Does a City Administrator Need Good Sense?

           Earlier this month I posted a list of actions by the former city administrator I believe to be in direct violation of city ordinances. I also sent a copy of them to council to underscore my belief that the position--whoever is in it--should be up for the vote of the people every two years. It would cost the city $0, and increase democracy incrementally.

This is the front cover of the storm water pollution prevention plan prepared in April 2020 for building the Cascade Muncipal Pool. It is 21 pages with illustrations, and if you look below, single spaced, double columns. Very boring, very technical.

However, it covers only the construction period--the 4 or 5 months the pool was under construction. So for that short period we need a 21-page report. Doesn't it stand to reason that the drainage from a pool with 5x the concrete in the ground, 10x the roof area (because the tech is all inside) with playground equipment, walkways and picnic shelter should get a few pages?

Seems like it should.

         Well, despite the spectacular amounts of cement that were installed--certainly known in advance, not one single page of drainage evaluation was created for final product--the pool itself. As if that much cement and roof area would not displace gallons of runoff.

        I was flabbergasted that the state even approved it. I will be providing council a copy of my emails with a man named John Kelly, at the Iowa Health Dept., who refused to take any responsibility--flooding is a health issue, isn't it?

      Well, one would think so, but the health department deals only with the specific health issues directly related to pool construction. The bottom line of our conversation was that the Cascade Zoning Officer, who was the city administrator is responsible. So if we don't have a city administrator with good sense, we are literally up the creek without a paddle, and it can be a wide, swollen one flooding us at that.