FAMED MEDIA GURU: "Autopsies" Columbia Tribune

1)  CITY HALL:  Billing mess, legal violations widen

2)  ST. ROMAINE SHOCKER:  Raising rates better than cutting costs

3)  FAMED MEDIA GURU:  "Autopsies" Columbia Tribune 

4)  YULETIDE BUMMER:  Ashland City Hall to hold Christmas party -- out of town!

5)  MU RESEARCHERS:  Put AIDS on a "leash" 

6)  MISSOURI MATH:  Middle school scores improve  

7)  AMAZING ARCHIVE:  Missourian newspapers show Columbia's past 

8)  ONLINE PET GROUP:  Helps MidMo animals

9)  HOUSING NEWS:  With Bank of Missouri's Tom Stone

CITY HALL:  Billing mess, legal violations widen

Part 4 of a series

COLUMBIA, 11/5/09 (Beat Bytes) -- A decades-long practice of underbilling large sewer users may be part of wider failures to follow city law at City Hall.   

Columbia's Protective Inspection Department -- like the sewer utility, a branch of Public Works -- failed to collect sewer connection fees from a Boone Hospital-owned office building, in violation of section 27-52 of Columbia City ordinances.  The fees are assessed to connect newly-constructed buildings to the city sewer. 

"I asked [protective inspection director] John Sudduth how much in sewer connection charges were collected for the 28-unit medical office building across from Boone Hospital at 1605 E. Broadway,"  34-year City of Columbia employee and sewer maintenance superintendent Bill Weitkemper emailed his supervisor, sewer utility manager Terry Hennkens.  "Sudduth's records show that there were never any sewer connection charges collected." 

Weitkemper discovered in March 2006 that city utility accountants weren't billing thousands of sewer utility users, sparking a process that has yet to be resolved.  His alert about the uncollected sewer connection fees set off a similar chain of confusion. 

"Sewer connection fees have been in effect at least as far back as City Ordinance 15324-1, dated 9/2/97.  Connection fees are a significant source of revenue for the sewer utility," Hennkens informed public works operation manager Mary Ellen Lea in a followup email.  "I believe the building Bill Weitkemper is referencing is Plaza 2....Plaza 4 was recently completed this year (2007).  Wonder if a collection fee was collected for it?"

"Good grief," Lea replied.  "Another one for the list.  Only this one is a Protective Inspection issue, not Utility Accounts Billing." 

"The sewer connection fee collection procedure may need to be reviewed," Hennkens added.   

LACK OF INTEREST

In emails obtained by the Columbia Heart Beat under the Freedom of Information Act, Hennkens -- also a decades-long city employee -- supports fixing the problems Weitkemper identified.  And like Weitkemper, Hennkens expresses frustration with his superiors.

"This situation has been allowed to develop due to the lack of interest in the proper management of sewer utility billing methods since at least 1987," Hennkens told Mary Ellen Lea in a Dec. 20, 2007 email.  "It is something that needs to be addressed."  

Hennkens also seemed surprised about the terms of a University of Missouri/City of Columbia agreement to increase MU's long-underbilled sewer rates, orchestrated without city council approval by public works director John Glascock.

"Discussions have been held with the University about paying for their approximately 8,100 equivalent residential units," Hennkens emailed Weitkemper on July 17, 2008.  "Ironically, they agreed to begin paying more, but Glascock gave them ten years to ramp up to get where they should be."   

Weitkemper characterized the MU/City Hall agreement as illegal, unfair favoritism. 

"The University of Missouri should not be given ten years to 'ramp up' to what the City and the University both agree the University should be paying," he wrote in a formal report to City Manager Bill Watkins on Sept. 20, 2008.  "This is not supported by ordinance and the multi-family residential property owners were not given this option." 

WRONG JOB

Expressing concern that his department had been dragged into a problem best resolved elsewhere, Hennkens told Lea he wanted to "get out of the billing process.  It is not an operations and maintenance function.  It is not an engineering function, either.  I prefer to be in the position of pointing out billing questions, not trying to resolve them."

Weitkemper's involvement, Hennkens explained, was problematic too.  "I don't want Bill involved in billing concerns by making inquiries which may result in criticism of him for pointing out what he perceives to be shortcomings of others.  He should not be involved in billing matters at all."   

Blaming a failure to update procedures, Hennkens again referred to a legal and political minefield that recurs repeatedly in the many exchanges about the sewer flap:  City Hall department heads interpreting the law.

"Prior to 1987, when we had a separate Division Head (Sanitary Engineer) for the Sewer Utility, the rates and ordinance interpretations fell upon that person," Hennkens emailed Lea, dropping the problem at her doorstep.  "Since that is no longer the case, you are it." 

"My intention is to get our list of billing concerns to the City Manager, then get it moved to Finance," Lea responded.  "I plan to tell Bill [Watkins] that these things cannot be fixed through Operations, they are billing problems.  We can help with interpretation of ordinances, but we should not the ones trying to fix the problems."

