Life Of Jason

Well, it’s the end of the year and I love award shows and lists like what’s going to be hot next year (see Go Magazine’s latest issue for a good list.) In the spirit of those awards shows (and a desire to give some props to some cool people) I present the Life Of Jason Awards. All the award voting happened between January 1, 2007 and December 26, 2007. The results have been kept in a mayonnaise jar on Funk & Wagnall’s porch since 2pm this afternoon.

Top Restaurant: DiGiacinto’s, 2259 S. Campbell, Springfield. If you’re looking for the best Italian food in town, this is it. If you want a good place for a romantic evening out then check out DiGiacinto’s on Friday or Saturday night. Sam knows how to make a real Philadelphia cheesesteak. No Steak-Um and a Kraft single here. If you get there for dinner on the weekend, make sure to try the Lorenzo’s pasta. (It’s a seafood ravioli…it’s spectacular.)

Top Take Out Pizza: Rocco’s Pizza, Highway 60, Republic. There’s a reason a Pizza Bowl winner plaque hangs up at Rocco’s. If you want to taste the best pizza in the Ozarks then you should make the drive to Republic.

Top Ice Cream: Braum’s. I don’t know why but their ice cream tastes better. I’m not talking custard…I’m talking plain old ice cream.

Top Local Blog, Conservative: Simple Thoughts of a Complex Mind. Larry Litle mixes his views on social issues with fun posts. It’s a good mix and one of my daily destinations.

Top Local Blog, Liberal: Corner of the Sky. SkyGirl (her nom de plume) and I rarely see eye to eye on political issues but we do see eye to eye in that we need to elevate the level of discourse. SG and I are in sync that lobbing bombs toward the other side of politics isn’t going to get anything done or open people up to the possibility their views could be wrong on an issue. She’s one of the five blogs I check first thing in the morning. She also posts some great stuff about her kids that all the parents reading can relate to at one point…

Top Local Blog, Libertarian: The Libertarian Guy. It’s not like there’s much other option at this point! Just like SkyGirl, we don’t always see eye to eye on the issues but we haven’t had any discussions where it’s been disrespectful or rude.

Top Local Blog, Non-Political: Snarling Marmot. Yeah, there’s the odd politics post but it’s not the thrust of the blog. It’s life…pure real life…and the honesty is refreshing and engaging. Plus, now and then we get a dog photo.

Top Local Talk Show Host: Art Hains, Jock 98.7. Always engaging with his audience, Art can take even the most mundane sports afternoon and make it listenable. Art’s been a gold standard for sports talk for years and he’s really become the gold standard for all local talk shows.

Top Destination for the Kids: Discovery Center. My boys are on a first name basis with the folks who work there. (Dale did a radio commercial for them this year.) It can also be a lot of fun for mom and dad as well. Most dads can’t resist the high wire bike.

Top Place To Take A Walk: Anywhere Ozark Greenways has a trail. There’s nothing like being able to take an hour and just walk one of the Ozark Greenways’ trails. It gives you a chance to really appreciate the beauty of the Ozarks you can’t see in downtown Springfield.

Best Place To Relive The Glory Days: 1984. Just five bucks to play all those classic 80s video games. It’s Pole Position heaven.

Best Branson Show: Circle B Chuckwagon. Now, I’m not a big fan of cowboy music but there’s something about the honesty in the performance of the Horn family that makes you love it as much as they love it. It’s also a great time for the kids.

Best Non-Branson Show: The Mystery Hour @ The Skinny Improv. It would be an easy cop-out to just say “The Skinny Improv” and talk about all the fine shows there but The Mystery Hour just stands head and shoulders above them all including the Mainstage Show. Jeff Houghton is the funniest guy in Springfield.

Top Coffee Shop: Cassils Coffee House. This is probably the only thing I’m going to miss about living on the south side of town. Cassils has a warm, inviting atmosphere along with some really great and friendly staff. Kevin is always willing to accommodate groups if you want to have your writing group or church group meet in his cafe. An honorable mention goes to Kuhlman’s Koffee in Nixa. Wonderful fruit smoothies.

