Elk Konnected Hand out at County Commissioners meeting on 4/25

[Humpy]

 Patriot that is true for Wichita. One reason is that off duty security/officers somewhat relieve the chief and city comission from some of the liability. Which possibly could include the intimidation of a private citizen in a public meeting, and or violating his/her right of free speech at the same. The Kansas Tort Claims Act is proof that big dodo really does flow up hill.
FYI I think the going rate for WPD off duty is $25.00/hr.
I could not judge because I have not ever been able to attend any of our "public meetings" to observe.......... Yet

[Ross]

Can other privately owned company's,  LLC or business have The  Elk Kounty Sheriff's department stand by at theiir locations for similar events ?

[Diane Amberg]

So ask while you are at the meeting, which I think must be right now. Never mind, I'm sure you are already there. Your list of questions must be long enough by now to roll right out the door.

[Patriot]

Well it was a meeting.  Lots of talk, little substance and even less clarity.  Obfuscation and half facts on several issues.

The taxpayer provided security detail was substantial.  We have one sheriff and 3 deputies on the county payroll.  The sheriff and two deputies were at this meeting, each in their own county vehicle.  Wait, didn't the sheriff work a day shift today?  Wow.  Such dedication to Kommunity service.  Three fourths of the county's law enforcement team providing 'security' at a meeting of about 37 people (more than half of whom are EK supporters) in the SW corner of the county.  

Can we say  o v e r k i l l ?

Your tax dollars at work?!?  Hopefully there wasn't any criminal activity in the rest of the county tonight.

Stay connected, citizens.  As we digest the information provided tonight, this could get interesting.

[perkinscreekranch]

I attended the meeting. It was announced at the end of the meeting that the law enforcement officers donated their time. 

I find it unfortunate you did not take advantage of tonight's meeting to verbalize your concerns or ask further questions.


Kate E. Perkins

[Patriot]

I attended the meeting. It was announced at the end of the meeting that the law enforcement officers donated their time.  

I find it unfortunate you did not take advantage of tonight's meeting to verbalize your concerns or ask further questions.


Kate E. Perkins

You've got to be kidding.... that comment was made by a guest as pure sarcasm.  One of the deputies admitted in my hearing that they were on 'county time'.  Let's not be so naive, please.  Uniformed and armed LEOs in county vehicles?  Donated time?  Please.

I took full advantage of listening to the answers, explanations and rationalizations provided.  There were lots of 'answers'... and we'll be analyzing them in detail in the hours & days to come.  There was more than enough conflicting data in the prepared statements of the EK folks, no need clouding that with even more questions tonight.

[Ross]

Elk Konnected
Community Conversation
October 5, 2011

Some small changes in the Elk Konnected meeting.

NO CIRCLE OF CHAIRS
None of that you can't sit with you spouse, your neighbor, you can't sit with your friend.
Not many people showed up.
Where were all the Elk Konnected Followers???

First I counted only 37 people in attendance and that included
      Elk Konnected, LLC staff, leaders, members. (wait a minute I thought they didn't have any of that stuff )
      Professional Facilitator Angie Baur FROM Public Squares Communities, LLC of Leoti, Kansas. (not Elk County)
                Elk Konnected, LLC's attorney
   The Sheriff and 2 Deputies in full police gear including flack jackets and weapons
      With county Sheriffs vehicles. (Is Elk Konnected expecting a  riot at every one of their meeting )
                                  if they were off duty and volunteering their time why were they driving County Vehicles and in full    
                                uniform ?
   Three County Commissioners.
   And 3 children.

               

 So not counting the County Commissioners, the Sheriff Department that was working, the Children and the Elik Konnected, LLC's staff and attorney and the paid Professional Facilitator, and all the Elk Konnected followers that did not show up. My best estimate is that only 20 or there about Elk County taxpaying, voters with citizenship in Elk County showed up.

This Elk Konnected, LLC  function probably won't make the Headlines and FrontPage of the local newspaper.

Personally, I had to leave early because of personal responsibilities, which was fine because I was getting fed-up with the dribble. The steering committe each one of them stood and read prepared speechesand it appeared to me they had trouble reading their prepared questions and answer papers that were apparently prepared for them by someone else. I wonder if they even understood what they were reading. My best guess would be the speeches were prepared by their attorney and/or Public Squares Communities, LLC.

