Hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah

Almost three years to the date and so far over initial budget that it's not even funny, but St. George is open!

It looks great!  It it truly will extend out our town square in a positive direction.  It's sad that the corner store, the old Kotzebue Drug store, isn't there to anchor the street.  I hope that someone will open up there soon, and help not only the downtown square but St. George grow.

Honestly I'm not sure how some of the businesses survived the 3 years of destruction.  It's hard enough in these times when everything works well, but when people can't get to you it's next to impossible to survive.

I know our council were a bit sideswiped when they were told that they had only voted to approve 'phase 1' 3+ years ago, but this is where communication between a city manager and the city council is so important.  Honestly I doubt anything would of been done on St. George had the council been given all the facts up front.

But all things said and done it looks nice, and we're finally there.  Take a moment over the next week, maybe while you're at the Friday Night Concert Series hosted by Main Street and walk over to St George.  It really is a nice addition to your downtown and I hope many folks will go visit the forgotten street.

God Bless,
Dennis

Grant and District Attorney Heather McMinn

Ok, so I've received no less than a dozen phone calls and dozens of emails asking me about my thoughts on the Grant decision.  So here we go.

First of all, if you've been hiding under a rock for the last year, you probably don't know that I filled a report with with the Gonzales City Police Department that was turned over to District Attorney Heather McMinns' office, and they "lost" it.  The police department refiled the charges and in over 3 months nothing has happened. 

The report I filled was on Mayor Bobby O'Neal over his action after the firing of then City Manager David Huseman, and the subsequent check that was issued containing an illegal pay raise and back pay that had not been approved by the city council. 

Now this is the same Mayor Bobby O'Neal that District Attorney Heather McMinn refused to prosecute back in 2009/2010 for the same voter fraud that Mr Grant is being charged with, because of "Political Pressures" and her office didn't have the resources to prosecute the charges.  (For more read my old blog Justice Gonzales Style)

So honestly I'm not one bit surprised.  District Attorney Heather McMinn has proven time and time again that she is incapable of prosecuting anything of a political nature.  I truly believe that if she is re-elected again in May that Mayor O'Neal will retire with not so much as a slap on the wrist for his actions. 

As for Mr. Grant, the 'second chance' was given to him a year ago when he failed to follow through with his probation.  So now for a third chance we'll see if he's smart enough to take it and run.  Do I think it's right? Nope I don't, but I don't expect anything else from District Attorney Heather McMinn and her office.

So once again "Call the DAs office.  Call, let them know that if there was an illegal actions they BEST prosecute!" then "Vote in this next election! Let those involved know WE WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS KIND OF CONDUCT! Let everyone know we will remove anyone and everyone involved, that INCLUDES the DA!"

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser

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

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

New Way of Business

Wow, what a city council meeting!!! For the first time in years I saw an open and honest meeting happen in our city council.  I saw the city manager come forward and say, "we have some issues that need to be addressed, and I believe these are decisions you need to make, not me as the city manager." WOW!!! What a change in the way business is done.

I heard about $28,000 in funds for Friends of Gonzales overspent in their contract.  I heard where we needed to make adjustments of $125,000 for the weather station to be place at the airport.  I heard that the museum work done for phase one wasn't paid for, even though the work was authorized and completed.  I heard what was going on in the city from code enforcement, and the city engineer.  WOW!!!

I also heard from Mr. Windwehen that our credit card usage procedure needs to be reviewed and changed.  That no more business is done with a handshake, but through a contract that has been approved by the city lawyer and properly signed by all parties.  That all financial transactions and money handling have checks and balances, receipts, etc to prevent potential fraud.  That the city council will start receiving a monthly report of actual vs budgeted for all departments.  WOW!!!

WOW!!! WOW!!! WOW!!! We have a man in the position right now that understands (and he even said this), that this needs to be run like a business and appropriately.  WOW!!!