Top Local Publication: Go Magazine. It was a tough call because we do have some really good local publications in the Ozarks. The News-Leader would be top dog but have made some questionable decisions regarding their editorial direction and article selection. 417 Magazine is well made just seems too aimed at the upper crust and not really at your average Ozarks resident. Go Magazine seems to capture the local interest along with enough fun to make it rise above the rest. Their downtown information is great for someone wanting to just have a nice night out. Sure, I don’t always agree with their political bent but it doesn’t mean they don’t provide good music/concert reviews and keep people informed about the GOings on in Springfield.

Top City Council Member: Dan Chiles. His tie selections on council meeting nights gives him the nod very slightly over Doug Burlison.

Best Place To See a Movie: The Palace Theatre. They win with the caveat that I haven’t seen a movie at The Moxie yet and my imminent move to downtown Springfield where the Moxie’s located so it’s possible the Palace’s grip on this category is tenuous at best. The discount versus the reward of seeing the movies at the Palace puts it over the Campbell 16.

Sarah Overstreet has a good column today in the Springfield News-Leader regarding what can be done with some of the “bounty.”  She had an especially good idea when she said:

“Still, areas I’d like to see those unnecessary gratuities go for are more help for poor customers struggling with utility bills (the ones who haven’t run up years-old records of welshing on their bills and then screaming “not fair” later) ; lower bus fares for poor workers; and more bus shelters for people who have to rely on the bus for transportation.”

If CU has the money for “charity” then they could easily make do with helping their customers directly in the ways Sarah suggested in her column.  There also seem to be some improvements that can be made to the Access Express program to help the disabled in our community be more productive and also reduce their costs to use the service.

Charity begins at home.  For CU, that means it has to start with their customers here in the city of Springfield.

I exchanged some e-mail with Brenda Cirtin, Springfield City Clerk, who informed me that the city’s response on the Pythian Castle situation that was promised at the last council meeting on December 17th should be coming out toward the end of this week.  Just like with Tamara’s statements, it will be posted here when released by Ms. Cirtin.

OK…I’ve had some time to look over the audit of City Utilities and come up with a few thoughts.  Overall, I’m very impressed with Susan Montee’s work and she found some items that are in real need of serious discussion.  John Twitty has some serious questions to answer (and I plan to make a request for an interview on this blog like we’ve had with the Mayor.  We’ll see if he takes us up on it.)

If you want to read the entire report (and it’s worth your time) then click here for the report in PDF format.

First, about City Utilities taking the money they collect from residents and giving it to charities and charitable activities.  In and of itself, it seems like a good thing but I don’t see why we as taxpayers should essentially be donating to charities where we have no say as to the dispersal of the money.  While there may be nothing wrong with these groups I’m not fond of knowing that the money I have to pay for electricity is going to a group that I might not necessarily support in their actions or political activities.  (And yes, some of the charities involved do political activism.)

The State Auditor says that these actions might violate the Missouri Constitution and from the way it looks to me it is in violation.  A public entity cannot use their money or resources to benefit a private individual, association or corporation except as provided in the Constitution.   I’m sure the Urban Districts Alliance and Wonders of Wildlife and Unite of Southwest Missouri and The Kitchen and all of the other charities that received CU money could use those funds.  That doesn’t mean it’s right for CU to give it when it’s taken in abundance from residents.

However, along the lines of things that might be considered “unnecessary expenditures” I’m not thinking it’s such a bad thing for the employee picnic or sending of flowers when a staff member has a death in the family.  I want to have City Utilities recruit and keep the best employees possible and keeping morale high is a key factor in maintaining those staff members.  Something as simple as a bouquet of flowers when someone’s facing a horrific time in their family’s life can speak volumes to say that person matters more than a number on a piece of paper.   Susan Montee can’t look at people as people because her job is only to look at the numbers.   She’s not allowed to have compassion or concern because that’s not in the job of State Auditor…so we can certainly understand her calling these expenditures into question.  Could they have reduced the costs a bit?  Perhaps.   It doesn’t mean these are things that need to be eliminated.

As for Montee’s suggestion that CU require all employees to get their permission if they take a second job…Hogwash!  If the job doesn’t conflict with the employee’s position at CU then it’s not CU’s business (nor Montee’s) what that employee is doing when they’re not on company time.  I’m sure the powers-that-be at CU would love to have that kind of Big Brother power over their staff but it would not be good for morale nor would it really be good for recruiting staff members.