RELATED:
http://columbiaheartbeat.blogspot.com/2009/10/sewer-stink-scandal-swamps-city-hall.html

http://columbiaheartbeat.blogspot.com/2009/10/shocking-mu-contract-settles-city-hall.html

http://columbiaheartbeat.blogspot.com/2009/10/mu-analyst-to-run-for-4th-ward-council.html

ST. ROMAINE SHOCKER:  Raising rates better than cutting costs

COLUMBIA, 11/5/09 (Beat Bytes) -- In a surprise peak at guiding philosophies behind City Hall decisions, assistant city manager Tony St. Romaine made an unusual admission to sewer maintenance supervisor Bill Weitkemper, who had inquired about the terms of an employee bonus program.

Getting more money from city residents, St. Romaine said, is better than lowering costs at City Hall. 

"Would making a suggestion that resulted in the City collecting significant additional utility revenue qualify an employee for an additional payment or award?" Weitkemper asked St. Romaine in a November 2007 email.

"Absolutely," St. Romaine (left) responded, citing Chapter 19 of the City's personnel rules, which include bonuses for exceptional performance; working beyond the normal schedule; assuming additional duties; and "providing suggestions which result in significant cost savings," a notation St. Romaine underlined -- then undermined!

"I think that ideas that result in increased revenue are just as critical, if not more so, than reducing costs," St. Romaine

concluded. 

FAMED MEDIA GURU:  "Autopsies" Columbia Tribune

COLUMBIA, 11/5/09 (Beat Bytes) -- In a colorful indictment of business as usual at the nation's newspapers, famed media guru and New York University professor Clay Shirky (below) performed an autopsy of sorts at Harvard University's Shorenstein Center -- on a copy of the Columbia Daily Tribune. 

His conclusion:  "Most of the substantive part of that day’s Trib wasn’t locally created, and most of it wasn’t news." 

Calling the Trib "my old hometown paper," Shirky -- a Columbia native -- "took two copies of the August 27, 2009 edition, slit them down the spine" and separated the content into two piles: "Created" by Tribune staff;  and "Acquired," from the Associated Press (AP) or other outside organizations. 

Like a pathologist weighing heart, lungs, liver, and other organs, Shirky weighed the paper piles in grams.  "The content created by Tribune staff made up less than a third of the total; over two-thirds was acquired from other sources," Shirky wrote.  "The paper was about one-third news and about two-thirds 'Other,'" while "news reported by the paper’s staff was less than a sixth of the total content of the paper." 

Even more surprising to Shirky:  "The number of local reporters who had a byline for hard news in that day’s paper: Six," he wrote.  "Janese Heavin, T.J. Greaney, Brennan David, Terry Ganey, Jonathan Braden, and Jodie Jackson Jr." 

At first blaming "August vacations or a slow news day" for so few local news stories, Shirky settled on "the most parsimonious explanation:  Only six reporters filed news stories that day because the Tribune only has six news reporters, out of a staff list of 59."  

Calling these local reporters "expensive lures put on the outside of a product that included none of their work," Shirky expressed surprise at the long list of staff on the Trib's masthead -- few reporters but plenty of editors, and "lots and lots of columnists, writing columns like Granny’s Notes." 

"There's nothing wrong with reading your horoscope or being reminded by Granny that May really is one of the nicest months of the year," Shirky wrote.  "But it’s not news, it’s not hard to do, and it’s not hard to replace." 

What is hard to replace are good reporters, Shirky argued.   But reporters -- paid for their work (unlike many columnists) -- come and go in this city like the seasons:  Kat Hughes, Matt LeBlanc, Sara Semelka, Jason Rosenbaum, Megan Means, Joe Meyer, and several more at the Trib in the last three years alone.   

"What matters in the Tribune, and what’s at risk," Shirky wrote,  "is Terry Ganey’s work on a state cover up of elevated levels of E. Coli in Ozark lakes; Jonathan Braden on anti-gay protesters from Kansas picketing in Columbia; Jodie Jackson’s reporting of on a child molestation case against a local politician."

The MinnPost (http://www.minnpost.com) -- a Minneapolis-based version of the Columbia Heart Beat -- covered Shirky's Columbia Tribune dissection, which they termed a "news biopsy."   

"If you're not hip to media savant Clay Shirky, he's a media futurist and NYU adjunct professor that all the cool kids swoon over," wrote MinnPost editor David Brauer.   "Shirky is unsparing about newspapers, viewing them as inefficient creators of original news content touted as a bulwark of democracy."

About newspapers here Shirky concluded, "There are a dozen or so reporters and editors in Columbia, Missouri, whose daily and public work is critical to the orderly functioning of that town, and those people are trapped inside a burning business model."

READ ALL ABOUT IT!

http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2009/10/rescuing-the-reporters/

http://www.minnpost.com/braublog/2009/10/07/12267/weighing_the_star_tribunes_local_news_--_literally

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clay_Shirky

 

YULETIDE BUMMER:  Ashland City Hall to hold Christmas party -- out of town!

