COMPLACENT ANYBODY?

BUFFALO COMMUNITY CENTER!

They changed their mind and will not be relocating City Hall to the Duckwalls building. No guarantees though.

One Million One Hundred Forty Eight Thousand Two Hundred Thirty Four Dollars and Fifteen Cents

TofBRptSept5(click here to view)

$1,148,234.15 and counting

Over a million bucks sitting in the bank and they are thinking about raising our rates to fund police protection?  Our doomsday trustees are too worried about earthquakes, election outcomes, and stock market fluctuations to tell the city manager to simply adjust the town's budget so the town can hire a cop.

Or maybe they are just yes men and only do what they are told to do by the town's manager, developer, or lawyer. 

Looks Like Our Economic Developer is Geppetto The Puppeteer

January (click here to read)

What we have here is a different way of looking at the same thing.  More smoking gun documentation of their his someone's plan. This obviously came out before the special meeting that was held January 24th.  And it speaks of previous discussion at a board meeting of which there absolutely had been no listed agenda items regarding selling the Duckwalls building.  All of these dishonest movements apparently were made in order to help High Plains steal get their hands on another $100,000 of grant money.  And as you can see above, apparently a letter from the Town that indicates the amount for which to sell the property was the catalyst for their conduct.  And low and behold the amount of $5000 was again thrown around. 

As stated in the document above

"we have to be willing to sell the property at a VERY low price." (Emphasis added by James Leonard the economic developer.)

This is more evidence that representatives of the Town of Buffalo knew all along that they were going to sell Duckwalls.  This documentation came before the scheduled meeting on January 24th and within it also mentions that very meeting on January 24th at noon. And it is all the more reason that the agenda should have said sell instead of leasing the Duckwalls building. There is no doubt that a willingness existed.  Very deceptive tactics indeed.

 And regarding moving City Hall afterwards. 

"but there again, little intricacies of those details can be settled later."

The intricate details such as putting things on the agenda correctly.  The intricate details of declaring Duckwalls surplus property before selling it. The intricate details of conducting an appropriate public hearing. Are those some of the things you want to settle later.  This document also kind of dispels any of the oh it's just a rumor comments that you may have heard or will hear.

Is that Pinocchio in that picture?  Mind you these are our city liars leaders.

Judas Goat

A REAP resolution was adopted in Nov 2011 to do this project listed underneath.(click on it to read easier)

 

Well there you have it, in plain sight, right before your very eyes. Someone at City Hall has been planning all along on moving City Hall to the Duckwalls building in order for our long time practicing doctor to have a specialty clinic in the City Hall building. Also so a new medical doctor can be brought in to the City Hall building. And for icing on the cake, provide an office for High Plains RC&D at the Duckwalls building.

Is our economic developer the Judas goat leading it’s Sheeple to a path of certain misfortune? We are letting this Judas goat take away our property without cause. Anyone can see that we, as sheeple, have willingly let our elected officials eagerly participate in this fiasco. How are the Town of Buffalo City Hall offices going to benefit by being cast to the street. Put in the situation that they are a tenant paying rent for their office space.

City Hall is positioning itself to be at the pity of some landlord and will have to pay rent in order to exist. When you own your place of business you do not have to worry about being cast out on the street searching for another place to set up shop. The Town of Buffalo is restricted on entering contracts for more than one year at a time. So based on that, does it make sense to move City Hall and become a renter that has to renegotiate lease terms year after year, forever? Heck Hell loosing the drive up window ought to ruffle enough feathers to put a stop to this bonehead project.

But wait. We are being led by the Judas goat. The Judas goat leads it’s sheeple to slaughter. There is no forward thinking future here. Have faith in whoever the Town of Buffalo’s new landlord is. We can trust the new owner of the newly rented City Hall office space to make all of the right decisions and maintain the property to the standard that would be expected.

