10.14.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:59 pm by Moorcat
Since I am in the process of re-designing my primary website (moorcat.com), I have decided to remove the political content from Montana Bullets and Blades and bring it back here. Pragmatic Revolt was started as a place to discuss political subjects that are important to me and it seems proper to seperate those subjects from the Montana Bullets and Blades site - a site primarily devoted to crafting, knifemaking, gunsmithing/gun topics and Montana life.
I should be posting soon about some of the local political issues here (we are currently involved in a very contested mayorial race in Dillon) as well as some of the state and national issues that catch my attention. Posting may be somewhat sporatic - at least at first - but feel free to visit often and comment if you feel so inclined.
Moorcat
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01.13.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 5:11 am by Moorcat
Montana Bullets and Blades is now up and running.
As promised, the new Blog is up and running. It is pretty spare at this point (little more than the structure and a couple of pages set up) but it will flesh out over the next couple of weeks. I really hope the readers that have enjoyed this blog will continue to read the new one….
Pragmatic Revolt will remain up for now (for both sentimental reasons and because I may, at some point return to it). The information is still timely and I stand by what I have written here. It is simply time I take a different direction with my writing.
I invite you all to check out the new blog and thanks for reading this one…
Moorcat
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01.12.09
Posted in Blog General, City Government at 4:49 pm by Moorcat
It is official…. Pragmatic Revolt is going away - sort of. I will be starting a new blog - Montana Bullets and Blades - in the next couple of weeks.
The new blog will deal primarily with knifemaking and gunsmithing. There will also be articles on hiking in Montana, Montana life, gardening and the usual general stuff I tend to post about.
For those that have followed Pragmatic Revolt’s look into Dillon Politics, never fear, there will probably still be a few posts about the joke that is Dillon Politics. The upcoming elections just beg for a few articles… especially given the Straugh is running for Mayor (can anyone say “Malesich, light”). I can see a lot of his statements made during Council Meetings (and captured on video for posterity….) coming back to bite him in the backside…
As soon as the new blog is tweaked the way I want it, I will annouce the addy here. I haven’t decided whether I am going to leave this blog up or just archive it and put up a static page to redirect people to the new blog.
See you all soon….
Moorcat
P.S. To those that have missed me in town, no, I am not dead. I had a pretty serious back injury at the end of November and I am just now getting to the point that I can move around again. Since I am determined to be ready for hiking season this year, you will probably see me soon - i will be doing a LOT of walking to get back in shape.
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09.05.08
Posted in Blog General at 8:16 am by Moorcat
I haven’t posted for a while and though it is due to a number of circumstances, the primary one is that I am burnt out on following the idiocy of the Dillon City Government. It seems that nothing ever changes and while I know there are people making an effort - my wife being one of them - there simply aren’t enough citizens in this town willing to step up and help to correct the problems. Recently, a number of things were done by the Dillon City Government that, in any other town, would have had the citizens screaming for heads or preparing to tar and feather the people responcible. Things like -
1) The City Council just voted to increase Gilbert’s salary to $110.00 an hour retroactive to Jan 1, 2008. This is an increase of almost 17% in his wages. No other City Employee got a raise that big. In fact, they only got the 3.3% increase dictated by PERS. Why did Gilbert get a 17% raise? How is it even possible to allocate money for a previous fiscal year (the fiscal year ended the first of July)? Is it because Gilbert appears to be Malesich’s attack attorney? What the hell were the Councilmen thinking? The ONLY councilperson that went on record as voting against this contract was Councilwoman Kailey. Where the hell is the fiscal responcibility of the other 7 councilmen?
2) When the City Council decided to forward the issue of Councilman Riley’s parking request to Committee, Councilman Riley left the meeting in a huff. He has since sent out snotty and condescending resignation letters to the Councilmen. This really doesn’t come as a great surprise. He didn’t finish his term as County Attorney either.
