Coming soon our analysis of the 3 tax questions on the November ballot. Why Liberty Forward will oppose them and why you should too. 

In court documents filed in August Dr. Scott Taveau requested that his retirement benefits be reinstated by filing for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction. The court has DENIED the request.

In court documents dated 9/26:

The Court having reviewed the Application for Temporary Restraining Order and Preliminary Injunction, denies the same.



Liberty Forward - Keeping You Informed

It is commonplace for local service organizations take positions on ballot initiatives. In the past the Liberty Chamber of Commerce has taken positions in favor of school bond issues along with city tax initiatives.

It is common for school administrators and city officials to serve on the board of directors of these types of organizations, in some cases in an Ex-Officio capacity. An Ex-Officio member is a member of a body or board who is part of it by virtue of holding another office. Depending on the body, such a member may or may not have the power to vote in the body decisions.

Liberty Forward has obtained an undated letter written by the board of directors of the Liberty Chamber of Commerce expressing confidence in the actions that have been taken presumably by the Liberty School Board.

Liberty Forward does not disagree with many of the points in the letter, however we feel it is important for tax-payers to have full disclosure on the relationship between the Chamber and the School District.

1. The much maligned payment of $37,500 to the Partnership For Economic Growth & Development was funneled through the Chamber Of Commerce. The school district made the check payable to the Chamber Of Commerce and asked them to endorse the check over to the Partnership upon receipt, in which they did.

2. Each year the school district purchases Chamber Dollars to pay out to students who meet Summer School attendance requirements. In essence revenue sharing plans with the students. In 2008, $71,000 was paid out to students who attended Summer School. This arrangement with the Chamber of Commerce has gone on for years.

3. Historically, a school administrator has served on the board of directors of the Liberty Chamber of Commerce. The current website lists Phil Wright as a board member, we doubt that is current and can only guess that his role was assumed by a current administrator.      

It is also important to note that the Chamber Of Commerce has endorsed the City of Liberty's ballot tax initiatives. We are not criticizing their thought process, however if the voters are to rely on this endorsement it is important to note that the Chamber relies on City resources to put on its annual Fall Festival. This festival with a long tradition in Liberty is most likely, one of the Chamber Of Commerce's largest single sources of annual revenue.

In addition, we assume that though the Chamber website lists Cynthia Boecker as a board member, that she has since been replaced by another city official. (Ms. Boecker resigned almost a year ago)

We hope our attempt to fully disclose these relationships is not solely taken as criticism, but sheds new light on the story behind the letters and endorsements from any of these organizations.

As of this article, our email request to the Chamber for a list of updated board members went unanswered. 

To view all of the supporting documents with the Chamber and the School District click on our SUNSHINE DOCUMENTS page and go to the Chamber Letter link.   

Check out more at http://www.libertyforward.org.

By Jeff Moore

Sometimes government documents are hard to get to. Even with political subdivisions that cooperate with citizens it is often cumbersome and time consuming to get your hands on operational documents.

You will find weekly meeting agenda items and vendor check runs on the city and school district websites. However it would be a great service to the tax payers to take accessibility to the next level. It might even lighten the workload here at Liberty Forward!

We would like to see both the City of Liberty and the Liberty School district adopt a philosophy similar to that of the state and create a web database of documents for the citizens to review and watch over.

It would service the citizens well if they could work together to use 1 platform. If cost is an issue Liberty Forward would be willing to help fund and maintain a central site that both organizations could simply upload their documents to.

Keeping the check runs and the meeting agenda documents accessible beyond the week of the meetings would be a great start!

What do you think?

The following is a press release from the Governor's office obtained from Representative Tim Flook.

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                         

Tuesday, September 2, 2008                                                               

(573) 751-2982

 

Gov. Blunt’s Accountability

Internet Site Tops 11 Million

Hits

Fiscal Watchdogs Receive Answer on State’s

Expenses to Ann’s Bra Shop

 

            JEFFERSON CITY – Gov. Matt Blunt’s highly successful initiative to increase transparency and accountability in Missouri state government has reached the 11 million hit mark and Missourians are using the site to find valuable information about how their tax dollars are spent. 