For an explanation of what appears to be a conflict of interest you should read this article. Ah bullshit bull hockey, don’t bother. Town of Buffalo Trustee Robin Daley, who works for Harper County Community Hospital the owner of the clinic business that needs more space, voted and made motions for this to happen on several occasions. And Holly Yauk a Harper County Community Hospital board member works for High Plains RC&D which will be getting the new office in the Duckwalls building.

That “Detailed Project Description/Budget:” you see above was copied from the most recent REAP Grant that the Town of Buffalo accepted in February after they voted to sell (not lease) the Duckwalls building in January. That total amount was for more than $34,000 from our state government to the Town of Buffalo. Now get this, 3 months after the Town of Buffalo voted to sell (not lease) the Duckwalls building in January to High Plains RC&D they paid just under $18,000 for roof repairs on the Duckwalls building. 3 months after ! Yes that’s right they went forward and authorized roof repairs on the Duckwalls building after they voted to sell (not lease as stated on the agenda) said building to someone else for only $5,000. Is anybody getting a whiff of it yet?

Is it any wonder that they only listed the agenda back in January as leasing Duckwalls. Recently the Board was enlightened about the concerns of voting to sell the building when the agenda said lease. The town’s attorney pointed out that they haven’t declared Duckwalls surplus property yet. Could it be that they haven’t declared it surplus property because they are still throwing money at it?

I mean think about it. The law says to declare it surplus property first. Hold a public hearing about declaring it surplus property. Then vote with a properly worded agenda on whether to declare it surplus or not. Once those steps have taken place is when they should vote to sell the property. The Town of Buffalo back in January skipped every one of those steps and voted to sell the Duckwalls building for only $5000. Never mind the fact that the agenda for the meeting listed leasing the duckwalls property

Did Town of Buffalo skip those steps because they knew they couldn’t spend the State’s REAP money on property that had been declared surplus (aka junk-no longer needed?) Or maybe they skipped those steps to deny the citizens of this town the opportunity to voice their opinion on this matter. (Caution)To prevent nauseous vomiting from this smell take shallow breaths.

They haven’t spent all of the State’s REAP Grant money on Duckwalls, yet. The REAP Grant window of opportunity to spend all of the money will not expire until February 2013. There is more work to be done to that building according to the REAP application. The Town of Buffalo using the REAP Grant money awarded to them in February (after they voted, in January to sell the Duckwalls building to High Plains RC&D for only $5000), will be used to pay for HVAC repairs on the Duckwalls building. There’s more than $16,000 of REAP Grant money left so why not spend more of it on a building they voted to sell (not lease) to High Plains RC&D for only five grand.

Sheeple do this all of the time. They put multiple tens of thousands of dollars into properties they own and then turn around and sell it for pennies on the dollar. Then after practically giving away their property they ask to rent it back with a lease that can only last one year at a time. It's getting stronger, hold cloth over nose.

But wait, the Judas goat only does what the shepherd allows. The Town of Buffalo is in need of a wise shepherd. Why is the Judas goat leading the herd to its eventual demise? As long as there is no shepherd around to lead this flock of sheeple, they will continue to follow the Judas goat wherever it goes. Remember the Judas goat’s life is always spared every time it leads the flock to slaughter. I wander if any of the shepherds will step up and point this flock in the right direction before it is all too late.

Without the goofy analogy- Why are the citizens of Buffalo in favor of losing city hall as we know in order to allow for expansion of a private enterprise such as the clinic? Why are the citizens of Buffalo in favor of bending over backwards to be put in a position that they become renters of property instead of owners of property. Why are the citizens of Buffalo happy that they are losing the long standing convenience of the drive through window in order to appease the Buffalo Family Clinic’s desire for more professional space? Certainly the citizens are please to know that city hall could be kicked to the curb from one year to the next because they will then be at the mercy of some landlord they have no control over. And the citizens must think highly of selling valuable Real Estate assets for pennies on the dollar only to turn around and rent back what they used to own. Why are the townspeople so gleeful to know that tens and tens of thousands of dollars of money is being put into the Duckwalls building followed by only getting five grand back out of it after the sale.

