What now?

So I'd like to take a POSITIVE set of ideas to the priority of what needs to be done next to our council members as they get started with new positions and a new person on the council. 

So give a couple of suggestions of what you've like started - finished - a new direction taken on. 

1) What should we do with JB Wells?
2) What priorities is our roads in town? Any particular street need working on?
3) What should we do for our kids in this town?
4) What needs to be done to help downtown thrive? 
5) What about all these committees, are they necessary? 
6) What should we do with the additional $400,000 in sales tax we just received?

Ok, I'm going to ask that you keep this positive, like a new kid on the block that is looking for suggestions, not complaining about the past, I want to look forward for this post.  Not that we're going to forget anything in the past, but for this post, pretend there is no past.

If I were king (queen) for the day I would............................

Let's hear it and I'll make sure you're comments are heard by those up on the bench.

God Bless
Dennis

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

Cha-Ching

First Tuesday of the month was last night, so that means that our city council was in session and another chunk of unbudgeted change was approved for spending. No don't get me wrong, there are times we must spend unbudgeted money, and one of them was last night to an extent, but the rest? So here's the run down:

$48,000 in longevity bonuses for city employees. I have a couple of issues with this carte blanche bonus, though have to give Tommy Schrig props for trying to do it correctly.

This bonus is $4 a month for every month an employee has worked for the city up to 25 years. Now that includes Mr. Barnes who has worked for the city for 1 month. Councilman Schrig tried to pass it so that is applied to employees over 10 years. In my public working I've never seen one paid for any employee under 3 years. But not Gonzales. Why are we thanking those for their 'longevity' when they haven't proven any?

Additionally Councilman Hernandez asked about the handful of employees that within the last 2 years have gotten pay raises of over 25% and if they too would get the bonus. Oh yeah they will.

So why didn't the council table this motion till these issues could be sorted out? Had the city manager bring back a revised proposal that would truly benefit those who deserve something, yet not double dip those who have already benefited AND those who haven't earned it yet? I'm at a lose as to why our council is so quick to pass everything that comes before them.

Now the fire department asked for $10,000 in additional funds for unforeseen expenses, primarily due to the additional use they've gotten this year. My ONLY complaint is that we should have in our budget some of this additional repair items. We know that repair cost are never going to be what we thought they'd be. And heads up, for the next couple of years while this drought continues our fire department is going to need more money! Let's get it planned for now. I know it's not one of those expenses anyone wants to pay for, until that fire is at your house, but we've got to, and these firemen have busted their own tails raising money themselves too.

Now in one breath we heard (though I haven't seen the ytd/budgeted finances to confirm) that we have a windfall of cash from increased tax revenues and oil, and then in the next breath heard we would be going out for bonds to pay for the issuance of bonds for the money we need to make things work.

What I didn't hear is anything on the St. George debacle. Why after 2 year 4 months we still don't have finished streets.

I didn't hear one committee update from any boards / committees.

And with the exception of 2 out of 13 items, I heard NO discussion of ANY of the issues brought before council. I heard next item, motion, aye, aye, aye, aye, aye, next item repeat above.

For those interested, the second item discussed was when Mr. Hernandez asked the city manager to work with the failed petition on garage sale issue to come up with a compromise even though the petition didn't hit the 400+ signatures the city is saying were needed. This will come back up in December for modifications to the garage sale ordinance. So if you're interested be there in December to speak your peace.

God Bless

JB Wells

So I'm sure that there are those of you that think I've been doing a happy dance in town square over the recent developments in our city.  With the firing of 2 employees, both directly related to the investigation of theft at JB Wells.  Well I'm not!

Before I get started on my tirade, I want to note that the second, Mr. Malaer was fired for and I quote, “The investigation has been able to document numerous violations of the public trust and disregard for management accountability by this person.”  Now theft could be in there, but I don't read it that way.  I read it to be he didn't do his job, and didn't hold those below him accountable for doing theirs. Only time will tell the whole story.

But back to business.

I'm mad! I'm upset! Actually I'm pretty pissed off! Why when everything is so obvious to me did it take 18 months and can we say over a million dollars of losses over the several years (I know it's $20,000/month for the last couple of years) to start to address this problem?  Why have so many turned a blind eye to these issues and tried to defend JB Wells operations and their losses for so long?

Why wasn't our financial officer jumping up and down at city hall meetings telling us there were problems down the street?

Why wasn't our previous city managers screaming that we had to change procedures to get this under control? 

Why wasn't our city council putting this on the agenda every month until it got resolved? 

I know that at one point at least one of the city council members went to the police, but it wasn't in an official capacity.  But maybe that was enough to get the police to start investigating.  I'm not certain what one thing finally got this investigation underway, but if I had to bet it was the firing of David Huseman, and the hiring of Charles Windwehem.

I'm not sure if this investigation is over with.  I'm not sure what the final outcome is going to be.  What I do know is that it's time to finally get a grip on our operations in the city, and especially JB Wells.  Mr. Windwehem has started turning the direction of our city operations around. We can only hope that the new city manager, that will be announced on Tuesday, will be appreciative of all he's done, and continue to turn the city around in a professional manner, with the high standards that Mr. Windwehem has set.

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser

How Much More Can We Spend?

So I've not written much about the city because I haven't had the time to follow up on some things that have really bothered me about the city council actions of late.  So I'm going to go over a couple of them here, even though I'm looking at them from one side, and have had no comments from any of the city councilmen.

