Posted by: Pete Nickeas at 4:18PM EST on July 23, 2010
This will be my final post to Red Tape.
I arrived in Casper about one year ago to cover the city for the Star-Tribune. Covering government on a day-to-day basis has taught me a lot, and I'm grateful for the many wonderful experiences I've had.
I begin a new job next weekend as a night reporter for one of the Star-Tribune's sister publications -- The Times of Northwest Indiana.
Some interesting background that we learned yesterday ... Pat Sweeney, who also owns the Wonderbar downtown, said that Amidee first defaulted on the contract-for-deed agreement in October but threatened to file bankruptcy if Sweeney tried to retake the property (which was allowed under the agreement between Sweeney and Amidee).
After some back-and-forth between attorneys, when it appeared Sweeney could have again ended up with the hotel, he filed paperwork for a liquor license change with the city of Casper.
"We didn't think it would do anybody any good" to have the property tied up in bankruptcy court, said Drew Perkins, attorney for Sweeney and also a state senator.
Though the Star-Tribune was able to document the application to transfer his license from one property back to the hotel (this was in January) we didn't know exactly why it was happening -- only that Sweeney may have gotten the hotel back and that's why he needed his not-used liquor license back at the hotel.
Sweeney later said that the public hearing to change the liquor license was a procedural move, just in case. Apparently, Amidee brought in a "turn-around" company to see if they could maybe make things work.
So in January, the council opened the public hearing and "suspended" it, so it remained open until they decided to continue. When Sweeney asked to continue the public hearing, they did, they voted, and they approved the transfer.
Sweeney said it wasn't until the last month or so that Amidee came to the realization that they "needed to turn the property over."
Morton has kept with the story for about six months now, following Amidee's woes through federal bankruptcy court and documenting the local tax and financial problems the Parkway faces.
The idea that this information was unearthed over the last week or two is absurd. It's been in the public record for months.
What happened last night? What the Star-Tribune illustrated could happen when we covered the story last year.
June 21
Discussions among key stakeholders in CAEDA incubator project -- nobody is told of the meeting until Amoco board chair mentions it in a June 23 meeting
June 23
Special ARAJPB meeting to discuss new proposal - board gives CAEDA another $500k
Verbal approval from EDA to change process
CAEDA meeting in the evening -- nobody will say what happened
June 24
Written EDA confirmation to CAEDA
Conversations with three finalist on June 24
Scheduled Casper City Council discussion re: Amoco plan Cancellation of city council discussion
June 25
Draft Press Release from CAEDA (which goes out on June 29 -- so they sat on the information for a little less than a week)
Posted by: Pete Nickeas at 10:43AM EST on June 24, 2010
Scott Sissman, chairman of the Amoco Reuse Agreement Joint Powers Board, former treasurer of the board, and husband of Ward 1 Councilwoman Kate Sarosy, has been praised throughout the CAEDA controversy for the way he conducts the Amoco meetings.
Last night, he showed a bit of pragmatism when refocusing the board, who waded into the weeds a little bit.
The discussion was whether to give the Casper Area Economic Development Alliance another $500,000 atop the current $1.5 million Amoco board contribution to a business incubator project. The conversation devolved into a back-and-forth over why they're holding a special meeting and whether to re-do the incubator's business plan.
"We're here in response to a political uproar in the community and that has nothing to do with the facts and everything to do with perception," Sissman said. "We're politicians in a manner of speaking. We've got money, we're trying to decide whether it's good enough for the community and good enough to invest. For us to talk about facts, that isn't germane because what's germane is that a big segment of the community is in an uproar over perception. There's a point where perception becomes reality and we're there."
And, the background...
First, the dispute and more details about contractor anger. Then the "meeting" that Sissman said only "hardened" the feelings on both sides of the issue.
Posted by: Pete Nickeas at 7:06PM EST on June 11, 2010
First, the news:
From
the Wyoming Democratic Party
For
immediate release
June
11, 2010
Contact:
Bill Luckett
Executive
Director
(Contact information edited out)
DEMOCRATS
APPOINT CHUCK HERZ ACTING CHAIR
CASPER
– The Wyoming Democratic Party announced today that Chuck Herz has been named
the state party’s vice chairman and is currently serving as acting state party
chair.
Current
State Party Chair Leslie Petersen appointed Herz to the vice chairmanship
recently vacated by Mike Bell, who resigned last week to focus exclusively on
several candidates’ races, including some of whom are in contested
primaries.
Because
Petersen has taken a leave of absence to wage her campaign for governor, Herz as
vice chair will assume the duties of state party chair as needed in her absence,
in accordance with the party’s bylaws. Day-to-day party operations continue to
be run by Executive Director Bill Luckett at state party headquarters in
Casper.
Herz
has served as the Wyoming Democratic Party’s treasurer since 2007. Prior to
taking that position, he served as chair of the Teton County Democratic Party
from 2003 to 2007. He is a retired attorney and former General Counsel of the
National Science Foundation. He lives in Moose with his wife Barbara. One of his
two daughters, his son-in-law and two granddaughters also live in
Moose.
Herz’
appointment as vice chair must be confirmed by the Wyoming Democratic State
Central Committee at its next meeting, tentatively scheduled for late summer or
early fall. The two-year terms of office for all four state party officers –
chair, vice chair, secretary and treasurer – expire in April
2011.
Bill
Luckett
Executive
Director
Wyoming
Democratic Party
(Contact information edited out)
AND a brief history of the "Friday afternoon news dump." A bit of humor on an otherwise slow Friday afternoon.
Posted by: Pete Nickeas at 12:32PM EST on May 20, 2010
From: Jolene Martinez
Sent: Tuesday, April 06, 2010 1:07 PM
To: Renee Jordan-Smith; Kendra Bohart; Mary Pittman; Karen Willis; Jennifer Burkhart; Lynne Johnston; Lynette McCartney; Janette Brown; Debby Estes; Carolyn Garner
Cc: Gary Clough; Andrew Beamer; Cindie Langston; Dave Hill
Subject: directing phone calls from the media
Would you please be so kind as to let everyone in your work area know that any phone calls that they receive from the media need to be directed to me or Gary. No one is to give an interview without having discussed this with Gary or me.
