Archive for Saturday, November 24, 2018

Letter to the Editor: Shawnee resident says councilmembers failed to respond to him

Ray Erlichman

Submitted photo. Enlarge photo.

Ray Erlichman

November 24, 2018

To the editor:

On 11/13/18 five members of the city council voted to appoint Lisa Larson-Bunnell to fill the Ward III seat of Justin Adrian, until a special election is held.

Dave Myres was one of the other applicants who also applied for that position. He ran against Justin Adrian and Jeff Vaught in the most recent primary for the Ward III council seat. Myres got 609 votes, Adrian 415 and Vaught brought up the rear with 308 (eliminating him from running in the general election).

Next up was the November general election. Adrian came out on top with 1128 votes and Myres was 70 votes behind with 1058.

Now that is what begs some questions needing answers. Why did 5 members of the council ignore the votes of 1,058 Ward III residents and appoint someone who did not even do anything to really show that they wanted to represent that ward?

I sent an email on Tuesday 11/20/18 to the five council members who voted for her. Those were Jim Neighbor, Matt Zimmerman, Stephanie Meyer, Mickey Sandifer and Lindsey Constance.

In the email I asked: “What factually specific objective information concerning Ms. Larson-Bunnell’s history did you feel was superior to the fact that 1,058 Ward III residents had cast votes for Mr. Dave Myres in the most recent city election? It’s highly probable that there are 1,058 residents of Ward III that would be interested in your replies.”

As of Friday evening, none of the five had responded.

Ray Erlichman

Shawnee

Comments

John Bowman 4 years, 6 months ago

Ray, just my opinion but this is classic small-town politics.

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shawniite 4 years, 6 months ago

The fact that Myres lead the vote total until it was head to head indicates that Ward 3 voters didn’t want him. By selecting a candidate other than him, the City Council upheld that directive of the voters.

Put another way - assuming there was some material difference between the candidates, voters either 1) voted FOR the positions of Mr. Adrian, or 2) voted AGAINST the positions of Mr. Myres. Regardless, he was uniquely qualified as the single person who should NOT have filled the seat - he lost the election, and quite frankly the loser of the election shouldn’t assume the position for which they were specifically rejected. I commend the City Council for respecting the will of the voters. Mr. Myres is, of course, free to run again and see if voters are willing to endorse his platform.

I’m curious if Mr. Erlichman would be in favor of appointing Hillary to be President, in the event that Trump fails to complete his term in office? Same thing.

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Tony Gillette 4 years, 6 months ago

I was at the City Council Meeting, and listened to all 13 applicants for the Ward III replacement position, and was extremely disappointed in the 5 Council Members votes. Given the speech’s, none was more articulate than Mr. Myres agenda and details for our City. The Council has disenfranchised the votes of 1,058 Ward III Voters by appointing Lisa Larson-Bunnell. Mr. Myres, as a 70 vote runner up, earned the trust of his Ward III constituents given the doors visited, time, and personal financial investment. This public shunning by the Council shows how the Shawnee City Council is run like a cabal that doesn’t listen to the voters. Given the shame by the conduct of Mr. Adrian, the most logical move was to appoint Mr. Dave Myres given the close vote count alone, which has been done in the past. Finally, if the current Council Members do not respond to Ray Erlichman request, we will know just how cowardly they are!

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Brian Vree 4 years, 6 months ago

We all know this vote was entirely about who would support the multi-million dollar tax increase for the council's latest pet project. A project that takes from the working class and gives to the rich.

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