ASHLAND, 11/5/09 (Beat Bytes) -- A decision by City of Ashland officials to hold City Hall's annual Christmas party out of town has residents of our neighbor 15 miles to the south feeling Scrooged!

"This is a good example of why so many Ashland businesses are struggling to survive," writes a poster on the message board of that town's newspaper of record, the Boone County Journal.  "A lack of support from the community -- and in this particular instance, City Hall itself!  Whose decision was it?  Mr. Heard's?  I know for a fact that at least two local businesses were not even given the opportunity to 'bid' on this year's dinner."

"Mr. Heard" refers to city administrator Chris Heard, Ashland's equivalent of Bill Watkins.   Similar responses followed. 

"Poor decision, I think, by not supporting a local business," writes "Tony Johnson."

"Are you kidding?  With all the restaurants, banquet/meeting facilities and catering options IN town, the city has chosen to have it's holiday party OUT of town?" writes "Taxpayer."   "I also ask, who's decision was this, our illustrious city administrator?  It is ridiculous, and more than a little sad, that city hall is choosing to not support local business." 

READ ALL ABOUT IT!

http://www.bocojo.com/guestbook/

 

MU RESEARCHERS:  Put AIDS on a "leash"

COLUMBIA, 11/5/09 (Beat Bytes) -- An naturally-occurring antiviral protein aptly called "tetherin" literally puts AIDS-causing HIV on a leash to prevent its escape from infected cells, claims a national research team that includes Devon Gregory and Marc Johnson from the University of Missouri School of Medicine in Columbia. 

Reported in the October 30th issue of the journal Cell, the discovery helped the researchers design an artificial version of tetherin that also keeps the AIDS virus in check.

"Tetherin is essentially a rod with anchors at either end that are critical for its function," said team member Paul Bieniasz of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.  "One anchor gets into the virus and the other in the cell membrane to form a tether.

The team designed "a completely different protein with the same configuration -- a rod with anchors at either end -- and it worked very well," Bieniasz explained.

Tetherin may exist in different forms, some more effective than others, and the AIDS virus produces proteins that can counteract it, which helps explain why HIV progresses differently in different people.   One goal is to enhance the power of the artificial version through closer examinations of naturally-occurring tetherin's gene sequence. 

RELATED:

http://www.cell.com/abstract/S0092-8674%2809%2901113-1

http://mmi.missouri.edu/johnson/mj.php

AMAZING ARCHIVE:  Missourian newspapers show Columbia's past

COLUMBIA, 11/5/09 (Beat Bytes) -- Want to know what really happened, to the day, in Columbia history?  Check out the amazing online collection of Missourian newspapers dating back eighty years, to the Great Depression.

Maintained at the Missouri Digital Heritage Archive, the collection offers a search feature I've used several times to uncover what really happened when the city last activated a Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority and used eminent domain,

mostly against the black community. 

The Missouri Digital Heritage Archive has 18 separate collections, all available for viewing online.

The Missourian newspaper collection

http://cdm.sos.mo.gov/cdm4/browse.php?CISOROOT=%2Fcolmo1 

Search the Missourian collection

http://cdm.sos.mo.gov/cdm4/search.php

The Missouri Digital Heritage Archive

http://www.sos.mo.gov/mdh/collections.asp

MISSOURI MATH:  Middle school scores improve 

COLUMBIA, 11/5/09 (Beat Bytes) --  Missouri was among 15 states that showed notable improvement in eighth-grade math performance, says a report released last month.  

The National Assessment of Educational Progress -- aka the "Nation’s Report Card" -- shows that Missouri gained on Kansas, where scores stayed flat.  The math test samples students nationwide every two years in the fourth and eighth grades.  Missouri experienced smaller gains at the fourth grade level, again beating Kansas, although both states show scores well above the national average. 

Missouri did not make any significant progress on narrowing the so-called "achievement gap" between white and black students.   Scores for other academic areas haven't been released yet. 

RELATED: 

http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/states/profile.asp
 

ONLINE PET GROUP:  Helps MidMo animals

COLUMBIA, 11/5/09 (Beat Bytes) --  An online group dedicated to helping place adoptable animals is now one of mid-Missouri's largest animal welfare confabs, at 324 members.

Started in response to a pet ban on the giant Columbia Freecycle group, Pet Help for Central Mo offers to "help pet owners find a new home for their pets, find a new pet, or ask for help looking for a lost pet.  Or if you have a dog dish, leash, kennel or even extra pet food you no longer need, you are welcome to post that here also." 

The group does not accept posts "for breeding purposes." 

Check them out at: 

http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/PetHELPforCentralMO/

HOUSING NEWS:  From Bank of Missouri's Tom Stone

Highlights:

GDP rose by 3.5% for the first gain in a year and the strongest reading in two years.

$8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit set to expire at the end of this month.

Possible addition of $6,500 tax credit for other primary home purchasers, meaning the tax credit would no longer be limited only to first-time homebuyers.

Possibility that qualifying income limits could increase from $75,000 to $125,000 for singles, and from $150,000 to $250,000 for joint tax filers.

