Election TIme is Here

It's time to vote.  The mud has been slung, some has stuck some has not.  But here's my take on 1 race in particular.

There has been 1 man who has been willing to fight to keep our taxes lower and hold accountable the staff for the money it's spent over the last decade and been consistent about it, even when he was the only nay vote in the group.  That's Lorenzo Hernandez.  He's come out on the short end of the stick time and time again, but he's always voted his conscious not what the 'good old boys' want. 

For years I went to every council meeting and saw how things were going.  I would ask questions and because of it I started this blog.  So many things came under the directions of Bobby O'Neal that were unethical, bad business sense, and so often done for the cronies that supported him with no regard to the cost or repercussion to the city. Just read through the couple of years worth of information here.  I filled charges that magically 'got lost' not once but twice at the DA's office.  In the voter fraud charges the DA admitted there were improprieties but 'had bigger fish to fry'.  And Gonzales, wants to forget all that because he plays in the band at church or because he can sweet talk just fine.  DON'T!!! And I'm not even going back to the criminal records of his youth which were beyond serious.

Look our city is fiscally in a bad place.  We need someone who is willing to say 'no' when that is the right answer.  Someone willing to question everything that comes across the councils agenda and not just rubber stamp it. 

Please, the elections have started for the 3 year terms in district 3 and 4.  Learn the truth about your candidates and GO VOTE!!! We should have 1500 people vote, we'll be lucky if 300-400 vote.  For both races it's important to get out and vote.

God Bless,
Dennis

O'Neal Doesn't like the truth

Some people can't handle the truth can they?  After 7 years of the 90asign.com board up on that fence it was stolen after I reminded Bobby O'Neal of all his failures and scandals.  Less that 24 hours later the board was stolen.  I'm not at all surprised.  O'Neals name was the first on the board and the last.  He can do NOTHING about this blog or the Facebook shares that will occur between now and election day reminding everyone of his antics.

How about his putting in pay for our council members.  As he's going around and telling everyone he wants to get rid of it, he fails to mention is was him that got it put into the charter on his tenure.

How about the raising of taxes to pay for the bloat that started on his watch.  His opponent has many many times  questioned the growth of our city employees.  In typical government only thinking fashion he would rather just raise our tax rates.  Don't get me wrong, our city employees are good people, but we don't have the funding to utilize them and the (not exaggerating) $1,000,000 extra in cost to the city is not acceptable right now.

How about the fact instead of replacing the millions that O'Neals administration blew in our rainy day fund when we started getting oil money, he and his cronies decided to spend every penny....oh and then more to bring us in the red.

The truth hurts sometimes, but bottom line is that this city can't afford O'Neal, and his antics.  Please share this blog as often and far as possible.  People need to remember all the scandals.  Oh and if you see the O'Neal, ask him how many signatures he's gotten at the Heights nursing home and filed for absentee ballots.  Sound familiar?  Some things never change to they Bobby?

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser

O'Neal - I Still Remember

Maybe if we wait a few years EVERYONE in town will forget everything I messed up as Mayor and all the interaction with the District Attorneys office.  Have no fear I have NOT forgotten.

Let me go over a couple of things I so fondly remember about O'Neals tenure.

1) The water system was a failure to plan by city council and any of those on there now.  Mr Windwehen, in July 2011, commented on this, "you failed to plan 7 years ago when this was brought to your attention, so now you have no options but to go outside for money.  If you'd done your job, you would of raised rates then in anticipation of this, and had capitol to pay for it, but you didn't."  See Blog Post

For that entire 7 years want to guess who was mayor of this city? Hmmmm...oh yeah Bobby O'Neal!  The leader of our council.

In doing so Mayor O'Neal lead our city into debt when we had to issue bonds to repair the water system for the first time.  Prior to that we were a debt free city.  Not anymore.  We are millions in debt and I promise it won't be any time soon that we come out of that.

2) Let's run our city like we print money.  Mayor O'Neal not only condoned but encouraged running a $400,000 deficit in our budget.  In 2011 - 2012 budget they started with a negative budget of $400,000.  Now our coffers had already shrunken by over $2,000,000 over the previous couple of years, but 'we have oil money coming' so let's spend it. See Blog Post

3) Let's not forget the support of the worst city manager we have ever had.  Mayor O'Neal tried his  best to keep the city manager that ran our city into the ground financially, David Huseman.  When it came down to taking care of business Mayor O'Neal not only tried every dirty trick in the book to keep Mr Huseman but when he was fired by the council he See Blog Post:
     A) Issued a final payroll check illegally
     B) Retroactively gave Mr Huseman a payraise that was NOT authorized by city council
Who the hell gives someone they fired a payraise?  It was so bad I filed charges on Mayor O'Neal.  The DA's response?  "Well there's something there but we have bigger fish to fry".  It's who you are isn't it? If it was you and me we'd of been in jail, just ask Rev Roach about that.