Why do some board members say that this is just a rumor?

The sheeple are following the Judas goat all the way. That overwhelming aroma is the smell of death coming from the slaughter house.



"The beauty of doing nothing is that you can do it perfectly" Sowell

The responsibility of our municipal government does not lie in hands of a privilege few. We as citizens have the responsibility to keep tabs on our elected officials.  We have a town with a government, not the other way around. We are not a government with a town.  In the name of freedom, physical battles have been fought all over the world. Our call of duty on the home front is to be productive and educated citizens.  It is your sacred civic duty to pay attention.  If you can't take the roll of understanding what our local elected officials are doing in our name right here in Buffalo, then how can you justify bitching about what goes on down state and in Washington D.C.  Complacency is destructive.  An apathetic society will lead to tyranny. When few residents are paying attention to civic affairs city officials will continue to keep them disenfranchised.

FOR THOSE OF YOU THAT ARE STILL READING the following is the discussion that happened at the Aug 8th town board meeting.  This occurred following the board officially being made aware that they voted to sell the Duckwalls building when the agenda clearly stated that they were going to consider renovating and leasing the Duckwalls building.


Economic Developer-James Leonard- “On the Duckwalls property, if you all, if we want to put that back on the agenda, in a different manner, I mean that would be, I’m sure High Planes would like to know, if that’s not a favorite option, they probably would like to know if we don’t want to.”


Trustee Jarie Coggins- ”And, and we have been notified that the grant was received?”

James Leonard- ”yes”

Attorney- “And there will be several more opportunities for public input on that transaction because, of course, it’s all going to have to be declared surplus , the board has to enter into purchase to sell and a Real Estate purchase agreement a purchase to sell agreement, so there are several more opportunities for public input into that.”

Trustee David Orange/&(Attorney)-“Was our motion we made violate (No, no.) our authority under the open meetings act (No.) when we made a motion to sell something (No.) ?”

Attorney- “You don’t have to say exactly what it is you are going to do. Because then, of course, whoever drafts the agenda items would be binding you, and so Linda, by what she puts on the agenda would limit what the town board could do, well of course, that’s crazy. Obviously, allowing whoever prepares the agenda to control what your options are. So the purpose of an agenda item is to put the public on notice, generally, of what you are going to discuss. It was very clear from that agenda item that we were going to discuss Duckwalls, and what we were going to do with it, the the disposal. It did specifically say lease, but it was notice to the public that you were going to discuss Duckwalls and it’s future and that all that needed to be done. If anybody wanted to discuss Duckwalls, and what you all were going to do with it, that was certainly sufficient notice and they should have come and talked to you about it. If they had an objection to you leasing or selling it or doing or whatever or bulldozing it, they should have come to that meeting and addressed it at that time.”

Trustee David Orange- “Thank You.”

Concerned Citizen- “Can you tell me what the minutes reflect”

Attorney- “The minutes reflect: ‘the town board met with members of the High Planes resource and conservation development board to discuss options for the Duckwalls Building. Coggins seconded by Bishop made the motion to sell the Duckwalls building to High Plans RC&D in the amount of $5000 pending the approval of their rural business enterprise grant application for business incubation and office space. All voted Aye!”

Concerned citizen- “What did the agenda item reflect?”

Attorney- “That is in the consideration of the renovation and leasing of the Duckwalls building and of Town Hall.”

???- Inaudible question

Attorney- “It is disposal; I mean it is disposing of the interest in Real Estate. And once again, once again, this, it’s just to put people on notice of what is going to be discussed, they discussed that and it was disposition of an interest of length. Whether it’s leasing, whether it’s selling, you know they didn’t, you know they didn’t discuss, there is no indication then, that they discussed the renovation and leasing of Town Hall, even though it’s on the agenda. It was just to put the town on notice.”

Concerned Citizen-“This says to sell, the agenda said for leasing. What I’m saying is, if it is for sale, I’d like to know about that. I mean…”

Attorney- “Well you knew they were going to discuss Duckwalls, so you should have been there.”

