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Oct
29
Clay County Constitution
October 29, 2005 |
Is there any government in the metro that approaches Jackson County’s corruption and incompetence? Yes! It’s the Clay County government. After years of efforts and bitter political fights, voters will once again consider a sweeping overhaul of the fastest growing county in the KC metro area. The home rule and constitution proposal on the November 8 ballot includes a 9-member County Council, non-partison elections, professional County Manager, employee merit pay system, term limits, and citizen powers for initiative referendum and recall.
Pro-reform: www.claycountability.com
Anti-reform: www.claycountyvoice.com
Comments
6 Comments so far
Not only that, but the county constitution will cost people more tax money just to pay retirmenet benefits. The last paragraph of the proposed constitution gives county employees the same retirement benefits they now have but state law says any county that changes government has to leave the state-run county employee retirement program. Yet the money used to pay retirement is set by the state; the proceeds still go to the state. So if this constitution is approved, Clay County taxpayers will have to come up with 10’s of millions of dollars *almost immediately* to fund a retirement program for current and possibly even already retired county employees! I don’t mind someone having a retirement; I just don’t want to pay for it *twice*!
The suggested petition process on the proposed Clay County Constitution is the most convuluted smoke and mirror game I’ve ever seen. The Neighborhood Actrion Group supportsa NO vote on the Clay County Constitution. “It seems that it takes more registered voters to start a refrendum petition than are registered in Clay County at present!” “The County Council will have the ability to enter into agreements that have fees attached without a vote of the people.” There is a list of exemptions for which the petition process may not be used. Attend one of the forums if you want to hear the most oppressive government document ever proposed in the KC Metro area– but of course there is always the proposed Charter Changes for the city of Kansas City which should come up for vote in the spring. Keep the power in the hands of the people VOTE NO on Clay County Changes and Kansas City Charter Changes.
A bit of explaination of KCBlogs term “citizen powers for initiative referendum and recall.” The proposed constitution lists a series of exemptions to the use of petition rights. Those exemptions are exclusions to the basic freedom of speech concepts embodied in our petition rights. In other words there are some things that a citizen may not speak of in Clay County if this constitution passes.
This constitution surely isn’t perfect, but it’s a vast improvement over the current clusterfuck that is Clay County government. We still think imperfect referendum powers are better than none at all.
The most clever anti-constitution sign simply says: “Just like Jackson County — vote NO.” Having been a resident of Jackson County for several decades, this is especially catchy.
If six lawyers help write the new clay county constitution they might go back to school.The new county manager does not have to be a U.S. citizen,no limit on expenses for council people and left out the wording of county on the referendum so we would never to able to change anything in the counstitution. After a year and no one could proff read?