Posted by: Pete Nickeas at 10:53AM EST on May 19, 2010
Only two people have made their candidacies official so far -- one person for Ward 2 Councilman Glenn Januska's seat (he's not running) and Ward 3 Councilwoman Kenyne Schlager.
Every day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon, I check with the city for candidates. I also check every afternoon with the county clerk's office (they have a handy list of candidates, office, party affiliation, etc).
Apparently, a bunch of people are interested in the city council but nobody's made it official yet.
There are already nine candidates for three contested county commissioner seats -- three Democrats, five Republicans. Two of the three incumbents have filed, and the third is expected to in the coming weeks.
Some have speculated it’s the $25,000 salary commissioners draw. Council members are paid $150 per official meeting (work session or council meeting), and the mayor makes $200 per meeting (work session or council meeting). That's about $600 / month / member.
Candidates have until May 28 to file, and I've heard more than once that there will probably be a whole gang of people filing at the last minute.
I'm sure they won't be beating down the doors, but anyone who’s on the fence, or who wants to scope out the competition before making it official, still has more than a week to go.
Posted by: Pete Nickeas at 1:04PM EST on May 18, 2010
The city released its budget to us Monday after providing copies to the Casper City Council on Friday afternoon.
Click here to visit the city's agenda page. The budget is there to be downloaded or viewed -- it's a massive PDF, so I didn't link directly to the document at the risk of crashing computers still operated by hamster wheels.
The budget message section is usually the first place I go, because it provides the thought behind departures from policy or other noteworthy tidbits about agency policy.
After that, I looked at different city departments, then the construction and equipment budgets, then the funding requests in the back of the budget book. There's insight to each of the departments based on what it expects for revenue and how it’s going to spend money.
To look at city head count, there are departmental personnel charts showing historical information with the number of employees proposed for this upcoming budget year.
The funding requests at the back are interesting, too. If you want to know why the city-county health department requested $225,000 less this year than it did last year, jump to page 471 to see a letter from the department's director.
The city has been working on the budget for months, but now that council members have their copies, they will hold three discussions scheduled for 3 p.m. on May 20, 25 and 27.
They are all open to the public, though public comment isn't typically taken at work sessions. There is a public hearing scheduled on the budget for June 15, as well, which is during a regular city council meeting.
City Manager Tom Forslund said he expected the first meeting to last four hours or so, with minimal questions from council members.
The second meeting will include more detailed discussions, Forslund predicted, specifically on the cuts being proposed and the possibility of adding money back into the budget.
Forslund said he didn't think the council would need a third meeting since there won't be discussions on what to do with budgeted surpluses, since there are none.
Posted by: Pete Nickeas at 1:40PM EST on May 14, 2010
Nothing expected for this week.
The city agreed to add a third budget meeting the week before the two scheduled meetings, and the city moved its budget release date up by a week but it doesn't appear that's going to happen.
The first budget meeting is next Thursday so the budget will likely be released Tuesday afternoon, instead of today.
The city council has a formal meeting scheduled for Tuesday and a budget work session for Thursday, so we'll still advance Tuesday's meeting.
Posted by: Pete Nickeas at 11:50AM EST on May 13, 2010
If Casper Police Chief Tom Pagel were nominated as U.S. Marshal, his deputy, Capt. Chris Walsh, would have taken over the day-to-day operations of the department until a replacement was found.
It's entirely possible, if not probable, that Walsh would have remained the city's chief. He's an ex-Marine who leads the department's patrol division.
"We have a really good solid command staff that
we’ve put together at the PD. We have some outstanding young officers
over the past couple years and I can watch them develop. I’m obviously
toward the end of my career so I can act more as a mentor," Pagel said during his press conference Wednesday.
Both Walsh and Sgt. Steve Schulz, who heads the department's investigations division, were in the room for the conference. Schulz also passes out affidavits and fields questions each morning for Casper's various media outlets. He too is a former Marine.
"You will see
various command staff we have as they start assuming more responsibility
in more areas, you watch them grow and you watch them become
successful."
(To read more Star-Tribune staff blogs, and find staff Twitter addresses, go to our social networking page at www.trib.com/entertainment/social)
Reporter: So you have an announcement …
Pagel: I don’t think it’s big surprise to anybody anymore but we were – the governor’s office, we were advised by department of justice they would not be moving ahead with my nomination for us. Marshal. We completed the thorough background done by the FBI, moved on to a process at justice where they examined a series of public statements, letters, etc and after that review, they determined that I was too controversial for the appointment.
What does that mean?
I believe that means I am not always politically correct when I make comments, like the illegal Mexican trafficking and meth are connected and they are two major problems facing our state.
You’ve had a pretty open and honest relationship with media and this new admin promised transparency …d o you find it ironic that statements in the past to newspapers are coming back?
It has been an interesting process to go through. What some people might consider controversial, I think has proven to be fairly efficient and effective in Casper. I think we have a fairly dynamic community here, I think they expect their chief to be involved in the community, I think they expect the chief to honestly give his thoughts when there’s a problem with meth, or drunk driving or graffiti or whatever it might be.
I’m not in an elected position, I’m not in a campaign, I have no interest in running for office, I’m a law enforcement professional and my duty is to report to my boss [City Manager] Tom Forslund and to the community what I see as law enforcement concerns.
Do you regret anything?
I regret that it took them ten months to figure out that I was too controversial. We could have saved a lot of time and money had they looked at it early in the process and said you’re not our man. If that had been the case I could have withdrawn and moved on. I was given the opportunity to withdraw but I didn’t think that was an honest way to report this.It wasn’t that I lost interest and withdrew; it was that they looked at my record and decided they did not want me. I would rather be honest with you and say they thought I was too controversial. It wasn’t that I withdrew, they thought I was too controversial.
You said you lost some money on that?
We have looked at buying and selling houses and that certainly is a personal issue, yes.
Did you have anything to do with search from Mark Ledbetter?
When Mr. Ledbetter expressed some frustration with information, we ended up inviting Mr. Ledbetter to town; we assigned one of our lead dispatchers to Mr. Ledbetter to explain the dispatch process as well as the acronyms and messages that come out in dispatch so he could follow the timelines along in his case.
