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posted by Bob at Friday, May 18, 2007
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14 Comments:
From: Lori Windels Date: 2007-05-19 09:17 (UTC) Short link
Chuck Repke wrote:
I'm sure that
she could see that she is going to have a very inexperienced board that will be
tripping over itself, saying stupid things, getting its nose into places it
doesn't belong and micro-managing its staff (because that is what inexperienced
district council boards do) and she decided she has been around long enough and
had enough other things she could do then to enjoy those experiences with the
new board.
Yes, she was apparently going to have an inexperienced board, getting its nose
into places it doesn't belong....like the checkbook, bank statements and the
like....why is it when Republicans get involved in something, it's oonsidered a
coup or a conspiracy, but it's just plain good citizenship when it's all run by
Democrats? I can't believe the excuses I've been reading today, defending a
person who quits BEFORE THE FIRST OFFICIAL BOARD MEETING, leaving books in
disarray and years of unpaid, unopened bills stuffed into her office desk? If
she has been a mentor for dozens of other community organizers, we had better
start auditing every neighborhood council. But, of course, if it's taxpayer
money, it's not real money...it's free, after all, and there needn't be any
accountability. I think this is just the beginning. The new board hasn't been
in place for a month, and they're finding this mismanagement already. Were
there no audits done? Didn't the city council have some responsibility to the
taxpayers? Who oversees the neighborhood councils, or are they completely
independent?
Apparently the previous full council didn't manage the staff at all;
micromanagement would be a vast improvement over the current situation, or do
the means justify the ends?
From: Lori Windels Date: 2007-05-19 09:24 (UTC) Short link
oops, I meant do the ends justify the means?
Lori, it is information like this that will get you censored from E Democracy.. You broke an unwritten rule! You exposed a Democrat for who they are.
Looks like you should choose your friends better Chuck. OR, is this just entrenched politics as usual?
For years she ran the Highland council. For years other entrenched beaurcrats have run neighborhood councils.
I think an Honorable Mayor would call for an audit of all the councils.
This Mayor hasn't got the guts to do anything that might be controversial. He has rubber ankles so he can bend whichever way public opinion is going at the time.
So, Bob I just posted a possible explination of what happened at highland on "e" but to say it again, we may very well find that this was a lot more simple mistake than it appears in the paper.
I remember Gayle discussing at the monthly meetings of CO's that she had an audit done every year by an accountant in the Highland area. That this accountant did her audit as a donation to the council. As I suggested in the other forum it might very well be that Gayle thought the accountant mailed in the 990. It would be wrong, it would be a bad mistake, but its the only thing that makes sense.
Nonprofits normally don't have any taxes to pay, so there is no reason not to file the 990. The City requires us to turn in a copy of our most recent 990 when we apply for our new contract each year. So, the City had to be getting a copy of something! Believe me, they have sent back my contract to me because I forgot to list my board officers (gave them all of the members and didn't say who's job was whose). So, there is no way they would approve the contract without a 990. So, until I hear something else it is my best guess that the forms were filled out and never sent.
If I am right, then the fines are based on not sending in a tax form that would have said that they didn't owe any taxes. But, the Fed's will wack you a hefty fine for not having it in and then each one of those that haven't come in are getting hit with interest charges over five or more years.
Chuck Repke
My question is how involved is the Harris family to the Summers family?
Pat Harris has publicly stated that he does not have to listen to the newly elected Highland District Council Board as he has stated, “They are just advisory board. I do not have to listen to them.” Pat’s plan is to just ignore the Highland District Council. Pat Harris is also a newly minted and endorsed Democrat for city council. Pat has stated he was an Independent for years, but he ran for DFL endorsement against Mike Paymar for the house seat in 64B, Highland Park. It seems he is an Independent when he wants to be and a Democrat when he wants to be in favor with the current administration.
The Summers family is very close friends to both Pat Mike Harris and his brother Mike Harris, former city council member to Ward 3.
