Property Taxes

Ok, tomorrow (Tuesday night at 530) we have a public hearing on raising the property taxes in Gonzales. There will be a second hearing at the regularly scheduled council meeting September 6th.

Now I want to make this clear, I don't want to misrepresent the situation at hand.  At the last council meeting Councilman Logan made the motion to keep the rate of our taxes the same as they were last year.  Per state law though this is actually an increase because of the increase in property values, and as such they must have these public hearings and vote on it as an increase in our tax rates.  It is not because they have increased the percentage of taxation on the value of our homes.

In order to keep the amount of taxation the same, the council must (and still could) vote to have the effective tax rate put in place where the percentage would go down, but our individual taxes would be about the same. 

So here we go, and I actually have 2 trains of thought here, one of them probably not as popular as the other one. 

First to keep the tax rate the same will increase taxes by $21,000 for the city of Gonzales.  To quote our Interim City Manager, "This won't even buy a new vehicle for the city".  Now he was trying to say how little this was, and I'm going to tell you for all it's worth it's not even enough to purchase a new vehicle, so way are we wasting our time and money going through all this effort?

Additionally, and more importantly, if we wanted  $21,000 all we would of had to do is cancel any one of the council meetings over the last 6 months.  In that time they have added to our already 1.5 million dollar deficit at the rate of about $100,000 a meeting.  We've added to the airport (don't you use it?), we've paid study after study after study and consultant after consultant that in my personal opinion could have waited till we till we have recuperated from the debacle of our previous management. Even on tomorrows agenda there are what appear to be unbudgeted items. 

I always thought that's what we had a budget process for, you budget, you work the budget, and unless it's an EMERGENCY then you work towards next years budget to get the new stuff added.  I haven't seen anything that was an EMERGENCY at any of the meetings I've attended (which is a vast majority of them).  Why bother putting together a budget if we're not going to follow it?

Additionally I keep hearing about all this oil money, and yet our income actual vs budget was down by 3% last time I looked, meaning we're 3% shy of what we were anticipating receiving in funds for the city this year for this time period.  In addition to that we were over budget in spending, in no small part to JB Wells excessive over budget spending YTD.  So we're not getting as much as we hoped, and we're spending more than we said we would.  Surprise!

So to be very clear, I'm in NO WAY SHAPE OR FORM in favor of the proposed tax rate the way it is laid out right now.


Now comes the part I'm sure a few more will not agree with.  I'm not all together opposed to a tax increase.  I don't think economically it's really the time, but here's what I told one of our council members. 

If the council would come up with a real plan for road and infrastructure improvements, and say we have a 5 year plan, I would be ok with a real tax increase as long as they would decrease the taxes at the end of that 5 years. 

I've seen it done in San Antonio, and it can work!  BUT and I mean BUT that has to be a set in stone, the money from that increase goes to specific projects that we the people have approved, and at the end of the time period the increase has got to drop back down and the city not count on any of that money in the future.  Way to often a council will come up with any excuse to keep the taxes up, but that can not happen! This can not become another "vote for the lottery to pay for our schools" slogan either.  This has to be very specific what these monies would be raised for and when they were the taxes would go away. 

But if those conditions would be met and our infrastructure was the target of the needed money I would be in support. 

But I promise you that the $20,000 that our council is dealing with is a waste of the public hearings and nothing more than a game someone is playing.  Let your councilman know that you expect him to vote for the "effective rate" in 2 weeks. That there is ABSOLUTELY NO EXCUSE to vote for the rate as it's proposed right now.  How about make a trip to one of the 2 city council meetings and speak up for yourself?  Tomorrow at 5:30 or next Tuesday at 6. 

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser

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

I love hooping

I was in Killeen last weekend when I'm scanning through my facebook page to see my chalkboard with the above sign on it. "I ♥ HOOPING".

Now I knew immediately who the culprit was. My first instinct was, 'Oh revenge will be sweet'.  But before any revenge is taken, I thought I'd let you know a bit about the message.

