IT'S A FAMILY AFFAIR!

At the last January 7th board meeting in which Mr. Bishop was absent from, the Mayor recused herself from the agenda item regarding the modification of a city ordinance that causes the City Treasurer and City Clerk to, in general, get a raise every time raises are given to the town’s laborers. The Mayor removed herself because of the conflict of interest regarding this issue and the fact that it affects her mother-in-law the City Treasurer. Because of this, the board no longer had a quorum and thus couldn’t address the issue at that time. That is exactly how that situation should have transpired.

The goal is to remove the stupid language of the ordinance prior to the filing period of the City Treasurer’s office this election period. Apparently this move is meeting resistance from the Clerk and Treasurer’s office. It was requested at the last meeting for this to be on the next (January 21st) meeting’s agenda for another attempt to bring this to a vote of the board. The City Clerk left it off this week’s agenda. After all, the more delays there are, the less likely to get any language changed before the filing period in February. An addendum to the agenda had to be posted. This is after persistence from a Town’s Trustee who is elected to address these types of issues, of which the clerk and treasurer cannot vote on. Since they can’t vote, they leave things off and continue to have selective memories. That is the typical underhanded political maneuvering that we have all come to love and expect from the city staff.

Speaking of being selective, that brings me back to the Mayor and her relationship with her elected mother-in-law, the City Treasurer. As mentioned earlier, the Mayor removed herself from the issue and caused a momentary lack of quorum for the meeting. A possible change of the ordinance could have had a negative impact on her mother-in-law’s salary and was unable to proceed. But think back a few weeks earlier when the Mayor chose to continue to participate in the pay raise that affected her mother-in-law the City Treasurer. Since this was a positive impact she continued to participate and influenced the success of the pay raise in which she had a conflict of interest. So the City Mayor remains seated in positive actions for her mother-in-law the City Treasurer and yet the Mayor decides not to participate in the things that have a negative impact on her mother-in-law the City Treasurer.

But is there any surprise here? This is the same “Trustee” that is the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for the hospital of which is getting a new clinic in City Hall, at the taxpayers expense, due to her participation, guidance, and leadership.

If there is an “appearance” of conflict of interest, is it better to recuse oneself and remove any doubt that may linger? Recusing oneself should be done in its entirety which includes the discussion part of it. Participating and then abstaining on the vote is not the same.

These are the types of things that remind me of what happens to Buffalo when the wind blows from the East …. It stinks!!

Board Voted to Move the Buffalo Police Headquarters Clear Out to the Municipal Airport

In what may prove to have been a hasty move Wednesday night the board voted to move the Buffalo Police Headquarters clear out to the Municipal Airport. In order to provide a secure work environment at city hall the board passed a motion to move the Buffalo Police Department to the Municipal Airport north of Buffalo. Evidently this action was taken without any involvement or knowledge by its very own Airport Board. So after all of the hard work to get the Town of Buffalo’s police department restarted they immediately cast it out of the city limits. Granted, it is city property and it is a city owned building. So,they do have that right bestowed within themselves to do this if they so choose to, BY GOSH! With no opportunity for input from the Airport Board and little opportunity from citizens concerned about their safety with the police department residing out of the city limits we have been NIKE’d. They “just did it”.

With the new clinic being put in city hall there evidently is no other alternative to provide a separate police wing. The separate area is needed so that the staff at city hall can work comfortable without potential concerns of criminals being brought through their halls for interrogation. There are times when suspects need to be separated during interrogations and placing them in an occupied office poses a risk.

Shortsightedness and selfishness still exists with our City government. When they were making the decision to remodel for the clinic they were also bringing back the Police Department. Why didn’t the staff and board raise these concerns then? Would that have jeopardized the clinic implementation? Is there so much focus on the clinic that they failed to realize their very own needs. So a knee jerk, selfish move is to grab another location that they happen to own and use it without any consultation with those involved. (Airport Board and citizens that may be concerned about a police department that doesn’t reside in the community)

They further distanced themselves from any consideration that citizens may have, (about the police chief and/or officers being stationed out at the airport), by reacting without considering other alternatives. Their predicament is a result of bending over backwards to accommodate the new doctor and the new clinic. Is there a better solution to this problem than to permanently place the Town of Buffalo’s Police Headquarters out at the Municipal Airport? Isn’t there some place within Buffalo that can be used for the police headquarters?

