Friday, 6 November 2015
Our Caucus Is Going To Be WHERE??
Whispers on the Wind have relayed to your chronicler...
That the residents of the Cottage Grove Place senior living area discovered during the recent city election that their 2016 Republican County Caucus will NOT be in the usual venue in their neighborhood.
And...
They are NOT pleased.
Traditionally, Iowa Caucuses were assemblies of neighbors gathered together in their neighborhoods, where they decided who their representatives would be in the local party structure.
It seems now to have been altered into a media event for the glorification of a few members of the local party.
The precinct that Cottage Grove Place is in has quite a few elderly Republicans.
They prefer these events to be in their own precinct, as they do not like doing a lot of driving at night.
They also do not feel safe downtown at night.
Now, some may dispute this attitude and claim downtown is "in no way unsafe."
However, the possible truth of that claim cannot alter the fact that many of these people do not feel safe there. Nor does it alter the fact that their feelings were apparently neither sought nor taken into account.
In the past, we have had no problem organizing individual Caucuses in almost all of Linn County's 86 precincts. (There is a case for consolidating a few that don't seem to have as many registered Republican residents.)
But the current Linn County Republican Central Committe Chair and Executive Committee saw fit to purge the people who previously were heavily involved in the Caucus process, and replace them with their own allies.
For those who might be interested in how this will affect them, I have obtained the proposed Precinct Caucus locations, which have not, as of yet, I'm told, been reviewed by the Chair, so they are "preliminary."
You can see them HERE. I am sorry that the first page is almost illegible, but this was the best sample available.
Maps of the County and Precincts can be found HERE.
(And, if you need to know your local precinct name, you may find that information HERE.)
At least we did not end up with their original plan, which we understood to be all precincts in one location.
Having heard that the original plan would have surely cost a lot more than we have in the treasury, my understanding is that they have adopted a modified plan that will, by comparison, only take almost everything we have in the treasury.
Then, in addition, there was the rumored desire to link all the sites together with closed circuit TV for a media event.
Last word was that a closed circuit TV system would cost an additional amount almost equal to everything we have in the treasury...so that might not pan out.
Another function of our caucuses is for those who wish to be delegates at our county, district, and state Republican conventions to sign up and pay their delegate fees to the county.
Our county is allocated 167 seats at the District and State Conventions at $50 a seat.
We have to pay for ALL the seats, or NONE of the delegates from Linn County will even be seated at the District and State Conventions, let alone have the opportunity to speak or vote.
So, REGARDLESS of how many people sign up at their Caucus to be delegates at the Conventions, and regardless of how many pay their convention fees, the Linn County Republican Central Committee will be required to remit $8,350 to the Republican Party of Iowa for convention fees.
If Linn County does not have the funds to pay, the largest county in the district, and the 2nd largest county in the state, will NOT have representation at District and State Conventions.
Previously, that would not have been a problem. When the present Chair, Cindy Golding, took over from the previous chair, we had an attendance at meetings of about 200.
She and the present Executive Committee have, since that time, managed to alienate and/or disenfranchise about 90% of the previous membership.
This has resulted in about 40 attendees at our meetings, split almost 50/50 in opinion.
They, of course, label anyone pointing out these facts and their attending consequences as "divisive;"
When the truth is that THEIR "divisive" practices and tactics have virtually destroyed what was a very effective and active County Central Commitee.
At least, it was very effective and active until they got their hands on it.
In any event, we are facing interesting times.
Most people show up for Caucuses at the last moment.
I cringe to think how getting them checked in is going to work out with the few remaining volunteers who have not been driven away.
I mean, we are, after all, talking about a chairperson who once had a screaming fit at a volunteer who was putting more than 5 mints on each table before an event.
Such practices do not encourage volunteer involvement .
