble of the times, no one would listen to him.
People don't listen to elected folks these days. They listen to the media folks who spin it and turn it inot the same kind of acidic rhetoric that you are complaining about with Mell
I don't think Rush Limbaugh is promoting anyone's grammar or etiquette school. Had Mell not been so caustic, and the local media not taken the bait to retell in print and electronic fashion, we would have ignored what he saud.
Think that's not the case. Someone - without going back to review the past newspapares - tell me what another commissioner saidon the topic. Quote someone else.
That's how much we listen. And until Commissioner Kuhn gave us something to talk about we were just reading these spoon fed wish lists from City Hall staff and gulping with anxiety over how much all this would cost.
If you are going to patronize Limbaugh and Beck and those other mouthpieces, don't mute Mell.
Hey there's a catchy slogan!!
Don't Mute Mell!!! Let's have some signs made up with that on it. Put it in people's front lawns!
Don't Mute Mell!!!
"He is loud but he knows what he is talking about."
"You may be right but if no one is listening who cares."
I use to think the same thing, until I got a chance to interact with Mr. Kuhn a few months back. He is loud and abrasive, but he also exaggerates his skill and knowledge.
When Mr. Kuhn is wrong or challenged on his opinion he just talks louder in an attempt to force his views thru.
3:19 Maybe your right.... but in this case MELL is right I am sorry you don't like it, but it doesn't mean he isn't right.
http://www.krwa.net/ops/water.asp
Report is in
We seem to be missing the real information the audit "provided".
Read thru the entire report several times and there is only one conclusion. "For years our well paid city managers and department heads were not minding the store". The report's main issues were what any business needs to know to survive. The report further indicates that most of the managers and department heads already had the data that pointed out the problems. So why wasn't it being acted on. Mel Kuhn is apparently a lot more knowledgeable than given credit for.
I have now read both the MS audit and the KRWA report.
Man have we been snowed.
We ARE this community, we ARE this city, we have been lied too and we know it.
Lack of training again surfaces. Lack of follow through again surfaces.
OK Elected City Commissioners do something!
the traveler can’t admit the mel is right and printing anonymous blog posting as news; that’s class!
You guys sure did a great job of watering down the KRWA report. Maybe you should read the report again until you understand just how important it really is.
I love how the audit says we have too many Police employees, but yet there is an ad in the paper for another full time officer. Do we really need another one?
Now Archer says the KWRA report wasn't authorized. Didn't he also earlier have derogitory remarks about KWRA. Sounds like it's my sand box and I'll kick the sand. I don't recall the commission having enough confidence in him to renew his contract, last December. A knowledgeable commission and city manager are a must for a city to function. We seem to be lacking both.
Why can't we know. Why is the public the tax paying public not in the KNOW!
What are you guys so afraid of?
The city commission and the city administrator have way to many executive sessions why can't the public know everything why do you have to decide if we should know.
Air out the laundry and let us ask questions till the cows come home.
WHAT ARE YOU 5 COMMISIONERS AND TWO CITY ADMINISTRATORS AFRAID OF?
Maybe they are afraid of the state and the laws regarding privacy or employed personell? Maybe they are afraid to release details of lawsuits that would aid the oppostition and cost the taxpayers money? Maybe they are afraid to talk about private negotiations with businesses that could affect how they operate or how they can be brought to town (I'm guessing property prices would JUMP if GE started looking to buy some land). I'm sure there are more reasons both legal and ethical for not releasing some information to the public, especially if it is PRIVATE information regarding a citizen or a business.
Anyone besides me wonder why the City staff and top department heads always wind up in a fist fight with anyone who questions their decisions.
Of course there is value for a person who stands confidently behind their recommendations and proposed course of action. No one wants a spineless City Manager.
However, the M.O. of Archer and Massey seems to be to assert that no one has any knowledge or credibility except themselves and a few hand picked allies from outside.
Point is, they should always consider 1) they could be wrong or in error in their judgment and 2) maybe what they are proposing is simply more than the local tax base will support at the time.
Maybe we do need to wait for something to break before they present a remedy. Maybe there are infra-structure needs that are bordering calamity.
However, me thinks they have gone to the well a few times too many on "We gotta have it now or the sky will fall in."
Even the local newspaper - while seeming an advocate for City Hall's wish list - begrudgingly admits that some business expenses have been deferred until the business model justifies spending operating income for future needs.
Come on David Allen, you know there are limits on your expenditures that are driven by the current economy and the uncertainty of economic recovery on the horizon.
Why take the posture of goading the ciuty staffers into digging in their heels when their internal reports have been brought into question by credible resources with statewide credentials.
If KRWA was fishy, they wouldn't have municipal clients and members across the state. Why would they come to ARkansas City nad all of a sudden be incompetent?
What's up with our City staffers picking a fist fight with everyone who tells them they cold be wrong? At times they act like a bunch of thugs.
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