Lee’s Summit City Council – Part 4 – State of the City Address
Posted by GSDispatch Editor in by The Lee's Summit Conservative
Mayor delivers State of the City Address
Lee’s Summit, September 9, 2010 – This evening in the Lee’s Summit City Council chambers Mayor Randall Rhoads gave his State of the City address to a nearly empty council chamber. The Mayor thanked Councilmen James Hallam, Kathy Hoffmann, Brian Whitley, Allan Gray, Joseph Spallo, Ed Cockrell, Bob Johnson, Dave Mosby and everyone in the city staff for a very positive year.
The Mayor opened the speech saying, “Today’s message highlights major accomplishments, our financial outlook, some of the cities ongoing programs and initiatives, and progressive finance focused on addressing the future needs of Lee’s Summit.” For the next 30 minutes the mayor outlined the progress made in the city’s infrastructure and put emphasis on the technological advances made including the replacement of an outdated 25 year old computer system used for the purchasing, inventory management and financial control of the city, known as a Enterprise Resource Planning system or ERP.
On the bright side, the city boasts that in the first two quarters, sales tax revenue is up by one percent (1%) while other cities in our area are having to adjust to reductions in their sales tax revenues of five to ten percent.
“Money Magazine ranks us one of the best places to live in America, citing the multimillion dollar renaissance of downtown Lee’s Summit” said Mayor Rhoads as recognition of the success of our City and the City Council.
I’ve written in detail in the first 3 parts of this series why Lee’s Summit is doing as well as it is. The new businesses that are locating in our city and continue to find great work ethic and a city poised to promote a strong pro-business culture; while maintaining a great suburban atmosphere for those of us who live here.
An attentive City Council listens to Mayor Rhoads in a mostly empty city council chamber.
The one thing that shocked me was the lack of attendance to the speech. The Mayor and City Council represent the people, but the people of the city have a responsibility to understand the issues and to express their opinion of how the city is run. How can we, as denizens of Lee’s Summit who live, grow, and raise our families take so little interest in where the city is going?
Mayor Rhoads’ background was evident as the speech focused on the technical aspects of the city’s infrastructure. The speech for the most part was well delivered and interesting. What it lacked was a clear statement of how the city was going to continue to put a strong effort towards the Economic Development. Don’t get me wrong, it was covered but you had to interpret the meaning of the new I-470 at Prior Rd interchange. You had to read between the words and find how each of those individual components makes the city more attractive to perspective companies.
The topic of the November 2010 Proposed “No Tax Increase” General Obligation Bond Projects was covered by Mayor Rhoads. These are 4 questions that will be in the Lee’s Summit ballot for Public Safety, Infrastructure (such as sidewalk and curb replacement), Road Improvements (Strother Road, View High & I-470 interchange improvements, and Tudor Road improvements). The total of this General Obligation Bond will be, if approved, $37,405,000.
The national and regional economy is not what it could be, let us face it: it is the worst economy since the Carter years. The topics that should be on everyone’s mind are: What is Lee’s Summit doing to attract more jobs? What is Lee’s Summit doing to control its budget and ensure we can survive a prolonged slow economy? What is Lee’s Summit doing to reduce taxes or the rate of rise in taxes and still maintain our city’s attractiveness?
These are the questions with which I went into the State of the City speech and I truly encourage you to watch the Mayor’s speech yourself when it is re-broadcast on the City’s government channel available on Comcast, channel 7; Time Warner Cable, channel 2; and AT&T U-verse, channel 99.
Mayor Rhoads’ closed with the following comments, “If you have only one take away message from my address it should be this; Lee’s Summit future is brighter than ever… remember our humble beginnings and see where we are today.”
I’ll close with this challenge: Lee’s Summit, get involved! Government of the people requires the people to be active participants, and the lack of participation tonight leaves too much latitude to City Council.
Respectfully Submitted,
The Lee’s Summit Conservative