Christine Moers is the hooping queen of Gonzales, and she has a challenge for us all.  Her blog welcome to my brain has discussed the merits of the old hula hoop. It truly is aerobic fun.  She's shared how adults should build their own hoops, as the ones in the stores are really made for kids, and links to videos on how to accomplish this. Her challenge is for the month of September to hoop for 30 minutes a day.

So how does my chalkboard get involved?  Well Christine was doing a hooping video of her and her girls in several places in Gonzales as a scholarship fundraiser.   The Old Jailhouse, The "Welcome to Gonzales" sign, Heros Square, and of course 'The Chalkboard' are all places shown in her video. 

I am not the perfect example of exercise, but my wife and I are planning on taking the September challenge.  In todays world where we sit in front of our electronics and don't move this is a great way to do something fun and active.  You can get the kids involved and it will be a family thing. Why don't you consider joining us?

If you want to learn more about Christine Moers Blog or watch the hooping video go to her latest blog here.

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser

PS - Don't think revenge still isn't in the back of my mind and heaven help the next person who writes on my chalkboard.  Ask if you want something on there, if I'm OK with it we'll do something. 

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

Our Education System

OK, our education system is not something I write about.  I don't follow the school board like I do the city, and normally am not up to par as to what's going on.  I do however have 4 boys, one of who has graduated GHS, 2 in high school, and a 4th starting Jr. High.  I think I have a clue as to how our schools are functioning. And with the release of the current status of our local schools where GHS and LHS along with others received unacceptable ratings, along with Nixon and others dropping in their ratings I thought it was time to pipe in. 

So what do I think of our educational system? I'm going to tell you they are crap.  Now before I hear about all the great teachers and staff and all I want to clarify.  Our system is broken.  It's a crappy system we have.  I don't believe that any amount of 'fixing it' will do a bit of good.  It's a true Humpty Dumpty. 

We have some OUTSTANDING teachers.  How do I know?  Because as anyone who has had one of my boys can tell you I'm very involved in their education.  I believe I have met almost every teach my boys have ever had, and generally several times over the course of them teaching my boys.  That goes for the administrators too, I know EVERY administrator for all the schools my boys have attended. Out of all of those involved, I can think of 4 teachers I'd rather not teach one of my children ever again, and in all fairness I believe circumstances were involved with one of them, two I think possibly were good teachers but needed to retire, and the 4th just shouldn't be a teacher.  But with all the kids teachers that's pretty good odds. 

But we have this notion that our children are to be taught one or two (sometimes more) test that they need to pass every year.  That these test are the entire focus of education system.  Wrong! Our goal in education should be to teach our children to think/reason and to give them a trait that they can take into the world awaiting them and be productive members of society. 

For those who don't know, I'm the Scoutmaster for Troop 262, so I see boys from the age 10 1/2 to 18, and hopefully beyond. Out of those I've met several boys that would NEVER go through college.  They will make good welders, good mechanics, good ranchers, good carpenters, good plumbers, etc, etc, etc but they will NOT be a PhD.  They aren't even going to get their BA, BS, or any other letters behind their name.  So why are we spending money teaching them things like English in their later years of High School?  Why are we teaching advanced sciences to those who honestly won't use them?  Or Social Studies? or or or or....Why aren't we instead doing what we need to and that's give them a skill?

To think that every kid can or should be taught to be a Doctor or Lawyer from kindergarten is nuts. 

Don't misunderstand me, I think it would be sinful to not make sure our kids know how to read, write and do math.  It's a must at almost any job you will ever have.  And to expose kids to variety of activities so they can learn where their aptitudes truly are, be them in science or dentistry, or forestry, or mechanics, or...you get the idea, is what both schools an parents need to so do our kids figure out what they want to do in life.

This morning when reading Christina Moers blog, Welcome to my brain, she posted a video from a conference, Ted2010. In it Sir Ken Robinson (yes a Brit) discusses how our educational system is messed up. It's a 20 minute video, of which 16 is Sir Robinson.  It is well worth the time to watch this video. 



I would love to hear what other parents and employers think of this.  Why employers? Because they are having to deal with the results of our educational system.  So put in your 2 cents worth and let's see, am I the only one that believes we have a broken system that we need to trash and start from scratch with?

