Davenport Promise - redux

What do you think? On the one side, I would love to see my kids college be sort of paid for. They are at least 12-15 years away from experiencing it, and I'm not sure the current dollar amount will keep up with the rise in tuition costs. On the other side, What is the DSC going to do to make sure Davenport has the best schools in the area. I care more about the quality of education than money to help pay for expenses. They say it will increase our population. How many baby boomers will we lose though? Let me know what you think. Ultimately it will be up to you.

The Floods of 2008

With the flood waters receeding, I want to take this opportunity to thank all of those who helped with the flood. There have been those saying that it is the city's workers job and they don't need thanks. The way I see it is, yes it is their job, but they were not "just doing their job." They went above and beyond what is expected of them and seeing the numbers of volunteers out of a city of 100,000, had they "just done their job" we all would be a lot worse off. At the same time had the volunteers not helped, we very well might be in the same predicament. It is when residents and city employees work together that we can accomplish great things. Was everything done perfectly? No. I do feel though that we were successful in fighting back the fifth largest flood in recorded history and the largest rainfall in 4 hours. What we need to do now is objectively look at what could have been done better and what was done just right.

A couple of things.....

Fejervary Zoo, Here is what we as a council saw in terms of budget decisions, which is where it was presented. Current annual cost $146,000, attendance 23,000+, annual intake approx. $30,000, final cost $116,000 to keep it running as is. The question was put to us do we hire a full time curator at an additional $35,000(I believe). Now I have taken my kids there and they enjoyed it in the past, personally I felt that it could be done better. Where is our niche? Are exotic animals a niche when Niabi has more and is still fairly close? I feel that we can concentrate our efforts on a different niche, revitalize that area, and bring more people in without having alter the character of Mother Goose land. Some thoughts that were tossed out were a better petting zoo, a dog park area, an environmental learning center, and more. How do we get the most for our money? 2101 Main St. / Henry Duetsch House There has been a lot of discussion on this topic and I just want to express my thought process. Here is an old building that may or may not be historic depending on who you ask. The owner doesn't want it. The HPC won't let them tear it down. The one thing I don't want to see is demoliton by neglect. There is too much of that now. It should not matter who is proposing what and past history when it comes to make the decision. The council has made the decision to permit demoltion after a stay of 60 days to allow Ald. Boom to work with St. Paul's to try and find an alternative to demolition. It is my hope that Ald. Boom is able to find a benefactor willing to pony up the cash to move and restore the house. What if the city took the house and moved it? Would you as taxpayers want the city to save this house? I hope a couple of things happen. If the building cannot be saved, that the church works with the HPC to salvage as much from the building to be used in restoring other houses. That the council looks at the HPC and tries to see if there is a better way to work with owners of historic homes in helping them to restore old homes to avoid demolition by neglect and or machine. Right now it feels that (and maybe I am wrong, correct me please if so) the HPC just passes judgement and lets the owner try and make the lemonade out of lemons. I understand their charge of preservation, but I feel the city should be taking a more active role. Finally, the budget, we are taking at least half a dozen opportunities (which I believe is three times more than last year) to discuss various issues and the thing I like to see the most is the amount of questions being asked. I feel the council as a whole has no problem with asking the tough questions and making sure we are getting our moneys worth in decisions being made.

Davenport Promise...

I do believe the Davenport Promise is a great idea THEORETICALLY. I don't agree with the funding proposal at this time however. There are some questions that I need to see answered. Questions like: What are they showing as the projections for the increasing cost of education? Would the L.O.S.T. even be enough to make sure this is a long term program? Is there a way, like the U promise company, that we can obtain funds from companies not from the QCA? If the Davenport School system does get the influx of students they are expecting, then there is an increase in funding provided from the state. What is their long term goal for this money? What happens if the current L.O.S.T. is not enough? Is it possible to make it a forgivable loan instead? Say after graduation, being asked to live in Davenport for five years, upon which the loan is forgiven. Iowa currently has something similar with interest rates being fixed at a favorable rate for first time homebuyers. I think this might help prevent the brain drain that Iowa is currently experiencing. These and other questions are why I am in support of putting together a commision to iron out details to make this a success. What questions do you have?

A working council?

