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Community demise by a thousand clerical errors

Posted 3/4/20

To the Editor:

The juxtaposition of lead articles above (“City fined $151,000”)  and below (“City pulls plug on Ricketts-Graham project grant”) the fold of the front …

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Community demise by a thousand clerical errors

Posted

To the Editor:

The juxtaposition of lead articles above (“City fined $151,000”)  and below (“City pulls plug on Ricketts-Graham project grant”) the fold of the front page of the February 26, 2020 Fayette Advertiser likely inspired readers to more critically  evaluate the actions of those in city hall.  Taken together, the articles provide insightful views of the dysfunction of city government in the former, and the harmful downstream effects on community collaborations in the latter.  And, in this age of “alternative facts”, the extent to which the public can be accurately and reliably informed is challenged when statements made by city officials are taken at face value and not independently verified.  

The mayor’s opinion that the failure to file 2018 financial reports resulting in the fine was a “clerical error” belies the fact that the required filing was consciously and purposefully neglected and delayed repeatedly.  Moreover, it would seem his and the Fayette Board of Aldermen’s delayed recognition of revenue shortfalls without definitive action and correction allowed the growth of the fines and, remarkably, the failure to assure that the 2019 report was filed on time. A lack of focus, poor task prioritization, ineffective time management, and lack of communication between paid and  elected officials clearly contributed to this situation.  Most concerning, though, is the failure of those  elected officials to monitor for and recognize when vital mandated city actions have not been fulfilled. 

Given those behaviors, and associated failed systems and processes of city government, the inability of the city to achieve the goals of the Rickett’s Recreational Trails Program grant is not difficult to understand. Failure to act on the grant project in a timely fashion, proceed with bids and contracted work, and engage the grant authors (the Howard County Health and Wellness Council) doomed the project.  I submit that the city successfully created a false narrative, perpetuated and faithfully reported by the media, of funding being “grossly underestimated” in the grant application.  By implication, the federal and state RTP grant program teams who have been evaluating and funding such grants for years did not know what they were doing. Believe that if you will.  

There are many communities across the nation whose success and continued growth are dependent on crucial city-community collaboration.  This is particularly true for cities such as Fayette, whose revenue stream is limited and so dependent on local tax revenues. How would life here be different without the Optimists, Rotary, Fayette Ministerial Alliance, and other service clubs and organizations?  The hundreds of hours of community engagement and thousands of dollars they contribute to the health of our community make a huge difference in our daily lives. Such contributions are most effective when our elected officials fulfill their responsibilities.  Failure to do so may result in community demise by the summation of a thousand paper cuts... or “clerical errors”.  

Tony Cook

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