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March 8th Meeting

The Quincy City Council will hold our weekly meeting on Monday, March 8, 2010. The meeting will be held at 7:30 PM in the City Council Chambers located inside City Hall, 8th and Mine.

We will be discussing the following 3rd Ward issues:

An Ordinance Granting A Special Use Permit For A Planned Development. (Tower Of Pizza)

You can view the enitre agenda by clicking here.

As always, your thoughts and concerns about these issues or any others are appreciated and encouraged.

Best Regards,

Aldermen Paul Havermale and Kyle Moore

Havermale’s Ethics Proposal

Since first running for City Council, I have been a proponent of Ethics Reform here in Quincy. Last week I submitted a list of suggestions to Mayor John Spring and the City Council regarding ethics and changes I’d like to see us make. I hope you will look them over and let me know of any thoughts or suggestions you may have.

My Proposals

* All open positions with the city should be posted online or in an appropriate media outlet. All hiring should be based on the recommendation of the Personnel Committee and human resources director. The council should be given a list of new hires and terminations monthly.

* Any elected office holder who votes on the budget, labor contracts, benefit packages or any issue that affects employees or employment should fill out a disclosure form listing any immediate family members affected by the vote.

* All elected officials and department heads should file a document annually listing all city employees and elected officials who are immediate family members. This document would be available for public viewing.

* Negotiations should be undertaken with labor unions to consider treating election days as regular works days for all employees. Currently, election day is a paid holiday for most employees.

* Under no circumstances should city property, equipment or material be used to support political activity.

* The City Council should be given a list of all city vehicles and the person and department the vehicle is assigned to. The list should indicate if the vehicle is used on a 24-hour basis or taken home by the person. Under no circumstances would persons not employed by the city be allowed to operate or ride in city-owned vehicles unless prior written approval is obtained from the appropriate department head with council concurrence.

* All services provided by a contractor, service provider, consultant or supplier of any type with a one time or aggregate annual value of $3,000 or more shall be disclosed and recorded. The running total spent with any one contractor shall be kept on file at the City Clerk’s office and be available for public review. The council would be notified after the $3,000 threshold is reached.

* The city’s check register and all credit card purchases should be available for public review monthly along with all historical records.

* If a business entity donates $500 or more in a fiscal year to a candidate for mayor, city clerk or treasurer, and the candidate gets elected, the donor would be barred from doing business with the city for that fiscal year. Some additional guidelines may be set for aldermanic candidates.

* The city should post the name of an individual who can be contacted for any ethics complaints. The person shall serve as a liaison between the Ethics Committee, City Council, administration and public. If aldermen are used for this role, one from each political party should be identified as a contact person.

Thank You,

Alderman Paul Havermale

Google Fiber

A few weeks ago,  a local group contacted me about an opportunity for Quincy to have a next generation fiber optic network right here in Quincy. On February 10th, Google announced their plans for Google Fiber. They are currently requesting an RFI from communities who are interested in having Google build and test a ultra-high speed broadband network in their community. The network would offer households the ability to have access to a network that delivers 1 gigabyte per second. (currently 100 times faster than what most Americans currently have access to.) Municipalities and citizens have until March 26, 2010 to show their interest in the project. At an estimated cost of $3,000-$8,000 per household, this could mean a minimum of a $60 million investment by Google in our community.

If you are interested in showing your support for Quincy to get Google Fiber you can nominate Quincy by clicking here. (You will have to create a Google account to nominate)

You can also join the facebook group who are working to bring this to reality.

The Mayor and the City of Quincy are doing their part and filling out the official RFI response,  I encourage all citizens to nominate Quincy and help bring next generation infrastructure to the Gem City!

Best regards,
Alderman Kyle Moore

We’re back

We apologize for the website being down for so long. Our software crashed, and with that all of our former posts and information. We had to build the site from new again, which took longer than expected. We apologize for the delay, but the site is now back up and running!

Aldermen Paul Havermale and Kyle Moore