Heh, she didn’t say it quite that way but at the end of last night’s Shoreacres City Council Meeting, in front of another standing room only crowd, Mayor Dolly Arons resigned from office. As I noted here, voters in Shoreacres overwhelmingly chose to go a new direction by ousting two incumbents and selecting three new council members. Here is her statement of resignation:
Mayor Dolly Arons
The results of the election indicated to me that the people of Shoreacres want to head in a different direction and you have a new council with new goals. And I understand that my presence here is interpreted to be a hindrance to the achievement of those goals. So I am hereby resigning the position of Mayor. Matt will never talk to me again, I know that, but I will be here for you. I do believe that Matt can help reunite the city and take us in the direction that the residents have indicated that they want to go. I ask that you put aside all your personal agendas and personal vendettas and reunite the city. Thank you very much.
I thought that the Mayor’s remarks were gracious and that she made the correct decision to resign. Small town politics can be very rough and tumble, dividing neighbor against neighbor, and I do think that a complete reset of the governance of the city can help restore the unity that somehow left us in the past couple of years. As with the outgoing council members, the Mayor has much to be proud of during her three years in that office, including the bulk of rebuilding after Hurricane Ike. I wish all politicians were as civic minded as Mayor Arons, in this case giving up her post after determining that it would be the best thing for the city. Well done, Mayor.
The “Matt” that she mentioned in her remarks is Matt Webber, who was elected Mayor-Pro-Tem shortly before she resigned. I do think that he has the ability to step in and unite the city in the interim before a new mayor is chosen. Texas Local Government Code 22 allows for the council to appoint a mayor or to schedule a special election. It will be interesting to see which route they chose. On the one hand, appointing a mayor can be done quickly and without cost. But a special election would allow the citizens to choose their mayor directly and that is always a good thing.
One item of interest that was brought up during the citizen comment period has to do with the financial condition of the city. Former Alderman Gerry Victor claimed that the city has spent roughly 32{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of the city’s reserve fund (rainy day fund) over the past year and a half. I haven’t been able to confirm that and have reached out to Mr. Victor for clarification and hope to have something on that in the future. If true, this must be corrected immediately. We spent less than that amount out of the fund in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Ike and there will be other emergencies in the future.
Here is a photo of the outgoing council members after receiving awards for their service to the city:
Connie Ramirez, Dana Woodruff, Richard Adams
Here is a photo of the incoming council members:
Bo Bunker, Nancy Schnell, Rick Moses
Comments
Gerry Victorsays
Hello David,
Just a short note. Enjoyed your interesting article & photos about the Mayor and changing of the guard at City Hall Shoreacres. I believe your comments to the council are beneficial and will be taken more seriously in the future.
To clarify the General Reserve balances I mentioned during the meeting:
General Reserve Balances:
Audit Report of 9-30-2011: $1,184,756
Financial Report of 3-21-3013: $ 804,346
Transferred from Reserve to General Fund in 18 months: $ 380,410
or 380410/1184756 = 32{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986}
I am concerned that council was beginning to live beyond its means. However, I am hoping that this new council will listen to the citizens concerns and respond accordingly.
Regards, GerryV 281-229-0860
David Jenningssays
Thanks Gerry.
Alisa Tolleson Clarksays
I have lived in Shoreacres for 12 years, love it and hope to live here for a very long time. The comment about our cities financial situation hits a sore spot with me. I do not know where it is but I have a good idea where it is NOT.
