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

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



 

Nesser for Mayor

 

Ok, bet I got your attention on that one didn't I? I figured it's first shot weekend, so I'd make the first shot in the upcoming election.  But before I get to much further, I have no intention of running for mayor, but I do have intentions of making sure those that are considering it understand the process.  And those who think they can run this city should do so.  That's right as far as I'm concerned there should be 10 people running for mayor and council. 

First of all it cost NOTHING to file to run for mayor or city council.  There is no declaration of political party, it doesn't matter Democrat, Republican, Independent or Other, it doesn't go on the ballot anywhere.  No certifications are needed, you don't even have to have a high school diploma, nothing!  The only requirement is that you have been a citizen of Gonzales for the last 6 months. So running for mayor or city council is available for anyone in this city who is a resident.  The only thing you have to do is declare with the City Secretary, and fill out some paperwork, bingo you're running for office.

Now we've got some talented people that don't necessarily want to be in politics but would make an excellent mayor. If you know someone in that category it's time to start talking seriously to them about  We've got some people that I'm certain think they know it all that have their opportunity to show the city what they really know, you know put up or shut up (I'm certain many put me in this category).  And yes, you'll have some with personal agendas run too, and the voters will have to sift through all the $#@! to figure out who really will be the best person for mayor.  This should not be a one (wo)man race for either mayor or city council.

So if you think you might want to be mayor or council member, NOW is the time for you to start getting a team together.  People who will talk you up.  People willing to knock on doors with/for you.  People to make you look good.  A platform of things you'd like to see happen in the city would be a good start.  What are your visions for the city? Get it together so you can convince the citizens to vote for you.  And if you have a plan to get the citizens out to vote, that would work even better!  You can't wait till May and expect this stuff to fall into place.  You've got to start now.

If rumors are right we'll have 2 positions that will not have incumbents running.  Nothing concrete, but I'd expect at least one, if not both, of the 2 Bobbys won't run again.  So opportunity is there now for someone to step up. It's time we put some leadership into this city for growth, development of our current assets, and some fiscal responsibility.  If you know someone who can do that for this city, now is the time to get their name out there!

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser

Flew Right By

Ok, so we have 30, yes that was the report given, 30 planes a month that land for fuel in Gonzales.  So let's spend $100,000 in funds to build an apron at Gonzales International Airport. Now in all fairness, $50K is coming from a grant, but $50,000 is coming out our our money!

REALLY??? OMG!!! We average 1 (uno, ein, un, jeden, one, singular) plane a day fueling in Gonzales and we're going to spend almost $10 for every man, woman and child in our town for this? Where is the return on investment on this? 

So a plane has to wait to refuel, it's not like we are talking about a 4 hour wait here.  This is not AUS or IAH, we're talking about Gonzales!

Look, I love that we have people flying in here.  I love that we have people from outside out town flying in.  But how, especially in todays' financial situation, can we even consider this expenditure. 

OH WAIT THERE'S MORE...cause you see, we approved this because we got the $50,000 grant and had it budgeted for $50,000 (a wash), and honestly if someone else wants to pay for this I'm very OK with it, but nope, so remember that post I made last month about all our cost, and every time I go to a city council meeting there's another $100,000....well this was $50,000 of that $100,000 from this meeting.  So once again we're our already deficit budget is going deeper and deeper into the red. 

Come back later this week, and I'll let you know where the rest of that money went.

In the mean time GRAB ONTO YOUR WALLETS because one way or another you and I are going to pay for EVERY SINGLE DIME SPENT!

On a quick side note, those of you in District 4 were once again not represented, as Councilman Logan has decided that umpiring baseball was more important that our city business.  I understand his desire to help, but he made a commitment to be at these meetings, and missed presentations by LNV and our city engineer about MILLIONS of dollars worth of expenditures.  This was a regularly planned meeting.  He also missed last weeks meeting where 50 applicants were whittled down to 9 candidates.  Nothing important like the entire future of our city here.Let's get our priorities straight Mr. Logan, either that or give up your seat to someone who does care about this city!

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

Show me the money!!!

Interesting fact this week.  Since our city manager has taken over our city of Gonzales almost 1/2 of our city reserve money has been spent.  That's right, over $2,300,000.00+ is GONE! Gonzales, the town of 7,000, has had to dip into their rainy day funds to the tune of over $2,300,000.00+.  That's $325+ for every man woman and child in Gonzales. I have a family of 6, that's $2,000 for my family. Hmmmmm, nope, I haven't seen my 2k worth of expenditures.  All I see are pot holes everywhere.  Look on Ft. Wahl, College, Church just for a start.

So when do you stop the bleeding Gonzales? Why isn't our Mayor and council stopping this bleeding right now? This isn't a case of we didn't raise taxes, so we've had to go through the money.  It's a case of we don't want to do what it's going to take to run a balanced budget in the long run. I honestly think it's a case of we don't have a clue of how to stop the spending. I don't think the mayor has ever met a program that cost us money that he didn't like.

If you or I ran our household like this we'd be in bankruptcy court. Guess what? We keep up spending like this the City of Gonzales will also be declaring bankruptcy.  You think it would be bad to have to cut back on some services now? Wait till the town has no money what so ever and we have to cut back! This will effect you and I directly. 

Want to know how they rate you for interest for loans or bonding if we need to get any? It's based on your spending, and on your ability to repay.  I can hear the broker now, "Lets see, you've just spent 5,000,000 and you want another $5,000,000 to replace that? Sure, it will be 21% interest."  Who do you think pays that? It's YOU and me!

Ask your councilman where that money is going.  He's suppose to be on top of it.  Remind him he's running a business here, and right now he's running it into the ground.  He needs to change course and right this ship so that we're not in a bind and going to have to shut down the entire city! And oh, by the way, let's not wait another meeting, let's start now! I don't know about you, but I don't have a spare $2,000,000 to pay in taxes. Times are hard for everyone, and that means cities too. 

I think our city manager and council would rather keep their head in the sand and ignore the problems then to deal with them.  Then WHY ARE YOU SITTING THERE? Move over and let someone who will deal with them take the positions.

I do want to point out there as I have watch the voting in our city council there is consistently one vote against all the spending.  Unfortunately that one vote is not enough to sway the city spending.  But that is councilman Lorenzo Hernandez.  I've watched over the years as the vote has been 3-1 and 4-1 over and over and over again.  I've never seen the others vote against the mayor on anything.  Wondering if they can think on their own? Would love to hear in this forum what they are thinking about and how they plan on stopping the bleeding.  Hear that mayor? Bobby? Gary? I know some of you read these blogs, how about a response and let your constituents know why you are going through our money so fast?

Just more food for thought Gonzales.

On a different note, I will probably repaint the board Wednesday of this week. So weather permitting there will not be anything on the board till Friday morning.  But have no fear, I'll be back Friday morning after breakfast, weather permitting. :-)

God Bless
Dennis Nesser