Completions

From the time City Manager Wayne Cauthen was fired until someone--anyone--from the city responded to questions of why, exactly, he was let go--impropriety, incompetence or whatever--it was 5 days, from November 19th to the 24th, until City Councilwoman Jan Marcason gave reason.

That was too long. It should have been immediate, since he was a public employee.

That said, I would like to salute and thank Ms. Marcason for giving her constituents reason and information why this took place, even if it was delayed. She was the only person who did, from what I've seen.

Lastly, on a completely different note, I wrote here last week that I thought it likely University of Kansas Football Coach Mark Mangino could be out of his job by Monday or Tuesday this week, given the situation.

I only missed it by two days.

Next prediction: Lew Perkins clock is ticking down.

Have a great weekend, y'all.

Links: http://voices.kansascity.com/node/6659
http://www.kansascity.com/105/story/1609908.html

Reasons the "Concerned Clergy Coaltion" should be marching--but aren't

Did you see the Killa City's "Top 10 things to know about homicide in Kansas City"
By Casey Lyons in Killa City, NewsWed., Dec. 2 2009 @ 12:00PM?

Herewith:

​The KCPD released it's third quarter homicide results yesterday, which includes some 98 homicides up to September 30. The total to date is 105. We dug through all 24 pages so you don't have to to find the most important things to know about staying alive in Kansas City.

1. July is the new deadliest month. The summer spike came earlier this year, with the most deaths per month (14) coming in July, rather than August.

2. Kansas City killers have got a case of the Mondays. Nearly 1 in 5 deaths takes place on the first day after the weekend. Saturday and Sunday each held 15 percent.

3. Watch out for the witching hour. Thirteen percent of deaths happen between midnight and 2 a.m. Noon to 2 p.m. accounts for 12 percent of homicides and is the second most dangerous time.

4. Violence is random. Motive is unknown more than half the time.

5. East Patrol District is the most dangerous. So far, 634 people have been beaten and 27 killed there.

6. Men fare worst. Three in four homicide victims are men. Among known suspects, there are 10 times more men than women (51 versus 5).

7. There is a lot of black-on-black crime. Over 70 percent of victims are African American. Among suspects, 79 percent are African Americans. By contrast, no victims have been Asian.

8. Senior citizens are the safest. No victims have been over 65. There have been 36 in the 17-25 age range.

9. Victims aren't so innocent. Three in four victims have prior arrests.

10. Drive-by. September is drive-by king with 32 incidents reported.

So, with No. 7, above, wouldn't you think this "Concerned Clergy" group would have been marching last July on a Monday, protesting these senseless killings on the East Side?

No, no. They had to wait until November, when Wayne Cauthen is let go of his job as City Manager, instead.

Sure, that makes sense.

Link: http://blogs.pitch.com/plog/2009/12/killa_city_top_10_things_to_know_about_homicide_in_kansas_city.php

Random thoughts on a wonderful, long, beautiful holiday weekend

--The Star reports that "A 17-year-old girl remained hospitalized this morning after she was shot on Thanksgiving night in central Kansas City." I can't write very long here, today, because I'm going to join the East side clergy who are going to be protesting this and the other shootings and killings of their fellow-citizens in the city. Yeah, right;

--The Kansas City Star reported this morning that drivers who already have suspended licenses are being picked up outside court in downtown Kansas City by the police. A couple things come to mind--first, good for the cops. This is a great idea. It should have been done years before now. And two, it was reported on, I think, KCTV5 a few days ago, on the evening news. What this means is that now the Star is following the local, crappy TV news coverage, which is notoriously lame. That's how bad it's gotten at the Star. Used to be, the Star scooped virtually all news organizations in town. No more, no surprise, sadly. So it goes;

--It isn't my goal to repeatedly complain about our local newspaper but one of the big stories on the front page this morning was that the Country Club Plaza Thanksgiving evening holiday lighting ceremony "is a balm in hard times." Really? If I'm unemployed--or underemployed--how is that going to give me comfort? And this is news how? And still, to this day, the Star hasn't done one more researching story on the ousting of the City Manager--they still haven't tried to ask the questions for us of just why he was let go. Oh, well. Que sera, sera;

--People are still, amazingly, writing in to the Star today, supporting now-ex-City Manager Wayne Cauthen. Nearly unbelieveable, but for being uninformed;