In the past year, I have had to have many police calls to my home. Five to be exact, thanks to an ex-daughter in law who has lost custody of her child. In my dealing with the Harris County Family Court system and needing information from City of Shoreacres Police Department I have gathered some interesting facts. When a court ordered Subpoena was served the requested Officer did not have to appear in court because it was his day off. Did I mention this was a court ordered subpoena? I had been in personal conversations with the Chief of Police for 2 days before the subpoena was issued (5 days before court). Turns out, there is no set schedule for the officers. The schedule is worked out between them but not updated. The officers are required to use punch in and out time cards but that will only document the time that was actually there. How do they plan for coverage? Thankfully, we had enough notice to have a second court ordered subpoena served and the Chief of police was the witness and did appear in court. Which then brought a new set of concerns as our attorney asked the Chief how many times they had been called out to our home to which his answer was he did not know. City of Shoreacres does not have any type of records/cases retention system. Actually, let me rephrase this…. City of Shoreacres does not have an electronic records retention system. One of the other Officers was kind enough to review the thousand of call slips from the previous year and document our 5 calls. One thing the Officers do have is a GPS locator in each patrol car. This GPS locator documents how long an Officer is at any given location. I know this because when one of the officers was at my home, he said that he needed to wrap it up because he would be questioned as to why he was at my house for a given length of time. You can only imagine my shock. I told him that I did not care and that the person who would question the length should call me as I was a concerned resident. I was told that the people who have access to these records were the City Administrator and the Public Works Director. WOW! Now for my last three comments then I will get off my soapbox. Why do we NOT offer direct deposit to our employees? They are manually written a check. Why do we NOT have the capability to pay our utilities electronically? Lastly, why did our City do away with the DOT program? This was revenue for the City and was a much needed safety service to those of us on the highway. Surprising, Port of Houston put a little pressure on us and it magically disappears.
In closing, anyone who would read this would naturally ask are we doing something about it. We are trying; my husband ran for City Council but was not elected. It is my genuine hope that the people who are serving will make positive change for this wonderful place we call home.
Bradleysays
If you found the events described above interesting, Google the recent actions of the new mayor and her battle with the police department, the citizens and city council. Small town politics at its best (worst).
Hello David,
Just a short note. Enjoyed your interesting article & photos about the Mayor and changing of the guard at City Hall Shoreacres. I believe your comments to the council are beneficial and will be taken more seriously in the future.
To clarify the General Reserve balances I mentioned during the meeting:
General Reserve Balances:
Audit Report of 9-30-2011: $1,184,756
Financial Report of 3-21-3013: $ 804,346
Transferred from Reserve to General Fund in 18 months: $ 380,410
or 380410/1184756 = 32{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986}
I am concerned that council was beginning to live beyond its means. However, I am hoping that this new council will listen to the citizens concerns and respond accordingly.
Regards, GerryV 281-229-0860
Thanks Gerry.
I have lived in Shoreacres for 12 years, love it and hope to live here for a very long time. The comment about our cities financial situation hits a sore spot with me. I do not know where it is but I have a good idea where it is NOT.
In the past year, I have had to have many police calls to my home. Five to be exact, thanks to an ex-daughter in law who has lost custody of her child. In my dealing with the Harris County Family Court system and needing information from City of Shoreacres Police Department I have gathered some interesting facts. When a court ordered Subpoena was served the requested Officer did not have to appear in court because it was his day off. Did I mention this was a court ordered subpoena? I had been in personal conversations with the Chief of Police for 2 days before the subpoena was issued (5 days before court). Turns out, there is no set schedule for the officers. The schedule is worked out between them but not updated. The officers are required to use punch in and out time cards but that will only document the time that was actually there. How do they plan for coverage? Thankfully, we had enough notice to have a second court ordered subpoena served and the Chief of police was the witness and did appear in court. Which then brought a new set of concerns as our attorney asked the Chief how many times they had been called out to our home to which his answer was he did not know. City of Shoreacres does not have any type of records/cases retention system. Actually, let me rephrase this…. City of Shoreacres does not have an electronic records retention system. One of the other Officers was kind enough to review the thousand of call slips from the previous year and document our 5 calls. One thing the Officers do have is a GPS locator in each patrol car. This GPS locator documents how long an Officer is at any given location. I know this because when one of the officers was at my home, he said that he needed to wrap it up because he would be questioned as to why he was at my house for a given length of time. You can only imagine my shock. I told him that I did not care and that the person who would question the length should call me as I was a concerned resident. I was told that the people who have access to these records were the City Administrator and the Public Works Director. WOW! Now for my last three comments then I will get off my soapbox. Why do we NOT offer direct deposit to our employees? They are manually written a check. Why do we NOT have the capability to pay our utilities electronically? Lastly, why did our City do away with the DOT program? This was revenue for the City and was a much needed safety service to those of us on the highway. Surprising, Port of Houston put a little pressure on us and it magically disappears.
In closing, anyone who would read this would naturally ask are we doing something about it. We are trying; my husband ran for City Council but was not elected. It is my genuine hope that the people who are serving will make positive change for this wonderful place we call home.
If you found the events described above interesting, Google the recent actions of the new mayor and her battle with the police department, the citizens and city council. Small town politics at its best (worst).