Parkville voters made a loud statement at the ballot box on Tuesday.
They curb-stomped the city’s use tax proposal, with 64% percent of city voters opposed to the idea and only 36% in favor. That’s a defeat even worse in size than the county’s jail tax proposal of a few years ago, which was opposed by 62% of county voters.
You might think this was only a statement against a use tax. And to be fair, without some exit polling, who really knows. But some folks think there is even more to the ballot box butt kicking than opposition to an online tax by a community that historically has treated tax questions in a friendly manner.
In a comment made below our news coverage of the use tax defeat on Facebook, one resident wrote: “Good! The last thing corruption needs is more money!”
That’s an astute comment.
Unless they’re wearing very rose-colored glasses or have a head buried completely in the sand, it’s tough for even the most naive Parkville resident or Nan loyalist to deny there has been some questionable stuff going on at City Hall under the current administration. SheNANigans, even.
Could it be some voters are finally taking notice?
It seems very possible. For instance in 2013, before Nan took over the mayor’s chair, Parkville voters defeated a use tax proposal by only 10 votes. This time it lost by nearly 200.
Yikes. That’s what you call heading in the wrong direction.
Questions about the downtown speakeasy (as many of the locals call it) at Parkville continue to come up in my inbox and when folks bump into me and want to discuss Parkville topics.
The speakeasy, formally known as The Watch Club, is now fully licensed with the City of Parkville. It’s apparently a private club setup accessed through a side entry located inside the Cool Vintage Watches store in downtown Parkville. But it wasn’t always properly licensed with the city. We started making reference to the ‘secret’ club early this year in this column space and on Landmark Live after several curious Parkville residents kept bringing it up in conversation to us. Our coverage seems to have prompted the owners to decide they should get things on the up-and- up. A city business license for The Watch Club was issued by the city on April 21, 2021. Keep that date in mind. And yes, that date is after a Parkville alderman had already falsely posted on Facebook that if The Landmark would do a little journalistic work it would find that the business was fully licensed and such. As I said in a recent column, we then did a little journalistic work and put in a Sunshine request for any city communications dealing with The Watch Club or its street address. In the process we uncovered something–unrelated to the speakeasy–that is now being looked at by law enforcement. But I digress.
Back to The Watch Club. According to information found in city emails caught up in a Sunshine Law request, it seems The Watch Club was operating for at least a year and a half without a city license. Not only that, but some elected city officials were patronizing the establishment long before it obtained a business license from the city government they represent. Among the city officials patronizing The Watch Club long before it had a city license was Mayor Nan Johnston. I know, color me shocked by this development.
Consider this email sent to Nan on Dec. 11, 2019 by a man who apparently works in real estate development. We won’t use his name in this report because there’s no need tossing him under the bus at this point. His first couple sentences in a 10-sentence email sent to Nan on that December night in 2019 were: “Nan, it was nice to meet you last Friday evening at The Watch Club. You mentioned you were deliberating over the best path to develop some real estate.” Nan answered his email the next day, and a time for a meeting at City Hall between the parties to apparently discuss developing real estate was established.
Again, that was in 2019. The Watch Club didn’t bother to get a city license until April 21, 2021. Sources have also said Nan’s night of DWI infamy began with a stop at The Watch Club before moving on to other watering holes. That was in September of 2020. Seems safe to assume Nan was a regular at the then-unlicensed establishment that the locals refer to as “the speakeasy.”
It’s interesting that being unlicensed in their city won’t stop some city electeds from doing business with you. But again, under Nan things have always been interesting at Parkville City Hall.
After half a season of watching games every week, I’ve compiled my list of the three worst-coached teams in the NFL. In no particular order, they are:
.Minnesota Vikings. That offensive game plan vs. the Cowboys, who were playing without their starting quarterback on Sunday night, was embarrassing. I’ll bet you a dollar Mike Zimmer is in his final season as the Vikings head coach.
.Jacksonville Jaguars. Former college coach Urban Meyer is driving this train wreck and, as expected, it ain’t goin’ well. I wrote prior to the start of the year that I wouldn’t be surprised if Meyer walks away before the season is over. Still wouldn’t surprise me.
.New York Giants. The Chiefs can, in part, thank the coaching ineptitude of the Giants’ staff for being able to hang on for a three-point victory over the hapless Giants Monday night. Let it be known the Chiefs entered the game as an 11-point favorite and were lucky to win straight up. What team throws a two-yard pass inside the five yard line on third and four, then trumps that bad decision with another by electing to kick a field goal instead of going for it? That would be the Giants. Joe Judge, and his stuck-in-the-1950s offensive coordinator, likely are in their final season at the helm of this bad football team.
Good news for college basketball fans. Tech Man Schneider has developed an app for us to host an online March Madness bracket contest on our website at plattecountylandmark.com. In fact, we’ll tip off a regular season Landmark Pick’em for college basketball games just as soon as the NFL season concludes in mid-February.
(Speak easy with Foley via email to ivan@plattecountylandmark.com)
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