Will Rogers County follow Delaware County?

Rogers County commissioners are awaiting legal counsel on how to proceed in paying a $22 million judgement to Materials Services Inc.

Commissioners contracted with a Tulsa law firm as well as a local firm to study and give them recommendations on what will be the best course of action.

Should it be increase property taxes or sales taxes to generate the $22 million?

Following a vote in Delaware County on Tuesday, commissioners might have some idea how they might proceed.

Delaware County commissioners found them in similar predicament after having to deal with a $13 million judgement against their sheriff's department. They presented voters with an increase sales tax dedicated to repay the judgment.

Vote approved the increase in sales tax for a 17-year period over a 3-year property tax.

More than 7,000 people voted for the increase with only 515 against it.

In Delaware County, residents organized meetings throughout the past year to discuss ways to pay the settlement.  The sales tax increase will go into effect in July.

So, will Rogers County commissioners seek the public's feedback?  Or will they let the Tulsa law firm decide for them.

Commissioners need to hear from Rogers County residents as how to proceed. 

Mike Helm, Dan DeLozier and Kirt Thacker need to hear from county residents. At least that is who put them in office, not a Tulsa law firm.

Isn't time Rogers County residents decided how the bungled lawsuit with Material Services repaid. Since the former Rogers County officials can't be held responsible for the $22 million, but if commissioners do not include residents in the decision making process, Helm, DeLozier and Thacker will be held responsible when it come election time, maybe even sooner.

Cooking up confusion

Too Many Cooks

Find a recipe, prepare the ingredients, mix, stir put it in the oven to bake.

Sounds simple. Ninety-nine times out of 100 the end result will be tasty. As long as the temperature is correct and the cook doesn’t leave the dish in the oven for too long.

What happens when there is more than one cook?  What happens when one cook wants to add a tablespoon of garlic and the other wants cayenne pepper? Depending on the dish, things might not go awry.

In that same vein, what happens when you have three county commissioners , an architect and an outside consultant overseeing the same project?

In this case you get confusion, resulting in red faces all around.

Rogers County Commissioners Mike Helm, Dan DeLozier and Kirt Thacker split on their votes Monday to approve additional bond money to fund the construction of the new courthouse and E911 center.

Pmg consultants reported the project was $550,000 short.

WHAT? All Rogers County residents have so far is a big hole and 12 ft. mounds of dirt. How can the project be over budget so early in the process?

Now, a special meeting has been called to look at the need for the additional funds.

Commission Chair DeLozier now says the panic may have been due to some wrong numbers?

What do you get with too many cooks in the kitchen? Confusion and wrong numbers.

Big 12 not Big Enough for Texas

While the continued crumbling of the Big 12 Conference is not necessary politically-related, it is quite a shame how the greed of one school can ruin the entire meal.

The Longhorn Network, a collaborative effort between the University of Texas and ESPN, is the nail that broke the Big 12 Camel’s back.

Texas says everything is bigger down there. Their lust for more money, more control and to be top dog in the Big 12 has finally caught up with them.

Ironically, a year after an embarrassing season, the Longhorns now have attempted to bounce back, but their rise in the media world may leave them having to shuttle their precious network.

The black-sheep sister Texas A&M jumped the Big 12 ship to the Southeastern Conference.  If that wasn’t enough Texas wanted to make nice with the Sooners and Cowboys, but the damage had already been done.

Oklahoma and Oklahoma State will likely head out west and join the Pac 10 or -12 or -16  and Texas will be left to figure out its final conference destination.

The catch? The Longhorn Network maybe an albatross that will prevent them from join the ACC or Big East of anywhere else. Why? Texas doesn’t want to share any of its revenues from the network.

We say “happy  trails” to the Longhorns.

 

Could E-Verify lead to Government Tracking

Congress is about to mark up the Legal Workforce Act,which would force all employers to use the E-Verify system.

E-Verify is a government-run database and employment identification system. Many see this as an invasion of privacy and poses a threat to free speech. The greatest fear is that E-Verify could lead to a National ID system that could create hurdles to traveling freely.

“Papers please,” might inevitably be heard as families go on vacation and leave their resident state.

The original intent of the bill was to fight illegal immigration. Many employers who attempted to use the system found it was unreliable.

Could E-Verify lead to our government being able to know our every movement? Will it lead to fingerprinting of every citizen? What would be next, the collection of DNA samples?

Any efforts to move toward a national ID system should be stopped.