In other news the City Manager brought about an official complaint which was levied against one of the town’s reserve officers. Evidently Joe has visual radar and deemed the reserve officer drives to fast. He formally reported the fast driving allegations to the new police chief causing an official permanent document to be filed against the officer. Coincidentally, this is the same reserve officer that backed into the new city police vehicle with his own personal vehicle thus causing minor damage to the new cop vehicle. It should be noted that the reserve officer made the necessary arrangements to have his personal insurance cover all of the expenses of the needed repairs. Well, at least he is paying for his mistakes.

Harper County Highly Ranked for Overall Rate of Cancer

Is the Onside Buffalo five state map recognized by some of you out there? Why is Harper County represented by red? Does Buffalonian hit the nail on the head? Other people seem to have similar concerns. By the way, the map was put up on the Blog well before Buffalonian responded about their concerns. The above map is a close up of Oklahoma and gives more details on the data of the mainpage five state map.

To read Buffalonian's comments and others. Click on the link below.

http://onsidebuffalo.blogspot.com/2008/12/picture-says-thousand-words.html

FILING PERIOD IS OPEN

There are two full term board slots and then one to fill the remaining term of the recently vacated board position. The dynamics of the board could really change for the better or the people’s vote will be banal and status quo will prevail.

It is time for you to challenge yourself to step up to the plate and make a positive impact for Buffalo. Or encourage someone else to run for office.

This should not be a popularity contest. These are demanding positions and they deserve to be occupied by persons willing to commit lots of time and put forth honest efforts toward the issues that will be encountered.

Also the Town Treasurer's position is coming up.

Who is willing to stick their neck out? Is anyone out there up for the challenge?

Superintendent’s Contract Renewal Passes

The Buffalo High School Board voted to renew the Superintendent’s contract by a vote of 3 to 2. Hudson, Pearson, and Bowles voted in favor of the renewal. Weder and Olson voted against the Superintendent's contract renewal.

Who will file for office? How will you vote?

The filing period is in February for three positions of Town Board of Trustees. There are two full terms and then one to fill the remaining term of the recently vacated position. The dynamics of the board could really change for the better or the people’s vote will be banal and status quo will prevail. It is time for you to challenge yourself to step up to the plate and make a positive impact for Buffalo. Encourage someone to run for office. Vote for the best candidates for that office. This should not be a popularity contest. These are demanding positions and they deserve to be occupied by persons willing to commit lots of time and put forth honest efforts toward the issues that will be encountered.

Also the Town Treasure's position is coming up. That would be an excellent one to see challenged. It pays very well too.

Buss and Harper are the two Trustees that do not have to run for office. Linda does not run for office this time either.

Is anyone out there up for the challenge? Who is willing to stick their neck out?

WHERE THERE IS NO VISION, THE PEOPLE PERISH

Where there is no vision.
At a recent town board meeting it was interesting to note that the town’s economic developer seemed to firmly believe that the capacity of the wastewater treatment facility is sufficient. There seems to be a lot of opposition regarding the accuracy of the presentation at the 2010 meetings that where held in the past. This information was presented by the state’s Department of Commerce. The slide show clearly proclaims that the wastewater treatment facility is at full capacity. There must therefore be in existence some evidence to the contrary of that presentation. Evidence that would dispute the situation that exists right now will not continue to exist. As previously pointed out by the article “Anyway you look at it” from the Inside Buffalo website, there are indications that the facility needs to be upgraded to handle its inflow.

Where there is no vision.
One would think that the economic developer of the Town of Buffalo would be the champion crusader for growth of the community. The desirable goals of the economy for the town would be progress. With progress, there would be developmental growth of the town, new houses, new businesses, and more residents. That will put more strain on the sewage system. However, the sensitivity with the associated costs of the expansion of the system is clouding the ability to come to terms with the situation. The capacity issue is not sensitive in itself. The town is reaching the limit of, and may have already outgrown its ability to handle, what is going to the plant. Being unprepared is what has created the inability to stop hiding from the truth.

The people perish.
If you have a system that is maxed out it will not allow for any growth to it. If there is no desire to expand the system then the alternatives would be to reduce the load to it. In order to reduce the load to this treatment plant the number of residents using it would need to go down. Also the number of business would need to be reduced to lower the strain on the wastewater treatment plant. The number of visitors and shoppers will need to be reduced or maybe they will be asked to “go” somewhere else besides Buffalo. Evidently, the evidence the economic developer is relying upon, is for people to move from Buffalo, businesses to close down in Buffalo, and visitors to go somewhere else besides Buffalo.

