Poll: What do you think of the City Commission's punishment for its illegal executive session about Deciphera? / LJWorld.com

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Response		Percent	Votes
It’s not enough		76%	241
It’s just right		12%	40
It’s too much		6%	21
Undecided		4%	14
Total	316

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jade 5 years, 5 months ago

Regardless of what happens to the Commissioners, the Deciphera decision must not be allowed to stand.

planetwax 5 years, 5 months ago

I am aghast by the blatant disrespect for the law in requiring an open PUBLIC forum. The entire process should begin anew in light of recent information exposed. What on earth are our city commissioners afraid of??

The track record for this round of commissioners leaves much to be desired.

Janet

merrill 5 years, 5 months ago

Instead of paying out $190,000 annually to the Chamber of Commerce taxpayers should insist on Economic Development be set up within City Hall so citizens/voters/taxpayers and city commissioners can take a peek at what is going on at most any given moment.

Where public money is involved in development it seems appropriate that a mandate be passed stating all investors should be revealed as a matter of transparency and integrity in hopes of keeping white collar crime somewhat in check.

Mkh 5 years, 5 months ago

What Punishment???

bworster 5 years, 5 months ago

Mayor Hack should resign. Ignorance of the law has never been an acceptable defense.

merrill 5 years, 5 months ago

Commissioners need be more concerned about transparency and discussing all matters openly with damn few exceptions. With issues like Wal-Mart, Dicephera,Oread Inn and the Airport Project one agenda item should be scheduled instead of always wanting to rush matters through to avoid proper scrutiny. In other words stop over loading the agenda as an excuse to rush.

I've always been curious how often applicants have conversations with elected officials prior to meeting time. How is it major projects involving economic incentives can be wrapped up in a 20 - 30 minute presentation to the CC. As a attendee and/or a watcher from home an in depth explanation as to why each commisioner voted in such a manner would be more than appropriate. "This is one of the best projects I've seen" or "Hey this looks good and I think it will work" is simply not enough.

Citizens should HEAR from each commissioner: Who have commissioners spoken with by name What types of analysis did the commissioners study and by whom were the analysis prepared What are the economic impacts and how do they know Why should citizens tax dollars be utilized instead of all financing going through a bank * If tax incentives are applied how will the loss of revenue be replaced

It should not be the job of the city manager to be sure they file their financial papers. Does he not have enough to do?

ralphralph 5 years, 5 months ago

They have a secret meeting to give your tax dollars to themselves. 2 hours of training? How about these 2 instead: recall + grand jury. What are you waiting for?

kneejerkreaction 5 years, 5 months ago

If this happened in Sudan, it'd be 40 lashes and/or a beheading.

jhawk2937 5 years, 5 months ago

Starting in 1983, the Justice Department argued, with an entirely straight face, that to publish information on John Lennon it was given by a foreign intelligence service - MI5, - might invite a military strike against the United States. Justice Department lawyers continued to make the argument through the end of the Cold War and into the post-9/11 era, and would no doubt be making the argument still were it not for the intervention of the federal courts, whose agonizingly slow deliberations led to the release of those documents this week.

The Lennon files - more than 300 pages in all - are now entirely unexpurgated, except in one particular. The "foreign government" protected by the FBI all these years remains unnamed. So how many conspiracies can there be and how insane can they become, real or not?

If I were a journalist, I would look less at the "Deciphera-gate" aspect and more at the cost benefits associated with the deal as financed by John Q public Douglas County taxpayer. Is it a good deal or not? The facts ma'm- just the facts.

StarryNight 5 years, 5 months ago

"Starting in 1983, the Justice Department argued, with an entirely straight face, that to publish information on John Lennon it was given by a foreign intelligence service - MI5, -"..." might invite a military strike against the United States. Justice Department lawyers continued to make the argument through the end of the Cold War and into the post-9/11 era, and would no doubt be making the argument still were it not for the intervention of the federal courts, whose agonizingly slow deliberations led to the release of the documents this week."

"The Lennon files - more than 300 pages in all - are now entirely unexpurgated, except in one particular. The "foreign government" protected by the FBI all these years remains unnamed." So what does all this have to Deciphera? It shows just how ridiculously far a conspiracy could go if there was one. For me the crux of this issue is less on "Decipheragate" scintillating as that sounds but rather on whether or not this is a "good deal" for the taxpayer. We already learned that cash payments back to a company is a first for the Douglas County taxpayer.
Benjamin Franklin is quoted as saying, " Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools that don't have the brains to be honest."

Sigmund 5 years, 5 months ago

Dechipera is small potatoes. You may want to ask yourself why no member of the present commission nor past commissions want a to implement basic reforms. A independent audit of the City of Lawrence's finances over the last five years and ongoing yearly audits, and every LLP, LLC, and partnership must disclose the real people who will benefit from contracts, grants and tax rebates, We can register domestic partnerships in Lawrence, why can we register partners who get our tax dollars?