They said you’re too controversial and certain comments … do you regret anything you said or do you still back up what you said 100%?
I don’t back up a lot. I’ll stand by any comments I’ve made. When I said there’s a correction between Mexican aliens and meth, it was true in 1998 and it is true today. I have no intention of changing the way I work, or what I say or what I do. I think either as DCI director or chief of police in Casper, I think Wyoming and Casper, I think they know who I am, I think they know what I do, I think they know how I do it. So, it’s worked for us here. This is a dynamic community to work in, it’s a great community to work in. We have great partnerships, we’re able to do some things in this community that other communities have difficulty putting together. I don’t agree with controversial part but I enjoy and I get a great deal of satisfaction working with the people here and getting things done that we do.
What’s on the brighter side?
On the brighter side is, Jan and I, my wife and I prefer living in Casper so we get to stay here. We have a really good solid command staff that we’ve put together at the PD. We have some outstanding young officers over the past couple years and I can watch them develop. I’m obviously toward the end of my career so I can act more as a mentor. You will see various command staff we have as they start assuming more responsibility in more areas, you watch them grow and you watch them become successful. We have some really fun and interesting projects going, the Weed and Seed [program] is a huge plus to the community, we’re seeing improvements in our quality of life and improvements in our crime numbers, we look at the CARTE operations on traffic we’re seeing huge improvements in that area, we have great relationships with other PDs and the sheriff’s department, it’s a good place to work. I’ve been here 8 years, I have tremendous respect for the City manager, for Tom Forslund, I enjoy working for him as city manager and I enjoy him as a friend. I have a great deal of respect and trust for him.
Unfortunately yesterday, a city councilman, I’m not sure which one, chose to release a document that had been given to them in confidence and release that to the press. It was totally inappropriate, they had no stake in this, there was an agreement between [The Department of Justice] and the Governor and myself that we would not make a release until to day and whatever reason councilman thought it was necessary to insert themselves in the process. Totally inappropriate, I have no idea why they thought that was necessary.
Your endorsement Colin Simpson in 2006 was mentioned in the city manager’s email – does that surprise you?
I have – Colin Simpson I’ve worked with for many years in legislature. I endorsed him because, he asked if I would endorse him, I thought he’d be a good guy for it. Matt mead, Matt Mead was the U.S. Attorney, I worked with him in U.S. Attorney’s office. John Barrasso, I’ve been on numerous committees with John Barrasso. I don’t know that I endorse a person so much as I do the quality of a person. We have several good candidates running for governor, there are a couple of them I’d be happy to endorse if they wanted it.
The mistake I made on the thing with Simpson, is that when I endorsed him I attached a document, a letter to an e-mail and it went out on letterhead. People that really know me would be more impressed by the fact I was actually able to make an attachment to an e-mail rather than a fact it went out on letterhead. But you know, that was my mistake, and when it was brought to my attention I said, you bet that was wrong, I knew that as soon as it happened.
I don’t know, I don’t know that that’s any determining factor.
Why you as U.S. Marshal?
I appreciate opportunity that Gov. Freudenthal gave me when he asked me if I would be interested. I was pleased I was able to list Gov. Freudenthal as a reference, and Judge Downes as a reference, and U.S. Attorney Kip Crofts as a reference, those are people I’ve worked with, some of those for 30 years. We’ve worked on committees, we’ve worked on cases, we’ve worked on a lot of things. The experience level was there, the education level was there, but it is an appointment and they can choose who they want to. Your name goes forward and they ultimately decide who they want, and their decision was they wanted somebody else.
You had an announcement today – was that to announce withdraw or to announce you weren’t their guy?
It was to announce that I’m not their guy. I was not going to announce a withdrawalbecause I didn’t withdraw. They chose not to pick me so I’m not going to sugar coat it and say I changed my mind. I didn’t change my mind, they chose not to pick me.
When did you hear the news?
The end of last week.
Who told you?
The governor.
How’s he feel?
I think you will find that the governor is … I don’t think he agrees with it either. Again, it’s not his decision.
What were some of the things going through your mind when he first told you?
(banter) we have to be a little careful. At first I was absolutely dumbfounded, then you go to anger, then you go to why, now I’m kind of resolved with it, you know, Ok it wasn’t meant to be. We have a good thing going in Casper. We have a good department; we have a lot of things going. I’m not settling for Casper, I’m happy to be here. This is just an opportunity that doesn’t come along very often to very many people. It didn’t work. I’m’ fine with that. I’m fine.
Are you appreciative?
I thanked the governor initially and I thank him again. It was a great opportunity I had. It would have been a fun and interesting way to end my career, diff opportunities but again we have so many things going on here that I’m more than happy here to stay here and carry on some of the things we have and see them through.
The city manager mentioned in the e-mail, your handling of the DUIs of two officers was a point of contention among people doing the evaluation. Do you regret how you handled that?
No. As you know, all you guys have been to school, gone through legal classes, I can’t release personnel actions so when we are working on those I can tell you we have them under investigation, I can tell you that we have them under investigation, I can tell you we’re doing internal affairs, that’s about all I can tell you.
We dealt with those drunk driving situations appropriately. Those people are not here anymore. If I had to do it over again, that’s the same way we’d handle it. I’ve taken a fairly strong stance on drunk driving with the public; I think if you talk with any of our officers here they’d tell you he’s definitely taken a strong stance on drunk driving with any officers. The city manager would confirm we definitely deal with our disciplinary matters, we follow our policy and procedure, we follow the law, we def deal with those. It’s not like we turn our head.
A lot of frustration comes from fed side, gov side taking their time.
Like I said, it’s been 10 months, I haven’t changed any in 10 months. I’m the same person now I was 10 months ago. If they would have told me earlier in the process, you know, you don’t fit the mold we’re looking for, that’s fine, I understand that.
So they strung you along? I wouldn't say they strung me along. They
have a process. It's a long arduous process. You fill out pounds and
pounds of paperwork. And you do this and you do that. You go through
interviews, I mean, I went back to {Washington] DC for an interview. And my point is, I’m not any different than I was. If I didn’t fit let me know early and we can save ourselves a lot of time.