3) The Dillon City Council has once again failed to move forward to solve the Police Retirement Fund. They have found a new and interesting way to put it off - they are spending tens of thousands of dollars on having a private actuary look at the State’s Assessment. It has been pointed out to them on multiple occations and by multiple people that, by statute, the only actuary report that matters is the State’s, but they will do anything to put this off. The Mayor is even allegedly saying that he will actively campaign to keep the Police Retirement fund OUT of the State Police Retirement Fund. Big Surprise there.
There is more but the petty childish pissing contest nature of Dillon City Politics is simply too much for me to deal with. I am adult, and I do not have the time or patience to deal with supposed adults that behave like 6 year olds.
I am not sure at this point whether I am going to close this blog and start another (focused on the things I WANT to write about) or whether I will simply change the focus of this blog back to the things I enjoy being involved with. If I do start another blog, I will let people know…
Moorcat
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08.14.08
Posted in City Government at 9:10 pm by Moorcat
I have been attending the City Council Budget Meetings and will report on them once they are completed. I am waiting till then to report on them because there is a lot of give and take that goes on in these meetings and nothing is final until they settle the differences.
That said, there are a few things that do need to be pointed out up front. -
1) Like last year, the budget submitted to the City Council by the Mayor’s administration was seriously in the red - like over $87,000.00 in the red. It will be a trick to see how the City Council manages to slash enough out the Mayor’s budget to break even. They also have to take into consideration that some money has be put aside as a cash reserve. The issues with the Fire Hall budget last year developed because not enough money was put aside and when certain revenues didn’t come in as expected, it created a problem.
2) It appears that the City is going to try to use a number of tactics to develop more revenue - including an SID to pave Glendale street, and a number of mill levy requests to fund certain items in the budget. Given the almost $2,000,000.00 shortfall in the Police Retirement Fund that is still unaddressed, it remains to be seen if the Citizens of Dillon are willing to approve ANY further tax money to the City.
3) Certain statutory deadlines have already passed for some of the items in the budget - most notably, the deadlines for the Special Maintenence Districts. To date, no public hearing has been held (as required by statute) and no resolution has been passed. They have discussed a number of things but no resolution has been presented to the City Council. Councilman Straugh wants to raise the amount levied again this year but it is uncertain whether the rest of the council is willing to vote for that. Last year the City Council raised the “per foot” amount from $.50 a foot to $.80 a foot (an increase of 60%). There was a lot of contention about that increase and the way it was done and many property owners protested their taxes because of it. There are still members of the community that claim they want to sue the city over that increase.
4) The City Council voted to increase the amount levied for the Special Lighting District from $.43 to $.49.
Moorcat
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08.06.08
Posted in State and Federal Politics at 11:37 pm by Moorcat
I don’t spend as much time now reading the blogs as I used to (and certainly not as much I probably should) but there are some blogs I read everyday. The five blogs I list in my “blogroll” are blogs I read everyday - until an election year. I hate reading the blogs in an election year. My reasons are pretty simple -
1) Blind Partisanship -
Nothing disgusts me more than the tendancy of certain people - usually rational and logical - to throw out all pretense at “informed decision making” during an election year. It seems more and more, that the letter following a candidate’s name (D or R) is more important than anything - including values, truth, or even common sense. More over, it seems that these people are so invested in their partisanship that they immediately attack ANYONE - even someone that believes in the same value system they do - if any disparaging remark is made about THEIR candidate. The amount of blind - dare I say, hatred - astounds and confuses me. Maybe I am a dinosaur, but I still believe that a candidate should stand for something more than just a stuffed suit. These people are running for a position where they will represent ME - and that is damn important. I want to see more than just that they are a member of a political party. I want to see what these people actually stand for and what they have actually done.
2) Attack and Damage Control -
It used to be you would see ads for Candidates where they discussed their accomplishments and the platforms they stood on. Now what you get are “Hit Ads”. Each side of the political spectrum engages in this behavior and it doesn’t matter which side started it or who is better at it. If both sides engage in this behavior, they are BOTH wrong. I don’t want to see what dirt you dig up on your opponent. I want to see what the candidates, themselves, stand for.
