Too Little, Too Late

My, what a flurry of new activity tonight at the Woodson Terrace Board of Aldermen meeting! Each and every one in attendance, who head up a committee, had a report tonight. I can tell you to my knowledge, that has not ever happened. It was encouraging to see the efforts placed upon their accounting of this past month's activity, as well as plans for the immediate future. An obvious exception to this is Rita Martin, who heads up the Veteran's Committee. Rita's leadership on this committee is exemplary. She is passionate about her work with this group, and she always, always, has her meetings and issues regular reporting to the Board. What she's done with the Veteran's Committee should be the benchmark all other Woodson Terrace committees to measure themselves by. That should be the standard.


Most surprising tonight, the alderman who heads up the committee for Economic Development even had a report. That is the first time I recall that committee having ANY activity for at least the past year. Each Board of Aldermen meeting I've attended, it's always been the same few words......"No report," or "No meeting." You may recall my previous blog wherein I called out the fact that the Woodson Terrace committee for Economic Development has not had a meeting since April 2008. That's nearly two years. I received confirmation of this from past Aldermen meeting minutes, as well as from two of the Economic Development appointed board members. And I must tell you, even tonight, there was no mention of a committee meeting. The chair for this committee attended "Tax Exempt" training class in Clayton, and he attended with the mayor's administrative assistant.


I think the mayor has the responsibility to make sure that committees are meeting, when they are supposed to be meeting. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but on the City Of Woodson Terrace website, the Mayor is a member of this board. See for yourself: http://www.woodsonterrace.net/economicdevelopment.htm I have this printed to a pdf, in case it happens to get updated overnight. The Mayor needs to lead by example or the Board Of Aldermen need to recruit a Chairman for the committee who is passionate about the committee's endeavors! Isn't this what should be happening? We need some answers from Mayor Besmer on why the Economic Development committee has not had a meeting or any apparent activity in nearly two years.


I noticed something else very interesting, most of the new ideas brought up during the Board meeting this evening are ideas that I have talked about on my platform or that new Alderman Candidate, Jim Carr, has talked about with his future constituents in Ward I. Jim and I have talked about new programs at the park for the kids. Jim has a plan to put together a Summer Program at the park, in light of the termination of other local Summer Park Programs. We've been talking about more morning hours for seniors to swim at the pool during the summer. He's talked about making improvements to the park and offering classes for all ages. And get this, brand new tonight.....the city is looking into an electronic Communication program, to alert citizens, via email, about new happenings in Woodson Terrace. Sound familiar? Sound a bit like my plan to open the doors of communication with the residents? Here is a direct line from my very first blog post: "I would like to see steady and routine communication with the citizens of Woodson Terrace....."


If the current mayor announces Open Office Hours for the residents to come and meet with him, I may just copy and paste my campaign platform for him! What's the saying, imitation is the highest form of flattery? Well, I'm very flattered that my recent activities have seemingly lit a fire under our elected officials. But as the title of this post suggests.....



Too Little. Too Late.


You must now take action that will move you towards your goals. Develop a sense of urgency in your life."
~ H. Jackson Brown