Bait And Switch
Some of us recall that in the Local Elections 4 years ago both City Hall, the Library and the Gazette
Were quite firm in their assertions that the Library could be run on no more why even LESS then in the past
Fact-checking in Cedar Rapids' at-large council race
Justin Wasson said the city is building a downtown library that is too big, too nice and too expensive. He said the city is getting a "giant" library downtown that is "significantly bigger than the older library" In the end, with the cost to maintain the building, "I'm going to be paying off this library for the rest of my life."
The Gazette's Fact Check Claim was
Determination: Mostly fiction
Why: The city's former downtown library at 500 First St. SE was 84,000 square feet in size. The new library will be 94,000 square feet, with more space for children and teens, library officials said.
The new $49 million library is being built without local property taxes. The money comes from a mix of federal disaster funds, a state I-JOBS grant, private donations and $4 million in revenue from the city's local option sales tax, which already has been collected.
Bob Pasicznyuk, the city's library director, said Thursday the operational costs at the new library will not be any larger than the operational costs at the old one, and may be less.
That same claim was made during the online debate on the Iowa Conservative;Union's Facebook Fanpage
Vote No November 3rd
So WHY the sudden need for the maximum Levy?
Well it might be a case of the Old Bait and Switch because AFTER
they made those claims they decided they needed and INCREASE in Funding
City of Cedar Rapids Proposed Budget
- Page 5 of 12
- Library – Library submitted $1.5M in expenditure increases to support the downtown and westside libraries and $436K in revenue increases for a net requested increase of $1.1M. Already included in the Library budget for fiscal year 2014 is $277K in additional expenditure budget for wage and benefit increases for existing employees bringing the total net increase to $1.36M.
Note: Does not seem to be funds for existing expenses but they wanted an INCREASE
They must have chenged their minds about being able to run the Library on he same or less funding than the Old Library had
Makes it HARD to tell when and if they are tellingus the Truth doesn't it?
Try to remember this the NEXT time they bring up a Levy Increase
Which they will probably next Spring or Next Year sometime.
Wednesday, 4 November 2015
Follow The Library Road
When looking at Politics and/or Criminal Activity they sometimes Say
Follow the Money
That could be fitting in the case of the Library Levy or Follow the Yellow Brick Road.
Could also be fitting
Because there does seem to be a lot of Smoke and Mirrors and Illusion involved.
In
Cedar Rapids Library levy fails, board to shift course
Mayor Corbett said the jump from a small levy to the request for a 27-cent one may have factored in Tuesday’s defeat. He said he could imagine a request of voters down the line for a library levy smaller than 27 cents, but larger than 4 cents.
Which leads to the question, Why? Why such a big jump when just a short time ago they said nothing like that necessity could be farther from the Truth?
In
Fact-checking in Cedar Rapids' at-large council race
Justin Wasson said the city is building a downtown library that is too big, too nice and too expensive. He said the city is getting a "giant" library downtown that is "significantly bigger than the older library" In the end, with the cost to maintain the building, "I'm going to be paying off this library for the rest of my life."
The Gazette's Fact Check Claim was
Determination: Mostly fiction
Why: The city's former downtown library at 500 First St. SE was 84,000 square feet in size. The new library will be 94,000 square feet, with more space for children and teens, library officials said.
The new $49 million library is being built without local property taxes. The money comes from a mix of federal disaster funds, a state I-JOBS grant, private donations and $4 million in revenue from the city's local option sales tax, which already has been collected.
Bob Pasicznyuk, the city's library director, said Thursday the operational costs at the new library will not be any larger than the operational costs at the old one, and may be less.
That same claim was made during the online debate on the Iowa Conservative;Union's Facebook Fanpage
Vote No November 3rd
So where did the money go?
If the 4 years ago it was mostly fiction that we might not be able to afford the operating costs of the Library.
And it was TRUE that the new Library was going to cost no more, maybe less to run than the Old Library.
Where did all he Money go?
Why do they now claim that they not only need to raise the Library Levy but raise it 575% to the Maximum Legal Limit?
We now have new City Council Members along with the ones already in office.
It will be maybe a year before they can bring this back up.
How about those Public Servants answering this question?