I walked out of this city council meeting not happy that FOG has no repercussions for over spending, especially in tight times like this for the animal shelter, and I wish the council had allowed the money to come out of their 2011 budget, but honestly this was a meeting I felt like will put this city back on track with open and honesty. 

I spoke to one city employee after the meeting who told me he can't express how relieved he is to work for someone who is doing things correctly, and he can be proud of his work again.  We have a leader to be proud of who is leading this city in a professional, honest and open manner.  I see our department managers that are answering questions to the council, and honestly I think they are stepping up and are looking like department managers instead of a figure head.  WOW!!!

Gonzales, if ever there was hope, it's right now!  I heard a song the other day at church "Greater things are yet to come, greater things are yet to be done in this city"...AMEN!  AMEN! AMEN! (Chris Tomlins - God of this City)


Thank you Mr. Windwehen for coming to Gonzales in these dark times and be a shining light. 

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser

City Managers Job

For those of you who are unaware of it David Husemans job (our city manager) is on the agenda for tomorrow nights city council meeting.

He has been good as schmoozing groups of individuals and nodding his head often to appease everyone but he's not leading our city in a manner which we need to be lead, and our council if finally sick and tired of it.

Bottom line is he does not communicate to the city council members at large, and has not followed their direction given him time and time again. He's tried to run several things under the radar, and when caught always comes up with a sweet talking snake in the grass answer to get out of it.

Honestly if I was a council member this item would of been on the agenda every month for a year now.

I know some of you don't agree with me on the rodeo issue, but bottom line is this year he is scheduled to lose over $200,000 in your and my tax money out there this year. After 3 years you would think he would of gotten it under control.

We are about to experience the largest growth our county has ever seen, we need a manager we can trust, is transparent, open and honest about the operations of this city. I totally support our council members in removing Mr. Huseman tomorrow and look forward to working with a city manager that will take us forward in the next 5 - 10 years.

I encourage all of you to attend the meeting at city hall at 6 pm Tuesday night.

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser

A Mix Bag

I've got to tell you with this having been first week of school and all time has just gotten away from me.  I'm not sure 48 hour days would allow me to catch up on all that needs to get done.  But one thing that does happen in my travels back and forth to customers is that I get time to think about all the things going on. 

I had originally decided I was going to talk about GCAM and what a great group of people they are over there and how they can always use our donations.  I know especially things like canned meats and fruit are always in short supply.  But there is just to much pressing to spend the time to do that right.

So back to the "what's going on....."

First the Lynn Theater.  GEDC basically told the City Council that this was their football, and while they might not be going home with it, they were going to sit on it till the city played nicely.  So in this lose/lose situation, we the citizens of Gonzales are now on the sidelines watching both sides do nothing because they can't play nicely together.  GEDC owns the note as it stands, but can't make any changes without the councils approval.  The council voted not to make changes, but have not bite with their bark.  So who looses?  We do!

If you'll remember I told you that this issue could take years and years to resolve if we don't give Mr. Colins a chance.  I personally think Mr. Colins made some poor business decisions in taking the original debt, not letting GEDC know when there were first problems, and not showing up to the city council meeting this month.  Very poor decisions on his part.

GEDC was at fault for loaning the amount they did on a property that wasn't worth that much, and that couldn't maintain the debt services that they were undertaking.  That's like a bank loaning me a quarter million dollars for my house worth $100,000.  Not good business practices. Also at fault for not demanding monthly or quarterly statements to be submitted as is standard practice.

It's times like this I wish we could put all 3 parties involved - Mr. Colins, GEDC, and the city council - in a locked room and tell them they aren't coming out till they come to an agreement.  We the people of Gonzales are going to miss out theater for a long time if they don't.

Second also involves GEDC and the city at JB Wells.  While I can't remember exactly when, I believe the June meeting the city council approved $16,000 for the 39 new RV slots.  I remember laughing at the time thinking no way in hell.  Well now at least part of the truth is coming out, those lots didn't cost us $16,000.  The city manager went over budget just a bit and asked for $40,000+ to be reimbursed by GEDC.  Now I want to point out a few problems with this $40k.

