The city can improve its monitoring of the use of restricted city sales taxes used to subsidize the Tax Increment Financing (TIF) debt associated with the Raytown Live Redevelopment Area (Raytown Live). The city has not determined and does not monitor the restricted portions of the TIF debt to ensure the non-captured (city) portion of the restricted sales taxes contributed by the city to pay the TIF debt are used only for allowable purposes. The city is not monitoring the outstanding TIF debt related to transportation or stormwater projects and has not determined the outstanding portion of TIF debt related to capital improvements projects. The city provides accounting services for the Highway 350 Transportation Development District (TDD), but since the city is not tracking the balance of the TIF debt, the TDD sales tax could be improperly collected after the transportation portion of the TIF debt is retired. The contributions of the city portion of the Economic Activity Taxes collected within the Raytown Live TIF is not reported transparently in the budgets or financial statements. The city is not properly tracking the expenditures and balance of state motor vehicle related monies. The city has no documentation to justify the allocation of salaries and fringe benefits of several city employees.
The city did not solicit bids or proposals for some goods and services purchased in accordance with the city’s purchasing policy. The city made severance payments totaling $70,161 to 9 Police department employees during the year ended October 31, 2017, that were not necessary and reasonable. One of these agreements was not formally approved by the Board of Aldermen (Board). The city rehired 4 of these employees by December 1, 2017. The city did not have affidavits from some vendors certifying no conflicts of interest existed with any city officer or employee, appointed or elected, as required by the city purchasing policy.
City budgets do not include all statutorily required elements. City personnel do not account for the numerical sequence of receipt slips issued from the financial accounting system.
The city did not ensure compliance with the Sunshine Law for closed meetings held by the Board, the Park Board, or the BMX Advisory Board. The Board and Park Board did not maintain meeting minutes for all closed meetings, and discussed some items in closed meeting that were either not allowed by state law or were not cited as the reason for closing the meeting. The Board cited the same reasons for closing many of its meeting, but either did not discuss, or did not adequately document discussion related to some topics cited as the reason for closing the meeting. Park Board minutes did not contain all information required by state law. The BMX Advisory Board does not hold Board meetings consistently.
The city does not have a contract or formal agreement with a local not-for profit (NFP) organization that documents the duties and responsibilities of each party. The Police department did not have a method to ensure all expenses eligible for reimbursement from the NFP were requested as applicable. The department did not follow, or did not properly document,
Parks and Recreation Department Policies and Procedures
the screening procedures for citizens applying to work in the department’s Volunteer Corp as established by department policy.
Receipt slips are not issued for any payments received or amounts transmitted to the Parks and Recreation department and the composition (cash, check, or credit card) of payments received is not compared to the composition of deposits by an independent person. The Park Board has not adopted specific policies and procedures to provide oversight of the BMX Advisory Board.
In the areas audited, the overall performance of this entity was Fair.*
*The rating(s) cover only audited areas and do not reflect an opinion on the overall operation of the entity. Within that context, the rating scale indicates the following:
Excellent: The audit results indicate this entity is very well managed. The report contains no findings. In addition, if applicable, prior recommendations have been implemented.
Good: The audit results indicate this entity is well managed. The report contains few findings, and the entity has indicated most or all recommendations have already been, or will be, implemented. In addition, if applicable, many of the prior recommendations have been implemented.
Fair: The audit results indicate this entity needs to improve operations in several areas. The report contains several findings, or one or more findings that require management’s immediate attention, and/or the entity has indicated several recommendations will not be implemented. In addition, if applicable, several prior recommendations have not been implemented.
Poor: The audit results indicate this entity needs to significantly improve operations. The report contains numerous findings that require management’s immediate attention, and/or the entity has indicated most recommendations will not be implemented. In addition, if applicable, most prior recommendations have not been implemented.
The link below is the full document in PDF format.
SAMPLE BALLOT CITY OF RAYTOWN, MISSOURI SPECIAL ELECTION TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2019 QUESTION 1 Shall the City of Raytown, Missouri continue to impose an existing sales tax at a rate of one-eighth (1/8) of one percent for the purpose of funding Local Parks/Storm Water Control within the City for a term of five (5) years? The monies received from the Local Parks/Storm Water Control sales tax shall be distributed with Local Parks receiving seventy-five percent (75%) and Storm Water Control receiving twenty-five percent (25%) for their respective functions. YES NO
A recent article in Missouri Lawyers Weekly reports that the City of Raytown has been ordered to pay $42,550 for a violation on Missouri’s Sunshine Law. The suit was brought by the daughter of a woman who died in a car crash at 67th Street and Ralston Ave.
The City Clerk refused to release documents and cited a city policy closing records in cases involving potential legal action. The denial was issued 5 days after the request.
On an editorial note, it would be interesting to know who was responsible for the creation of that policy.