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser

Catching Up With Times

I believe I've mentioned a couple of these things before, but I think it's time to reiterate them, as we are winding down the interim city manager, and should be close to getting our next city manager.  Now part of these pet peeves is because I'm an IT guy, and know how easy some of this technology is to implement.  Part of it is because of the pain I know it is to obtain information sometimes about our city. 

And before I go on, I'm not saying any of this is standards any other city uses.  Honestly I don't know one way or another.  But I'm saying they are standards that are readily available to us that many industries are using to assist in their issues of getting information to those that use it.

So first is an RSS feed.  This is a way that the city would passively notify anyone who was interested in keeping up with meeting notifications.  By law the city must notify us when they are going to have a meeting.  They do this by letting newspapers and radio stations know, and in our case they also put it on the city website.

If you choose, you can go to the website every night and know what meetings were posted.  What an RSS feed would do is allow me to be notified when the website is updated.  How?  My computer knows that I want to watch the city's page, and every time I go online it will check to see if there have been any changes made and if so let me know.  There are many of you (over 200) that have RSS feeds tied to this blog.  It would work the same way.  I wouldn't have to go to the website to see if anything has changed, and yet as soon as it does, I know I can go check it out. This is inexpensive to set up, and honestly you would use existing code to update the website.

Second thing I would like to see is documentation put into electronic format for the public.  What the heck am I talking about?  Have you ever noticed the books that our councilmen carry to the meetings?  These are documents of information given to the councilmen so that they can make informed decisions.  The news medias also receive these packages approximately 72 hours before the meetings. 

Now to print these documents are something.  They are nothing shy of small books at times, and when things like the budget get put in them, they are large books.  You may request a copy and pay a small fortune for them, but honestly, why would anyone want to waste that much paper? 

It would take nothing for the city to 'publish' these documents in pdf format and place them on the city website up with the notification of a meeting.  Why should they do this?  Well to start with its nothing that's suppose to be hidden in the first place, all open for public dissemination.  The 'Freedom of Information Act' insured that.  Second it would eliminate a lot of questions the public has as to why some things have happened.  After looking at some of the information presented to the councilmen over the last year I know why they decided some things, even though I think had I realized that's what they were looking at I might have been able to shine some light not in those little booklets. 

Want to know what's happening on GEDC? Board of Adjustments? City Council?  These 2 very readily available technologies, would make those available to the public.  I'm almost certain that we already own and use the technology to scan and put documents to PDF, as most current copiers do this.  And our website would take a minimal of adjustments to make it RSS Feed capable. 

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser

JB Wells - Still an issue

This week has once again brought to light what I've been ranting about for a year, the lack of controls our city has when it deals with money, in particularly at JB Wells. Both the Gonzales Inquirer and the Gonzales Canon posted storied about theft happening out at JB Wells, and one employee losing their job already. 

Now a couple of things comes to mind.  First is, why after a year of being in the spot light have we not made changes in our processes out at JB Wells.  This was one of the first issues I ever wrote about.  How we have no checks and balances out there.  How we don't do proper and constant inventories.  How we don't use the cash register to have an account of what we have done in a shift/day. 

Why don't we ask how money is collected for the trailer rentals for those staying out there right now.  

Speaking of the trailers, I've just learned that someone, not our city council, increased the rates at JB Wells for the oil trailers from $350/month to $500/month.  So not quite, but close to a 50% increase in rates. 

I don't know what the going rate is around town, but I know a couple of things.  First there are several other RV parks popping up in Gonzales County, so there is competition.  First thing I know about competition is that prices rarely go up when there is competition. 

Second, I can't imagine anyone who is renting anything being told their rent was going up 50% is going to tell the landlord where they can put their place.  I'm surprised there are any trailers still out there, but it sure appears to me that we're no where near our 110+ occupancy.

Now if the going rate is $500/month, then having new people moving in at that rate I totally understand.  And raising the rate to to maybe $400/month and over a period of time moving it up to $500/month.  There is nothing saying that everyone has to pay the same price.  And if someone has already worked on the deal at $350/month we need to be respectful of that. 