Posted by: Pete Nickeas at 11:33AM EST on May 6, 2010
This time of the year is busy.
May 13 - First day of the campaign filing period. Candidates for office have to notify the city clerk, county clerk or secretary of state's office, depending on which office they're going to run for.
May 14 - City Manager Tom Forslund is scheduled to release next year's proposed budget. The city isn't broke, but there will be cuts.
May 20 - City council budget meeting #1
May 25 - City council budget meeting #2
May 27 - City council budget meeting # 3
May 28 - Final day of campaign filing period. Filing gets your name on the ballot. Candidates can organize a write-in campaign instead of filing. The write-in threshold is low enough that it's not difficult to get on the ballot and skip the filing period altogether - Mayor Bill Brauer did this in 2008. There were two people in the primary for two open seats, meaning the top two write-in candidates would make it to the general.
June 1 - Second reading of the proposed parking regulation overhaul. Included is an ordinance that allows the city to change parking rules by resolution, skipping the three-reading rule that would have otherwise been required.
June 15 - Public hearing and vote on the city's budget AND third reading of the parking ordinances. A resolution adopting a new parking manual will also be voted on.
By the time the ordinances hit third reading, the language and votes should be locked up. It's being scripted so any changes are done before the roll call. The resolution is being voted on after the the third reading on the ordinances so that there's no overlap or gaps in the rules.
Posted by: Pete Nickeas at 11:47AM EST on May 3, 2010
U.S. District Court Judge William Downes ordered the University of Wyoming to allow former radical William Ayers to speak on campus.
Ayers and a student sued after the university banned him from speaking in campus venues.
The Star-Tribune has covered every turn of the screw on this story, from the announcement, through the court case, to the speech.
Anyway, a transcript of Downes' ruling can be read here, or you can read a few outtakes here.
The document's 32 pages but the first few pages are citations and the last few are an index. The meat of the ruling is about a 20-page read. If you're interested, and have a few minutes, it's worth checking out.
Goodenough frequently votes against the motion to end the meeting.
If the meetings run less than an hour he votes against adjournment -- thought being, when the council formally meets twice a month, there should be at least an hour of city business to discuss.
I chuckle when this happens, because what happens when a majority of
people vote to NOT end the meeting? I don't know. I've never seen it
happen.
I suppose they would take another vote or hear from the no-voters why they want to keep going.
Others don't find it as entertaining. The city meetings so frequently wrap up in under an hour that it's rare that he votes FOR adjournment.
But despite racking up 12 no votes, because this particular meeting ran more than an hour, he voted yes on the adjournment motion.
Goodenough's votes:
Against vacating a street, six parking related no-votes, against a new pawn-broker law, against the purchase of lights for the North Casper ball fields, against a Geographical Information System contract, against the purchase of snowmobiles for Hogadon, and against the purchase of a firearms training system for the Public Safety Training Center.
Ayers is a former radical who turned into a campaign issue when Sarah Palin accused then-Democratic nominee Barack Obama of "palling around with terrorists" for his association with Ayers.
Here's some scraps that didn't make it into the past couple stories, weren't discussed in detail or I think warrant some more discussion ...
FYI -- U.S. District Court Judge William Downes resolved the issue yesterday by ordering UW to allow Ayers to speak.
UW President Tom Buchanan has said, in testimony and in a statement, that he never "banned" Ayers from speaking on campus -- only from the multipurpose gym.
U.S. District Court Judge William Downes repeatedly pointed out that an e-mail from university counsel specifically stated that UW wouldn't be available as a venue for Ayers, contradicting Buchanan's position.
Related -- Buchanan then said during testimony that Ayers could perhaps use Prexy's Pasture. Downes pointed out that Buchanan's testimony contradicted the e-mail a university lawyer sent to Lanker (which said UW wouldn't be available).
The judge said the university's "retreat" was "unpersuasive and pretextual" and said that even if he judged this case based on the university's contention that Ayers was banned ONLY from the gym, it still did not "pass constitutional muster."
There were no protesters or hecklers at the court hearing, though there were more than a few people who showed up just to watch. There were also many members of the media, but no cameras or tape recorders. Anybody who wanted to know what was happening had to be there with a note pad.
One of the e-mails the judge read was from a man named Mike who said "Bill Ayers is a scumbag and you are bigger a*******" for inviting Ayers.
"It's not a pretty statement," Downes said, pointing out that the e-mailer went on to recognize the First Amendment, which allowed Mike to call university employees "d*********" in the e-mail.
Part of that e-mail was the following sentence: "for those of you that invited this p***k I think you should eat a mouthful of buckshot."
"Mike is mightily exercised and leaves us no doubt about his thoughts of Mr. Ayers," Downes said. "But to read that as a direct threat is patently ridiculous."
Posted by: Pete Nickeas at 10:43AM EST on April 14, 2010
... that they would not like the budget he presents them later this year. He went out of his way to predict that the city council would be adding money to the budget that he presents.
Last night, the council agreed to let Forslund use construction cost savings, one-time money, reserves or a combination of the three to balance the budget.
That means the budget Forslund presents can spend more money than he expects the city to receive.
This sets the council up for another year of constant budget talks -- projects and requests won't be judged simply on their merits but also as they relate to the city's bottom line.
It also means the hiring freeze will likely continue, so if positions open up throughout the next budget year they won't be filled unless they're absolutely necessary -- like if Police Chief Tom Pagel were to leave his post.
Other cuts we know about so far for FY11:
Police department: A reduction in the number of sworn police officers from 98 to 90. There won't be layoffs because there's more than eight vacant officer positions right now. FY08 authorized 101 officers.
Overtime: The city can reduce overtime a couple ways. If it snows early in the week, public services employees could be sent home once they hit their 40 hours instead of coming into work to perform routine duties. The police department has limited overtime as well.
It's the major events that cost city OT -- late-week snow events, homicides, downtown fires, etc.
Other departments: Vacant positions will likely be left open. We
have a request in with the city to provide a list of vacant positions,
and I'll update the post when we get it.