Concerned citizen-“Wow, that’s pretty odd”

Attorney- “well yeah….”

Concerned citizen- “Well then, it should just say ‘we’re the town of Buffalo’ and we wouldn’t have to be here”

Attorney- “Well it does have to be, it was Duckwalls, it did indicate Duckwalls, and as I said, there are going to be several more opportunities to discuss the sale of Duckwalls.”

Concerned citizen- “It just doesn’t seem very transparent is all I’m saying”

Attorney- “Well whether it is transparent, and whether it’s legal, you know, whether it is transparent in your mind and whether it is legal are two different things.”

Concerned Citizen-“But still though transparency is important in government” “?????”

Trustee Alan Bishop- “I make the motion we adjourn”

Trustee David Orange- “I second.”

More Negative Bullspit Some May Not Want to Hear

During the appearances from the audience portion of the August 8th town board meeting it was brought to their attention that it seems they violated the OMA regarding their motion to sell the Duckwalls building. The town’s legal counsel was there and spoke out. That is when I believe a “heaping pile of buffalo chips” fell upon the room. Another citizen at the meeting,advocating transparency; pointed out, that based on what the town’s attorney was saying that the only thing the agenda would need to say is “Town of Buffalo”!

The local paper is currently clued-up also. They have received a link to the FOI Oklahoma Article that recognizes this issue. The editor made a follow up call to learn about the circumstances. The editor mentioned possibly contacting FOI Oklahoma.

The Assistant District Attorney has been aware since last week regarding this matter. It has been clarified that she could not be an investigator and prosecutor both. It was further explained if she investigated then she would become a witness and then wouldn’t be able to be the prosecutor. The Assistant District Attorney pointed out that in order for anything to happen an affidavit would have to be presented to her office. It was recommended that the posted agenda along with the approved minutes be given to the Sheriff. It was also recognized that the copies of the economic developer’s reports, that came several months before the meeting detailing plans to do what they did, could be helpful.

The Harper County Sheriff currently retains copies of the posted agenda, the approved minutes, and the two different pages from the economic developer’s reports from last fall and early winter. A printout of the FOI Oklahoma Article which contains references to some prior cases and attorney generals opinions has also been acquired. The Sheriff pointed out the assistant district attorney would not be back until next week and thus he could not go over these things with her until then.

Brian Wiles the Business & Energy Programs Director of Rural Development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture received information that outlines these state of affairs . They are the entity who awarded the grant that upon being awarded to High Plains RC&D was set to trigger the sale of the Duckwalls building to High Plains RC&D. The Business & Energy Programs Director of Rural Development with the USDA is currently seeking a letter from the Town of Buffalo for clarification on this issue.

Sunshine Law

FOI Oklahoma takes up the issue of the Town of Buffalo regarding violating the open meetings act in the following link.

The agenda says 'lease,' but Buffalo trustees vote to sell building

When you get back from reading that article have a listen to this speech from the movie Fair Game.

MAYOR LEADS THE WAY

It has finally been declared by the Mayor that Police is the number one priority for the town. He said we found a way to do it. It was also pointed out by the Mayor that the citizens want it. They deserve it. And they deserve to be protected. The Mayor continued to convey that it is also important to keep the county safe. It might mean that something in the general budget did not get as much money as what it should. We can get by to fund our police department. The Mayor then urged the board to vote for it.

During the board meeting, while taking advantage of having the Town of Buffalo's auditor present discussing ways to fund the police, the Honorable Mayor of the Town of Buffalo blurts out “Ok Derrel I’ve had enough of this. We’ve gone back and forth.”  Nipping it in the bud.

Oh wait a minute. It wasn’t the Town of Buffalo’s Mayor that said any of that stuff about police being the number one priority for the town. It wasn’t the Mayor of Buffalo saying that we, as citizens, deserve to be protected. It wasn’t the Mayor of Buffalo saying he found a way to fund police protection. It wasn’t the Town of Buffalo’s Mayor leading us toward solutions.

