Good Morning once again,
The City of Guthrie Council met again last night 8/5/2008 with a healthy agenda. I am not going to go over each line item for the sake of keeping my write up short but you may review the packet at http://www.cityofguthrie.com/Council/Agendas.html This is the same packet that the Council receives and is the working documents for the meetings. This was one of the request I made when coming on board along with the televising all board, and special workshop meetings dealing with the City. I acted on these items to make sure that the general public has the ability to see all of the Cities actions up close and personal. The City "Your City" has an open stance for viewing what transpires within the decision's that the City makes. A comment was made last night regarding the City making decision's behind closed doors. This same person claimed to have contacted each and every council member regarding their concern. I and several other council members were never contacted regarding that concern! I have worked hard to take the comments of "behind closed doors" out of the equation. The City can only continue to put out information to inform the public to the best of its ability. I will continue to work on finding ways to make sure citizens are indeed informed, however citizens also need to take time to educate themselves in matters and we welcome your input and cooperation. I am a citizen just like you within the community, and I expect nothing less than full disclosure from our City Government. I to have negative issue dealing with various component's surrounding the City. I however by being elected and by the general nature of being a concerned citizen, also try and find solutions to various issues that we are dealing with as a community. I encourage citizens that do indeed have concerns to offer up solutions to their concerns in lieu of just the negative. It is important that we share the options of solutions and work towards resolutions. I have packed my bags for the new trip ahead for the City of Guthrie. My bags are not packed with the trips from the past.
Trey Ayers
3 comments:
Trey,
I picked up the last lines of your most recent blog from Sound Off. I personally am 43. Of these 43 years, I have lived in Guthrie for all of them except 10. My family lives here and I live in the same neighborhood where I grew up. This is my home. However, there are many things that I dislike about city administration and how the city has conducted itself in the past. These range from neighborhood neglect to planning for a lake or improvements in a water supply that never happened. Instead, we built a new city hall and the tax is still being assessed. Although you are paid only a dollar a year for your time, you volunteered for your position. You take the good with the bad and like it or not, the moment you stepped into council chambers you were saddled with all the mistrust that prior councils and city managers have left you with.
In response to your other blog comments, there are also a few officers on our police force that should not be there. A blanket 'I'm proud of them' is just wrong. A regular joe has absolutely no chance in traffic court here or in any other municipality since the cops and the judges are both on the city payroll. Not to mention, when you are in traffic court, you are arguing against a city attorney with all of his law school experience. The acquital rate is probably 3% at best.
Recently, my kids and I were in city hall and my oldest daughter asked me, "Is this the room where they have the meetings?" I responded this is where you go to traffic court, not realizing she was talking about council meetings. I almost told her ... and you have no chance of winning a violation if you are given one.
Instead I bit my lip.
Honeslty, explain to your children how they have any chance outside of hiring an attorney how they can defend themselves in traffic court.
I suppose you might be proud of the cop that gave his own boss a ticket or the one who became involved with a high school student or the highway patrol officer who just happened to be drunk and beat his girlfriend.
Many, I agree may be outstanding individuals and officers, but others, at times, dwell on the wrong side of the law just as much as anyone. In Yukon, several officers were with a 7-11 clerk. In Norman, some were selling steroids. I'm sure before they got caught their councilmen were just as proud of them as you are of ours.
There are bad apples in every profession or community; no one will disagree with you. Unfortunately those few make all the remaining and future employees or neighborhoods look as if they are just as guilty or at least puts them under the proverbial microscope of suspicion. All we can do is to continue to improve and over time we can overcome most of these obstacles.
As citizens we look at our public officials as “picture perfect”, this is not always the case as we are all human. I am just as disgusted as the next person when these few cross the lines and prey on our children or take from our home what we have worked so hard to gain. I honestly feel the City of Guthrie is headed in the right direction and many will begin to see the benefits for years to come.
Like it or not they are saddled with the good and bad and are trying their best to create a better community for us to live in and for those to visit. There are leaders and followers and I can assure you there are a few that are making sure that we are no longer the followers.
I have been fortunate not to experience traffic court (knock on wood), but I can imagine that if I were there due to a traffic or city ordinance that I violated it would not fall in my favor. One may not be a hardened criminal but if they violate the law, should they not be fined? Speeding, running through stop signs, school zones etc. They are there for a reason - to protect you and the public from harming one another due to careless or inattentive driving. I have a hard time defending anyone’s position when it comes to breaking traffic and city ordinances. I guess we all have a good argument for breaking the law, right?
I have heard on many occasions that citizens are tired of people speeding through town or grass in yards are too tall and our city is not working in our best interest. When they begin to move in the direction of those complaints and act on them we hear more from the opposition - I have noticed that the argument becomes louder when promises start to become real action, funny how that works isn’t it?
We are fortunate to have the ability to vote in new representatives every two – four years in most governmental positions, at least the ones that have the capacity to offer change. Some start out strong and end weak others are quite the opposite – what you hope for is someone who starts strong and finishes with the same resolve.
Perhaps the next time you and your daughters are in City Hall you can respond that this is where the City of Guthrie conducts business on our (citizens) behalf. It appears you were on the unfortunate end of a citation, another lesson to teach our kids going forward… follow the laws that govern the community.
Dear Anonymous,
First let me thank you for taking time to write your concerns I do appreciate your time within the community 33 years is quite a long time to reside in one place. I have been in the community just over 3 years and have served on the planning commission and most obvious the current City Council of which no one ran against me in the election. I do agree with your statement that volunteering for the position you do get the past there is no doubt about that. I however have chosen to focus on the future of Guthrie while not discounting the past issue, but putting my emphasis on where we are going as a community. I will admit I ran for council to change the sentiment of mistrust of prior councils and so on and so forth and of hopes of making a positive change to our community. As you have read my blog I have stated some of the actions I have done to make the City Government more transparent. In no way are we perfect but the staff and council are indeed working hard for better communications. I applied for the planning commission to better my community, I also ran for city council to better my community, do not forget I live within the community as well and it is just as important to me as it is with you. I am curious for your dedicated time of 33 years as a local citizen within the community how many opportunities have you served or passed up to make a change for your community?
In regards to my comment regarding the local police department. I don’t discount there are deviant people in every profession and this one is not exempt. Maybe we should shun every job out there that people choose inappropriate behavior. These people should be punished for their actions no doubt about it. However, in return we can trust no one that we have to deal with on a daily basis and not be proud of anyone. I apologize my negativism just doesn’t stretch that far. I chose to think it bit more positive about the situation and choose to be supportive for our local law enforcement officers. Maybe that is why I ran for council; I am blinded by a positive attitude for my community and wish it to succeed.
Trey
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