As Cascade is hiring a new city administrator I have been
mulling over a new ordinance: namely that the city administrator come up for
the approval of the people at every biennial election. Unlike the current
recall, not part of a regular election, this would cost $0. Every two years we
vote anyway. Same simple question every 2 years: Should the Cascade City
Administrator _______ (insert name) be retained for another two years?
Consider t
the 12-year reign of Randy Lansing. Easily six years into it, many people in
town were aware of the problems still with us, especially the drainage problems
on Industrial Dr. This is the
biggest salary paid by the city and in a democracy people ought to have some
control over it, and this simple ordinance would allow it.
In order to
provide the council with sufficient evidence from the most recent administrator’s
tenure, I made the following list of violations of ordinances during her term:
1) In 2019 Cascade resident Nick Leytem had to
apply for a variance for a new house because the city administrator authorized positioning
the house too close to the lot line. (She may have figured it incorrectly.)
2)
During the building of the City Pool the
Administrator approved change order sums in access of $9,999 ($13,000) on the
pool to upgrade the roof and other items, which should have had council
approval.
3)
An email that several of us have on our
computers seems to indicate Ms. McCusker gave a building permit for an
apartment complex on Tyler Street to a corporation which had agreed to build
the curb and gutter in some arrangement. However, once the company got the
permit, it erected 11th apartment (not authorized under the drainage
plan originally filed) and subsequently refused to pay for or deal with the water
problem. Ms. McCusker told me before she left that particular drainage issue has
been placed back on the city’s construction list—people’s taxes will pay for it.
Nonetheless, the company in question got a $20,000 TIF rebate for a new
building.
4)
On the 3 March 2021 edition of The Cascade Pioneer, the City
Administrator was quoted on the front page talking about drainage saying, “… (runoff)
it collects on the grass and soaks into the ground. It could be rock or a
gravel parking lot, just something that’s not impervious like concrete because
anything concrete or asphalt, it will just runoff.” A city administrator
dealing with the serious drainage issues that confront a town like Cascade
really has to understand how drainage works.
5)
MACC
Self-Storage may also have been permitted with inadequate green space between
it and semi-repair business immediately to the south of it, though there is
some. The entire street is a problem.
Like McAllister Electric and LLCC Repair, those buildings were permitted under
a previous administrator.
6)
At the October 4th Park Board Meeting,
Ms. McCusker stated that in a discussion about whether the Army Corps of
Engineers had to be consulted about alterations or moving the old gazebo to a
new spot. Someone asked about work, then underway, “Did they contact the Corps
about work on the wall on the east side of the river?” She stated “The Army
Corps doesn’t care what we do on the East Side of the river.”
7)
A review of the building permits issued in 2021
indicates that a percentage of them were issued in violation of the 80-20 green
space ordinance, also that only 3 councilmen were invited to sign off on them.
Shouldn’t it have been a rotation of all five?
No matter who is selected as administrator, we need this
ordinance and to OK the performance of a $100,000-employee biennially.
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