What is the DIFFERENCE between the Old Library Budget and the New one that cause this drastic change in claims.
Where did ALL the Money go?
If the Wizard Corbett does not know.
Maybe one of the Flying Monkeys does.
A Bonfire Due to Vanities
Guest Post by Bill Dahlsten
Alas, poor Hypatia. Some would be led to believe the voters of Cedar Rapids had again burned down the Great Library of Alexandria. The Downtown District is in tears.
Library levy advocates spent approximately $100,000. Much of that funding could be tied to Cedar Rapids' Downtown District. The recipients of so much taxpayers' largess lost. The library levy was not defeated by ignorance. The library levy defeat was not done to advance ignorance.
"Shey and Vernon said the new library
likely will be the most significant city
building built in their lifetimes in Cedar
Rapids, and great thought and care needs
to be taken on its placement so it
captivates people, draws people to the
downtown and, as importantly, serves to
drive private-sector investment around it.
Vernon said what is absent from the library
board’s work is the concept of “city
planning.” She said she wants the experts
who have worked for the city and know it
well to try to measure what interplay a
library location might have with the area
around it." The Cedar Rapids Gazette, 2-
11-2010.
Cedar Rapids' post flood library has little to do with the advancement of knowledge. Cedar Rapids overbuilt library had everything to do with advancing the value of Downtown District real estate on a flood plain. Knowledge defeated the library levy. Voters remembered.
Whom will the few who have profited from the taxes of so many blame?
The Downtown District's shenanigans with disaster dollars largely defeated the library increase. Those so enriched will point elsewhere.
The Iowa Conservative Union (ICU) ran a pop can deposit by comparison guerrilla campaign using social media. Cheap Facebook post boosting reached almost 20,000 in the Cedar Rapids area. It is hard to measure the ICU's impact. The ICU influenced perhaps a few of the points on the ten point spread.
If those who squandered disaster dollar millions of local, state and federal taxes wish to blame the ICU, thank you. The folks at the ICU revel in their recognition.
Will Cedar Rapids' Downtown District call it quits?
"Over the years, city voters had been willing to approve a library levy of 4 cents per $1,000 of taxable assessed property valuation to buy books, but the small levy lapsed in 2014.
Corbett said the jump from a small levy to the request for a 27-cent one may have factored in Tuesday’s defeat. He said he could imagine a request of voters down the line for a library levy smaller than 27 cents, but larger than 4 cents." The Cedar Rapids Gazette, Nov. 4, 2015.
Get ready for round two. Vote again. Vote until you impart knowledge and wisdom upon those ruling Cedar Rapids.
Government must learn to live within the taxpayers' means.
Monday, 2 November 2015
If You Care About The Children
This is one of the most commonly used tools to convince people that they should vote for something without looking at the details or the fine print,
I mean really? Who doesn't care about the children
And without having to show any proof or rationale they can demonise those who do not agree with them with NOT caring about the Children
We see this yet again in the online debate furiously going on HERE
Like · Reply · Commented on by Bill Dahlsten · 2 hours ago · Edited
In responce to another commenter she also asked, "How many Families have Wi-Fi?
Yes it is true that not every family has Wi-Fi but I believe most Hy-Vees do,
Why would anyone drive all the way downtown to use something that they can get at their neighborhoold grocery?
Where the coffee and pop refills are free I might add.
No if you look at some of the details of the Library budget kindly provided by another commenter
You might see that in addition to traditional Library expenses there seem to be quite a few what I think of as NON Library expenses
Leading me to believe SOME of our Public Servants have been RAIDING the Library Budget
For things that might be worth doing but they have been going in the backdoor and skimming funds meant for the Library for their own pet projects and now have a problem.
They spent all the Library money,
Now they have to convince us not to just raise the levy but to raise it almost 600% to the maximum limit?
What will they want to raise next?
So if you want a healthy sustainable Library and you really care about the Children and the Future of the Library
Vote NO
Tell our public servants to send someone to Des Moines, a city that has twice our population.
