When Frank Vaslo was first elected, he questioned the fact that many of the commissions have commissioners who never attend meetings.

He brought this up at a couple of council meetings. One night he got his head bit off by Diane Peters and that was the last time he brought it up.

Why did Vaslo let this issue die? We have too many commissions that cannot form a quorum because they have absentee commissioners. People who like to brag they are on a commission, but will not even attend a meeting once a month.

Vaslo wanted each commission to create an attendance policy. Great idea, but he backed down because Diane Peters got mad at him. Now we have commissions like the Community Improvement Commission who rarely meet because they can't get enough members to a meeting.

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recordar la yocorazon

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There is an attendance policy. If a member misses more than a certain number of meetings, they are canned and replaced by someone else. Duchane has a code of conduct he put in place for all commissioners on all commissions. They are expected to respect it and abide by it. Regular attendance is a requirement.

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Certain number of meetings?

Just what is this magic number?

What is "Regular attendance"?

Have all the commissions been informed of this new rule?

What is this "Code of Conduct" supposedly created by Duchane? I never heard of it. When was it created?

Any "Attendance Policy" should be passed and enforced by the commission before the city gets involved. Let them police themselves. If they prove they cannot, then let the city do it for them.

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Let Primo explain. He was at the meeting that Duchane had with all the commissioners.

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You are telling me that Duchane told the commissioners they had to attend so many meetings??

What was the number he told them?

Did he give everyone a copy of the Code of Conduct?

This is just another issue where Vaslo dropped the ball.

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Ask Primo.

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Primo most likely would agree with me that Vaslo dropped the ball.

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What about Vaslo's promise to put Lincoln Parkers to work? Didn't he do just the opposite by voting to hire OUTSIDE candidates, thus passing up deserving LP residents and longtime city workers?

Politics.

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Lincoln Parkers applied for the jobs, but the mayor and a council as a whole voted to appoint people with more experience rather than fall on their knees and give jobs solely to residents because they live here.

While residents should be given a nod and a nudge extra, they should NOT be hired if more qualified, viable candidates apply. The city must operate like a business in order to be successful and not like a friendsfest.

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Believe me, I do not disagree with you that more qualified applicants should be passed by in favor of selecting someone because of a "connection". But can you really say, for certain, that any of the LP people who applied for the jobs were not as qualified as the out of city applicants? And when you factor in the additional expense of paying the out of city employee (with travel mileagae, city owned vehicles, and what not), which applicant is really the wiser decision?

I do realize that these people were chosed by the council as a whole. But notice...I didn't blame Vaslo for not hiring LP residents. I blamed him for not voting to hire them...even though when he was campaigning...he said he would.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong here (I'm not being facetious, because I really could be wrong about it)...but didn't Murphy point this ironic bit out at a council meeting several months ago? Right AFTER he expressed his dissatisfaction with the council for selecting an out of city worker over a home-grown LP one?

I couldn't agree with you more that the city of LP needs to be run like a business. Perhaps if it were, we'd be in a better situation.

What kind of business lets an executive run up a cell phone bill (when it could have been prevented), just so they can publicly lambaste the perpitrator (Brady)? What kind of business pats themselves on the back for saving a couple extra dollars, then turns around and votes to give $27,000 away to a tarnished employee with less than 12 months on the job an who lies and commits plaguerism (Duchane)? What kind of business would allow a part time "supervisor" to drive a company vehicle all over the place (Mayor Brown). What kind of business would implement a LARGE retirement buyout program, without first understanding the financial impact (ERI).

LP is not being run like a business. And that's part of the problem.

Rule one of business: You're only as strong as your weakest link. In order to fortify your links, you need to have positive moral. How good is moral when LP citizens and employees are continously crapped on...just so some politico's can carry on with their own agenda's?

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Hey one termer, why don't you answer the mans question. He asked you, not me. Your the one that was up here bragging about Vaslo's attendance policies, you obviously, based on what you said are very proud. Is that because you were at the meeting yourself, or you just couldn't help beating your own drum once again.
Got caught in any parks lately?

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I don't know the men who applied for the jobs personally, so I can't say whether or not they were qualified. All I know is that the mayor and council reviewed resumes and listened to interviews and picked who the majority believed to be the best candidates. Several of the internal candidates who applied but were passed over later were given crew leader positions within the DPS -- a promotion for them because of other employees leaving. So it's not as if the city went out looking to replace the DPS with outsiders. They hired three people (if you include the engineer) for that department who they deemed were the most qualified.

I'm not sure if Murphy mentioned that or not. But I hope people can see what happens with Mr. Murphy. He knows when the council has the majority vote to do something. In those instances, he figures that his vote won't much sway the decision so he always "stands up for the residents." That way, the best qualified people will still get the job as they have the majority vote, but Murphy can walk away with the support of the city unions, who foolishly believe he is actually looking out for them.

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jujitsu50 (08-19-05)