First was 2 agenda items that were at this months city council.  The first was $28,000 (not budgeted) to have a flow study done of the water system.  There are problems on the northern end of town for water pressure, and complaints from industry that not only is it causing them issues, but it could be hazardous.  The second part of that was $11,000+ for a gis (I believe that was the term used) mapping of the water system. 

Now in my simple mind, how are you going to do #1 without having #2?  How can you tell how much water flow we have if you don't know what size pipes we have, where they are, how long there are, what valves are in place, etc, etc, etc?  Each and every one of those things are factors in your water flow. 

So I asked, all I got was "well they are going to have to do part of #2 to get #1, but it's different, we have to spend this $11,000.  Really?

Now if they had said, "The format they are going to present it to us won't be usable for anything after the study is done, but since the company will have all the information, they can give us a standardized mapping of our water system for $11,000, and we think after this we can keep it up ourselves, and when we loose employees their knowledge won't go away because we'll have it in digital format for the world to use" I might have at least understood we are paying for the upgrade to the model we just purchased.  But the way they made it sound was #1 was going to be magically produced without knowing exactly what our system consist of today. BS!

Second, why did we just 'award' this $40,000 without going out to bid on it?  I've noticed a lot of this going on lately.  The engineer will say, 'I've got so and so ready to go ahead as soon as you approve this project.....' and no bidding is going out?  Why?  Oh, it's ONLY $40,000, no need to? Really? Really? 

You know last I looked times were tough, and there are some hungry people out there that will work, and do a good job for less money all over the place. 

As long as I'm on that subject, I know we're closing in on a city manager.  I hope our city council has gotten their head around this.  I look and one of the 3 finalist appears to have 'resigned' or was going to be resigned (read 'fired') earlier this year.  I have a bad case of deja vue here. 

On top of which there are whisperings that the $70,000k range salary that we've paid our last city manager could be doubled, or close to it.  There is a 9%+ unemployment rate in this great country, and we're going to double our salary right from the start?  Where do we go from there?  Do like the last one and give him a 20% pay raise after 6 months?  People want to work, and there are plenty of qualified (and I stress the qualified) people who would kill for a $70,000 job right now.  They would kill for any job.  From $0 to $70,000, yeap, that's the ticket.  And even those employed right now, like the interim mayor of I believe Flatonia, knows this is a good job or he wouldn't of applied.

One, we are NOT in the position financially to pay that kind of salary.  Second, I believe if you look around, while there are those making that kind of money, it's not a typical salary for our size town.  So in this case I'm hoping I'm wrong, but I don't think I am. We'll know shortly though as I believe this weekend the council will decide on someone. 

Last, I couldn't make it to the meeting on 7/18 because my wife was in surgery.  I found at this council meeting the council approved $120,000 for a financial adviser.  What have I told you lately, every time they go in there is another $100,000 in unbudgeted moneys spent.   This guy has basically told us we could bond out, and borrow the $5,500,000 with a 20 year pay back of $9,000,000.  Using those type of figures, the entire $15,500,000 project will be $25,370,000.  How much will they have to jack up rates to cover that expense?  Let me tell you they can't jack them up far enough.  So once again, I see property taxes going up to pay for this.  Oh, and while our city financial has say he thinks we'll have a aaa rating, I'll bet anyone the best we'll get is a Ba rating.  Why?  Because or finances for the last several years have been in the red, and poorly managed.  So what does aaa to a Ba mean?  It means that $25,000,000 might not be high enough, because it will cost us more to get the loans (bonds).  And for the record, go back about a year in my blog when I first started when I said this would come to bite us in the butt later.  Guess what, later is now!

Good luck and Gods speed to our council this weekend as they finish deciding who will be our next city manager.  I hope the money we've spend weening them out was worth it, because whoever comes in will have to be a Houdini and pull money out of the empty coffers.  I hope they know what grant writing is all about and pull in enough cash to pay for themselves and put our town back on the financial stability, and infrastructure recovery we desperately need in this town.  

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser

$5,000,000 or was that $15,000,000+

I have to give it to Mr. Windwehen, he calls a spade a spade and I like that about him. 

In last nights meeting after the presentation by LNV on our water system he gave his review.  In short, and this is my condensed version, '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.'  Yeap, that's a spade. and as far as I can tell there were 2 on our council back then when this happened.

If you haven't read my blog from May 30, 2011 - A Bit Bothered click on the link and brush up on where we are.

So LNV came in and gave a proposal to replace our filters to gravity filters, which are much new technology and apparently something TQEC are wanting us to do for compliance.  They listed several areas that needed addressing on our 90 year old water plant. 

In short to 'fix' the plant is just over $5,300,000.  But fixing the plant just delays the inevitable, and that's that our plant needs to be replace at just over $15,000,0000. 

There were a couple of other items that honestly I'm not sure I totally understand.  We have 2 free standing pipes that hold water if I understood correctly that apparently have issues with the water not churning properly, and to fix those are just over $150,000 each.

To fix the Hwy 97 well is still being evaluated, but they expect the sulphur remove would be automatic if run over a chiller tank, so they are testing that out, but to run that would be around $200,000.  We would then have to see what problems would be cause by mixing ground and surface water, so we don't really have a final there.

So get ready, because you are about to hear the words 'bonds' come up to pay for this.  Even a 20 year bond would be $1,000,000 a year in payback.