Update ... There are 25 vacant positions, according to a list released this morning by the city of Casper's HR department. The vacancies are as follows:
Posted by: Pete Nickeas at 3:07PM EST on April 7, 2010
In a statement from her campaign's newsletter, State Auditor and Republican gubernatorial candidate Rita Meyer say's she'll fight President Barack Obama's major health care overhaul.
An abridged version of the statement:
"This week I heard a lot of outrage and concern expressed by the Obama health care reform. I share that concern
...
As Governor, I would fight it.
...
Lawsuits take time and cost money but sometimes that's the only option. If that's the case, the people of Wyoming can be assured that as Governor I would proceed - do the right thing - forge ahead - use the legal system."
Visitors to Ron Micheli's Web site are greeted with this:
"The passage of Obamacare is the most dangerous and
egregious expansion of federal power in our lifetimes – perhaps even
since Wyoming attained statehood."
"While we make common sense reforms at the state level, we must also push
back against the federal health reform plan pushed into law by
President Obama and Speaker Nancy Pelosi. As Speaker of the Wyoming
House, I have asked the Governor to direct the Attorney General to have
Wyoming join in the legal challenge to ObamaCare. "
And the most vague of the four statements, buried in Matt Mead's "Quality of Life" issues page ...
"Health care reform is not one size fits all. If health care is
state-driven, it can be changed; if it is federally driven, it will be
mandated. I support health care reform at the state level."
Posted by: Pete Nickeas at 11:46AM EST on April 7, 2010
Mayor's birthday Casper Mayor Bill Brauer turned 80 yesterday. The rest of the city council sang happy birthday to him during the half-hour pre-meeting they hold before each council meeting.
At the end of the council's formal meeting, when going around the table for final comments, it was suggested that the council sing to Brauer again.
"I've heard your singing ... and it would be a great present if I didn't hear it again," Brauer joked.
Parking
The agenda hasn't been released yet but the Casper City Council will discuss parking at the next city council work session.
The council is in the process of revamping the city's parking regulations, and though much of the ordinance changes are clean-up measures, there are a few major breaks from the status quo.
The room is small but the meetings are open.
The first time I went to a work session, I wasn't sure if I was supposed to be there because there's only a single public entrance into the small meeting room where the council meets.
The council sits around the table. City staff members, media, and anyone else who wants to attend sits along the outer wall. It can be cramped sometimes. But if you want to attend the meeting, it's open to the public. Get in and grab a seat while they're still there.
Also ... waiting on a call back from the City Manager's office to see if they plan on holding the work session in a different room to account for people showing up. Will update this post when they call back. Shouldn't be more than a half hour or so.
Update: City manager's office says the meeting is still planned for the council meeting room. Seating is limited.
Posted by: Pete Nickeas at 12:13PM EST on March 30, 2010
The Natrona County Republican Party held a convention last night at a hotel in Casper.
Each of the four Republican candidates for governor -- Matt Mead, Rita Meyer, Ron Micheli, and Colin Simpson -- gave brief speeches to the 100 or so party officials in attendance.
Each of the candidates took a couple minutes to speak to us, as well, and you can watch what they had to say here.
Other notes ...
Natrona County District Attorney Mike Blonigen was one of many elected officials at the convention. He was wearing a Bruce Brown sticker on his jacket. Blonigen's sticker matched Blonigen's UW jacket because UW and Brown's campaign have similar color schemes. I didn't notice any other elected representatives wearing campaign stickers / buttons.
Brown is running for State Auditor.
The delegation at the convention seemed excited about their prospects this November but in a largely Republican state, their opposition is thin. The Democratic Party still has no gubernatorial candidate.
There was a lot of President Barack Obama bashing but very few people mentioned the president by name -- he was only referred to as "he." As in, "he set us back," or, "not the type of change he thinks we need."
Sen. John Barrasso attended and gave a brief speech before the four gubernatorial candidates spoke. Rep. Cynthia Lummis called in and spoke to the group on speaker phone, as well. There was no mention or sight of Sen. Mike Enzi.
Posted by: Pete Nickeas at 10:37AM EST on March 26, 2010
Casper City Councilman Keith Goodenough (first ward) gave kudos to the staff members responsible for the city's website at last night's city council work session.
Whenever possible, he and a couple other council members push for putting more information online -- last night's praise related specifically to the parking ordinances and the community promotions packets.
Parking is a contentious issue that the council knows will be hotly debated and often contested. The city has the information available on their website on a parking page that's separate from the rest of the city's information.
Community promotions is a less-followed process but it deals with council members doling out cash to specific groups (just a heads up -- clicking these links will open PDF files) from the city council's discretionary pot of money. You can see who supported what by council members by looking at pages 28, 29 and 30 within this city council packet.
Posted by: Pete Nickeas at 9:47AM EST on March 5, 2010
The last couple days were odd.
City council meeting Tuesday night, 7 a.m. work session Wednesday morning.
Anyway, the city approved a bridge project. Though the projected revenue source is optional 1-cent sales tax funds from the next cycle, the city is can use whatever money it chooses.
The city council and county commissioners held a joint meeting and appointed 4 people to the Amoco Reuse Agreement Joint Powers Board.
They also caught a little flak for the new housing regulations approved at a work session at the end of February.
Backshot:
The plan approved by the council slots buildings into three
classes and sets them on an inspection schedule, depending on the
volume of problems. Buildings that have perennial code issues would
get inspected more than buildings that rarely have problems.
Apartment owners and tenants can deny inspectors access to their
space, and inspectors -- if they want to press the issue -- can ask
judges for administrative search warrants if they can prove they're
likely to find code violations.
And here's what one gentlemen had to say about it:
"They don't have a corner on compassion or brains. There's a lot
of good landlords in town -- and the Casper paper and a lot of
councilmen assume that if you're a landlord you're a scumball that
doesn't know how to run apartments and you'll choose profit,"
Hageman said.
With that, I'm back in sports for the next couple days. Class 1A and 2A basketball are both in town. You should drop in on our live blog (linked from our front page -- Trib.com) if you're interested in play by play, live scores, etc.
I'll drop in Sunday or Monday with another wrap of this weeks news. Promise!