--Much more surprisingly, there was yet another letter to the editor in the paper, declaring that we, the people of Kansas City, should "Just give the man a chance to be the mayor and see what good things he can do for Kansas City." And she was serious. Of course, she lived in Leawood, Kansas but what the hell, right?;

--The Star editorial staff let Mike Hendricks write yet another op/ed column about how we should ride our bicycles to work. Yeah. Right. That's gonna happen. I really don't like or want to be cynical or sarcastic but that just patently isn't going to happen. Not here in America. Not with Americans. A few of us but darned few;

--If I could, I would never hear the term "Black Friday" ever again. Same with reports the last few days, continuing all weekend, I'm sure, about the shopping season. This morning, even NPR went WAY overboard with this. One of their reports said "people are looking to save money." Really? There's a surprise, huh?

--Then there's the Reno County (Hutchinson, Kansas) defense attorney who brings and presents a "dud" hand grenade in his closing remarks for his client's case to prove a point. Oh, yeah. There's a rocket scientist;

--Who would think it would ever, anymore, be possible to crash a State dinner at the White House, no matter who the President? It's for sure someone's job--or some people's jobs--will be sacrificed. Makes me want to crash a Ward Parkway or Mission Hills party one of these days. (Not actually, but suddenly seems much more possible);

--did you see where we (the US through the US Forest Service) just bought 1200 acres of "scenic meadow land...in the Sierra Nevada neard Truckee, CA" for $3 million? Sounds cool. I'd love to go see it. I don't know how we're going to take care of it, since we don't take care of our National Parks already but what the hell. At least, hopefully, the logging companies won't get it. Hopefully;

--did you know you could die if you get stuck upside down in a cave for 24 hours? Who knew? (And I'm not being flip about the young man's death);

--Fortunately for everyone--and Wal-Mart in particular--apparently no one was killed this year, trying to get that terrific holiday bargain in the early-morning hours. (And now that I think of it, how would you like to be remembered as "the person who was trampled to death on Thanksgiving morning, trying to get that perfect holiday bargain"?);

--It's great, I think, to sit at a Panera's restaurant, writing a local blog, while listening to your favorite music, while all about you is near-chaos. (Right now, Andrea Bocelli singing "Ave Maria").

Okay, everyone, go out there and have a terrific holiday weekend!

Links:
http://www.kansascity.com/news/breaking_news/story/1596294.html
http://www.kansascity.com/934/gallery/1596068.html
http://www.kansascity.com/934/gallery/1578438.html
http://www.kansascity.com/115/story/1595583.html
http://voices.kansascity.com/node/6681
http://www.kansascity.com/340/story/1595391.html
http://blogs.kansascity.com/unfettered_letters/2009/11/cauthens-dismissal.html

On the City Manager being ousted

Forgive me, folks. I was out of town for a few days on business.

Some catching-up now:

I leave town for a couple of days and find the City Manager has been ousted?

Holy cow.

Sure, there was no love between the Mayor, it was known,but thrown out, just like that?

I read the article in The Kansas City Star about this thing and it has flags all over it. Following are some questions:

1) Why did Mr. Cauthen have to go? What did he do? Was it just poor work or was there something(s) inappropriate? Or both? I can't believe nothing has been said on this--and there should be. The Star needs to step up to the table and report on this very question.

2) The replacement is from podunk Marengo, Iowa?? Population 2,500?? Are you kidding me? To run Kansas City, Missouri?

3) The replacement guy was also hired without a current resume' or an interview, according to the Star. ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?? I can't get hired to walk dogs without both of these things. How did this hayseed from corn-country get hired to run a city of Kansas City's size without both of the above?? "Oh, you do your job okay so I guess you can run the city, at least for a while, if you will. And while you're at it, here's $3,600.00 a week. Will that do?"

4) This is the perfect story for the Star. Is the newspaper researching this stuff, to find the answers?

5) Was or is anything remotely inappropriate (read: illegal) about this done or involved in any way--either the ouster or the new-hire?

And, just like when we fire our School Superintendents, it looks as though this is going to cost us around $250,000.00 to pay Cauthen to go away. But what the heck, it's just money, right? And in the meantime, we'll be paying the new guy the equivalent of $187,200.00 a year to possibly learn the job. And do a good one, it's hoped.

There are more questions to be asked, for sure, but I'll stop here. That's plenty for right now.

Stay tuned.

Links to stories: http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics/story/1584137.html

http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics/story/1587348.html