I want to make this clear, I'm certain our water system needs work/replace.  I'm upset that over the last 10 years we haven't been planning for this, and for the record that went way before Mr. Huseman, he just continued to let the ball sit in the corner and ignore it.  I'm upset that instead of all those who have used the water over that time, didn't pay for this, so not only do we have to pay for this now, but if we are going to be good citizens we have to start planning for the future and putting some aside for the next go around.  What a horrible burden to be place on those of us living here right now.

In the next couple of days I'll write about our streets and the situations there.  But once again, a lack of planning, poor city managers, and our city councils over the last 15 years or so lack of action has brought us to this point. 

For those of you who don't know, almost every Tuesday night there has been a special called meeting of the council trying to clean out the cobwebs in our closets and cleaning up the mess left by previous administrations.  They have meet at least 3-4 time a month since February.  Honestly, it's not what they signed up for, but it's what it's taking to try to clean up some of this mess.  I can't tell you how lucky we are that Mr. Windwehen came along when he did.  I'm afraid it would of been to late for many things in our city if we'd of stayed status quo much longer. 

The 'we'll get around to it' or sweep the problems under the rug attitude that previous administrations have worked under have gotten us here, under funded, broken down, and overwhelmed. 

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser

A bit bothered

Ok so I've been sitting since Tuesday night bothered by the last council meeting.  Immediately after the meeting I spoke with a couple of the council members about it and was hoping that would calm me after a bit, but it hasn't so here it is. 

All of a sudden it's been an urgency that we fix our water system.  During the budgeting process we were made aware that we had not planned for any upgrades and the system is 25 years old, but recently it's been "we HAVE to fix it NOW" without any explanation.   Have we violated state law? Is there something we know that isn't being shared? Or is it just not optimum? 

So here is my problem, it's NOT that we need to fix our system (though I'm a bit upset we haven't planned for it), it's that we're not trying to plan this out, but bulldoze it through on a year that EVERYTHING seems to be urgent and costing us so much.  Let me give you a quick run down:

$400,000 - The amount we started out in the hole with the 2011 - 2012 budget
$150,000 - The amount over budget the bid for the sewage in District 4 came out
$  67,000 - The amount approved Tuesday to 'analyze' our water system
$  20,000 -  The amount added to the budget to find a new city manager

These are literally the things off the top of my head that I can remember.  So with just those items we're $637,000 in the red for this budget year.  And as the commercials state, "But wait, there's more!"  Because we still don't have the final cost on hiring a new person, and what travel and expenses for the interviews are going to be, nor the water repairs (I will expand shortly on this), and I still have a problem believing we did all those slots at JB Wells for $220,000 when we spent $150,000 for GVEC. 

Mr. Windwehen made it clear that our water and sewer rates are going to have to be increased to pay for the needed repairs.  I'm ok with that, it's how it should work.  The problem is that it probably should of been raised a long time ago, so that the increase was a minor increase instead of a major increase on our bills.

The second option the city council is going to have, and wait, here it comes...figured it out yet?....RAISE OUR TAXES.

You see, when we were at the budgeting process earlier this year and I heard for the first time that our water system was needing repair, they mentioned that they figured it would take $6,000,000 for us to replace the existing system.  Even if we spread this out over a 5 year plan, that's $1,200,000 per year we have to come up with. 

Oh, and if I understand correctly we are a 'no debt' city, so we can't bond these projects, we have to pay for them as we go, so the only way to accomplish this is to increase revenues to the city.  I don't see us increasing our water rates that high, so if you own a home, or live in Gonzales (yes, renters home owners pass these increase on to you in rent increases), you better be ready, cause here it comes!

You know, it's been a tough couple of years in our house hold.  Business have been off due to the economy, and we've had to make some tough decisions of what we are going to cut in our house hold budget.  There for a while we got down to the bare basics.  I've not seen our city do the same thing.  We've approved needless items like the weather system at the airport.  We've approved out of proportioned spending for our animal control.  We've continued to allowed our rodeo arena to operate rodeos at a loss to the city.  I can go on, but I think you get the idea. 

I understand there are things that have to get done in our city.  We HAVE to hire a new city manager, as this one will only stay a bit longer (his choice not the city councils).  It's my understanding that we were out of compliance with the sewage in district 4, and that had to get fixed.  These are like when your car breaks down and you have to fix them to get to work.

But right now our city leaders need to seriously consider what we are spending and how we are doing it.  Remember a budget is just what we are anticipating spending.  It can be revised up AND down.  If we need to fix our water system, then we need to figure out what we need to cut in order to make up that kind of difference instead of dumping the entire burden on the taxpayers of this great city.

As odd as this might seem, I do believe that our water rates are going to have to be increased.  Again, they should of been increased years ago so that we would of had the money there for our needs now.  That's lack of planning.  But we can not expect the water users to pay off these increases in a year or two, which should of been paid over 10 years. It's an unreasonable expectation of the users of our water system. 

It's going to be an interesting month ahead as the city council gets their report on the repairs at the July 5th meeting.  I hope between now and then they are working hard to figure out where these funds are going to come from.

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser

The Lynn Theater

OK, I'm going to try to tackle the Lynn Theater issue here in town.  Mind you I've spent a lot of time contemplating this before I wrote because honestly I've been a bit torn on the issue.

Let me start with the simple stuff, Mr. Collins hasn't received a dime from the city or county in cash to line his pockets.  It's one of the biggest complaints I've heard.  "How much more are we going to give him?"  The answer is not a dime.  He hasn't gotten a dime, and not about to get a dime from the city or the county.  As a matter of fact he has spent a good deal of his personal money fixing up the mess that he took over. So unfortunately it's a misunderstanding that Mr. Collins has received anything from the city, county or any other organizations.