The other side of the coin is just as true anymore. Candidates spend more time doing “damage control” - explaining the dirt the other side dug up, minimizing past mistakes, outright lying about their previous stances and changing positions on the issues more often than they change their underwear - than they do taking a stand on the basic issues facing the American Public. We live in the age of “political stunts” and “bad politics” to the point where we accept and expect those behaviors. This is insanity, plain and simple. I could give you a dozen examples - from both sides of the aisle - but I don’t have to because any reasoning and semi-intelligent person is already aware of them.
The system itself is designed for failure -
For all the promises made by all these candidates, how many of the issues are actually addressed? The Republicans like to point to the Democrats currently and say “now you all control Congress.. how come nothing has changed?”. The sad fact, though, is that the Democrats DON’T control Congress. There aren’t enough Democrats to override a minority push to kill or slow an action and there certainly aren’t enough to overcome a presidential veto. If action isn’t being accomplished, it is because BOTH sides of the aisle have failed, and that is a failure for the American People, not the stuffed suits sitting in Congress. The only way things are ever going to get accomplished (right or wrong) is if either the stuffed suits learn to get along (not bloody likely…) or one side gets enough control to ACTUALLY control Congress.
My stand -
I am a conservative. I believe in smaller government, accountability for our representatives and fiscal responsibility. That used to be the mantra of the Republican Party but not so much anymore. Instead, you hear them crow about how much Pork they can bring back and how the Government can solve all the woes of the world - either through “police actions” like what is going on in Iraq or through Government handouts to the filthy rich like Exxon. Where is the fiscal conservatism of 30 years ago? Where is the action to curb government spending and growth? It has gone into the same hopper as every other value held by the Republicans I worked with in the early 80’s.
Anymore, it almost appears that the Democrats are running on a platform traditionally held by the Republicans. “I have seen the enemy, and it be us” (yes, I know that is a misquote..). How did this happen? When did this happen, and why didn’t we do anything about it? One of the statements I have seen on a couple of blogs recently that I actually agree with is that there isn’t all that much difference between the parties anymore. Neither one seems accountable to their constituancy and nothing seems to change regardless of what party is “in control”.
So the next time you want to showcase a new “hit ad” on your political website, stop for second and think about if that ad really portrays the values you hold. If you are just posting it because it comes from your party, you are part of the problem, not the solution.
Moorcat
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08.01.08
Posted in City Government at 12:28 am by Moorcat
A Special Finance Committee Meeting has been scheduled for Tuesday, August 5th at 12:00 noon in City Council Chambers. This is in addition to the regulary scheduled Finance Committee Meeting set for the same day at 4:00pm.
The Agenda for the meeting is -
1) Fire Department Excess Expenditures
2) Payments for City Attorney
3) Public Comments on Subjects not on the Agenda
Background
This is actually the first I have heard about the Fire Department exceeding their budget and until I know more about the situation, I am unwilling to comment. The announcement for the meeting did not contain any additional information so I am kind of in the dark on this item - other than it will entail much of the same difficulties as the second item on the agenda.
The issue with Mr. Gilbert was a given. When the budget meetings began back in May, it was already obvious that Mr. Gilbert was going to exceed his budget spectacularly. With May and June’s pay still to go, Mr. Gilbert was already over $1,500.00 over budget. Further, there were still outstanding bills totalling over $5,000.00 for hours Mr. Gilbert worked in excess of 55 hours a month. The amount of money owed Mr. Gilbert overbudget at this point was not disclosed in the meeting message but it has to be in excess of $10,000.00 based on the figures presented during the budget talks.
Mr. Gilbert submitted a request to be paid the outstanding amount to the City Council at the last City Council meeting. I was not in attendance, so I am not sure how much that bill was or what Mr. Gilbert was claiming it was for.
Over budget and Past deadline -
The issues here are simple to describe but seemingly hard to resolve. Montana Law is specific about how a City is required to Budget and spend money. While a City is allowed to NOT spend budgeted money, any money spent OVER budget requires a Budget Amendment. You are allowed to shift money around in a budget account, but you are not allowed to exceed the budgeted amount for an account.
