An observant Landmark reader reports that it appears the rusty vent shown in Fox 4’s video from a staged Platte County Jail tour is the same rusty vent that was shown in a video from the unsuccessful 2019 jail tax campaign. Five years and that rusty vent is still there and still getting jiggy with it. Kudos to the rusty vent for being able to hide from the maintenance crew but jump out in front of the TV cameras.
You come here for the Netflix recommendations, I know you do. Here is one of the latest recommended flicks from Foley. Check out the movie called The Little Things, a psychological crime story starring Denzel Washington and Rami Malek, but the best performance is by the actor who portrays the strange loner bad guy. This movie was made in 2021 so it has been out a while but it’s waiting for you on Netflix at your leisure, sometime when you’re not pondering how you’re going to vote on Platte County’s $408 million jail tax increase on Aug. 6.
If you’re into crime movies, this one is very worth your time. I give it a rating of four bags of popcorn or nine screams on the Scott Fricker meltdown meter.
Has anyone done a wellness check on Scott Fricker? The always hot-tempered Fricker seems more emotionally fragile than ever. Based on his social media, the Platte County Presiding Commissioner did not have a relaxing weekend nor did he get much sleep, sending out a blizzard of angry and defensive Facebook posts. I know Scott gave me a lot of love in those posts, which is appreciated, but frankly I’m just not into him.
We’ve seen this before in Platte County. Elected officials with public temper tantrums aimed at the media who’ve pulled back the curtain. Typically the louder they scream the more you know they’ve been exposed. And the more it’s a sign we should keep digging.
One of my favorite Fricker Firestorm moments is when he says somebody’s reporting is misleading and then he links to a document that actually confirms what was reported. This happened over the weekend when Fricker called articles about Platte County offering future jail beds to Clinton County ‘misleading’ and posted a response from the county’s financial guy. The problem for Fricker is the financial guy’s response confirms talks between Platte and Clinton have taken place and the financial advisor even goes on to say “my hope is that the conversations will continue.”
That is what we call stitching yourself in a clown suit. Hilarious.
My guess is Fricker was banking on nobody actually reading the financial guy’s response. Or maybe in his reactionary rage Fricker posted it before reading it. Either way, it was an incredible self-own.
And it’s the type of continued deception that confirms Fricker will never be confused with Honest Abe.
You’ll want to read the front page story where Fricker admits there are mistakes in the county’s jail sales tax proposal financial models. This in itself isn’t a shock. That’s a lot like saying the Titanic was taking on a bit of water.
Every outside professional who has looked at the county’s jail plan and the projections has come away with the same reaction, that much of it is fantasy and fallacy. “Unreliable and embarrassing” have been common adjectives used by professionals who studied it, as well as “suspect” by the county’s own auditor.
Getting a county commissioner to admit it is the big thing. Now the public knows the commissioners willingly put a proposal on the ballot that is based on inaccurate financial statements and projections. Again, this where deception is coming into play.
And notably, in the article Fricker says there is no need for the county to issue public corrections of the mistakes in the model. Huh? Commissioner Joe Vanover in one of those fancy jail tax campaign online videos that taxpayers are paying for says: “Your informed vote is very important.” That’s rich, Joe. How can anybody have an informed vote when the county admits their financials are filled with mistakes and the county is not willing to publicly correct those errors?
This is a ridiculous campaign. And they’re spending $80,000 of our money to put out information that they admit is based on error-filled financial projections.
Uh, oh. Lots of folks at Platte County are about to get a colonoscopy.
You’ll see on our front page that Jason Maki, government transparency/Sunshine Law advocate who successfully sued the City of Parkville a few years ago when he was awarded the largest Sunshine Law settlement in state history, is digging into everything related to the Platte County Commission spending up to $84,000 in taxpayer money on a jail tax “voter education” campaign.
Maki on early Monday morning put in a Sunshine request for all emails and text messages and other communications to or from Scott Fricker, Dagmar Wood, Joe Vanover, Wes Minder “or any other official, employee or agent of Platte County involved in the ‘public education phase’” of the jail project. My guess is that some county officials might have spent much of their Monday trying to delete emails and text messages. Good luck covering all your bases. I’m not sure you know who you’re dealing with.
Don’t think this ends once the Aug. 6 election is over, no matter the outcome. Jason Maki is playing the long game. His battle over public records at Parkville went on for two years. During that time as things started to develop it was no coincidence that the FBI showed up at Parkville City Hall. Then came the Parkville mayor’s own ethics panel finding her guilty of ethical violations. And of course the court battles, in which Maki, representing himself, was taking Parkville’s high-priced lawyers to the cleaners. Then came a criminal investigation by the Platte County Sheriff’s Department after allegations that, among other things, a city official had deleted communications that had been subpoenaed. The sheriff’s department sent a probable cause statement to Platte County Prosecutor Eric Zahnd seeking charges against at least one city official. Curiously, Zahnd sat on the sheriff’s request for charges without taking action.
This Platte County situation might take as long as the Parkville drama and could eventually result in some fascinating depositions.
When Jason Maki says “I will see this through to the end” he doesn’t mean Aug. 6. Get your popcorn ready. Buckle your seat belt.
(Cockroaches scramble when the light comes on. Email ivan@plattecountylandmark.com)
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