Texas started no-excuse early voting in 1987. While the first couple of years wasn't exactly what it is today, by 1991 we had pre-election day voting for elections with no reason necessary for you to go and vote. It would prevent everyone from having to stand in long lines on election day.
Voting for the City of Gonzales starts Monday April 30th - May 6th from 8 AM - 5 PM and May 7 - 8th from 7 AM - 7 PM.
For almost 3 years I've been activist on our city council. But for almost 30 years now I've voted. Even when I was in Germany I voted via absentee.
It is not only our civic right, it's our civic duty to vote!
I don't care which of the candidates you are supporting for mayor, or if you're in district 4 which candidate you're supporting, What I do care about is hearing people complain about what's going on in this community and doing NOTHING about it. Now is your no-excuse time to do SOMETHING about our city.
We ARE going to get a new mayor and district 4 IS going to get a new council member. So are YOU going to be a part of that? Or are YOU going to be someone who just whines when things aren't what you think they should be.
One thing I'll give to everyone who is running, at least they are trying to make a difference, and not just sitting on the sidelines complaining without doing anything.
God Bless,
Dennis Nesser
REFERENCES
Texas Early Voting
City of Gonzales Order of Election
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Friday, April 20, 2012
Our Neighbors
Ok, the last 2 post of mine, and several conversations later I've come to some conclusions. Now I'm not going to take credit for these ideas being mine originally, but I will say that I'm going to try to in-brace the thought a bit more.
Back 2 1/2 - 3 years ago a newspaper editor named Greg Little attacked not the policies of, but the personality of one of our council members. In a single instant he made it okay for small town politics to go negative and for us to 'hate' our neighbors based on their politics and/or personalities. The worst part, and I'm just as guilty of this as the next guy, is that we've allowed that to happen! We have allowed the negativity to drive wedges between people to the point we don't want to even talk to some people.
We can't allow that to continue.
Just because we don't agree with someones personal life, or a decision they've made, doesn't make them evil. Nor does it mean that we can't work together for the betterment of our community.
Some of you would think that after my posting on ethics I think Bob Burchard is a two headed monster. I don't. I don't like the current tactics he's using in his attempts for mayor. I wish that all we heard from his campaign were what Bob was going to do for this community, and cut out the bashing of his opponent Bobby Logan.
But last weekend Bob and I worked together with the scouts and other organizations to help clean out the city cemetery. We can agree to disagree and still work together to make our town, that's right yours and my town of Gonzales, a better place for all who live here and visit here. For 3 hours we worked as a team. No punches were thrown. No snide comments were made. No x-ray visions hoping to blow the other one up with their superhero powers were being used. No, didn't happen that way. We came together, we saw a problem, we conquered it together.
Still don't like his political tactics, but love what's he's spearheading in the cemetery. No hatred.
There is not a councilman sitting that I haven't gotten onto about something over the last 2+ years. But that's not personal. It's not because I think they are the evil city monsters trying to rule the world. It's because I felt like in those instances they didn't think things through, they didn't look long term, or they weren't looking at the whole picture. But I get along with most everyone that sits on the council including Bobby Logan whom I've smacked hard over the last 2 years in this blog. Everyone of them INCLUDING the mayor has sit at my dinner table for some talk or another over the years.
Now I'm going to say that part of this demeanor is still perpetuated by our papers. Notice that's papers not paper. Headlines like Judgement Day and similar have to stop. Facebook comments about 'the other paper' have to stop. If you want to make a personal comment then make it under your name, but don't put it on the newpapers website or Facebook page for the public to see the dirty laundry! Leave them under your blog or own personal page and don't link them. Just worry about the news you're going to report next paper, and the real news in our community that our town needs and wants.
Our community has come a long ways over the last 2 years in healing a lot of wounds created after Mr. Little opened Pandora's box. But there is still some festering and ooze leaking out. It's time we finish the healing.
