Noteworthy Events

At the Council meeting on 24 July, new Police Chief Jeff Luther was officially sworn into office. I would like to thank Jason Foster for stepping up and assuming the responsibilities of Chief until a replacement could be found. I look forward to working with Jeff and believe he will do an excellent job as Police Chief. At the meeting, the topic of the Police Open House was brought up. Interim Administrator Willis provided a memo that provided some rationale why it is not a good idea to do (staffing, budgetary and ethical concerns). I mistakenly thought we had allocated funds during the budgeting process to fund the open house, but it turns out those funds were only for the officer's time. Must be a sign of old age - my memory is starting to fail me… Chief Luther spoke up on the issue and raised some very good points. He expressed concern over having the police department solicit donations. Business owners who contribute might look for special favors from the department, as well as those that don't contribute might fear retribution. He said it crossed a line that as a department we should not be crossing. After giving it some thought, I would say I definitely agree with his viewpoint. Just consider this, I am a business owner who makes a large contribution, but one of my employees with or without my knowledge is selling drugs out of the business. How would I/my business be treated? Would the officers look the other way because I am a contributor? What would happen if I did not contribute? I am in no way implying that our officers would do this - I am just using a very hypothetical situation to raise some valid concerns. That said, the Fire Department is still holding its annual Octoberfest event on Saturday, 27 Sep. The Police Department will participate in this event as more of a "Public Safety" Open House. More details will follow.

Also, just as noteworthy, last Monday and Wednesday we conducted 5 interviews for our Administrator opening. Of the five candidates, I felt there were two that stood out. We will be meeting later this week on Thursday to review the staff/department heads/Council and citizen panels assessments. It will be interesting to see how those pan out. I'll post more as I know it.

Filings for Office

The period for filing for Rogers' office offically closed on Tueday afternoon. The following people have filed for City Council:

Jay Bunting
Rob Bell
Tammy Sternal

The following have filed for Mayor:

Jason Grimm
Scott Adams

As the election draws nearer, I will be offering my thoughts on the Council Race. I know two of the candidates well, but not the third. I want to wait to comment on this.

As for Mayor, there is one comment I will make today - since Scott Adams has officially labeled me as the "opposition", there is no way I will be supporting him. It's too bad - he helped me considerably on my re-election bid in 2006 and I was looking forward to returning the favor. I think he has taken our recent disagreements a bit too personally. I am not going to advertise his site, but if you read the minutes, except for the votes on Eitel, Oldfather and the candidates to interview for police chief, I had agreed with him on pretty much every issue. I guess I should be honored to be labeled "opposition".

Updates

Since my last post, a number of noteworthy events occurred. First, the accelerated annexation of Hassan Township was approved 3-2 by the Rogers City Council. I voted against the accelerated merger because I felt I had inadequate information to make a decision. I asked for a detailed analysis of what each department would look like from a headcount standpoint. I wanted to compare a potential increase in salaries and benefits to the projected expense stream used in the model, which was based on a straight percentage increase. I also asked what assets would need to be purchased to support the larger geographic area. The short answer I was given is that we have 3 years to figure that out. I would rather have had everything laid out prior to approving the accelerated annexation. Just my opinion…

Second, the Council has decided to move forward with hiring Jeff Luther as our next Police Chief. Jeff comes from the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. I want to make it clear that I have no intention of going after Jeff's job if a new Council is elected in November. I disagreed with the decision to let Keith go and I disagreed with the decision not to interview an internal candidate, Mike Miller. That said, I do support Jeff and believe he will do a good job. I will not be part of any witch hunt to remove him in January should the makeup of the Council change in November.

Third, Jason Grimm announced that he is not running for re-election to the City Council, rather he is running for Mayor. I am curious to see who else files - to date no one else has expressed an interest to run for Mayor. I gave some serious thought to running for Mayor as well. However, Jason and I have agreed on a number of issues as of late and I see no reason to run against him. I wish him the best of luck in his campaign.

Lastly, we made it through another Rockin' Rogers Days. What a great event! I was so excited for Mike Miller. Not only was he the Grand Marshal of the parade, but also his daughter Tate was crowned Miss Rogers on Saturday. Congratulations to both - what a great day for the Miller family. I had a number of people come up to me on Saturday Night and let me know they read my comments. A few gave me a hard time for not updating it more often…I am trying my best to provide more regular updates.

That's about it for now.