4)  This doesn't EVEN cover the election fraud scandel, the Museum District, the being VP of a corporation doing business with the city, etc, etc, etc.

I remember Bobby O'Neal and all that he brought to our town.  He's brought the increased cost, higher taxes, debt for the first time, scandals by the score, and the good old boy system at it's best.  Bobby O'Neal was king of the good old boy system for 16 years and wants back in.

I REMEMBER AND HOPE YOU WON'T FORGET EITHER!!!!

God Bless on this Easter Weekend,
Dennis Nesser 

Car Shows

Ok, I guess it's been to long since I've written because all of a sudden I've got three topics to talk about, 2 of which I'm just not liking right now.  So over the next week I'll have several post that will go over each of the 3 things.

But let me start with a car show that we are PAYING for to come.  Now I'm not 100% up on all of the details, but know enough to know that you don't pay for car shows to come to your town.  And get this, Gonzales Mainstreet is paying $14,000 + 25% of the take to a promoter out of Lockhart - Joel Aaron Gammage/Hat Rod Productions.  

So what are my problems with this?  Where do I start? 

1) This is a Saturday right in the middle of the OUTSTANDING Friday Night Concert Series.  This series is the best thing, to me even better than the winter fest, for our town that Main Street does and is what they should be concentrating on. Why wouldn't you do an additional event in another month when there are no functions going on?

2) While I'm not a car show expert, we've had several in town put on by several car groups.  NEVER ONCE, REPEAT NEVER ONCE have we the city paid a dime to sponsor one of those shows!!!!  Car shows are NOT something you pay for someone to promote and sponsor, ESPECIALLY not with city money.  

3) This board has just turned down at least 3 different request for money because they'd run out for downtown development, signage, and other request, and yet they've found $14,000 to do this show.  As a board member of GEDC (I've been on since May of 2014) I can tell you our board will be looking at this for any future monies we give to Main Street.  

4) I'm pretty certain that this car show was not a line in the Main Street budget, and if rumor is correct it came out of the Christmas budget.  I will be putting in for a freedom of information request to verify this.  If so then that is improper use of funds as approved by city council.  

5) We have websites and tickets being sold for a function that hasn't even gone before City Council for their approval.  So we've spent, again if information is correct, $3500 unrefundable has been paid to , for something we don't even know will be approved by the city council.  In their current mode I'm thinking the council will have more sense then Main Street on this issue and reject their proposal.  

6) Ok, so want to guess who is the 'event marketing' firm?  None other than the cities Rockin' S Marketing & Design - Loretta Shirley.  Now isn't there a conflict of interest when you are ALREADY being paid to bring people to Gonzales and then get paid again to a city sponsored event?  I have a HUGE issue here with this as unethical. 

7) So we as a community need to get all the facts.  Bottom line is when this was asked on the web page the questions and the even picture were removed from Facebook.  Instead of answering the question they so that EVERYONE can know exactly what's going on they are hiding and transparency is not to be seen on this item.  Our city managers is keen on transparency, so I'm hoping this will be rectified quickly.  

Ok, so later in the week I'll post about JB Wells (I have a meeting with City Manager Allen Barnes on Monday), and their losses out there last year, and about the Charter Amendments that we'll be voting on in May.  So please stay tuned. 

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser

Update - I received an email from city manager Allen Barnes today with the following points in it: 

Please understand the following:

1.        Main Street is a 501 (c)3 that in many ways operates separately from the City, but like EDC is very closely associated with the City.

2.      The Main Street Director is an employee of the City of Gonzales and as such falls under the ultimate supervision of the City Manager.

3.       The City Manager directed the Main Street Manager, as a City Employee, to NOT obligate the City of Gonzales in anyway with regard to the car show.

4.       No monies have been paid to the promoter of the car show, or to anyone with regard to the car show.

5.       No activities of a for profit nature will take place on City owned or controlled property without the expressed approval of the City Council, by written resolution.

6.       The promoter of the car show, may or may not desire to proceed with the car show without Main Street funding.

7.       If the promoter wants to proceed with the car show without the Main Street funding, the Council will consider his request prior to any staff level approval.