Posted by: Pete Nickeas at 2:45PM EST on March 2, 2010
At the crack of down (or thereabouts) the city is going to be interviewing people for open spots on the Amoco Reuse Agreement Joint Powers Board (ARAJPB for short).
For the Casper city council members and Natrona County commissioners (who will do the interviews together, according to the agenda) it's a chance for the elected officials to meet and familiarize themselves with future board appointees while weeding some of them out.
Board chairman Mike Huston, who's seeking reappointment after his 3 year term expired at the end of December, won't be interviewed since he's been through the process already.
That leaves five people seeking three spots, assuming Huston is reappointed.
You can see the agenda, resumes and cover letters for the meeting here.
Posted by: Pete Nickeas at 10:22PM EST on February 25, 2010
Two things ...
First, Tom Morton, the Star-Tribune's county government and often federal courts reporter, covered a health care rally yesterday. You should read his story and contribute to the conversation.
The story he weaved together is something I'm not sure I could have accomplished, given the assignment of covering a rally and my relative lack of experience compared to him. The story is really quite fascinating.
Anyway, there was a lot going on this week. I'll try to drop in on Sunday and list out everything that happened with the city this week ... but after Thursday, I'm covering sports.
The state high school wrestling championships (rasslin' according to our managing editor) are going on up at the Casper Events Center. Tomorrow morning, tomorrow afternoon, and tomorrow night I'll be posting results as they happen to the Star-Tribune's live blog. (No link yet -- check Trib.com -- should be out front for everyone to see).
What's amazing is the amount of readers that drop in on these. If you're a fan, you can fill out a bracket using the scores we provide, you can talk to the reporters, or you can just sit and watch the scores come in. But the information is there for the taking.
So, that's where I'll be. Next couple weekends too, but for high school basketball. I'm excited. This will be a fun, challenging change of pace.
Posted by: Pete Nickeas at 11:28AM EST on February 23, 2010
The city sent over a press release yesterday explaining that the city has left vacant 30 positions within the city's 550 or so authorized full time positions.
Labor-related costs eat a chunk of most government budgets. The city of Casper's slashed overtime costs according to records released by the city, and leaving the positions open is also helping out.
For example -- let's say each position costs $40,000 with salary and benefits -- that's $1.2 million over the course of a budget year if the city can go without filling those positions.
It may not be that much for this budget year because people have left their jobs after the budget year started. The city doesn't get the full benefit of not having to pay a year's salary, but it's a good indicator of what the city's end-of-year labor costs could look like.
To put that in perspective, the city's overall operating budget is $46.5 million and sales tax revenue short falls could put a $6 million dent in that.
Between OT savings and leaving vacant positions open, the draw-down on reserves to fund the day-to-day city functions won't equal the shortage of sales tax revenue. If the positions are left vacant next year, that would mean more savings.
We'll see how it plays out later this year. Below is a list of positions the city isn't filling, as released by the city's HR department:
Posted by: Pete Nickeas at 11:58AM EST on February 22, 2010
... and that was covering the federal government.
Sen. Mike Enzi visited Casper on Monday. He took credit for blocking Democrat-pushed health care legislation from becoming law.
I spend as much time as possible on city government -- my main assignment here is covering Casper. The more time I spend learning about Casper, the better the reporting becomes, so that's what I focus on.
So for me, this was good opportunity to branch out a bit.
Then, former Sen. Alan Simpson was appointed to President Barack Obama's deficit reduction panel. I have a buddy that lives in DC (he works for OpenCongress, a very informative site) and was able to steer me towards some pretty helpful background information.
And at the end of the week, I had learned about health care, , the national deficit, a former Wyoming senator, and political commissions with no teeth. I had a little bit of knowledge about all of them but not a professional working knowledge that I now possess.
And to me, that made last week a pretty good week.
Posted by: Pete Nickeas at 9:17PM EST on February 18, 2010
I'm at a Department of Environmental Quality public meeting right now, and the turn-out is surpisingly high. I'd estimate there's about 3 dozen people here.
The meeting is being held to discuss ground water and soil contamination throughout Casper -- mostly in North Casper and a few downtown locations.
I've been walking around, talking to folks for about an hour ... and I'm amazed at the amount of information that the DEQ provided at this meeting. There's at least half a dozen experts floating around, answering questions.
I see ...13 large posters, plus one of the contractors that did the testing is going through a power point presentation right now and explaining how they've pulled air from the soil to test for chemical vapors.
It's quite informing. I've got a part of the story written already (a nifty little explanation of how the vapor clean-up systems work) and a full story will be posted online / printed early Saturday morning.
Posted by: Pete Nickeas at 4:50PM EST on February 17, 2010
The Casper City Council breezed through its meeting last night, approving almost two dozen liquor license renewals without a peep from community activists, city council members, or license holders.
Across the street at the county board meeting, only two people spoke in opposition to liquor licenses for strip clubs.
That is a pretty stark contrast compared to 2008 and 2009 ...
The level of opposition paled in comparison to the previous
large and sometimes loud gatherings in September 2008 for Cowboys'
original license application and in February 2009 for the license
renewals of Cowboys and Northern Dreams.
The Natrona County Sheriff sent a letter to the commission in advance of the vote. Join the discussion here.
Posted by: Pete Nickeas at 11:57AM EST on February 15, 2010
The city council met last week to talk about social services. That meeting lasted more than three hours.
You can read coverage from the meeting here and join the discussion here.
As expected, a lot of the discussion ended up being about the budget.
Not directly, but one item council members kept coming back to was, "how do we prioritize spending when we have less money than we expected to have?"
As with every budget shortfall ... you either spend less money, raise revenue, or borrow money. The city hasn't talked about borrowing and they don't collect a ton of money on social services, so that leaves spending less money.
But, the question is, how do you divy up what you have?
Council members couldn't decide.
The council will discuss this again in the next few months, and when they do, they'll be closer to the budget discussions and perhaps more aware of what the rest of the budget will look like.
Information
Work sessions are as much about addressing the concerns of council members as they are about making decisions.
The council relies heavily on the expertise of the city employees before approving items recommended by City Manager Tom Forslund.
That's why experts are attending - directors of three agencies will be on hand to answer questions and make presentations.
