61.1% to 38.9 with just over 2200 votes cast.
The street tax passed overwhelmingly also.
The library is officially dead as a political issue in Keller for at least another 3 years.
Browsing Posts in 2007 Keller Election
Don’t forget to vote today if you haven’t already. We should find out how close I was in my predictions tonight.
Over the next two years Mayor McGrail will make some decisions that I won’t agree with. When he was Council he made decisions I didn’t agree with. The owner of this blog makes decisions I don’t agree with.
Not every politician will agree with your own understanding of the world 100% of the time.
I backed Mayor McGrail because he is a man of honesty and integrity, not because I feel that he will back every issue or trumpet every cause I feel strongly about.
Congratulations to Mayor McGrail and Councilman Brown!
A reminder of what Mayor Tandy thinks is appropriate for our tax dollars:
For the backstory on this issue, please follow this link
As there has been some debate on what Mayor Tandy said during her motion on the Whataburger issue, a kind gentleman has supplied me with the file.
Doesn’t seem like she was against anything that Pat was for. In fact, the green roof was her idea.
Please take into account the Mayor’s own words as she sat on the City Council, not her recollection. Seems the two don’t jibe.
Dear KCL readers,
Pat McGrail placed an ad in tomorrow’s Keller Citizen responding to Julie Tandy’s half-page ad last week. It is posted at the following address:
http://www.patformayor.com/response.html
Mayor Tandy will have a full-page ad in tomorrow’s Citizen, which we won’t have time to respond to, and we can’t afford to anyway. In it, she complains once again of mud-slinging and negativity. With the possible exception of a few comments on this blog, I respectfully submit that some of the harshest rhetoric toward Julie Tandy is coming from the Star-Telegram. Please consider that in your vote on Saturday.
Thank you,
Frank Flanagan
Pat McGrail Campaign Treasurer
Frank made a baseless accusation against Council Candidate Ray Brown in a comment on this blog. Mr. Peterson is Steve Trine’s campaign treasurer—not just a supporter, but a member of Councilman Trine’s staff.
He has now come back a little too late to apologize:
Regarding my previous blog, it should be known that my comments about Mr. Brown are mine and were made without the knowledge or involvement of Steve Trine. As a courtesy to Steve, I will no longer participate on this blog. Jim Maine thinks I stepped over the line—and so does Steve. For that I sincerely apologize. I will go now as I must go do some underhanded backroom deals in an attempt to live off the backs of others.
I appreciate Mr. Peterson’s apology, but where is the outrage from Pat Holding or Mayor Tandy?
Why hasn’t Councilman Trine asked for Mr. Peterson’s resignation from his campaign staff?
I think we all know the answers to these questions…
When you have a campaign treasurer spouting horrible accusations on this blog, they are worried.
When Pat’s signs are being stolen as fast as they can be put up, they are worried.
I stopped at Fry’s today and bought some wireless PC camera’s…maybe we can catch somebody in the act of “Thinning” the signs.
I’m sure the video of catching somebody in the act will bring the hit count up on this blog they so much hate, but can’t seem to get enough of.
Here is just one reason why I will write Monty’s name in in lieu of voting for Mitch.
Negative feelings toward Julie Tandy and Steve Trine do not equal negative feelings toward Keller, unless you equate the city of Keller with the mayor and city council. Keller is its people, not its figureheads, and the people of Keller have been betrayed by these two when they tried to slip their pet library project past the voters when they thought no one was paying attention.
They knew what they were doing was wrong. Tandy even admitted it when she thought an admission might help her convince the voters to support it anyway. We have a right to be angry.
However, that being said, no one has been more negative toward the city council than the mayor herself. She lost three of her rubber stampers in the last election and she has done everything she can to undermine the three men the citizens of Keller elected to take their place.
She very rudely chastised one of them – on television – for (anonymously) inquiring of the Attorney General’s office about a performance review that they once did for municipalities to help them save money. They in fact had saved millions of dollars for a lot of very appreciative municipalities. She suggested that only she, the mayor, has the right to make such contacts, even anonymously. I think she is under the illusion that she is the Queen of Keller, not the mayor.
She really vented her spleen when the council member suggested that the city might benefit from such a review. While she was at it, she accused the council members the citizens just elected of “sabotaging” the goals of the council. Yes, she actually used the word “sabotage.”
She and Trine both bemoaned such a review because it might make people think something is wrong with Keller. Well, if people think there is something wrong with Keller because it has the courage to take a hard look at itself and try to improve its performance, then those are the wrong kind of people for this city and we’re better off if they keep their distance.
There are some serious problems with the way this city is being operated. That is not a reflection on the people of Keller. It does reflect on the city’s leadership, though.
An example. Mayor Julie Tandy was quoted in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in January 2005 as saying “there is no indication of imminent danger, but out of an abundance of caution, we’ve decided to close it (the Johnson Road Park playground).” What she didn’t tell us or the Star-Telegram was that the city’s own National Playground Safety Institute (NPSI) certified inspector had been trying to get the city to do something about a serious hazard for over a year before she made this statement.