The people perish.
Is the economic developer’s plan for Buffalo to tell a potential business or developer to come back in about 10 years? By then we hope to have lost enough people that we will be able to handle the strain that you are going to put on our system. But if you come today we will be forced to bite the bullet and upgrade our wastewater treatment facility.

Where there is no vision the people perish.
Upgrades could be expensive and the town may have to borrow money to do them. It has never borrowed money for a big infrastructure project. And that is what has created the dire situations that exist with all of the infrastructures of Buffalo. The stronghold that has existed for years inside City Hall can be blamed for the shortsightedness of its operations. The only way they know how to invest in this community is through a certificate of deposit of its extra money into a bank. City Hall’s inability or flat out refusal to admit that there is a problem will do nothing but lengthen the time it takes to deal with them. Maybe they hope to divert the issues long enough that they won’t have to spend time and effort working on them during their tenure.

Fortunately, the town board does have the ability to change the direction of the town’s policy, or lack there of. But do they have the vision to temporarily cast their friendships aside to do what is best for the betterment of the community? Only time will tell.
Linda,Leah,James and Joe.....What is your vision?
Buss,Brown,Bishop, and Harper it's your legacy.....Will the people perish?

TOWN BOARD MEETING - DEQ & MYERS ENGINEERING

Meeting to be held on Wednesday, December 17, 2008 - 6:00 pm at the Library. As the agenda has not been posted as of this date/time, here is an overview of what is expected.

Both DEQ and Myers Engineering will have officials present to discuss the issues of our wastewater system. This is a question and answer subject. Please come prepared.

Discussion on the Library roof potential roof repairs.

SEE COMMENTS FOR COMPLETE AGENDA THAT HAS FINALLY BEEN LET OUT TO THE PUBLIC.

A PICTURE SAYS A THOUSAND WORDS

Besides the captions what do these pics posted on Inside Buffalo say?


http://insidebuffalo.net/index-22.php


Is megafines a word?

CITY MANAGER....BLOWING SMOKE?

At the last meeting, the city manager mentioned doing a smoke test on the sewer lines of Buffalo. What is this? This test is primarily used to detect areas of unwarranted inflow into the sewer system. Such would be roof gutter and/or down spouts that are hooked into the home sewer lines. Storm water drainage pipes that are cross connected with the sewer lines. Old abandoned houses and building sewer lines that may be allowing surface water to enter the system. There may be old lateral lines, from septic systems which have been hooked into the sewer system. Leakage around manhole cover rings may also be a problem. The smoke test may also detect damaged and leaking joints in sewer pipes and other overflow problems with the sewer system. And of course illegal connections such as dog kennels equipped to rinse down their mess.
Basically it is finding areas that when it rains, that rain enters the sewer system and unnecessarily gets dumped into the sewer lagoons.

When the smoke test is performed the areas are marked and then they can be evaluated for possible corrections. This smoke is toxic and will make you very sick if you inhale it, that is, if it doesn’t kill you first. The number of people killed will reduce the numbers that use the sewer system and bring the system back to capacity, thus saving the town thousand upon thousand of dollars! (Just kidding!!)
“It is actually non-toxic, harmless and has no odor.”

This approach would be used for a situation where the capacity of the treatment system based on population or actual usage was not an issue and yet the system was still exceeding capacity. So for finding troubles with the lines themselves and addressing extra water that may enter the sewer system illegally the smoke test would be used. This smoke and mirrors approach will not address the capacity issue at hand. It will only generate more disbelief about the capacity issue. Blowing smoke is not the answer, even though it is the norm. Hasn’t there been a big enough can of worms opened already? Let the sleeping dogs lie.

NEW ARTICLES UNDER HOT NEWS @ INSIDEBUFFALO

After not much activity from InsideBuffalo in a while there are some new articles that have hit the online magazine. These articles may answer some questions that have been raised concerning some of the Town of Buffalo's latest events.

I have posted links to two of the articles below. Come back to this BLOG and leave comments and raise unanswered questions. Anonymous posting is available to use but please don't abuse it.

Thanks

Click on the article links below to read them.

ANY WAY YOU LOOK AT IT
http://insidebuffalo.net/index-20.php


Buffalo Oklahoma Town Board
Hikes Pay by 5%
http://insidebuffalo.net/index-44.php