Valentine’s Day open thread

Happy Valentine’s Day to my lovely wife, and everyone else. I don’t know why she puts up with me, but I’m not complaining.

The post on moving part of the environmental inspections to the Solid Waste department got more comments than I figured. As I said from the beginning it made more sense the way it was. The crime post is as lively as that subject usually is, and the weather definitely needs a change for the better. And of course Alderman VanFossen made the newspaper again today. Sometimes decent men make bad choices, sometimes they make stupid choices, but neither is illegal. Something still doesn’t smell right to me, but I’ll leave it up the courts to decide. And remember our troops in harms way. It only takes a few seconds to say a little prayer for their well-being. Comments are welcome, except that I’m crazy, that one’s been tried before. Like it, hate it, threw it against the wall and it stuck; here’s where to post your comment.

New home for some inspections

Beginning today, the Solid Waste Division will be responsible for all debris complaints to the city. We have established an Environmental Inspection Office at the Public Works Center with two inspectors that will handle this work. The inspectors are Brenda Hull and Scott King and they can be contacted at the main Solid Waste phone line 326-7732 Monday through Friday 7:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Also, any weed complaints and rental inspections will continue to be handled by the Fire Department.
website- pitch-in.org

Bad crime or bad statistics

It would seem there is a problem with reporting crime within the Davenport Police Department.
Chief Bladel claims the crime rate in Davenport looks high because of high statistics, not actual crime. He also claims that Davenport has a different reporting system than the rest of Iowa, and indeed different from the rest of the country! Chief Bladel should be asked if crime is the real problem, or if the reporting of the crime is the problem? I would like to have the crime brought up in a public meeting to see if the Chief can back up his claims. I don’t think he can.

According to a some concerned friends;
meetings are being held out of the public eye in small groups, where the Chief is making just such claims of exagerated crime rates.
Who knows how many of these private meetings are going on, or why they are not made public. I have heard about the meetings from a few concerned people, and some business owners SoLo said they’re not real happy with the way things are.
These taxpayers are just tired of the same old run-a-round. Favoritism
has no place in Police policy, and citizens with problems should all be treated to
the same level of service regardless of who the citizens know.

A search in the QC Times of Chief Bladel got 468 hits. Going back a year here’s what I came up with, there are plenty more, these just prove a point.

Feb. 8,2007-Citizens take low priority with Bladel
Aug. 21, 2006-Police step up patrols after woman killed in drive-by
Jul. 28,2006-Quad-City homicide is 17th in 9 months
Jul. 9, 2006-Teen suffers gunshot wound to ankle
Jul. 6,2006-2 sought in fatal shooting
Jun. 13,2006-FBI:Violent crime hits 15-year high
May 18,2006-Serious crime is up in Davenport
May 18,2006-Q-C Robberies turn violent
Feb. 28,2006-Police union speaks out against chief
Feb. 27,2006-D-port police ask to meet with chief

So Chief, please explain how the crime reporting system works to the public. Comments are welcome.

Nothing bad to say open thread

Here’s some news from the latest City Council update. I like where they’re heading, I just hope it isn’t an election year grab for votes.

The five new Police positions will be three positions in the Juvenile Unit, one added patrol officer, and one new NETS officer. The city could add three new NETS officers in 2008, but they would either need to adjust the levey upward by 5 cents. I could live with that figure. They could also reduce the fund balance below what’s recommended.

Also on a staffing note; DAI and Fire officials want to add four staff members to the Fire/NEO department. They think the extra funds could come from adjusted fees and fines, which would also promote better property management.

On the Public Safety side, Davenport has a Federal Grant which should make it’s portion of area PSAP’s (dispatch centers) around $75,000. It would be nice to have one dispatch center.

Public Works is going to recommend eliminating the Fejervary Learning Center. I think this is due to funding problems and could change.

The Blackhawk Hotel is in the works again, just a little behind schedule. Let’s hope this goes through also.

The Urban Homestead Drawing was held and found 3 new owners for properties on 9th., Brown, and Wilkes.

Lastly the parking tickets; out of 11,485 tickets, 3,373 were collected on netting the city $46,561. Not bad for three months.

Comments are welcome. Let us know what you think.

Guardian Angels are coming to town

Looks like the Guardian Angels are coming to Davenport to assess our crime problem. Sometime in March we can expect to see them. While I can’t figure out why so many people are against this group; who only come to see if there is a problem, and if there is to set up a local group. Here’s a link to see what they’ve been doing for another Iowa city, and what the residents think of the
Guardian Angels.

While I admit I have no experience working with these people, they’ve been doing what they do for 27 years. To go to their website and learn more go to The Alliance of Guardian Angels website.

I’d like to thank Alderman Lynn, and whoever else is involved in taking a step towards getting the crime down. Will it work? Can we get enough volunteers? Will there be an uproar because the Guardian Angels are coming? I really think it would help, I don’t know about volunteers, and I’d almost bet there will be an uproar. Loudest will be Chief Bladel because then he will have to admit that the crime is out of hand. I don’t care who they’re shooting, stabbing, or bonking with beer bottles; it’s time to take our city back. Comment are more than welcome.

Will the Taurus save Ford?

Ford is expected to announce Wednesday (2-7-07) it’s bringing back the Taurus. The plan is to rename the Five Hundred, the Taurus. Will a simple rebadge save them? Along with the new name, the Taurus will also get a more powerful engine and a cosmetic makeover in 2008.