When there's something wrong let's address it. This blog will continue to do that too. It doesn't mean that we won't have issues with JB Wells, finances, or other things in our city, but they need to be about what's going to make our city better, not the personalities.
As one who has crossed that line more than once I'm going to apologize now, and I'm serious when I say I'm going to make every attempt to take the personalities out of this blog and keep it more narrowly approached on the issues.
It is NOT okay to hate your neighbor. I don't care what some editor might of told us 3 years ago.
Who's with me on this?
God Bless
Dennis
Back 2 1/2 - 3 years ago a newspaper editor named Greg Little attacked not the policies of, but the personality of one of our council members. In a single instant he made it okay for small town politics to go negative and for us to 'hate' our neighbors based on their politics and/or personalities. The worst part, and I'm just as guilty of this as the next guy, is that we've allowed that to happen! We have allowed the negativity to drive wedges between people to the point we don't want to even talk to some people.
We can't allow that to continue.
Just because we don't agree with someones personal life, or a decision they've made, doesn't make them evil. Nor does it mean that we can't work together for the betterment of our community.
Some of you would think that after my posting on ethics I think Bob Burchard is a two headed monster. I don't. I don't like the current tactics he's using in his attempts for mayor. I wish that all we heard from his campaign were what Bob was going to do for this community, and cut out the bashing of his opponent Bobby Logan.
But last weekend Bob and I worked together with the scouts and other organizations to help clean out the city cemetery. We can agree to disagree and still work together to make our town, that's right yours and my town of Gonzales, a better place for all who live here and visit here. For 3 hours we worked as a team. No punches were thrown. No snide comments were made. No x-ray visions hoping to blow the other one up with their superhero powers were being used. No, didn't happen that way. We came together, we saw a problem, we conquered it together.
Still don't like his political tactics, but love what's he's spearheading in the cemetery. No hatred.
There is not a councilman sitting that I haven't gotten onto about something over the last 2+ years. But that's not personal. It's not because I think they are the evil city monsters trying to rule the world. It's because I felt like in those instances they didn't think things through, they didn't look long term, or they weren't looking at the whole picture. But I get along with most everyone that sits on the council including Bobby Logan whom I've smacked hard over the last 2 years in this blog. Everyone of them INCLUDING the mayor has sit at my dinner table for some talk or another over the years.
Now I'm going to say that part of this demeanor is still perpetuated by our papers. Notice that's papers not paper. Headlines like Judgement Day and similar have to stop. Facebook comments about 'the other paper' have to stop. If you want to make a personal comment then make it under your name, but don't put it on the newpapers website or Facebook page for the public to see the dirty laundry! Leave them under your blog or own personal page and don't link them. Just worry about the news you're going to report next paper, and the real news in our community that our town needs and wants.
Our community has come a long ways over the last 2 years in healing a lot of wounds created after Mr. Little opened Pandora's box. But there is still some festering and ooze leaking out. It's time we finish the healing.
When there's something wrong let's address it. This blog will continue to do that too. It doesn't mean that we won't have issues with JB Wells, finances, or other things in our city, but they need to be about what's going to make our city better, not the personalities.
As one who has crossed that line more than once I'm going to apologize now, and I'm serious when I say I'm going to make every attempt to take the personalities out of this blog and keep it more narrowly approached on the issues.
It is NOT okay to hate your neighbor. I don't care what some editor might of told us 3 years ago.
Who's with me on this?
God Bless
Dennis
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Judgement Day
Ok, I'm not sure that Gonzales needs a tabloid for one of our newspapers. Recently the headlines read in the Gonzales Inquirer read in bold print "Judgement Day". This for an article that had misinformation and basically stated while there were deficiencies there were not going to be ANY sanctions or penalties being accessed. So this was so serious that it needed a National Inquirer style title of "Judgement Day"?
I have to tell you I was very disappointed in this headline, and a couple of others lately. I have never understood what the Inquirers personal vendetta against Mrs Kacir has been all about, but any time her name is in the paper there is a tabloid story that goes with it. This vendetta goes back over 2 years when she was running for Mayor and the Inquirer was covering up for those at the city. I really thought when the new regime came in that trash reporting like that would be a thing of the past.