1) It's almost 3x the original estimate.  HOW CAN YOU BE THAT FAR OFF ON RV SLOTS??? This isn't a billion dollar high rise taking years to build, it's 39 slots of electric, water, and rock.

2) We still haven't gotten the $40,000 bill sitting at GVEC.  I'm not sure if I'm more upset as a shareholder at GVEC they are not giving the city the bill, or thankful as a taxpayer they aren't.  But don't think the $40,000 asked for this month was the real cost, we're at $80,000 now.

3) In Mr. Husemans presentation to GEDC he told them that the City of Gonzales and the County of Gonzales "donated" the labor.  Donated?  Really? You think that's the appropriate word for 'the taxpayers already paid that money in salaries to the individuals who worked out there'?  Donated? Now don't get me wrong, those employees deserved the money they earned working there! In some cases it was their job.  In others it was all hands on deck, so if you had two legs and two arms you were working down at JB Wells for over a week.  But what did the entire city payroll for that week run us? That's not donated, nor are they properly accounting for it on the books.  Every department in the city got charged their normal payroll even though they didn't receive the employee that went with it!  It's a way to legally cook the books and hide the cost from auditors and those wanting to know the truth.  So on top of the $80,000 we're up to, there is the payroll issue.  We're well over $100,000 (more like $150,000) at this point for the 39 slots.

4) The city (read Mr. Huseman) did not turn in any paperwork, or paper trail to backup the $40,000 request. This was more like a kid passing a note to another, "hey I forgot my lunch money, would you send me some?" No forms filled out. No documentation.  No anything except a memo requesting the money.  You nor I could get anything from GEDC that way.  There is proper protocol and procedures to follow, but I guess Mr. Huseman is above all that.

5) We have a case of putting the cart before the horse.  These spaces were built in May/June time frame and this is August by my calendar.  That means that unlike everyone else that has to ask permission to do something, the city just did it with the assumption that GEDC would give them the money.   We know what happens when you ASSUME! Right now it's the city running GEDC instead of GEDC members running it properly.  This is not the first case like this, I seem to recall a recent issue with the city manager having his name put on a contract 'on behalf of GEDC'. 

The third thing I want to bring up with GEDC and the city is this $4444 for work in industrial park.  This is for work the city should be paying for (infrastructure) leading up to a property, and for the part up to the needed location.  The city is responsible for work up to the property line. Period.  End of sentence.  That's what our tax dollars go for.  But we are NOT responsible for it after that.  Yet Mr. Huseman at the GEDC meeting when asked about it and if the city was responsible for it responded, and I quote, "sometimes".  SOMETIMES? What if you are liked by him, then yes?  If you're not then no? Sometimes? This isn't a gray area, this is a black and white area.  I'm not sure if I'm more upset at the 'sometimes' or the fact GEDC went ahead and approved the monies.

Last thing I want to bring up is the recent visit by the Army Corp of Engineers and TCEQ here in Gonzales.  Regardless of what Mr. Huseman tells the Corp or the newspapers, there are pictures of the concrete laying right where it is long before the flood came earlier this year.  It's laying right where he had it dumped, in the middle of the Guadalupe River.  Now I told you eventually this would have to come out, and after last weeks visit you and I the tax payer are going to have to pay for the removal of some of this, if not all of it.  It should of never been dumped in the first place!  There is NEVER an excuse to put pipes in the river like we did.  The Corp specifically forbids the dumping of concrete with rebar in the water.  And we've already misused our firemen and their equipment removing some of it. 

GBRA, myself and other concerned citizens filed formal complains because of this dumping, and to be clear the spot we are talking about has nothing to do with the new section that was recently built for the paddling trail.  This is where the city dumped the old St. George street and it's trash 2 weeks before the elections.

Mr. Huseman can claim he contacted the Corp for moving concrete all he wants, but he's just trying to cover his rear.  He's months to slow, and trying to take advantage of a natural disaster.  The problem is the pictures tell it all!

