As I promised to the Lawrence City Council, my comments at the Public Participation portion of the City Council meeting are going to be published on my Facebook page. Here are the comments that I made at tonights meeting: Good evening Councilors, my name is Dick Russell and I reside xx xx xxxxx xxxxxx in Lawrence. First, I must put my 2 cents worth in on the situation involving the City Attorney. I havent been able to figure out if he has become a “persona non grata” on the 3rd floor of this building or whether this is just a ploy to renegotiate his contract. My thoughts are that it might be better to have someone that you may not like that knows what is going on in the job as opposed to bringing someone in that you like who has no idea of what is going on there. I would hesitate to guess what the learning curve would be for his position. Next, the Mayor preached being fiscally conservative by trying to save money where ever possible. Can some one explain to me how the City is saving money by giving Lawrence General Hospital a fre contract for 3 years and also allowing them to avoid paying any of the expenses of the Emergency call center that would dispatch their ambulances. Any institution that pays its CEO about $675 K a year and has a 10 million dollar surplus can certainly afford to throw money in our direction. Now, I am going to ask you a question. Do you know what I am holding in my hand? It is a copy of the Acts of 2010 Chapter 58, titled “An act providing for the financial stability of the City of Lawrence” I have provided you with excerpts of various sections of this piece of legislation; most importantly, sections 1 and portions of section 4. Section 1 defines various words used in this law; most notably, Overseer. Section 4 defines the duties of the overseer. The important sections to the City of Lawrence right now are Sections 4a(1), 4a(6), and 4(2). My question is has the overseer been consulted in the awarding of the ambulance contract to Lawrence General Hospital and their non payment towards the running of the Emergency call center? I think that these are issues that the Council should address prior to the budgeting process that will begin in a little over a month. Lastly, the Council President has requested a copy of my comments his use. I have provided him with the requested copies. I will begin posting the comments, for better or worse, on my Facebook page for people to see or use. Thank you for the time.
Posted on: Wed, 02 Apr 2014 03:24:25 +0000
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