Wednesday, 18 November 2015
¡No Pasarán!
"They shall NOT PASS!"
This seems to be the battle cry of the Linn County Republican Central Committee Secretary in his continuous contest to combat Democratic infiltration of the Linn County Republican Central Committee.
Also, he combats what he calls "negativity," or what some of us think of as "speaking truth to power."
In his own words, he stated:
Tuesday, 17 November 2015 - 2:03 AM CST
Name: "Gary Ellis" All of the negative attacks are veiled opinions and oblique comments. The author claims an Executive violated the LCRCC Constitution, but he criticized the Executives because they deemed it important to follow the Constitution and verify that new members are currently registered Republicans before voting them in as members. So when you see it to your advantage its OK to violate the Consitution.
I call that selective reasoning.
The continual spewing of negativism is demenaing to all of the volunteers who show up every month. It ignores the contribution of those volunteers working in the LCRCC Teams.
Maybe I should not be so veiled and oblique?
Okay!
The Linn County Republican Party's Constitution says:
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.
Some time back the Committee voted to reward volunteers for hard work in the 2014 Victory Office.
The Chair, Cindy Golding, REFUSED to honor that commitment.
The Treasurer at the time, Jim Conklin, had to get the Co-Chair at the time to sign the checks Mrs. Golding refused to sign.
After Mr Conklin was bullied to step aside while issues with a state agency were addressed, the Chair, Mrs. Golding, and the Interim Treasurer did not honor the debts the Central Committee had committed us to, AND they did not handle the records, as was their duty.
So the last person who had EARNED a monetary award from the Committee for all of his hard work never received his reward from the Chair, Cindy Golding, and the Interim Treasurer.
Instead, another member and I chipped in and made the young man's reward whole.
I hope that is not too "veiled and oblique" for Mr Ellis.
Now, as for:
"...but he criticized the Executives because they deemed it important to follow the Constitution and verify that new members are currently registered Republicans before voting them in as members..."
In the past, the call for new members has been at the end of the meeting.
But, our committee leadership and their supporters seem to be more intrested in keeping to their adjournment time at 8:30 PM instead of taking care of the business of the Committee.
They can wax SO poetic about why we cannot go past 8:30, and ALWAYS ask the body to vote against it.
UNLESS, that is, there is something that THEY want to see addressed.
In that case, they are eager to extend the meeting.
And we, on the other side?
NOT being hypocrites, we vote to do so.
That situation is the reason why one person, for instance, had to wait six months to join.
So last meeting, there was NOTHING to vote on after the new members were presented.
But Mr Ellis had a hissy fit about going ahead and voting them in.
EVEN a person who had her VOTER ID CARD on her.
Since she drove to the meeting, it is most probable that she also had a drivers license.
I certainly hope Mr. Ellis never has the deciding say in any regular elections.
Can you just picture it?
So, you have a government-issued color photo ID, AND a voter registration card?
Still not good enough for "They Shall Not Pass" Ellis!
Not until he checks himself.
Robert Heinlein once said:
“Political tags — such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth — are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surly curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort.”
Monday, 16 November 2015
Divisive Forces
The final stage of the Revolution will be to search out and purge divisive counter revolutionary elements.
In the comments to one of my posts, the charge of being divisive and thereby affecting the functioning of the LCRCC has been levied.
The author may disagree with individual people but publishing a constant flow of negatives does not reflect well on our organization. Perhaps that has had an impact in reducing the meeting attendance from past glory?
Maybe that accusation is true.
But, then again...
Maybe if one of the Executives had not violated the LCRCC Constitution;
Or,
Maybe if the committee bylaws had been left unbreached;
Or,
Maybe if the Executives had not rushed the body to a hasty descision to eliminate years worth of peoples' work by telling the whole committee lies,
Wiping out the subcommittees and replacing them with "teams" whose only voting members seemed to be chosen by them, and disenfranchizing a large portion of the body;
Or,
Maybe if the Executives had bothered to show some consideration and respect to hard working volunteers,
There might not have been anything to write.
