2014-03-24 Reg - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

community and in his opinion some of the actions taken by his colleagues regarding the voter’s forum does not speak well for the reputation of University City and all of the folks whose pictures are hanging on the wall in this chamber. Mr. Crow stated that a progressive and open-minded community would have at least given the voters an opportunity to hear what everyone had to say. He stated that many of the people in this room will recall that four years ago he was the recipient of what he now calls the Easter surprise; where a number of attacks were made on him and his family. Mr. Crow stated that his hope is that at the end of this race his colleagues will be able to wake up the next morning and say to their families that they did the best they could do, ran a good race, said nothing that they needed to take back and that they did this City honor. Mr. Price stated that with respect to the issue of campaign signs, he thinks that what is disturbing to people is when they see signs in right-of-ways and locations that are not private property but staff would remove the signs on the private property and overlook those other locations that are not permitted. He stated that if his memory serves him correctly, University City Police Department was understaffed by seven officers and that is why the budget of 2009 was balanced. As a result residents were at-risk, officers were overworked and City Council had to make some adjustments in order to get things back on track. Mr. Price stated that University City was so far behind on street and sidewalk repairs that City Council had to add a significant amount of money to the budget to address the issue, and even today it is still not enough. He stated that he hears comments about the need for street repairs everyday. Even his wife questioned why there was no evidence that anything was being done if more money had supposedly been allocated for streets and sidewalks. He is certain that if many of you looked down your street what you would see would be streets crumbling into pieces, so this street and sidewalk improvement is a myth. Mr. Price stated that while University City may be doing a little better, tree trimming is so far behind that it’s ridiculous and the same holds true with alleys. He stated that City Council just added this item to the budget because previously it had been excluded. So no one should kid themselves when a bond issue is forthcoming for all of these issues, because no tax increase is a fallacy. When you have some members of City Council who want to balance the budget at all cost, and then it comes at the expense of the residents getting less service. Mr. Price stated that perhaps that is why some members of City Council do not want to conduct a debate, because they will be called on the carpet and unable to defend their actions. He stated that Julie Feier is gone and he is sick of hearing about her. The issue is what City Council is doing today, March 24, 2014 that they are scared to talk about. Q. ADJOURNMENT Mayor Shelley Welsch announced that the meeting was adjourned at 7:37 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Joyce Pumm City Clerk, MRCC/CMC