Now let me move on to what I consider a huge mistake by Mr. Collins.  In an effort to appease all Mr. Collins took over the previous owners business with debt included to the tune of about $400,000.  The business worth is less than 1/2 of that.  It was a poor decision on his part to accept the current debt, but in the interest of fairness to GEDC and the citizens of Gonzales County and the City of Gonzales he did it.  It was a decision that has haunted his ability to make ends meet.

In addition Mr. Collins agreed to accept a list of demands by the boards that as a business owner I would never have agreed to.  Business owners need to be flexible and the list of demands, while I understand where the GEDC was coming from, are unreasonable.

Now comes the messy part.  We have almost $300,000 in loans by the City of Gonzales through GEDC and an additional $85,000 by the County of Gonzales that are unsecured. Now this is like a house loan where the money went to pay off previous owners and debt holders, not to line Mr. Collins pockets.  So what does the rest of this mean? 

First of all it means that the County of Gonzales has no recourse what so ever in collecting their money. If Cal Collins for any reason defaults, you and I, the taxpayers will be 100% out that money, no if ands or buts about it. And don't think it doesn't effect you, if you live in the City of Gonzales you are also paying taxes for the County of Gonzales. It doesn't matter if those taxes come out of your left or right pocket, we are still paying the taxes to cover that loss. It also means the County will be less likely in the future to make loans to bring jobs and other businesses to the county in the future.

Second the building and business that the Lynn sits in has been valued at less than $150,000.  So anyone in the future who would be looking to purchase the building would not be willing to pay more than $150,000.  The city at that time will be out $150,000 in their loans.

So any closures by the city will cost you and I over $235,000 in real cash lost.  This is money that every taxpayer in Gonzales will be stuck with. No going back, no chance of recovery, just gone. Did you hear the toilet flush, because that's where the money is going.

Now lets consider some of the other options that could occur here.  Mr. Collins could declare bankruptcy  chapter 11.  This means that the city, county, and all others that are owed money will be put on hold indefinitely and Mr. Collins will be able to operate without anything the powers to be can do.  We, the lean holders would probably get pennies on the dollar, and Mr. Collins would still wind up with the theater in the end.  This is still an option for Mr. Collins, regardless of what the City of Gonzales has done.

Mr. Collins could declare Chapter 7 and take months or years to settle up the debt.  During that time neither the city or Mr. Collins will be able to do anything with the Lynn Theater.  It will remain a vacant building as it has for many of the 15 years I've lived here.

Last Mr. Collins could allow the foreclosure to happen without fighting it in some form or fashion.  This would take time, possibly years to get the deed back so that the city could resale it. It would also be very unlikely as Mr. Colins has a personal interest in the outcome on his financial.


Now one last thing on what Mr. Collins has agreed to.  He's agreed to limitations on what he can do inside and outside of the building.  Any major changes have to be approved so that the city keeps the Lynn Theater sign up and lit for the citizens of Gonzales.  It's a great icon for the town square.  Any new owner could come in and immediately remove it.  They are not obligated to keep it as a theater, either live or movies.

So I've been bothered with giving a guy a second chance.  But have found out a couple of more things.  First of all prior to bringing anything to GEDC or the City Council there were studies done by the Small Business Administration on feasibility of running a theater in a town with our demographics.   This group worked with Mr. Collins and GEDC to come up with a way to make this work for everyone involved.  Business 401 if you will was used here to make sure that anything that was purposed would actually work.

Second I found out that prior to opening up Mr. Colins caught up all the taxes and utilities bill that the previous owner had left.  He had also spend a substantial amount of cash in renovating the theater out of his pocket that the SBA has confirmed since the closure trying to get ready to reopen. 

Last I found out how much time our GEDC has spent making sure that the citizens of Gonzales and the county had the best chance of recovering the money on the loans they've issued.  Part of my point here is why do we have a board that has been picked by the council if they aren't going to look at all the facts?  These guys unanimously agreed that the best interest of the City of Gonzales, also taking into consideration Gonzales County, to give Mr. Collins a second, more educated chance, to make this work.

Now I'm not going to excuse Mr. Collins for not communicating to the GEDC when he ran into trouble.  It's been my experience that when I've had large loans the I was required to give the bank a monthly or quarterly financial statement along with my payments. I'm sure this would of been a wise agreement to start with.

As for Mr. Logans antics on "will Mr. Collins please come down", let's get real!  Mr. Collins has sent, I'm sure at his cost, a representative to most of the GEDC meetings.  This is not Mr. Collins primary business, and while it's important to him, no business man in his position would have attended those meetings.  When I ran Kactus Korral I was the one that sat with Pat Frost during all the meetings when we were negotiating loans through Frost Bank.  Mr. Jenkins, the owner, didn't get involved except when it was time to sign papers.  It's how business works.

Would it have been prudent for Mr. Collins to show up at the City Council meeting this last month? Yes, without a doubt.  Part of what Mr. Collins has to understand is in a town like ours, your handshake, and your word are as important as your signature. It's one of those learning curves he should pick up quickly if he wants to make it in a town like ours.

As for the GEDC looking for another buyer at this point it's pretty simple, WE DON'T OWN THE BUILDING!  The deed is to Mr. Collins with the City being a lean holder. GEDC trying to sell it would be like the City saying they are going to sell your house.  They don't own it either.