In the case of Mr. Gilbert, they had already shifted money around in his account to pay some of the overages. Unfortunately, Mr. Gilbert submitted hours that exceeded the entire amount for the account. Further, no budget amendment was ever done to address the issue.
To complicate matters, the Budget year ended on July 1, 2008. I have been informed that a City is not allowed to do “retroactive” budget amendments after the fiscal year has ended.
What it will take to resolve this situation is anyone’s guess. In conversations with two seperate accountants, they were unable to suggest a solution that meets the requirements of Montana Municipal Finance Law. Further, any information from Mr. Gilbert is suspect because he stands to financially gain from the decision of the City Council. This is not a small matter and will take some serious consideration to resolve.
Kudos to Councilman Straugh
As I reported yesterday, Mayor Malesich has issued a policy to his office staff that they will no longer send out notifications over the announcement list about Committee Meetings. Apparently, Mr. Straugh made a special request that notification about this meeting be sent out to all the City Council. Further Malesich required that the meeting announcement be sent to Rick Later and Scott Marsh of the Fire Department. Thank you, Councilman Straugh for at least insisting that the meeting announcement be sent to the Council.
Moorcat
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07.31.08
Posted in City Government at 11:08 pm by Moorcat
This week’s copy of the Dillon Tribune carries an article about the ongoing troubles for the Joint City - County Plnning Board. The article does a good job of laying out the primary issues but there are a few issues I would like to explore that weren’t mentioned in the article.
City Control of the Donut
One of the strongest driving factors behind the Joint City - County Planning Board is the 1 - 5 mile donut surrounding Dillon. In a nutshell, the City wants (at the very least) to have a say in how that area is developed and the County is uncomfortable giving up control of that area to the City (as well as the legal issues involved in doing that). To make matters worse, many of the County Property Owners in that area are VERY uncomfortable with the idea that the City of Dillon has any say in their area.
A joint study group was commissioned to do a study of development in the area and they reported back to both the Dillon City Council and to the County. At the time, all involved said that the information was useful and the City pursued the idea of a joint planning board shortly following that report.
Now, it appears that the City wasn’t happy about that study group. Lynn Westad - a member of the Dillon Planning Board and one of the members of the Joint Study Group - is quoted in the paper -
Board Member Lynn Westad said she sat on the joint city/county task force that met for almost a year, and it didn’t accomplish anything. “The City didn’t get anything”, she said.
That seems to be the primary issue for the City - they aren’t getting what they want.
City Planning Board President and Dillon City Councilman, Mike Riley is much more direct in his comments -
Riley said, “The city of Dillon wants to control the area around the city. We need hard, concrete information, not a ‘vision’”.
He goes on to say -
“We are saying over and over and over and over and over and over again that we’re concerned, we’re concerned… The next thing a rattlesnake does when it is ignored is strike.”
While the last quote sounds like a threat, it is a toothless one. It has been testified in Council Meetings that the City has no authority in the contested areas many times - in fact, that is the basis of the City’s concern. It wants authority.
What the County Property Owners want -
There are many issues here that were reported to the City Council when the Joint Task force made their presentation but the issues boiled down to two primary ones - Zoning and Trust.
The comments reported in the Joint Task force presentation surrounded the distrust of the property owners of the donut in the City of Dillon’s ability or desire to consider their wishs when setting zoning in that area. There were also a number of comments made about the way the City of Dillon goes about their business. I have personally received two emails from residents of that area asking questions about how the City has been handling the Malesich/Warner situation.
How this situation can be resolved (or IF it can be resolved) remains to be seen. Mr. Riley’s comments were unfortunate (as they will play on the fears of the people living in the contested areas) but he has expressed considerable frustration with the situation when reporting to the City Council.
Personally, I think threats are a bad idea to convince someone to work with you. We will see if it works for the City of Dillon
Moorcat
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Posted in City Government at 10:40 pm by Moorcat
It seems this week was a banner week for interesting quotes in the Dillon Newspaper - The Dillon Tribune. In an article about the City digging up Mr. Warner’s and Mr. Brenneke’s yards to install water pits, Mr. Gilbert makes some interesting comments -
The article quotes a letter dated July 1, 2008 penned by City Attorney Gilbert responding to the request for information made by Mr. Warner about when the meter project was approved. I would remind the reader that under Montana’s Open Document Law, any citizen of the City has a right to request and receive copies of ANY city document or communication that doesn’t contain “confidential” information. Any minutes of the Dillon City Council woud certainly fall under under the catagory of “City Documents”.