On April 2nd of 2019 there will be an election for Raytown, Raytown School District, Raytown Fire District and Jackson County water District #2. Filing for these elected positions closed on Jan. 15th.
City of Raytown 10000 E 59th St, Raytown
Alderman Ward I – 4 year term expiring April 2023 Joe Creamer Josh Bennett Greg Walters Quentin J. Brown
Alderman Ward II – 4 year term expiring April 2023 Jim Aziere Loretha Hayden
Alderman Ward III – 4 year term expiring April 2023 Janet Emerson Jeremy Utterback Otis Taylor III
Alderman Ward IV – 4 year term expiring April 2023 Bob Cochran Mary Jane Van Buskirk
Alderman Ward V – 4 year term expiring April 2023 Derek Ward
City Collector – 2 year term expiring April 2021 Kathie Schutte
Mayor – 4 year term expiring April 2023 Michael McDonough Tony Jacob
Raytown C2 School District 6608 Raytown Rd., Raytown
Two positions are open
Bobbie Saulsberry (incubant) LaShonda Orkes Rick Thode
Raytown Fire District 6020 Raytown Trafficway, Raytown
Barb Schlapia
Jackson County Water District #2 6945 Blue Ridge Blvd, Raytown
Sub district 3 Fred Hartwell Sub district 5 Jimmie McClanahan
Arimeta DuPree is running for the Democratic nomination for the Jackson County Legislature in the 2nd District. Raytown’s portion of that district is from Raytown Road West, with slight exceptions. I know Arimeta and have endorsed her. I admire her intellect, passion for justice, and ability to work well with people from all walks of life. Below is a video of her presentation to the Raytown Democratic Association at their July meeting. She received the organizations endorsement. I added a picture of her sign to cover my bad camera work in the last minute of the presentation.
The election is closing in on us, and I for one am thankful. I am aware all elections have their own smear component to them and one must be though if they are going to put themselves in the public eye. That being said the conduct of the two factions has been wholly different. A couple months ago the attacks started. The ProTax movement has repeatedly launched false accusations on community member who didn’t want to be bankrupted by wasteful spending.
They started by attacking local small business owners calling them degenerate parents, then they moved to accusations of criminal conduct including selling drugs. When they failed at their boycott attempt of these businesses they started in on residents, trying to advance that one was a wife-beater. And finally when they still weren’t gaining traction they went on a rampage against elected officials that refused to endorse either side but chose neutrality.
The attacks on State leaders who in the past have offered help, and small business owners who provide jobs and sales tax revenue is unconscionable. Meanwhile the groups supporting reasonable spending have attacked no one, sticking only to the facts at hand. There are no attacks on the Board members who put us in this position, or on those who have chosen to remain neutral. I believe trusting such leaders (who have already squandered) is a bad idea. Please, join me on August 7th voting NO to tripling property tax and bankrupting citizens.
John A Jacob “Tony”
Note from RaytownOnline. The only editing made to this submission was to break the text up into 3 paragraphs and to add Mr. Jacob’s name at the end. The submission was verified before publication to insure the validity of the source.
On July 19th at the monthly Raytown Democratic Association (RDA) meeting, Raytown’s Mayor spoke out in support of the three tax increases for Raytown on the August primary ballot. The RDA has already voted to not support the requested increases in property, gasoline, and internet purchase taxes. Below is the Mayor’s speech uncut.
On Friday April 6th 2018 the city manager of Raytown (Tom Cole) turned in his resignation. Mr. Cole indicated he had a desire to pursue other paths in life before it was too late. He will be missed.
The following is a list of some of the city employees that have quit since 2015.
Sources in the Raytown School District stated that the call for ambulance services went out at 7:12 and that video footage show the arrival of the ambulance at 7:27. By doing the math, and deducting the 7 minutes response time, we have 8 minutes for dispatch to take the call and relay it to a Raytown EMS unit.
Raytown broke a long loosing streak against rival Raytown South with a decisive 35 to 14 win on Friday.
RaytownOnline.com received multiple calls about the game, but not about the score. The calls were about the amount of time it took an ambulance to take an injured Raytown High player away for medical attention.
One call claimed it took 45 minutes for the ambulance to arrive, but research indicates that was not the case, closer to 20 minutes was the actual amount of time that passed. The injury took place 3 minutes into the game. The game started at 7:00 pm. Given this, the probable time of the injury was between 7:04 and 7:08, depending on how much time passed with the game clock not running.
Photos received from people attending the game show the ambulance at 7:28 pm. (see below)
Sources at Raytown City Hall report that the EMS log indicates a 7 minute response time. What is not known is how long it took the coaching staff to decide to call an ambulance. Requests to the School District for this information have yet to be responded to.
