No Change, No Relief

by Ron West

        You may have not noticed yet, but the NRH City Council just voted to increase your taxes for the 13th year in a row.  With recent law changes, they are now required to publish the fact that they have indeed raised taxes, but they will be singing the same old song about not raising the rate.   With this charade, they hide behind the local appraisal district to achieve tax increases of up to 8% or more a year on property taxes alone.  I believe that JoAnn Johnson may be the only council member remaining that can boast that she has voted for all of the 13 years of increases.

        During the same 13 years other revenues to the city have doubled and tripled without benefit to the taxpayers.  Fees and services have likewise increased.  Fines have increased.  Permit fees have increased.   In fact, our elected officials have increased revenue in all departments and from all sources while continuing to bilk the property owners for annual increases.

        Nearly two years ago, I and others challenged the establishment about their runaway spending.  Two new members were elected to the council but neither has chosen to either question any spending or to suggest any cuts.  Runaway spending with massive continuing increases in reserves is the order of the day without consideration for the taxpayers of the city.  This year city employees are getting a 4% raise, we are buying more new police cars even though dozens sit idle everyday at city hall and the property owners are getting fleeced once more.  

        You might find it interesting to ask just how much money the city has in its "reserves".  I think the size of these funds would astound any reasonable person - but then as average citizens, we are told we don't understand.

        The city budget that was approved unanimously this past Monday evening was passed without a single question about reducing spending in any area.  It was a blank check for Cunningham and staff.  The total budget is over $80 Million this year.

        This is the same council that routinely disregards the law for their own personal benefit.  Tim Welch, John Lewis, Suzy Compton and David Whitson all endorsed the illegal placement of their political signs on the last day of their campaign this year.  It didn't influence the outcome of the election because they would have probably won anyway but it does illustrate their opinions that they are above their own laws.

        This is still the city that will not pre-announce pending or proposed changes in local law.  They do not permit citizen input on new laws until after they are enacted.  They even secured an opinion from the Texas Attorney General that permits them to hide their proposed changes and new laws from public disclosure even under open records requests.

        This is still the city fighting a wrongful death lawsuit originating from the killing of a citizen of our city by a police officer with a falsified no-knock warrant.  We have spent hundreds of thousands of our tax dollars for this fight.  As a city we are also paying a settlement that resulted from city officials destroying records during an active lawsuit against the city.

        This is the city where elected officials routinely use their positions for personal gain.  The cement plant on BISD land for the benefit of the Mayor is old news but his more recent "private meeting" that resulted in major changes in the "long planned BISD bond issue" is another example of improper use of his position.  The changes he wanted probably could have been accomplished in an open meeting but that is not the style of his government.  We live in a city with completely closed government.

        Meeting the letter of the law without meeting the intent is based on the advice of our city attorney.  He won't even say who is supposed to enforce the City Charter which is routinely disregarded by our Mayor and City Council. 

        Public hearings in NRH are truly a joke.  If you agree with the City Council, they let you talk.  If you happen to be an opponent of the council or dare to question their actions or decisions, they not only won't hear you speak, they will use their respective public positions to call you names or degrade you.  No member of the public can seemingly criticize without being called a liar.

        Finally this is the city that somehow figured out how to even silence the "watchdog" function of the local paper.  The columnist that used to write about the many continuing abuses in our city has now been assigned to human interest like stories under the guise of the watchdog function.  One must expect that our local paper will routinely endorse the incumbents based on their experience for the next election in May.

        Power and position have their privilege and that privileged class would like to make NRH into Southlake or Colleyville.  

        Nothing has changed in NRH in recent years except the ruling class has become more powerful and more arrogant.  Relief won't come until the voters decide to wake up and say enough is enough.

Addendum:

Councilwoman Bielik Responds to this column - 9/28/05