 

            “Missouri families deserve to know how their state government is spending their hard-earned tax dollars,” Gov. Blunt said. “The MAP Internet site is a great tool that allows all Missourians to become fiscal watchdogs and hold all of Missouri’s elected officials accountable for their spending choices.  My administration has made Missouri state government more open and transparent by providing the greatest access to information in our state’s history.”

 

            The governor’s office recently heard from several MAP visitors who became fiscal watchdogs questioning the state’s expenses to Ann’s Bra Shop in Vandalia.  After the governor directed a review of the expenses, the Office of Administration found they were legitimate Department of Corrections expenses for special-needs products for female inmates in Missouri’s prison system.

 

            “This is exactly how we envisioned the MAP site working when we created it,” Gov. Blunt said. “Some in state government might be concerned about what we place on the MAP site and that is exactly the point.  Transparency and openness prevents wasteful spending and we welcome any scrutiny that helps us better safeguard the taxpayer’s money.”

 

            Missourians who find troublesome or questionable spending can call a variety of people including state legislators, relevant agencies, the governor’s office or call 573-751-1506.

 

            The governor’s MAP Internet site enables Missourians to track tax dollars in near real-time.  Since launching the new Internet site last year there have been 11,011,974 hits to the MAP site at http://mapyourtaxes.mo.gov.

 

            The MAP site is one of the first comprehensive databases of financial records based on real-time data in the nation. The MAP site is updated at the close of each business day to provide up-to-date access to information about state spending.  Anyone can search the MAP site by budget category, vendor or contract.  Links to other public information maintained by the state are also available on the MAP site.  The MAP expenditure site has also been enhanced to allow Missourians to review state expenditures by state agency and information regarding tax credits administered by the Missouri Department of Economic Development since tax credit application year 2000. The site also provides easy to access, real-time information on state employee salaries.

 

            Americans for Tax Reform, a leading taxpayer watchdog group lauded Gov. Blunt for creating the Internet site. “Gov. Blunt is one of the first governors to enable taxpayers to become fiscal watchdogs, and I commend him for taking this step towards greater fiscal transparency,” said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform.

 

            The team that developed Gov. Blunt’s initiative and enacted his vision for the MAP portal earned national recognition with an American Business Award.  The Information Technology Services Division (ITSD) Team won the Best MIS and IT Team Category for the development of MapYourTaxes.mo.gov at the 2008 American Business Awards. The American Business Awards are the only national, all–encompassing awards program honoring great performances in business. 

 

 

Check out more at http://www.libertyforward.org.

On Tuesday August 12th The Public School Retirement System of Missouri  filed a Petition for Declaratory Judgment.

Upon reciept of the lawsuit, Liberty Forward will provide the document for public viewing on our website.   

by Jeff Moore & Lisa (Reichert) Essig    "Class of 85"

"...Liberty High School live forever and true to thee will be, may the coming years deepen our great love for thee..."

".. Many Lessons thou has taught us, In our days of youth, Principles of right and justice, Loyalty and truth...."

All along the citizens of this town have been leery of the Westbrook review.  With good reason though, as the real lack of confidence is in the board itself, the very body elected to oversee the district. Setting aside the a large number of the items in the Westbrook review that were uncovered by Mr. William Walker, the amount of items in this report suggest that the School Board was no more than a rubber stamp body for a less than honorable band of thieves with Dr. in their title.

In the beginning the School Board attempted to sell us on the Westbrook “audit” as an alternative to the “State Audit” the citizens so desired. As the final report was delivered we even got Webster’s definition of audit just in case we, the citizen, were thorough enough to actually read the Closing Comments of the Westbrook Review that states “We did not perform an audit nor were we engaged to perform an audit.” It goes on to say “Our engagement cannot be relied upon to disclose errors, fraud, or illegal acts that may exist and was not designed to detect employee embezzlement or other fraudulent activities involving bank accounts, accounts receivable or other assets susceptible to fraud.”

