Today's Quote

“Words are easy, like the wind; Faithful friends are hard to find.”
― William Shakespeare

What's The Difference?

We live in a Republic and I don’t think that most people understand what that means. The two forms of government: Democracy and Republic, are not only dissimilar but antithetical, reflecting the sharp contrast between (a) The Majority Unlimited, in a Democracy, lacking any legal safeguard of the rights of The Individual and The Minority, and (b) The Majority Limited, in a Republic under a written Constitution safeguarding the rights of The Individual and The Minority.
Thomas Jefferson once wrote; "All the powers of government, legislative, executive, judiciary, result to the legislative body. The concentrating these in the same hands is precisely the definition of despotic government. It will be no alleviation that these powers will be exercised by a plurality of hands, and not by a single one. 173 despots would surely be as oppressive as one. Let those who doubt it turn their eyes on the republic of Venice."
I think some review of the original intent by reading and reflection rather than selective evidence might possibly correct a few opinions, especially as the writers of the constitution had such strong opinions on the matter.

ICC Again

The maintaining of a system of effective internal control does require appropriate separation of responsibilities. For internal control to be effective, there needs to be an adequate division of responsibilities among those who perform accounting procedures or control activities and those who handle assets.

The purpose of segregating duties is to insure that no one individual is in a position that allows such an individual to both commit an irregularity and then conceal that irregularity. Certainly in a large community with multiple employees within a department, there is ample opportunity to segregate functions so that employees, performing their routine duties, serve as a check on one another. But even in small town situations, internal controls must be implemented to insure that adequate checks and balances continually occur.

Segregation of duties
involves separating job functions so that ideally no one individual is able to 1) authorize a transaction, 2) record the transaction in the accounting records, and 3) maintain custody of the asset resulting from that transaction.

SEGREGATION OF DUTIES
Five-person Segregation of Duties

· Bookkeeper, City Clerk-HR, Deputy City Clerk, Treasurer-Finance Director and City Manager
· Post accounts receivable
· Distribute payroll slips
· Complete deposit slips
· Sign checks
· Reconcile petty cash
· Open mail / receive cash
· Gives credits and discounts
· Sign employee contracts
· Write checks Record initial charges & pledges
· Prepare invoices
· Custody of securities
· Post general ledger
· Complete check log
· Approve payroll
· Approve employee timesheets
· Post credits / debits
· Disburse petty cash
· Approve invoices for payment
· Reconcile bank statements
· Mail checks
· Authorize purchase orders
· Authorize check requests
· Perform inter-fund transfers

Today's Quote

The older generation thought nothing of getting up at five every morning - and the younger generation doesn't think much of it either. ~John J. Welsh

How Limited should The Government be?

The Darwin awards are based on the concept that humans left to individual choices would restrict population growth through natural selection. Stated differently, the tragedy of the commons should be allowed to happen. People acting in their own individual best interests with no government restrictions would kill enough of themselves and others to again achieve natural selection.
When the girl is injured by a faulty rope bungee jumping – everyone says she was stupid; no one said the government didn’t complete an inspection. The Centralia Mine Disaster was the employees fault for working there; not the corporations fault for ignoring safety requirements. The people who lived in Chernobyl during the nuclear accident deserve what they got for accepting those jobs; not the industries fault in design and safety responses. The people who live along the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers are at fault for all the PCBs in the rivers, not the paper companies. Those kids that became sick from playing in the Love Canal were stupid; not the corporations that dumped the chemicals there. Legalizing all drugs will solve the crime problem and kill lots of stupid people.
“Freedom is not defined by safety. Freedom is defined by the ability of citizens to live without government interference. Government cannot create a world without risks, nor would we really wish to live in such a fictional place. Only a totalitarian society would even claim absolute safety as a worthy ideal, because it would require total state control over its citizens’ lives. Liberty has meaning only if we still believe in it when terrible things happen and a false government security blanket beckons.”
― Ron Paul
Ron Paul is an is off by about 180 degrees and he should soon be meeting some coming from the other direction..

Need to Read

This week I have choosen to read "The Screwees Guide to Voting and Elections."

Leadership Team

The combination of an ESFP and an INTJ and the search for reality. The one who wants to handle unknown situations on a moment-by-moment basis and the decisive, planned and orderly thinker.

A Myth?