The question is, "Where does the fault lie?"
In the telling of these tales to the Committee as a whole?
In the creation of the elements of the story,
We know the answer that one side would give.
Shoot the Messenger.
Thursday, 12 November 2015
Tonight, We Dine At the Doubletree!
I was trying to decide what paradigm best fit the impending Linn County Republican Central Committee Caucuses.
The charge of the Light Brigade?
Lemmings diving off a cliff?
Then I realized that a meme that illustrates what our Chair and Executive Committee desire was the most fitting:
A massive Media Event down at the Doubletree.
At its finest, the Iowa Caucuses are neighbors meeting with neighbors in their neighborhood to decide the structure of their local political party for the following two years.
They choose their Central Committee representation, and cast their ballots for the Presidential Poll.
It has been to duty of the party to facilitate this process and act to aid the wishes of the local members of the Republican Party,
Or, that is how it has been in the past...
But in Linn County, this time things will be different.
The Caucuses, rather than being in the maximum number of precincts to optimize attendance and make things easier for the party members,
Will instead be in a few sites and will need to consist of massive numbers.
This will require a very large number of volunteers...
...who do not seem to exist.
Whispers on the Wind have relayed to us that the Caucus Team Leader was berated by the County Chair because they felt the Team Leader was responsible for a lack of enthusiasm to volunteer.
I do not feel this is the case. In fact, in my opinion, this does the Caucus Team Leader an injustice.
I do not feel that the present Chair and Executive Committee need any help in discouraging volunteers. They seem to have done very well with their own efforts.
There are reasons for this.
They have, as I have pointed out, purged the membership of a large number they did not desire.
There has been some dispute between the figures relayed to me by a Committee person long involved in membership attendance and our present Secretary.
So for the sake of discourse, I will not use discrete numbers.
I will say that I have known five different County Chairs, and during the term of three of them, the Committee filled two rooms at the Longbranch often to over capacity.
Now, were it not for guests and candidate reps, our meeting would rattle in one single room.
The number of potential volunteers has declined by a large amount.
Part of this has been the result of how people have been treated.
In the past, when volunteers could not attend their own Precinct Caucus due to working elsewhere, it was the practice to present those doing so in their precincts as nominees for the position of Committeeperson.
It has been relayed to me that this was not done last time in the usual manner.
They were presented, but only as Assistant Commiteepersons, and at the very end of the seniority lists.
That is what has been told to me. Forms from the 2014 Caucus will verify these claims.
Now, whether that was due to negligence, or due an attempt to ensure that people not approved of by the Executives would not be likely to vote?
That, I cannot say.
I can say the person who relayed this information to me will not be anywhere or do anything during the upcoming Caucus away from their precinct, and for that very reason.
Then, there was the treatment of volunteers after the last election.
For the Inauguration in Des Moines, each County Chair is given tickets.
Not a SINGLE one of the top volunteers was given the opportunity to go to Governor Branstad's most recent inauguration in January.
At the Officers Election this spring, I heard more than once from a volunteer hearing the speech of some of our present Executives.
"They are taking credit for what I did," said the volunteer.
I don't have to take the volunteer's word about what they said.
I heard it myself.
So, we have people who have been our hardest working volunteers in the past treated so shabbily,
And NOW?
They are being approached by the people who ignored them and exhorted that we must "all work together."
So, NO, I don't think that volunteer avoidance is the fault of the Caucus Team Leader.
He had no part in what I have relayed above.
Therefore, I give the claim by our Chair that he is in some way responsible:
THREE PINNOCHIOS.
Wednesday, 11 November 2015
Balance Of Power
At the last Linn County Republican Central Committee meeting we were introduced to a New Paradigm.
Or, at least, something happened that had never happened before.
Six people presented themselves to be added to the Committee as members.
And the reaction of our leadership was.
Not yet.
In the past, they have always been accepted.
