Tickets are still available to attend The Republican Party of Fort Bend County 2014 Lincoln-Reagan Dinner with scheduled speaker United States Senator Ted Cruz.

Date:     Friday January 10, 2014

Time:     5:30 pm reception – 7:00 pm dinner

Venue: Safari Texas

11627 FM 1464, Richmond, Texas 77407

Click here for ticket information.

Fort Bend County GOP Chair Mike Gibson extends a warm “Merry Christmas” to everyone in Fort Bend County! Come join Mike, Tina, Pat, Danielle and so many others too numerous to mention tomorrow to celebrate Christmas and the success of everyone’s work in Fort Bend.

2014 is shaping up to be an interesting year in Fort Bend County.

Change is coming.

If you like your garbage provider, you can keep your garbage provider…..not!

“Effective Feb. 1, Missouri City Council Members authorized Republic Services to be the exclusive solid waste provider for all commercial customers located within City limits (Ordinance No. O-12-47). The franchise will remain in effect until Dec. 31, 2015.”

According to the Missouri City website, the march to single-payer residential and commercial trash service followed:

“city-voter approval of a consolidated city-wide Municipal Trash Program in the May 2010 General Election” after which City Council ” passed Ordinance O-10-31 and Ordinance O-10-38 that amend rules and regulations for the collection of residential solid waste in Missouri City.”

So back in May 2010 Missouri City residents voted for government interference in an individual’s right to contract with the service provider of their choice and grant near- monopoly status to one trash collection service. Three years later the force of the ordinances is almost complete:

Republic has converted most commercial businesses to date and is working toward securing a full conversion by Dec. 31.”

Sounds like Missouri City is following the Massachusetts…err…Sugar Land model.

Government-sanctioned interference with the individual’s right to privately contract? Check!

Businesses who liked their garbage provider forced to give up their garbage provider? Check!

This all sounds vaguely similar to “ If you like your private garbage provider, no one is talking about taking that away from you…..Bwwwaaaa!“

* Hmm, I wonder what will a search of campaign finance reports will yield.

How bad has it gotten in Missouri City? Alleged violations of the city charter, State Election Code, city ethics policy and state copyright are among four public interest issues that recently surfaced in Missouri City.

One:      After Missouri City Mayor Pro Tem Jerry Wyatt ordered the City police chief conduct illegal surveillance on residents social media communications,  Jerry alleged threats to his safety were made by area residents.  Upon declaring  “I did not want to become the victim of a Navy Yard…!! “ , an open records request was filed with the Missouri City City Secretary. Was this threat a matter of city-wide concern or a political tall tale?

In the official response to the open records request the Missouri City City Secretary replied:

                “Please note the City has no information which is responsive regarding  request number 1 outlined above.”

Yeesh. Political tall tale.

But wait! There’s more!

Two:      Jerry should read the section of the City Charter pertaining to Prohibitions:

Part 1 Home Rule Charter, Article III City Council, Sec. 3.08. Prohibitions, C. Interference with  administration: Except for the purpose of inquiries and investigations under section 3.17, the council or its members shall deal with city officers and employees who are subject to the direction and supervision of the city manager solely through the city manager; and neither the mayor nor a councilmember may give orders publicly or privately to any such officer or employee

Three:   After filing an open records request to obtain Jerry Wyatt’s campaign finance reports, the Texas Ethics Commission acknowledged receipt of a sworn complaint that Wyatt did not disclose political contributions and expenditures as required by section 254.031 of the Election Code and section 20.61 of the Ethics Commission Rules. Mr. Wyatt’s reports show a serious contribution balance discrepancy of over $15,000.

While I believe the myriad of campaign finance rules, laws and regulations are purposely designed to raise the barrier to entry for challengers to incumbents, reporting incorrect contributions balances rightly reflect Missouri City residents concerns with Mr. Wyatt’s ability to add & subtract, especially since he claims to know where & how every penny has been spent in Missouri City.

Four:     The campaign mailer for HCC District VII Trustee Neeta Sane displaying the official Missouri City logo may very well be in violation of the CITY COUNCIL CODE OF CONDUCT AND ETHICS POLICY MISSOURI CITY, TEXAS ADOPTED OCTOBER, 1998.  Item N reads in part:

“The City logo is protected by state copyright laws. It shall not be used for the political or private gain of individual Councilmembers. This also applies with respect to the use of City stationery or use of anything that may give rise to inference of City support or promotion.”

Coupled with ordering the unconstitutional monitoring of residents social media use, these four alleged violations of the city charter, State Election Code, city ethics policy and state copyright are of grave concerns to Missouri City voters.

A city council vote on the Missouri City ordinance to levy an ad valorem tax rate increase for the fiscal year ending June 30th, 2014 was held Monday October 7th at the Missouri City Community Center. Over 125 people attended the meeting and several speakers underscored  important truth in government & financial transparency concerns for consideration.

Wes Vela, Director of Finance, walked the meeting attendees through a presentation addressing residents questions and explaining the increased taxes would be spent on public safety, fire and police. Stay with me for a minute and you’ll realize why truth in government & transparency concerns were raised.

Recall on September 19th and 23rd, two public hearings were held in which Missouri City residents learned the new rate would be allocated to city employees through a pay adjustment and the salaries associated with hiring additional fire & police. Here is a copy of the handout distributed at the September 19th hearing.

Quite transparent so far, huh? New monies would be spent on fire and police, right?

However, according to the Council Agenda Item Cover Memo dated October 7th, 2013 the background states this rate would be allocated to Maintenance & Operations and to Interest & Sinking.

So which is it?

Would the money raised from the new rate be spent on pay adjustments for city employees and the additional hiring of fire & police as noted on the website & handouts or would the money be spent on Maintenance & Operations and Interest & Sinking as noted in the Council Agenda item Cover Memo?

Well, after much public comment from former Missouri City council members in favor of higher taxes (more on THAT in another post), a 5-2 vote resulted in Missouri City council adopting the higher tax rate.

The next day, on October 8th, THIS was posted on the city website:

Missouri City Tax Rate Increase Notice

The City of Missouri City adopted a tax rate that will raise more taxes for maintenance and operations than last year’s tax rate.

Do you now know why truth in government & transparency concerns were raised during the meeting?