Every once in a while we get a council member who thinks we can cut staff and add tasks. If it were possible to do more with less eventually we would be doing everything with nothing. The real question for us in determining if we can do more with less is; “are our processes efficient”?
Just downsizing would result in one person having a significant increase in their workload to carry the wood for those who are no longer here. So the dynamic of what happens when those who survive pick up the load of those who don't survive becomes an increasingly important concern. If people really were lazy and slackers, as many think, and were only doing real work 2 hours a day, then it should not be a big deal. But if that proves to be a myth, the long term ramifications could be significant in terms of stress related physical and emotional health conditions. This is where the rubber will meet the road when it comes to good organizations. The really good organizations, and leaders, will let their managers deal with this and their organizations will excel, and the average organizations, those who just plod through each day and never have an original thought, and never challenge and reward the creativity of their people, will fail.

Was Today Worth It

I don’t think I’ve ever exchange a day of my life for today, I did technically, but I didn’t live it that way. I have survived my life. I’ve worked hard almost every day and my family has probably had a better group of opportunities then I had growing up. The feeling still exists that not every opportunity was lived to the fullest. I don’t feel that anyone caused my life to be this way other than me. I now know there were so many things I could have done.

From the time I can remember, my fullest attention was on self-protection. I just had to survive the day. No one could be trusted enough to release my ability to live fully – everyone is eventually going to disappoint me. Being stoic has its emotional advantages; you understand that ennui was the eventual result. You have been prepared for this outcome and are insouciant. You have avoided all the emotional distressed of a changed relationship.

Changing this emotional response is difficult.

Issue for July 2012

It's to bad a burning ban is really only a suggestion to people. The firefigthers are working a lot of hours as volunteers and they have other jobs they need to work at. There is no relief in sight for the dry weather and everything outdoors is tinder ready to burn.

Issue for July 2001

We have received a proposal from Strand and Associates regarding providing more detailed plans which would be prepared to help the Council make a decision regarding the upgrade of the Fire Department facilities. The previous study determined that larger facilities were need and gave several rough concepts for meeting the Departments future needs but failed to provide enough information to make the Council feel comfortable deciding which option to choose. I asked Strand to prepare a proposal that would provide the information needed to assist with that decision. The Council may want to have a study session or a regular meeting agenda item with the representatives of Strand and the Fire Chief and Deputy Chief to discuss the proposal.

OOPs

The salesman from a firm with locations in Waukesha, Osseo and DePere participated in public comment at the last meeting was concerned about an equipment purchase made by the Light and Water Utility. The following will explain the conditions around the purchase and related information.
The definition of “public contract” has been previously interpreted by the Wisconsin Attorney General not to include equipment. Attorney General opinions have stated that farm machinery, a police car, and a heavy movable engine constitute equipment, are not supplies or material, and therefore are not subject to competitive bidding requirements.
Although the city has no formal standard for purchase of equipment, it has followed similar purchasing standards to the public contract. There are exceptions to this standard for equipment bidding when the equipment is used the equipment is considered unique/one-of-a-kind and this makes the vendor a sole source provider. The John Deere plow/mower and the ladder truck were purchases of this type.
Sole-source purchases are goods and services available from only one supplier. There may be just one vendor because of patents or copyrights or simply because the vendor is the only one which supplies the good or service. These purchases are exempt from the standard bidding equirement.
There are a number of reasons the city may occasionally use sole-source purchases. Sole-source purchases must be strictly controlled, since they do not follow a competitive process.
Under most conditions, a sole-source purchase should be the subject of a certain amount of negotiation. The lack of competition may otherwise result in a severe case of seller’s market, where the seller can charge unreasonably high prices. The purchaser should prepare a detailed list of requirements relating to delivery, quality, performance and other conditions, and be prepared to withhold the purchase to ensure compliance. The buyer should do everything possible to strengthen his bargaining position.
The purchasing Utility brought in five similar models of the vacuum trailer and demonstrated each for several days. A price and performance comparison was made and reviewed before the decision was made to select the used piece of equipment. The documentation is included in the packet.
Its’ unfortunate that a quality vendor was missed in the process and staff will attempt to review the vendors list closer in the future, but the process was within both the state and city legal requirements for this type of purchase.

Big Challenge

Becoming a member of a statewide Ethics Board.

Will There Be a 2013?

Budgets went out to Department Heads for comments, review, corrections and additions.