But, as we have come to expect, our present leadership does things the way THEY want.
Their rationale was, "OMG, we cannot add anyone as a member until WE check to see if they are really Republicans!"
It didn't matter that one of them had been waiting 6 months to join;
Or that another one actually had their Voter ID card on them and pulled it out.
Nope, the Secretary, the Chair and the bulk of the Executive Committee would not be shaken from their sacred duty to ensure that we did not add anyone to the Central Committee who was not register as a Republican.
So they will have to wait until our Secretary gets around to verifying that.
I decided not to confuse the Executives and the Secretary by pointing out that there was no assurance that any of the present members had not changed their registration since the last meeting.
I mean, if they started thinking about that, no one would be allowed to vote!
You might have noticed I mentioned that one person had waited 6 months to join.
That is because the Chair and her supporters have, for most of the meetings, insisted on adjourning before the "Add New Members" item on the agenda came up.l
They have been very adamant about ending the meetings at 8:30.
It does not matter to them if there is work for the Committee left undone.
Well, it doesn't matter to them if there is work left undone that OTHER people care about.
They will insist on adjourning.
If an attempt is made to alter the agenda to remove the 8:30 deadline, it often fails with one of those 22 to 21 Votes.
However, if there is something left undone that THEY want to do?
That is another story.
In that case, they will entertain a motion to extend the meeting, and the rest of us, not being hypocrites, will vote to do so.
And THEY keep accusing US of not being willing to work together?
So this person showed up for 6 months waiting for our leadership and their supporters to allow a meeting to last long enough for new members to be presented;
Only to be told to "come back next month."
I mean, they really know how to recruit volunteers, don't they?
Yes, we have now a New Paradigm. Forget Moving Forward.
Of course, the reason might be just a matter of political manuevering.
Recall, if you will, that sometimes what the Committee decides to do is decided by votes on the order of 22 to 21.
Six new members might alter the Balance of Power.
So maybe they are trying to stonewall until the new bylaw changes go into effect.
And unless the new member is filling a vacancy in a precinct,
They will have NO VOTE.
Reguiem In Pace
At the September LCRCC Meeting we Laid To Rest what has for Decades been one of the Stalwart Supports of the Linn County Republican Central Committee.
That does sound much better than saying that the majority stepped up behind a faithful servant of the Body and Slit it's Throat,
No matter how you view it what has in the past IMO been THE Member Engine of the LCRCC is Gone.
We must hope that what has replaced it will do as good a job.
I would not hold my breath waiting though.
We had what was called Assistant Committee Persons. They did not have votes but could be heard from the floor ie make motions and engage in debate.
AND if one of the Two Permanent Committee Persons happened to be absent during a meeting they could vote in their place.
We now have Associate Committee persons, Originally they were NOT to be allowed to make motions, but could engage in Debate
The Body did amend the proposed Change to the By Laws to allow the new Positions to make Motions.
They have no Voting privileges Period.
Notice the transition since our present Chair and Executives came to Power.
The previous sub Committees were Purged and replaced with Teams with a few changes
Only 5 members of a Team have voting rights and the Executives filled the Teams with members they approved of to give them voting control.
People who previously were very active in the Sub Committees were shut out if the Executives did not approve of them.
I had one person who said that they had been active on 3 Sub Committees but were not asked to be on any Team and saw no reason to bother because they would not have any say in anything.
Since our present Chair took over a Central Committee of about 200 members attending meetings
Somewhere around 90% of that membership has been Purged ie alienated or disenfranchised.
So that now with a very important political year pending the results of our Present Leadership has been to diminish the LCRCC to a shell of what it once was.
And to wipe out any ability of half of what is left to trust them,
Which WILL impact volunteer levels for the 2016 Caucuses,
But that will be another Story
Monday, 9 November 2015
The Jim Conklin Roast
5:30 Cash Bar opens
6:15 Buffet is started
7:00 Roast Begins (Moderator to be announced)
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.
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