Victory Without Honor

A few years ago I became very disenchanted with what our local government was imposing on the citizens of North Richland Hills. Since it was local government, I started out expressing my concerns to the Mayor of our city. His response was cordial until he realized that I was disagreeing with some of the positions that had been taken by the council. Additional contacts deteriorated until he told me that if I didn't like what was going on, then I could try to vote him out.

Since then, I have been what is lovingly referred to as a "political activist". Fact is, incumbent politicians do not like political activists!

To this date, I have yet to have any facts proven to be wrong or in error. The incumbents and their spokespeople, have utilized misinformation covered by stating it as their opinion as an attack strategy to try to discredit any of my writings. While it would seem more civil and productive to try to truly correct anything they believe to be false, they have not attempted to provide any corrective material at all.

The title of this series is "Victory Without Honor" with reference to the re-election of the incumbents who recently won the return to the council. I plan to address single issues relating to the campaign in a series of columns with an effort to provide readers with my reasons for calling it a victory without honor.

As a first item, I would like to express my disappointment at the incumbents decision to apparently deliberately and knowingly violate the city sign ordinance which states: (highlighting added)

Political signs. ...

i. Political signs shall not be placed on public property or within public right of way, except that political signs less than three feet in height and with no more than six square feet of sign face on any side may be placed in public right of way, other than a median, with no portion of such sign closer than three feet from the back of the curb, or, if no curb, from the edge of the pavement of streets classified by the city's thoroughfare plan as arterial P6D, M6D, M4D, P7U, M5U or M4U or collectors classified as C4U or C2U as long as such sign is not placed in right of way adjacent to an occupied residence or adjacent to publicly owned land other than a road. No sign shall be placed within 30 feet of an identical sign. Signs shall not extend over the sidewalk or street.

Prior to the night before the election, the incumbents did adhere to the above stated ordinance in the placement of their signs.

This is a city ordinance that was approved by the incumbents on this council. The night before the election, they moved their large political signs from various locations around the city and placed them in the public right of way knowing that they were a violation of the ordinance but also knowing that they would not be required to move them until after the election was over. The city secretary was notified by phone of the violations early on election day but city code enforcement chose not to enforce the ordinance. Both Mr. John Lewis and Mr. Tim Welch were verbally notified of the violation early on election day while they were campaigning at the Bursey Senior Center. Mr. Welch even told me that his people were coming to move the signs which did not happen until after the polls were closed. Some of the large signs even partially obstructed the view when exiting the Bursey parking lot on the West side creating an obvious traffic hazard that the incumbents have been so concerned about. This same ordinance violation was photographed at the Dan Echols Senior Center in the south portion of the city.

This is not written as sour grapes, rather a simple identification of the lengths the incumbents went to to keep their seats. The knowing violation of their own ordinance along with no enforcement by the city illustrates their apparent disregard for both law and citizen rights in our city. The illegal placement of their signs probably did little to help their campaign but that did not keep them from this knowing violation of their own law. (Please note that in prior elections, any challenger violations were immediately enforced by the city.) It would seem to indicate that they do not think that the laws they make apply to themselves.

The following email was sent as written notification of the violation to our City Secretary:

Dear Patricia:

This is a formal compliant regarding flagrant sign ordinance violations by
all of the incumbents. This morning at 8:45 AM we made the first call on
the violations. At about 10:00 AM Dina Miller of Code Enforcement came
to the Bursey center and said that there were no violations and left. Kerry West
then called up the sign ordinance and called Dina to read the requirements.
The incumbents signs both at Bursey Senior Center and the Dan Echols Senior
Center are in excess of 6 square feet (actually 12 sq feet) and are placed in the
city right of way - less than 10 feet from the curb. Additionally, their small signs
are within inches of the curb when they must be 36" back. Photos are attached as
proof of the violation. Dina then agreed that they were in violation and said she
had to follow some protocol about contacting the incumbents but 3 of the
incumbents were standing within 50 feet of the signs at Bursey!

I hope that Dina Miller is not unnecessarily delaying the removal or moving of the
signs in order to benefit the incumbents. As you are aware, time is of the essence today.

Since you are charged with enforcement of regulations regarding the election,
I am respectfully requesting immediate enforcement of this willful and knowing
violation of an ordinance passed by the council.

Regards,

Ron West
817-938-1383

Three of the following photos were attached to the email: (Many others are on file.) Click on any of the photos for a larger view.

These were on Glenview across from Dan Echols Senior Center. The small red sign to the left of the large Whitson sign is approximately 48" from the curb. All of the incumbents signs were in the 9.5 ft right of way of this street.

All of the incumbents signs were placed in knowing violation of their ordinance.

This is the illegal placement on the East side of the Bursey Senior Center. Notice how close to the curb the signs are.

This is the view from the West side of the Bursey Center Parking lot. It was taken from the street. Vision was obscured when first exiting the lot for oncoming traffic from the West. All incumbents were on site at Bursey and all were aware of the knowing and willful violation of their ordinance.

This just the first of a series of specific incidents that will be documented. The incumbents have been returned to office by a majority of the voters based on this type of campaigning. I believe that they won a victory without honor at a cost that is far beyond the value of their position. Maybe they would like to publicly comment on their specific decision to violate their own ordinance.

This series is being written in the hope that disclosure of these tactics will discourage their use in future elections in North Richland Hills. The articles do not invalidate the election, rather, this is an attempt to focus attention on the methods and information that was utilized to mislead the electorate. An informed electorate is much harder to deceive.