As the new council starts getting into the swing of things, there are a few things I am noticing that maybe I missed seeing with the previous councils. With the new meeting times, there allows us as a council to have more informal, and informational work sessions. For example, every Monday evening, for the immediate future, we are meeting at 5:30pm in council chambers to discuss pressing issues such as Isle of Capri, Davenport Promise, 67th street development, and other issues that are most effectively discussed when everyone is present and can ask questions freely. The meetings are open to the public and it gives the public an opportunity to get a feeling on where the council is headed. Also I have noticed that all the Alderman are holding ward meetings, either combined or individually, in order to get more information out and get more feedback. Personally, I know that not everyone is going to agree with my voting, but at least they will know why I voted that way and where I stand. I realize that we all have to work together and I am proud to see the council working hard to get the public involved. Is there anything more that you would like to see?

Goals and thoughts

First of all, I want to apologize for the gap between postings. It has been a little hectic learning the ropes and there is still a lot more to learn.

Sunday we finished up our last goal setting session. The things I took most away from the meeting is the way the council works together. Sure we had differing opinions but at the end of the day that is all they were, opinions. No one took anything personally and I feel that we are able to, at times, agree to disagree. My prediction for those that enjoy the backbiting and infighting, prepare to be bored. Here are the goal that we identified as being most important.

1. Maintain a financially responsible city providing excellent, effective services.

2. Grow the local economy in Davenport.

3. Grow the city population and make Davenport a preferred place to live.

4. Revitalize neighborhoods and corridors.

5. Get Davenport working together for a better community.

6. Revitalize the downtown and riverfront.

If you notice, there is no sit back and let the problems come to us. Personally, I look forward to proactively tackling the problems at hand and working towards accomplishing these goals. As a council we are going to need some help. Things like Revitalizing neighborhoods, corridors the downtown, and riverfront, and working together for a better community all take collective efforts. The Council and city employees cannot do it all by ourselves. We need people to come out and get involved. Even if it is just going to ward meetings and providing input, it is still better than nothing. We all have a stake in this city. Together, we can take to levels it has never seen and we can do things that we never thought possible. Much like to old saying, united we grow, divided we fail. Being united does not mean agreeing all the time. What it means is that we all want to see Davenport succeed. So roll those sleeves up and get ready. We have a lot of work to do.

Schedule changes?

One of the things that the new city council is looking at is a change to the current meeting schedule. Why change? 1. The current schedule has certain redundancies that occur. Questions that are asked in the committee meetings a lot of times are repeated in the committee of the whole (C.O.W.). This is because not every alderman is present at these committees. 2. Having the C.O.W. on Mondays and the City council on Wednesday gives staff approximately a day and a half to respond to questions and requests brought up at the C.O.W. After aldermen receive the information, they typically have less than 6 hours to process the information. 3. The Thursday meetings during the afternoon take staff away their daily tasks. Making them less efficient. 4. The average person working until 5:00pm, can’t attend the Thurs. meetings, and would miss at least the first hour of the COW. What is being tried? 1. Combine the COW and the committee meetings into one meeting. Start it at 5:30pm on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays. 2. The City Council meeting will now be at 5:30pm on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays. 3. The committees will be retained, along with committee chairs; the only difference is the whole council is present. Alderman not on committees can ask questions, but not vote. 4. The public comment will be pushed to the end of meeting and not televised. This is to combat city forums being used for non-city issues. Personally, I am in favor of this approach. There is a much greater turnout at the two later meetings as opposed to the committee meetings. I feel it give more working people the opportunity to become involved. The current schedule is not a problem for me because my employer is willing to work with my needs to have a flexible schedule. I am a rarity though. There have been concerns expressed about the formality of the schedule changes being made. Therefore, I am going to suggest a sunset on the changes 6 months from now. This way we are forced to go through the formal channels to make this permanent, but we are also able to try out the new format instead of just talk about it. The other concern is bus route not running late on Wednesdays. This we will address also.

First day on the job.

The 2008/2009 City Council has been sworn in (much better than being sworn at). I am humbled at the opportunity to help out my fellow neighbors. Since the election I have started to learn more and more about the departments and people that serve us everyday. I have to tell you, there are a lot of positives. Obviously, there is nothing that is perfect, but I think we have a tendancy to over look or take for granted a lot of things that Davenport has to offer. I am proud to represent the First Ward and I look forward to serving on the council these next two years. One of my personal goals is to inform as many people as possible of the great things Davneport has going on. With that being said, let's get to work..... My first First Ward meeting will be Saturday Jan. 12 10:00am at the Roosevelt Comm. center. Please spread the news. There will be a presentation on the programs and services offered through the Davenport Public Library. After which, there will time for comments and complaints. Hope to see you there.