EDITOR:
Platte County Presiding Commissioner Scott Fricker made a number of interesting statements at Monday night’s jail tax forum hosted by the Parkville Living Center, some during and some after it ended.
He asserted that I proposed a 10-year tax term, which is untrue.
He stated that the 2020 financial model which I constructed with the assistance of Platte County Auditor Kevin Robinson and that was based on data provided by the sheriff and the prosecutor was essentially worthless, while at the same time stating that he didn’t understand the model. For the record, he never contacted me.
As I said at the meeting, when projection inputs change or facts change, you update the projection. Changed inputs don’t invalidate the underlying mechanics. The commission instead chose to abandon the model. In the meantime, they gladly continue to collect the quarter cent law enforcement sales tax. If the commission has deemed the model worthless, should they continue to collect the taxes that were an outcome of that model?
As a reminder, the commission did not involve Platte County Auditor Kevin Robinson in this current jail tax ballot process. Kevin is essentially the county’s CFO and knows the numbers inside out. In my working experience, no entity has ever undertaken a major financial project without the involvement of their CFO.
He stated that a 6.5% bond interest rate is acceptable. The current market yield for 20 year GO bonds rated A is 3.83% and for BAA is 4.28%.
He admitted to having his own projection model and is unwilling to share that model with anyone.
He stated that the materials he handed out at the meeting were his personally, even though he made no such indication to those attending.
He said that I should not have gone public with my comments, that I did so because I was offended by the commission not hiring me, and that I should have instead inserted myself into their discussions. I didn’t learn about what they were doing until May 16. If Commissioner Fricker believes I put my own personal interests ahead of the interests of Platte County, he is sorely mistaken.
He acknowledged that the financial projections supporting the commission’s decision to approve the two ballots had errors, but that he sees no reason to issue a corrected projection. In essence, he is asking voters to approve both ballot questions based on financial projections he knows to be inaccurate.
The most revealing statement was made when Editor Ivan Foley was questioning the commissioner about a discrepancy between the financial projection and the jail expert’s report. Looking directly at Ivan, Commissioner Fricker said, “So you can understand, I’ll talk slow.”
Perhaps I should have opened this letter with “Things that make you go hmmmm…”
---Gordon Cook
Parkville
