Compliments of Ken Sapp, Joe Tolbert, James Bjurman & NRH Incumbents
(Article Written by Ron West)
One would have to assume that any meaningful discussion with the incumbents over issues such as open government, runaway spending, ethics, conflicts of interest or respect of the citizens has been relegated to the trash can by the appearance of a new website under the control of Sapp and company listed above and the vicious attacks by John Lewis on a local website. After visiting that site which seems to be the "official" PAC site for the slate of incumbents, I am vividly reminded of why I decided to become an activist in our city.
While wrongfully attributing all control of the thoughts and positions of the challengers to the me, the site shows the real methods and mean spirits of the incumbents while continuing to ignore issues.
The registrant, of the site, Mr. James Bjurman, is a resident of the Thornbridge Estates along with Sapp, Lewis & Welch.
This website claims to be dedicated to the preservation of North Richland Hills values which means "government closed to the public"! Their positive vision for the city has excluded you and I from all city actions and decisions and they want to keep it that way. Their method of campaigning is to impugn the integrity of any opponents with "negative and deceptive communications".
While local politics are supposed to be non-partisan, the incumbents and their spokesmen try to label the incumbents as "Libertarian" but provide no support for this wrongful labeling. They state positions for the opposition without any supporting documentation of the positions they attribute to the opposition and they totally ignore discussions of open government.
If this new website actually represents the real values of NRH then our city is in worse trouble than I would have thought possible. These are the values of incumbents that endorse illegal ordinances and enforcement of them. This is the government that destroys evidence when sued. This is the government that pays thousands of dollars to defend wrongful actions of select city employees. This is the government that endorses special privileges due to position such as the location of the cement plant or the removal of RV's from an elderly citizens property. This is the council that approves a contract with the city attorney that makes it lucrative for him to encourage litigation against the city.
These incumbents allege that we are not smart enough to understand their accounting when in reality they are saying that we do understand but can't do anything about it. These are the incumbents who do not think we are smart enough to know how to vote. These are the incumbents who pass laws but will not tell us in advance what the laws are going to say. This is the government with cryptic agendas so that the public doesn't know what they are up to. This is the government that values closed meetings so much that they hold important meetings out of the city - at greater expense to the tax payers. This is the government that routinely violates the open meetings act such as their recent implementation of "rules for council" at a meeting with an agenda that did not even mention a discussion of rules.
These "values" endorse the relentless and insatiable appetite for ever more of your money through higher and higher taxes. These incumbents fought the tax freeze for the seniors and disabled in our city. They recently restated their intent to "hold the tax rate" for the next five years at least with the accompanying projections of increased revenue due to increasing valuations. Over the past 12 years, the citizens of the city have received no property tax relief despite city revenues increasing over 100%! The incumbents values indicate that their spending needs far outweigh any consideration for citizens needs.
This is the group of incumbents that has issued $21 Million in debt supported by your tax dollars without your consent or approval. It is also the government that established the Tax Increment Financing District to siphon off over $85 million for their pet projects. Their special privileges for the special few in our city left the tax bill for all city services to Hometown NRH to all other citizens of the city to pay. The "closed" board that oversees this project can borrow money without your approval also.
Their values include their own definition of beauty and safety that may or may not agree with your understanding of these words. Things like existing pole signs are by their definition ugly and must be destroyed. Their definition of safety - using some of their famous studies - just resulted in the expenditure of millions of dollars to relocate two fire stations to "improve response times". This justification is a lot like selling beach front property in Arizona. They think that empty buildings are better than a cooperative attitude towards small business. These are also the people that take credit for the work of others such as the city staff's work regarding North Hills Mall razing and renovation.
This is the government that values sham hearings and ignores the public. This is also the government that values disrespect of any citizen that appears before them to the point of laughing at citizens overcome with emotion and berating anyone who disagrees with them.
These are the incumbents that have approved over $15 Million in "non-departmental" spending over the past three years and until recently didn't even ask what it was for. When they got the answer, it didn't balance with their approved "budget" but they are defending it anyway. In my own opinion, a slush fund is a slush fund when approved and/or spent in this manner without proper oversight or budgeting. Please realize that the "non-departmental" budgets represent over 20% of the total property taxes you pay! By cutting these two departments in half, the property tax rate could be lowered by 10% without cutting any city services! Maybe the incumbents could explain this away but that would involve a real discussion of an issue that they claim is not important to you.
They try to call the opposition negative but I really don't think so. Is the opposition fed up with closed government and the actions listed above?
I surely hope so as I hope you are if you are reading this. I don't think deceptive closed government is what most citizens of NRH want or endorse.
I do think that we allowed a very closed group to gain this control over our city and I think you are seeing them do everything possible to keep the general populace out of their hair.
Do the challengers and I agree on many subjects? I certainly hope so. I do know and respect each of the challengers and I know that I would quickly trust their honesty and values over those of the incumbents they are running against. What do I stand to gain from the election of the challengers? Nothing personally, but I hope we all gain open, honest government with respect of the citizens.
The challengers, Christopher, Martin, Siskel and West will bring new thoughts, open minds and respect for the citizens to the council. They are not against progress, do not want to sell our parks, and will not cut services or staff as the misinformation published by the incumbents tries to lead you to believe. They study issues, form their own opinions and are worthy of your vote and support if elected. They have stated their positions very clearly for your consideration and review. Links to their websites or email are :
Suzette Christopher http://www.suzettechristopher.org
Kerry West http://www.kerrywest.org
Maury Siskel http://www.maurysiskel.org
John Martin: Responding by Email: jdm6909@yahoo.com
Desperation and fear breed some pretty ugly actions. The "trash" published on the incumbents website is just that "trash". You might want to hold your nose if you take time to read it. Real research involves looking at all information available and then deciding what is and is not credible. If you truly are interested in the "values of NRH", I feel certain that you will want to support the challengers who have real values to offer.