It was the City of Laverne’s Mayor that came to the board meeting saying those things.  It was Laverne's Mayor bequeathing leadership for the citizens of Buffalo.

It's kind of embarrassing, actually.

Lots a Lots a Links

Creditable sources reveal that the Duckwalls building will be sold to High Plains Resource Conservation and Development (High Plains RC&D). The Town of Buffalo (T of B) will then turn around and rent back space from High Plains RC&D and move the remaining of their offices into the remodeled Duckwalls building. This will allow the Buffalo Family Health Clinic to continue its land grab and expand and occupy all of the current City Hall building. If High Plains RC&D decides to sell the Duckwalls building in the future they will sell it back to the T of B first.

Since this may be construed as “hearsay”, is their any evidence that supports this?

The old Legion building, which was last occupied by the retail business Duckwalls, is currently without a tenant. This building is listed on a recent Town of Buffalo (T of B) capital improvement plan (CIP) as one of its asset that has an overall worth that greatly exceeds a quarter of million dollars ($290k).

First of all who is High Plains RC&D? This link  shows that is a business located in the Buffalo area and its contact person is Holly Yauk.

Who is the Buffalo Family Health Clinic? Using this link  you will see that it is a venture owned and operated by the Harper County Community Hospital (HCCH). The same Holly Yauk from High Plains RC&D is also listed as the Vice chairman for the Board of Trustees of the HCCH.
Going to this link  Robin Daley is listed under physicians for the HCCH which, as mentioned before, is the owner/operator of the Buffalo Family Health Clinic (BFHC) which resides in the City Hall building. It is common knowledge that Robin Daley has office space in the BFHC.

And then we have the T of B which you can see using this link  has listed Robin Daley as a Trustee for the T of B.

How did this all develop?

From the T of B Economic Developers reports back in late September up to early November 2011 you can see mentioning of matters concerning the HCCH and High Plains RC&D.

Excerpts from October development report:
"We have two opportunities now with Duckwalls. One of those is to sell it to the hospital (we can do that without public auction) However, they would have to pay fair market value for it and they may not be in a position to do that. Our other option, which I’m working with the High Plains office on, is that High Plains purchase the property and develop a business incubator."


Excerpts from November development report:
"Regarding Duckwalls. As a remind, we have two opportunities to consider. Sell to the hospital or partner with High Plains Resource Conservation and Development. High Plains will submit a grant application in February that would enable them to keep the High Plains office here in Buffalo as well as develop and support a business incubator. As of today (Friday, Oct 28), the hospital’s position is to wait and see whether the High Plains application is successful."


With instances of the HCCH being mentioned on at least three occasions by the T of B’s E.D. regarding the city owned Duckwalls building it is plain to see that the HCCH is seeking more space. One can further conclude with city hall continuing to parcel out parts of its very own office to the BFHC the space the HCCH is seeking will be used for further expansion of the new clinic at City Hall.

At high noon on a cold Tuesday in late January of 2012 a Special Meeting was held to discuss leasing and renovation of both Duckwalls and Town Hall. This link is the posted agenda for that meeting. The agenda item regarding the Duckwalls building and Town Hall is shown in red:

Discussion & consideration of the renovation and leasing of the Duckwall’s building and of Town Hall.

Coggins, seconded by Bishop, made the motion to sell Duckwall's building to High Plains RC&D in the amount of $5000 pending the approval of their Rural Business Enterprise Grant application for business incubation and office space. The vote was Bishop, aye; Carpenter, aye; Coggins, aye; Orange, aye; and Daley, aye. Minutes for this motion were approved on the Feb 8, 2012 meeting in the concent agenda.