But they manage to run their library without spending as much as we do,.
Maybe they have something to teach us?
Friday, 30 October 2015
Shaking The Taxpayer Tree
Tomorrow November 3rd, we will be allowed to go to the polls and vote to determine the shape of our local government
And as has been the case most of the time recently we will get to decide whether or not our Taxes will be raised.
The City has decided it can no longer run the Library on the Funds it has available and therefore needs to raise the Library Levy from 4¢ per $1000 to 27¢ per $1000
An increase of 575% in our Library Tax.
This is odd considering just few years ago they were telling us a totally different story.
I have a young friend who was running for a seat on the Town Council who made a few statements on the subject and the Gazette ran a Fact Checking Article which determined that what he said was
Mostly Fiction?
In a Wednesday evening debate, candidates Justin Wasson, 23, and Carl Cortez, 66, were generally critical of post-flood decisions made by the city council, while candidate Ann Poe, 58, defended the post-flood spending on the downtown library, saying, "you can't have a good apple if the core is rotten."
Here's a look at some of the claims made by the three candidates during the debate and whether the statements were fact, mostly factual, half true, mostly fiction or fiction.
Issue: Is the new library too big, expensive?
Claim: Wasson thinks the city is building a downtown library that is too big, too nice and too expensive. He said the city is getting a "giant" library downtown that is "significantly bigger than the older library" In the end, with the cost to maintain the building, "I'm going to be paying off this library for the rest of my life."
Determination: Mostly fiction
Why: The city's former downtown library at 500 First St. SE was 84,000 square feet in size. The new library will be 94,000 square feet, with more space for children and teens, library officials said.
The new $49 million library is being built without local property taxes. The money comes from a mix of federal disaster funds, a state I-JOBS grant, private donations and $4 million in revenue from the city's local option sales tax, which already has been collected.
Bob Pasicznyuk, the city's library director, said Thursday the operational costs at the new library will not be any larger than the operational costs at the old one, and may be less.
Isn't INTERESTING in just a few short years the City and the Gazette have gone from the Library costs too much to run being
Mostly Fiction
To
We must Raise the Library Levy 575%
Now did they LIE to us?
Or are they just so INCOMPETENT that we should NEITHER believe a word they say NOR let them touch any Tax Payer Funds.
There has been a furious debate on the Iowa Conservative Fanpage in responce to this ad
You should go there and put YOUR 2¢ in and see what others have said
One thing I learned was that the
" CR Library has a budget that far exceeds that of
Des Moines. "
Which makes me think that we HAVE the answer.
We don't need to Raise Taxes
We just need to send someone to
Des Moines
To find out how to run a Library
Monday, 21 September 2015
Breakfast With Carly
I received requests from a couple of the LCRCC Executives to help spread the word about this event.
There are two things to take into consideration.
1. This lady is always well worth listening to.
2. The breakfast is being held at the Kirkwood Center, and THEY have a great reputation for cuisine!
Go Hear and Enjoy!
Tickets can be
Obtained HERE
One Week Left to get Tickets
We must report to the vender
how many places by
Wednesday Oct 14
They start at $25
Monday, 14 September 2015
Dan Zumbach For Iowa Senate
One Last Vote
You know the saying? One Person, One Vote One Time?
Well some of us are going to be given the opportunity to do something close to that Tuesday.
We may be allowed to Vote on whether we will still be allowed to Vote next year.
There is a proposed By Law Change which will do away with the current system of Assistant Committee Persons.
II. ASSISTANT COMMITTEE PERSONS The County Central Committee shall have the power to designate and select additional members from each precinct to assist the Committee persons. They shall have the right to attend meetings and to be heard. They shall not have the right to vote, except in the absence of a Committee person form their own precinct.
A Case has been made that this accomadation cannot be found in the County, and State Constitutions nor the State Election Code which all state.