READ ALL ABOUT IT! 

http://www.mmgweekly.com/w/index.html?SID=dbec0010cebb295ffb1d96b0af9d77f8

Tom Stone
The Bank of Missouri
Asst. Vice President
3610 Buttonwood Dr, Suite 100
Columbia, MO  65201
573-874-4700

Mike Martin
Blogitor in Chief
The Columbia Heart Beat
http://columbiaheartbeat.blogspot.com

CIRCULATION:  5,216

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TWELVE GREAT THINGS: About Columbia Public Schools

From personal experience

1) Grant Elementary: A symphony of diversity.

2) Gail Underwood, who makes math sing.

3) And Mr. Greimann, Mr. Steelman, Mrs. Kinney, Mrs. Schoonover, Mrs. Wingert, Mrs. Borduin, Mrs. Lake, and Mrs. Krumm -- Grant teachers all who've taught our children well.

4) Parents (and Grandparents)! Supportive, encouraging, and fabulous. Remember: Parents are Teachers too (especially during homework time).

5) Melissa Guillotte, Ed Hanson, Carly Bates, Pam Sisson, and all the children's maestros at CPS who've taught our children the joys of music, the passion of creativity, and the wonders of artistic expression.

6) Crossing guards like Sharon Alvis:
http://columbiatribune.com/2008/jan/20080124news053.asp

and TJ Jones,
http://columbiatribune.com/2003/apr/20030419news004.asp

who give new meaning to the phrase: "Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of cold stays these couriers (of our children) from the swift completion of their appointed rounds."

7) All school board members for their volunteer service under trying circumstance, but in particular: School Board members Michelle Gadbois and Ines Segert, for having the courage of their convictions even in the face of immense pressure, to lead with morals, ethics, and the People in mind. (Gadbois recently confirmed that she will not seek another term).

8) Jim Ritter, for using his quiet moral authority to do the right thing at the right time.

9) The faculty and staff at Smithton Middle

10) Janese Heavin, for staying the course in a time and place that does not always encourage quality, investigative, hard-hitting journalism.

11) All the people who volunteer their time, money, and resources to help CPS be the best it can be -- like all those folks who came together during the High School location crisis and crafted a workable solution; and all those people, like Nick Peckham, who helped Grant school recover from a fire with innovative solutions and hard work.

12) And a town called Columbia in a country called America, where one small voice can still make a difference and where this crazy-quilt cacophony of voices, chatter, blogging and opining can change the course of a nation -- but only after one great teacher changes the course of a mind.

JEFF SMITH'S $739 DUPLEX: Bail Out -- or Bailing Out , on Boone County Schools?

Jeff Smith

A hugely-wealthy developer stays that way with your tax dollars and your government's help

 

Into our ongoing series on huge property tax breaks for some of our wealthiest citizens with "squeaky tight" budgets for everyone else wanders the Incredible Duplex of Jeffrey E. Smith, one of the nation's largest taxpayer-subsidized developers.

 

Situated on a 4.5 acre lot on Columbia's Glenover Court in a Smith development called Hanover Gardens -- built with some $800,000 in taxpayer-funded subsidies -- the four-bedroom, four-bath investment property features 2,373 square feet. 

 

Built in 1999, the duplex is appraised for $739.00 -- that's right, seven hundred and thirty nine dollars -- by Boone County assessor Tom Schauwecker (d), who has its 4.5 acre lot appraised for $45,299.00.

 

Last I looked, even the smallest, the most run-down duplex in town was selling for just under $100,000, with newer, larger duplexes soaring toward $200K.

 

Surely Smith -- who has a Mizzou real estate institute named for him -- will be an avid supporter of Columbia Public Schools next property tax levy.    

 

At $0.45 per $100 of assessed valuation, say, he will pay about three extra dollars for his $739.00 duplex!

 

RELATED:

http://www.showmeboone.com/ASSESSOR/RealEstateSummary.Asp?PARCEL=1720900060020001

 

 

OUTLANDISH UPDATE:  12/24/08

 

ASSESSOR ERROR?  Schauwecker Boosts "$739 Duplex"

 

Without much sunshine or fanfare, Boone County Assessor Tom Schauwecker has quietly increased the ridiculously low appraised value of a 1999, 4 bedroom, 4 bath, 2,373 sq. ft. duplex at 1605-07 Glenover Court owned by real estate baron Jeffrey Smith -- from $739.00 to $33,479.

 

Schauwecker

(We reported Schauwecker's original $739 appraisal on October 2. Google "17-209-00-06-002.00 01" for a comparison).

 

So as not to increase Mr. Smith's property taxes, Schauwecker lowered the value of the 4.5 acre parcel the duplex sits on -- from $44,560.00 to $11,820.

 

All seven duplexes in Smith's Glenover/Hanover subdivision are appraised at the same price: $45,299.00, despite that 1605-07 Glenover Court sits on a lot many times larger than its neighbors.  Four more duplexes, on nearby Cocoa Ct., come in at between $38,710  to $45,299.00, values lower than most 90-year-old central city 2-bedroom, 1-bath homes command.