So I'm going to back to my a previous blog on outside management at the JB Wells and/or getting a committee together to look at the management procedures out at JB Wells.  I still believe if we are going to continue to have rodeos and run this then we need to put a committee together to list generally accepted practices to get our arena in line.  The committee would go back to the council for them to decide what practices to accept. 

When are we going to realize that our city is not a mom and pop business, but is yours and my money that is being wasted, yes I'm going to call it like it is, wasted.  This is big business.  So big even that back during budgeting we were promised that JB Wells would be set up into it's own separate account division, so it would be easier to understand profits and losses.  As of the first of this month it was not done.  Water, Sewer, and all the other profit centers are separated out, but not  JB Wells. 

Last year we lost over $200,000 at JB Wells.  So once again I'm going to call for our council to take the appropriate steps to get JB Wells under control.  Set procedures in place so that it is properly managed, and things like checks and balances are put into place.

Please let's not go another year and have to come back to this point again!

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser

Just saying....

So the city finally purchased the land between the soccer fields and the baseball fields.  It's 11 acres, and I don't know the story of how we had both sides and not the middle, but that's how it's been since I've been here. Now with the oil industry here, needing to get water out right there, it was safer, and in my mind a prudent move for the city to purchase that piece of property to prevent 100+ 18-wheelers a day running through our parks.  Especially since the engineers had figured on running them in and out of our main entrance to Independence Park. 

What I don't understand is how, in today's environment where land is going for a premium, did this land depreciate by 25% in the last year.  For a refresher on this let's look in the 90asign.com archives....oh there it is David Huseman on Behalf of GEDC how could I forget?

Mr. Huseman signed a contract, 'on behalf of GEDC' for $60,000 for that same piece of land, so how is it that we purchased it for less than $45,000? Land prices aren't going down last I looked, especially with all the oil folks in town. 


Something here just doesn't sound right....just saying.

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser

By the way if you were looking for the rest of the $100,000, here's part of it. We still have more though...keep reading.

$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

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

City Charter

Twice in recent months I've heard that our city attorney has made the comment (and I paraphrase here), "that is no longer state law, but it's still the way our city charter reads." 

I'm not sure how many of you have ever read the city charter.  It's the rules and laws under which our city operates.  It covers everything from elections, procedures, and how to's for our city government.  It's how we operate. 

Some of the rules are set to be in compliance with State statutes.  Others are just because those who went before us decided that's the way it should be.  And as always, our rules can be tougher than state rules. 

Recently I withdrew a partition to get term limits put in our charter.  But it's a rule I believe belongs there.

Ok, down to my point.  Every set of rules we have periodically need to be reviewed and made sure they are keeping up with the times.  Some rules might not ever change.  Some might not apply in our current world circumstances.  So I believe it's time for our council to put together a review of our charter.  It could be through a workshop they host, run, and work through or it could be through the appointment of a committee to review the charter and come back with recommendations. But it's obvious to me that when our city lawyers response is the same several times lately about our charter that we need to step back for 60 seconds and make sure our charter is doing what it's suppose to be doing. 

Just my 2 cents on this glorious Sunday morning.

God Bless
Dennis Nesser

Friday Nights

If you want to see some of the potential in Gonzales, then you need to attend at least one of the Gonzales Main Street Friday Concert series.  We went last night to the June 3rd concert.  They've moved it this year to Confederate Square, and it was a hit. 

I saw the heart and soul of Gonzales out.there.  As my wife and I walked around celebrating our 5th anniversary we saw friends every where we look.  The kids were running around in the grass behind the adults, and there were even some games for the kids between one of the sets. 

There were 30 vendors with food and crafts.  Good music.  And once the sun went down it was Chamber of Commerce weather. 

Where else can you spend a night that cost you nothing if you'd like and have the joys of friends and family and good entertainment? Where else will you see our town come together regardless of politics, regardless of race, regardless of social scale, regardless, everyone was invited and there?  Where else will you see the best of Gonzales all in one place?

When you see the Gonzales Main Street committee, or see them online let them know how how much you like seeing what they've done.

In past years my wife and I have attended one to 2 of these events a year.  We are working a booth with the boy scouts this year, and will be there every Friday. and the July 4th event.  We hope to see you there!