The County Central Committee shall consist of two precinct committee members elected from each precinct at the precinct caucuses. The Constitution of the Republican Party of Iowa permits a provision to be adopted in the County by-laws for the election of additional Central Committee members from each precinct in a number proportionate to the Republican vote cast in the precinct at the last preceding general election for President of the United States or for the Governor of Iowa, as the case may be.
I could point out that it does not prohibit it either and the last time I checked we did not live under a standard of Law where anything not Mandatory was Forbidden
I could also point out that what we have does not add a single extra Vote to the Central Committee it only allows the Assistants to step in and represent their Precinicts when a Permanent Member is absent
But just for a bit for the sake of Debate let us stipulate their claim.
In that case we MUST vote against the By Law Change because what has been mailed out to us is a a plan that does NOT add additional Central Committee members from each precinct in a number proportionate to the Republican vote cast in the precinct at the last preceding general election for President of the United States or for the Governor of Iowa, as the case may be.
I submit we cannot rationalise abolishing the Assistant Committee Persons because a provision for them is not in the Constitutions and the Election Code only to replace it with something that is not in their either.
It seems in their continuing efforts to create Second Class Committee People they propose a new classification.
Associate Commitee Persons who will not ba able to Vote, or Make Motions they will be able to engage in Debate (If the Chair decides to recognize them)
I have been told there is no prohibition against them voting in Team Meetings but then off course the Executive Committee has already chosen who will be allowed to do that.
Nope it would appear that our New Second Class Associate Committee Persons will only be allowed to do the Work,.
I had a man recently tell me that before the Executives Disenfranchised him and quite a few others who worked on Sub Committees he was on 3 but had not been asked to be on any Team and indeed saw no point
Since he would have no say in anything.
I will probably vote against these measures or at a minimum move to amend the Associate to be allowed to make motions.
It is kind of sad.
When our present Chair Cindy Golding took over from the Former Chair our meetings sometimes numbered 200 attendees or so.
We used 2 to 3 rooms the size we do now.
Our events were attended by similiar numbers, We had volunteers stacked on top of each other.
We had gone from Dead Broke in 2 short years to a Treasury of over 20K
Now?
Attendence has dropped by about 80% a large number of those still attending have been disenfranchised ie have no real vote or say outside of hte General Meeting
And now it seems in their quest for Control and Power the Executives Plan to Disenfranchise even more of the remains of the Body.
I am certain this will be reflected by a Boom in Participation.,
Monday, 7 September 2015
First Break It
We are blessed with Leadership in the Linn County Republican Central Committee who have a simple strategy.
First: Break It.
Then: (GASP) "OMG, we have a CRISIS!"
And demand Emergency Powers which include full and total control over what they have broken,
In order to FIX it.
We got an example of this at the August LCRCC meeting.
There was a problem with credentialing.
Which, to my knowledge, had NEVER happened before.
The usual process is that credentialing starts at 6:30 PM.
Voting members are given their credentials with the lime green card that
shows they are entitled to vote.
Now, it is true that some do not understand this, and have tried to vote
without credentials in the past, but most do understand and abide by the process.
Assistant Members get yellow cards, however, if both permanent members have not shown up by 7:00 PM, the start of the meeting.
The Assistants are given lime green voting cards.
Or, at least, they have at EVERY meeting until August.
To understand how this all came about, we must go back to July's Meeting.
Another thing that has always happened is that after the meeting, the Team Leader (or in the past, the Sub Committee Chair) takes all the materials home to re-sort them.
Except for at our July meeting, when our County Chair, Cindy Golding, and our Secretary, Gary Ellis, decided at the end of the meeting that THEY would do take possession of the credentials, rather than leaving it up to the Team Leader, Justin Wasson.
Now, they may or may not have had a valid reason to take the materials home.
But what IS true is that on the night of the August meeting, they STILL had possesion of the credentialing materials,
A month after they improperly took them,
For which, in my opinion, THERE IS NO EXCUSE.