So where from here?  First of all the City Council could reverse it's decision.  It could follow the recommendation of GEDC and at the next Council meeting reverse the motion they made.

They could stay on course and years from now the building will revert back to the city and we can start the process to sell the building again.

Along those lines there are rumors going around that there is a group that is expecting to take over the building.  Notice I said take over, not purchase.  It would be a rent free or grant type arrangement.  The sources of this murmurs are reliable enough to scare me.  That would not only put the City of Gonzales years out, but $400,000 down that toilet we spoke about earlier, and we'd still not have a movie theater.

So as much as I hate to admit it the best option for the citizens of the City of Gonzales and the County of Gonzales is to let Mr. Collins attempt to make a go of the Lynn under the new arrangements.  Might we wind up here again in the future? Yes we might.  But if there is ANY chance of recovering the most money out of this deal it's with Mr. Collins.

The worst that can happen is that Mr. Collins doesn't make it and we have to go through the above mentioned options, foreclosure or bankruptcy on Mr. Collins part.  The best that could happen if he is given a second chance is that we recover 2x in cash payments than we will ever have a chance to recover otherwise.

One last thing, the Lynn has analogue projectors.  It's a dying technology that will not be supported forever, heck it's not going to be support for long.  That upgrade is a $200,000 upgrade.  Do you really think someone would purchase the existing Lynn Theater and keep it as a theater knowing what they'd have to sink into it to make it profitable?  Not very likely!

This is a bad situation all around.  Not even in my furthest reaches can I not fault Mr. Collins for some of his actions.  But bottom line is that as taxpaying citizens of this great town, our best option is to try to work this out with Mr. Collins and support him when he opens back up.  It can still happen, but it's going to take some work.

Our council will have to be business like for the moment and look at the information that SBA and GEDC have put together on how this can work with some modifications to the current agreement.  Is it the perfect situation? Nope, but I'd rather have a chance to collect on the $400,000 than have no chance at all.


God Bless
Dennis Nesser

How much for TMRS?

I left the city council meeting on Tuesday a bit miffed over a couple of items that zipped right past our city council.

The first was a request by TMRS (Texas Municipal Retirement System) to increase the cities portion of deposits. Now what was said on the floor (and verified through video) was that it was going from 1.8% to 11.8%.  This is percentage of the entire city payroll.

What was meant to be said is that we're going from 11.5% (a max set by the city previously) to 11.81% to 14%.  So basically we will be paying an additional 2.5% of the total payroll of Gonzales into this fund.

Now the general principal of this is not something I'm upset about.  It's a known fact that government jobs come with some perks, and this is one of them.  A retirement that surpasses most businesses by todays standards.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.

What does bother me is that Bobby Logan, while making his motions, stated that even though we don't know how much this was going to cost, the percentage seemed small enough, so he made the motion, seconded by Tommy Schurig.  Then Aye, Aye, Aye, Aye and Aye was the vote.

So my question immediately after the meeting to 2 other of the councilmen was, "so did you spend $1,000,000 tonight on TMRS?" The answer from both was "I don't know what we just spent."  The 4th councilman told me today that he also didn't know what we were spending on this proposal. Honestly when I showed him the paperwork he was a bit surprised at the percentages we were talking about.

So here is the problem.  Why would we vote on an matter that you don't know what you're voting on? The appropriate thing to of done would have been to send the city manager back to bring the figures prior to voting.  The issue was not of time sensitive matter, and so tabling it for a month would NOT of been a big deal.  Instead we have approved, some amount, that we don't have a clue how much, to TMRS.

You know if I have to fix my house I don't just call up the contractor and say fix the house.  I ask how much is it going to cost and what's it going to do for me, is it a permanent fix or a quick fix? I don't just hand the contractor a blank check!  Unfortunately those type of questions were not asked, and the city council did write a blank check to TMRS.

The second issue was that of a City Council Retreat.  Not one of the councilmen I spoke with could tell me what this retreat is going to cost for the 7 or so people to run off for the weekend and 'set a vision' for Gonzales.  Again, in a time when were were talking about laying off city employees last time budgets came around, and we're going to spend $1000s for this? Really? This is our priority?

It's time we ask the questions BEFORE we approve stuff. This is how a households get in trouble, and this is how our city is in the shape it's in.  I'm hoping that my pointing out to our councilmen, will in the future, lead to the questions being asked prior to the votes.

So back to TMRS, odds are we need to vote to approve this increase.  Again, as city employees generally expect a better retirement than civilian retirement.  Even Tommy Schurig made the comment that GVEC put in 10% (not 11.81% or 14%) for their retirement.  I think these percentages that were just approved were a bit high, even for city employees, but would sure feel better if we had a clue what this was going to cost us.

Oh, and for the record, I think I have more to rant about tomorrow, so come back and visit again then. 

God Bless
Dennis Nesser

Bobby L. Just say "NO"

I went to the city council meeting Tuesday night.  It was a packed house, and I'm assuming that for the most part people were interested in what the city was going to do about the horses in our city limits.  It was nice to see our citizens in action, and that they are so passionate about an issue.

But the thing that made me laugh more than anything was Bobby Logans performance on 3 different votes.  During the discussion he'd made it clear he was against these issues, and that's fine.  Your city council person should not always be in line with the rest.  There isn't a person up there I agree with 100% of the time.

But what was funny to me was when the mayor call for the vote it went like this, "Mr. Schroeder?" "Aye", "Mr. Schurig" "Aye" "Mr. Hernandez" "Aye" "Mr. Logan" ".....(tapping pencil on the desk)...(squirming to his right)...(tapping some more).......(deep breath)....(more tapping of the pencil)...."aye", "and I too will vote Aye".

