Sitting here watching the U of L Cardinals and thought I'd relate my phone call yesterday to the number included with our Storm Water District Statement (see previous post).
I spoke with a very nice gentleman by the name of Tim. When I questioned why we would mail our payments to an address in Carol Stream, IL, his reply was that no bank or other entity was willing to handle processing the payments as they arrive. When further pressed, he told me that he thinks the fee being charged is 30 cents per transaction. Not too bad a deal I suppose, but it does make me wonder why Fiscal Court didn't mandate and have the Oldham County Sewer District process the payments (or the Oldham County Water District, since we already pay our sewer bill through them) instead of paying a third party fee. Who made that choice to send the business out of state? Inquiring minds want to know...
Furthermore, and Tim was very generous with his time (explaining how inundated they had already been with calls), he also verified that if you go to the website listed on the statement (in very small print), you can also pay the fee online with no service or processing fee being charged. Now that option I like!
He admitted that this was all relatively new to him since he has only been employed with Oldham County government since December. Through the course of our conversation, I learned that he lives in Louisville, not Oldham County. I gained this information when he said he couldn't pay online himself (to test the system) since he is not a resident of Oldham County. I thanked him for his time and wished him luck with his new job here in Oldham County.
Which leads me to...
Now I gathered that Tim is a very fine person...but why in the world is Oldham County Fiscal Court hiring people that do not live here, pay property or vehicle taxes here, or are not otherwise invested in our county except for their employment? With the current state of things in this difficult economic time our country (and county) are under, can Fiscal Court not find qualified government employees right here in the good ol' OC?
With the influx of former Jefferson County residents (myself included) that have chosen to call Oldham County home, can Fiscal Court not give preference or pass an ordinance that stipulates that ALL county government employees must be residents of this county? State law does allow such a requirement. I'd be in favor of allowing any current employees that reside outside of Oldham County to keep their current position up until the expiration of the current County Judge/Executive's term. Even if Duane Murner runs for a second term, ALL employees must be residents of Oldham County on the first day of the next term of office for whoever is elected County Judge/Executive, or they shall be terminated. This gives them ample time to plan ahead. I know that may sound harsh to some, but consider this...why shouldn't residency be a job requirement? Keep Oldham County government jobs in the hands of Oldham County residents!
That's enough for now...back to the U of L game...go CARDS !
The Oldham Observer
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Oh goodness, if you only limited hiring to OC residents I do believe that could very well fall into the arena of discrimination.
ReplyDeleteIt is obvious that you have not been following Fiscal Court meetings as there have been numerous times that the court or Judge Murner or The Oldham Era or The Courier Journal have noted the LACK OF OLDHAM COUNTY HAVING AN OCCUPATIONAL TAX! Jiminy Cricket...sheesh.
In regards to your original stormwater post...there are allot of gaps in what you have written, besides...that horse has already run.
Scott,
ReplyDeleteOn hiring...I do believe that state law allows a government entity to require residency, it happened in the past in Jefferson County. I will however, seek to verify this and if I do, I will post the information and source(s) accordingly.
I realized I had erred in regards to how I worded the part about taxes...guess I was somewhat distracted trying to post and watch the U of L game. I know that we don't have an occupational tax, and I ammended my posting to refer to property and vehicle taxes, which had been my original train of thought. Thanks for the heads up on that!
I don't know what gaps you are referring to in the parts about the stormwater posting(s), but that is the beauty of blogging. You post your thoughts, inform others and learn along the way.
Bottom line is this...I'm all for protecting the environment and saving our natural resources...but this plan is not fair to all residential landowners. Someone who lives on say a one acre landsite, has a built in lawn sprinkler system for example, uses far more water and causes far more runoff than my little piece of Oldham County...and yet they are paying the exact same amount as my wife and I do. There is no parity in that.
Thanks for your comments.
The Oldham Observer
Regarding both of your postings about the storm water situation, very well stated opinions. It's nice to see someone not afraid to speak their mind & actually offer some reasoning behind their thoughts. The people in charge of this county have lost their way, thinking only of the elite it seems like, not those that are the backbone of our county. I wish you luck & look forward to reading & keeping up with your future postings.
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