This topic may seem to be moot, in a sense Westbrook did a large review of receipts and expenditures and there seems to be quite a mother lode of information in this report. But we think this is the essence of the problem. The board will defend their actions to the death regardless of the merit. We have yet to hear a contrite word from this body; we have yet to hear from individual board members on this subject. The board speaks as one, and that my friend is how we got into this predicament.          

We need to hear from each board member with respect to this document. The public deserves open and transparent discussion of this document. Each member of the Board owes their constituents at minimum their comments on each section of this report, and at maximum their resignation.

Over the years we have heard how unfair the State funding formula is to the district, we have even been at the forefront of a lawsuit with the State of Missouri, led by a former Superintendent. All this while going over budget $14 million+ in construction projects, while living lavishly and abusively off the taxpayer. Any claims in this fashion will fall on deaf ears and be considered unreliable as the district remains the poster child of abuse across the entire State of Missouri.

How ironic was the contribution to the Partnership for Economic Growth & Development to claim the district had a role in economic development as the very Superintendent was destroying the reputation and good name of the district my children, their parents, and grandparents worked so hard to maintain. How ironic that the very teachers whom are the lifeblood of our schools must forgo fair wage increases while facing higher contributions to the retirement system while their leader abused and possibly defrauded the fund with full knowledge and unanimous approval of the board. 

We would also encourage the board to quit harping on the cost of the State Audit. Based on the way this board fails to oversee expenditures it is ludicrous to the taxpayer to make the argument that suddenly something is too expensive. It is unfortunate but this cost is on you the board but I think the board wishes to place this expenditure on the backs of the citizens who petitioned to bring credibility back to this district. Reimbursements to the district found by the citizens already far exceed the cost of this audit.  

So now that the board has their magic bullet, the much awaited Westbrook review, what will they do? Will they stay behind closed doors and hide behind litigation and personnel issues or will there be an attempt to act and discuss these issues in open forum? Will they continue to hide behind prepared statements and exemplify the idea that they are the victims in this charade?         

The citizens must also learn a lesson here. Do not take for granted that your elected officials are doing their job. Just as the board has oversight responsibility to the staff they direct, we the citizen have the responsibility to oversee our elected officials.

Please stay active and involved in local government as Liberty Public Schools represent an extreme example of what happens, waste fraud and abuse is very common in smaller doses and similar to retail items, in the end it is the customer that pays for the shoplifters with higher prices and so goes the citizens who pay for waste fraud and abuse with higher tax bills.   

William Carlin Walker deserves to be reimbursed for his Sunshine requests. His requests were proper and with merit.

The first order of business should be that one board member make a motion and this item discussed openly in the board meeting. At least have the guts to vote it down.   

Liberty School Board you are now on the clock. What are you going to do?

We encourage everyone to read the Liberty Sun News Article written by Janese Heavin  on June 30, 2005 and I most especially encourage current elected officials and anyone considering public service to READ IT AND REFLECT ON IT.

To access this article along with the Westbrook report highlighting the items William Walker and the citizens group documented go to the SUNSHINE DOCUMENTS TAB and choose:

Joe Citizen Article & Westbrook Review Walker Credits

In time we will return to that Sunset Hill Of Glory but for now the storm damage must be attended to.

On a final note: Though we should not excuse the actions of the board, as human beings, however, we all have friends and neighbors serving in these positions. We should welcome them with open arms into our churches and social gatherings and accept them as our friends and fellow citizens. We encourage the board not to take criticisms personal and we encourage the citizens not to alienate the board members outside in the community. Too often we can't separate business issues from personal relationships. After all the inability to draw the distinction is what got us in this mess to begin with.

 

By Lisa Essig

click here to see the official document

What is a city to do that has so many needs and so little money when it receives a windfall in the form of a class action lawsuit settlement? Anyone who drives the streets of Liberty knows we have needs. More than we can attend to, an understandable quandary for city council for sure.
 
