If only there were some way of guessing,with any degree of accuracy,which political party this guy aligns himself with.

Of course.

Yes,sadly,I am aware that there are people here who have no sense of humor and can't grasp it without being led by the nose with an emoticon.I see it all too often.I do use them,at times,though this time didn't seem necessary.I suspect you're referencing the same crowd that will agree with a posted sentiment or opinion,yet are strangely compelled to take extreme issue with the phrasing.Something else I see all too often.

I always use emoticons, to be on the safe side

I'm with you -- I find it unthinkable that they would resist this, but it's their choice.

Compassion? That's your choice.

aren't they EVERYBODYs kids, not just their asshole abusive commuinty leaders?

Just sayin, Buzz--I empathize with your sentiment.

I would be happier if he actually showed interest in pushing for it.

This is why I often reserve two and half tablespoons of idiocy for any reference I see to 'Nanny State'.

neighbor. His family was first relocated to Houston
and then OK after Katrina....just sayin' that not
everyone there may be there by choice....could be
many were sent there post Katrina with the gov't's
'wisdom'.

And really, where is 'safe'? There are earthquakes,
hurricanes, tornadoes, pipeline'spills'....I have compassion
for anyone devastated as these folks are. Maybe that's
just me.

However, I do think that safety should be high on the
list of priorities when the re-building starts.

He said he was uncertain that such a financial initiative would be passed by the voters.

Tornadoes are not new to Moore -- this was their fourth.

Posting his phone number was pretty damned irresponsible. We should let the people of Moore figure this out.

Posting his number was indeed irresponsible in my view.

Last edited Thu May 23, 2013, 11:35 AM - Edit history (1)

So if publishing it was irresponsible, so too was the city government.

(on edit: link to the site) http://www.cityofmoore.com/staff/stephen-o-eddy

find it, but do not post the number.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=termsofservice
Respect people's privacy.
Do not post or link to any private/personal information about any person, even if it is publicly available elsewhere on the Internet.

Will correct immediately. Thanks.

....after they hear from their home insurance agents about future coverage. That's going to be interesting---some carriers walked away from the Gulf Coast, after there was one big-ass hurricane too many.....

Storm shelters can save lives, but they do nothing whatsoever to prevent homes from being destroyed.

From not liking being told what to do, to the home builders being influential, and finishing with a callous comparison on the value of lives versus costs of construction, I feel that I understand him correctly.

Giving out his phone number will cause him to take calls about homeowner, builder, and community decisions that he cannot possibly influence.

He said it, he owns it.

The city manager was describing thoughts and actions by the homeowners, builders, and voters in the community. You calling him wasted your time and his.

He made those statements. If you want to add to what he said so as to cast him a more favorable light, feel free to do so. I shall not.

Keep in mind, the mayor and city manager of that town are different people with different offices and different responsibilities.

Mr. Eddy (he whom I am calling out) is the CM: http://www.cityofmoore.com/city-manager
"Appointed by the City Council, the City Manager is the chief executive officer of the City. The City Manager coordinates and directs City activities, carries out policies set by the City Council and exercises control over all aspects of employment of City employees except those appointed by the City Council.
The City Manager presents the annual budget to the Mayor and Council and provides professional recommendations to help the City Council develop policy. The City Manager oversees the following departments: Police, Fire, Emergency Management, Finance, Human Resources, Economic Development, Information Technology, Marketing and Public Information Office and the Assistant City Manager."


The mayor is Glen Lewis. He has a different set of duties, but you'll note that HE has called for storm shelters:http://www.calhountimes.com/view/full_story/22669114/article-Okla--mayor-wants-to-require-tornado-shelters?instance=home_local_news

You giving out his phone number was the height irresponsibility with a dash of ignorance.

You get the last word, but I won't be reading your response.

Quote from the city's website (also posted above already): " The City Manager oversees the following departments: Police, Fire, Emergency Management, Finance, Human Resources, Economic Development, Information Technology, Marketing and Public Information Office and the Assistant City Manager."