For The Birds

Thank You Gonzales, You FLOCK!!!

I've often been told my board and website is for the birds, and now I know it is. 90a Sign is surrounded by 39 pink flamingos. Seriously, for the last month Troop 262 has been having a fund raiser with 3 flocks of plastic pink flamingos.  They've made their way around Gonzales, yard to yard, and even visited several businesses throughout town.  They have been accepted with open arms through out town. In their farewell night in Gonzales, they are perched at 'the chalkboard' to say Thank You Gonzales!

We wanted to share what these funds will be going towards.  We have 41 scouts in Troop 262.  Of those we have 17 boys (age 14 and above) and adults going to S. Padre Island for a week of high adventure sailing.  We'll be sailing out of Laguna Station.  Everyone will learn knots, tacking, and terminology.  Then we'll start out with smaller sailboats and at the end of the week we'll be on a 40'+ yacht.  This camp is $650+ per person. 

A second group of boys who either chose not to go to Seabase or are under 14 years old will also be going to S. Padre Island to enjoy a week on the beach and fun activities at the state park down there.  We expect this will cost about $300 - $350 per person for this camp. 

These are 2 huge undertakings, and we'll be doing them simultaneously!  Approximately 50 individuals will be spending the week of June 24 - 30, 2012 down in S. Padre.

Our troop is active and always on the go.  In 2 weeks we'll go to Summer Camp 2011 at El Rancho Cima over by Wimberely.

We've spent a night on the USS Lexington, shot riffles, shotguns, muzzle loaders, had "minute to win it" competitions, learned about money management, and so much more, and that's just 2011, and we're only 1/2 way done.

If you have a boy age 11 - 18, and are interested in finding out more about our troop, please contact us at info@trp262.com or visit our website at www.trp262.com

If you are a boy or girl age 14 - 21 and would like to find out about Boy Scouts Venturing (it's co-ed) in Gonzales and all their activities, including surfing, climbing, canoeing and much more contact Allison Poteet at cubmaster_fun_261@yahoo.com.

Or if you have a younger boy, 1st through 5th grade find out about Cub Scouts at www.pack261.com or you can also email Allison Poteet at cubmaster_fun_261@yahoo.com.

Scouting has been a big part of American culture since 1911 (that's right 100 years), and is a great program for any boy (and now girls age 14+ too).

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser

If you would like to donate to Troop 262 camping fund, please mail a check made out to BSA Troop 262 to 712 Ridgemont Lane, Gonales, TX 78629

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

DA - Find the paper work!

Ok, let me clear something up right here and right now, straight from the horses mouth, I have not taken Mayor O'Neil to civil court and am not suing him.  I will receive no money for any actions taken against Mayor O'Neil at any level of civil or criminal court. 

I have taken to the Gonzales Police Department a 50+ page set of documents and filed a report.  In it I outline several Felony and Misdemeanor offenses that I believe Mayor Bobby O'Neil has committed over the firing and subsequent actions ending in the signing a check in excess by over $20,000 to the terminated ex-City Manager David Huseman.

Mind you I can not press charges, that has to be the District Attorneys office. They have to take what I have given them, what the police subsequently collected and processed, and make a decision if any crimes have been committed.  If they decide there have been, then they will press charges against Mayor Bobby O'Neil.

Problem is on March 18, 2011 Officer Taylor took the package to the District Attorneys office, got a signed receipt for delivery.  Since last week and still as of today the District Attorneys Office has no clue what I'm talking about asking what the disposition of the filed report is.  Officer Taylor has called up there, with the signed receipt and they just don't know what's happened to the package.

Isn't it interesting that again the District Attorneys office has not taken serious a report filed against Mayor O'Neil?  Last time nothing happened, nothing happened, nothing happened, then our DA won't look into the voter fraud case because of "Political Pressure".  That they believe there were issues with the election, but that they didn't have time to follow them up and prosecute.  This time they've 'never heard of the report against Bobby O'Neil'. Really? Out of all the papers filed in the DAs office they conveniently lose the report on Mayor Bobby O'Neil? REALLY??? And I'm expected to believe this was just an accident?

