Welcome to OnsideBuffalo - "OnSide" Buffalo Oklahoma - Buffalo Blog -of the town of Buffalo Oklahoma

Late Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson said,
"It is not the function of our government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error."

This blog is for people to share their thoughts and ideas on things of interest in this town of Buffalo Oklahoma.


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Wednesday, January 6, 2010

We're Getting Hosed


City officials do it again. Thirty three thousand dollars this time! During the Publics Works Authority meeting the board voted to buy a jetter. Instead of using money from the capitol outlay account, they decided to dip into the Public Works savings to buy equipment for the Town of Buffalo. With this purchase they have depleted the Public Trust fund down to just under half of what it had. At this rate of blowing the Public Works reserves, there will never be enough money set aside to ever replace the asbestos water lines that deliver those nutrients for the nourishment of our bodies.

However, during the regular board meeting they had no problem whatsoever of spending over sixteen thousand dollars from the capitol outlay account to purchase a mower for the golf course. Even with this purchase the capitol outlay account still has over six figures left in it.

Take your eyes off of Obama and have a look a little closer to home!
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13 comments:

  1. So they spend BIG bucks on a piece of equipment that will clean out the sewer lines so they will what..drain all our waste faster or whatever into our defunct sewer ponds? Smart move...

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  2. Better in the sewer ponds than your front yard....

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  3. I am so grateful we have this blog site to keep us abreast of current events, especially issues involving the city government and expenditures of our hard earned money. Personally, I don't have the education or experience to understand the issues, but at least this is getting some interest and exposure. My limited knowledge of the individual board members is positive. I think they need a pat on the back for their service to this community.

    I definitely appreciated the past article on the principle of having a transparent government. Thanks, Greg. Good job.

    Marlene (Renouf)

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  4. You are kidding right?
    A pat on the back?
    Yeah, a pat on the back hard enough to make them spit out their false teeth and get rid of all the bs that's inside of them.
    We don't have a transparent government. Wake up!
    Without Onside and Inside we wouldn't have known anything about all the stuff going on behind the scenes for the last 2 years.
    There's No transparency! Not locally and most certainly not Nationally.
    Has anybody heard anything about what's been going on behind the closed doors of Buffalo politics?

    Besides the spending of our money on stupid things like houses that sit there and remain unchanged many months later, to sewer cleaning machines whixh will in the long term cause more harm to our decaying sewage system than good, to Federal investigations into the municipal pool. (Yes, the Town received a letter about their violation of the VGB act) to Buffalo's Mayoral violations of a huge quantity of Town ordinances to the CIP fraud, to the Town Board's investigation into Buffalo's Police chief and hired lackey regarding wages, hours, log books and other alleged improprieties.
    Heard anything about all this? NO? Ha! Transparency?
    And you want to give them a pat on the back? How about a stick up their back side?
    Look around you!
    From Obama to Daley there's no transparency and we're bending over taking it in stride.

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  5. That's what I meant about having an avenue like this blog to find out the REAL scoop. Thank you for the information because I'm pretty isolated at the moment. At least with this site we can all moniter our funds, etc.

    I do respectfully disagree with you on one point. I try to separate a person's attributes from the stand they take on diverse issues. I re-assert that I DO NOT have the education or experience that you obviously do -- and that is a commendation, not an insult!!! If I knew your identity I certainly would vote for you. But, as you well know, a position on the outside of the board DOES hold more power to implement change via the "free press" of this blog. Being a catalyst to effect change is more effective than having your hands tied on a board.

    Thanks for the discussion.

    Marlene

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  6. PS

    I said I appreciate the principle of transparent government. Did I say we had attained that GOAL?

    MR

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  7. MR is right. We haven't attained that goal but we can push for transparency.

    To the comment about lack of transparency:
    Is it Buffalo's responsibility to be transparent or is it your and my and Buffalo town folks responsibility to hold our elected officials accountable and transparent?

    Where is the Harper County Journal in all of this?
    I haven't read any articles about the Mayor violating any town ordinances. I didn't read about any probe into the pool and violations. I failed to see any articles about the town board investigating the police or the chief. None of this is unusual. There have never been any articles like that in my lifetime. So if the Journal isn't going to do it then who is?
    You, me, M.R., Greg, Dave? All of us?
    You are so right. This blog could serve as a catalyst, the starting point for making all this come out in the open. Force the town of Buffalo, to be transparent. This blog could serve as the promoter of transparency at the local level. My guess is though that it won't.
    Most of the people posting on here don't want to know what their local mayor, town board member, or government is doing wrong or illegally. Oh, they want the gossip and scandalous information about them personally but they care little about our elected members spending OUR money frivolously and making ridiculous decisions. Who really cares if the mayor, every day of his life, violates ordinances? It doesn't affect me or us and many people are doing the same thing. If everyone is doing it then it must be okay.
    Why not take over for where Inside Buffalo left off? Why can't we as citizens do the checking of stories? We can get copies of city hall documents. M.R. can do some checking. I can do some checking. Greg can.
    Why not make this blog the Buffalo transparency project? Any takers?