 

And the school district needs a property tax increase? Guess it's easier to get from us than the real estate barons. (And many thanks to the readers who alerted us).

 

RELATED:

http://columbiaheartbeat.blogspot.com/2008/10/739-duplex-bail-out-or-bailing-out-on.html
http://board.columbiatribune.com/index.php?showtopic=6456&st=40&p=75155&#entry75155

PHYLLIS CHASE: Boffo Developer Tax Breaks Prompt Final Request

Chase

COLUMBIA, Aug. 8 (Beat Byte) -- A Columbia Heart Beat story about huge property tax breaks for well-healed land developers prompted former Columbia Public Schools (CPS) superintendent Phyllis Chase to inquire about the issue on August 4th, the day before she announced her retirement.

Parents and patrons of the district had emailed, asking for answers about this easily abused, little-known tax bonanza.

The Columbia Heart Beat reported on an 18.2 acre parcel in Thornbrook, complete w/cul-de-sac and stubbed in utilities that the City of Columbia has zoned for residential single family homes (R1), but which the county assessor calls Farmland (FA). 

The parcel yielded all of $50.86 in 2007 property taxes:

http://www.gocolumbiamo.com/PublicWorks/Documents/Zoning_Maps/zoning_p073.pdf
http://www.showmeboone.com/ASSESSOR/RealEstateSummary.Asp?PARCEL=2010000000060001 

Controversial CrossCreek gets into the act, too. A commercially-zoned 13.9 acre parcel on that site netted only $31.50 in property taxes last year, thanks to its farmland designation:

http://www.showmeboone.com/ASSESSOR/RealEstateSummary.Asp?PARCEL=1740400000050001
http://www.gocolumbiamo.com/PublicWorks/Documents/Zoning_Maps/zoning_p041.pdf

Chase questioned the practice in an email to senior staffers, school board members, and concerned parents.

Apparently under the impression she was quoting from county assessor Tom Schauwecker's official county website, CPS business director Linda Quinley instead quoted from his campaign website, which did not explain why his office is designating parcels all over Boone County as "agricultural" when in fact, they are either zoned commercial or residential, and actively marketed as such; or when the land use has clearly changed.  

Schauwecker's agricultural designations yield a two-fold tax whammy -- a vastly lower appraised value based on "soil grade" instead of market value and the lowest assessment rate permitted by law.

Case in point: three vacant parcels at Broadway Shops on East Broadway.   The City of Columbia has had the parcels zoned CP and O1 (planned commercial and office) since at least May 2003, subsequently engaging in several high-profile zoning battles with the parcels' owners, Forum Development Group:

Schauwecker

http://www.gocolumbiamo.com/PublicWorks/Documents/Zoning_Maps/zoning_p040.pdf
http://columbiatribune.com/2003/may/20030506cale001.asp
http://columbiatribune.com/2005/may/20050517news004.asp

But as of August 18, 2008, Schauwecker's office designated the parcels "Farmland-Vacant" (FV):
 
http://www.showmeboone.com/ASSESSOR/RealEstateSummary.Asp?PARCEL=1740200170090001
http://www.showmeboone.com/ASSESSOR/RealEstateSummary.Asp?PARCEL=1740200170100001
http://www.showmeboone.com/ASSESSOR/RealEstateSummary.Asp?PARCEL=1740200170010001

One parcel, 1.4 acres at the western tip of the development, is presently listed for sale at $1,228,392.00.   The sales ad touts the parcel's diverse possible uses as a planned commercial lot -- retail, office, or restaurant:

http://www.loopnet.com/xNet/MainSite/Listing/Profile/Profile.aspx?LID=14896813&StepID=101&RecentlyViewed=true&ItemIndex=2&PgCxtDir=Down 

Schauwecker has this parcel appraised at a fraction of its apparent market value -- $182,950.00 -- and assessed at the 12% rate for agricultural land: $21,954.00, yielding a 2007 tax bill of only $1,307.35:

http://www.showmeboone.com/ASSESSOR/RealEstateSummary.Asp?PARCEL=1740200170010001

The lower appraised value and the lower assessment rate add up to a significant tax loss.   Valued according to its use, zoning, and sale price -- $1,228,392.00 -- and assessed at the 32% rate for commercial property, the parcel would have generated $23,407.84 -- a whopping $22,100.49 difference.

Though Forum sounds like Farm if you say it fast enough, Forum Development Group isn't planting corn on Broadway Bluffs.

COLUMBIA "PUBIC" SCHOOLS: Tele-gaffe mars Ritter Revival

Like an annoying housefly skittering across the television screen, a spelling error has been adding an ironic punchline to a televised news conference announcing the arrival of interim CPS Superintendent Jim Ritter.

Beneath assurances from school board president Michelle Gadbois that both "confidence and competence" were being restored with Ritter's arrival, "Columbia Pubic Schools" has been scrolling by on Channel 16 since August 13th, missing that all important "L" in a spelling goof worthy of George W. Bush (pardon THAT pun).