CU’s subsidization of SpringNet is of serious concern.  There is NO reason at all for City Utilities to continue pumping money into the SpringNet system when it’s painfully obvious that Springfield has more than enough private companies to fulfill those services.   A subsidy of $1.5 million dollars is simply unacceptable when there are more than enough viable alternatives within the marketplace.

Add in that the Auditor has found CU’s SpringNet activities in apparent violation of their agreements with the Public Service Commission and you have a can of worms that I’m sure CU wants to keep closed.  Even CU’s internal auditors told the powers-that-be to monitor SpringNet’s cash flow separately to be in line with PSC agreements and those were ignored through March 2007.     CU claimed that they discussed this with the PSC and they said there were no violations.  The State Auditor came back and said CU had nothing to prove that claim.  Someone’s wrong here.  CU needs to present the documents to back up their claim if we want to believe it’s not them in the wrong.

CU needs to present a plan to dump SpringNet if they can’t make it profitable on it’s own and not take a cavalier attitude toward someone questioning if they’re in line with their PSC agreements.

It also appears from the Auditor’s report that CU has not been seeking public bidding on items that should have been put out for bid each year.  These items could have reduced overhead costs and as a result put CU in a situation that lower costs could be passed onto their customers.  Will this be something that CU will improve upon in the future?  I certainly hope so.   Annual competitive bidding will make things better for everyone involved even if it means some long time vendors of CU won’t be getting the business they had received in the past.

Now, I’ve seen reports of some people connected to CU running down Susan Montee and questioning her integrity and ability to make this audit.  I certainly hope that this is not the attitude behind the closed doors at CU.  There are legitimate questions that need to be answered and trying to call the people asking the questions into suspicion isn’t going to get the job done.  I hope that the board member who disparaged Susan Montee is not representative of all of CU.

Finally, I don’t want to make it appear I’m coming down on the side of those who think CU is some corrupt organization frittering away all they money that comes into the door.   They have an internal auditor and it appears they listen to them often.  I’m not opposed to the idea of trying to manage CU as a private business but only if they then keep in mind that this is a public entity on top of it.  As long as we see some of the attitude we’ve seen from officials within the city this can be a good thing.

And while have low utility rates…it seems we could have them lower.  Let’s see CU get that done too.

Today is a hard day for me.

Today would have been the 12th wedding anniversary of me and my first wife.  Instead, it’s the third anniversary date after the divorce.

It’s not that I’m feeling badly because of the divorce or the marriage situation.  I’ve made my peace with it, I have a beautiful fiancee and there are a lot of real blessings lined up in the near future including a new home.

The part that gets me is my kids not being here.  Today is just a reminder that my kids aren’t living with me on a daily basis and it’s a pain that just doesn’t go away.  To be honest, it’s not as harsh as it was initially because this isn’t the first time it’s happened but the silence of the house is overwhelming today.   It’s not like it’s not something that bothers me on a daily basis…there’s just something different about today.  Maybe it’s because I’m two days away from Christmas as well and the boys won’t be here until lunch time on Christmas day.

It’s also hard because my autistic son really won’t talk on the phone.  I know I’ll be able to talk to Dale every day (and I live for those calls) but it’s so hard not to be able to have a conversation with Eli.   I just want to hear about Eli’s day just like I do Dale’s day but he can’t tell me about it.

Those of you with kids…give them an extra hug today.   If they’re getting on your nerves begging for Christmas gifts…give ‘em one a day early.  I wish I could be doing that today.

All I want for Christmas is for Bill O’Reilly to visit.

Seriously.

I think that’s the only way my house becomes a No Spin Zone.

As we head into the home stretch for Christmas, my six year old Dale has decided that he needs to be his own Public Relations Rep and try to enhance his standing with Santa Claus.  He has asked for a LOT of toys and he’s doing what he can to prove to Santa that he’s worth all the toys.   So far, he’s built a campaign that would make Hillary or Mitt proud.

First, we had the smearing of the opponent.  In this case, his younger brother Eli.

“Daddy, can you talk to Santa for me?”

“Sure, buddy.  What do you want me to tell him?”

“Tell him that I’ve been a good boy this year,” Dale said.  “Well, I’ve been a good boy and Eli’s not been a good boy.  So I should get his toys and my toys.”

“Don’t you think that would make Eli sad?”

“Yeah…” Dale said.  “But I’ll let him play with them sometime.”

Fast forward two days.  When it appears to Dale that smearing the opponent by itself won’t do the trick, we move into trying to put the spin on the real situation…

“Daddy, call Santa for me.”