The agenda item clearly states that they were to discuss and consider leasing the Duckwall's building and Town Hall.  They voted to sell the Duckwalls building.  Not lease the Duckwalls building. Sell it. Not lease the Duckwalls building for $5000. Sell the Duckwalls building for $5000.
Taken from a guide to Oklahoma's Open Meeting Act
Agendas should state the purpose of the meeting and clearly describe each agenda item so that an ordinary citizen with no specialized knowledge of the board's prior action or deliberations will be able to understand from the agenda what the board will be doing at the meeting. Here is the link to that guide. 

On July 5th, 2012 the Town of Buffalo's Economic Developer, after the T of B public meeting had adjourned and the board members were rising to their feet, announced that the High Plains RC&D got the Rural Business Enterprise Grant.

So to summarize

First there exist lots of "links" to this story.
Depending on who you are, you will have to pay full market price for the Duckwalls building.
If you would have been in the right place at the right time you might have been able to buy the Duckwalls building for $5001.
If you can see the hidden agenda in the posted agenda you will have a clear understanding about what is really going on with your city government.
The Town of Buffalo likes to sell quarter million dollar chunks of assets without telling anybody about it.
Because of this embarrassing situation the board fired the water meter reader and then promptly resigned their positions as Town Trustees. Nah, that didn’t really happen.
If you are looking for a textbook case of violating the Open Meetings Act look no further.
The Town of Boynton tried to sidestep the Open Meetings Act too. Happened not long ago, here's the must read  link .
The Town of Buffalo is the perfect model of government transparency.
Incubators are used to hatch eggs.
And last but not least Greg Harper contributed to this problem.

Found on Town of Buffalo Website 7/30/2012

Will The Joke Be On Us?

FYI "A work group will be assigned to gather facts and figures regarding this issue"

from the un-official minutes of the last town board meeting as published in the Harper County Journal.
With the "issue" being police protection.
 
Right now the Town of Buffalo/ board/ city hall is mostly focused on golf course sprinkler systems, completely remodeling and then selling(giving away) the Legion/Duckwalls building for $5000, under the guise of an economic incubator, and then in turn eventually renting space from them after they sell it so they can move city hall there to allow for more expansion of the clinic that will consume all of the current city hall building where they are now.

Where will the Town of Buffalo police department be located at after all of this? Not to mention the issues of the extra paper work that the ”at pleasure of the board(elected)” employees will have to endure if there was an actual police department.  Meanwhile the documented population of this town has increase 8.3% since the year 2000 and along with it the crime rates. And our fine board can’t even direct the City Manager to fill the vacated positions of the "on the books" police department.

Until the people connected to city hall get their collective noses pried away from the hospital/clinic scenario and golf course sprinklers there probably won’t be any effort on their part to fill the police department’s slots. Assigning a work group to gather facts and figures regarding this issue gets the monkey off of their back. I’ll let you guess what entity the two initial work group members are connected to.

The annual budget is being put together by the auditor for approval in the next several weeks. Now is the time to put the heat on the board to make sure the focus is directed where the taxpaying citizens want it to be. Who will win this go round? Clinic? Doby? Police?

Buffalo's Phantom Police Department

Just like the Buffalo PD you probably "won’t see" this story in the Harper County Journal anytime soon. It has been determined that the Town of Buffalo still has a police department. This department exists on the books at City Hall and its monthly reports are being generated and sent to the necessary state agencies as required. It is not clear if these reports are compulsory by law to be sent or not. There never has been a vote (by the town board that is) to shut down, close, or dismantle the Town of Buffalo police department. The monthly reports that are being sent on to the State only affirm that there are no active officers at this time.

The only activity by the board, in the last year or so, regarding its own police department has been to sell some computer equipment to the HCSO. The police department has reached its current state due to attrition of its officers and the police chief. Well over a year ago, and within a few months of the last police employee’s departure, the board faced opportunities on at least two occasions to address the police department’s situation. What they did do is hire a code enforcement officer who resides in another town to write up code violations while being paid $12.00 per hour. That contract was renewed in June.

