Kudos to six members of the Parkville Board of Aldermen for doing the right thing and following through with the recommendation from the city’s ethics commission. The aldermen have issued a “strongly written” reprimand to Mayor Nan Johnston for being guilty of eight violations of the city’s code of ethics.
A ‘strongly written’ letter of reprimand may not sound like much, but for Parkville this is a big step forward. There is renewed hope for accountability at Parkville City Hall. I am impressed.
These aldermen did the right thing: Marc Sportsman, Brian Whitley, Tina Welch, Phil Wassmer, Dave Rittman, and Greg Plumb.
This alderman voted no: Bob Lock. This alderman was not present for the meeting: Doug Wylie.
Word salad.
Despite what a couple of aldermen said during Monday night’s meeting, anyone who reports Nan Johnston was found guilty of eight violations of city code by the ethics commission is correct. Being guilty of the violations does not mean you’re guilty of a crime. To my knowledge, no one has ever said or reported the mayor is guilty of a criminal violation in the ethics matters. Don’t know why some of the aldermen got their trousers in a bind over the use of the word. Guilty conscience, maybe? Oops, there’s that word again.
Let’s consult the dictionary for reference. Here is a definition of the word guilty: “culpable of or responsible for a specified wrongdoing.” Notice the definition says nothing about a crime. There are lots of wrongdoings in the world. Not all of them are criminal. There have been lots of wrongdoings in Nan Johnston’s political career, including at least eight ethical violations of which she was ruled guilty of committing.
During her public comments at Monday night’s meeting, Nan Johnston claimed that several Parkville residents communicate with me using a “text message disappearing app.”
LOL. I think Nan is guilty of watching too many spy movies.
Oops, there’s that word again. I’m guilty of using the word guilty. Checking with the aldermen to see if that’s a crime.
Notorious Nan and the Guilty Pleasures would be a great band name.
It was entertaining to me the way Nan supporters treated their public comments as if the city were choosing a prom queen. Several of Nan’s friends decided to skip Wine Club night and showed up to say irrelevant things. It was like a Mean Girls reunion movie.
I’ve just been told via disappearing text message that at least one bottle of Mike’s Hard Lemonade may have been consumed at Riss Lake after the board’s decision.
Here’s a follow-up to our story last week about Meta (that’s Facebook) coming to the Northland. The follow-up has to do with the positive financial impact it has the potential to be for the Platte County R-3 School District. In short, it’s great news for the school district.
“A little less than half of the Meta development lies within the Platte County School District boundary, with the balance of the development in Smithville. The development is in a Chapter 100 and taxing entities will receive 25% of the tax revenue. There is also a power plant adjacent to the development that is entirely in the Platte County School District that will be fully on the tax rolls,” Dr. Mike Reik, Platte County School District superintendent, told me this week. “The Meta development alone will be a significant financial benefit to the school district. Additional ancillary development is expected.”
Reik said it’s too early for specifics on what the exact financial benefit will be, including the power plant, “but I think it’s safe to say this development will be considerable with very little service demand.”
Nice.
This is a follow-up to something you may or may not have seen on my Facebook page last week.
You never know who’s going to come walking in the door at The Landmark Newspaper. Last Wednesday it was a tall fellow with a lot of hair. “I saw your Royals stuff in the window,” he said. “You’re Al Fitzmorris,” was my response, to which he said: “Yes I am.”
As a young Royals fan in the 70s, I adopted Fitzmorris as my favorite pitcher, in part because I thought his last name was cool. Al pitched for the Royals from 1969-76 and we talked a lot of 1970s Royals baseball. He’s a history buff and enjoyed looking at some of The Landmark artifacts. These days he represents a commercial/residential roofing company. I asked him to autograph his business card, because it seemed like a very baseball thing to do. Anyway, I snapped a selfie of the two of us in front of the Royals stuff in The Landmark’s front window and posted it on my Facebook page.
Follow-up to that follow-up: Two days later, the affable Fitzmorris called me to chat about a number of things, including advertising the roofing company for which he works, and to note that our picture had “caused quite a stir on Facebook.” I think he meant that in a good way. We then chatted about getting him back up here for a meet-and-greet, an autograph session where he can sign memorabilia for Royals fans, and he said he’d love to come on Landmark Live.
So we have all that to look forward to, folks. It’ll be fun. Hoping to get all that accomplished in the month of April. We’ll keep you posted.
(You can send Ivan Foley a disappearing text message or maybe a disappearing email to ivan@plattecountylandmark.com)