Normally 911 calls would be routed to the Raytown Police Dept. dispatch and they relay this to the EMS unit. Normally this would also be relayed to the Raytown Fire District and they also would respond. Sources in the Raytown Fire District have no record of a call coming in on this incident.
The Raytown Board of Aldermen moved their regular meting to 6:pm on Tuesday, Sept. 5th 2017 to have a town hall meeting on the proposed budget at 7:00 pm.
The town hall meeting was packed, with people seated in a spill over room, watching it on TV. At least 80% of the crowd seemed to be supporters. friends, police, or their family members. While the meeting at times got loud and there was some heckling, the actual numbers of disruptive people were a small minority of the people attending and the Mayor did a decent job of settling them down.
City manager Cole did an overhead projector presentation of the details of the budget and the information table had plenty of copies of data from past years. The audience submitted questions with the aldermen and Mr. Cole responding to them. After that there was a public comments and questions from the podium. You can view the meeting video by clicking HERE.
The almost sole issue in the town hall meeting was the reduction of the amount of funds the Raytown Police Dept. requested. The Raytown GeneraL fund has a projected income of 10 million and the police requested 7 million of it. The 7 million is above and beyond the 2.7 million from the Public Safety Sales Tax and the Capital Sales Tax.
The primary argument for the 7 million for the police was, give the police what they are asking for or we will not be safe. The primary position by the aldermen was, we don’t have the money. In truth the Aldermen could have given the police 2 million more, by draining the contingency funds, but that would have been a one year fix that would have left the City seriously weakened for any emergency that might occur. Once the fund is drained, there would be nothing left for the next year. Other areas addressed by the audience were crime rates and crime spillover (implied KCMO residents not staying in their area), low property taxes, TIF mistakes. I did not have enough battery power to video tape the entire meeting, but do have audio for almost all of the meeting, and probably better than the city’s recording. I will post the audio and may be able to post specific requested video if it is earlier in the meeting.
I am not interested in dwelling of all the negative statements about Raytown that were made to instill fear and justify expenditures. The bottom line is we cannot spend what we do not have. We need to work to promote Raytown and Raytown businesses to increase tax revenues and every department in the city needs to tighten it’s belt. Below are two charts that show the proposed budget and historical spending by department.
Parties unknown claimed to Facebook that my endorsements were abusing and managed to get them deleted. To read my Endorsements and decide for yourself if there is an iota of abuse or abusive language in my endorsements, you have to go to this website if you are reading this one facebook. Everyone else, please share my endorsement post.
Half of our Board of Aldermen are up for election next Tuesday, April 4th.
Ward I
No endorsement
Ward II
Loretha Hayden: Hayden`s real world business experience, pleasant nature, would be a great asset to the Board of Alderman. Hayden served as the Chair of the Raytown Chamber of Commerce.
Ward III
Ryan Myers : This is a tough call, as both candidates are good-natured and have good intent. Ryan add more energy and numeric analysis to the board and by that gets the endorsement.
Ward IV
Chuck Henss: Henss has education and experience in large international projects. His ability to work well with diverse people to a common goal (as in trans-Pacific telecom cables) would add needed skills to the Board.
Ward V
Bonnaye Mims: Mims probably has the most impressive set of skills, education, and experience of any candidate to run for the Board of Alderman. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science, Master’s in Government Business and two terms as a State Rep for a district that includes the lower west part of Raytown. She sat on the Appropriations Committee that oversees all State spending. Here skills in creating, overseeing and passing budgets is a skill Raytown is in need of. Mims also served 13 years on the Hickman Mills School Board and was elected four times in succession to the post of Board President.
The Raytown Times article gave Mims only 5 % of the space that was given her opponents and no photo and her name was the only one of all candidates in all races not highlighted. To balance the scales, Raytown Online will provide featured coverage.
Dear Neighbor,
I want to be your Ward 5 Alderman and I am asking for your vote on Tuesday, April 4th. My experience as an active member of the Raytown community, a State Representative and a School Board Member make me a great choice to be the voice of the people.
We have many things to be excited about! Raytown is growing and this is exemplified by the increase of new businesses and the face-lifts of current businesses. Continued public and private investment will increase the opportunities for Raytown’s ongoing economic growth.
I have been speaking with residents in the 5th Ward and have been honored to meet so many wonderful people. The common theme we share is a vision for safe neighborhoods, providing local services for seniors, Veterans, and families, and repairing our streets and building sidewalks.
Residents are looking for experience and leadership and I would be honored to be your voice in our city. I firmly believe it is my responsibility as a public servant to not play politics, but to give our community the resources needed to thrive, not just survive.
The League of Women voters forum for candidates for Raytown Missouri’s Board of Alderman. In order to quickly post this no editing has been done. This is straight from the camera.
