Look What Santa Brought!

by Ron West

        Mayor Trevino sent out an email solicitation seeking support for the incumbents and called Mr. Whitson "santa".    I suppose that was because of his beard and "jolly" persona.   After some thought, I looked over the list of "gifts" from Mr. Whitson and his fellow council majority over the past years of his tenure.  The following is only a partial listing:

    Gift #1:    Higher property taxes every year due to support for "holding the rate".   Taxes up over 100% during the tenure of Mr. Whitson.  Stated policy of continuing increases under Whitson, Lewis, Welch & Compton.

    Gift #2:    Runaway spending of all the new revenues from Gift #1 and all other higher fees, fines and assessments supported by Mr. Whitson and his majority on the council.

    Gift #3:    Opposition to the Senior Tax Freeze to the point of using the city newsletter to oppose it.  Wanted to make sure that the taxes on Seniors and Disabled continued to increase every year.

    Gift #4:    Beautification of our city at the expense of private property rights.  Voted to get rid of those ugly RV's.  Supports the illegal sign ordinance to discourage small business in the city.

    Gift #5:     Closed Government - sure don't want the citizens to be bothered with any information on what the council is doing.  All new ordinances are to be "surprises"!

    Gift #6:    Support and defense of city employees (with taxpayer funds) for lying under oath and destroying records (some even during lawsuits).

    Gift #7:    Support for multiple conflicts of interest.  Specifically the concrete plant on BISD land and  making the City Attorney rich by allowing him to be paid for all new lawsuits against the city in addition to fees for "advising" the city.

    Gift #8:    Limitation of Citizen Input by allowing only 2 minutes for presentations but then taking unlimited time to berate their presentations.

    Gift #9:    Creation of TIF#2 so that all citizens outside of Hometown NRH have to fund and pay for all city services to all new residents of Hometown.  Diversion of all new tax revenue to a closed board hidden from public view.

    Gift #10:  Failure to question city staff on major budget items.  No questions asked on $15 Million  (or more) in spending over past 3 years.

    Gift #11:  Lots of rubber stamp approvals of all new ordinances and requests from city staff without questions. 

    Gift #12:  Supporting and ignoring the citizen input of numerous public hearings designed to fulfill the letter of the law but not the intent

        No, after consideration, I really don't think Mr. Whitson is a "santa" and he did have a lot of help in delivery of the above gifts from Mr. Welch and Mr. Lewis.   Hopefully, the next election will allow the citizens to "return" some of these gifts from our incumbent council and receive real responsive representation on the council in return.