 |
| A. E. Newman Candidate for Southern District Associate Commissioner |
Post: 1,718
Part 1 of my interview may be found by clicking on A. E. Newman Interview (Part 1)
Here is the transcript from Part 2 of the interview with A. E. Newman which took place Saturday morning, 2/12/2011, at Newman's kitchen table in Bland, MO .....
Kant: Mr. Newman, you've promised that you would clean up county government. Can you tell my readers just exactly how you'd go about doing that?
Newman: Well, I wouldn't be able to do it all by myself, but with the help of Northern District Associate Commissioner Matt Penning and interested citizens from both the south and north ends of Gasconade County, I think we could accomplish quite a lot!
Kant: I don't understand. What would you do?
Newman: Well, first we would have to have much more transparency in county government and much more involvement and participation by the citizens than we currently have. I would ask Commissioner Penning to join me in bringing about a change to the times and locations for the County Commission meetings. I suspect Presiding Commissioner Jost would oppose this, but with two votes in favor of it, we could bring about the needed changes. Right now the Commission has very short meetings (30 minutes to 90 minutes) each week on Thursday mornings. The County Commission meeting room at the County Courthouse has very limited space for citizen attendees. I think the "good ol' boys" like it that way. The meeting held on the first Thursday of the month at the City Hall in Owensville is normally heavily attended by family members and political allies of Commissioner Jerry Lairmore and Presiding Commissioner Ron Jost. Others from the south end of the county don't even bother to attend. We've got to change all of this. We need to hold ALL of our meetings during evening hours to encourage greater participation by the general public, and we need to meet in a larger room at the Gasconade County Courthouse. I would suggest that we meet in the 2nd floor courtroom where we could accomodate about one hundred (100) attendees from the public. The courtroom would be available during evening hours, so there would be no meeting room conflict..
Kant: Wow! You've really thought this through!
Newman: Yes, I have!
Kant: What else would you do?
Newman: We have to restore trust in our county government, and we have to restore competence and accountability. With all the years of in-fighting, lack of accountability and poor results on recent financial audits performed by the State of Missouri, our county government is the laughing stock of our county as well as the neighboring counties which surround us!
Kant: What would you do about all that?
Newman: First of all, I would restore civility within the County Commission. We would have rules of decorum! If one Commissioner calls another Commissioner a "lieing son-of-a-bitch", he would be assessed a substantial fine. I'm thinking a $500 fine. And said fine would be deducted from his next month's pay check. If a Commissioner calls a citizen a "jackass", whether he/she be in attendance at a commission meeting or not, that Commissioner would be assessed a $500 fine, he would be required to issue a public statement of apology which the County Clerk would dutifully record in the Commission Meeting Minutes, and he would be required to attend "Anger Management Training". I'm hoping I could persuade Commissioner Penning to help me institute these new procedures. Without two (2) affirmative votes within the Commission, positive changes like these will not be possible. I doubt that Presiding Commissioner Jost would support me at all on my proposed changes.
Stay tuned tomorrow, Wednesday, 2/16/2011, for Part 3 (the final part) of our interview with A. E. Newman.
Reciprocal Links: http://www.DSchaefer.Vemma.com (Nutrition For A Lifetime), http://www.Heart2HeartLyrics.blogspot.com (Song Lyrics Seeking Singer-Songwriters), http://www.HermannMoNews.blogspot.com (The 'Drudge Report' of Hermann), http://www.RivertownRecipes.blogspot.com (Great Local Recipes)
Other Recommended Links: http://www.AccuWeather.com (Weather Forecasts), https://stores.healthmart.com/berlenerdrugstorepharmacy (Professional Local Pharmacy Services), http://www.DorasSpinningWheel.com (Embroidery), http://www.HermannAdvertiserCourier.com (Gasconade County's Newspaper of Record), http://www.MUTigers.com (Official Website of the Missouri Tigers), http://www.RushLimbaugh.com (Conservative Talk), http://www.Time4Pie.com (Great Pie, Coffee & Conversation), http://www.ToedtmannGrosse.com (Obituaries), http://www.WatkinsOnline.com (Watkins Natural Products)
No comments:
Post a Comment