WHAT PTA'S FUND: An Astonishing List

Grant PTA Funds the following:

1) $150.00 annual stipend each year for each teacher to help with classroom expenses

2) $750.00 annual stipend for each grade

3) School dances

4) Student tickets to local plays

5) Funesta, with a live band

6) School play funding, including copyrights, printing, props, venue, etc.

7) Babysitting services for all PTA meetings

8) School directory production and printing

9) Friday folders

10) Health fair, which includes breakfast for students and family

11) Landscaping, mulch, and floral arrangements

12) Playground maintenance and some equipment

13) Language club scholarships

14) Teacher appreciation events

15) Yearbook

16) Basketball team

17) Other events and equipment

Actual vs. Projected CPS Reserves, 2002-09

Columbia School District Budget Analysis
(Actual minus Projected = Underestimate)

2002-03
Projected Reserves............$23,470,134
Actual Reserves..................$26,924,039
Underestimate....................$ 3,453,905

2003-04
Projected Reserves.............$22,531,530
Actual Reserves..................$28,526,466
Underestimate....................$ 5,994,936

2004-05
Projected Reserves..........$23,810,394
Actual Reserves...............$33,542,491
Underestimate.................$ 9,732,097

2005-06
Projected Reserves...........$26,939,291
Actual Reserves................$32,129,747
Underestimate..................$ 5,190,456

2006-07
Projected Reserves............$23,120,626
Actual Reserves.................$36,717,979
Underestimate...................$13,597,353

2007-08
Projected Reserves.............$24,653,244
Actual Reserves..................$36,817,204
Underestimate....................$12,163,960

Total Reserve Underestimate: $50,122,707.00

Based on a simple mathematical extrapolation, with an average 34.6% UNDERESTIMATE of projected over actual fund balances, the district should have $9,164,732 MORE than it presently estimates WITH NO TAX INCREASE, not including a cash influx that happens with every new budget year.*

2008-09
Projected Reserves....$26,463,809 (tax levy based on this number)
Actual Reserves.........$35,628,541 (if trend holds)
Underestimate...........$ 9,164,732

That would about cover the $10.5 million they hope to get from us.

Projected Reserves, aka Projected Operating Fund Balances
See Summary Budget -- All Programs in each annual budget

Actual Reserves (Operating Fund Balances) for the past decade
Page 2

BEAT BYTES: Waters likes Segert, Not Tax Levy; Rosman likes Sturtz in First Ward

In a surprise blow to the status quo, Columbia Tribune editor Hank Waters gave Columbia school board candidate Ines Segert a thumbs up and the proposed school tax levy a thumbs down this past Monday. Waters rarely criticizes tax increases of any kind, especially a school tax increase. In the story below, the caps are mine, illustrating my amazement.

Yesterday, Columbia Missourian columnist David Rosman laid out the case for electing Paul Sturtz to the Columbia City Council, First Ward. Here are some excerpts:

School openness: The board itself is key
by Hank Waters for the Columbia Daily Tribune

In my discussions with school board candidates and in their answers to questions in public forums, all of them will acknowledge problems with "communications." For most of them this implies some sort of shared obligation with the public.....The ability and responsibility for better communications rest with school officials themselves....The only school board candidate who clearly understands this issue is Ines Segert.

If the moment has come for a real step-back-and-look at the status of Columbia public schools, it won’t happen without fairly, but forcefully, holding the feet of officers to the fire. On this ground,
Segert clearly is the best of the candidates and Rose seems to be getting the idea. The others are good and smart people but essentially defenders of the status quo.

This does not mean the status quo is without merit. It does mean the only way its deadening grasp can be loosened is by the election of truly inquisitive board members and by DEFEAT OF THE APRIL 8 TAX LEVY INCREASE. Only then will we really see how creative officials can be. I believe they have the ability to design a leaner budget that actually can enhance the primary relationship between teachers and students.


Sturtz is the best choice in the First Ward
by David Rosman for the Columbia Missourian

Almeta Crayton has been a wonderful representative for the First Ward. Unfortunately, the complaint I hear most concerns her apparent representation of only one segment of her ward.....

[Paul Sturtz's] vision is more global than just the First Ward. I believe he understands thoroughly how the economics and lives in this widely diverse district affect and are affected by the entire city and the region. I believe he can move the council forward, provided he can be successful in building multiple coalitions...... Paul has the ability, knowledge and energy to accomplish all of this....I believe he is the right person to see Columbia grown, prosper and achieve the greatness it solely deserves. If you live in the First Ward, I urge you to place your mark next to Paul Sturtz for City Council.

CAN YOU TALK STRAIGHT TO A FIFTH GRADER? Ines Segert and John G. Clark

INES SEGERT FOR SCHOOL BOARD

Dear Mrs. Wingert's Class,

Thank you so much for taking an interest in the issues affecting our schools and city.

Sincerely, Ines Segert

How does the School Board help decide what curriculum students learn in school?

Curriculum decisions are the most important ones that a school board can make. Bad curricula carry a very heavy educational, as well as financial, cost to our students and community.