If I hadn't called up there to find out where we were 6 weeks later it would of once again fallen through the cracks.  Wouldn't the Mayor be happy about that?  NOT GOING TO HAPPEN FOLKS! Mrs Miller I think you need to get your office in order! Remember you too are an elected official too!

And contrary to some belief I get NOTHING out of filing this report.  I don't make a dime.  I'm not running for mayor.  I've not asked to be appointed to any city boards or committees.  I haven't gotten Wahl Street fixed, nor the hump in the road in front of my house that causes my house to flood when it flash floods, (got the idea?).  As a matter of fact, I've had people chastise me, call me names, insult me, make snide comments, stop speaking to me, threaten me, etc (I think you get the idea). 

I would like to think that many of them are out of ignorance of the truth, and when the truth is physically laid out in front of them they would at least understand why this has to be done.  I heard it said if we can't control what is going on in our own city, how do we ever have hope of controlling what goes on in Austin or Washington?  I also believe if you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything.  I'm standing here, right now in this spot.  The taxpayers of the City of Gonzales deserve retribution for the money that was illegally given to Mr. Huseman, and is owed accountability of it's elected officials, in this specific case, Mayor Bobby O'Neil.

So straight from the horses mouth, I'm not suing Mayor Bobby O'Neil for ANYTHING!  I have filed a report with the City of Gonzales Police Department with 15 individual items where I believe Mayor Bobby O'Neil crossed the line of legality in his role as mayor our or town.  The DA will eventually evaluate and either press charges or ignore my footwork.

Until then it's just a waiting game.

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser

PS, thanks for all the folks who kicked me in the butt for not having updated the blog lately.  Please understand that between work, kids, scouts, and end of school I've been swamped and haven't had the spare time to follow up on several issues I'd like to.  But this blog will continue and I'll get it back into the priority listing. 

Quack?

When I started this blog and put up my board I knew I'd piss off some people.  Anytime you start putting lights on peoples sacred cows people are going to be piss, it's just the facts of life.  

I've pissed off the mayor.  I've pissed of fans of Mr. Huseman.  I've pissed of a TON of rodeo arena people. And I've said from the beginning that I was willing to deal with that as long as the facts were there. And trust me there have been times that I've had to dig deep to keep from just throwing my hands up from the apathetic responses. And as I've said over the year there are things that are my opinion.  How I rank priorities for our budget is just one of them.  

In doing so I put on my blog that if you disagreed with me that's fine. I don't delete those who have descending opinions, and give them an open forum to put out the facts too.  It's how we get challenged, it's how we learn to reevaluate situations, it's how we learn to come up with solutions to problems, sometimes problems we didn't even know we had till someone points them out.  As long as we are respectful of each other we can workout most anything. 

Now before I go any further I want to make this clear that there are some VERY good people who volunteer at FOGAS and are animal lovers in this town.  Rodeos would happen without love for animals.  I personally love dogs, and while admittedly am not a cat lover, I've never swerved to run over a cat either. 

But the 'respect' for one another crossed the line on Friday night when my board was vandalized while it has a comment about the $128,415 that Gonzales has spent on Animal Control which I feel is in excess for a town our size.  My house was the only one with reported graffiti.  It was not children playing or a random act.

It was in my opinion, an animal person who doesn't know where the lines of civility are drawn.  I've offended them, and instead of bringing the facts they stooped to prove their point.  Oh my, I'm so intimidated now.  I've changed my mind and we should double FOGAS and our Animal control budget for Gonzales. I'm going to take down my board and never say anything controversial again. NOT!

If anything it has set my resolve to make sure everyone in Gonzales that I might of missed in getting the information on what animal control is costing in this city gets that information.  It's set my resolve to make sure that animal control comes back into line with what surrounding cities pay for animal control.  I want to thank whoever did this for encouraging me.  I was changing the board Saturday morning, instead I repainted it, so now my message will be cleared.


To whomever did this, I'm not sure if you were just trying to embarrass me, 'send me a message', to cause us to 'save' FOGAS, oh hell, I don't even care.  But what I do care is that what you did is illegal.  And as such are nothing more than a thug.  So if that's what you wanted to prove, you succeeded.  I hope you're proud.

