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HOT NEWS ITEMS & TOPICS!
July 19th, 2010 Did you hear about the
hubbub regarding RV's? A local group handed out some
fliers in District #2 in response to some comments made by
the District #2 Council Member in a Study Session regarding
a "Possible" rule/code change about the rights of residents
being allowed to Park RV's, Boats, and trailers in their
driveways. Here is the link to the
Englewood Herald article on this issue.
For information regarding
the Flier that was passed out to the residents in District
#2, please click on
http://www.EnglewoodCitizens.org . This link has the
Items and topics that were in the flier as well as the Audio
Links to the District #2 Council Members comments.
Councilman Rick Gillit is in support of residents legally
owning and storing these items "Legally" on their property.
Also, Councilman Rick Gillit had no part of distributing
these fliers as some have alleged. Mr. Gillit supports
the rights of citizens to have their voice heard and
encourages any residents to come to City Council Meetings on
the 1st and 3rd Monday Evening Council Sessions and voice
their concerns both for and against these rules. You
will be given three minutes for "Unscheduled" comments or
you can call the City Clerks office before Wednesday
afternoon and get on the "Scheduled Comments" list and speak
for five minutes!
Councilman Gillit is also a Council
Liaison to the "Code Enforcement Advisory Committee" and
will be participating in the Code/Rules change as well as
gathering comments from the public. Feel free to
contact him and let him know your feelings!
_________________________________________________________________
June 7th, 2010 -
Here we go again! Councilman
Gillit gets outvoted 6-1 again and cannot get any
other council member to show any "Fiscal" restraint!
There were two issues that came up again at this weeks City
Council Meeting that boggles the minds of those who believe
in Fiscal restraint! The City that has a projected
$2.5 Million shortfall and once again Council spends
City money - well, money the City doesn't have - to send
five council members to the National League of Cities
meeting in Denver in November 2010. Registration costs
just under $500 per person. And yes for those of you
keeping track, we just sent three council members to the
same meeting in March in Wash DC at a cost of about $10,000
+ City Staff. Residents are still waiting to hear what
they learned in March and what benefit the residents that
paid for this will get. Yet at the same time - Not one
resident has asked for the report. Maybe they are
right - we just don't care?!? I think not!
Councilman Gillit was able to pressure the other council
members to at least use the "Discretionary" funds available
to each Councilman instead of General Funds money.
Discretionary Funds are supposed to be used on Constituents.
Council Member Gillit is the only one who has used his funds
for the residents and not on himself! Hmmm!
The 2nd interesting thing that came up and Councilman Gillit
was out voted 6-1 again on was to have the city to spend
$5000 on an Aerial photo of the City. Mr. Gillit asked
the presenter if the city could do business as usual and not
cause any difficulty without it and he was told - There
would be no hold up of work or plans. Hmmmm!
Englewood just paid $5000 two years ago for the same thing
and we all know that a lot has not changed in two years.
Again, there are Council Members who could not say "NO" to
spending for any reason! They Love spending your
money!
Again, Englewood is projected to be short $2.5 Million and
no plan to stop spending! You will hear the Mayor say,
"well it was budgeted for". They were also supposed to
get $2.5 million more too but that didn't happen!
Council Member Gillit was also heckled by another Council
Member and called a "Scrooge". Mr. Gillit says he will
always be a "Scrooge" with money he has been entrusted to
spend wisely. Maybe the others could learn a thing or
two from him!
__________________________________________________________________
May 17th, 2010 - City Councilman Rick
Gillit was outvoted 6-1 in a proposal to send City
Council Members on a Colorado Municipal League (CML) Retreat
to Breckinridge CO the last weekend in May. This is an
annual retreat that has had a bit of controversy in the past
due to cities sending Council Members & Mayors to a retreat
of such during difficult economical times. The Reason
Councilman Rick Gillit Voted "NO" was the city just had a
nearly $450,000 budget shortfall in April alone and he felt
that any non-critical spending would not be prudent or
fiscally responsible. Although only three Council
Members are attending (Mayor Jim Woodward, Council Member
Bob McCaslin, & Council Member Joe Jefferson), there were
three other Council Members that voted along with those
attending to "APPROVE" this nearly $1,000 cost for
each member attending. This expense is for the weekend
Lodging expense, travel, and meals each for one night plus
the meeting costs.
Council Member Gillit feels that the Council should set the
example of fiscal responsibility. Englewood Employees
are on a wage and hiring freeze, do not get paid for "Sick
Days" and are generally concerned about keeping their jobs.
Council Member Gillit was heard saying: "How can we expect
our Employees to be the only ones to bare the strain and
difficulty at this economical time while Council is treating
themselves to unnecessary retreats?" "We on Council
should be setting the example of cutting back to only basic
and necessary spending until we can restore job confidence
to our City Employees". Sounds like Great
advice!
To View the April 2010 Report, please click here ->
April Report
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April 19th 2010 - Councilman Rick Gillit is
out voted 6-1 again. Englewood City Council has
decided to push Declarations in Englewood that
our City is to become:
-
An "Inclusive
Community" - To watch the
YouTube.com Video of Ricks comments on this
issue -
Click Here
-
And proclaim that Englewood is a "City
of Service".
(For more detail on this check out this
Document which outlines this program a little more and
how it is to be funded:
Click Here
to read the
Cities of Service Leadership Grants.)
Please click on the above links to read the Documents provided
to Council.