These performances by councilman Logan were nothing shy of Oscar performances.  His district should be proud.

GIVE ME A BREAK!  Just say "NO"  If you don't agree with paying the alley, the GEDC appointments, or anything else that has been discussed, just say so! I would have more respect for Mr. Logan if he did.

I give the mayor credit for not making to much of a big deal about it.  2 times he made snide comments about the issue at hand that could of been left off the records, but when it came time to vote he just did it.  No scene from Gone With the Wind to go along with it. So while he too could of said "Nay" (the vote issues were already passed by the time they got to Mr. Logan anyway, so his No wouldn't of effected a thing), at least he showed a bit of class.

You know our city council shouldn't be voting 100% one way or another.  It makes me worry there is to many behind closed door deals when it happens.  So my message to Mr. Logan, grow up and just say "NO" next time!

Kudos to both Tommy and Gary for stepping up this week!! Both of them came prepared for bear, and had to put their foot down to get their points across.  I love to see our city councilmen actually prepared to talk about issues, and know the right questions to ask when the city manager tries to squirm out of it. Both need to be called and told what a great job they've done!

Lorenzo should be complimented on not dragging out this GEDC board any longer.  If left up to Mr. Logan it would of taken another 2 months to get people appointed. I think Councilman Hernandez had done his job to seek out good candidates that will help Gonzales grow through GEDC.  After all they've been vacant since April, how much longer should we expect to wait for these positions to be filled? Keep up the great work Mr. Hernandez!


God Bless,
Dennis Nesser

Summer Time Summer Time, Sum-Sum-Summer Time

So what is summer time without a dip in the pool right? I know my family and I love to go swimming the summer nights we have around here.  But this weekend I was surprised to find out how many visitors to Gonzales love to come here to go swimming too. The problem is, you and I are paying for their enjoyment. Let me explain.

We currently have a rodeo here in town.  Now I've been telling people that these people come complete. They are not your typical convention that tours your town, eats at your restaurants,  buying things throughout town, but never did I expect to see pools lining the trailers as I drove by.  These pools range from 500 gallon pools to the couple that you see above that hold 3000+ gallons of water each.  I could see 7 pools and well over 10,000 gallons of water being used by these visitors to our fine arena.

Now each of these people pay $20 for the nights stay.  Nothing stops them from dumping their pool and filling it back up as needed like the one below that had been drained till later.

When I drove by to take some pictures there were 7 kids in one waving at us wanting us to take their pictures, so here we go.

Now the $20 a night is for the use of electricity and water for their stay, but there has to be a reasonable clause. The $20 a night is made for "normal" usage.

So a couple of things come to mind after seeing these pools (by the way I could only see the pools lined up on Hwy 183, not the ones inside the compound). Ten thousand gallons of water for just the pools I saw definitely does not help the city trying to get the cost losses of the arena under control.  This is an added expense that goes beyond reasonable to expect us as local tax payers to pay for.

Second, we have a public pool that was open 2 blocks away.  Not only would it not cost us anymore for these visitors to visit our pool, we'd actually make money if they visited.  We'd be better off if we gave every slot rented 2 tickets to the pool instead of letting just those pools I saw being filled.

Third comes the fact that either we have a rule against this and it's not being enforce, or our city manager has allowed this to be overlooked. I'm sure Doc Graham is pleased to let it be overlooked but as a taxpayer in this community I'm pretty upset. This needs to be addressed immediately.  This is a case that either a simple clause needs to be inserted into or rental agreement or enforced if it's already there.

If you live in a trailer park or an apartment complex where they pay the water, there are always clauses that exclude swimming pools, washing cars, and other water activities that would run up the water bill unfairly.  Why would anyone visiting here expect anything less?

$200,000+ lost last year at the arena. I've already mentioned the commissary issue that needs to be gotten under control.  Let's look at these couple of dollars here.  Let's get our council to appoint a real committee that will put real world recommendations on how to control the losses, what to do to turn the arena profitable. Some of these issues that are plain as day to anyone that will look, others are going to take a deeper look.  But maybe that's the problem.  Maybe those who've been running the city don't really want the answers to be out in the public. They've gotten good at hiding the truth, is this just one more case of it?

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser

This was brought by a tip from another concerned tax payer! Thanks, you know who you are.

Not done with JB Wells

So now the initial shock of the whole 'let's spring the JB Wells project on the city council' is over we need to look at a few more issues over this whole process.

Let's start with the citys' notification of the public for the Open Meeting laws.  All meetings have to be posted 72 hours in advance of a meeting.  Now I happen to have been up on the city website last weekend.  I don't recall seeing any posting for this special meeting anywhere.

Per the city secretary: "I further certify that the following News Media were properly notified of the above stated meeting: KCTI Radio Station, Gonzales Inquirer, Gonzales Cannon. This is what is on the agenda posted for council meetings.

Now let's look at this little issue.  If both papers were notified Friday, and the GI prints on Tuesday, the Cannon prints on the following Friday, and let's be honest, while most of us might know where 1450 is on our radio dial, it's not something we keep on everyday.  I love some of their programs, and especially special events, but I'm not getting my news there.  But my point is that NO ONE is going to find out about the meeting till after the meeting is over.  Do you think this was the mayor and/or city manager trying to get only those hand picked to be at the meeting that Monday night? You don't think they would be that underhanded, low-down and just that dishonest do you?