8.       The Main Street Board will meet on March 24 at noon to discuss this issue further.

  

 Look if this guy wants to go on his own without city money (501c3 or not) and resources then I'm ALL for it, that's enterprise and something going on down on the square, go for it!!! The only thing I see that council could be concerned with is the desire to have 400 cars downtown.  I know the Come And Take It car show puts 100 cars down there and 4 times that would be a bit of a struggle, but I'm willing to let them try. 

If they want to proceed with city money, well let's say I'm still against it.  

$136,799.46

Last night our council approved $136, 799.46 (see packet here) for magazine advertizements through the Tourism Committee.  Now I first want to start out by saying I'm not opposed to spending $136,799.46 on advertisements.  We need to market our town, and the revenue stream this is coming from (Hotel/Motel tax) has a limited scope of things that it can be spent on, and advertisement is a big one of those things. 

So where is my problem with this? It's the pie in the sky thinking.  It's the thought process that says $10,000 spent on an ad that is primarily distributed outside of the 150 mile range of Gonzales is going to do better than a $8,000 billboard on I-10.  "More people would read our ad in Texas Monthly than drive down and would see our billboard on I-10"  OMG!!!! Pull your head out of your ass!!!  When Loretta Shirley said that to the council last night I thought this was a done deal, put it away, go back to the drawing board, but nope, all but Tommy Schrig vote for it.

For 20 minutes the council asked why aren't we in our 150 mile radius?  Why is it that those with successful advertisements for their city have billboard, radio ads, and newsprint, and we don't?  Why do I have to look at Cueros' Turkey Fest every time I drive down 183, Lulings Watermelon Thump when I'm in Austin and on I-10 and when those times come I hear about them on the radio like KVET, and yet we don't have one ...no one single solitary ad similar to theirs, AND WE KNOW THEIRS WORK!!!!  Have you been to a Thump in the last couple of years? If so you know what I'm talking about.

Bottom line is that people are going to drive 2 hours to visit Gonzales.  So I challenge a billboard leaving Fredericksburg saying, "Next time visit where it all started" would be more effective than 90% of the advertisement dollars that was spent last night.  Those that are outside of that range are coming to Gonzales for reasons that were already in their plans, not because Texas Monthly or Southern Living has a full page ad. 

Want to know what gets people to Gonzales?  TV spots like this Day Tripper spot http://video.klru.tv/video/1570851687 where we got a blurb of a comment about the cannon.  Ask the Museum curator Marlaina Haberman how many people came in wanting to 'hug' the cannon after this 2009 episode recently re-aired.  What did it cost? $0.  That was a great return on investment.  So maybe we need to be educating some of the other shows and working with people like Texas Country Reporter to get more air times in some of those than wasting money. 

Oh, and the kicker, when asked by Councilman Opeala "It sounds like the budget had $140,000 in it and so you tried to spend every last dime", the answer was "Absolutely".  *slapping forehead again*

The council berated Ms Shirley about the cost of individual ads. About the 'where' the magazines were going.  About the lack of vision for some of their media proposal, but at the end of the day they couldn't tell someone standing infront of them "No, you've got it wrong, go back and do it right this time".  Again, I want to stress that Tommy was the only one that did the tough thing and said "No, we're not going to waste taxpayer money that way."

*sigh*

Ok, that's off my chest I hope everyone has a great weekend, and GO APACHES GO!

God Bless,
Dennis

PS - Just to be clear, I'm not saying 100% of the ads were a waste of money.  Those ads that are web based, the Austin based ads, and the like I see as beneficial and targeting those who are going to come to Gonzales. 

Tourism Dollars

"Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should do it."  I tell my kids that all the time.  It's a fact of life.  Today I saw the council forget those words of wisdom when it came to handing out $60,000 in unbudgeted money. 

Now to be fair I want to start from the beginning.  We are talking about hotel sales tax, which came in way higher last year than predicted.  The additional hotels and the consistent high occupancy has created a surplus that is limited in how it can be spent (it can not go to general funds and spent). 

In the past, request for those funds would have gone through and been approved by the Tourism committee.  A year or so ago, the rules were changed a bit that a secondary approval had to be made if anything exceeded a certain amount (I believe $2000...though I could be off here).

But tonight council considered and approved $60,000 worth of funding that never went to the tourism committee.  $45,000 to the Chamber of Commerce, $15,000 to the Crystal Theater.  They did this even after the committee chair informed the council that they had circumvented his committee, and that he felt like this was a bad precedence.  He was right.