With dwindling cash reserves and a forecast that the city will be unable to meet bond obligations without either cutting promised projects or raising taxes would it be more prudent to save the telecom settlement money? That is the question one councilman (Nick King) continues to ask.

The funds in question are $1.385 million, most of which was not accounted for in the 2008 budget.

Early in the year Councilman Jenness proposed that we spend 100% of those funds on our ailing roads. A prudent use of the funds at the time of the proposal. It is true we can probably not spend enough on roads right now.

Some on the council feel it would be most prudent that we save the entire settlement to shore up the "financial management challenge" using the words of city staff who in a June 6th study session prefers not to use the word "crisis". Both councilman King and Brenton referred to the city's situation as a potential financial crisis. Equally as many members are ready to spend it all now.

Others on the council wonder why it has to be an all or nothing proposition? A compromise settlement seems to make sense, save back enough to raise our cash position while meeting the most immediate needs with some spending. We will refer to the plan as "Pave and Save".

City staff has a spending proposal currently in front of the council that would  spread the money out over a variety of projects. The outline is as follows:

$200,000-Improve the projected 2007 ending fund balance to 12.1%

What should be gleaned from this? It has been customary to maintain a cash position of 15% of the general fund budget, and this figure has been dwindling since 2005. We can only assume without adding cash from this settlement we are at or below 10%. This only brings our cash position to 12.1% as of 12/31/07 and does not guarantee we will remain there throughout 2008. 

$86,000-Secure replacement of IT equipment

$200,000-Implement Sewer / Water Main backup storm water mitigation program

$150,000-Traffic Calming and crosswalk repairs Kansas St. / downtown

$150,000-Storm and sanitary sewer repairs Kansas St. / Franklin St.

$426,000-Additional Street Overlay Funding

$25,000-Street Condition Update

After being directed by council in a study session to consider a scenario that would set aside more of the settlement they brought back a proposal that took all of the proposed spending cut from road overlay. (Scenario #2)
 

Liberty Forward's Plan: SCENARIO #3 as follows:

1. Add $426,000 to Street Overlay budget as proposed.
 
2. Prioritize the remaining items in the 2009 budget. And consider them within their own budgets on a case by case basis. If other budgeted 2008 spending falls short or comes in lower, use those savings to purchase these new items.

3. Save the balance $811,000 through the discussion of the 2010 tax extension discussion and the 2009 budget discussions. Remember in 2009 and for years to come we cannot meet bond obligations without raising taxes or cutting other projects. As part of their tax extension plan staff is proposing we cut or delay capital projects that have been in the works for many years. Discussions regarding prioritizing those cuts should include these new projects being recommended as new expenditures for the telecom settlement money.  

We would consider the roads an emergency need. Consider only other proposed items also classified as emergency needs. Unless we have missed something we have not heard that any of these items proposed would be classified in such a fashion.  Remember none of these items made the cut in the 2008 budget. 

It seems as though we need to take care of our streets and at the same time start shoring up the holes in the boat where we are leaking so that we can have the much needed discussions about the city's financial management challenge we so desperately need to have.

This plan significantly adds to the street overlay, holds back money that helps protect our city's dwindling cash position, and it provides incentive to look for ways to save money in the existing 2008 budget in a way that we can bring in some of these additional very worthy projects.

Let us know what you think, as the forecast for revenues continues to be flat, managing spending priorities will be more critical. Let us know where you think the city over spends, under spends, and spends just right!

by Simon Peterson - guest contributor

Tonight at the Liberty Community Center, a group of citizens filed in one by one, petitions in hand. In scarcely more than two weeks, the citizens of Liberty have spoken and spoken loudly. Grass roots democracy was alive and well in Liberty, Missouri tonight. The state audit is going to happen, and  rs fairly swiftly it appears. Approximately 2400 signatures are in hand. With the required number of around 1950, it seems certain there are more than enough signatures for the audit.

William Walker is someone we all owe a debt of gratitude to. His easy going, quiet demeanor can never be confused with apathy or lack of concern. This man has been criticized, and painted as a demon by the Liberty School Board.

