People are being told that I have targeted this program for dismissal just so I can grind an axe with Alderman Judy Bowman.
Sounds a little petty and of course is not true. I have never said that I was proposing to do away with the VIPS program. I can appreciate anyone who is willing to volunteer there time to help others and the VIPS are no exception.
The VIPS program was considered by the public safety committee back in late 2014 and was approved to be moved to the BoA for review and approval. That never occurred. Committees cannot set policy and there was never a review of the program by legal councel for potential risks to the city.
Did you know that these volunteers had key card access to the police station and could access it at any hour of the day? I know the BoA did not know this. What other risks could there be with this program as it was presented? Without proper legal review one would not know so that is what I did. I asked our city attorney to review this program. Once that was completed I shared this information with the BoA and informed them that the group had never been approved by the BoA and would need to be reviewed, updated and brought to the BoA for approval.
The public safety committee is working on that review now. The first meeting we had to discuss this topic I allowed members of the audience (mainly VIPS members) to speak and provide feedback to the committee. At the next meeting we were preparring to discuss, but it was decided that we still had more information that was needed before beginning the discussion. There was a good crowd in attendence for that meeting and at the conclusion of the agenda items during general discussion Judy Bowman asked to comment. I allowed her to make her comments and she express disappoint and disgust that I had not allowed public comment by all of those who had attended to the meeting. I explainded to her that there is not a public participation at committee meetings and we had not planned on taking any public comments at that meeting.
She proceded to push the issue and became unruly, eventually being called out of order (which did little to stop her comments). The reason for not having a designated public participation at committee meetings is anything decided there will still have to go to the BoA where there is a public participation portion and the citizens can be heard before matters are considered. So I am doing what you elected me to do, my job. Thank you for your time.
Courtesy of the Mayor of Harrisonville Brian Hasek