Tuesday December 13th was the first day for filing for city office. Candidates that file on the first day have their place on the ballot determined by a lottery. Candidates filing after the first day are placed on the ballot in the order they file. So far there has not been a filing for the two year remaining term of Steve Mock in Ward 5.
Here are the first day candidates.
FILING FOR OFFICE April 4, 2017 General Municipal Election
Alderman Ward I – 4 year term expiring April 2021
Frank Hunt
Alderman Ward II – 4 year term expiring April 2021 Jason Greene
Loretha V. Hayden
Alderman Ward III – 4 year term expiring April 2021
Janet Emerson
Ryan Myers
Alderman Ward IV – 4 year term expiring April 2021
Bill Van Buskirk
Alderman Ward V – 4 year term expiring April 2021
Melissa Beall
Phylis Goforth
Bonnaye Mims
City Marshal – 4 year term expiring April 2021
Jim Lynch
Municipal Judge – 4 year term expiring April 2021
Traci Fann
On Friday afternoon November 18, 2016, Mark Loughry – Interim City Administrator and City Finance Director, submitted his resignation effective December 22, 2016.
Mr. Loughry has accepted a position as a County Administrator in the State of Kansas. The City of Raytown appreciates his service to our community and wishes him well in his new role.
Mr. Loughry’s resignation letter is below.
RaytownOnline note, the letter below was converted to text from an image by our OCR software and it may have introduced typos that were not in the original. Some were corrected, but some may have been missed.
Mayor and Board of Aldermen
First and foremost I want to take this opportunity to say what a blessing the City of Raytown has been to me and my family. The past five years have not always been easy but they have been fulfilling. I have had opportunities here to establish friendships that I know will follow me for a long time. I also know my career here has given me the chance to improve myself in a way that would not have happened anywhere else.
Second I want to thank all of the staff that have been supportive and willing to work towards a common goal of making this a great place to work and Raytown a great place to live. Over the past five years and more specifically the last few months I have really started to see a change in attitude of some of the staff. I know I have been excited to come to work and I have seen that in others as well. Just this week I had an employee tell me they were excited to see the progress we have made this past year.
We are putting into place changes today that will continue to impact this community, for the better, for years to come. Changes to our Codes that will make it easier to clean up problem areas in the community. Changes to auxiliary services that will improve our ability to maintain core services without new fees or taxes. Changes to employee benefits that keep the City competitive with surrounding communities and immediately impact our employees for the better. All of these coupled together will result in the most important change, the ability for our citizens to see an improved quality of life.
Lastly I want to acknowledge how the current Board of Aldermen have worked with me over the past few months during what could have been a very challenging transition. The City lost several key staff members that had been with the City for a long time. The challenges created by that could have been nearly insurmountable, instead through cooperation with the Board and staff it has been a relatively smooth process to this point. Even with some of the outside detractors it is clear to me that the Board, without exception, truly has a common goal of doing what is best for Raytown.
All of these things make my decision to resign one of the most difficult things I have had to do. Over the past few days the Leavenworth County Commission has been in contact with me about an opening they have for what is their equivalent of a County Administrator. While it was an extremely difficult decision for me it is one that I feel is best for me and my family. I will be closer to home, will no longer have night meetings and have the unanimous support of the Commission as their preferred candidate. This is not a position I sought out but it is one that feels like a good fit for me. With that I thank all of you and plan on December 22′” being my last day with the City.
Sincerely,
Mark Loughry, CPM
Interim City Administrator
On Tuesday at 6:30 pm Raytown’s Mayor unveiled the memorial to Alderman Steve Mock. The memorial sits in front of a Sweetbay Magnolia tree also planted in remembrance.
Steve Mock memorial Sweetbay Magnolia
This is what the flowers will look like in the Spring.
The City of Raytown will host a dedication ceremony to commemorate the life and civic leadership of Alderman Steve Mock who passed away earlier this summer.
The ceremony will occur with the Mock family and City leaders on the east lawn of Raytown City Hall near the staff entrance to the building. Please join us as we dedicate a tree and monument in his honor.
What is the core issue in a lot of these recent letters/press releases is that the Fire District is asserting that they are not getting their fair share of tax revenue. Get being loosely defined and both not getting money and being charged too much in some cases. This is about the TIF tax abatement for what can be called the Wal-Mart development. The details are complex, and since I am personally not a lawyer, tax accountant, or knowledgeable in TIFs and the details of the Wal-Mart TIF, I am very hesitant to judge the merits of either sides arguments.
Even the flow of money is complex, in that in some cases instead of not getting money, the Fire District is paying from the taxes it gets back to the city to pay for its share of the TIF. Is the amount correct, should they be liable for all phases of the project, did they agree to some aspects, is their explicate agreement requires? These are all questions that may take a judge to decide in the end.
Somewhere there is a quote about sitting on the fence getting you shot by both sides, but I cannot seem to find it.