So the question starts with, why isn't the city website updated? Wouldn't that be the most logical place to start the notification process?  In todays world there should be a RSS feed that will update to anyone that would like to follow straight from the website.  It's built into all windows machines to follow RSS.  Even basic blogger pages like this one has it.  If I update this blog and you have the RSS set up then you see it in your drop down shortly after I've posted.  The city can't even handle something that simple? Heck they can't even be bothered to post it on their own website! Anyone else see a problem with this lack of process to inform the public of an upcoming special meeting? Maybe by the letter of the law they did what they needed to, but not by the spirit of the law.

So let's talk about the notification that the mayor and city manager gave the 3 councilmen that did not second the motion.  Friday afternoon they were given their packages with the $5,000,000 project.  Now this leads someone to believe one of 2 things.  Either the council had worked closely with this committee to get this program finalized....oh wait that didn't happen, so that leaves the second option, they wanted to slip this right past without many questions.

When you present this size project to someone it takes time to digest and get their questions in line, so that they can get reasonable answers before expected to vote on the issue.  How could you expect anyone to vote on ANY $5,000,000 project without time to digest it and get reasonable answers before voting for it?

My second problem is we don't even have control of the arena in it's present condition.  Did you know that we lost over $200,000 last year on the arena.  Now how can you tell me on one hand how much more money we're going to make if we expand, when we're not making money now?  Does that mean we'll LOSE that much more money?

Now in all fairness I have 2 comments on the lose.  First is that the city is always going to provide some services to the community at a lose.  Not everything is going to make a profit, but the loses should be kept to a minimum.  Second, I'm not sure if the arena was properly run that our loses would be anywhere near that great.  Ask someone at the city how often we inventory out at the arena, if they tell you more than once a year they aren't being truthful with you.  Ok, I'll say it straight up, they'd be lying to you.  What business, that stays in business inventories just once a year? This is bad business practices and should be corrected by our city manager immediately.

Now I know the Doc Graham is burning up the phone lines trying to get this project passed.  He's got the mayor asking for private meetings with councilmen to try to get pass all this.  Between the 2 of them they just don't understand, this town doesn't want to spend $5,000,000 for the benefit of an elite few.  So now it's your turn to make a difference.  Write you councilman and let them know to hold the course and let this project die.  Call them and let them know how much you support Tommy, Gary and Lorenzo and their decision to use good fiscal sense for our town. You can respond here, even anonymously, and let them know you are in support of what they are doing. I will personally make sure they get the responses.  If you don't let them know then they will have to guess. Don't leave any doubt in their mind that they are doing the right thing.

Now I also want to point out that this 'committee' was NEVER appointed by the city council!  Our charter specifically states all committees have to be appointed by the city council.  No committee put together by the city manager or any other group has any more influence as a committee then you or I going up and talking to the city council.  Mind you they can listen, but they have no obligation to act on it.

So now it's your time, let's hear from you Gonzales, let the city manager, the mayor, and all of the city councilmen know where you stand!

God Bless
Dennis Nesser

What's up Doc? Not the the JB Wells project

So they thought they were going to slip one right past the council...or at least Tommy, Gary and Lorenzo.  They (Doc Graham, Bobby and Bobby, David Huseman for starters) put together a "JB Wells Master Plan".  They called a special meeting so that you and I wouldn't be there, and then presented this oh so wonderful plan to the city council so that JB Wells could be expanded.  Supposedly there would be no cost to the city.

Oh wait, flip the page and there is a $5,000,000 price tag on this master plan!!! That's 5 MILLION DOLLARS!

Now it was shown during the meeting that during the events at a similar town as Gonzales that did the upgrades we are wanting, that tax revenues actually went DOWN during these events.  What to know why? Because everyone is out at the rodeo arena, not shopping downtown!  These guys aren't interested in our downtown.  They are here for a single purpose, that's for the rodeo. 

Now don't get me wrong, someone would benefit from it all.  Oh Doc Graham would rake in the bucks.  I've heard he would triple his profits for a single weekend event.  I don't know that for certain, but I assure you Doc did not try so hard to push this through the city council because he loves Gonzales.

Now for those of you who don't know, Doc Graham is one of the largest campaign contributors in Gonzales.  Heck, he might even be the top contributor, and he EXPECTS those he donated to vote his way.  Well guess what, one of them stepped up and did what is right instead! I'm certain Gary Schroder has caught all kinds of flack for not going with the plan, but I give him two thumbs up for standing up for what's right in Gonzales!

So here's what finally happened.  Bobby Logan made a motion (this is not a surprise to anyone that who's been to a city council meeting, as Bobby makes all motions), and the mayor called for a second.  Tommy, Gary, and Lorenzo looked straight ahead.  Four times the mayor called for a second and it never came.  The motion failed for lack of a second! HORRAY for the good guys! David Huseman had to just look down at his Mountain Dew, and Doc Graham just got up and left upset.

The way I look at it is since the election - Gonzales 1 Elitist 0

Keep vigilant Gonzales, because they are going to keep trying till they are run out of town, or till they get their way.  Let Gary, Tommy and Lorenzo know that you appreciate them looking out for your interest and not those of the elite few of this town!

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser

David Huseman on Behalf of GEDC

I'm not sure if Mr. Huseman just has a set of brass balls, or is so stupid to think he's Gods gift to Gonzales.  Recently I saw a document that Mr. Huseman had drawn up for the purchase of some land that he wanted purchased for parks through GEDC.  The contract that he had drawn up read, "David Huseman on Behalf of GEDC". 