Each of the bolded items have relevance WRT emergency storm shelters. SO he DOES have them as part of his purview, and they are at least partially under his control.

Add to that his responsibility for the Assistant City Manger, whose responsibilities are: "The Assistant City Manager oversees the following departments: Parks and Recreation, Community Development, Public Works, Animal Welfare, Water and Sewer."

Again, the bolded items have relevance with storm shelters, particularly in public buildings.

To claim that he has no control over what builders do may be technically accurate (if taken in strict isolation), but that has little to do with his influence over when or whether storm shelters are built in public buildings: he has quite a bit of influence there, and that was the topic in the OP.

I'd say that the city's own website proves your statement to be incorrect.

Just called

Here on DU...the manager is reflecting the attitudes of more than a few of the residents I suspect.

I need to introduce you to Mayor Voepel of Santee.

He was asked about medical marijuana during a debate, in Santee.

"No fucking way."

Yup, that is a direct quote. I went...blunt and cranky

I have a very long time friend who lives there, moved out there in the 70's. If I ever win the lottery I'll take ya up on it.

Our problem was how to run that quote.

Refreshing, even though I disagree.

May have different ideas than Mr. Eddy regarding the need to have shelters built into the replacement buildings regardless of whether the government requires it or not.

The city manager position is...an appointed position...not part of the city governing board. The manager works for the mayor.

So the manager is doing something out of step.

the city/town manager is hired to do just that, manage. He can't dictate new building laws nor can he start construction on storm shelters for schools. The council with the approval of the taxpayers would have to approve a borrowing plan and allocate tax revenue for that.

As far as I heard, Mr.Eddy gave an interview consistent with his job function. Giving him crap is just that, crap.

The manager may have influence but not control.

The city council appoints the manager to carry out their agenda, along with the mayor (to an extent). While he may not be listed on the org chart as being in control, I can tell you from experience that the operational manager exerts plenty of control over what gets done, how it gets done, and when it gets done.

That means his attitude is relevant. And in his case, in need of adjustment. A manager who does not believe in a project can find lots of creative ways to fail that project.

LOL. It's a sock.

Screwed by their own self.

that you just replied to yourself?

Wow. If you are going to be a sock, at least show some talent at doing it.

What ever that is, I'm glad you find humor in it.

The point that I was responding to was, the city manager presents the budget for the various departments to the city council of for adoption. Thus, elected officials, representatives of the voters, have the final approval. That is exactly what he said in the interview. He was being accurate. The exact question that was posed to him was not stated in the NPR story. So the statement that the town manager would rather see kids killed is fictitious.

Surely not just the children but their parents understand this, and are proud to have done their part!

to care about anybody but themselves?

Keep waiting. They are "Christian" as long as it benefits them, then they abandon that idea for their own self-interest when it suits them.

So he sees that his self-interest lies in promoting the building of shelters.

Storm shelters aren't free. They cost money. I went through this decision process when I moved to Oklahoma 10 years ago. I love my children dearly, but I decided not to buy a storm shelter.

If you look at tornado deaths in Oklahoma since 1999 (I chose that year so that it would include the horrible death toll from the prior tornado strike in Moore), you find that about 7 people die per year on average.

I don't know what a shelter at a school costs. When I was building a house, it was going to cost about $4,000 for an inground shelter. There are about 3.8 million people in Oklahoma. So the chances of any one person dying in a tornado there are 2 in a million. Let's assume that half of the population is already protected by shelters at any given moment. That means that the unprotected people face a 4 in a million chance of dying form a tornado in any given year. For my family of four, that's about a 16 in a million chance that one of us would die without a shelter.

That's a lot of money to spend per life saved. For comparison purposes 100 times as many people die in Oklahoma every year in car crashes. It might make more sense for Moore to buy safer school buses than storm shelters.

I don't know what the answer is because I don't have all the facts. I just know that we shouldn't just assume that shelters make sense until we look at how much risk they'll mitigate per dollar and how we could spend that money on other safety items.

I would, however, add the fact that we are talking about the government's responsibility to protect the children in its care to the scales as we calculate.