“Why, buddy?”

“Because he needs to know I’ve been a good boy this year,” Dale said.  “Well, I’ve been a good boy and when I haven’t been a good boy it’s because there was an accident.”

“So it’s not your fault when you’re a bad boy because it was an accident?”

“Yeah,” Dale said.  “Except for Eli.  Eli was bad on his own.  But when it looked like I was a bad boy it was because there was an accident.”

Then tonight, Dale moved from making the big claims he can’t back up to trying and make the truth sound not to bad to my fiancee…

“Miss Amy?”

“Yes, Dale?”

“You need to tell Santa that I’ve been a good boy all year.”

“You’ve been a good boy all year?”

“Well, some months.”

“Some months?”

“OK, a few days,” Dale said.  “But I should still get toys.”

You have no idea how hard it is not to crack a smile and laugh when he does these things.

And it confirms my worst fears for Dale.  He seemed doomed to a life in politics.

Here’s the press release from the city concerning Christmas Tree recycling since trees are not accepted in landfills throughout Missouri.

Bass Pro
     Will accept trees at the fenced area at the northwest end of the Bass Pro Shops parking lot directly behind the store at 1935 S. Campbell Ave.

• Dates accepted: Dec. 26- Jan. 1
• Hours: Noon to 6 p.m.
• Fee: $2 per tree; benefiting the Boy Scouts
• Uses: Trees are used for fish habitat
• Special Instructions: Remove all icicles, ornaments and tree stand
• For more information, contact: Larry Whiteley, 873-5022.
  

Wickman’s
    Will accept trees at 1345 S. Fort Ave., in Springfield and at 10791 U.S. 60 in Monett.

• Dates accepted: Dec. 26-Jan. 13
• Hours: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday-Saturday; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday (Springfield only)
• Fee: $5 at both locations; proceeds donated to The Kitchen
• Uses: Trees will be ground into wood chip mulch, which is available for free. Bring your own container.
• Special instructions: Remove all ornaments, icicles, tree stand and no flocked trees accepted.
• For more information, contact: 862-3707 (Springfield); or 235-1112 (Monett) or visit: www.wickmans.com <http://www.wickmans.com>
  

City of Springfield Yardwaste Recycling Center
   Will accept trees at the Center.

• Directions: West on Sunshine (U.S. 60); south of Farm Road 115. Turn left on Farm Road 164. Follow signs to Yardwaste Recycling Center.
• Dates accepted: Year round. The Center will be closed on Dec. 25 and Jan. 1.
• Hours: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday-Saturday; closed Sundays and Mondays.
• Fees: Donations are accepted; the brush recycling fee of $3 will be waived for loads with Christmas trees through Jan. 31; otherwise, the $3 gate fee will apply. Existing commercial fees will apply to commercial loads.
• Uses: Trees will be chipped into mulch and made available at no cost. Bring your own container.
• Special instructions: Remove all ornaments, icicles, tree stand.
• For more information, contact: Recycling hotline, 864-1904; or visit: www.springfieldmo.gov/recycling <http://www.springfieldmo.gov/recycling> .
• Note: Trees are not accepted at the Franklin and Lone Pine recycling centers.

One of the interesting things I found on the Missouri State Auditor website was a report that the Department of Family Services’ totals regarding the amounts owed for child support are “often inaccurate.”  In 79 of 244 cases that were reviewed, the auditor found overstatements from $1 to $455,000 and understatements from $10 to $55,000.  (That 79 of 244 is 32% of the cases.)

Given that child support is a big deal for single parents who need it this is an area where accuracy is vital.  It also appears the auditor has found ambiguity in state law that needs to be corrected:

“Although state law and division policy set forth criteria to terminate judicial support orders, state law has not clearly identified who shall terminate those orders when support is no longer due. The division has taken the position that circuit court clerks have this responsibility. However, court clerks are no longer responsible for IV-D cases and opinions differ on who has that responsibility.”

Hopefully this report will be brought to the attention of our state legislators so what the auditor discovered can be corrected.  Anything to make this process smoother for both the custodial and non-custodial parents would be better for the children.

I received this e-mail today from Tamara with Pythian Castle and it is posted here with her permission.  I thought for those interested in the situation it might provide some more information.

