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.

Monday, February 9, 2009

Update: 2/9/09

Hello MJ:

It is Sunday afternoon, about 1700, and I ran across a recent reply to an entry to the blog, printed in its entirety below. Unfortunately, like many other email unknown email addresses, this went into the our “junk email” file, thus the delay in my response.

HCB has left a new comment on your post "Update: 1/31/09": “Hello community servant. Thank you for the updates. It seems that all of your comments lead me in one direction. Mt Juliet is on the grow. Multicfacitated endeavors abound, and a city staff tries to manage adequately. As a Mt Julietian I have to pause and wonder, is there a task team assigned to evaluation of the next 10, 20 and 30 years in our city. Do we have a "master-plan" if you will. What will we look like what do we want to look like. Not just in land use but in elements like what fire protection should be or our police force, we could even move to education, will we always be depend on the county for education? I could carry this list on but I think you get my question. Just wondering in that is in place or in the minds of our city leaders and top level staff. Again thank you and all of you for serving extremely adequately. You all are good for the city.”

Dear HCB:
First thanks for the kind words. All of us on “Team Mt. Juliet” sincerely appreciate not only your words, but the fact that you and others have noticed improvements taking place across our city. We owe that to the diligence and hard work of one of the finest group and men and women with whom I have had the pleasure to be associated. Men like Marlin Keel, former Public Works Director of Nashville; Andy Garrett, former number two man for Metro Police; Jason Holleman, our first full time city Attorney; John Rossmaier, our new Director of Finance; Dennis Buchanan, “Cajun” Joyner, James Hambrick, Kenny Martin, Wayne Griffin, Rocky Lee, Mike Mullins, and many more. Heading up our lady’s contingent are Sheila Luckett, MJ’s City Recorder; Jill Johnson, our Chief of HR; Gina Frame, Carrie Parish, Julie Johnson, Lisa Keylon, Isabelle Ford, and other talented, dedicated civil servants. They are a super bunch of people who make this job rewarding and truly exciting.

As to a long range plan, there is the recently unveiled “Mt. Juliet Land Use Plan” which serves as a type of road map to future growth and development in the City. If you are interested in that study you can consult the city’s web page, under “Public Works” for various documents related to the long term physical growth of Mt. Juliet or call Ms. Lisa Keylon, City Planner, at 484-5527 for more details.

In response to your question regarding other matters of long range concern to the city, ironically just this week the Mt. Juliet Board of Commissioners held a two day “off site” session where they focused on formulating a better understanding of the challenges facing our city, and the needs and priorities to address those issues. Not surprisingly, the number one issue they agreed to is widening of North Mt. Juliet Road. The good news is that if the Presidential stimulus packet is approved, as scheduled, the widening of North Mt. Juliet Road will be the only construction project in Wilson County to be funded. We should know more about that in the next few months. Other projects that rose to the top of the list is a new Police Station, improved City Hall, additional public projects such as parks and greenways, improved public safety, etc. But please know, virtually every project that made their list requires extensive resources . . . time, people and money. As of this writing MJ’s General Fund is slightly under $1m; certainly an excellent amount half way into one of the most challenging fiscal year’s (July to June) in history, but a long way from the ability to fund multi-million dollar projects or initiatives like those listed above. Ultimately it is absolutely not a question for the City Manager or staff to answer, but one for you, citizens of Mt Juliet to address, based upon the quality of life you desire and will support.

As a final note, a bit of truly good news. On Friday we learned TDOT has approved a Local Industrial Connector road grant for a portion of the Eastern Bypass commonly referred to as the “Reverse L”. That looks to be about $1.5 million! Hats off to Mr. Shannon Joyner (aka: Cajun) for his tireless work on this project and to Jody Vance, Diane Regansburg, and others at Grisham Smith for a job well done.

Take care and talk with you later.

Sincerely,
R. Robertson
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