For those who want to help, if you so much as hear a peep, because someone will say something sometime or another, do what's right and please call the Gonzales Police Department, Officer Matthew Camarillo is the investigating officer.

To rap it up, I find it funny that out of everyone I've pissed off in this town through this blog and my sign, that it's an animal person that crosses the line. What's the message in that?

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser

White Elephant, or Cats and Dogs

So since the city budget meetings there has been a lot of talk about the cost of animal control in Gonzales.  Bottom line is that we as tax payers have paid $128,415 YTD.  Those figures are directly from the package provided to the media and council members for the last council meeting. 

As I have looked around at other cities budgets, I have yet to come across one that has averaged more than $10 per person in the city regardless of the size of the city.  And actually the larger cities like San Antonio bring that cost down to $1-$3 per person.  I understand economy of scale, but ours is running nearly double that at $18.35+ per person. 

I also understand that the volunteers at FOGAS put in their own time, sweat and money to keep these facilities running, as do every other volunteer of every other organization in our great town. 

Mine is with Scouting.  I hear Mr. Burchard and Mr. Dement talk about purchasing and taking care of items for beautification projects in town. All those that serve on boards in our town do so for $0.  If I had to venture to guess I would bet those at the Gonzales Youth Center have done the same thing.  It's what we do when we feel passionate about a cause. 

The difference is that our budget is not a substantial part of the budget of our city.  In some cases it's $0.  In some cases there are public funding for the projects.  And honestly I would prefer to see the city hire a grant writer to help some of these organizations then to keep paying their way. Not that the causes aren't good valid causes, but public funding comes at a price to everyone, including those taking the money. 

It's my understanding that we have the 'Gold Standard' of animal control.  It's a no kill facility.  The cats and dogs are placed at every opportunity, and if I've read correctly many many have been.  I know my son has adopted 3 cats (no not for my house) from FOGAS. 

The problem I have is this, WE CAN'T AFFORD THE GOLD STANDARD!  This year we are already running at a $420,000 deficit.  That is before any unforeseen issues, and the year just started 8 days ago.  I personally want a 6 bedroom house with 20 acres, a Jaguar, a Rolls Royce and a nice big pickup truck for pulling my waited fishing boat and trailer that I don't have.  All those things are great, and if I had the money I would be able to have. 

If we as a town had the money, then having the great level of animal control we have would be a great thing.  We don't have the money, and being able to bring our cost down to less than $10/head is where we need to be at.  That's cutting the current Animal Control spending to less than $70,000.  In my books that's almost a $60,000 savings over where we currently are. 

I know this issue is a sore spot for many.  It's ok, and we will have to agree to disagree, but when we are loosing policemen because of less than $3,000 a year, and we have departments of employees sitting on their hands because they don't have gas money, and we have pot holes that need to be fixed, and we have raw sewage running above ground, and we have....you get the picture, then every $100 counts, and $60,000 counts a lot!

There are still other areas that need approaching too.  I will be doing Feb and Mar numbers on JB Wells next week with any luck.  They still aren't off my radar.  There are other areas I'm looking at too.  But for now, since it's such a big financial target FOGAS and the entire Gonzales Animal Control is todays topic. Our entire city council needs to reevaluate the value that this method of animal control is bringing to our great city.

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser

Where to start?

First of all I want to point out that our city is functioning in a FAR better manner than it has in years as far as transparency, and as far as I can tell openness to the council. Last nights city council agenda had over 30 items on it.  Some were what some people might of call bs items, but all of them were rightfully on the agenda.  This is a testament to Mr. Windwehen, and the city employees that have rallied around him to get our city government back in check.  Thank you!

With that said there were a couple of items that I didn't understand at last nights meeting.

