What Would I Do Different?
by Ron West
 
 A special thank you to Mr. David Barron for sending in the following email:
 
Ron:
If you were to be running the city what would you do and how would you implement it? 
The city is run like a large corporation; the citizens are the stock holders. 
Some customers are happy, others are not, some just don’t give a dam. 
How would you deal with all the issues that are presented to the city at the present time. 
Don’t leave out anything and only talk about your favorite subjects, talk about them all. 
Anyone can get up on a soap box and shout about this and that but can you make it better?
Please outline your thoughts on what is going on, how you would deal with it, and what 
your fixes to problems already existing are. Now only I, but probably everyone else that 
reads your column would like to know.
David Barron
North Richland Hills

I think a response is in order but not as a candidate for city council – rather as suggestions from a citizen.

Let’s look at David’s questions in just a little different order than how they were submitted. David is very correct that the city is a lot like a large “public” corporation with the stockholders being the voting public of our city. There is one significant difference in that all funds for the city come directly (or indirectly) from the stockholders and the current board of directors controlling the money can increase the “take” without the permission of the stock holders. Another significant difference is that the city is governed by Federal, State and Local laws specific to the operation and governance of the city.

In theory, this is probably the best possible form of governance for a corporation of this size if all of the people involved follow the laws and participate. Unfortunately, our current leaderships seems to feel above the laws and is ignoring many of them. This is the first thing I would want changed – i.e., a commitment to follow all applicable laws of our land. There is a second problem here that many of the stockholders are not involved and do not vote nor express their opinions and I would want to encourage participation.

In David’s email, he refers to the citizens of the city as “customers” which is a good representation of each of us. There are also other customers involved such as businesses and special interests such as real estate developers. David is correct in that some are happy and some are mad – while the vast majority seem to be un-involved. Neither a large corporation nor a small one could please all of the people (or customers) all of the time. In this area, I would want fair & equal treatment for all of the customers of the city without special deals for the “in crowd”.

Now to address what I consider to be the current issues facing the city government and what I would want to do different, the following list could be a starting point:

1) Ever increasing property taxes – For the past 12 years, our city council has held the tax rate on property and is projecting to do so for the next 10 years. This causes an effective doubling of taxes on property due to increased valuations every 7 to 10 years. I do not believe this is affordable or fair. I believe that the city needs to limit property tax increases to no more than a percentage that is in line with inflation and population growth. This would slow the growth of government somewhat but not require any cutbacks in services. This position would tend to gradually lower the property tax rate very slowly over future years.

2) Ever increasing spending.  The current council did not cut one item out of the proposed budget that was submitted to the public and have increased spending significantly faster than population and inflation for the past 12 years.  Slush funds and reserves continue to grow!  Park funds from contributions have been diverted to an “Economic Development (slush) Fund. As stated in item 1, I would be for much more controlled spending with directions coming from the council and citizens rather than the professional staff of the city. 

3) Closed Government – Probably the most important thing I would want to change would be to open the government up to the citizens. We currently have very tightly controlled and closed government in our city. All new ordinances are basically “sprung” on the public without any chance to change or comment. All new ordinances should be published on the city web site for at least one month prior to any vote by the council. (There could be exceptions to deal with real emergencies.) All activities of the council and city employees should be readily available for public scrutiny. All city ordinances should be published on the web so that we know the rules of our city.

4) Unethical Benefit from Position on Council – All incumbent council members support City Attorney George Staples who directly benefits from every new lawsuit against the city – even if he is the cause of the action!  One incumbent directly works for city governments and has to occasionally abstain from voting.  The Mayor used his position to secure the use of BISD land for personal gain.  He is also on the Regional Transportation Council even though he bids on DOT highway & road projects. I would favor a much stronger code of ethics for all elected officials and for city employees. It does not seem right to use such positions for personal gain. These folks are supposed to be public servants – not public masters. I would change the contract with Attorney George Staples to restrict him from personal gain at the expense of city taxpayers.