In addition to this, the board met with the HCSO on several occasions concerning contracting agreements. Those meetings occurred between July and October of 2011. There was never a vote held. Due to no motions ever being made, let alone seconded, no vote was held and therefore is listed in the minutes that no action was taken by the board to contract with the HCSO. I believe the last offer was for the HCSO to cover the town for $4000(+/-) a month for each officer with a minimum of two. This would be equal to $96,000(+/-) per year cost to the Town of Buffalo for the western themed guns for hire program. (Please correct me if I am wrong on the latest amounts)

During the most recent July meeting there was a sparse, but thorough, attendance of concerned citizens addressing the board during its public comments section of the meeting. One of the most revealing issues I realized is that a majority of the board is not getting any of our concerns being voiced simply due to the fact they do not have Facebook accounts. It is not clear to me if they even have smart phones, email, or even access to a computer for that matter. So keep this in mind when you see FB comments being made or blog articles that are written or anonymous blog comments. More than likely a majority of the board is not seeing it. Because of this I am not certain they are even aware of the gravity of the town’s situation as being presented by the citizens and the HCSO. They may not even be remotely aware that there is a problem.

Having recently been challenged to "get off my ass and do something", which was "liked" by numerous people,  just may be what everybody will need to do to make the board aware of the issue of law enforcement.

What Would Sheriff Taylor Have Done?

The existence of Mayberry in our hearts and minds has been brought to light with the recent passing of Andy Griffith. The world’s favorite sheriff was always Sheriff Taylor. Everyone that grew up in a small town had a special kinship and imagination with all of the characters of Mayberry RFD. We often thought about people that we new in our community and placed them as being the various characters from the sitcom we grew up watching. We all felt like we were from Mayberry or that they could have done a show like that in our hometown and it would have turned out the same. Learning of Andy Griffith’s death almost brings out a sense of hopelessness and fear that small town America has passed away.

The recent trends of the criminal activity in and around Buffalo is rudely awakening us that part of this may be true. So has Mayberry died in our hearts? I don’t think so. I see a concern by the similar characters of our town. Heck even the folks over at Mount Pilot are chiming in to help. Various characters are becoming involved and issues are being addressed.

Often you might see an episode on the show when the obvious villains were in town. One common plot was somehow all of the characters became involved in making Mayberry safe again. Everyone worked together to figure out a way that they could get back to their normal everyday lives.

In our Mayberry episode, one of the issues is that Sheriff Taylor does not have the ability to enforce all of the laws on the books.Depending on where he is at, some laws are unavailable for him to use. The Harper County Sheriffs Office (HCSO) cannot catch those obvious villains in town without some changes being made.

For the HCSO to do its job in the most effect manner, it at times, may be necessary for the sheriff and deputies to have the ability to enforce a city ordinance. It is being presented, that an agreement must be in place that allows the HCSO to act on city ordinance. This is critical to be able to be most effective when certain occasions arise, such as a curfew violation.

This need is a county wide need and is independent of whether or not the HCSO is providing further police protection through an additional arrangement of police patrol. An agreement should be in existence with all municipal governments in the county that have ordinances. The “ability to enforce ordinances” issue is completely independent of the amount of manpower the HCSO possesses. The ordinance issue is not unique to any one specific municipal government. If the HCSO desires to be as effective that it can possibly be, in all parts of the county, it is advantageous to establish such an agreement with all the towns in the county that have ordinances.

The ability to enforce city ordinances throughout the county is independent of the towns, it is independent of whether police patrol is provided, and it is independent of the current state of manpower the department has.

What will the characters of Mayberry do?

I wonder what Sheriff Taylor would have done.

GET OFF YOUR ASS AND DO SOMETHING

On Facebook it has been suggested to me, several times just this last weekend, to do something about the recent crime increase that we have been having in Buffalo. It seems that there are several people that “like” the suggestion that I do something about these problems. So here it goes.

One of the issues is lack of manpower to police the streets of Buffalo. It is common knowledge that the Town of Buffalo (TofB); for reasons that I do not know; has disbanded its Police Department (I think I know why but I'll keep that to myself for now).