As far as I am concerned Elk Konnected, LLC proved nothing, has changed nothing.

They still want/take funds from the Elk County Commissioners Recreational Fund. How many other privately owned companies in Elk County do the same to promote and advertise their privately owned business An LLC is a privately owned business isn't it

Perhaps all the other privately owned business should consider asking the Elk Kounty Commissioners for money from the Recreational Fund to promote and advertise their business Would the County Commissioners approve a $1000 here and a $1000 there for other companies

Elk Konnected, LLC you can reach a lot more than 20 people right here on this forum if your goal really is to communicate with the citizens of Elk County.

Here is your greatest Opportunity to reach Elk County
WILL YOU TAKE IT ?

[L Hendricks]

Ross & Patriot -
I don't understand.  We provided a public forum for you to ask these questions and you chose not too.  Yet you continue to bash us on this medium.  WHY?  If you don't like what we are doing, then what do you propose?  How do you plan to get engage and make Elk County better than it is - and I did not say it was a bad place, I am just saying that I want it to be better.  Myself and the steering committee have invested a lot of energy into trying to make Elk County better and yet you sit in the stand and criticize us for what we are doing.  Why don't you get involved and try to help Elk County instead of spending HOURS criticizing those of us who are.  Last night, we again asked people to become engaged, ask questions, offer ideas for further improvement and yet you choose not too... but then sit at home and post for hours nit picking every last thing we have done. 

The steering committee members are all working USA citizens and Elk County Citizens who have 1,2,3 jobs in order to live here.  We are all involved in many volunteer activities, which takes time away from our spouse and children.  Yet we have decided to make this sacrifice to help all of Elk County.  We have made a choice to live here and we have decided to get involved to make Elk County better.  Has Elk Konnected done everything right – NO!  Have we made mistakes – SURE WHO HASN'T!  Are we willing to admit and try to correct them – MOST DEFINITELY!  Are we getting rich off of Elk Konnected LLC – HECK NO!  In fact, most of us would probably have been better off financially before getting involved.  We would not have spent money driving to meetings, volunteering at youth activities, going to several towns to help clean up their physical image.  BUT WE MADE A CHOICE TO NOT BE SELFISH AND TO  VOLUNTEER! 

Again if you don't like Elk Konnected – let's hear your plan....

[frawin]

Great response Liz, keep on keeping on, you are appreciated.

[mtcookson]

How do you plan to get engage and make Elk County better than it is

That's pretty easy right there. Events for children and such are nice and all but in the grand scheme of things they will do NOTHING to actually improve the county. To actually improve the county we need more businesses and jobs available so that people can make more money in this area and from there they can personally invest back into the county to improve it (if they are working here making decent money they will be substantially less likely to purchase goods from out of town keeping more money in this area). You're going to have a hard time getting businesses and jobs here though with the huge tax burden.

Just like the problems we are having nationally, the county needs to slash spending and lower taxes. The taxes are so high here I'm surprised people have been able to stick around for as long as they have. I'm sure its getting too expensive for some people to even live here.

When we moved here from Indiana the tax on my parent's house here was as much as the tax on our house in Indiana. The house here is approx. 2500 sq. ft. The house in Indiana was approx. 4700 sq. ft. on 1 acre of land. At the time it was worth over double what the house here was worth yet they were paying the same amount in taxes.

Vehicle property taxes here are nearly double (or more... way more) than many other areas here.

With so few jobs in this area you simply cannot tax people that heavily and expect the county to somehow improve. Throwing tax payer's money at the problem doesn't work (as we know from history and even now from what Obama has been doing), especially when you throw money at stuff like children's activities. Children's activities will be the absolute least of our concern when people can no longer afford to even live here. The concern will be to get to somewhere, anywhere where they can make some money without being overly taxed so that they can at least provide the bare necessities for their children and themselves.


Edit: The above will definitely help but in the end we will not see the improvements people want until the federal government improves as well. Its actually probably going to get much worse, which is actually an even greater reason for the local governments to slash spending and lower taxes. That will allow people to use their money to prepare for the worst. I'm feeling that people are going to NEED to start buying as much long lasting food as they can because I feel that it is going to start getting really bad before long. Food and water is going to quickly become priority above all else if the system crashes. That is where the community getting together to help each other is going to be very important.