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From the day I was elected it was
said that I would be the ruin of the City of NRH. I have been called
a Political Terrorist and a Liar. After nearly a year in office, I
can report that our parks are still open, our fire and police
departments are still in operation, our Library doors have not shut,
and our Senior Centers still welcome patrons.
Why do they hate me? Let
me count the ways.
Taxes
I pay the personal property taxes
on my small business. The Mayor and the incumbents’ supporters,
former Council Members Metts and Turnage, were all caught not paying
their taxes. While you saw the taxes on your homes going up every
year, they were getting away with not paying their share. These men
hold me responsible for making them accountable.
While they didn’t want to
pay their taxes, they and the Incumbents begrudged the Senior and
Disabled Citizens their Tax Freeze without holding a costly election.
The incumbents supported Ken Sapp, appointed to the Planning and
Zoning Commission by Incumbent Tim Welch, to establish an
organization to fight the tax freeze. And they fought hard to stop it
from taking effect. With a lot of help and hard work, I fought hard
to get the Tax Freeze and it was successful.
Toll booths
The Mayor and Incumbents
want Texas residents to pay tolls to drive on Freeways our taxes paid
to build. Toll booths will require Toll Tags, which will
reprice according to the time of day they are used.
Strategic goals
The Incumbents voted to
approve Strategic Goals for our city which include real estate
speculation and putting oil and natural gas wells on city property. Do
you want to go to a park and see and smell these monstrosities? The
Strategic Goals meeting was a Public Meeting, but it was held
out-of-town. This made it nearly impossible for our citizens to
attend, and put an undue burden on you, the taxpayer. We have meeting
rooms in our city big enough to handle the meetings. The wants and
desires of our citizens were not included because you were not
included in the meeting.
Budget and annual financial report
The annual city budget
meeting was held out-of-town. A complete copy of the budget
was not available for the citizens to review until after it was
approved by the Incumbents. Our citizens couldn’t adequately
review nor comment on it before it was approved.
The Annual Financial Report
contained an easily found error of $11 Million. Two of the
Incumbents, Lewis and Whitson, have accounting backgrounds, yet
neither found the error. I found it quite quickly. Had I been as lax
as they were, the Report would have been approved with this glaring error.
Talking to staff
It has been requested I not
talk to any department heads without going to the City Manager first. The
result has been that it takes weeks to get answers to easy
questions, if I get answers at all. They are trying to prevent me
from solving problems or answering questions from our citizens. As an
example, I asked a questionof our City Manager, (since I am no longer
supposed to have contact with Dept. heads) that our Finance Dept
should have been able to easily answer, and have so far waited 2
½ weeks without a response.
Talking to businesses
I have been asked not to
talk to any of our city’s businesses. Our City Staff
does not talk to our businesses until they are already experiencing
problems. I feel it is the council’s responsibility to keep
businesses in our city. Our Council should be involved in bringing
new companies in, and keeping our existing companies happy.
Mowing Contract
Our City, with your money,
pays to mow private property. Most of this property is vacant
land with for sale signs. The majority of the real estate brokers
whose names appear on the “For Sale” signs located on these
properties are listed as supporters of the Incumbents. I am against
taxpayers of our City paying for the mowing of these properties.
Ambulance Service
In the 2004 election, I
fought hard to get the city to put a third ambulance into use.
Yes, we try to get by with just two ambulances. Following the
election, the Mayor announced the ambulance would, indeed, be in the
budget. The Budget approved in September included the ambulance, but
service would not begin until May of 2005. Well, May is almost here,
and the plans have changed. Now it will be at least June, maybe later.
No new debt
The City has developed a bad
habit of going further into debt without asking the voters for
approval with the City issuing Certificates of Obligation. The
process is legal but is a very closed government way of handling your
money. By September of 2004, the taxpayers of NRH owed nearly $21
million dollars for this unapproved debt. I am against the issuance
of debt you haven’t approved. The City has dropped plans to
issue new Certificates of Obligation this year.
I need help!
The majority of your Council does
not support your wants, and does not care about your needs. There
is a group of citizens running for Council who care about you. They
fought for the Tax Freeze, they attend Council Meetings, they are
already making a difference. They are Suzette Christopher, John
Martin, Maury Siskel and Kerry West. Their names will appear
below the incumbents’ names on the ballot. Help me get four
people elected so they can help us all make our City the Community we
want it to be.
Nancy Bielik
NRH City Council
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