1. This won’t be a “blog” per se. It isn’t meant to be a place to post all commentary or opinions. Everyone is invited to send in a note, but don’t be offended if it isn’t posted. There’s other sites that are perfectly content to drag through what they believe to be wrong with every issue at every turn. This is about what was done, why and where do we go from here. We won’t talk about two and three year old issues. If the desire is to engage in those discussions then look somewhere else.

2. This isn’t the Board of Commissioner forum. MJ has a City Manager form of government. The Board makes policy; the staff implements. I’ll be happy to pass your comments along to the Board, either good or bad, but the intent of this medium is to address how we could better enact policy and improve city services.

3. The narratives will be directly from me, your city manager. I won’t hide under some pseudonym or other persona. My name is Randy Robertson. My phone number is 754-2552. I am your City Manager. If your issue or concerns involves another department of the city (Public Works, Police, Animal Control, etc.) I will invite the appropriate team member to provide some comments, but it will still be done under the auspices of the City Manager.

4. I will try and be as timely as possible, but this is another one of the “additional duties” for which civil service is renown.

5. The City Staff is here for you. The desired outcome is for us to have a positive relationship with the citizens we serve, but we all know that always won’t happen. Everyone has an opinion. It is the staff’s responsibility to work through the opinions and emotion, meet the requirements of the laws and rules under which we operate, and hopefully serve the greatest number in that process. It is not an exact science. The more we have a relationship with you, the better we can meet your expectations.

6. Finally, this is about telling our story. Hopefully you will be able to sort the myth from reality or see the issue through a different set of lens. I hope you will find this of value and participate.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

City Manager Update - July 13, 2010

Good afternoon MJ;

A short note today:

We received our sales tax receipts for June and the city took in $105k more this year than in 09. The numbers were $488k in 2010 compared to $383k last year. Overall MJ receipts constituted about 40% of all sales tax receipts in the county . . .nearly a half million reasons to continue to “Shop MJ!”

Early voting will be at the Charlie Daniels Rec Center starting 16 July. Stay tuned for more details.

I received an anonymous note based on a posting to a recent blog about Fall Softball. Yes, Fall Softball will not be held at Mundy Park this year due to the temporary relocation of Youth Football practice from Charlie Daniels Park to Mundy several days a week. We truly regret the disruption to our softball community, but over utilization and ever increasing traffic at CD Park during football season have moved the Parks staff to this option. We are hoping efforts towards developing new multipurpose fields at the Bel Air complex in CY 11 will help alleviate the situation.

I also mentioned in an earlier blog that the MJ Board of Commissioners approved aggressive execution of State Street Aid money in repairing and/or repaving more MJ streets than we’ve done in many years. All totaled nearly $490k has been earmarked for street repairs/repaving this year. The list includes a priority needs of streets from all points around the city, with some of the names including: Bass Drive, Springhill Road, segments of West Division and Old Lebanon Dirt Rd, Jefferson Dr., and Sunrise Circle as well as portions of Belinda Parkway.

Kudos to the MJPD’s Detectives Bonnie Harris and David Stolinsky for their exceptional professionalism and diligence in the recent child abuse/murder case. They are a treasure to our community.

A final note: the Animal Shelter numbers are running high. We need your help! Get involved by sharing a few hours a month as a Shelter volunteer. Better yet, adopt a dog, cat or both and become a volunteer as well. You will be glad you did.

Until next time, take care and God Bless.

R. Robertson

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1 comment:

  1. AnonymousJuly 17, 2010 at 9:29 AM

    If the sales tax revenue is increase 40% - why a increase of 14% to our water bill and also a 5% increase in sewer bill ?
    The old pleasant groove parkway (walmart entrance) water trainers are full of trash - for month - and nobody takes care of them. are they any specific and organized task for the city to clean MJ street clean?

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