Time for Trevino & Johnson to Be Retired!
An Opinion by Ron West
The City of Bedford recently went through what may be in store for NRH. A divisive - non-responsive majority on the council basically ignored the wants and wishes of the majority of the citizens. Taxes were raised exorbitantly and the citizens were stepped on. In that city, a group of concerned active citizens waged a successful campaign to replace the offenders and to bring the budget back under control. The divisive leadership was replaced and the Mayor resigned.
If things continue as they are going, NRH may soon face a similar battle for similar reasons.
JoAnn Johnson is currently waging a catty war against Nancy Bielik. While her actual words do not mention specific names, she and the majority that votes with her and Trevino, are in solid lock step to keep the local government closed to the voters. Her most recent - hypocritical - attacks are to quietly keep any minority council members from representing the city anywhere. In recent pre-council meetings she orchestrated a "review" of council travel policy and essentially set up a procedure so that only members of the current majority on the council could travel on behalf of the city in the future. Trevino wants to keep all this discussion quiet so it will not be discussed in open council meeting. An interesting note is that Johnson had recently violated the travel policy by charging the city more for her drive to a meeting than airfare would have cost. As we have seen in the recent election, the solid majority on the council can disregard their own laws when they want if it serves their purpose.
Ms. Johnson is a strong proponent of ever increasing taxes on everyone. She openly opposed the Senior Tax Freeze (but avails herself of its benefits) and she has voted consistently for runaway spending budgets for the past 11 or 12 years. Her position on holding the rate has more than doubled property taxes over the past 10 years for virtually all citizens. She can claim credit for the "beautification" of the city by all the monuments marking various boundaries and most recently the very crooked and non functional sidewalks that have showed up on the south side of town. Apparently there is no spending that Ms. Johnson doesn't like as long as it is taxpayer money.
To give credit where due, Ms. Johnson is a tough campaigner- ethics and honesty notwithstanding. She has defeated a number of qualified candidates with her most recent victory based on a slanderous mailing in the final days of the campaign. She is now gearing up the "sap machine" for the elections next year and in all probability will wage yet one more unethical and dishonest campaign.
Recent comments indicate that Trevino in like manner is gearing up for a reelection campaign next year and apparently is already recruiting "volunteers". Trevino's lack of courtesy and respect for citizens is becoming almost legend. He has been quoted as effectively saying " Don't listen to the little people". His inflated ego apparently has led him to believe that he is both smarter and better than any of the voters he rules over (should be "serves"). He views himself as a master of the populace with dictatorial powers and may have higher political ambitions. Records indicate that he is on many, many boards - almost all of which should be indirectly beneficial to his J. L. Steel, LP.
Trevino has shown that he openly uses his office for personal gain by his special deal with BISD. While in office, he negotiated an unfair advantage over competition for the construction of Broadway in Haltom City and Rufe Snow in NRH, by locating his cement mixing plant on public lands owned by BISD. This deal, while perhaps technically legal was totally and completely and unethical and in my opinion, a wrongful use of his office.
Trevino has demonstrated strong support for a very small and closed group of "insiders". Appointments to all boards are carefully controlled to exclude "outsiders" with outsider being defined as anyone who might offer an independent opinion or disagree with Trevino. Recent "open meetings" for the two Tax Increment Financing Boards were really a joke with absolutely nothing discussed regarding management or budgeting discussed. All of this money is "off the table" as far as the taxpayers are concerned.
In a recent letter to the Star Telegram, he made a false statement indicating that the current library would "have to be vacated" at a future date. This statement was both false and misleading but has not been either corrected or recanted by Trevino. Ignoring his own false statements, virtually anything said by opposition is labeled by Trevino as lies, falsehoods or misleading information - not withstanding any facts to base his labeling on.
Trevino's singular failing however, is his intolerance of criticism. You just do not disagree with him without him attempting to punish you. This can be witnessed almost every other week in pre-council and council meetings by his exchanges with Councilwoman Nancy Bielik. Common courtesy is even missing. He seems to have forgotten that he is in office in his current term by a very, very slender margin of victory and that many voters voted for his opponent.
Both Trevino and Johnson have shown disregard for law, for ethics, for honesty and for the City Charter that they are supposed to live by. They view their positions as above all others and have lost sight of why people are supposed to serve on the council. We currently live under a closed secretive local government and Trevino wants to keep it that way. Recent rule changes for public speech before the council have effectively limited free speech before the council. Both Trevino and Johnson would have further limited such speech had the measures not drawn so much publicity. Trevino has openly stated that he wishes he could do "something" about this website. You may correctly guess that his "something" would be to further silence this opposition.
In May of next year, the voters of the city will have a chance to speak again. Between now and then, take time to watch a few of the council meetings. They no longer televise the pre-council sessions because they don't want too many folks to see them. (This was a "cost saving" measure - right!) The regular council meetings are televised on local cable Channel 7 on the second and fourth Mondays of each month. Since we have almost no open meetings for discussion of city business as required by law, then you should expect some spirited questioning and discussion by our elected officials on the various issues affecting the city. If you notice that there is no real discussion in these sessions, then ask yourself where such discussions are occurring. Trevino was really upset about "walking quorums" being brought up a few months ago but where else could discussions or decisions truly be made?
Trevino and his solid 5 to 2 majority are now considering a new budget but no one on the council has even questioned the huge slush fund that has been in the budget for the past 3 years. Could it be that they want to continue to spend 20% of your tax money without having to actually budget or explain their actions?
In my own opinion, it is time for Trevino and Johnson to go. Hopefully, you will have a choice of other candidates who want to serve you. We have had closed, dishonest and disrespectful local government long enough. Next year, the old crowd of Trevino, Johnson, Tolbert and Turnage may be your choice to continue this very bad form of government. If you have other choices - maybe by you running for office - then I hope you will consider them. We need to return NRH to a City of Choice rather than a City of a Dictatorial Majority that disregards the voters.