I skipped writing about the last meeting of the Shoreacres City Council but I did attend. It was pretty much the same as last night’s meeting, very contentious between the citizens that attended and those that sit behind the bar and serve as Aldermen. There was a positive and I should have taken a photo. Alderman Bo Bunker was back in his chair after his recent hospital stay.
I’m not going to be quite as detailed as in the past – you can check the city website for official minutes. There just aren’t enough hours in the day right now.
5.0 Council Reports and Requests
Mayor Webber – he attended a meeting about the two plans to protect the area from hurricanes, the so-called “Ike Dike” and “Centennial Gate” projects. He described it as not very informative and hopes to have someone do a presentation at City Hall for residents.
6.0 Citizen Comments
Kay Pickett – Mrs. Pickett wants to serve on the Parks and Recreation board. She noted that the terms of the current members have expired and they haven’t met in over four years. She didn’t think that, given the lack of meetings, someone from the current board should serve on the Miramar restoration project advisory committee. She also noted the overall problem with all committees having members whose terms have expired. One thing I thought was interesting that she pointed out was that two committees, the Planning and Zoning committee and the Board of Adjustments each have the same members but a different person chairs them.
Phil Yovino – At the previous meeting, Mr. Yovino told about his dog Harley being attacked by a vicious German Shepard that had gotten out. His dog was severely injured and at the time was head to Texas A&M to see if his life could be saved. Unfortunately, he informed us last night that Harley didn’t make it. Mr. Yovino urged the city to enforce current registration laws about pets and presented council a form that he hopes will be given to all new residents and residents when paying their water bills. He thinks that this will help the overall environment in the city and make pet owners more aware of their responsibilities.
Charlotte Wells – Mrs. Wells started off by saying that she was unhappy with the overall activities of the council and had a laundry list of items that she wishes council would address. Some of the items she mentioned were speed bumps on Miramar, losing the elementary school, not balancing the budget, the various problems with the police department, the city administrator’s evergreen contract, possible violation of the open meetings act, lack of code enforcement, uneven enforcement of heavy trash pickup guidelines, the loss of the flood insurance discount, and putting obstacles in front of citizens getting information from the city. She also excoriated Mayor Webber for not being responsive to her calls.
7.0 Administrative reports
City Administrator Stall gave the financial report – you can read it on the website. The most important thing is that we lost the Public Works Director, David Sutton. Mr. Sutton found a higher paying position.
8.0 Business
8.2 After considerable discussion from council and citizens, Kendall Pickett was added to the Miramar Shoreline Advisory Group as the representative from the East side. No applicants applied from the Central and West blocs of the city. Council is hoping that someone comes forward during the next two weeks for these positions – if not, they will consider revising the makeup of the board, adding more East side representatives.
8.3. No action taken because the contract wasn’t ready.
8.4 After considerable discussion from council and citizens, no action was taken on the attempt to codify charges for Public Information Act requests. Alderman Bunker commented that he had listened to the concerns of the citizens and will consider changes to the proposed ordinance over the next two weeks.
8.5 After considerable discussion from council and citizens, no action was taken on Alderman Schnell’s attempt to broaden the pay range on the lower end of the scale for the Public Works Director position.
8.6. The Mayor nominated and council approved the appointment of Scott Tuma to the Planning and Zoning Commission Position 4.
Election
As a reminder, this Friday, February 28th at 12 noon is the last day to file for the upcoming City Election on Saturday, May 10th.
These are the candidates that are listed on the city website as having filed as of this morning:
MAYOR Vote for None or One |
|
Candidate | Ron Hoskins |
Candidate | Rick Moses |
Candidate | |
ALDERMAN AT-LARGE Vote for None, One, or Two |
|
Candidate | Mike Wheeler |
Candidate | Richard Adams |
Candidate | Paul R. Croas |
Commentary
There seemed to be a lot of hostility between the council and citizens on almost every item last night – that is my impression, others might view it differently. I am happy that Alderman Bunker was willing to listen to our concerns about 8.4 above and pull it back for a couple of weeks, if not altogether.