It is left up to the Harper County Sheriffs Office (HCSO) to enforce the laws within the city limits of Buffalo. The HCSO concedes that they are spread too thin to provide the protection that Buffalo needs. They want more manpower. Currently there is an impasse between the TofB and the HCSO in reaching a solution to the lack of officers to patrol the town.

It has been suggested that Neighborhood Watches be formed to help out with the shortage of manpower. One can google that topic and find numerous strategies and helpful organizations to guide a community successfully towards a safer community. One common guideline, from different googled pages, stresses the importance of establishing a relationship between the watch groups and the local law enforcement agency which, in this case, is the HCSO. I am not aware if the HCSO has experience and training for implementing any of these watches or not. It is not clear to me if any area organizations can provide any guidance, whether it be a civic group or some sort of law enforcement association.

Let’s just imagine that everything falls into place, the people unite, the entities embrace and the watch groups are organized and implemented to actual on the ground activity. The groups are actively watching and notice unusual behavior or even worse criminal activity. The group witnesses something as simple as popping a fire cracker by a juvenile out past his curfew. It is clearly a violation of city ordinance for two possible issues. The HCSO is called and they respond. Or do they?

Even if they do, as it has been pointed out in the past, the HCSO “can not act on any city ordinance” issues. So that leaves the development, organization, recruitment efforts, and implementation of the Neighborhood Watch group in the same position that the HCSO is now, with their hands tied and the inability to do anything about crimes being committed.

So given that hands are tied because HCSO “can’t act on city ordinance violations” shouldn’t the first order of business, and one step in fast tracking towards a solution to part of the problem, be to enter into an interlocal agreement with the Town of Buffalo for the immediate time being that will allow the HCSO to enforce city ordinances?

A zero cost agreement should always be in existence no matter what the status of manpower is at the time. It should be renewed annually whether or not there is a contract for police coverage for the town by HCSO. It should be renewed annually if even a city police dept exists or not in Buffalo. 

Let’s remove those cuffs so they can be used where they are needed. It seems that currently more manpower or any Neighborhood Watch group that has its hands tied like the HCSO is of no use.

Local Crime Sprees Capture Our Attention

The recent local crimes that have been occurring in Buffalo have captured the attention of its townsfolk. Some recent postings on various Facebook(FB) walls and statuses have been generating some comments, ideas, suggestions, along with the usual blaming and bashing of one another. Nevertheless, some different possible solutions have been generated on various FB accounts. I find it very challenging to follow along with various thoughts coming from all of these different FB pages that are out there. Some people may or may not have FB friendships or privileges to see what is being discussed from the various FB outlets.

In summary what is being said is that we have a shortage of Law officers and that is directly impacting the crime increase that we are seeing locally. There is no argument there. The recent crime sprees point to this as being quite evident. The solutions to cure this dilemma are where the discussion becomes cloudy at times. Given that a shortage of manpower exists the fix would seem to lean towards more manpower. Herein the cloudiness of this topic develops.

It is being written that the Harper County Sheriffs Office (HCSO) cannot enforce any of the city ordinances that the Town of Buffalo has on its books.

Via their FB this question was asked of the HCSO “but is curfew a city ordinance issue?” of which they responded “Yes it is a City Ordinance issue. We can not act on it.”

So given that their hands are tied because they “can’t act on city ordinance violations” shouldn’t the first order of business, and one step in fast tracking towards a solution to part of the problem, be to enter into an interlocal agreement with the Town of Buffalo for the immediate time being that will allow the HCSO to enforce city ordinances?

This agreement should always be in existance no matter what the status of manpower is at the time. It should be renewed annually whether or not there is a contract for police coverage for the town by HCSO. It should be renewed annually if even a city police dept exists or not in Buffalo.

The Town of Buffalo has no police but they have ordinances that could help curb some of the vandalism that is happening within the city limits. The HCSO has manpower that has its hands tied. Lets remove those cuffs so they can be used where they are needed.