Townhall Meetings

A few of the County Council members arranged several townhall meetings so that Jake Zimmerman could address the flood of complaints being lodged to their offices.

I attended 3 of those meetings.  Not so much because I felt I would glean some important information, but just because I wanted to see how Mr. Zimmerman would answer the questions that were asked.

I formed two opinions.

1.)   Jake Zimmerman is a politician, and he's good at it.  He maintained a calm and cool demeanor in the face of some pretty hostile residents.  He responded to questions in a manner that didn't necessarily answer the question, but seemed to appease the room in general at least, if not the person that asked the question.  If the question was too specific, or possibly too incriminating, then he would simply direct the person to go speak privately with his staff over in the corner, and he would move on to the next question.

2.)  Jake Zimmerman is either lying through his teeth, or he is grossly misinformed about what is going on in his office.  Numerous statements were made by him which I could easily prove to be inaccurate, and with numerous examples.

At least sort of.  Remember, he's a politician, so he knows how to make a statement that isn't really true but neither is it a bold-faced lie.  For example, I believe he claimed in each of the three hearings that I went to that he has "put an end to drive-by inspections."  Well....  Yes, perhaps he has put a stop to "drive-by" inspections simply by forcing his inspectors to get out of their cars.  Apparently to deliver a postcard.  Because he HASN'T addressed the problem that inspections are not being done, which was the problem in the first place that warranted the implementation of the Missouri Statute.

He also stated repeatedly that they just want to "get it right."  That has not been my experience.  Everything I've attempted to get them to correct has been rejected.  Even my property description is still inaccurate to-date, in spite of multiple attempts on my part, and even having one of their appraiser's at my house with a tape measure.

And I'd still like to hear the answers to the other questions asked.

The biggest problem I see is that Mr. Zimmerman is refusing to even acknowledge that there's a problem.   And so he's not going to make any effort to correct anything because he doesn't think there's anything to correct.

I want to hear YOUR stories, because I know I'm not the only one that has encountered noteworthy situations.  Tell me about your reassessment.  Tell me about your appeal experience.  I'm going to compile as much evidence as I can and then we, as a community, can evaluate our options and work to get this clearly-broken system corrected.  With enough documented evidence and a crowd that is unwilling to walk away quietly from this, perhaps then -- just maybe -- we can get Mr. Zimmerman to acknowledge that there's actually something wrong with the system.