It gets old going to these meetings and having council fighting with citizens and citizens fighting with council. Some members of council seem to have disdain for citizens, particularly females – that is my observation after attending almost every meeting since this council was seated. And some citizens seem to have disdain for members of council and certainly the city administrator. We need to remember that we are all citizens of a very nice community and if we do, perhaps the atmosphere at the meetings will improve. I’m not pulling a Rodney King here but it would be nice to move forward.
In that light, I noticed that one of the residents, Cody Bunker, is having a Bible study at Circle Park this Thursday, February 27th, at noon. There is no better way to build or strengthen relationships than to study the Bible together.
David,
Once again, a nice write up about the meeting.
I totally agree with you and others, that it is time for this democratic process to no longer be meetings where the council is fighting with citizens and vice versa. However, to do that, the democratic process still needs to be preserved and while remembering that, we are a very nice community. Much of what I heard last night was the citizens wanting to keep our local government transparent and in favor of preserving the democratic process we expect.
Last night, for the first time, I was impressed with how the Mayor ran the meeting. From a strictly procedure process, he was mostly on target, which made the democratic process work. Kudos to him!!!
The discussion about the resolution regarding the Public Information Act proposed by Alderman Bunker, I think, produced the desired results from the citizens. City council listened to the citizens about the language and intent of that resolution. The language was inflammatory to the citizens and its intent was for the wrong reasons, without solving the real problem. I am not against City Council adopting the 36 hour rule for PIA requests, if done for the right reason with a proper justification that the citizens will support. Alderman Bunker deserves kudos for listening to the citizens.
It still doesn’t change that fact that the city administration and its citizens still have problems and those problems still need to be cured. The resolution regarding the PIA was just one example, because the citizens rightfully felt that its phrasing was an attack on them from the accusations that the citizens were abusing our legal rights. I believe that to solve this problem, citizens, including city council, need to follow the pattern or the clues that expose the root of the problem, and then council needs to fix the real problem. There is no need to have this much mistrust between the parties.
Agenda item 8.5 was about the review of the pay scale for a new public works director. That was met with deaf ears because many on council felt that we need to pay more to get the quality of service that we need. There was little discussion about what that quality of service meant or what we should expect from a new public works director. There was little discussion about how the pay would reflect the skills, knowledge, and abilities of this position or the actual job requirements, as stated in the job posting.
I am pretty certain that all citizens and council members would agree that one of the job requirements should be that the candidate has “excellent customer service skills.” Instead, the job requirements states that the candidate needs to have the “ability to deal tactfully with a sometimes hostile public.” Not only is this verbiage inflammatory towards the citizens, but also raises a red flag for a very qualified candidate who may otherwise be interested in this job.
Again, if you follow the pattern or clues, then you will get to the root of the problem.
Ron Hoskins
I’ve attended Council Meetings for the past six months and with exception of the selection & hiring of the new Chief of Police and the formation of the Miramar Shoreline Advisory Council, I see no substantive positive improvements coming from the meetings. At each meeting, the citizens bring up many of the same concerns, which unfortunately, end up on the back burner never to be addressed by Council, Mayor or the City Administrator. Attempts by Council Member Schnell to encourage rational discussions of some of the key issues like controlling expenditures and the giveaway employment contract issued to the City Administrator are stonewalled by the Council majority and never addressed.
Too often it appears the Council majority has based their decisions on the pre-selected path of the City Administrator and not based on input of the citizens. Many of the citizens are upset and disillusioned by what they perceive is the delegation of City elected officials’ responsibilities and authority to the City Administrator. At Council meetings several citizens allege they have been lied to and deceived by the City Administrator with no apparent concern expressed by the Council majority or Mayor to look into the allegations.
In my opinion the rapport between the citizens and the city has deteriorated to an all- time low. However, this city is fortunate to have a few citizens who are willing to challenge some of the controversial proposals and decisions of Council and the City Administrator. At least, for now it appears some council members are rethinking their responsibilities to the citizens.
Maybe it is time for Shoreacres Council to approach the issues from the viewpoint of the citizens and taxpayers. Council did it during the selection process of the new Chief and the formation of the Advisory Board. The same approach can be used for most other decisions.
Lastly, I have attended council meetings at other cities including La Porte, where the meetings start with a prayer. Maybe our city needs some calming and a prayer might set a better tone between council and citizenry.
GerryV