I think the way the math curriculum is chosen is a good example of how the process currently works. There is an Math Department within the Columbia Public School Administration that is primarily responsible for deciding which curriculum is used in all schools. There are separate Task Forces for Elementary( K-5) and Secondary (6-12) Decisions. The task forces select the textbooks and organize the training that will be given to help teachers use the textbooks. Members of the task force also periodically present data on student achievement to school board members.

Currently, the school board has simply accepted recommendations of the task forces, despite evidence that performance of our students is significantly hurt by the current curricula and complaints from hundreds of students, parents and teachers.

Given a demonstrably unsuccessful and unpopular curricula, it is the obligation of school board members to intervene. School board members ultimately have the final say by voting to accept or reject task force proposals.

How will you ALL work together to improve Columbia and Boone County?

I think that it is very important for school board members to work as partners with other city and county organizations such as the Columbia City Council, Pednet, The mayor's office, Planning and Zoning Boards , and The Boone County Commissioner's Office. We are all part of the same community and have a lot to share and learn from each other. I would like to institute regular meeting between members of those organizations to improve the way we plan for such things as new schools and developments.

JOHN G. CLARK FOR CITY COUNCIL (CONT).

How does the city and county decide what streets get salted/plowed during bad weather?

The City Council recently adopted a new three-tiered plan to decide which streets to work on first. Critical streets get attention first, then secondary streets, and then the rest of the streets. What is done depends on whether there is snow or ice and on how much snow or ice. I think the City Council has made good start on deciding which streets get attention first.

What is the City Council doing to positively promote ideas for building a better downtown?

The City Council is considering a proposal to create a Downtown Leadership Council to guide a planning process for building a better downtown. This a good idea. In part it came out of the Visioning Project and in part from the Sasaki and Avenue of the Elms Planning projects, both of which suggested that the next step in building a better downtown was to plan how to build a better downtown for the whole downtown.

The Downtown Leadership Council is supposed to be a non-governmental and non-institutional) body. Unfortunately, the city staff has proposed creation of a Downtown Leadership Council that is dominated by governmental and institutional players. I will support a different composition for the Downtown Leadership Council.

CAN YOU TALK STRAIGHT TO A FIFTH GRADER, PART ONE

Many thanks to Jennifer Wingert's Fifth Grade Class at Grant Elementary for providing these questions to local political candidates. And many thanks to the candidates for answering.

We're going to mix it up a bit, with our first batch of answers from 1st Ward Council Candidates John Clark and Karen Baxter; School Board Candidates Rosie Tippin and Darin Preis; and County Commission Candidate Skip Elkin.

ROSIE TIPPIN for School Board

How will you ALL work together to improve Columbia and Boone County?

"To coordinate efforts to ensure that all Columbia children receive a quality education."

How does the School Board help decide what curriculum students learn in school?

"To my knowledge, the School Board does not actually decide the curriculum for the school system. That is left to the professionals and the school board's responsiblity is to support them via research."

DARIN PREIS for School Board

How will you ALL work together to improve Columbia and Boone County?

"We will continue to support City, County, and school district staff working together on issues that affect all of us. Those individuals meet regularly and need to be given opportunities to trouble-shoot, plan, and communicate progress so that each feels it is contributing to the whole. Likewise, I think it would be valuable for the Commissioners, Council members, and School Board members to meet an additional time during the year to build relationships that will support more open communication."

How does the School Board help decide what curriculum students learn in school?

"The School Board establishes the process by which curriculum gets updated or amended. Each curriculum area is on a five-year program evaluation cycle. Every year each content area is in one of the five steps. The steps are as follows: Program Evaluation, Rewrite, Implement, Monitor/Adjust, and Monitor/Adjust. Parents are involved in several of these steps, as are teachers, principals, community members, and university faculty. Through this process the priorities of the community are reflected along with research-based best practices and we end up with curriculum that both challenges students and prepares them for the future."

SKIP ELKIN for County Commissioner

How will you ALL work together to improve Columbia and Boone County?

"A lot of planning and communication is involved in all governments whether it is between the County and City, the County and State or the County and Washington DC. We meet monthly with the City of Columbia to talk about issues that are of importance to both our governments. I think it is important for governments to communicate so we all know what each other is doing. Sometimes we can work together to accomplish joint projects that benefit us all. Sometimes we will agree to do a certain project and the City will agree to do another project. What we don't want to do is plan and prepare to do the same projects independently. This would be a waste of time, money and resources and is termed as "duplication of services". Working together is the key to improving our community."

Why is Columbia continuing to build houses/buildings when so many are vacant at this time?

"Home-building is a function of our economy and is considered a private enterprise. It is based on the availability of money (in the form of loans or private investments) and market demand. If those two factors exist, then the builders/developers will continue to sell their product. We are seeing a significant slowdown in home building. I think the availability of money is lessening and certainly there are not as many people looking to buy new homes."

JOHN G. CLARK for First Ward City Council

How will you ALL work together to improve Columbia and Boone County?