In my recollection serves, the meter project was approved by the council at a meeting from which you were absent. regardless, the project is ongoing, and has reached virtual conclusion. I am not going to spend any of the City’s time and money on extracting the council minutes in which the water project was approved
So to paraphrase… Mr. Gilbert is saying that he remembers the meter project being approved but he isn’t going to do anything as mundane as to actually look to make sure - it would be a waste of time…
What Mr. Gilbert seems to fail to understand is that it is his job to do exactly that. Mr. Gilbert is the legal council for the City of Dillon. He is failing to do his job if he does NOT verify that the meter project was property authorized. I can see the court testimony now….
Judge: Mr. Gilbert, can the City produce documentation of when and how the Meter project was approved?
Gilbert: No, Your Honor. We felt it was a waste of City Time and Money. We remember doing it. You will have to just take our word for it.
That will fly…
I wonder how those shoes he wears taste.
Moorcat
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07.30.08
Posted in Blog General at 7:44 pm by Moorcat
I have been asked many times - both in person and through email - why I stopped posting for months. It is only fair that I give an explanation.
Loss of my Hosting Service -
I could easily step back and blame it all on the loss of my hosting service. They did shut my server down and it was done without notification or warning. I have still not been able to get them to release my files back to me (or give me a decent explanation of why they did it) so that I can put up the archive of previous posts. While I will be able to get those posts back at a later time through another avenue, those posts are - for the moment - only saved in hardcopy.
I am happy to report that I do have a new hosting service and I am quite happy with them. The new hosting service is located fairly locally (in Utah) and has excellent customer service with an actual phone number I can call to resolve any issues that do come up.
All that said - that is not the real reason I stopped posting.
Objectivity -
Any citizen reporter has some bias that regularly appears in their writing. I am no exception. I try to report the facts - as I see or know them - but even the most objective of us is biased in some way. I make it clear that I have issues with the way Government works in Dillon but…
After my arrest - orchestrated by Mayor Malesich and Former Councilman Troadsson - I got angry. Not just a little angry - a LOT angry. My posts relating to Mayor Malesich and the Dillon City Government began to reflect that anger. I was no longer able to maintain even the semblance of objectivity. Each new perfidy performed by Malesich and Dillon Government simply made matters worse. I completely skipped over the good things that the Dillon City Council attempted to do and I certainly focused on the bad. It began to effect me - personally - and I was actually getting physically sick after attending City Council Meetings.
My heart attack was a wake up call. Even though my Doctor cannot even tell me for sure that I had a heart attack, it was certainly real enough for me. I am glad that the battery of tests came back saying I was extremely healthy - in fact, far more healthy than I should be given my age and lifestyle - but it was time to do some re-evaluation of my life and how I was living it. One of those things I had to evaluate was how blogging about the Dillon City Government was effecting my health.
Return to Blogging
I made the decision to return to blogging about the City Government because I feel it is important. The things being perpetrated against the Citizens of Dillon need to be reported - but so does the good the Dillon City Council accomplishes. I needed to return to some semblance of objectivity in my reporting about the things happening. More importantly, I had to get past the anger I felt about the personal attack made on me by Malesich and Troedsson.
I have taken what steps I can in dealing with that situation and I have let it go. What happens now is up to other people but I can finally let go of the anger because I know I have done what I can do. It is time to move on to other things.
I can now blog about the City Government without getting sick or take the situations personally. I will still get angry when I feel that the Dillon City Government does something wrong or illegal - it is my nature - but I will no longer take it as a personal attack on myself. I will be happier for it and my family will breath easier because I am no longer heading at breakneck speed for another heart attack.
Hopefully this explains my absence from the blogging world, and I hope that my writing will be better for having experienced it.
Moorcat
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