Ideological splits
Ward 1 council members Kim Holloway and Keith Goodenough are the council's strongest social service advocates.
Because there hasn't been a single opportunity for everybody to "clear their throats," so to speak, I would imagine that any ideological differences will come to light.
We've seen some of it -- Mayor Bill Brauer said he doesn't think social services are a critical city service while Goodenough has said in the past he would like to see the city spend more money on people.
Which brings us of course to ...
The budget
The fact is, the city is spending more than its getting. Forslund directed his department heads to prepare scaled-back budgets for next year.
One of the agenda items is deciding how to spend money.
The city's poor tax revenue situation creeps its way into discussions about all kinds of city business. It seems everything that's considered is only considered relative to the city's revenues.
The social services discussion will be no different.
Brauer hinted at that in this week's Mayor Minute, saying he wants to know if these agencies are "double dipping" by getting money from a handful of government agencies.
Check either tomorrow or Saturday's paper for full coverage, depending on when tonight's meeting ends.
It's a nice change of pace. I don't cover cops that often since we have two other cop reporters with significantly more experience, but I enjoy the change of scenery.
Plus, it forces me to learn more about the criminal justice system. When covering politics and government, that knowledge is priceless.
I'm still covering city gov't, too. If the cops don't have anything to report, it's back to city stuff.
In reality, the two beats aren't entirely different. They each have a distinct structure with their own types of documents, public information rules, personalities, etc.
Anyway, back to work. Putting the finishing touches on a follow up on last night's council meeting, where council members talked water.
Small governments are hatching a plan that mimmicks a plan by a private investor to bring water from the Green River Basin to the eastern slopes of Colorado and Wyoming.
Casper could kick $20,000 towards a study looking at the proposed project, though that doesn't commit the city to any future construction costs.
There's also the prospect of online billing for city utilities, which will be discussed tonight.
If you want to attend, the work session is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. in the council meeting room and is open to the public. Casper City Hall is located at 200 N. David Street, across from the police department.
To be honest, I was worried that nobody would show up. We ended up having 38 viewers and a handful of folks contributing regularly.
The questions were well thought out and substantive.
Now, the Star-Tribune's Sports department has ran with this technology. They do live chats on a regular basis.
This was the city desk's first use of the technology though. I would call it a success.
I'm looking forward to more news-oriented live chats in the future. It excites me that we were able to foster a lively discussion with an audience that cares about local news.
As always, if you have any additional questions about items in our coverage, drop me a line -- pete.nickeas@trib.com.
The Star-Tribune's sports department uses the live-chat technology on a regular basis. They live blog major events and have chats about different Wyoming teams.
On the news side, though, this will be our first venture into live chats.
So, click here to join and we will answer any question we can. I'd encourage you to read through the stories, and if anything pops into your mind, give us a shout in the live-chat. We'll try to answer all your questions.
Posted by: Pete Nickeas at 11:36AM EST on February 3, 2010
Last night, Council Vice President Paul Bertoglio apologized for his remarks about the Hogadon Ski Area in a Star-Tribune article from last week.
Here's the gist of it ...
"It's easy to close Hogadon. It's easy to close the pools. You
just don't [open them]. Hogadon will run its course, but next year,
we won't open it. That's one of the options," Bertoglio said. "It's
not critical. I'm looking at critical services. That's where I
would draw the line."
Apparently, Bertoglio caught flack from his constituents and caused some angst among city staff concerned with their job security.
He was not the only council member who heard from community members dismayed at the prospect of scaled back support for leisure services.
An excerpt of his statement at the end of last night's meeting ...
"Poor
choice of words ... I want to put some of what I was thinking into context.
What I was reflecting
on was a worse case scenario where our two biggest sources of revenue come as a
direct result of our local economy, which is down. The legislature is, from my perspective as well
as many of my elected officials, somewhat stingy with revenues available at
state level. Having those two factors facing us, it's fiscal challenge.
I believe
we're in great shape. We built our reserves, we can weather it. I do not anticipate
closing pools or Hogadon on that basis.
My concern was if one cent were to fail
- we've talked and talked and talked - it would not just be swimming pools and Hogadon. We'd have to look across entire spectrum of the organization ...
We are required to live within our means and for
that reason if something were to happen, we will live within our means. Nothing
will be sacred."
Posted by: Pete Nickeas at 9:33PM EST on December 18, 2009
I'm at Kelly Walsh High School right now, about to cover a varsity girls basketball game.
I cover city government on a daily basis but fill in here and there on a sports assignment -- to this point, it's only been baseball.
This is certainly foreign territory to me. I'm confident I'll be able to cover it but being back inside a high school is -
Wait, I almost got hit by a basketball just now. You know how you know there's an object flying at you but its just in your peripheral? That. It fell a couple feet short and landed in a pile of bags.
Anyway, they're playing bad early 00's Hip-hop for the girls to warm up to. The music reminds me of dorm room parties from college a few years ago but it also made me realize, its been awhile.
Also, I'm the only one I can see with their face buried in a computer. I was expecting more from the younger generation.
Well, game's about to start. I'm going to be gone for the next week (visiting family) so I'll catch up with everybody on the otherside of Christmas.
Posted by: Pete Nickeas at 2:31PM EST on December 14, 2009
This article is perhaps the most comprehensive look we've done at the city's finances since tax revenue started tanking 6 months ago.
Here's the gist of it:
Every major source of revenue the city relies on is down
compared to last year.
While Casper city officials are screaming for more money, Gov.
Dave Freudenthal is telling them to make do with what they have.
His budget unveiled earlier this month calls for a reduction from
$475 million to about $167 million in state money for cities and
counties.
At this point, it doesn't look like the city's finances will rebound before year's end. The city would need, for six months straight, sales tax checks that are $500,000 greater than budgeted just to make up losses already incurred.
That doesn't include losses from the optional 1-cent sales tax, which will be voted on again this November.
Posted by: Pete Nickeas at 9:52AM EST on December 3, 2009
City Manager Tom Forslund spoke to a group of area business owners yesterday about Natrona County's optional one-cent sales tax.
The tax will again be put to a vote in November 2010. He and other city officials are worried about its passage. The tax accounts for $16 million out of the city's $150 million budget.
