I have in my possession an audiotape of a city council meeting, where bids are opened and Bobby Ryan's is accepted, for the erection of the electric shed, described in
an article in the West Plains Daily Quill earlier this week about city work crews doing the work on a project which an outside person was contracted to do.
The sound quality is terrible, but some important details are clear.
Here is a transcript of the relevant portion:
TRANSCRIPT
Deckard: Okay . . . Old business . . . [garbled] . . . got some quotes on construction, putting up that building out there, don't we Rosie?
Simpson: Yeah.
[unintelligible]
Deckard: Okay, Bobby Ryan, labor on installing the building for the electric shed and rental on the scissor lift. That's just labor on installing it . . . $3800.
[unintelligible]
Rogers: . . . that's not the ends?
Deckard: No. No. This one sounds like it's the same way . . . Elmer Russell, labor to erect building at industrial park, $8340, labor only, no material.
[unintelligible]
Deckard: James Pace, bid on the metal building, city of Thayer construction of metal building [unintelligible] metal building, $10,000.
Harber: I think before we uh before we have somebody else do that we ought to see our . . . let our crews try it. Van says he can get it . . .
[unintelligible]
Deckard: Van's been busy. . . I'm gonna get this . . . How long we been trying to do this, two years? Is that not right? $3800 is not that bad, guys. [unintelligible] ...scissor lift.Alford or Grimes: [unintelligible] . . . pretty cheap.
Deckard: It is. . . What do you think about this?
Rogers: Well, [unintelligible] our guys can't do the [work?] let somebody else.
Deckard: The parks guys is NOT going to do this, I'm just telling you that right now. The parks are NOT doing it . . . It's NOT going to save us money. We're going to have . . . $3800 is 3800, a lot of money but that is still . . . The building has cost us twenty something thousand. What did we put in the, uh, concrete?
[unknown]: Eighteen.
Deckard: Eighteen? So I mean [that's still not the best thing we can do on it?]
Alford or Rogers: [unintelligible] Is this right, this is to get it erected?
Deckard: This is to get it erected; that's what all of this says, price of erection.
Alford or Rogers: [unintelligible] ... I know awhile ago . . . [unintelligible] . . . to get the ends on it . . .
Deckard: Well, at least we get the building done. And THEN we can worry about [unintelligible] other things.
[unintelligible]
Alford: . . . [Are you going to let?] keep the doors to unlock it with? Whatever . . .
Deckard: Right, right. . . . Right.
Alford: Is that the bolts, bolting it down and everything? They're going to bolt the building down to the ground?
Deckard: They'd have to do that.
Alford: Because there is no bolts there.
[unintelligible]
Deckard: What do you think?
[unintelligible]
unknown: I don't think so.
Deckard: All right, moving right along . . .
...
Sounds pretty clear to me; Bobby Ryan was awarded $3800 to erect the building himself, without the help of city crews.
UPDATE: I am trying to send a sample WAV of a copy of the recording to the
Quill and the
Hill 'n Holler to prove I indeed have it and that it is authentic. Even with the terrible sound quality, the voice is unmistakably Allen Deckard's.
For some reason, it's not going through. Maybe it's too big.
Labels: Alford, Allen Deckard, Bob Grimes, Buddy Rogers, City Council, city work crews, Grimes
Go read it
here. As always, look quickly, because they take the stories down every day.
They even printed one of Doris' color pictures.
Labels: Alford, Allen Deckard, Bob Grimes, City Council, city work crews, Gary Barton, Thayer City Council
It will depend on whether or not the Quill and/or the Allen Deckard Mouthpiece show up to cover the event.
If they do, I'll ask it. If they don't, I won't.
If I ask it, I don't want to cover the forum in the Hill 'n Holler. I'm not comfortable writing articles in which I am a part of the news. It feels too much like conflict of interest and self-promotion.
If they do cover the event, I'll ask it and not cover the event.
Anyway, here's the question:
This question is for the incumbents:
While you have been in office, I have seen Bob Grimes and Allen Deckard team up at a city council meeting to ambush and berate a citizen for having the audacity to talk to his state representative.
I have seen you, Bob Grimes, express a desire for people to "shut up," just because they want to hold their government accountable, and you have told at least one citizen to "get a life" when she tried to hold you to doing only what the council voted to do. Then you whined to her, "Why won't people just leave me alone and let me do my job?"
And you, Mister Mayor, complained about "what kind of people we have [in Thayer]." You have repeatedly called citizens of Thayer "lowlifes" behind their backs, and as recently as yesterday, when you thought I couldn't hear you, you referred to me as (pardon the language, folks; this is the mayor's word, not mine) "dumbass." Again, you did not have the courage to say it to my face.
I have even received an anonymous threat of violence, simply for going to council meetings and letting people know what happened there. And oh, yes, Mister Mayor, I know EXACTLY where it came from.
And you, Buddy Rogers, have been so afraid of making waves that you didn't stand up to them and put a stop to it. That makes you as much a part of the problem as they are.
So my question is a two-parter.
1. What is it about citizens being informed and holding you accountable that makes you so angry?
2. And I remind the three of you that I and other citizens like me are your employers. Now let me ask you -- if YOU had an employee that treated you the way you treat US, wouldn't you fire him?
Labels: Allen Deckard, Bob Grimes, Buddy Rogers, election, informed citizenry, mayor's race, threat of violence
