I'll point out once again that NOBODY on the City Commission brought up the matter of fees and service charges--the ONLY thing they looked at were interest rates. NOBODY brought up the matter of bank fees, not even Mayor Shewey, who IS a banker. The following screenshot of a portion of the AlterNet article should ring a bell deep down in you when you see how Los Angeles acknowledges the fee problem of getting into municipal debt and, having recognized it, is attempting to get the hell out of that kind of bind...
Read the whole thing n weep
Recently, the City Commission got schooled by financial wonks about how important past spending encumbrances and commercial viability into the future impact its liquidity index. One of the facets of that addressed specifically was about a what-if: if major commercial entities leave in the future, how does Enid plan to mitigate the loss of that taxable commerce?
We've lost Harold Hamm and picked up StarTek, a company with other offices elsewhere and with the attitude that as long as the other offices are always open, Enid is just an overflow option rather than one of its important offices. Oh, I know--another call center opened up after StarTek closed for the second time, but the point is whether or not that's a comparable size or bigger, and how steady is it? Under Bill Gamble, we were supposed to get a Bell call center, and we all know how well THAT worked out. Enid interests iffy operations like StarTek but not big dogs like Bell. Triangle has been sold, too.
On the win/lose balance sheet, the best Enid has been able to attract is Walmart. Enid has lost Baskin Robins, Denny's, and there's a rumor out there that Staples stays only because it's being paid to. Enid used to have an actual TV station, KXOK-LP, and you could actually tune in and watch actual local programming, complete with its own meteorologist once upon a time. It changed ownership, with the owners in Ponca City but was a rent paying tenant of Broadway Tower downtown. Remember that, City of Enid?
One less tenant in Broadway Tower, and only sporadic infomercials when you're lucky to catch something other than a "NO SIGNAL" icon. Enid, that's not going to make you look good, especially after the financial wonks find out what a big wad you're blowing on your PEG channels just to pat yourselves on the back with. The issue is credibility, and face it--the more you brag about yourselves on your PEG channels, the less credibility you're going to have with the folks looking at your books, given that the City's commerce can't even keep a LP TV station commercially viable as the City, with Enid Public Schools, hogs up all the bandwidth and sponsorship dollars that SHOULD be going to a commercial establishment instead of your bloated government.
You can manipulate ETN all you want to, but you're not going to hide what KXOK looks like.
Yes, the above footage was recorded in late April, but there has been no change throughout May to this point, other than the feeder channel occasionally and briefly running nation-wide infomercials, not any local content whatsoever.
Pretty much an accurate reflection of Enid's economic health when it can't even support the operation of its only TV station, transmitter of which is located atop Broadway Tower downtown. All of Main Street Enid's horses and all of Ward 5's men seem to have high difficulty putting Enid's downtown back together again...
Tuesday June 2 UPDATE, Muny Bonds Edition: Earlier this morning I was listening to Enid's KXLS FM station when I heard a commercial about a firm's focus on providing quality municipal bond portfolios for its clients, soliciting anyone interested in this sort of investment portfolio. I didn't catch the name of the company at the time, but I was able to research the phone number and arrived at Hennion and Walsh. Did some more digging and it turns out they're located not in Enid or anywhere in Oklahoma--they're in New Jersey. Well, +cityofenid , these are the big dogs I was describing when last I described how porch pups were trying to run with the big dogs but whining about how they can't afford to get off the porch. Yes, they will be the quality of Enid muny bonds if/when the City is successful in getting a loan that way, and it's by the bond rating system that all that st00pid spending on its PR department and so many other fru fru projects is going to come home to roost on your porch. In short, the porch pups need to show that they've been weaned, and they have major issues on that front.
Late Tuesday June 2 UPDATE, City Commission Edition: Permanent ETN cameras were installed but not in operation in the basement at City Hall where the Study Session was conducted, and in that Study Session, Whocares Vanhooser suddenly got the Public Opinion religion as well as dropping the Kaw Pipeline as a priority, if you can imagine that after he ran with that as a plank in his platform--in previous sessions, actually called it foolish spending! WOW!!
I've got the footage...but I already have tons of footage to wade through at this point, so your patience on posting that would be greatly appreciated. The footage includes the peculiar placement of the cameras (there are 2 of them) and one of 'em is aimed straight at where the Men's Room door opens. I was told that that's the camera position when it's OFF, but we can believe that? Really? I definitely intend to have fun with that part of the footage in Punched Out Judy, you can bet on it!
Here we go--
It's strange how the Commission whines about being cash-strapped, and then gives incompetent people raises, isn't it. And then there's this, no doubt gonna show up on the City's accounting books when it goes begging to banks for a loan...
