From the most recent financial disclosure from the Botbyl campaign:
Judy Maher, Retired, $100
Glen Vining, Retired, $40
Dean Lawrence, Retired, $50
Patrick Botbyl, VFW Director Operations, $150
As previously noted, Pat, is the retired Mayor of Hawthorne, NJ
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19 comments:
For the sake of equal disclosure, can you please post Mr. York's contributors?
York vs Botbyl:
I have lived here for a while and so thought I would share my experience with York as Mayor and comment on what I think of Botbyl. First, lets review Alan York and what happened during his term as Mayor.
- The city was financially broken.
- We all were sent a letter from Mayor York explaining he had to cut our police protection from 3 shifts per day to 2 shifts per day. This left us without police patrol during the night time hours and exposed us all to that risk. This was because we no longer had the money to support our police force.
- We were all sent a letter from Mayor York telling us he needed to close the community center because the city no longer had the funds to support keeping it open. The Citizens voted overwhelmingly to keep it open and did so, not at the polls, but with their own pocketbooks in the way of donations. Over $18,000 was raised in favor of keeping it open.
- In this same letter, we were also told the city no longer had the funds to support snow removal and the city faced the risk of needing to shut that service down. Again, this was due to no longer having the funds to support this service to our city.
- Mayor York refused to discuss long-range planning. Did not think it was important or necessary. His words, not mine.
Mayor York says on his most recent promotional materials he has "Proven Leadership". I will let you be the judge but this is NOT what I call leadership.
Now on Pat Botbyl.
Experienced and Capable:
- Pat has been Mayor of a larger city than Weatherby Lake, around 20,000 residents instead of just roughly 1,800 in our city. Not only was it larger, that city had schools, churches and businesses. With all of this there is added complexity and management and leadership skills are truly tested.
- He understands the true value of long-range planning for maintenance of our streets and sewer systems.
Integrity & Dedication:
- Pat Botbyl is a combat-wounded veteran of the United States Army. He nearly gave his life for our country.
- Pat expresses an strong desire to work with our residents to make a difference in WL and many of those beliefs and philosophies that Mayor Bos brought to our city are shared by him. Mayor Bos made our city stronger, cleaner and brought us together. He also built up financial reserves our city was lacking in case of emergencies.
Weatherby Lake cannot afford to elect Alan York again. Financially broken…that is where we were under York's "Proven Leadership". Elect Pat Botbyl!
113 - You are so sadly mistaken. York inherited a financially broken City. The Mayor before him, along with the BOA, put the levy increase on the ballot, to balance the City's books, and the voters said no. THIS WAS NOT YORK, BUT HENDERSON. Under York, along with the BOA, they put the issue on the ballet again. Not only YORK, but also the BOA, signed a letter informing the citizens of the need and that if the levy increase failed again, cuts would have to be made. The levy failed, the BOA, along with the Mayor, put together a list of cuts. We (I was a member of the BOA) voted on each cut and every vote was unanimous. YOU HATE York. This is nothing you like about him. Your noted cuts to the Police Department are a complete fabrication and lie. We voted to go to 20/7 patrol coverage from 24/7 coverage, with the other 4 hours covered by on-call (Chief). There was never discussion to cutting snow removal. DO YOU REALLY THINK ANY OF US LIKED WHAT WE HAD TO DO? If you do, then there is something mentally wrong with you. Remember, we live here to.
Long range planning started under Mayor York. HE was the one who commissioned the study of our sewer system. This study hadn't been done for years. The study pointed out many issues with our system that needed to be addressed. It sure wasn't the Public Works Director. With the bond issue to deal with our many road issues, York started the process of dealing with our crumbling roads and road infrastructure.
I find it interesting you pat yourself on the back about raising the funds to keep the Community Center open. I see where your priorities are: you didn't raise funds to keep 24/7 police.
Mayor Bos brings us together? Look at the monument project. Eastside of the Lake completed, and Westside forgotten. I also hope you are a second tier resident because BOS/Botbyl is sticking it to you on your water bill. Go look at the payroll at Hawthorne, NJ. You will be in a state of shock of the millions of dollars spent. Hawthorne is 10 times our size with a payroll 30 times ours. Botbyl was not the City Manager, they had one on the payroll. Here at Weatherby Lake, he will be the City Manager. How is he going to complete this task working full time at his $140K per year job at the VFW?