So looking at the documentation provided the city now will pay for 50% of the Crystal Theaters expenses.  We're paying 75% of a new float.  If I read it right we're paying 100% of the renovations for the kitchen and Chamber (Old Jail House) work.  By the way did I mention this building isn't even owned by the City of Gonzales?

The Chamber said at council meeting tonight that they can't get any funds from anyone in town.  Hmmmmm, think maybe the 15+ years of poor management are coming back to bite you in the ass?  I know this is a total new administrative team in there, but for the record we've been paying a minimum of $10,000 a year for very little return on our investment at the Chamber.  There was a time it helped the businesses of Gonzales, but that's been a long time ago, and the fact the Chamber board refused to make changes for so many years is the reason they are where they are today, begging for scraps.  Want my support, then let's see changes at the Come and Take It where we are truly bringing in outsiders and not just family that is coming in, you know like our surrounding communities do.  Let's see tourism planned and worked in a positive manner, not a put out a bucket and let's see what might fall into if attitude. 

The Chamber can be a very positive force for a pro Gonzales rally, and maybe the new team down there will succeed in getting those things done, but there has to be actions and not just words like we've heard for so long.  And until that action starts, and the train is moving, it would be a tough call to give them a plug nickel.

Look, in the long run maybe the city should of approved all $60,000, but they should of sent ever single nickle back to committee for approval FIRST.  That's what that committee is for.  If not than disband the Tourism committee.  Personally you'd of seen my resignation tomorrow morning if I was on the Tourism committee and was slapped in the face like they were tonight.  Just because the council COULD approve those funds doesn't mean they should of. 

God Bless,
Dennis

PS - Other budgeting and spending coming soon.

Grumpy Old Men With No Manners

Bill Sheppard

I have been wondering why Dennis Nessor had been so quite for the last couple of months, I now know. he is trying to land a contract with the City of Gonzales. I guess he feels if he plays the good little suck up he will get it. And probably so, the city would love to shut up complainers like him.

Share · March 7 at 7:47am · 


The above is Bill Sheppards post on Facebook.  First note I can spell his name, which is more than I can say about him for me.  

Now to make things clear, Bill has many good ideas, and it's a shame no one will listen to him because he's forgotten what we teach our children in kindergarten, manners.  It was not that long ago I had to call him out on this in a public forum.  He called me all kinds of names then, and I just told him the same thing over and over, "You are wrong, and you owe my wife an apology".  He was wrong, he was spouting things as facts that were not only not factual, but out and out lies, and he didn't like being called out on it, especially by a woman. 

As far as I can tell he's a grumpy old man who would like to live in misery than to make friends and be civil.  That's his choice. Per Bill -  Gonzales isn't smart enough for him, we're not ready for him, and heaven forbid we don't want to hear the truth from him.  It must be horrible to be so fantastic that no one else will ever live up to your standards.  

He complains that I haven't posted anything lately.  Since I've been doing work for the city I've written 6 times, several very critical of procedures that have happened in the city.  A couple complimenting things I've seen that I like.  I write about what I see.  

Since January I've written exactly 0 (that's right zero) blogs in any of my 3 blogs I manage.  I've just not had time to follow up on the couple of things I would like to, and don't want to put anything out there without it being correct. And honestly I've just not had the time to write about any of the things I like to write about.  It happens. 

No one has bought me out, I'm still looking around, but honestly where we are today from where we were as a city when I started this blog is 2 totally different places.  You can get real and honest answers from the city.  You can find information you want, and it's not one big cover up trying to keep inquiring minds from uncovering anything.  

Are there still faults? Yeap, sure are.  And in council meetings many of those are being addressed, but Mr Sheppard wouldn't know because while he bitches, he hasn't been to a council meeting to see what's going on in 3/4s of forever. If you want to make a difference that's where it's done.  

As for the brown nosing to get the bid?  Let's see I came in $10/hr less than the only other hourly bid, without a $3500/month retainer/minimum and would work after hours and weekends unlike the other bid.  Additionally after they fired the only other bidder in September, and the person they hired after they fired him, couldn't fulfill their contract to the city, I was the one brought in to fix the situation.  It was a technical disaster where users hadn't been able to work in weeks, and my firm was able to take care of all those issues in a timely manner.  So let's see, we fixed things, we saved the city money, and we have a positive record.  Yeah, we won the bid fair and square.  Oh, and the 3rd bid from the other company would of cost the city almost $12,000 MORE a month than what they are paying now for IT Services.  