I'm going to put this as clear and simple as I can, Mr. Huseman is lying! He's lying to the Corp.  He's lying to you and I the taxpayers of this town that employ him.  And sadly enough it's not the first lie we've caught him in. 

So Gonzales that's all I've got time for today, but hopefully now with school in full swing I'll get back in a roll here.  So what's your role?  1) let others know what's going on, educated voters/taxpayers are what make the difference. 2) Comment here, there are plenty that read this blog, and your comments, on either side of the issues, will at least get debate going on, and who knows you might make the comment that changes someones mind or brings everyone together. 3) If you know something with the city that needs to be out there, let someone know!  You can email me at dennis@90asign.com or either of the newspapers in town.  Don't dig your head in the sand, make a difference!

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser

Abuse of our firefighters - Cleaning up the Guadalupe Rebar

Back in April and May I wrote about the City Manager, David Huseman, dumping the old St. George Street into the Guadalupe River. I wrote that he had authorized the dumping of concrete with the rebar still in it and lead pipe into our river. He was quoted as saying, "I didn't think I needed permission to dump into the Guadalupe." Pictures were put into the Gonzales Cannon showing the rebar and pipe.

Official complaints were filed with the TCEQ and the Corp of Engineers by the water authority and private citizens (myself included).

So now that the Corp of Engineers is coming to town to look at the dumping in the Guadalupe River, the city manager, David Huseman ordered the fire department to use it's resources to go clean up his mess this last Monday.

Our firemen were down on the river removing rebar using the equipment that is suppose to be used to pull people out of cars and fallen buildings. What an abuse of power and resources!

How would you like to of been in the car accident and be told, "Oh, I'm sorry but our fire department is busy cleaning up the cities mess, please call back in a few hours and we'll be glad to help."

Now Mr. Huseman has told us time and again that there was nothing wrong with dumping in the Guadalupe river. That the lead and rebar that was in concrete he dumped was for shoring up the shoreline and he was allowed to do all that. So why now is he using city resources to remove it? Why not just wait till the Corp of Engineers gets here and show them he's done nothing wrong? Why is he scrambling?

Second, why would you put anyone in jeopardy by taking our fire department and put them down by the river with all their equipment in use? I know for a fact that the firemen are not happy at all that they were abused for this purpose. This wasn't an emergency, this was David Huseman covering his rear!!!

I would love to of heard that conversation between the city manager and the fire chief.

"Chief I need your guys to run down to the river, pull out those expensive saws of your and get that stuff out of here before the Corp of Engineers gets her next week."

"But we're not road workers, we're firemen. Call City Parks or Road Department."

"Chief, I'm not asking, I'm telling you, get those guys out of there now! They're not union, so I can have them digging ditches if I want."

I would love to know what the chief thinks about all this, but I can't imagine he's at all happy that his firemen were being used not to save lives, but to save the city managers butt.

So 1) were we lied to before and there IS something wrong with dumping in the Guadalupe? (*DUH*) 2) Was the fire department resources misused and misappropriated to clean up what didn't need to be cleaned up? 3) Were we praying that we wouldn't have another major accident while the fire department were pulled away from the fire department to do this task? I know I wouldn't of wanted that lawsuit if someone wasn't rescued because they were busy doing another departments job.

So what is it Mr. Huseman? Is the rebar OK or not? You admitted you put it there in taped interviews, so are you going back on your word now? Oh wait, that's just status quo for you isn't it? Wouldn't it have been nice if Mr. Huseman would of originally said, "Wow, sorry I messed up, we'll get that right out of the river" instead of all these games we have been playing?

Gonzales, when are you going to get pissed about the lies, the spending of your money to clean up the messes, the abuse of power, the ...deep breath...do I get my point across? Call your councilman, let him know you're pissed and we're not going to take it anymore!

I guess the one good thing in this is the rebar is gone. It should NEVER have been put into the river in the first place. It's a safety hazard, and against the law.

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!