Also since they have no legal right to be involved in the July 3 event which is not in a park, they have no right to go out for bids on the fireworks. Not only that as we have commented on before, we could have gotten another company for $5000 less but the Recreation Committee and the Public Property committee especially Ald. Ankiewicz "lolly gagged" around for 9 months before asking for bids and as we have said before all the good companies were booked, except the one that was waiting for the Peru bid. Does that lead anyone to believe that maybe there was something going on here? Was this a conspiracy? You make the call and maybe a real call because this involves taxpayer money.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Does The Recreation Commission Have the Right to Work on Fireworks
Tonight Ald. Perez came to the council mtg, prepared with the ordinance regarding the Peru Recreation Commissions can do's. I don't yet have a copy but since the July 3 events were moved to Water Street, there is nothing to cover them being involved in the activity as it is not being conducted in a park or recreation center (a bldg). More to come.
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19 comments:
And just in case you are interested, we don't have a Code Officer yet and we are paying the Sheriff's Office $50 per yard to cut the grass on foreclosed properties or abandoned properties. Presently the Deputy Polic Officer is acting the capacity of the officer.
Blogger Lois said...
I have heard that there will no new building on the site of the former Peru Hotel. If you wonder why take a few minutes and read through the 2 meetings in January of the Design and Review Committee minutes on the Peru web site.
Rodney questioned the "code enforcement" officer last night and nothing was said. According to their minutes, the Public Property committee members are interviewing 2 police officers for the position. Why didn't they respond and give them information to Rodney and the council and the public?
If there is a conflict with the ordinance and the Rec Comm as to who is responsible for the bidding and purchasing of the fireworks, why didn't someone ask the attorney? Should be an easy answer. Oh well. Just another $5,000 dumped out of the city bucket. Thanks Bob. Yes, I am directing that to the Bob with the unlimited money tree. How is that money tree coming? Mine is shrinking. What fertilizer are you using?
Just to clarify or attempt to, these are the players.
The Rec Board point man for the fireworks is Ron Kelsey, I guess you might say that Ald. Ankiewicz who chairs the public property committee and certainly knew that Kelsey was NOT taking care of business becomes the spear catcher because the Rec Commission is not required to present information and therefore excuses were made by Ald Ankiewicz. I asked him and again and again and again through the months, and his answer always was yes we will go out for bids. This was the answer I was still getting in March and April.
This is not rocket science and this is public money known as tax dollars they were playing with.
I thoroughly believe in separation of Church and State, but I find that 2 of the Beatitudes discuss a similar issue to those seeking the truth are battling: 1-Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. 2-Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness.
Don't sit back and say "Oh crap, another religious nut case bitching", but rather, say "Hmmm" maybe something is wrong here that needs to be looked at. It's not your money City Council. Please act responsibly and quit hiding the truth. The times have changed. Simply answer the questions and we will be quiet. Maybe.
This sure doesn't sound like competitive bidding. The whole purpose for competitive bidding is to get the best price for the city, and to help avoid fraud. This smells like spoiled Deli Sausage. There has to be more concerned officials asking questions other than Rodney? What about Dave P. And Shery? They seem to care how the city spends like their congress. Does the Mayor say anything about this?
If it's found that the bidding process was clearly mis-lead then they need to start from square one.
If you're going to make such claims as these, especially the claim that Rec Board could have saved $5000 dollars by going with another company, or the "no legal right" statement, you had better cite your sources for this information. Otherwise, all I see is a bunch of unverified slander. Yes, slander. There is too much whining from everyone in this town. I'm not saying whose right or wrong, maybe there is something going on here. To call it a conspiracy is out of line. All this being said, I completely agreed with Perez long ago that the Waterstreet venue for the fireworks is plagued with alcohol problems and thus renders it not such a good family activity spot. HOWEVER, it was completely out of line for him to go ahead and start calling companies to get bids, and start making plans to move the fireworks to Baker's Lake or wherever else he had planned. This was overstepping his boundaries and responsibilities as an alderperson. I'm not making any accusations, but he is not the only alderperson to step out of line in the time that I have been interested in the politics of this town.