It's a shame too because I thought with real articles like the city 'finding' $250,000 we were moving in the right direction. That covering the stock show, and doing several other things for the positive of the community were actually going to bring around the paper and start to re-legitimize their place in this community. They've even taken some interesting angles on some stories that I think have been thought provoking and actually good reporting.
So why would they want to throw in sensationalize, crap reporting that is more acting like 2 year olds than 100+ year old paper that has a long standing reputation in this community?
They acted the same way when they lost the bid at the city. I'll be honest, the council didn't select the Inquirer exactly BECAUSE of this kind of reporting. Okay, you might not get someone to fess up to that, but trust me that's the bottom line. Remember most of the council members that voted that night were directly affected by the Inquirers tabloid reporting 2 years ago. Things like that are not going to be forgiven or forgotten over night, and continuing to report articles like "Judgement Day" will keep those memories fresh in their mind for that much longer. But keep reporting real investigative reporting and life in Gonzales and those memories start to fade.
And for the record, I've seen Mrs Kacirs emails attempting to reply too, and give answers to the Gonzales Inquirer. The Inquirer responded that the word count was to long for their policies, but they didn't report that, and THAT is misinformation when you say that attempts to contact Mrs Kacir went unanswered. So what the Inquirer posted is a lie!
I don't care if it's the Gonzales Cannon or the Gonzales Inquirer if it's not in the Op-Ed page, then it should be facts, and non-opinionated. It should not be sensationalized. If they want to write an opinion article on the facts after writing a story then that's their right! But let's label it correctly.
And that is just MY opinion on the situation.
God Bless,
Dennis
I have to tell you I was very disappointed in this headline, and a couple of others lately. I have never understood what the Inquirers personal vendetta against Mrs Kacir has been all about, but any time her name is in the paper there is a tabloid story that goes with it. This vendetta goes back over 2 years when she was running for Mayor and the Inquirer was covering up for those at the city. I really thought when the new regime came in that trash reporting like that would be a thing of the past.
It's a shame too because I thought with real articles like the city 'finding' $250,000 we were moving in the right direction. That covering the stock show, and doing several other things for the positive of the community were actually going to bring around the paper and start to re-legitimize their place in this community. They've even taken some interesting angles on some stories that I think have been thought provoking and actually good reporting.
So why would they want to throw in sensationalize, crap reporting that is more acting like 2 year olds than 100+ year old paper that has a long standing reputation in this community?
They acted the same way when they lost the bid at the city. I'll be honest, the council didn't select the Inquirer exactly BECAUSE of this kind of reporting. Okay, you might not get someone to fess up to that, but trust me that's the bottom line. Remember most of the council members that voted that night were directly affected by the Inquirers tabloid reporting 2 years ago. Things like that are not going to be forgiven or forgotten over night, and continuing to report articles like "Judgement Day" will keep those memories fresh in their mind for that much longer. But keep reporting real investigative reporting and life in Gonzales and those memories start to fade.
And for the record, I've seen Mrs Kacirs emails attempting to reply too, and give answers to the Gonzales Inquirer. The Inquirer responded that the word count was to long for their policies, but they didn't report that, and THAT is misinformation when you say that attempts to contact Mrs Kacir went unanswered. So what the Inquirer posted is a lie!
I don't care if it's the Gonzales Cannon or the Gonzales Inquirer if it's not in the Op-Ed page, then it should be facts, and non-opinionated. It should not be sensationalized. If they want to write an opinion article on the facts after writing a story then that's their right! But let's label it correctly.
And that is just MY opinion on the situation.
God Bless,
Dennis
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Ethics, Really?
So I'm a bit miffed. I have had at least 2 other people and Mr. Burchard tell me how unethical Mr. Logan is. And mind you I've called out Bobby Logins' ethics in this blog. But I think that someone who was fined $112,000 over the course of the last 7 years by the Texas Department of Insurance wouldn't be pointing out the ethics of someone else.