1) I don't understand why public comments were moved to the beginning when Roberts Rules of Orders specifically state all discussion on a matter should happen AFTER the question (the issue) is put to the floor (meaning a motion and a second has been made).  So now we are suppose to just sit on our hands and say nothing during the entire city council meetings regardless of what is valid or invalid being said. What happens when a point is brought up by a council member now?  We as citizens aren't suppose to speak, so we can't give the answers needed for well informed decisions.  On top of which, it's the 'sometimes' that someone makes a valid point during that discussion of an item that makes the difference in a vote.

2) I don't understand why that rule was to be broken for one item on the agenda, the vote of a city paper of record.  Why is it EVERYONE else had to obey the rules EXCEPT the Gonzales Inquirer.  Then Mayor O'Neil in 'fairness' said, "we'll have to let the other side speak".  Either we are going to do it this way or not! You can't have it one way except when you want to hear from someone.  There is no fairness on the 29+ other issues that were discussed at the meetings.

3) I will never understand why the pride of some will not let them admit they've made a mistake.  Mayor O'Neils proclamation declaring a Roaches Day for the City of Gonzales is inexcusable under the current circumstances.  Pastor Roaches is currently being indited for a felony, and declaring this at this time was in poor taste and judgement.  Let him prove he's innocence and THEN approve it.  But for the mayor to try to defend that at a city council meeting just shows he's out of touch with reality!

On the bright side, and there is plenty of that, Mr. Windwehem supported my comment that there needs to be a procedure for board vacancies so that all citizens of Gonzales could be made aware of openings.  You will probably find some great new candidates to fill these instead of the same crowd over and over again.  Remember though, ALL of these are volunteers, and regardless of their affiliations are still paid zippo for their time and efforts and should be thanked for doing so.

For the second month in a row the council saw a running budget.  It's always amazed me that the city council was asked to run the city without knowing what was coming in or going out in money.  This is a fantastic improvement and clears up much of the muddy water that use to be there.

The movement of St. George electrical is on track and already looking better!

We have a process started to get a full time city manager.  If I understood correctly we've still get about 6 months or so before we'll see one, but we are on track.  Hopefully Mr. Windwehem will stay with us till the bitter end on this one and help guide our council to a great replacement that will continue on the wonderful things he's started.

I saw the city council table several items for lack of information.  What a great thing.  In the past it always felt like they needed to vote on everything, last night it didn't work that way.

The city passed a ban on K2 and synthetic drugs.  In the past we were told wait till the state took care of it.  I'm glad to see our council addressing and taking care of it themselves!

I also saw a fairly full chambers in a meeting that didn't have anything of public controversy.  Not that there wasn't some controversy, but it wasn't of the public magnitude of JB Wells, the City Managers firing, or the horse issue.  And yet there were a room full of concerned citizens there.  Way to go Gonzales!

We didn't get where we are in a day, but I think we are on the back right road to pointing our great town in the right direction.   I would like to see the discussion put back where it belongs, after the 2nd of  a motion.  It parliamentary procedure 101. I hope the council follows my request, with the city managers support to come up with a procedure for board vacancies. And I hope Mayor O'Neil will think before he signs another proclamation declaring someone a great person, and make sure that person truly deserves that recognition.

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser

Postpone Petition

The following is the letter I just sent to the newspapers concerning the petition for term limits.  Please understand that it is not a problem with the term limits, but purely the unnecessary cost to the taxpayers of Gonzales.

I've been hesitant to pull the petition until I was certain that the elections were not going to happen.  Tonight will be vote by the council to cancel the election, and in doing so puts the entire project in a different light.
 

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I wanted to let all those in support of the term limits that we pulling the petitions at this time.  Those of us who have put this together, are also those who are asking for financial responsibility within our city government.  With the recent events, there will be no city election this year for city council, so per the city charter a special election would have to be called by the city if the city council didn’t approve it. 

We didn’t want to take the chance that the council wouldn’t approve it and incur the cost of a special election, and secondly we would prefer this go before the city voters.  Per the charter, if the voters approve the amendment the city council can not change it in the future without a vote of the people.  We would prefer this to be the manner that this petition for term limits is approved, so that the people of Gonzales will ALWAYS have the final say on this issue.

We appreciate all the support and positive comments that have come our way.  Look forward to the petition coming back out in February 2012, so that it will be on the next general election. 

God Bless
Dennis Nesser