Statistics Are Like Bikinis...

 

In this this morning's mail I received the city's newsletter, The Vision. A delightful publication giving all sorts of good information, colorful photographs, and Mayor Nickolas Guccione's personal publicist's spin (Mayor's comments) on what's going on. His spin is well written, informative, and leaves a plethora of questions about what he's doing (and who's actually doing the writing).

 

During the Board of Aldermen meeting this past July 24th, there was a young boy scout there who was trying to earn his citizenship merit badge. He led the pledge of allegiance and afterward he was introduced to the board.  Alderman Forrest Gossett asked him, "What do you need to do to earn this badge?" The young man responded, "To find out what the Mayor does." I understand that he was there to earn his badge and could really care less what the mayor does but I thought his answer innocently naïve. At any rate, I hope he found out because after watching Guccione for a year and a half, I'm still wondering what he does.

 

Back to the "Mayor's comment." In The Vision, he gave a rosy report on the state of Splash Station, and devoted a short paragraph on Heartland and Peruque Valley Park. His author's comments about Splash Station were so inviting, they had me running to get my swimsuit out of mothballs, the short introduction of the other two parks was vague and perhaps filled with the patented Guccione style of gloss.

 

He failed to mention that Splash Station is a year late in opening due to "unforeseen rock excavation." He took no responsibility for the rock issue being unseen when he didn't mention that he led the charge to hasten the building of the station at all costs. Guccione brought groups into city hall to pressure the aldermen to proceed by using his chant, "Start moving dirt, start moving dirt, start moving dirt." Had he not badgered the board so much, the Splash Station would probably not have been in its current location and just might have opened on time if he hadn't kept on chanting and pandering to voters to make him the Parks King.

 

One other slight omission in The Vision; "Mayor's comment" was that the Great and Mighty Wonderful Wizard of Wentzville , Mayor Nickolas Guccione neglected to tell voters that because of his chant, Splash Station is almost a half-million dollars over budget.  He also ignored telling the voters that because of his chant, all of the parks will suffer the loss of at least half-a-million dollars worth of amenities, that's a lot of beach umbrellas.

 

I know I'm going to take a load of crap from die-hard Guccione Kool-Aid drinkers about this post, but I defy any of them to prove my facts wrong. Guccione's personal agenda to make the aldermen look bad cost the taxpayers $500,000, and all of the parks completion dates pushed off one year.

 

Statics are like bikinis, what they reveal is interesting, but what they conceal is vital. On January 15, 2013 I posted "Unanticipated Anomalies" (click here) which discussed the overrun problem and Guccione's responsibility in forcing this project forward knowing there was a mountain of rock just beneath the surface. Mayor, get off your ass and start leading this city, stop campaigning, read the materials presented to you, and do something other than fire employees and divert the blame. Take responsibility for your miserable record!



Where the Buck Stops

Before I get into the happenings of the January 16th board of aldermen meeting I have to relay a newsflash, a pontification by our Nickompoop; Mayor Nick Guccione. During the Mayor's Report, Nickompoop stated that he had good news; the Newstime newspaper is going to be publishing weekly once again and that they will have a reporter at all of the city meetings. Quoting Nickompoop: "Newstime will fix any misinformation out there." That's great news for Wentzville, throw away the Journal, don't read Patch.com, and never, ever visit the Wentzvillian. Our Nickompoop has declared the Newstime newspaper the guardian of Truth, Justice, and the American way.  His rationalization sounds like one of Mayor Lambi's during his last days in office—twisted.

Possibly the most interesting portion of the meeting was "Open Forum." A gentleman spoke before the board asking them to change the sign ordinance to allow human signs. If you'll remember, Jiffy Lube always had a person waving a large sign at people in cars on Pearce Blvd. near the Wentzville Parkway trying to rustle up business and some business owners had people in costumes on streets out in front of their businesses. The City received numerous complaints by citizens claiming these large animated critters and sign waivers are  hazardous distractions to travelers on Wentzville thoroughfares—they wanted it stopped.

The sign ordinance was just recently revised removing the "human sign" hazard from the roadways and now it will be interesting to see if the aldermen go back on their earlier decision, under the threat of litigation, and bow to the speaker because he claims it to be a violation of his first amendment rights. His company uses human signs in costumes of the Statue of Liberty to attract business. If the city changes the ordinance to allow human signs get ready for a hoard of costumed hucksters in the form of hippos, ball headed hamburger peddlers, and giant gorilla balloons lining the Parkway and Avenues of Wentzville.

Now back to Rock Park. City staff came back with their upside cost overrun amounting to $290,000 for any more unexpected anomalies (rock removal). Last week they estimated $250,000 but the two-ninety figure is their latest estimate. The new number leaves $2,000 for any other problems they may have during the remaining ninety percent of construction cost of the 6.3 million dollar Splash Station. The "how did we get here" question was put off for another day and Ward 2 Alderman, Chris Gard stated, "Laying blame is not constructive." Ward 1 Alderman, Forrest Gossett added, "We need a root cause conference much like what is had with Federal contracts. We must not repeat how we got here."

Perhaps the most dysfunctional statement came from our maladroit mayor, Nick Guccione, "I can't see any problems above ground and nobody can anticipate what's below ground." REALLY Mr. Mayor! I'm going to hold you to the first part of that statement, especially when above ground change orders begin coming in which total more than $2,000. Secondly, core sampling was invented many years ago, no major undertaking of this magnitude would not include it. The history of this site was known and I would think that any competent below ground survey would have found the "unforeseen anomaly." Obviously, someone dropped the ball and by the sound of your statement, it fell on your head!

The Splash Station project is going to come in over budget, there is absolutely no way it can't, and when that happens some amenities will need to be dropped from the project. It's going to be hard-decision time and I hope our Nickompoop can stand before the taxpayers and explain why this project is not all it should have been. I hope he is the one choosing which parts of the Splash Station are cut and he answers to the people of Wentzville.

This whole thing is your fault Mr. Mayor, you are in the seat where the buck stops and you need to take responsibility! Maybe you can get Newstime to blame it on someone else.