A New Month and A Real Opportunity!
by Ron West
If you think that your participation and vote will not count - please think again. North Richland Hills is the third largest city in Tarrant County and until recent years, has been a really nice place to live. When all of us went to sleep and didn't vote or pay attention, things changed.
By our apathy, we allowed a closed club of special interest folks to take over our city. We allowed special deals to benefit the privileged few. We tolerated enforcement of illegal ordinances and allowed the city to cater to the special interests. We allowed our citizens rights to be trampled. We are enduring the total disrespect of the citizens by our elected officials who act more like royal dictators than public servants. We allowed our elected officials to close the local government to our view and supervision.
During the last 12 years, we have seen the revenues to the city increase by well over 100% while our population grew by less than 25%. We have seen business move out of the city and lost the only major mall in our city. Had the mall not been lost, there would be no need to trumpet the "achievement" of revitalization of what became a "blighted" area. The loss of business could be attributed to the "unfriendly" state of affairs between city government and such business.
Even with staggering revenue growth our elected officials waged a mean spirited campaign to prevent the freezing of city property taxes for our Seniors and Disabled residents. They spoke against the freeze telling us that we were "not informed", "mis-informed", "lied to" or "didn't understand what we were voting for". They utilized city publications to campaign against the freeze and grossly mis-stated the "cost" (meaning new tax increases in the future) of the freeze. They labeled the supporters of the freeze as "political terrorists". Fortunately, this issue did essentially wake up 12% of the voters in our city and with a record turnout, the Freeze passed with a margin of greater than 2 to 1. Even with the freeze, city revenues will increase again in the year ahead.
A year ago, in a spirited election, citizens of the the city were able to elect two new council members replacing two incumbents. Only a slanderous letter from one of the incumbents to voters precluded a sweep including the election of a new mayor. One would have thought that this close election would cause our elected officials to begin to show some courtesy and respect for the citizens of the city but such has not been the case. Both discourtesy and disrespect for citizen presentations is still the order of the day during city council meetings. The treatment of the two new council people by the old incumbents - especially the Mayor - has been shameful.
With the utilization of open records requests, we have slowly begun to pry open the closed government of NRH but we have a long, long way to go. Simple things like pre-publication of new laws prior to enactment by our all knowing council are being fought by the city. Over 20% of total property tax revenue is budgeted to "non-departments" which have no employees. Over $3 Million budgeted for "sundries" just this year. This staggering amount was approved without questions by the incumbents on the council. The only defense seems to be a war of words on the meaning of the term "slush fund". Unfortunately, budget information is not available to the citizens or public until long after approval by the council so public hearings on the budget are a sham.
So where is the opportunity? It lies with you and your vote. Four regular citizens of NRH who are not part of the "good ol boy network" or "ruling class", have stepped forward and volunteered their time and efforts to work towards returning NRH to the really classy city it used to be. They have stated their support for open government and respect of citizens. They have stated their support of the city staff and all city services without cuts. They have stated their opposition to unquestioned runaway spending. In fact, they have clearly stated their positions on a number of issues. The incumbents on the other hand, have basically denied that there are any significant issues to even discuss. Their platform appears to be one of slandering the opposition and/or denying that the opposition is even qualified to be in the same room with them.
As citizens of NRH, I believe that we all share a basic goal of making NRH a better place to live. If you haven't done so, take the time to review the record of each incumbent and what they have said or have failed to say. Then take the time to see what the challengers and their supporters are saying. There are vivid contrasts in both spirit and content. The ultimate future of NRH really is in your hands and not the hands of the elite few - only if you take the time to become informed and to vote!
The actual opportunity for change is on May 7th, 2005, but early voting starts April 20th, and the real campaign gets under way this month. As strange as it seems, the incumbents have taken the position of being against the citizens while the challengers are citizens representing citizens. We have the opportunity to elect new public servants or to retain our current "monarchy". You have an opportunity to get involved.