But there IS a reason, that reason being that they have, since the "Teams" were enacted, tried to take control away from the duly appointed Team Leader,
Who has been affirmed in his postion by TWO votes of the full Central Committee.
You see?
They REALLY do not like that portion of our Constitution, which states:
The Executive Committee is subject to the orders of the Linn County Central Committee, and none of its acts shall conflict with actions of the Linn County Central Committee.
So it turned out the Chair, Cindy Golding, and the Secretary, Gary Ellis, had possession of the materials AND decided to start credentialing members almost an hour earlier than the Membership's Team's standard practice.
In doing so, they made a Dog's Breakfast of the whole process,
Which does not come as much of a surprise to anyone who has been around the LCRCC for a few administrations.
Before Cindy Golding took over as Chair, we often had as many as 200 people attending meetings. We required a meeting room two to three times as big as the one we use now.
Since her advent as Chair, attendance has dropped 80%, while a similiar drop has been seen in attendance at fundraisers and other events.
The new Executive Committee, along with our Chair, decided to disenfranchise a large portion of the Central Committee by abolishing the sub-committees, and replacing them with "teams" who had limited voting members (who were chosen by them.)
That had the expected result.
While it is true they got their desired Total Control, one member expressed to me that when he was on three subcommittees, he felt he contributed, but now he is not on ANY teams and sees no point, since he would have NO SAY in anything.
Quite a few of our disenfranchised members were some of our hardest working volunteers.
But if your goal is CONTROL, rather than a healthy, functioning Central Committee, such people are expendable.
But, no matter. I understand from talking to some of them that they have found other ways to "Help Republicans Get Elected" and "Support Conservative Causes," so they are just as busy as they have always been at these endeavors.
In any event, when we realized that the Chair, Cindy Golding, and the Secretary, Gary Ellis, had attempted to take over the credentialing process at the August meeting, we understood why things ended up in a mess.
The most comical outcome was that because the Membership Team Leader, Justin Wasson, having had the credentialing materials taken from him without his permission, stated that he had had nothing to do with the credentialing that night, and, more accurately, the mess it turned into,
THEY tried to claim he had RESIGNED!
Now, I can't make up stuff that like that. It takes an intellect on the level of Cindy Golding to come to that kind of a conclusion:
From: clgolding@aol.com <clgolding@aol.com>
Sent: Thursday, August 27, 2015 11:15 PM
To: jrwasson@live.com
Cc: egarye@cs.com; brett.e.mason@gmail.com; tuckerusa@aol.com
Subject: Membership & Meeting setup team leader?
Justin,
There appeared to be a serious breakdown in the communication among the Membership & Meeting Setup Team on August 18th, causing disruption of the LCRCC meeting. Then, when questions arose, you stated publicly that you were not in charge of the Membership Team and credentialing was not your responsibility. This was confirmed by Jim Conklin during his "Point of Order."
Harry Foster, Mike Dupree and Deb Dupree handled the credentialing process but, apparently, were not provided the documentation to credential Assistant Committee Persons, as Jim Conklin requested.
This action and your statement indicates to the executive team that you have tendered your resignation.
Please let me know by 5 PM, Monday, Aug 31, if you intend to complete your responsibilities and have the sign-in sheets and credentials there on time or if you are resigning, per your statement during the meeting.
You can reach me at 319-360-1028 or 319-899-4700 or the office number 319-432-9467 or reply to this email.
The next LCRCC meeting on Sept. 15th will have a Candidate Meet & Greet from 6-7PM.
The membership sign-in needs to begin at 5:45 PM to be courteous to our guests and our members who wish to hear the speakers.
In addition, I have asked the Secretary, Gary Ellis to work with the Membership & Meeting Setup Team to develop procedures to help avoid delays and confusion in future meetings and to assure that we have accurate attendance records for our minutes.
Again, you can reach me at 319-360-1028 or 319-899-4700 or the office number 319-432-9467 or reply to this email.
I hope to hear from you before Monday evening.
Cindy Golding
Chair
Linn County Republican Central Committee
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