TTTT Takeaway Activism and Notes – June 2013

The Meeting

At our June TTTT, we were joined by Cape Girardeau city council members Wayne Bowen and Trent Summers.  They presented information about the city’s financial health, plans for growth, and tax issues.  They also took suggestions from the audience for how to better the city:

Spending:

• Stop light at Sprigg and New Madrid
• River-side wall development / Boardwalk
• Viewing stand to look over the wall when river is up
• Locally grown foods at the schools
• Christmas get-the-heck-out-of-St-Louis advertising / weekend (CVB)
• GPS Devices in the Fleet
• Yellow flashing left-turn signals
• Improve intersection / roadway in front of Wal-Mart / Sam’s

Non-Spending

• Improve State labor laws (prevailing wage) allowing cities to better privatize various operations
• Think further ahead when creating new roads
• Pension reform?  Done in 2004.  More?
• Volunteer Furloughs
• City property advertising revenue
  • Leased land for electronic billboards
  • Cellphone towers
• Elimination of fee waivers
• Stop charging at Shawnee
• Changes to first-responder / ambulance service to improve ambulance response time
• Leasing vehicles for savings
• Increase number of users per vehicle
• Vendor evaluation project

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Takeaway Activism

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TA1 – Exercise Self-Governance:

There are lobbyists for unions; lobbyists for banks; lobbyists for lawyers; lobbyists for river smelt; lobbyists for death row murderers; lobbyists for sports stadiums.

Who’s lobbying for you and me?

The first step in the process to increase your self-governance is to become active.  To guide our representatives to enact legislation and policy that increases our freedom and our self-governance, we must take part in the process.  And, to take part in the process, we need to be involved at the time and location that the process is taking place.

To that end, we asked each Third Tuesday Tea Time attendee to take part in at least one meeting of a local governing body.

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Public Meetings – Attend / Take Notes / Report

Wed	6/19	7:00pm	SEMO10 Meeting
Thu	6/20	9:00am	County Commission
Thu	6/20	6:30pm	Pachyderm Club
Sun	6/23	5:00pm	CCTP Steering Committee – Reschedule
Mon	6/24	9:00am	County Commission
Mon	6/24	6:30pm	Heartland Citizens For Education Awareness
Thu	6/27	9:00am	County Commission
Thu	6/27	6:00pm	CCTP Steering Committee
Mon	7/1	9:00am	County Commission
Mon	7/1	5:00pm	Cape City Council
Mon	7/1	5:30pm	Scott County Republicans
Mon	7/1	7:00pm	Jackson City Council
Thu	7/4	10:00am	CCTP Dunk A Tea Bag / Jackson City Park
Fri	7/5	12:00pm	NO Republican Women’s Club Meeting
Mon	7/8	9:00am	County Commission
Mon	7/8	7:00pm	Republican Central Committee Meeting
Tue	7/9	7:00pm	Jackson School Board
Wed	7/10	7:00pm	Cape Planning & Zoning
Wed	7/10	7:00pm	Jackson Planning & Zoning
Thu	7/11	9:00am	County Commission
Thu	7/11	6:00pm	CCTP Steering Committee
Fri	7/12	12:00pm	Republican Women’s Club Meeting
Mon	7/15	9:00am	County Commission
Mon	7/15	5:00pm	Cape City Council
Mon	7/15	7:00pm	Jackson City Council
Tue	7/16	6:30pm	CCTP Third Tuesday Tea Time
Thu	7/18	5:00pm	Center for Self-Governance Training – Lvl1 Pt1
Fri	7/19	5:00pm	Center for Self-Governance Training – Lvl1 Pt2