Let’s officially declare the Royals season over. Did it really begin, though? I watched about two games on TV before giving it last rites. Thoughts and prayers.
The team has a couple of promising pitchers showing flashes of great potential, but beyond that are problems that run deep. Not the least of which is this team can’t hit the ball. And my gawd, can we let Alex Gordon finally retire without some of you loyal fans clamoring for his return again? You know who you are, don’t make me name names. Yes, he’s a great guy, but there are times you just have to let go, you guys. It’s time for tough love. You can do it.
Gordon is still a top-notch fielder but his plate appearances are painful to watch. This is nothing to be ashamed of, it happens to all of us eventually. Father Time is undefeated. When I was 19 and playing in a slow pitch softball league, I far too often hit routine grounders to third base but I was fast enough to often beat the throw to first. This just in: I’m not 19 and fast anymore. These days you could time my sprint with a calendar.
Gordon sucks at the plate, Adalberto Mondesi is embarrassing himself, and Nicky Lopez can’t hit. So it’s really uncomfortable to watch on those nights when the batting order has Gordon, Mondesi and Lopez hitting in succession. Bless their hearts.
I’d get a bigger kick out of watching T-Ballers swing the bat and circle the bases in the wrong direction.
All is not lost. The 2020 season for your defending world champion Kansas City Chiefs begins next Thursday, Sept. 10.
The Landmark’s front windows will take on their usual Chiefs-heavy look in downtown Platte City very soon.
The office of Missouri State Treasurer Scott Fitzpatrick says he held a conference call on Aug. 21 with some representatives from county governments in Missouri in an effort “to ensure county health departments have adequate funding to address the COVID-19 pandemic.”
It’s not known if any county officials from Platte County were on the call. Even if they were, it would be risky to assume they were paying attention because they aren’t done sending money to cronies.
On Aug. 21, the treasurer provided an optional memorandum of understanding (MOU) to alleviate some local government concerns regarding dispersing the funds to their local health agencies. Also on that call, the state Office of Administration discussed CARES Act funds reporting guidelines and procedures.
Fitzpatrick says he worked with the governor’s office, the Office of Administration, and the Department of Health and Senior Services to develop an MOU that protects a signing county from being held liable for CARES Act money distributed to a local health agency if the county transfers the lesser of 15% of the county’s total distribution from the state or the actual request of fund by the health agency. The Aug. 21 phone call walked through this MOU in detail, Fitzpatrick’s office says.
The MOU might sound like a helpful tool, but let’s get real. It’s highly doubtful the Platte County Commission has legitimate concerns about being held liable for CARES money distributed to the health department. I mean, this is a county commission that has already approved distributions of $226,000 to a travel agency, $78,000 to an immigration attorney who is the daughter of the folks who own the travel agency, $44,000 to a tattoo removal firm owned by the county auditor, and $20,000 to a non-profit sports group that employs the wife of the presiding county commissioner, just to name a few. Being held responsible for those type disbursements is more likely than any disbursement the county commission would make to the health department.
Connecting the dots is an interesting game.
In the first round of Crony Payment Plan grants on July 17, county commissioners Ron Schieber, John Elliott and Dagmar Wood unanimously approved $9,503 for the Parkville Women’s Clinic, Hands of Hope Pregnancy Resource Center.
Go to the Parkville Chamber of Commerce web page and search Parkville Women’s Clinic. You’ll see the name Carla Killen appears as the person of contact. Interesting, because Carla Killen is the treasurer of Dagmar Wood’s campaign committee, according to reports on file at the Missouri Ethics Commission.
It can pay to have friends, if for no other reason than it can help you get to the front of the Crony Payment Plan line, apparently. Also in that very first round of Crony Payment Plan grants on July 17, commissioners unanimously awarded $7,000 to Parkville Artisans’ Studio owned by Tricia Szasz. In a conversation with me in the fall of 2017, Dagmar Wood referred to Szasz as a friend and “almost a life coach” to the commissioner.
Earlier this week, I left a voicemail for Mark Comfort, owner of Cruise Holidays, the travel agency to whom the county commissioners voted to give $226,000 in CARES grant money, wanting to interview him about being a winner in the county commission’s CARES giveaway program. Shockingly, Comfort has not yet returned my call.
Comfort hosts a radio show on KCMO 710 AM on the weekends. Looks like I’ll be calling in.
Good luck to all the local public school districts, administrators, teachers and students as classes begin next Tuesday. Stay healthy.
(Stay healthy and wise following Foley on Twitter @ivanfoley or email him at ivan@plattecountylandmark.com)