Good Things
So a few of us were sitting around talking about the Village of Bosque Farms and all of the good things that could be legally completed by someone of Erica DesMet's energy and organization.
Here is a list that we came up with and maybe this will help the Council to do something useful.
Write Ordinances. Not ordinances that impact one person (the Mayor) or ordinances that consolidate power in the Three. Real Ordinances that impact daily life. One Example: We have heard that there is a request animal control ordinances. One of us lives next to an animal horder and yet there are no ordinances that address that. That is a good place to start.
Find new businesses. Drive along main street - how many businesses are there? Not many. Yet Gross Receipt Taxes benefit our Village greatly. -- Some of the things the three could do: Rewrite ordinances to make our place more attractive to businesses. Lower Gross Receipt Taxes so it is more attractive to set up and shop here. Develop an incubation place to allow small businesses to have an office and grow with support. Call the State Economics office to see if they can offer help.
Budget wisely and Hire people. Did you know that the Council cut several main office positions in order to move money? Did you know there isn't a planning and zoning officer? Let's be clear - the Mayor hires but he needs the budget line item for it. -- Some of the positions they could hire include a planning and zoning officer. A deputy clerk was supposed be hired and rumor has it the PD gave up a position to make that happen. This summer the three told the Clerk Administrator to hire an OMA person (Open Meetings Act person) to fill out requests. (When one of us asked why this wasn't done yet - the answer was No budget.)
Write an RFP with the engineers and get the bids going on the second donut. The funding has been awarded for this. They have been told they can't change the purpose of the funding so let's do the work to get the donut. That would be nice to not have to worry about pooping in a bucket.
Budget and find money for the grinder pumps they keep yelling about.
Take an ethics class. Possibly go back to training. (rumor has it that Councilor Desmet didn't get her certificate for completing her training for being a councilor)... hmmm That makes sense based on behavior seen these past two years.
Get an attorney and Follow the attorney's advice. That is what a Village attorney does - reads ordinances and ensures they don't violate state laws and - stops the council or mayor from breaking the law - answers legal questions - among other things. The three could stop assuming they know everything and stop following the one person who knows the least and follow legal advice from someone hired to protect the Village. That is probably money well spent at this time.