Now first of all this order was put in on 1/29/10.  It was sent to the GEDC for their meeting one week before the election in April.  Now I'm certain that in the 3 months interim Mr Huseman meant to tell the GEDC board about it, and it just slipped his mind.  Really? Our city manager just let it slip? At $60,000 deal?

But worst of all, who the hell does this guy think he is making deals for the GEDC? Last I saw he wasn't on that board in any capacity, and sure doesn't speak for them! They are an independent board that manages the money.  His comment, "Well you have money set aside for parks". *slapping forehead* So he just decided he could spend it the way he wanted to.  Doesn't matter that we have a board set up to make those decisions. 

GEDC does have approximately $100,000 set aside earmarked as 'parks' for the JB Wells area.  But again, Mr. Huseman decided that it's ok, he knows better than the rest of the city, and obviously what's best for ......I'm not sure who he know best for.

Speaking of boards, what gives Mr. Huseman the right to set up a Texas Center board? Seems to me the charter says that only our city council has the right to set up committees.

You know Mr. Huseman was let go from his last position because he 'wasn't a good fit'.  I'm beginning to thing his attitude is getting him there once again. The man forgets that he works for us, the city, and more specifically the city council.  And let's not think he's not playing politics. 

Don't think the mind slippage he had wasn't politically motivated.  Don't think that not getting a copy of the city financials out to the city council on the last meeting before elections wasn't politically motivated. Don't think that his actions aren't all calculated to cover his rear and allow those who won't question his motives and actions.

Why are we dumping in the river at all? Why are we spending emergency funds? Why are we not holding Mr. Huseman responsible for his actions? Come on City Council, let's have some answers!!!

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser

We're watching you

 The election is over, and it's time to move forward, but that doesn't mean that it's we are going to roll over and play dead.  The eyes are looking directly at city hall, and there's good reason for that.

I'm hoping they get even cockier, even more brazen then before.

We already have a city manager that has illegally signed contracts for GEDC.  We already have nothing shy of dumping into our Guadalupe river with concrete and rebar.  I'm certain that is going to cost you and I the tax payers money.  And there is more.

We  have a city council that is not taking care of business.  We've still got shady deals going on.  Nothing has changed.

So for now the message needs to be loud and clear to city hall -

We're watching you!

A visitor - Gary Schroeder

I was able to catch a bit of our City Council meeting yesterday.

Today I got a visit from Gary Schroeder, Councilman from my district, District 1. I have to give Gary some credit for coming by and visit. It's clear I don't agree with all Gary has done in his first year as a councilman, but I have to give him credit for at least listening.

Gary came and we talked about several issues. The shrinkage of $2,300,000 from our reserve funds, the Texas Center, the city manager, the GEDC, the expenditures at the city, amongst others things.

We spoke about his first year on the job as our councilman and some of the trials and tribulations that have occurred and while it's taken him some time to feel comfortable with some of the things, he's feels like he's starting to really get his feet under him and able to hold his own with the pool of barracudas.

It's clear I think Gary has made a couple of mistakes this year. I also think he is sincere about his desire to do well for his constituents. I encourage you, that if you have a problem with the council, let them know. If it's with Gary, call or go by, I've never known Gary to not take the time to talk to me, and I promise, in this year Gary knows who I am personally.

You want a council person to work for you? Then let them know what you're thinking. Crystal balls are all on the fritz here in Gonzales County, so if you don't tell them what you're thinking they won't know.

In the mean time I'll keep telling the council what I think via my chalkboard.

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser

Conscience or Contributions?

Is your councilman voting his conscience or his contributions?

I think this is a pretty straight up sign.  There are a handful of contributors in this town that will call several of the council if their way isn't had.  Why? Because they have paid good money and expect the votes to go their way that's why.

Large financial contributions are not necessary in local races, so why would you take the money?  No one in our town should be taking contributions of over $100 per person. This isn't a presidential race that cost millions!  This is a local race that should at tops cost a couple of thousand, and that includes filing fees, signs and advertising.  Admittedly a city wide race like mayor could cost a bit more.  But if you can't find 30 people at $100 each, then why are you even running? If you can't persuade 30 locals for just $100, how are you going to make a difference on our council?  Remember your councilmen are suppose to be persuading people to make a difference in the community, and if they can't get a handful to help them in the first place, then why are they on council?

One of the largest contributors in town has been heard as saying, "this is cheapest political council I've ever bought." Really? Dang if you're going to be bought at least make sure it's worth it! Come on Gonzales, why are we being controlled by a handful of deep pockets that have only their own best interest in mind, and not that of the community.

Watch as issues come up and you see block voting by all but 1 or 2, do you think there is a reason for that? I do! ASK YOUR COUNCILMAN STRAIGHT OUT!! Don't be bashful.  HE WORKS FOR YOU! We elect them, they are public servants and WE are the public, they serve US! They are responsible to US! They owe US an explanation for every vote they take on the council! They owe US an explanation for every action or inaction while they are serving US!

If they aren't willing to do that then they should step down or be voted out.  You are the one to make the difference. Make sure you're registered to vote now, so when elections come up you can vote.  Don't believe your vote won't make a difference, because we've seen in this town where just a couple of votes has made a difference! Don't leave it up to someone else to make up your mind.  Get educated and VOTE VOTE VOTE! (legally and only once please!)

God Bless
Dennis