So Mr. Sheppard, I won't talk about you behind your back, I'll be right up front with it. Once again I'll call you out for a lack of manners.  And again, it really is a shame, because if you had them, maybe you could get some of those ideas of yours listened to and acted upon.   Maybe you really should go visit a kindergarten for a couple of weeks.  Maybe you'll find your manners AND your smile, and not be so grumpy about the world around you. 

Dennis Nesser

PS - In comment to them increasing the speed limit on spur 131 you'd be wrong again, it was discussed at the council meeting that this would drop the official speed limit down 10-15 mph. 

Main Street

There are many boards and committees in Gonzales.  Many of them play some very important rolls in our day to day life.  They maintain order to our daily lives, they bring jobs to our community, they work on bringing money to the town in many different ways. 

To me one of the most effective boards we have is the Main Street Advisory Board.  It's has brought together our community in ways that I don't think any other board has.  It's brought us things like our recent Christmas parade, the Friday night concert series during the summer, and our 4th of July celebration to name a few. 

They are constantly listening to the public for what they've done right and what they've done wrong to make next years event better.  They are creative in their thinking.  They have gone back and revamped what didn't work before to get them to work this time. 

I've written about them before and hopefully will have cause to write about them in the future as they bring our downtown into the spotlight and in doing so bring our community together. 

They've had a member step down after many years of great work, and there is an opening.  The city put the above ad in the paper, the way it should be, asking for help in this committee.  If you're a thinker and a doer, and want to be part of this board, don't hesitate, get your application into the city.  Bring some fresh ideas that will be heard to a board that is making a difference in our town.

God Bless,
Dennis

Traffic

I remember about 15 years ago I was at the stop light by McDonald's and there were 6 cars going the same direction at the light.  When I saw then Mayor O'Neal a couple of days later I told him he'd better get a handle on the traffic before it got out of hand.  Joking as I was at the time, it appears I was onto something and didn't even know it.

Now I know that the increase numbers of 18-wheelers have had some impact, especially on Sarah DeWitt and 183.  The city council even created trucking routes to keep 18 wheelers out of the town, and on those 2 streets.

But that's not what I want to address. 

Several times last week I was almost hit by someone running red lights.  Not one of those was an 18-wheeler.  The first one came off of St George and turned right as I was coming from KCTI.  I had to swerve into oncoming traffic to avoid hitting the car. 

Second was by the courthouse when some ran a seriously red light at high speed on St. Louis.  I was already into the intersection (on a green light) and had to slam on my breaks to prevent this pickup truck from ruining my life. 

Now there have been others in the last couple of weeks of people running red lights, but those 2 were not only the closest but the scariest to me.  I'm talking heart pounding, pull the car to a stop and take a deep breath type of close. 

So I've been watching.  I think at least part of it's been that we as a group are not the best of drivers.  We drive like we're the only ones on the road and it's not a big deal, and 15 years ago that kind of driving didn't matter.  There wasn't a car waiting at every corner, so by default we could drive through a lot of intersections and it didn't matter.  Now note I have referenced "we" in this statement.  Until I started teaching my boys how to drive, I was very much in that group.  There is nothing like having a teenager in the car, who by their very nature know everything, and you're trying to tell them not to drive like you are if they want to pass their driving test, to make you change the way you drive.  I'm about to start on #3 teenage about to drive. 

I've also noticed that while teenagers drive like teenagers, especially right before and after school and during lunch, that the lack of driving skills is not limited to teenagers. 

This weekend one of our mainstays of Gonzales, Mr Burchard, was medi-flighted out of here because of an accident.  I don't know the details, but what I do know is that to many people I know have been in accidents over the last 6 months.  That these are local people getting hurt and yes, even killed because of people not paying attention to their driving, or in to much of a rush to wait for a stop light. 

If you're not able to drive in this traffic then you are just as much to blame as those going to fast.  Get off the road.  I know it limits your life style, but when you cause an accident and someone else gets killed what is that trip to Walmart going to mean to you? I know I've heard it 1000 times in the last couple of years, "it's just down the block" or "we're on the back roads after we get off 90a".  This from unlicensed kids driving while their parents are in the car, or worst letting the kids drive without them, and from people, 1 elderly and one who had medical problems and shouldn't be driving.  To young and to old or sick but the laws don't apply to them. *can you hear me rolling my eyes?*

I'm begging you, slow down.  Stop at lights and stop signs.  Pay attention to what's going on around you.  Be responsible about your driving. Don't drive if you shouldn't be (for whatever reason). 