City Council will adopt these proposals if they do not hear
from the residents of Englewood desiring to stop it.
If you're either "For" or "Against" this idea,
Email Council members at
Council@EnglewoodGov.org and tell them what you
think!
To listen to the Audio file of the Council
Meeting where Council Member Linda Olson sponsors
and brings to Council for a vote on April 19th, 2010, please
Click Here! You will hear her bring this
proposal to a vote as well as other Council members comments
and you will definitely hear Councilman Gillits' concerns!
It is worth listening to!
Note:
Councilman Gillit is opposed to both of these proposals.
Here is why:
1.)
Regarding the "Inclusive Community"
document, Rick does believe in personal freedom and not
discriminating against others but he stops short of declaring
that he will vote for Englewood and its residents to be
declared an "Inclusive Community" since the City Council cannot define what
it means to be an "Inclusive Community". Some in Englewood may have a
Religious or Moral/Ethical reason to desire to not be
inclusive of certain ideas that violate their convictions
what ever they are! Is our City Council trying to tell
its residents that they have not been "Inclusive" up to now?
Does it mean that we also Include ideas such as
"Undocumented Immigrants" as welcomed and celebrated members
of our community? What about Child Molesters or Sex
Offenders? Where will our "Inclusiveness" stop?
For the Video -
Click
Here!
2.)
Regarding the "Cities of Service",
anyone who wants to keep "Big Government" out of their lives and
decisions, this document is very disturbing. Please
read the "Declaration of Service" page (Page #4 on the link)
and ask yourself, is this a priority for my life or should
our City be involved in this?
Councilman Gillit believes that serving is a choice that every
citizen should make on their own and not to be prodded or
directed by
our Mayor, council members, or the government. He also does
not believe like it says in Paragraph #7 that the Mayors
have any right to "harness and focus the energies of
our citizens". His concern continues as it goes on
to say "City of Service coalition
members "will" support efforts to increase service
opportunities in our cities...". Paragraph #9 goes
on to say "Working with other mayors and elected
officials to advance strategies and best practices that
accelerate the service ""movement"" and produce measurable
results;"
Mr. Gillit has told other Council Members: “I guess I
have a problem with the Mayor "Harnessing or Focusing"
anyone's efforts! I have a problem with this being a
"Coalition"! I have a problem with the "will Support"
efforts!!! I have a problem with "Advancing Strategies
and best practices" - Whose "strategies" an whose "best
practices"!!! And finally - who is the "Service
Movement"?
Keep a watch on this!
There has been a lot of concern from
other residents in other Cities that their Council may
want to bring this up. Other local cities like
Littleton and Greenwood Village Mayors and Council
members tell me that they have no interest in going down
this road. Wonder why!
FOLLOW UP - The "Cities of Service" was
voted in on a 4-2 Vote with Councilman Gillit and
Councilman Joe Jefferson (District #2) opposing on July
19th, 2010.
__________________________________________________________
April 1st - Another Great Forum!
Councilman Rick Gillit held another well attended Community
Forum. Great topics were discussed. Councilman
Rick explained that he was out voted 6-1 to get Englewood to
consider stronger penalties on people caught driving in
Englewood by our police. The penalties were to give
the maximum fine for drivers with all three of theses three
violations - Theses three Driving Violation concerns were :
-
"No Valid Drivers License",
-
"No Valid Auto Insurance"
-
And "Stolen or Misused License Plates or Temp Tags"
Councilman Rick Gillits proposal would have been a $2500
fine and Impounding of their Vehicle. Again, Rick was
outvoted 6-1 to even allow discussion on this matter!
Shameful!
_______________________________________________________________
March 4th, 2010 - Councilman Rick holds a
Community Forum! This Forum was well attended by
residents of District #4 as well as constituents from the
other districts as well. Topics discussed were:
-
Repairs to Pirates Cove
on Hold due to weather.
-
Abandoned Home at 4757
S. Bannock St.
-
Medical Marijuana
Dispensaries.
-
Community Web Site (www.EnglewoodCitizen.com).
-
And the most discussed
was - Why I Voted "NO" on certain items before Council.
Plan to attend the next meeting on April 1st.
To listen to past
Forums, Click on the Links below:
(Audio provided by Englewood Citizens for Open Govt.)
___________________________________________________________
Rick Gillit (on Left) is sworn
in by Judge Vince Atencio
Photo by
Tom Munds of the
Englewood Herald
On November 16th
2009, Rick Gillit was sworn as District #4 Representative
for City Council. This is a Four Year term. This is Ricks
first Election to public office. Rick states that he wants
to be the Councilman that represents the people’s needs
first over personal opinion or councils desires. Rick said
during the campaign “If you want to know what people are
thinking, then ask them.
That is what I did for four
months strait before the election and I believe I heard the
pulse of the constituents in District #4.” Ricks first
presentation to council was back in 1995 when he and some
other citizens presented to City Council an issue that was
affecting their neighborhood. Since then he has been
involved with other Non Profits and started attending
Englewood Citizens for Open Government. This is a
local “Grass Roots” group that meets weekly and discusses
issues of the city.
Englewood Herald article
regarding Englewood’s Medical Marijuana Moratorium
Click this link for the Article!
For all Public Notices
and Ordinances that City Council has passed, please “Click
Here”!
This will take you directly to
the City’s Webpage on those items.
For the new Off Leash Rules
and Parks information please
Click Here!
Please Click Here of the
present and past “Englewood
Citizen Newsletters”.
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