Dinner with Schmucks- Arnold Councilmen Bill Moritz and Paul Freese

7/31/2019 Dinner with Schmucks- Arnold Councilmen Bill Moritz and Paul Freese

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This Thursday past, at the council meeting a straw poll was requested, actually this was the thirdstraw poll that evening. I called that Not in Order. The Mayor had a smart remark and we endedup not taking that poll. Later that evening I sent a copy of the rule to all involved.The first person to throw blame for not telling them how to do it was Bill Moritz, his words:

So rather than correct the proceedings by saying we could go into a

committee of the whole and come to a recommedation, you went asGoober did in an episode of the Andy Griffith Show crying "Citizen's Arrest! Citizen's Arrest!" to all around. All you did was add an extra step.Very nice. You should be so proud. It is also nice that you have your shop worn copy of the Roberts Rules you share with Christine andMichelle but no one else. You had the page bookmarked and showedthem and was ready to pounce. The idea that you had the answer to thesituation in the next two sentences and kept them away from the rest of us while you hung your case on the first sentence is what is so indicativeabout how you do things.

My response:

I love how you are the arbiter of anyone who takes any action to which youtake offense! I purchased a copy of the Robert's Rules of Order for Mr. Counts also, too bad he or our current city attorney hasn't takenthe time to read it. Do you not have your own copy?One would think after so many years on the council that you might beinterested in knowing just what the rules are!

I didn't add an extra step, it was already there, you and the senior members of the council along with the attorney and the Mayor, whoI might add is supposed to know the rules in order to run the meeting, have justfailed to follow procedures that were in place long

before I ever came on board. But then again, you do always like to kill themessenger, especially when it is me.

Now you expect me to share MY knowledge with you???? Why would I evenoffer when it is rejected at every turn? Just like last eveningwhen we changed two ordinances, due to their conflicting with state statutes. Ihave brought that subject to light on three occasions, firsttime, right after my first MML conference and it was blown off! I guess thethird time is the charm.

By the way, do you need glasses Bill? That "shop worn" copy is brand new.Fortunately it hasn't changed too much from the 10th Editionand I was able to easily find what I had marked there and transfer it over to thenew one.

Mr. Sweeney said he didn't draft the ordinances we changed last evening. Is thatone of those clever plays on words? Well, was he sitting


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in the city attorney's position at the time it was passed? Did he look at it beforeit was passed? Did he advise that council not to pass it andthey went against his advice? Mr. Sweeney stated in the past that he has been inthe position since 1999, one would think he would have atleast taken a look at the state statute cited for that ordinance!

Criticize all you want, Bill, you still cannot argue the fact that my statementwas correct. The poll was not in order, period

His response:

Doris I do not take offense to finding our something is being done andthen are to be corrected. What I get annoyed by is your sitting back likeyou are the queen of the information. You could have shared the last twosentences with the rest of us and you did not do so. We could havefound out how the rest of the council felt about a matter of city business

by following that additional step that you failed to share with the rest of us. You cannot help being you. That includes the Thursday nightambush tactic. That is a wholly unprofessional approach. To call BobSweeney out with that ridiculous demand for a reimbursement for legalfees for an ordinance that was never discovered to not comply is justmore you. Perhaps you will share with us why you raised such a stinkabout it and then voted no when it came time to address thosecorrections.

My response:

Far be it from you to actually address the response received! Now in your mind,I am supposed to instruct the council on procedure? What about the Mayor or Mr. Sweeney? Has council ever voted to go into a committee or a quasicommittee before? Way to shift both blame and responsibility to me!Why do you not address the fact that Mr. Sweeney should have caught theconflict with state law before it was ever passed by council in 2003? Why doyou categorize my actions as an ambush when the fact is that those twoordinances and many others should have been corrected years ago?I have pointed out many things that have gone on improperly over the course of many years. Each time I am chastised for doing so. Instead of correcting theissues that are properly identified, a process of rationalizing begins and wordtwisting begins. No one wants to admit that anything is wrong. I have beenforced to go over people's head to get things corrected and then more argumentsare costing the taxpayers even more money when all that had to be done in thefirst place was admit you were wrong and correct it!We are back to the same thing here. It is easier for you and others to attack mefor leading you to the truth and revealing the discrepancies than it is to admityou are wrong. The first step is to admit you have a problem, Bill.

His response:


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I am Bill. I have a problem. It's Doris.Then Paul Freese jumps on the bandwagon with his response:

It's called teamwork! It's called approach! It's called getting things done together for the citizens of Arnold!

You on the other hand have an (I) approach! How can (I) make everyone look bad? How can (I) causean argument? Which keeps us all from getting anything done! How can (I) let people think there issomething illegal happening?

Have you ever thought about an approach that rather then publicly trying to embarrass City Staff youwork with staff to look into the issue first. The response you would receive would be one of willing tolook into the problem and if their is a mistake they would help get it fixed. When people are blindsidedin front of others; their peers, citizens, supervisors, and elected officials it is not deserved and not onlyembarrassing for them but the City as well!

Your letter to the Editor in the Leader was so hypocritical by you! You accused me of attacking KimRoberston in public. This is what you do everyday, to every City Director and to our Attorney!