The 18 wheeler deal is a whole other problem and it's just as serious.  But not much 'we' can do individually about that.  The council and police will have to handle those.  BUT we CAN and MUST take care of the problems I've listed above.  I'm tired of hearing about people I know in accidents, and am scared to death, wondering how many we'll have to bury before we'll change the way we think.

God Bless,
Dennis

NJHFR

The following is a note for our city council in reference to Item 9 on the agenda for the meeting tonight 12/4/12.  

Mayor and council members,

I’ve come before this council over the last several months with concerns about JB Wells Park, and tonight because of item 9 on the agenda I’m missing my sons band concert to be here and speak against this agenda item.

I want to make it clear that I love the fact we have a grade “A” arena that people from around the state seem to love to visit.  It obviously has attracted national attention for the national jr high finals rodeo to even give us a nod to accept a bid from us.  I think our arena is a great asset to our community, and could possibly in the future provide even more benefit to our community.

But with all that said I have extreme misgivings with the proposal for us to pursue the NJHFR finals.  I wish to go over some of them right now. 

           1)      The last several times that the current budget of JB Wells has been brought before the council and questions have been asked about its’ financial status, our city manager has not been able to give us any real numbers.  We still do not really know what our current level of management is able to do for not costing tax payers money.

If I’ve seen the budgetary information posted in your packages correctly JB Wells spent 99% of their budgetary funds in about 6 months.

Our current concessions is on a probationary period because we’ve still not been able to get that under control and managed properly.

            2)      Our city manager has told us that we are already short on manpower for current events.  That the current ‘small’ rodeos are causing stretching our manpower to swap arenas and get prepared, so is it even feasible for our staff to manage something of the magnitude of the NJHFR Finals?

             3)      Let’s take a look at the requirements

a.       1200 stalls.  If I’m correct that’s approximately 6 times our current size.

b.      30,000 sq ft under air building, a 2,500 sq ft under air building,  along with 9 meetings rooms with under air accommodating between 20 and 100 people.

c.       A dance floor for 1000 people.  Last I saw Herman Sons has a capacity of 275, so something 4 times the size of Herman Sons.

d.      A minimum of 550 camping slots, preferably 800, PLUS 150 trailer drop off locations.  So read between 700 and 1000 slots.

e.      A shooting range for 500 individuals

f.        Parking for 8000 people a day.  Even at 4 people a car that’s 2000 vehicles. 

g.       400 golf carts

      h.      The sanitation facilities, bathrooms, showers, etc that will need to be built to handle this one event. We still haven’t built the bathroom promised the soccer players several years ago at Independence Park, and you want to accommodate 800 families with facilities at JB Wells Park.

And that’s just the start.  We definitely don’t have a hotel that even has 175 rooms in it, and even with the hotels on the books, you’re going to have a hard time getting 175 rooms.  That would be over 3 entire hotels at the size hotel we have in our community.  

Now looking at these requirements I want to make a correction to the Agenda Item Briefing Data that was prepared for you by the city.  On page 2 under budgetary considerations there is listed $0.  Unless the city has found Aladdins’ Lamp and still has 3 wishes on the genie, or found their fairy godmother who is willing to perform some bipity bopity bo and make all this appear then this information is grossly understated.  These things do not magically appear without huge financial and man hour investments. Additionally it has already cost us in time and money spent by the city attorney and employs per the agenda item.

But that’s just the start, once these facilities are built we now have continued financial responsibilities to maintain these facilities. 

Have we even considered the environmental impact of doubling the size of our community for a month?  Water is never in great supply, especially in June and July.  Trash, Manure, road damage, and other impacts would be significant during this time period, all at a cost to the city.

Security and health also falls under our part of the bargain.  With police already stretched thin we want to double our size and problems for a month?  Have you visited the ER and seen the issues we have there, without adding 8000 more citizens to be injured for the month.

In addition I’ve read all the financial impact information provided by the rodeo association. I want to point out a couple of discrepancies.

            1)      Gallop NM is over 3 times the size of Gonzales and has a budget of over $100 million dollars.

            2)      A quick google search shows over 100 restaurants listed in Gallup

            3)      2 full theaters running 7 days a week along with bowling alleys and 3 other amusement parks listed for entertainment. 