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  8. Thanks for understanding my original post.

    You may not know but for several years (since the present economic development person took his position) I have been working volunteerly to help pump up tourism in Buffalo. With great wisdom, I feel, James mentioned at a seminar that the infrastructure of this town was not strong enough to support incoming businesses. His seminar gave many professional guidelines to businesses to help improve service and appearance. That was before the current move to improve the town and before the grade school sold. I don't care who started it and who is in their own way adding their expertise to the effort. Let's go for it.

    I'm a firm believer in the guideline to look to the principle, not the personality. My goal is to give tools so that the other person can be empowered to succeed. Right at the moment, I'm kind of tied up with my own little project improving life along this line for about 50 people.

    I am a legal secretary, which is 18 hours away from a business admin. associate degree. My accounting education was helpful in monitoring and auditing expenditures of 6 million per month in a state agency. I understand how stringent Federal and State guidelines can be. I DO rely on the professionals who have the expertise and periodically review "the books."

    I would prefer to know the general, overall plans of spending the funds from the increase in water rates. "It's a fool that judges without studying." But my question is: would I understand it adequately to influence others. I seriously doubt that I would.

    MR

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  9. AN INNER VIEW

    I have said for years that ALL of Buffalo needs a hot seat. The intent of a hot seat is to focus the individual (after 2 weeks of education on the character defects common to all mankind) on his OWN strengths and weaknesses. I used a scale of 1 to 10 to rate myself on each defect to see which areas I needed to improve. I then noticed that, imaginatively, they reminded me of teeth on a gear. Thinking of the gears of a clock: my strengths can cover your weaknesses, vice versa, in a teamwork effort.

    The method I experienced at the treatment center: I was on stage reading out loud 70 negatives about myself from the audiences perspective. Very humbling experience!!! Then I was allowed to read the 70 positives. No one likes chastisement and edification, but it is beneficial to the individual in the long run.

    That, basically, is what has been happening on this site. Kinda sorta.

    Now, before we use a 2x4 on the city board and mistakenly call it therapeutic, let's sharpen the sword to excise our own character defects with the definite goal of learning judgment (discernment) with mercy. We start within ourselves what wisely will bring about desired positive results. "Greater is he that can conquer himself than he that can conquer a city."

    Common symptoms of the character defects are listed in the next post. Let's start with an "Inner View" of ourselves to find tough, but considerate ways to heal our own emotional wounds before we start hashing and slashing the town board.

    MR

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  10. AN INNER VIEW, PART 2

    1. Jealousy (murder, anger, rage)
    2. Lying
    3. Perversity (lust, haters)
    4. Heaviness (grief, despair, gluttony, depression, hopeless, rejection, self pity)
    5. Infirmity (sickness, disease)
    6. Deaf and dumb (epilepsy, lunatic, anorexia)
    7. Fear (torment, terror, worry, inferiority complex, phobia)
    8. Pride (stubborn, wrath, arrogance, control, self righteous)
    9. Bondage (bitterness, addiction)

    This is not an exhaustive listing, but I did glean these from a very reliable book.

    We can learn to identify the roots of our own behavior before we "Send people to prison unnecessarily."

    Thanks for the opportunity to share MY views.

    MR

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  11. blah, blah, blah....Let the courts decide if prison is where a criminal should be.
    If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it must be a duck! If it smells like Poo, looks like Poo, it must be POO!

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  12. Just attended the Lunch and Learn today (Wednesday) Hope you Anonymous people were there. It was an amplified version on the importance of good customer service to help grow prosperous businesses in rural areas. The overview of the PRIDE program was presented several years ago. Very positive approach to some of our problems.

    MR

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  13. I was there, but I didn't see any business people at the Chamber event where the PRIDE program could or would apply. Oh there were a couple of small independent people who work for themselves but not any small businesses that employ people and deal with the public.
    Where were the small businesses that drive our economy?
    The program was for those who weren't there which shows that the chamber doesn't work in this town.

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