I, for one, have had my fill of people like you who know nothing of the facts and have a big motor mouth to go along with it. Why don't you step forward and put your neck on the line for a change.
My vote is with York.
Alan, I understand why you are so defensive!
Oh Dear!! Really smart to blame Mike Henderson since he is has passed. Was MH the best Mayor -maybe not, but he wrestled with the BOA on too many issues to win. Bottom line is that Mr. York spent the tax levy before it was passed by the citizens - not what I would call proven leadership. Net result was proposed closure of CC, reduced police coverage, reduced snow removal. Maybe you should take a look at AY expenses while in position and compare to JB. Info is available if you have the will to investigate. You might find it interesting if you have an open mind.
Let me tell you how I vote - I drive by Pat Medill's house and whatever sign she has in her yard, I vote the opposite. In the last election, she told me Mr. York was stealing from the city. The audit was done and there was no stealing. Pat Medill preaches "peace & goodwill" every month in her newsletter. But, she goes around town telling lies about the candidate she does not want in office. What a HYPOCRITE !! Vote for who you think will improve the community - nothing has happened here for 6 years. My street is in bad shape.
You seem to forget that Jerry Bos and hangers on told the community the same thing you are saying...fiscal malfeasance from York.. and the people of the city bought it. After taking office Mr. Bos had an audit done to verify the fact. But no one heard the results, did they. The cleanest audit ever done by the company. Not a hint of the truth of the accusations. I,too, was on the board when the cuts were made. The people voted down the levy. We were under an obligation to have a balanced budget, so we did what was the least painful and harmful to the city. Alan paved Westside Drive while in office and notice it is still in pretty good shape. However, the current administration's paving projects are already on the way to needing it done again. We have had enough of half truths and innuendo. York is a business and finance major and will do a great job of getting this city back on track.
OK folks. It's time to present facts and not gossip / hearsay..
FACT - the York "audit" was not a full audit. Rather it was a management audit of process and procedures, commissioned by Mayor York (not the BOA). Bos has never commissioned an audit of the city. He did form an audit committee that looked at the books and eventually recommended against an audit because of the expense to the city.
FACT - Jerry Bos has never, to my knowledge, accused York of fiscal malfeasance.
FACT - York paved Westside (his side of the lake) but didn't leave enough funds to pave all of Eastside. The "patch and repair" program is about all the city has funds for at the moment.
Vote for whomever you think is the best candidate, but at least make it an informed vote, and not one based on a neighbors sign - hilarious if it wasn't so sad.
I received York's mailing this weekend. His platform made me go hmmmmm...... "I will ask the BOA to vote to repeal the water increase approved in November 2013".
What's interesting is that on this very blog, many anti-Bos vocalists -- including the host of this blog -- consistently questioned Jerry's skills for not passing along enough water increases because we know that Kansas City will be hitting us hard in the near future.
So York's position is that we should be even less prepared? Hmmmmmmm
8:14...If you go back in the archives of the blog, you will see the uneven approach to water and sewer Mayor Bos has taken, which I have pointed out from the beginning. Complicit with this approach are the elected aldermen on the BOA, and to a lesser extent the Director of Public Works (the mayor is his boss/BOS). The current rate was set well in advance of the rate being set by KCMO...why? Ask Jerry, ask Pat Botbyl and the other Aldermen who voted for the increase proposed by Bos. The lone No vote was by Alderman Steve Clark.
The current rate, in my opinion, was a huge miss.
I agree with 709, it is sad to vote for someone because of a sign or lack of one or who has one in a yard. As far as Facts, 709 might need a better fact checker. I don't think the issue is whether or not a "full audit" was conducted. You might want to compare what was prepared and reviewed by the company the BOA and York commissioned vs the recent one commissioned by Bos and the BOA. Very different. I am not aware of any public statement by Bos regarding malfeasance, but, as I recall, his comments during the candidates forum back then regarding the city's financials led me to believe he (Bos) believed there were issues. His appointment of the Audit committee seem to corroborate this. I have to ask 709 if he/she has looked into how much it would cost to pave East Side drive ($$$$) and how much was available in the budget at the time. Oh, by the way, Jerry did/does have $600,000 sitting in Platte county as posted in the blog. Seems to me that could do a little more than cut and patch?