My response:

Paul,Teamwork? Really? Approach? Give me a break! I wouldn't even choose you or Bill to be on adodgeball team in school, the first time yougot grazed you'd run crying to a teacher complaining that someone hit you with a ball!Do you really think it is me who makes you look bad? How about you make you look bad! I have nocontrol over your actions or deeds.In case you haven't noticed, I don't argue, I just set the facts out there, learned a long time ago not toargue with a fool. It's not a matter of making someone think something illegal is going on, all I have to do is point out what is illegal andwait for it to not be corrected! Ithappens all the time. I point something out and Mr. Sweeney finds some convoluted explanation to tryto get around correcting the issueand allow the status quo to continue. All his research into what he perceives as threats and allegationsleads to many billable hours for his ever increasing pay!Depending on which staff we are referring to here, I think they should know the ordinances they arecharged with enforcing! The rules should

be consistent for all people, not just better for some than others. People have jobs because they aresupposed to be capable of performingtheir duties. Let me clue you in, I have not brought up anything in a council meeting that has not been

brought up first in an email or a phonecall and ample time allowed for the problem to be addressed. A council meeting is the perfect place toaddress issues that haven't beenrectified. The public is entitled to know what is going on at any given time.You have no business admonishing a member of the press or citizen during a public council meeting.Your personal opinions belong elsewhere. Those meetingsare supposed to be for conducting city business.


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The department heads are to bring us recommendations, they are not the persons who are to make thedecisions. We cannot just accept their word with no research of our own. In case you haven't noticed,we haven't been getting the whole story. We haveonly been getting just enough information to make whatever it is they want to recommend sound good.After we have made a decision based on thatinformation, a few weeks later we get more information that may have swayed us in another directions.

No more rush jobs, no more emergencieswe owe the citizens careful consideration.The city attorney is supposed to be a legal advisor and let us know if something is awry. He hasn't beendoing that. It seems that hisopinion on certain situations can change depending on who is involved. It's OK for party A and B, butnot for party C. In his mind, his opinion has more weight thaneven that of the Attorney General! If he knows so much, then why do I have to point out that our finesare larger than state statute allows? There area few other laws that run afoul of state statutes that will be coming up soon and they were passedrecently.There are rules, regulations, ordinances and laws on the books, if something sounds wrong, it probablyis. Check it out, learn the rules and do your homework and your research and instead of accusing me of picking on you and making you look bad,you might learn something! The problem isyour way is the only way and if someone doesn't agree with your way, you try to impeach them,literally! Your way isn't working, it's time to try somethingelse. If the City Directors(not sure what you are referring to there) and the City Attorney can't stand theheat (scrutiny), then they need to get outof the kitchen....

His response:

I seem to remember a police officer not from our community that you treated with no respect and publicly made to look like a fool! Yes I made a mistake on how I approached the issue and apologizedto Kim Thursday. You were asked in a meeting if you would apologize and you said I don't have to andrefuse to.

My response( by the way the officer was from Franklin County not our community:

Talk about straying from the subject and deflecting, you won't stay on point, will you?You know what Paul? He was lying to us too! You went right along with him. Why were you in such arushto vote for that? It hasn't alleviated our problem with meth in the least. Mr. Grellner is his own pressreleasemachine. No burn units closed because of meth. No smurfers standing out on the parking lots. Thethievesare stealing WalMart, Kohl's and Shop n Save blind, worse than before. Crimes are increasing!He was selling a bill of goods to us. It is the council's responsibility to ask questions, do research andseparate the wheat from the chaff. The premise of an apology is that you have done something wrong. Idid nothing wrong, I did my job.Did you even bother to check out that list of "facts" he sent the afternoon of that meeting? You askedwho paid


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Jim Gwinner, did you ask who was paying Mr. Grellner to run all over the place? You think he's doingthat for free? Most of the sourcesnhe quoted went back to his original press release and had just been "pickedup"

by other outlets. That is a different situation all together than what you did.Kim wrote an article, it was filled with facts and figures provided by our finance department. She

presentedopinions from other council members. Bill expressed his chagrine that he hadn't received that phonecall.That's the problem Paul, you and Bill, Phil and now the Mayor always want everything to be one-sided.

You don't want the public to know the true facts, just what you want them to know. Then you get all bent out of shape when the truth starts leaking out. Why not just tell everybody the truth to begin with?BECAUSE YOU WOULD BE TOLD STOPPED!To pretend that everything is hunky-dory in this town is akin to sticking your head in the sand. If the

people are unaware of the problems, how can they be alert enough help solve them? Tell peopleto be on the look out for theives in the stores, tell them to lock their cars because the thieves aretargeting cars, tell them to close their garage doors because the theives are taking their power toolsand trying to pawn them at the local pawn shop. Close that haven for drugs, prosititutes and thievescalled the Value Place. It is draining value from the citizens and shoppers in Arnold. Who wantsto come here and shop in our town or eat in our restaurants, if all their stuff is going to be missingwhen they come back out? When the thieves target out of town visitors, why would they come back?Do you even know how many sets of license plates have been stolen in the last few months? Do youknow how many lockers and cars have been stolen from at the Recreation Center? The people deserveto know the truth. I will deliver that whether you like the way it is done or not. No behind the door shenanigans.All up front, like it should be.Big deal, you apologized, did anyone hear it? You should make a public apology to Kim in a councilsessionand in writing via a letter to the editor in addition you should compliment her on the thoroughness andfairnessof the article since she presented all aspects, not just your rose-colored version of the state of the reccenter and golf course.

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Dinner with Schmucks- Arnold Councilmen Bill Moritz and Paul Freese