His embarrassing outbursts are putting Platte County taxpayers at risk.
Remember in my Aug. 14 column when I mentioned that the always angry Platte County Presiding Commissioner Scott Fricker let his temper get the best of him (again) with some Facebook posts about a private citizen? Fricker was so “offended” that Jason Maki had put in a detailed Sunshine request concerning the county commission’s decision to spend up to $84,000 in an “educational campaign” for the jail tax that he lost his mind over it. Fricker referred to Maki as a “scammer” on multiple occasions within a July 27 Facebook post on his “Scott Fricker, Platte County Presiding Commissioner” page and shared it to the county’s Facebook page. Fricker said “Jason Maki is a scammer, not a Sunshine Law advocate.” Fricker posted that Maki had “scammed” the City of Parkville out of $195,000 a few years ago and now “he’s hoping for another payout from the county.” There was more, that’s just the tip.
I speculated in my Aug. 14 column that Maki would be in no hurry to quickly forgive and forget Fricker’s potentially defamatory remarks. Aware of Fricker’s pattern of over-the-top meltdowns, The Landmark had put in Sunshine requests looking for any communication to the county commission from Maki or his representatives. After multiple Sunshine requests from The Landmark, the county finally provided us what we had anticipated would be coming, a less-than-love note to the county commission from Maki’s attorneys. You can read what the attorneys have to say to Fricker and the other two commissioners in our front page story. It’s a story we’ll follow closely for you.
Who encouraged Fricker to run for county commissioner in 2022? If that person(s) will please step forward, and at this point that seems unlikely, I’d like to ask them if they administered a personality assessment of Fricker before encouraging him to run. He clearly does not have the behavioral traits to professionally handle being a public official. When you are elected to office, especially in a position where taxpayers are paying you around $70,000 annually to serve, you have to know that your actions will continuously be scrutinized. That’s part of the job. Fricker absolutely cannot handle any sort of criticism. He takes serious offense at anyone trying to hold him accountable for his words or his actions.
And he has no political instincts. He cannot read the political climate. He listens to the wrong people. He can’t follow the local political game, let alone identify the players. It’s an awkward thing to watch. He is constantly angry, constantly losing his cool, and appears to be motivated only by grievances. He doesn’t seem happy to be in the role and a lot of voters aren’t happy to have him there. All three of the topics Fricker loudly campaigned for–both jail questions and Dagmar Wood for assessor–lost at the Aug. 6 election.
It’s always good to get an email from a reader who has some of the same hobbies I do. Such as placing the occasional sports wager. With that in mind, here’s the closing paragraph of a recent email from reader Grant. He mainly was talking local politics but at the end he snuck in this gem:
“Got any hot takes on football this year? You’ve already gotten me $120 in house money on DraftKings last year on UConn winning the NCAA tournament.”
Grant’s email came in on July 26. As you know this column has been neck deep in non-stop Platte County politics since May, so we’ve had practically zero sports talk this summer. But I did answer Grant, letting him know I would be publishing an NFL win total wager that I would get into my column sometime in August.
Well here we are, it’s the last column in August. Need to make good on my promise and see if we can help Grant find another winner he can add to his DraftKings account. Everybody feel free to play along. If you’re just a casual football fan it will make the NFL season more interesting to you, and perhaps give you a chance to put a few coins in your piggy bank.
If you’re a longtime reader you know the drill. For the last three years, I’ve given you an NFL win total prediction prior to the season opening week. And we’re a perfect 3-0 on these wagers, which we like to call “pay your mortgage” picks. Don’t take the name literally, I don’t recommend betting an amount that’s going to keep you awake at night.
In 2021, our pick was the Raiders to go over their projected win total. They did. In 2022, our pick was for the Eagles to go over their projected win total. They did. In 2023, our pick was the Washington Commanders to go under their projected win total. They did. Add in the fact in 2023 we gave you an easy baseball winner on the Royals to finish under their win total, and in the last two college basketball national tournaments we’ve had money on UConn to win the title (they won both), and we’ve had a very productive run. Hope you’re happy with the results of this free service. Can we keep it going? Let’s give it a shot.
Two win total recommendations for you this year. Pick one of these. Or both if you have a little extra pizza and beer money in your entertainment budget.
Pay your mortgage pick No. 1: Take the New England Patriots to finish under their projected total of 4.5 wins. A good thing about this one is you can get it for plus money, listed at +110 on my ESPN Bet app. Let’s say your typical bet is $100. This means you can wager $100 to win $110, so when you cash this winner after the season they’ll hand you $210. New England’s roster sucks. A lack of talent, especially at the skill positions, will make for a long year for the Patriots. Their wide receiver group is particularly awful. New England will not win five games this season, and when they don’t, we party.
Pay your mortgage pick No. 2: Take the Chicago Bears to finish under their projected total of 8.5 wins. This one you can get at even bigger plus money, listed at +130 on ESPN Bet. You get +130 payback on any amount you risk. So if you put $100 on this one, when the Bears finish with less than nine wins the sportsbook will hand you $230. My gut feeling is that Caleb Williams, the Bears’ rookie quarterback, will not be quite the first year superstar that some pundits are projecting. He looked sharp in preseason but the real thing starts now.
You may have noticed if the season ended today the Kansas City Royals would be in the playoffs. There’s a chance the month of October could be like 2014 or 2015 all over again. Let’s hope it happens. There are few things more fun than October baseball in KC.
Here’s a soundalike alert.
No one else may have noticed this but Royals manager Matt Quatraro has a voice that sounds a lot like Bill Quitmeier, a longtime attorney in Platte County. Work with me here. Listen closely the next time Quatraro is speaking on TV or radio and tell me if you hear the similarities in voice tone and cadence to Quitmeier. Several months ago I was in the other room when I heard a voice from the television talking Royals and it made me wonder ‘what the hell is Bill Quitmeier doing on TV talking baseball?’ I hurried into the living room to find that it wasn’t Quitmeier, it was Quatraro.
Maybe that voice tone comes standard on last names beginning with Q.
(Send your best bet to ivan@plattecountylandmark.com)
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