            4)      2 trailer sales businesses 

            5)      7 new car dealerships 

            6)      Dozens of hiking trails

            7)      Etc, etc, etc

And that’s just a start.  The $5.2 million impact that was created in Gallup is almost impossible to reproduce in our current economic state.  To call it a pipe dream to bring that kind of economic impact to our community would be nice at best.  We do not have the businesses in place to sell that much, so let’s not pretend we do.

But what upsets me as bad as anything else is that this proposal, like every other proposal concerning JB Wells expansion, is ‘popped’ up on the city council agenda with a short fuse deadline.  This project is 10x bigger than the biggest event we have in Gonzales, and you are expected to in a few minutes understand the entire scope of this project, repercussions, and true financial pitfalls that you are being asked to support.  This should have been in front of the council in July, not December, just over 2 weeks before a proposal deadline is looming before us. 

And I haven’t even gotten into the part of the JB Wells PARK that has not been completed and never will be completed if these facilities are increased to the size required to host the national finals.  When are we going to focus on our taxpaying citizens and their needs and desires?

I was at the ‘vision planning meetings’ we had a couple of months ago. I know that the NJHFR is a vision that this community has.  But if you’ll remember that vision was 20 years from now.  Time enough for us to truly plan.  Time for us to prepare.  Time for us to make sure that we have a successful NJHFR.  Who knows, maybe even time for us to expand what is now JB Wells Park in acreage so that we could accommodate not only a rodeo this size, but the parks and trails that the citizens of Gonzales could truly enjoy and use and were promised by this council.  

Please don’t put the cart before the horse tonight by approving this proposal.

Veterans Day 2012

This has not been an easy weekend for me.  It's been Veterans Day 2012 weekend.  I've attended 3 events with the Boy Scouts for Veterans Day.  For those who don't know it's the 50th anniversary of the start of the Vietnam War this year.  But that's not what has been so tough on me.

I've never really cared much for Veterans Day.  I feel uncomfortable receiving recognition for not being extraordinary.  My generation had a few skirmishes and the start of Desert Storm, but I didn't have to go through a WWII.  I wasn't rejected as the Vietnam Veterans were on their return.  And I never saw terrorist actions like the young men in Afghanistan or the middle east.  So I'd much rather the attention go to those that do deserve it.   

But this year Taps has a more eerie sound for me.  It's always struck a chord in my heart, but this year, 2012, it's shook me to the core every time I've heard it.  You see, this is the first Veterans Day since one of the heros of WWII passed away, my grandfather Capt. William F. Nesser.  He wasn't in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines or Coast Guard.  He was in the Merchant Marines.  He went where our Coast Guard and Navy wouldn't even think of going.  His command went to Russia and points between where u-boats were peppering the waters.

I remember back in the 80's when the Government recognized the Merchant Marines, my grandfather was elated to hold the title of veteran.  He received medals from the governments of France and Russia for his efforts in delivering goods to their countries, but the thing he was proudest of was his DD214 releasing him from military service and making him a veteran.  At his funeral the Navy played taps and handed the family a flag in his honor.  He deserved every bit of it. 

Recently the WWII museum in New Orleans had a display of my grandfathers maritime goods from his time in service and travels around the world.  The article is here if you're interested in reading about him and the museum.

Just weeks before he passed away they spent a day interviewing him about his adventures.  The stories I heard over the last 20 or so years about trips to Russia, watching explosions on the horizon as his buddies ships were blown up and watching them sink, politics over where the cargo ships were to go, and many others are held for my childrens children to remember what this man was part of.  I'm sure I've forgotten as many stories as I remember, but I remember many of them.

WWII vets are becoming fewer and fewer.  My grandfather was 92, and he was a young man when the war started.  If you know a veteran, especially a WWII veteran, make sure you take the time and listen to them.  Hear their stories of adventure of battles and sorrow of losses of their best friends.  It's time you'll never regret.   And honestly I can't think of anything a veteran would want more than to spend a few minutes telling another generation of their hardships and their victories. It really is a great way to pay honor and tribute for all they went through.

God Bless, and may He guide our country and put a protective hand over all the young men and women still in harms way protecting our freedoms.

Dennis Nesser

Following the Rules

In my house hold I make rules.  Now anyone who has kids know the routine.  You make a rule, it goes along for a bit, then all of a sudden the rule has been forgotten.  "I didn't know that was a rule", or "I forgot that was a rule".

I saw that happen at city council on Monday night.