Mr. Walker just had the fortitude to carry on and and do what is right, even though he knew some people he cared about would be impacted. Mr. Walker showed concern for the families impacted  in lieu of gloating about his accomplishments. He is the type of citizen our founding fathers would be proud of.

An excerpt from a scripted email response from one of the school board members goes as follows:

Who is William Walker,What political affiliations does he have in our community? Has Mr. Walker been mistreated or offended by anyone in the school district?  Why has all of this attention arisen at the same time of the bond? .....Is it coincidental? Why did none of the school board critics run for a board of education seat this past spring? How does taxation, TIF AND THE I-35 DIVIDE ALL FIT INTO this call decimate the Liberty  School District.

I will attempt to answer the questions of the unnamed school board member:

Who Is William Walker?
William is a compassionate caring man. He is a courageous person and I'd like to think we all have a little William Walker in us, we just don't always know how to introduce him to our friends. 
What Political Affiliations Does He Have In Our Community?
Based on observations of the people involved. it appears his affiliations are with Men & Women, Democrat & Republican, Young & Old, Liberal & Conservative.   
Has Mr. Walker Been Mistreated or Offended By Anyone In The School District?
Mr. Walker as a citizen has been mistreated along with the rest of us. The lack of proper oversight from the board, the theft of school money and resources, and the arrogance from most all involved is offensive to all of us.
Why Has All This Arisen At The Same Time As The Bond?  
This was clearly another clever way to make him a demon. Fortunately, the citizens saw this as two separate issues, even though the board tried their best to make them one. This district has always used the argument that if you are against their decisions you are against the children. You can see what this attitude has gotten us. 
Why Did None Of The School Board Critics Run for a board seat this past spring?
A very valid question that says maybe we deserve the government we elect. I don't think anyone has to worry, next time we will have a full slate to choose from.
How does taxation, TIF and the I-35 divide all fit into this call decimate the Liberty  School District?
Well just another example that if you disagree with the board, than you are the demon attempting to decimate the district.  This question alone tells the story. Anyone dare disagree with board policy or decisions, and you are against children and are out to destroy the district.

Thank You William for setting an example for our children.

If you would like to be a guest contributor please email us at: info@libertyforward.org


 Check out more at http://www.libertyforward.org.

 

Will the school board finally take some action tonight? Kicking and screaming it appears the board may do something tonight in a closed meeting. If it is a personnel decision it is unlikely it will be announced until the end of this week. Don't hold your breath as it appeared they were going to consider the State Audit in last week's special meeting and they simply dug their heels in further.

Certainly the citizens have spoken, now with an estimated 1700 petition signatures this group is well on it's way to completing the petition drive in short order.  It is estimated by the election board that the required number of signatures is around 1950.

The following was posted on the Board Of Education Website:

There will be a closed session of the Board of Education of the Liberty School District No. 53, Liberty, Missouri, at the District Administration Center, 650 Conistor, Liberty, on Monday, April 14, 2008, at 5:30 p.m. – closed session including any record or vote for the purpose of discussing legal action confidential or privileged communications with the District’s attorneys and personnel as provided by law (§ 610.021 (1), (3), (13) RSMo.).

For those who have not yet signed a petition or who have petitions that need to be turned in there will be a meeting at the Community Center this Thursday April 17th in the WHITE room from 7pm to 9pm. Documents will be on display for citizen review, petitions will be available to sign, and a notary will be present to certify petitions. We are all hopeful that the required number of signatures will be turned in by Thursday at this meeting.

Even though the Governor has ordered an audit, it is important to finish out the petition drive as it will ensure the State Auditor can begin expeditiously. Without the petitions the auditor will have to wait on a funding initiative from the legislature which will come in due time. In addition it eliminates the argument some board members are making about the Governor circumventing the will of the people.

We encourage everyone to take an active role as restoring the trust and confidence back to the district. It is going to take a community effort.

The LIberty Board Of Education has canceled their emergency meeting scheduled for tonight and rescheduled it for Tuesday April 8th at 6:30 pm.

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