5) Encourage Citizen Input– The current Mayor and incumbent council limit citizen input to two minutes or three minutes in hearings.  They then take all the time they desire to berate and ridicule any presenter before the council that they don’t like. I think it is wrong to berate those few citizens who take the time and make the effort to let the council know their thoughts on various matters. I would change council rules to limit the Mayor and Council Members to no more time for response than allowed to citizens. I would make sure that real public hearings are held on open matters and that such public hearings are really hearings instead of the current shams of the sitting council.

6) Make the City Business Friendly – The current city sign ordinance is in violation of Texas State Law and is being enforced by city personnel anyway. Our current council wants NRH to become like Southlake and any business that is not “pretty” they want to go away. I would stop the unlimited spending of the various studies by the city that are wasteful and harmful to our current businesses. I would like to see city management insure that employees of code enforcement are acting within the law and not illegally threatening our businesses. 

7) Respect for Private Property – Recent actions by the council effectively took control of the front 9 ½ feet of your property without pay.  This action was taken despite over 130 petition signatures and speakers that asked for moderation in this taking.  Councilman Lewis has expressed strong support for Eminent Domain proceedings to take private property and praised the actions in Hurst that required a $3 Million settlement for using Eminent Domain to take private property for a private entity. I would limit the use of Eminent Domain to property necessary for public use only and would like to see the city respect all private property rights.

8) Listen to the Citizens – The Mayor and incumbent council basically ignore all input from citizens.  A quote by The Mayor has been paraphrased effectively saying “don’t listen to the little people”. I want city leadership that listens and is responsive.

9) Skimming tax money to their private control – TIF#2 tax money is controlled by a closed board comprised of the Mayor and incumbent council.  They can spend this money without voter input or approval.  Records are hidden and hard to come by.  Millions are planned for spending while these funds would have normally gone to provide necessary city services. I would want to repeal TIF#2 and open construction of major city projects to the citizens – perhaps for a vote. I would favor using TIF’s as intended by state law instead of the current – bordering on illegal – interpretation of our sitting council.

10) Quality of Life rather than Beautification at any cost – With unlimited ever increasing tax revenue, our council has made beautification of the city the priority regardless of public interest or cost. They know what is best for us and can take our money to fund it. I would like to live in a city where the quality of life – including responsive open government is the goal rather than the obsessive spending and search for ever more revenue. Growth within the city is important but should be allowed to happen naturally. We have a great geographic location and great city facilities. Lets slow down and look at what the citizens want by considering their input.

11) Illegal Electioneering – I would stop the use of city publications for campaigning for the whims of council and city employees. The sitting council uses the city newsletter and city cable to promote their programs and issues.  We believe this to be illegal electioneering using taxpayer funds.

12) Lies – The city newsletter published factual lies to discourage votes for the Tax Freeze.  They also published factual lies to enhance your perspective of Hometown NRH by overstating tax revenue received by 1000% (10 times actual.)  How can the Mayor say trust the city when such false information is presented to you?  Even their recent “correction” in the water bill insert tried to justify this distortion. I would like to demand an honest effort to present only facts and to penalize those who would distort and lie in city publications.

13) Rude & Discourteous Behavior – Everyone needs to tune in on the Council meetings.  Mayor Trevino and company are not civil to the new members of the council nor to citizens in the audience. I believe that all citizens of our city should be treated with respect and courtesy regardless of their opinions or positions.

14) Lawsuits – I am for attempting to settle lawsuits with legitimate complaints against the city rather than extended and costly litigation. The Davis Wrongful Death lawsuit is very dangerous to all of us if it actually goes to a jury trial.

This is not an exhaustive list of the items that I think are important in our City and they do not represent all of the things I would like to see changed. They are a start and if any reader of my columns would like to know about my position on any specific issue not listed above – just let me know. I don’t expect everyone to agree with my positions but I sure would like for everyone to become active in our city politics. If enough citizens participate – like David is doing with his email – then things will get even better in our city than they have been in the past – and – we will not be taxed out of our homes. Our current apathy is costing all of us and allowing things to happen that none of us would want if we knew about them.

Let me know your thoughts and positions and I will publish them also.

My special thanks to David Barron for his email and his interest.