Ford sold nearly 7 million Tauruses since 1985, and the Taurus was the best-selling car in the U.S. for much of the 1990’s. But while Ford concentrated on high profit trucks and SUVs they let the Taurus stay unchanged too long. Ford killed the Taurus last year as sales were low profit. Since Ford dropped to number 4 in sales behind GM, Toyota, and DaimerChrysler they have to do something. Some people feel bringing back the Taurus is too little too late. Only time will tell.

There’s also a rumor that by the end of this year, for the first time I can remember GM will not be in the top seller spot. The number one best selling car by the end of the year is projected to be Toyota. With GM and Ford sales dropping, and Toyota sales rising, it does seem posible.

Priorities

In it’s latest update the City mentions RiverVision.

RiverVision

At its foundation, the plan empasizes the following stragic goals:
Connect Davenport and Rock Island
Capitalize on the unique qualities of Davenport and Rock Island
Create new urban parks appropriate for each city
Identify catalysts for spurring economic development
Phase project implementation to demonstrate early success.
———————————————————————————-

This means both cities want to bring back the water taxi with $3.5 million from the Federal Transportation Act. Both cities want to light Lock & Dam 15 at a joint cost of $650,000. I didn’t see where either city mentioned maintainence and utility costs. While the water taxi is a neat idea I seem to remember the reason they stopped it is because it lost money. Development is fine, but it is not the only issue in this city.

This is just my take on it; shouldn’t the city wait until some of the rumored 189 lawsuits against it are finalized? Two of the big ones are the cable fee, and the red light/speed cameras which would be millions if the city lost in court. I think before the city does much more spending, they ought to start thinking. Leave the meetings like they are, and run our city like professionals.

Nowhere is the crime problem mentioned. Maybe everyone feels like some posters on other blogs that because violent crimes lately involved people who know each other it’s not a problem. While this seems true enough on the surface, when people are being shot outside of businesses, during business hours, I say it’s a problem. Your opinions are welcome.

Water problem for downtown

Seems the water main break is causing problems downtown. City hall, the Library, the Heritage, and Central Fire at least are affected. What will we do? The Fire Department has secured tankers, and water conservation measures are in effect for city buildings. The City has established an emergency operations center at the Police Department. Mayor Winborn has ordered a white van to be outside the Police Department, manned by a VIPS (Volunteers In Police Services) person in case someone needs a restroom break, to shuttle people to the School Administration Building at 16th and Main St. Nothing like being on top of things. I didn’t hear the news converence at 11 a.m. as I’m looking after our son, who’s out sick today. At least our water pressure is ok in the 5th ward where I’m at.

—–Addendum—–

Someone mentioned they didn’t like how the comments pop up in a separate window now instead of how it used to be. Before it would open on the same page and when someone was done reading they had to backtrack to get back to the blog. So what do you think? The new way with the pop up window, or the old way? Let me know and whichever way gets more comments is how it will be.

What do you think II open thread

This is going to be another open thread about the upcoming election. There were excellent comments on the last one. If the Bass vs the city of City of Huxley is upheld, the city council would have to pass a new resolution for Malin’s tenure, and then renegotiate his contract. At worse, they may have to do the same for Chief Bladel. And of course we have the ongoing crime wave which with the cold weather seems to have shifted to vehicle thefts. So again I’ll ask; who do you think should run, and who’s out? I also think changing the meetings is wrong, and I believe that public statement session at the end should be longer. Yes there are people who get up to speak who don’t say what you want to hear. But think of this, if they didn’t get up to speak, the council would say there’s no need for that part of the meeting. Remember Nicki Bowles? She took a beating from the public for being the most informed speaker at the meeting. Don’t let them take this away from us, I believe that would be very bad for our city.
Keep the open mic.

I’m going to be in and out for a while so I’ll close with this- I think if Wayne Hean ran for 5th ward, and Alderman Meyer for the At-Large position and won, we would see some changes in the crime problem. I know Hean took a lot of heat the last time he ran, but I still voted for him. Dan Lubel and Phil Yerrington did an excellent smear campaign on him to get him out. What were they afraid of? I think that would be better for the 5th ward and the city with two city council members who actually cared what voters thought and got things done around the city. So, please remember our troops in harms way. And let us know what you think. And I’ve already been called crazy so come up with something new.
Does any have a good city council roster in mind? Who should run, and who should stay on the porch?

Interesting City Council

The City Council wants to change the way it does business. The story is an old one, told again in the
QC Times. I have to agree with Alderman Meyer on this one. I personally think it should stay as is. At first glance it doesn’t sound like such a bad plan, but with a closer look, I smell a rat. If council memebers are too busy to allot 4 hours a week to city business, maybe some of them aren’t qualified for the job. On the other hand, in an election year it would make for interesting blogging. You might want to get a second opinion from another legal department. Since your contracts with Malin might not be legal you do have other things to worry about.

On January 31, the Iowa Appeals court made an interesting ruling in the case of Bass vs. the city of Huxley, No. 06-0118. [6-918] If readers of this blog can download a pdf file its under Iowa Court of Appeals Recent Opinions. The court ruled that city managers are at will employees. Instead of trying to cut meetings at different hours, try doing what you were elected for, and govern. The crime rate is up again, your speed cameras aren’t looking so promising. If anything you should add a meeting to your agenda.
And thanks to Jeremy Link, and Jim Fisher.

———Addendum———-

I find it interesting kids that the Mayor, City Administrator, and City Legal have decided to hire outside counsel to advise the City Council on the effect the Bass decision has on Malin’s contract. They are doing this to avoid conflict of interest. The day started out a little different with the city legal department saying this decision didn’t effect Davenport.