"The various local governments largely serve the same people, but in different ways. Each of them cannot serve their constituents well all by themselves. They need the other local governments to do what they do. I would ask each local government body (City Council, County Commission, Columbia Public Schools, etc) to tell each other, honestly, what they need the other governments to do so that they can can do their job well. Our governmental bodies have never done this before. The Visioning Plan suggests that they start doing so."

"For example, the Columbia Public School District might ask the City and County to plan growth better so that the School District could plan for new schools better. Or they might ask the City and County stop subsidizing population growth so that the School District could catch-up. The District is now 5-6 elementary schools behind."

Why is Columbia continuing to build apartments/buildings when so many are vacant -- like empty shopping centers -- at this time?

"There are lots of reasons. The main reason is that investors, builders, and developers think they are making good investments that will make them money. They may be wrong. They may have thought that the population would grow faster than it has. Thus, vacant buildings."

"But there is another reason - huge public subsidies of the cost of these apartments/buildings. The citizens of Columbia are subsidizing the cost of these buildings through their taxes and utilities fees. I estimate that for each apartment unit of 750 sq ft, we are subsidizing the true cost to the tune of about $6 -8,000. This the amount of money needed for the new schools, new sewers, new water mains, new public infrastructure - to serve the people who will live in these apartments."

"Wouldn't you build a lot of apartments whose true cost was $45,000 per unit if you only had to $37,500 per unit? Lots of developers, investors, builders have been doing just that. It is up to City Council and the people of Columbia to end these public subsidies. I will work to do so if I am elected."

KAREN BAXTER for First Ward City Council

Read Karen's answers at her blog,
http://www.karenbaxter1stward.com/blog.htm

CAN YOU TALK STRAIGHT TO A FIFTH GRADER? Kids Question Candidates

Jennifer Wingert's fifth grade class at Grant Elementary has asked questions of candidates for various local political offices. Answers will be posted by mid-March.

1. How does the School Board help decide what curriculum students learn in school? (School Board Candidates)

2. Why is Columbia continuing to build houses/buildings when so many are vacant at this time? (County Assessor, City Council, County Commissioner Candidates)

3. What is the City Council doing to positively promote their ideas for building a better downtown? (City Council Candidates)

4. How does the city and county decide what streets get salted/plowed during bad weather? (City Council, County Commission Candidates)

5. How will you ALL work together to improve Columbia and Boone County? (All Candidates)

BEAT BYTES: Psych Prof to Join School Board Race; Schnarre v. Parry for Hospital

Psychology Professor to File for School Board
Talk Show Host vs. Former County Commissioner for Hospital Board

1) Psychology Professor to File for School Board

BEAT BYTE (January 22, 2007) -- Ines Segert, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences at the University of Missouri, has publicly announced that she has filed for the Columbia School Board.

Segert and her husband Jan, an MU mathematics professor, have two sons in the Columbia Public Schools: a sophomore at Rock Bridge High School and a seventh-grader at Smithton Middle School.

A psychology department faculty member since 1990, Segert was recognized with a Psi Chi Outstanding Faculty Award in 2005 and an MU Arts & Sciences Purple Chalk Teaching Award in 2007. She received her doctorate in psychology and neuroscience from Princeton University, completing a post-doctoral fellowship at the UCLA Brain Research Institute.

"I am very pleased to let you know there will be a school board candidate filing later today that is very well-informed and sensible about the math curriculum at CPS," said local mathematics education advocate Michelle Pruitt.

Segert previously applied for the open school board position in May 2007, later filled by veterinarian Tom Rose.

(As of this writing, former Rock Bridge Elementary principal and Mo DESE employee Gale "Hap" Hairston has also filed for the Columbia school board).

RELATED:
http://web.missouri.edu/~segerti/
http://www.columbia.k12.mo.us/boardcan.html

2) Talk Show Host vs. Former County Commissioner for Hospital Board

BEAT BYTE (January 22, 2007) -- It will be former Boone County presiding commissioner Keith Schnarre against KFRU radio talk show host Fred Parry for a five-year seat on the Boone County Hospital board, the Columbia Missourian has reported.

Dogged by criticisms of an abrasive management style during his four year term on the county commission, Schnarre was defeated last year for a second term as presiding commissioner by Democrat Ken Pearson. A Centralia farmer, Schnarre told the Missourian he wants to add a voice for the large percentage of Boone Hospital patients come from rural areas.

Named 2006 Outstanding Citizen by the Columbia Chamber of Commerce, Parry founded Inside Columbia magazine and served as a long-time Columbia Housing Authority board member.

Parry won a narrow victory for the hospital trustee seat in 2003 during a heated and costly campaign that included an allegation of Federal Communications Commission (FCC) violations from his opponent, Faith Phillips. Phillips alleged that Parry had used his on-air position to advance his campaign, effectively violating a so-called "equal time" provision that is rarely enforced.

During his term, Parry was lauded for his work on the renegotiation of a hospital management contract with BJC Corporation.

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2008/01/17/three-running-hospital-trustee-slots/