In response to all the people that think I have been willfully operating
unlawfully, I would like to remind them I asked for my business license in
August of 2004 long before I planned to open. My request to operate a
business here should have been a simple request handled by low level
employee. To use an existing occupiable building for uses allowed in the
current zoning in a structure designed for its use, is a decision that
should have taken no more than a week to approve.

Instead of granting us a license, they forced us to rezone to the most
expensive and complicated re zoning that exist saying our zoning did not
include all our uses. Rather than inspect the building, they converted us
to a never developed piece of land and a brand new never been occupied
structure. This required us to pay an architect to redraw an existing
building with no changes than color in the areas being used and by the
public and noting existing egresses, something they could have done in a
20 minute walk thru.

This change then required these plans to be reviewed by the director of
building and development, the highest ranking employee in building
department. Our renovations requests which entails  upgrades to the road
and parking and no structural changes to the building could have easily
been handled by lower level staff. Permits could have been authorized by
the appropriate specialist. Now, after three years of attempting to get a
license (the same time it took to build this entire building in the first
place) we are dealing with the second in command of the city's legal
department.

To waste our tax dollars on planning and zoning staff, the time of the
director of building and development and top legal staff to oversee minor
projects is an egregious waste of tax payers money. It could be equated to
having the chief of police issue parking violations.

If the people of Springfield thinks three to four years and is appropriate
time for businesses to wait for such licenses and the use of this many
city employees is acceptable to them, I have no argument. But, they should
know, businesses are not going to choose to invest their money here if it
requires four year of carrying cost with only the possibility of getting
permission. Unfortunately, since my property is not portable, I can't
simply move it to a more friendlier place. As a consequence of their
actions the city won't only lose a business it is going to lose a
historical site.

This is from a second e-mail today where we were talking about the fire codes and hydrant placement:

Just in case you did not get another response I gave on a blog regarding
our fire hydrants and accusations of us not meeting minimum fire safety
standard, I have included it below for your information.

We the owners of Pythian Castle did our first flow test on our hydrant in
June 2005. City refused to acknowledge it or the hydrant. They demanded we
put a new one in with an 8" line. We dug up the dirt to show them we have
an 8" line feeding from a 10" shutoff located on our property. All of this
could have been avoided if City of Springfield followed international fire
code which recognizes the use of private fire hydrants along as they are
flow tested annually. They city has finally adopted this standard this
year. Three years after our request for a business license.

Claims have been made we haven't met minimum fire standards. We are one of
the only buildings listed in the assessors book as fireproof construction.
Egresses from the rooms can evacuate over 500 people in less than three
minutes from doors 2' bigger than modern code. Most of our doors and
openings are 5' wide, code requires 3'. From the inception of this
building, we exceed the standards of modern codes which simply require 1
hour fire ratings. While modern code requires you have enough time to get
out of a burning building, ours was built not to burn in the first place.
Very few buildings in this city can claim the same above code standards.
This does not mean we do not have exit signs or emergency lighting. We
still live and work in a place where power goes out and people need to
exit safely. In the rare case of a fire, we have extinguishers every 75
feet (twice code) and four internal fire hoses (no longer recognized in
modern code, but they exist and work all the same).

I’m not going to comment on her letter or anything else in the situation until I see the response from the city that was promised at the City Council Meeting Monday night.  Well, other than to say this…there is a clear disconnect somewhere in this whole situation and now that it’s out in the open we need to find a way to get it resolved for everyone.   The city hasn’t shown me how having the Castle closed is good for Springfield and until I do I’m going to be on the side of finding a way to get it open.  (Now, that’s not necessarily endorsing Tamara.  I want to see what the city’s response says first.)

I’m still digesting the contents of the audit of City Utilities but I have to question the News-Leader’s posting of a document that lists city employees and the amount they spent on their purchasing cards.  There is no information at all as to what was bought on the cards, the responsibilities of the employees or anything that can give a reader any idea why someone might have spent tens of thousands of city dollars on that card.

That smacks of lazy journalism and/or makes you question what the motivation is behind the News-Leader.  Is it to present the whole story to us or just take parts of it to try and cause problems?  If the N-L was responsible then they would have taken that list and found out what the money was spent on and why.  To present this list as they’ve done today does nothing but put a list of employees under suspicion that they did something wrong.

That’s unprofessional and I thought our local newspaper had higher journalistic standards for themselves.