So to recap, before you make any claims, I, and I'm sure others as well, would appreciate it if you cite your sources so that the people can make their OWN decisions before reading your comments, which are obviously biased against the recreation commission. Please be respectful.
4:17 PM
I draw my conclusions about this because I have known since last year when a company who does other local cities July celebrations, said yes they could give us more for less. It was at Baker Lake and yes Ald. Ankeiwicz was there. The information was taken to the Rec. Com. and they were asked to take care of this and it appears that Ron Kelsey was the person delegated to take charge of this and at that time last year to begin the process of getting bids for 2012. Did they do it? NO and the company will verify this. What do you call it when someone deliberately waits for 9 months to seek bids for an event 3 months later. July 3,4,5 events are dates any good company will book up quickly and they waited so long to get bids that some did not give bids, others said the dates were taken but Melrose remained available. What do you think? Coincidental?
Exactly what part of any statement was slander? Simple questions - What department is in charge of the fireworks? What department did not put the purchase out for bid? Seems to me that it's more than coincidental that the final price was $19,900. And who waits right before a major event to seek bids? Just odd behavior in MY OPINION.
OH OHH @ Alderman Rodney. Perez is moving the Cheese and disturbing the rats.
Someone would actually claim the alderman is "over-stepping his boundaries",and "out-of-line"? By the way Peru is being ran, someone better start over-stepping boundaries,and crossing the line so the job that others aren't doing can get done.
Rodney---make the rats get off their tails to go find more cheese,you keep moving it!
4:17 PM
I did not say it was a conspiracy.
5:17 PM
I did read the book and yes you are right.
A correction to an earlier post about cutting grass. What I wrote is what I heard last night. But it turns out the sheriff is the person who has that printed on his cart, drives around town with it and does cut grass. It would have been nice and perhaps respectful if someone on the council or the mayor had made that distinction.
How do other lawn companies get considered for those jobs? $50 FOR A GRASS CUTTING? No wonder we're broke! There are services that advertise for $25 or $30 a yard. I know alot of people that make a living off of mowing and would like an opportunity to make some Peru dollars. Do it like towing services rotate around and make it fair!
Lawn mowing. Why can't the summer workers re-route their trip home for lunch as their zipping down the road for lunch on the tax dollar paid for riding lawn mowers and cut some of those properties? Oh! Super Bleck says they don't the lawn mowers on the road. Guess if Bleck did his job he would know they do. Guess we need to start posting pictures on here Like the parks. Reward!! Post pictures of city mowers on our streets so SUp Bleck and the PD can start writing tickets. Maybe Super Bleck should spend Fridays driving around instead of at home. 4 day work week for Bleck what a joke! But that's a whole other post.
How is this for a solution? Take the money spent on the Mayor Harl road signs and the money spent on the concert at the airport (both tax payer dollars) you will have nearly $25,000. That $25,000 can support alot of Peru fireworks, alot of pickelball courts, a kids faire, new truck, Peru band concerts, and more. Or even give it back in the form of less taxes(a joke). The Mayor must love this Rec bashing, it takes away the real spending waste he has control over.
Can anyone call a company to get a BID for a city service? Why would Perez call on behalf of Peru? The rec. department has done this and is this how Peru runs? Anybody with a ax to grind gets on the phone and requests bids for city services? With the goal to move the fireworks to Baker Lake? Bring a company to Peru to review how to put fireworks at Baker Lake and then tell them how much you want to spend and then give them another date to work with? This was done outside of the knowledge of the recreation committee. And done after residents had stated that they did not want fireworks at Baker Lake, they didn't want their homes in risk, they did not want their property in risk! Consider the source before you make a judgement on proper or legal rights.
@9;52 not sure which heading it's under but you may want to search a bit.Rod explained the reasoning why he took that action. Correct me if i'm wrong but Rod claimed the city ordinance does not give the authority for the park board to handle the fireworks,or even plan them.Sounds to me when i read Rods post that someone needed to make those calls on behalf of the city.
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