On the process:
"The bottom
line is we need to change the process. Lets try to make it more open. Lets involve
the community in a more broader sense."
Technology:
"From our
perspectives the world is changing. They're communicating differently and technology is
helping us to communicate."
Operations vs. Extras: "During
campaigns - one side of the issue says, the tax is supposed to be used for
enhancements, niceties. The other
side says it was always intended for basic services - never for all these grandiose
things we don't want. There's no way to
sift that out and no way to figure out what the community really wants. What
we'll do is we will develop a list of uses and let you all vote, then post the
results."
On the measuring citizen interest in different areas of spending:
"We hope to
keep releasing results. Model is - I don't know if there's baseball fans here - it's like All-Star balloting," Forslund said. "If you
live in Bar Nunn, you can participate in how Bar Nunn should spend its tax
money. If you live in unincorporated areas of Natrona County, you can participate in that discussion -- not just focus
on Casper as we we have traditionally. Hopefully through discussion, people will have a better
understanding."
Posted by: Pete Nickeas at 1:39PM EST on December 2, 2009
Quorum at CAEDA
A majority of the Casper City Council was at the CAEDA breakfast this morning.
When you have the majority of people from a board or commission together in one room, you're generally supposed notify media, post that a meeting is going to occur, provide an agenda, etc.
The council members didn't all sit together and weren't there on official business.
I'm not saying there was anything nefarious going on, but it is relevant to note there was a majority of the Casper City Council together, outside of a council setting.
Assistant City Manager Linda Witko said she didn't expect six members to attend, but council members are often invited independent of their roles as city council members.
Further, she said, the city attorney has said it's legal as long they don't discuss business or make decisions.
In attendance were:
Casper Mayor Kenyne Schlager
Council Vice President Maury Daubin
Kate Sarosy (running for mayor)
Bill Brauer (running for mayor)
Kim Holloway (running for council vice president)
Glenn Januska
Forslund pitched the one-cent
Highlighting just how important one-cent money is to Casper, Natrona County, and the outlying towns, City Manager Tom Forslund has apparently refined his message. This morning's speech to CAEDA members dealt more in specifics than any of his previous speeches.
You can read a brief story about his appearance here. I'll link to the full story tomorrow. UPDATE: Here is the full story.
One interesting item that didn't make the story is that Forslund said a "significant" amount of the tax revenue comes from people who travel to Natrona County to purchase goods.
The exact figure is difficult to quantify, though. I suspect that if that number was able to be obtained, the city would be glad to release it. Might be nice to say "Look, 10 percent or 20 percent of that money isn't even coming from Natrona County residents."
Petroleum Club
This morning was my first time at the Petroleum Club. If I own a bar / restaurant one day (which, I've kicked around the idea with my younger brothers), then I want it to look like the inside of the Petroleum Club. Wood finish, nice windows, clean bar with shiny glasses. Dance floor with room for a podium, too.
Posted by: Pete Nickeas at 2:28PM EST on November 25, 2009
I'll be taking off from work in a couple hours. The four days spent away from the Star-Tribune building will be a nice break.
It will be the first extended weekend I've had since starting work here four months ago, and I'm looking forward to reading and eating all weekend long.
Enjoy the break! Catch up with everyone on Monday.
Posted by: Pete Nickeas at 4:02PM EST on November 24, 2009
At Monday's work session, Ward 3 Councilman Paul
Bertoglio said he wasn't sure whether he would run for mayor or vice mayor next
year.
For reference - each year the
council elects from among its nine members a council vice president (vice mayor)
and a mayor.
When Bertoglio said he wasn't
sure which he would seek, Ward 1 Councilman Keith Goodenough quipped, "maybe you
should do both," which was met with laughter after a brief pause.
It was
an apparent reference to a testy exchange between the two council members
earlier this month when discussing the role of council leadership.
Goodenough said there should be less pomp and circumstance so the mayor could focus on policy. Bertoglio said the
ceremonies were part of the job and told Goodenough to "deal with
it."
The brief moment of "should
I laugh or not" passed quickly. The council
members laughed and the council moved on to other business.
That awkward moment came a couple minutes after
Casper Mayor Kenyne Schlager opened discussions about next year's
leadership posts.
When she told council members they could announce,
there were a couple of moments of silence while council members glanced at each
other, not sure who would speakfirst.
It was Ward 1 Councilman Kim Holloway
announced her intention to seek the vice mayor post. (We told you about
Holloway's intentions in this blog post earlier this
year).
Posted by: Pete Nickeas at 10:35AM EST on November 16, 2009
At last Monday's city
council work session, Ward 1 Councilman Keith Goodenough said city staff members
were getting sloppy with their presentation of proposals before the
council.
City Manager Tom Forslund brings ordinance changes and new ordinances to the
city council work sessions with his stamp of approval. Then, the department head
of the affected department briefs council members and takes questions. Council members take an informal vote on whether to move the proposal
to an actual council meeting.
First, the city's
leisure services director couldn't answer questions about the financial health
of the golf course when he was seeking a greens fee
increase.
Then, the
city's administrative services director was pitching an ordinance change that
would let the city ding bar owners who sell to minors if the charge went through
circuit court. Right now, when a bar sells to a minor, they don't acquire demerits
unless the case goes through municipal court.
A technicality, yes,
but the technicality means if a charge goes through circuit court the city can't
hold it against the bar owner when the time comes next year to renew a liquor license. So
the city
argued that changing the ordinance would stop sloppy bar owners from skirting
demerits on their liquor license.
But when Goodenough
asked why any of the cases were being sent to circuit court - the decision is
that of the police officer making the arrest - neither City Manager Tom Forslund
nor City Attorney Bill Luben was able to answer.
Forslund, Luben, and the two municipal judges work directly
for the city council. All the other city employees work for Forslund.
Goodenough's
contention at the time was that municipal ordinances affecting businesses within
the city's jurisdiction should be routed through the city's court and was miffed
that neither of the two top city officials could answer his question.
If anybody should be
counted on to answer policy questions, Goodenough later said, it should be the
people directly employed by the council.
The ordinance
change moved forward with support of other council members who didn't have any
questions.
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