In March 2004 the following was listed on the Texas Department Of Insurance - Summary Of Operations For 3rd Quarter, FY 2004 page:
Then in March 2007 the real hickey came, and is also on the Texas Department Of Insurance - Summary Of Operations For 4th Quarter, FY 2007 page:
You will notice in the first case Burchards was the second largest fine, and in the second he was 2x the next closest fine. What does that tell me? It tells me this wasn't for minor little, oops we forgot something.
Now I'm going to say this one more time, let's talk about issues!!! I'm tired of the talking about who slapped who, or who slept around and cheated on their wife. Or who chopped down trees or who didn't fire Huseman, or who wants to be holier than thou, or who skipped school in 1957. Frankly the character card in this race should NEVER have been brought up by either candidate and I said that a month ago. Hell I've only been here 17 years and even I knew better than to bring up character with these 2. So this race has to come down on issues:
Now that JB Wells is under management how are we going to make sure it stays a vital part of our community and never get into a position where we were at a year ago?
How are we going to deal with the $20,000,000 debt ($6,000,000 + 25 years interest) we've put on our citizens for our water system so that we never are in this position again?
How can we manage our current prosperity to the best benefit of our citizens?
How can we drive visitor friendly businesses downtown to revitalize the wonderful downtown we have?
How are we going to grow our infrastructure to meet the current demands without leaving us hanging in a couple of years without unpaid for projects 1/2 finished when the boom is all over?
How are we going to make sure that a our children have something that keeps them occupied, educated and employed?
How are we going to make sure we're running as efficient a city as possible so that we are never looking to have to lay off employees?
Are we going to pay for museum repairs (millions of $$$'s) with our tax dollars or are we going to make sure private sector and grants are paying for repairs?
Are we going to be business friendly, or are we going to try to keep Gonzales in 1825?
Oh, the list goes on and on, so don't talk to me about who slept with who, or who said what. Geez, it's not even a presidential election and it yet you'd think it was ....I've heard a lot of bs when what we really need is answers to real issues.
God Bless,
Dennis Nesser
In March 2004 the following was listed on the Texas Department Of Insurance - Summary Of Operations For 3rd Quarter, FY 2004 page:
Now I'm going to say this one more time, let's talk about issues!!! I'm tired of the talking about who slapped who, or who slept around and cheated on their wife. Or who chopped down trees or who didn't fire Huseman, or who wants to be holier than thou, or who skipped school in 1957. Frankly the character card in this race should NEVER have been brought up by either candidate and I said that a month ago. Hell I've only been here 17 years and even I knew better than to bring up character with these 2. So this race has to come down on issues:
Now that JB Wells is under management how are we going to make sure it stays a vital part of our community and never get into a position where we were at a year ago?
How are we going to deal with the $20,000,000 debt ($6,000,000 + 25 years interest) we've put on our citizens for our water system so that we never are in this position again?
How can we manage our current prosperity to the best benefit of our citizens?
How can we drive visitor friendly businesses downtown to revitalize the wonderful downtown we have?
How are we going to grow our infrastructure to meet the current demands without leaving us hanging in a couple of years without unpaid for projects 1/2 finished when the boom is all over?
How are we going to make sure that a our children have something that keeps them occupied, educated and employed?
How are we going to make sure we're running as efficient a city as possible so that we are never looking to have to lay off employees?
Are we going to pay for museum repairs (millions of $$$'s) with our tax dollars or are we going to make sure private sector and grants are paying for repairs?
Are we going to be business friendly, or are we going to try to keep Gonzales in 1825?
Oh, the list goes on and on, so don't talk to me about who slept with who, or who said what. Geez, it's not even a presidential election and it yet you'd think it was ....I've heard a lot of bs when what we really need is answers to real issues.
God Bless,
Dennis Nesser
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