Council made a rule about a year ago that they wanted ALL board vacancies to be posted in the newspaper of record, followed by applications being taken, and then the council would decide who would be appointed.

The last 2 times someone has vacated the city manager has brought a name to the council prior to the procedures being followed.  Last time they tabled the appointment so that the proper procedures could be taken.  This time they (the council) let the kids make the rules.  Why bother having rules and procedures if you're going to circumvent them at every opportunity?

Now I have a couple of points on this.

1) What's the rush?  A single vacancy on any given board can wait a month or two and not stop business from happening.

2) Why didn't the council just table this like they did last time?

3) What are we afraid of by following the rules?  That 'one of the boys' won't be selected?  The person selected might be the best person for the job.  But after talking to some of the council members no one has a clue who she was, so how can we know because no application was filled out, and not ads were put out.

I believe Mr Barnes when he states he wants transparency in our city government, but he's failed here.  Transparency is allowing the ENTIRE community getting involved by asking those who are interested in a specific board know that there is a vacancy.  Not allowing the 'good old boy' get selected to the board because of who they know.

Additionally I've mentioned that when they put their ads in the paper that it specifically states what boards have vacancies.  NO ONE is going to apply to "join a committee or board" ad.  They will join a "Library Board" or "Cemetery Board" or other board that they have interest in.  That's simple marketing 101.  

Second item that bugged me was that Mayor Logan was trying to make a statement of fact in response to a public comment made.  Our city attorney, Jackie Williamson, stopped him in his tracks and told him they were not allowed to speak during the public comment section.

WRONG!

I get so upset when either "we've always done it that way" or we just don't know the real answer so we make up a 'safe' answer to look like we do know what we're talking about.

I wish to quote the Texas State 2012 Open Meetings Handbook (Pg 41).

The Act permits a member of the public or a member of the governmental body to raise a subject
that has not been included in the notice for the meeting, but any discussion of the subject must be
limited to a proposal to place the subject on the agenda for a future meeting. Section 551.042 of the
Act provides for this procedure:
 
   (a) If, at a meeting of a governmental body, a member of the public or of the
governmental body inquires about a subject for which notice has not been
given as required by this subchapter, the notice provisions of this subchapter
do not apply to:
 
      (1) a statement of specific factual information given in response
to the inquiry; or
 
      (2) a recitation of existing policy in response to the inquiry.
 
   (b) Any deliberation of or decision about the subject of the inquiry shall be
limited to a proposal to place the subject on the agenda for a subsequent
meeting.214

Mayor Logan was trying to do just that, make a statement of fact, that there was already a law covering the problem in question.  Nothing more.

Third, anyone who knows Mike Hanson knows he's loud and he's not a smooth speaker, but even in his boisterous way he sometimes has valid points.  During the meeting the council decided to go to month stays at JB Wells for the trailers.  Mr Hanson asked the city attorney if that meant that the city would have to start going through court instead of using the police to evict people when necessary.  Jackie wouldn't answer Mr. Hanson.  Well the fact is he had a good question and none of the council members turned to her asking for the answer.  Instead they voted 'aye' to the amendment without all the answers. So the question is still out there, will we have to start going through court to evict people from JB Wells now?

I will give Mr Barnes a thumbs up on one of the points that Mr. Hanson made that SHOULD of been answered during the Public Comments.  Mr. Hanson made the point that many of the agenda items are vague or make no sense unless you have background information on the item, and it was no fair that we as citizens didn't know what they were going to talk about. For those who don't know, about 3 months ago Mr Barnes has had the city secretary started posting the entire booklet that the city council receives online.  This is generally right above or right below the agenda announcement.  This last week it was 122 pages and in Adobe format.  **Note - If for some really odd reason you don't have Adobe reader you may download it here free **  It has background information, backup documentation (sometime to excess), recommendations, actions that would be taken, cost, budget information, and more.  I highly recommend people start reading these even if they don't print them out.

Note - I print these out 2 to a page and double sided for my personal use, it's easy to do in Adobe and allows you to read at your leisure without waiting 122 pages. 

This weeks meeting had a 2 page agenda, and we didn't get out till 8 PM.  I understand that the meeting was long, but we don't stop asking question if that's what it takes to get the right answers so we make informed decisions.  It was almost as if some of the council were afraid of asking the obvious questions in fear of making the meeting 10 minutes longer.  We had a full house in the seats and those citizens who took the time to attend and be part of our city processes deserved the right to hear answers to valid questions.  After all the council is there for the citizens.

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser