The following is the except for tonight's called meeting. The first item on the agenda is your property tax rate for 2011. Now I don't care if you own, rent, or are passing through you pay these taxes. Either directly or through increased rents.
So far, only 1 person has spoken either for or against the increased taxes that are being proposed (not increase tax rate, but increase because of increased values on our properties), and that person was me. The council has a chance to vote for the 'effective tax rate' which will still increase the revenues for the city because of new businesses and houses without effecting the amount you paid this last year.
The county has actually LOWERED your taxes, so why does the city want to raise them?
So tonight come visit the council at their new time of 6:30.
God Bless,
Dennis Nesser
CITY OF GONZALES CALLED CITY COUNCIL MEETING
SEPTEMBER 20, 2011
6:30 P.M.
CALL TO ORDER AND INVOCATION
PUBLIC COMMENTS Pgs.
The public comments section of the meeting is for citizens to address the Mayor and Council (as a whole).
ORDINANCES
1. Discuss and Consider Ordinance #2011-20 for Adoption of the Fiscal Year 2011 Tax Rate 1-22. Discuss and Consider Ordinance #2011- 23 for Adoption of the Revised Drought Contingency Plan 3-34
RESOLUTIONS
3. Discuss and Consider Resolution #2011- 44 to Approve the Subdivision of Property 35-43
EXECUTIVE SESSION
4. Deliberation Regarding Real Property Under Government Code § 551.072
RETURN TO OPEN SESSION
5. Discuss and Consider items listed in executive session as necessary.
ADJOURN
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Scout Sign Up in Gonzales
Just a bit off note, tonight is sign up for all scouting in Gonzales. If you have a girl from kindergarten to 21 years old, or a boy from first grade through 21 we have an adventure for them.
In a joint venture all scouts have come together with a website www.gonzalesscouting.com. It describes all the types of scouting in Gonzales.
We have Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, and now Venturing for co-ed high adventure all in Gonzales.
So if you have a child and want to see them in a great organization that will keep them active and learning great leadership skills, bring them tonight to Gonzales Elementary between 6 and 7:30 for sign up.
God Bless,
Dennis Nesser
In a joint venture all scouts have come together with a website www.gonzalesscouting.com. It describes all the types of scouting in Gonzales.
We have Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, and now Venturing for co-ed high adventure all in Gonzales.
So if you have a child and want to see them in a great organization that will keep them active and learning great leadership skills, bring them tonight to Gonzales Elementary between 6 and 7:30 for sign up.
God Bless,
Dennis Nesser
Friday, September 9, 2011
OMG!
There are NO FREAKING EXCUSES!
This man should be shamed at every corner he's seen at. He shouldn't be served in this town anywhere that has the right to refuse service!
Geez, if I were the same man that for years couldn't see any problems at JB Wells, if I were same man that did NOT put in ANY checks and balances for money handling and then is baffled how we are short on cash, if I were the same man that was suppose to separate JB Wells into its own fund 6 months ago, if I were the man that had not taken action on any one of the limited notes made by our auditors, if I were the man that pulled %$@#( numbers out of thin air for our budget instead of real numbers, if I were the man that never came to the city council letting them know how bad the financials were, EVEN though it was my job I would dig a hole and crawl into it after I quit in shame. In Japan I would be expected to commit Hari-kari.
HOW MUCH LONGER IS THIS TOWN GOING TO STAND FOR THIS KIND OF INCOMPETENCE????? There is ABSOLUTELY no reason that a certain financial officer should have his job after close of business Monday.
Call the city on Monday, 672-2815, let them know this is unacceptable that we are still paying any kind of salary to our EX city manager and that those responsible should be shown the door IMMEDIATELY!!!
I swear, it appears the 2 were working in cahoots. You have to wonder how much covering up he might of done to protect his EX boss.
This is the end of this public ranting.
God Bless,
Dennis Nesser
Committees in Gonzales
I saw something happen at Tuesdays meeting that I've never seen before. I saw the Beautification Committee give a report on their actions and some of the things they are planning.
Now I'm going to be honest with you until the budgeting process this year I didn't even know we had a Beautification Committee. As a matter of fact, I found out we had a list of committees that I learned about during the budgeting process. It was a bit mind boggling to me, because in my entire time going to city council meetings the only time I've ever heard from any committee was when they needed to appoint additional people to their committees.
So I'm a bit perplexed. In every other situation, and according to Roberts Rules of Order (one of our governing documents), committees are to regularly report back to the council. Why? So that the managing body (read city council) is informed and knows what is going on.
Over the last year or so I've heard several times that "our councilmen never come to our meetings". It's not their job! Their job is to have the reports of committees come to them. Committees are created to hash out issues, to create solutions to problems that the city council doesn't have time themselves to do. It does not relinquish final authority/responsibility by creating committees. It's still all falls back on the city council.
I want to quote from Roberts Rules of Order - "Generally the term committee implies that, within the area of its assigned responsibilities, the committee has less authority to act independently for the society (or other constituting power (read city council here)) than a board is usually understood to have. Thus, if the committee is to do more than report its empowered to act for the society only on specific instructions; or, if it is given standing powers, its actions may be more closely subject to review than a board's, or it may be required to report more fully." (9th Edition, Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised)
So in all the years of going to council I have to ask myself, "Where the heck is the reporting to the council?" Why do these committees expect the councilmen to come to them, when it's their obligations to report back to the council?
This last Tuesday Mr. Burchard did a great job of reporting to the council. He gave a listing of what is in the works, what are on the "we'd like to do" list, and even some long term planning. The council has now been informed as to what the Beautification Committee is up to.
I would love to hear from all these other committees too. Wouldn't they want the council to know that 1) they really are working on things for the City of Gonzales 2) that the direction they are taking is one that the council is wanting to go in so that their work doesn't get yanked after a lot of sweat and blood has been put into it.
Last I have is that while there is probably (though I'm not 100% certain) that most of these committees do not have to have the 3 day written notification of agendas and such that some do (like the council, GEDC, Zoning), it sure would be nice if they posted on the city website that a meeting is planned so that if someone wanted to present an idea to that committee it was available to them. I'm certain our city secretary could post in the agendas and announcements section of our website any upcoming meetings in a heart beat. I wouldn't have a clue how to present something to most of the committees, because I don't know who they are or when/where they meet.
Right now most people in Gonzales don't even know 1/2 the committees we have (btw, ALL committees are to be appointed by the city council per our city charter), much less their function or who is involved. I personally think it's time to give the recognition to the hard workers, their works, and to come together at our central governing body, our city council, to make sure we are all working together in a single direction, after all it's their job.
God Bless,
Dennis Nesser
Now I'm going to be honest with you until the budgeting process this year I didn't even know we had a Beautification Committee. As a matter of fact, I found out we had a list of committees that I learned about during the budgeting process. It was a bit mind boggling to me, because in my entire time going to city council meetings the only time I've ever heard from any committee was when they needed to appoint additional people to their committees.
So I'm a bit perplexed. In every other situation, and according to Roberts Rules of Order (one of our governing documents), committees are to regularly report back to the council. Why? So that the managing body (read city council) is informed and knows what is going on.
Over the last year or so I've heard several times that "our councilmen never come to our meetings". It's not their job! Their job is to have the reports of committees come to them. Committees are created to hash out issues, to create solutions to problems that the city council doesn't have time themselves to do. It does not relinquish final authority/responsibility by creating committees. It's still all falls back on the city council.
I want to quote from Roberts Rules of Order - "Generally the term committee implies that, within the area of its assigned responsibilities, the committee has less authority to act independently for the society (or other constituting power (read city council here)) than a board is usually understood to have. Thus, if the committee is to do more than report its empowered to act for the society only on specific instructions; or, if it is given standing powers, its actions may be more closely subject to review than a board's, or it may be required to report more fully." (9th Edition, Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised)
So in all the years of going to council I have to ask myself, "Where the heck is the reporting to the council?" Why do these committees expect the councilmen to come to them, when it's their obligations to report back to the council?
This last Tuesday Mr. Burchard did a great job of reporting to the council. He gave a listing of what is in the works, what are on the "we'd like to do" list, and even some long term planning. The council has now been informed as to what the Beautification Committee is up to.
I would love to hear from all these other committees too. Wouldn't they want the council to know that 1) they really are working on things for the City of Gonzales 2) that the direction they are taking is one that the council is wanting to go in so that their work doesn't get yanked after a lot of sweat and blood has been put into it.
Last I have is that while there is probably (though I'm not 100% certain) that most of these committees do not have to have the 3 day written notification of agendas and such that some do (like the council, GEDC, Zoning), it sure would be nice if they posted on the city website that a meeting is planned so that if someone wanted to present an idea to that committee it was available to them. I'm certain our city secretary could post in the agendas and announcements section of our website any upcoming meetings in a heart beat. I wouldn't have a clue how to present something to most of the committees, because I don't know who they are or when/where they meet.
Right now most people in Gonzales don't even know 1/2 the committees we have (btw, ALL committees are to be appointed by the city council per our city charter), much less their function or who is involved. I personally think it's time to give the recognition to the hard workers, their works, and to come together at our central governing body, our city council, to make sure we are all working together in a single direction, after all it's their job.
God Bless,
Dennis Nesser
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Response on My Actions for the Proposed Veterans Memoral
For those who missed the city council meeting last Tuesday, there was an item about the proposed Veterans Memorial. After some heated debate the council had a motion on the table to "get together with all the organizations to town, and come back to us when everyone is in agreement". The motion was seconded and prior to the vote I stood up to comment.
This was the 2nd time that Mr. Mercer came up on this issue. He followed the directions that the council gave him last time, and expressed that he could not proceed until he knew where the proposed monument would be placed, as the next step is a costly step that requires exact land shaping to finish. So the a plan drawn up for the 1200 St. Lawrence wouldn't work a block over.
In the end Tommy Schrig withdrew his original motion, and remotioned to grant the Memorial the corner by the cannon on St. Lawrence.
Today I received the following comment on another section of my blog -
Anonymous said...
Dennis Quote - "We (our city) has to get back to basics! If we don't need it right now we can't afford it."
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for recognizing the Veteran's and the sacrifices they have made for us and our country, but why now? Who is going to pay for that and where is the money coming from? When we are so much in debt why are we approving to spend more money right now? And why you Dennis of all people were fighting for them to make a decision? You are the one constantly complaining about the spending and the budget. Also you are the one who stated previously that there needs to be more tabling of items on the city council agenda rather than making a quick un-informed decision thus costing more money. Why you of all people pushed the council to make a decision when they were going to table the motion?
In my opinion, you are going against several things that you have already stated you stand for. Why should we believe anything you have to say? It seems that you are only interested in your own agenda and if its beneficial to you to do so or try to make a name for yourself.
So I'd like to respond -
I will be writing more about the proposed Veterans Memorial at a later time, but you are right to ask, and I will explain.
First this Monument is NOT being built with ANY tax dollars. It's a private venture. I would NOT have supported it had it been in any way funded by the City of Gonzales. This is #1 in my books, and is the only way it should have been considered. If the VFW, AL and IOOF can not raise the funds to build this monument they have NO right to ask the city for ANY money (see my comment quoted above).
Second I saw a standoff happening. One side saying they couldn't move forward until they knew where they would would be allowed to put a monument, and the other saying they didn't want to approve the place till they pleased EVERYONE in the city and had final plans. Basically killing any possibility of a Veterans Memorial ever happening. Mr. Mercer had already said they could not proceed without knowing what plot of land the proposed monument would be built on. Part of the planning is making it work with the plot of land it's going on.
I had no intentions of speaking either way on the memorial until I felt like we got to this stalemate. Remember this motion had already been tabled once, and Mr. Mercer and his group did exactly what the city council asked of them. They met with the other concerned parties, and from everyone who I've spoken to at the meeting they left with the belief they had come to a agreement. It wasn't till the following day that there were more ruffles in the waters (this coming from our councilmen).
And what exactly did I ask for? I asked for the council to tell Mr. Mercer that yes he could plan to have that plot of land to start planning, or tell him no he couldn't. Either way it was movement. I also told the council that if they did approve it they needed to caveat it several ways that did not happen in the final motion. That if they told him no they needed to point him in the right directions to get their approval.
Since I'm on this topic I'm going to point out that once again our previous city manager Mr. Huseman is the center of this issue. He went, unauthorized, and requested something of the Beautification Committee (or at least members of it), and never EVER let anyone who did have that authority know anything about his plans. So in the mean time a great group of guys and gals have worked diligently to do as they were asked only to have the rug yanked out from under them. So when I mentioned lack of communications before, here we go paying the price for those actions, the very actions that got Mr. Huseman fired. I do hope that the council puts on the agenda the proposed trees, and get a plan for them too.
The only negative comments I've heard about the proposed memorial and this location, is that it conflicted with the historical trees that were also claiming that spot. Again, the council was unaware of this proposed plan, as it was NEVER brought to any council meeting, so they never approved it. It wasn't brought to their attention prior to the memorial proposal. Not one of the council members knew about any usage for the 1200 block prior to this incident.
And for the record, when Mr. Mercer approached Mr. Huseman 3 1/2 years ago, Mr. Huseman didn't say anything about that plot of land being used for anything else. No one but Mr. Huseman knows if which incident came first, and honestly at this point both groups have expended enough time and energy to be upset.
So no matter what someone was going to have their feelings hurt. There was no way to 'win' this without getting someone upset, without putting out some hard working citizen that is trying to do something to make our town better. NONE! When those times come it takes the city council to make a decision. It SUCKS but it's what they get paid for. Several of the council members even admitted to me after the meeting that they were hoping the someone else would be the bad guy for a change, but all of them I spoke with said ultimately they had no doubt that the selected location would have been approved for the proposed Veterans Memorial.
So I still stand by my stance that our council should NOT be spending money. I was actually proud of them Tuesday 1) for not spending 1 dime 2) When the opportunity was brought to them to spend some money at JB Wells (another topic I will be bringing back up soon) they passed with the comment that we need to budget for some of this next year. *standing and clapping*
So the reader is misinformed or is making presumptions about the memorial and my actions. They are presuming this is costing you and I as 'joe taxpayer' money. It's not.
They are assuming that the city cares where that money comes from, but since we're not paying for it, we don't.
They are assuming the council was uninformed, and I can honestly say the council knew everything they ever were going to know. Even the council members will tell you that.
Why force a decision? Because the 1) in this case they did the right thing by tabling the item the first time, but there was NO reason for them to table it a second time (not that an item can't be tabled 2, 3, 4, 100 times if necessary), the end results were going to be the same, and the only difference is that the bad blood was going to boil for longer 2) I felt "A" decision was in order, and I clearly gave them the option to discuss other locations for this monument (the whole conversation is taped for the record). Had they come back to table the motion to find a second location, I would of been in favor of that, 3) the motion made by Mr. Schrig, and the unrealistic demands place in that motion to table were insane, and absolutely unobtainable for Superman himself.
Why me? Because no one else was saying what needed to be said. Kind of like only 1 person in the entire town of Gonzales has spoken up at the public hearings for the property tax increase, that person was me. Not 1 other soul spoke up one way or the other. So the apathy shown there was also what was happening at this point in my opinion, and I heard about hurt feelings (and they had the right to be), I heard about needs, I heard whining, but I didn't hear anyone stepping up to get an honest resolution. So at absolutely the last moment I spoke up.
I also held no guns to any councilmen heads to get them to change any vote or motion, and trust me the council has shot me down previously and I'm certain will do it again in the future. If they truly felt the motion to table was correct after everything was said, they would of tabled it, regardless of what I said.
I'm hoping that this explanation will show that I've held true to my writings here at 90asign.com. As for 'making a name for myself', I'm afraid my name is made in Gonzales. For good or bad, it is. I gained nothing for speaking up, I lost nothing. I made some happy, I pissed some off. It's what comes with my name and my opinions.
As for my own agenda...if you're talking about keeping moving Gonzales into the 21st century....if you're talking about being fiscally responsible with taxpayers money....if you're talking about expecting accountability of our city employees and their usage of city money....if you're talking about exposing abuses within our city, then you're 100% right. If you're talking about Dennis Nesser received anything then let me assure you I received no money, no offer for any position, no 50 cent off coupon for a cup of coffee, not even a beer by Mr. Mercer himself. So you'd be wrong if you were heading down that line.
Whomever wrote this has obviously read enough of my writings to know what I believe in, and if they are truly honest with themselves after reading this they will know I'm right. It obviously this was something personal with the writer, and as I said, there is a whole group of people that got the short end of the stick on this deal, and have a right to take it personal. The problem was, SOMEONE was going to get that short end, there was no way around it. They are not the bad guys, quite the opposite. They are the people who put their heart and soul in their work (again as many of us do) that got wronged through no fault of their own. I truly hope when it's said and done that they too will get what is rightly due to them. That the council will work with them on their proposal so their hard work is not a waste of time just as they've done with Mr. Mercer on the Veterans Memorial.
God Bless,
Dennis Nesser
Other topics I hope to write about soon -
JB Wells and the state of affairs
Committee and their obligations
What the Veterans Memorial is about
So come back soon and see what I've written.
This was the 2nd time that Mr. Mercer came up on this issue. He followed the directions that the council gave him last time, and expressed that he could not proceed until he knew where the proposed monument would be placed, as the next step is a costly step that requires exact land shaping to finish. So the a plan drawn up for the 1200 St. Lawrence wouldn't work a block over.
In the end Tommy Schrig withdrew his original motion, and remotioned to grant the Memorial the corner by the cannon on St. Lawrence.
Today I received the following comment on another section of my blog -
Anonymous said...
Dennis Quote - "We (our city) has to get back to basics! If we don't need it right now we can't afford it."
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for recognizing the Veteran's and the sacrifices they have made for us and our country, but why now? Who is going to pay for that and where is the money coming from? When we are so much in debt why are we approving to spend more money right now? And why you Dennis of all people were fighting for them to make a decision? You are the one constantly complaining about the spending and the budget. Also you are the one who stated previously that there needs to be more tabling of items on the city council agenda rather than making a quick un-informed decision thus costing more money. Why you of all people pushed the council to make a decision when they were going to table the motion?
In my opinion, you are going against several things that you have already stated you stand for. Why should we believe anything you have to say? It seems that you are only interested in your own agenda and if its beneficial to you to do so or try to make a name for yourself.
So I'd like to respond -
I will be writing more about the proposed Veterans Memorial at a later time, but you are right to ask, and I will explain.
First this Monument is NOT being built with ANY tax dollars. It's a private venture. I would NOT have supported it had it been in any way funded by the City of Gonzales. This is #1 in my books, and is the only way it should have been considered. If the VFW, AL and IOOF can not raise the funds to build this monument they have NO right to ask the city for ANY money (see my comment quoted above).
Second I saw a standoff happening. One side saying they couldn't move forward until they knew where they would would be allowed to put a monument, and the other saying they didn't want to approve the place till they pleased EVERYONE in the city and had final plans. Basically killing any possibility of a Veterans Memorial ever happening. Mr. Mercer had already said they could not proceed without knowing what plot of land the proposed monument would be built on. Part of the planning is making it work with the plot of land it's going on.
I had no intentions of speaking either way on the memorial until I felt like we got to this stalemate. Remember this motion had already been tabled once, and Mr. Mercer and his group did exactly what the city council asked of them. They met with the other concerned parties, and from everyone who I've spoken to at the meeting they left with the belief they had come to a agreement. It wasn't till the following day that there were more ruffles in the waters (this coming from our councilmen).
And what exactly did I ask for? I asked for the council to tell Mr. Mercer that yes he could plan to have that plot of land to start planning, or tell him no he couldn't. Either way it was movement. I also told the council that if they did approve it they needed to caveat it several ways that did not happen in the final motion. That if they told him no they needed to point him in the right directions to get their approval.
Since I'm on this topic I'm going to point out that once again our previous city manager Mr. Huseman is the center of this issue. He went, unauthorized, and requested something of the Beautification Committee (or at least members of it), and never EVER let anyone who did have that authority know anything about his plans. So in the mean time a great group of guys and gals have worked diligently to do as they were asked only to have the rug yanked out from under them. So when I mentioned lack of communications before, here we go paying the price for those actions, the very actions that got Mr. Huseman fired. I do hope that the council puts on the agenda the proposed trees, and get a plan for them too.
The only negative comments I've heard about the proposed memorial and this location, is that it conflicted with the historical trees that were also claiming that spot. Again, the council was unaware of this proposed plan, as it was NEVER brought to any council meeting, so they never approved it. It wasn't brought to their attention prior to the memorial proposal. Not one of the council members knew about any usage for the 1200 block prior to this incident.
And for the record, when Mr. Mercer approached Mr. Huseman 3 1/2 years ago, Mr. Huseman didn't say anything about that plot of land being used for anything else. No one but Mr. Huseman knows if which incident came first, and honestly at this point both groups have expended enough time and energy to be upset.
So no matter what someone was going to have their feelings hurt. There was no way to 'win' this without getting someone upset, without putting out some hard working citizen that is trying to do something to make our town better. NONE! When those times come it takes the city council to make a decision. It SUCKS but it's what they get paid for. Several of the council members even admitted to me after the meeting that they were hoping the someone else would be the bad guy for a change, but all of them I spoke with said ultimately they had no doubt that the selected location would have been approved for the proposed Veterans Memorial.
So I still stand by my stance that our council should NOT be spending money. I was actually proud of them Tuesday 1) for not spending 1 dime 2) When the opportunity was brought to them to spend some money at JB Wells (another topic I will be bringing back up soon) they passed with the comment that we need to budget for some of this next year. *standing and clapping*
So the reader is misinformed or is making presumptions about the memorial and my actions. They are presuming this is costing you and I as 'joe taxpayer' money. It's not.
They are assuming that the city cares where that money comes from, but since we're not paying for it, we don't.
They are assuming the council was uninformed, and I can honestly say the council knew everything they ever were going to know. Even the council members will tell you that.
Why force a decision? Because the 1) in this case they did the right thing by tabling the item the first time, but there was NO reason for them to table it a second time (not that an item can't be tabled 2, 3, 4, 100 times if necessary), the end results were going to be the same, and the only difference is that the bad blood was going to boil for longer 2) I felt "A" decision was in order, and I clearly gave them the option to discuss other locations for this monument (the whole conversation is taped for the record). Had they come back to table the motion to find a second location, I would of been in favor of that, 3) the motion made by Mr. Schrig, and the unrealistic demands place in that motion to table were insane, and absolutely unobtainable for Superman himself.
Why me? Because no one else was saying what needed to be said. Kind of like only 1 person in the entire town of Gonzales has spoken up at the public hearings for the property tax increase, that person was me. Not 1 other soul spoke up one way or the other. So the apathy shown there was also what was happening at this point in my opinion, and I heard about hurt feelings (and they had the right to be), I heard about needs, I heard whining, but I didn't hear anyone stepping up to get an honest resolution. So at absolutely the last moment I spoke up.
I also held no guns to any councilmen heads to get them to change any vote or motion, and trust me the council has shot me down previously and I'm certain will do it again in the future. If they truly felt the motion to table was correct after everything was said, they would of tabled it, regardless of what I said.
I'm hoping that this explanation will show that I've held true to my writings here at 90asign.com. As for 'making a name for myself', I'm afraid my name is made in Gonzales. For good or bad, it is. I gained nothing for speaking up, I lost nothing. I made some happy, I pissed some off. It's what comes with my name and my opinions.
As for my own agenda...if you're talking about keeping moving Gonzales into the 21st century....if you're talking about being fiscally responsible with taxpayers money....if you're talking about expecting accountability of our city employees and their usage of city money....if you're talking about exposing abuses within our city, then you're 100% right. If you're talking about Dennis Nesser received anything then let me assure you I received no money, no offer for any position, no 50 cent off coupon for a cup of coffee, not even a beer by Mr. Mercer himself. So you'd be wrong if you were heading down that line.
Whomever wrote this has obviously read enough of my writings to know what I believe in, and if they are truly honest with themselves after reading this they will know I'm right. It obviously this was something personal with the writer, and as I said, there is a whole group of people that got the short end of the stick on this deal, and have a right to take it personal. The problem was, SOMEONE was going to get that short end, there was no way around it. They are not the bad guys, quite the opposite. They are the people who put their heart and soul in their work (again as many of us do) that got wronged through no fault of their own. I truly hope when it's said and done that they too will get what is rightly due to them. That the council will work with them on their proposal so their hard work is not a waste of time just as they've done with Mr. Mercer on the Veterans Memorial.
God Bless,
Dennis Nesser
Other topics I hope to write about soon -
JB Wells and the state of affairs
Committee and their obligations
What the Veterans Memorial is about
So come back soon and see what I've written.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
We ♥ Our Fire Fighters
I have so much to write about going on in the city right now. But before I do I believe this blog, and we as a community, need to make sure we let EVERY fireman we see gets told "THANK YOU" from the bottom of our hearts.
Their untold selflessness is what has kept our town safe, especially over the last couple of weeks, and really months with this drought, is incredible and I'm not sure we as a community have let them know.
For those who don't know we have both paid and volunteer firemen in Gonzales. A majority of our firemen are volunteers though.
So you want to tell them thank you? Do so this Sunday by going through Independence Park and picking up a BBQ plate. It's a weak thank you, but it will be appreciated and a small token of our appreciation for all the good work these men do.
God Bless,
Dennis Nesser
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Beginning to Think
Ok, so the quote of the night from last nights council meeting was "So after everything happening out at JB Wells we started thinking." To protect the guilty I'm going to leave the names out. But honestly I had to do everything I could to keep from rolling out of my chair. My councilman shot me the "please quit laughing before I start laughing too" look. I was just grateful the speaker was facing away from me and couldn't see me.
So I'm assuming we're finally starting to think about JB Wells and how we operate it. That the hundreds of thousands of dollars we've pissed away weren't enough to get the attention of those in our city offices, it took police and firing of individuals to finally get people thinking.
I hope in the mean time all the other department heads are 'thinking' too. That they realize that this is no longer an open checkbook town with a bottomless pit of being able to get anything they want. I know that some departments have struggled over the years more than others, but even those have gotten 'luxuries' compared to our surrounding cities.
We (our city) has to get back to basics! If we don't need it right now we can't afford it. And as I tell my teenagers, there are HUGE differences between what we want and what we need. I would love to have a water system pumping 10x the water we have with great water pressure throughout town and lots to spare, with roads paved of gold and no potholes or dips that rip out the underside of my car, with roads like Ft. Wahl passable, with stoplights in sync, and great parks with walking trails, and St. George street finished, and our canoe trail finished, and and and and and....but some of these things are not needed right now (though some of them are).
Earlier this year, our city council sat down for weeks on end, working with the interim city manager and all of the department heads coming up with a budget of things that were necessary to run our town for this year. Necessary being the key word. Since that time we've added about $500,000 (that's right a half a MILLION dollars in expenditures) to that budget, with a 6 - 15 million project additional in that. All this with a budget that was already 1.5 million in the hole. That alone was a tough amount to swallow.
So why are we continuing to spend? Why are we adding non-budgeted items every meeting to our burden? The item that was in question last night was honestly a partially budgeted item. The city if finally purchasing some software that will track payments for the RVs, our city cemetery, and other elements of our city that have been run out of a shoe box in the past. Of the $31,000 that they approved, $25,000 was budgeted. It was the additional modules to run the RV slots and cemetery an a couple of other $$$ management pieces that make up the $6,000 not budgeted. And honestly we've needed something there, but why didn't we budget for this 2 years ago, hell 5 years ago when we put in JB Wells?
I'm hoping that our city listens to what was said and follows through, and honestly 'begins to think' about how we're operating all aspects of our city right now.
God Bless,
Dennis Nesser
So I'm assuming we're finally starting to think about JB Wells and how we operate it. That the hundreds of thousands of dollars we've pissed away weren't enough to get the attention of those in our city offices, it took police and firing of individuals to finally get people thinking.
I hope in the mean time all the other department heads are 'thinking' too. That they realize that this is no longer an open checkbook town with a bottomless pit of being able to get anything they want. I know that some departments have struggled over the years more than others, but even those have gotten 'luxuries' compared to our surrounding cities.
We (our city) has to get back to basics! If we don't need it right now we can't afford it. And as I tell my teenagers, there are HUGE differences between what we want and what we need. I would love to have a water system pumping 10x the water we have with great water pressure throughout town and lots to spare, with roads paved of gold and no potholes or dips that rip out the underside of my car, with roads like Ft. Wahl passable, with stoplights in sync, and great parks with walking trails, and St. George street finished, and our canoe trail finished, and and and and and....but some of these things are not needed right now (though some of them are).
Earlier this year, our city council sat down for weeks on end, working with the interim city manager and all of the department heads coming up with a budget of things that were necessary to run our town for this year. Necessary being the key word. Since that time we've added about $500,000 (that's right a half a MILLION dollars in expenditures) to that budget, with a 6 - 15 million project additional in that. All this with a budget that was already 1.5 million in the hole. That alone was a tough amount to swallow.
So why are we continuing to spend? Why are we adding non-budgeted items every meeting to our burden? The item that was in question last night was honestly a partially budgeted item. The city if finally purchasing some software that will track payments for the RVs, our city cemetery, and other elements of our city that have been run out of a shoe box in the past. Of the $31,000 that they approved, $25,000 was budgeted. It was the additional modules to run the RV slots and cemetery an a couple of other $$$ management pieces that make up the $6,000 not budgeted. And honestly we've needed something there, but why didn't we budget for this 2 years ago, hell 5 years ago when we put in JB Wells?
I'm hoping that our city listens to what was said and follows through, and honestly 'begins to think' about how we're operating all aspects of our city right now.
God Bless,
Dennis Nesser
Monday, August 29, 2011
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
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
Sunday, August 28, 2011
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
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
Monday, August 22, 2011
I love 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.
Saturday, August 13, 2011
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
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
Friday, August 5, 2011
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
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
Saturday, July 30, 2011
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
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
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
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
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
Saturday, July 16, 2011
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
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
Monday, July 11, 2011
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.
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.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
$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
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
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
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
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
Sunday, June 5, 2011
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
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
Saturday, June 4, 2011
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!
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!
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