935 Good points about 709. I believe York used proceeds from the Road Bond money to pave Westside (2007). I live on Westside and it was in terrible shape. I don't think York paved Westside just because he lives here. Jerry used the rest of these funds to pave many streets back in 2009. Weatherby Drive was one of them and it is currently in very bad shape. Potholes everywhere. While walking, I find Westside Drive in much better shape than Weatherby Drive. I have always wondered why this could be. I might add to 709, the monuments are completed on the Eastside, with only Hillside to show on the West.
Hey 709, go to City Hall and see if the BOA approved the audit that you blame York for. It is sure odd, when York is in office he does everything, when Henderson was in office, it was the mean BOA that got in the way, and when it comes to Bos, you give him a pass on everything. I agree with 935, I remember going to a coffee and Bos didn't say York was stealing, he said there were'financial irregularities at City Hall'. I asked for specifics and he had none.
Hi Folks, I'm pretty new to Weatherby (2008) but have had over 20 years of small area lake living experiences and was pretty involved in the last community I was in.
I have GREAT appreciation for what it takes to hold one of these positions and serve the community. A lot of folks seem to think with it comes a lot more power than it really does. I am glad there are folks who will step up and offer to do these largely thankless jobs.
I have read this comment thread hoping to get some guidance about where these two fellows running for mayor stand, but instead what I find is harsh comments from people largely unwilling to identify who they are.
If you are not willing to put your name behind your comments, then your comments are really not worth anything - even to you.
If anyone is interested in sharing with me "on the record" about these two candidates I'm interested in hearing it. Otherwise, it all sounds like static to me.
One of my "pet" issues being a technology guy is trying to understand why we are not actively courting Google Fiber at Weatherby Lake. We have few options for broadband internet service - in fact, on the stretch to C point where I am, we only really have one option - Time Warner - who's service continues to degrade as they focus their efforts (and better pricing) in areas where they compete with Google and other carriers. Having said that, I know there are bigger issues, but this one seems like it would be a slam dunk.
I want to say thanks too to Mike Moratz for this blog which I don't always agree with, but I do always enjoy reading.
Steve Johnson
77th Terrace
Hey Steve,
First, welcome to WL. I have read your post a couple of times and this is just a suggestion. If you want to learn about these candidates, why not just pick up the phone and give them a call so you can get all of your questions, concerns and knowledge about each candidate directly from them? Then you will have their direct word and not have to worry about haters or hearing from people who just bash city officials. My second suggestion would be to also talk to our current Mayor as well as each of the aldermen, if you wish to get their take. I think talking to the candidates one on one would be the best of these two suggestions.
On the issue of Google Fiber...I know the board of aldermen have discussed this technology in terms of WL concerns and capability of adding to our current overhead lines as well as some of the concerns about digging to lay new lines, if taken underground. I believe there is a real interest in understanding what it would take and what the real concerns are for our city. It is supposed to be discussed at tonight's board meeting. If you cannot attend perhaps one of your aldermen can provide you with a review of the discussion when time permits you to ask.
There was some discussion several years ago about burying our lines that currently are on telephone poles. The board and WLIC were strictly against it because it would require cutting through solid rock and there was concern about costs as well as making the lake unstable, that is causing it to leak. You were not here at the time but the lake/dam has had issues with regard to leaking and it was a very big problem. George Lowman's said at a recent board meeting that our existing overhead structure, telephone poles, are already at maximum capacity...perhaps even over capacity.
So I think the discussion tonight is one where the board hopes to learn what the challenges are exactly and what it would cost WL and it's residents. They will be looking into feasibility.
I hope this helps.
It is interesting that suddenly the mayor and board have a renewed interest in GF after having poo-pooed it outright. They have never had a serious discussion with GF...why wouldn't they have invited them to a BOA for an open presentation? The chatter on the blog seems to have stimulated a new look at the situation.
I seriously doubt the board or Mayor care much about and probably never read this blog. As always, they are just interested in knowing the facts and they hope to get that tonight. Nothing at all new.
Alan York certainly reads it, I received a call from him last night concerning my interest in Google Fiber which is sounds like he is also interested in pursing. While I don't know where Mr. Botbyl stands at this point, the current administration seems to be comparing apples to oranges when evaluating whether or not GF would be good for Weatherby Lake.
It is fair to say the Mayor and Council have not been aggressive in pursuing GF...they continue to deal in conjecture rather than getting the facts...they don't need to commit to anything, just get facts. In the meantime our neighbors just across the street (Barry Road/WildWood) are getting ready to sign up for GF. West Ward folks have two options, DSL or Time Warner, our pals on the east have U-verse as well.
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