The HDC even hired the Gayle Summers’ daughter to run the crime prevention program for the HDC. She was selected over several other candidates who had some real crime prevention experience. Summer’s daughter had none.
What about the Highland Feast and Summers’ involvement in this event? Lots of money floating around.
What was Summers involvement in the forced resignation of a former chair of the Highland Business Association for a person who is friends with Summers and others on the HDC?
It would have been good of Tim Nelson to publish the photos that were taken of the office and the desk stuffed with unpaid bills. Now that would have been a City Hall Scoop!
Just some questions that need answers.frikw
Highland District Council is in deep to IRS
One of St. Paul's 17 district councils owes the IRS more than $33,000 and may need legal help to untangle the financial mess.
By Myron P. Medcalf, Star Tribune
Last update: May 18, 2007 – 10:04 PM
An unsettling surprise greeted new officers of St. Paul's Highland District Council shortly after taking office, when they discovered that the community group had badly neglected its taxes for years.
During their first few days on the job, they found that the council owes more than $33,000 to the Internal Revenue Service in taxes, interest and penalties dating back to 1998, according to a letter that new President Bill Poulos sent board members Thursday.
Poulos and Tim Puffer, the council's new treasurer, also learned over the weekend that the state had seized $1,598 from the group's bank account to pay overdue payroll taxes.
Poulos found unopened mail and disorganized files when he gained access to the council's computers last week. He said that the Internal Revenue Service doesn't have any Form 990s, required for the nonprofit council, from 2001 to 2005.
Poulos said Friday that the District Council's treasurer has ultimate responsibility for handling financial matters. But he said that he assumes longtime community organizer Gayle Summers, who was a full-time District Council employee, handled day-to-day financial duties. Summers resigned last week after more than a decade on the job. She had no comment Friday, her husband said.
St. Paul has 17 district councils. They were established to give residents a voice in neighborhood issues and draw some of their funding from taxpayer dollars.
The Highland Council has a little more than $12,000 in the bank, but Poulos said he's unsure whether there are more outstanding bills. "Moreover, because the records are in disarray, we do not know if other unknown payables will be uncovered," he wrote to board members.
The Highland District Council experienced a significant turnover last month, when seven Republicans (including Poulus and Puffer) were elected to the 17-member nonpartisan board. Poulos said that board overhaul had less to do with partisan politics than with the fact that the people elected were friends and associates.
The council will host a special meeting Wednesday evening at the Hillcrest Recreation Center to discuss the group's financial woes. Poulos suggested in his letter that the group may need legal assistance.
"This is a serious problem," he said. "From what we know, we certainly should be able to right the ship."
Myron P. Medcalf • 651-298-1546 • mmedcalf@startribune.com
HI ALL,
Pat Harris, if you aren't going to listen to the Highland District Council, maybe the citizens of ward 3 need to hear from ME, and my NEWSLETTER !
I sure would like a response from you concerning these allegations, I don't get one I will assume it is true and re-think some distribution plans I have.
7:22 said- It would have been good of Tim Nelson to publish the photos that were taken of the office and the desk stuffed with unpaid bills. Now that would have been a City Hall Scoop!
*Tim Nelson is an ENTRENCHED bureaucrat of the Democrat Party you can't expect much from him in stand up reporting. He's SPINELESS!
And these beaurcrats scratch their heads and wonder why their news venues are failing.
Let me see now.....this group would be the of the same DFL flavor of the rest of the city that is is always complaining and slandering landlords with allegations of just taking money out and never putting anything back into the lanldords business right? At least the landlords pay their taxes!
Bob why are talking like Pat or anyone with a life reads this stupid unintelligable blog?
They don't, except entertainment from a group of freaks.
10:22 said- Bob why are talking like Pat or anyone with a life reads this stupid intelligible blog?
They don't, except entertainment from a group of freaks.
10:22 AM
Bob said- you were giving me spelling lessons on another thread and here you use bad grammar. I think you should have put the word "you" between "are" & "talking".
I know for a fact the City Council members read this blog. Inside information through the grape vein :-).
Also, Councilman Lee Helgen has commented here more than once. Lee is in the so called "Big Kahunas Club" of A Democracy because unlike you he has come here and signed his name to his comments.
Chuck Repke is also a member of this exclusive club. I must admit I am not the founder of this club within A Democracy. An anonymous poster elected a number of outspoken Democrats who have posted here.
10:22, I am happy you find this TOWN HALL MEETING entertaining.
There is news that comes out here you will not get any place else. I think this may have something to do with the popularity of this site.
Folks I dragged this over here from SPIF.. Just had to do it Mitch, hope you understand.
From: mitch berg Date: 2007-05-21 05:56 (UTC) Short link
Change at the District Councils?
It's about time. May we see such changes all over the
city; we might start to have some genuine democracy
and accountability in this city; it might even become
a two-party town, one of these days.
At its most benign, the Council system is effectively
"non-profit welfare" - a funding stream and sinecure
for non-profit professional bureaucrats - as well as a
place for people who love to tinker with the levers
and knobs of petty power to romp and play and
occasionally screw with their neighbors.
I've been a long-time critic of the Hamline-Midway
Coalition for using the full weight of its backroom
connections to destroy the life of a life-long Saint
Paul resident and scrupulously honest businessman,
Greg Perkins, when he had the temerity to open a gun
shop on Snelling. The Council not only used its time,
tax funds and energy to carry on a politically-correct
vendetta against Perkins - a deeply stupid action -
but, when challenged by locals who wanted to get some
pro-freedom people on the board to challenge the PC
orthodoxy, changed its bylaws to forbid any board
member from disagreeing with the board's majority
position!
Power corrupts.
Case in point:
> I'm sure that she could see
> that she is going to have a very inexperienced board
> that will be tripping over itself, saying stupid
> things, getting its nose into places it doesn't
> belong
Really?
Where do citizens "not belong?"
Kindly explain that to the assembled multitude.
I don't know what the writer above intends, but I want
to make sure that statement gets publicized all over
the place, to make sure everyone knows the attitude
that's behind the status quo on these kommisariats.
Er, councils.
The community councils have been a de-facto DFL
sinecure for as long as I can remember. I expect
plenty of this forum's dominant clicque to start
squirming and bellowing as the insurgency starts to
uncover the corruption and rot that is almost
inevitable when a one-party system has control for too
long.
And boy, it's gonna be fun!
Mitch Berg
Death Or Glory!
The Midway
St. Paul / Organizer quits Highland council
Pioneer Press
Article Last Updated: 05/09/2007 11:36:26 PM CDT
One of St. Paul's longest-serving community organizers resigned Wednesday.
Gayle Summers e-mailed members of the Highland District Council's board to tell them she was leaving the organization immediately. Her resignation follows last month's takeover of the board by Republican activists in Highland Park, where she has been the community organizer for more than 16 years.
In an interview Wednesday, she conceded she considered herself a Democrat but said she was troubled by what she felt was an overtly partisan direction the council was taking. The city's 19 district councils are formally nonpartisan organizations.
Board President Bill Poulos said he and the newly elected officers of the district council were not attempting to push Summers out or be overtly political.
"We looked forward to a long working relationship with her," he said.
Shawn Bartsh, a lawyer and long-serving business representative on the board, called Summers' departure a great loss for Highland Park. "She is a huge asset to the community," Bartsh said. "She can't be replaced."
City Council Member Pat Harris said he hoped Summers will remain involved in the neighborhood in some capacity. "I'll still look to her for all kinds of advice on the neighborhood," Harris said.
- Tim Nelson
WHAT KIND OF ADVICE COULD SHE PSSIBLY GIVE YOU PAT? LOL
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