In July 2004, SIX AND ONE-HALF MONTHS BEFORE THE PLAYGROUND WAS FINALLY CLOSED, the NPSI inspector practically begged the city to immediately close the playground and fence it off, because the hazard had become LIFE-THREATENING. He was ignored. Who knows what agenda was more important to our wonderful city management than the safety of our children, but apparently there was one.
So, we had a situation where the city knowingly allowed parents to subject their own children to death or disabling injury – for at least six and one half months – after which our mayor told us there was no imminent danger.
Now isn’t THAT special?Do you think that our children would have been endangered if Jim Carson had known about this disgraceful situation? No, it would have been disclosed right here, on this blog.
Do you think that kind of performance is acceptable? What do you suggest, that it should have been covered up so the city won’t “look bad” to prospective businesses?
Maybe it was. I find it extremely difficult to believe the Parks Board was made aware of this inspector’s reports. City Council member Bob Kirk was on the Parks Board at the time, and he’s not the kind of person who would allow this to continue.
What disgusts me beyond words is that the same mayor who put the happy face on a life-threatening hazard to our children is now pandering to the children of Hidden Lakes for their parents’ votes. Look at the invitation to the kids of Hidden Lakes (on the HOA website) to meet the mayor at the opening of their community swimming pool and learn all about being a mayor and about voting, and by the way, tell your mommie and daddy to take you down to city hall and let you hold the voter certificate and hand it to them when it’s time for them to vote, blah blah blah ad nauseum.
And you don’t think there is a problem with this mayor?
Yeah, there’s negativity toward the mayor. She brought it on herself. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram spelled it out very clearly in its editorial endorsing Pat McGrail for mayor.
So, this blog is the least of your worries if you are concerned about our image. This is a fine blog, but I don’t think it has the circulation of the Star-Telegram. If you insist on being concerned about a city where you don’t even live, you should be more concerned about the image this mayor has created of Keller than a blog that criticizes her for it.
If you haven’t noticed, there is quite a bit of negativity on this blog from the mayor’s supporters against her opponents as well. Some of them are even using more than one screen name to create the illusion that there are more of them than there really are. If her opponents are elected, the negativity of Tandy’s and Trine’s supporters against them will continue. Psst–Charles–No one cares–It comes with the territory.
We need a mayor who is a partner with us. We don’t have that now. We have a mayor who thinks she knows what’s best for us. We need a city council member who is more concerned with what Keller ACTUALLY is than the impression people might have of it.
I don’t know who you are, Charles, but I do know you sound a lot like those fake personalities I mentioned earlier. Whoever you are, the premise of your “concern” is faulty. The last two presidential campaigns were extremely heated. A lot of negative things were said back and forth, but I don’t remember anyone saying businesses would stop investing in the United States and people would stop immigrating because of the terrible negative image the candidates had created of America. They created a negative image of each other – that’s politics – but the stock market didn’t crash.
If you only put your datacenters where everyone is happy with their political situation, that’s your business Charles, but I can tell you who will be thrilled to hear that you have adopted that brilliant business model—your competitors.
Good luck, Charles. Enjoy living wherever it is you live. Please.
Hidden Lakes has published a candidate questionnaire that is quite a bit better than the one done by the League of Women voters.
http://www.hlhoa.com/Vote_Early/Vote.html
I say ‘quite a bit better’ because these are thoughtful questions from people who actually live in and know about Keller. The scope of the questions is much too large to sum up in a single post, so I’ll just focus on Question #18:
Aside from a “freedom of speech” argument, what is your opinion of the advisability and impact on the community resulting from sitting members of the City Council criticizing the Mayor and other council members on a public website?
Julie Tandy said:
One of the most difficult aspects of learning to serve in an elected position is to understand how the body functions. Issues are discussed, votes are taken, and the Council moves on. While I may not agree with everything the Council may have decided, once the vote is taken, I support that decision. When members go back and criticize the decisions of an individual or council member, it undermines the process. Many people think, and I agree, that the safety of email or computer allows people to say things they would never do so openly. I believe that face to face interaction, particularly if there is a dispute, is the most straightforward and honorable way to conduct business.
Pat McGrail said:
I am more concerned about a mayor who publicly berates a council member on television than I am a blog. When a council member did some anonymous research and suggested the city might benefit from an outside performance review, she accused him of undermining the city and accused all the new council members of “sabotage.” The mayor clearly cannot get along with council members who are not like-minded.
As for the blog, Jim Carson is a unique individual in government. He believes in total openness. He thinks you the citizen should know exactly what is going on at city hall and how he feels about it. At the same time he without fail invites criticism and in fact has criticized himself on the blog. Unlike the mayor I think healthy, but civil disagreements on the council are necessary to arrive at the best decisions. I can and will get along with Mr. Carson and the other council members, and we will succeed in fulfilling Keller’s promise.
Steve Trine said:
Freedom of speech issues aside, I think that such actions are divisive within the community and have a strong negative impact with the business community, signaling as they do that the city government is unstable and unreliable. These behaviors have been very damaging to KISD and their impacts are being felt within the City of Keller particularly in our economic development and in the loss of our City Manager. The City Council has an ongoing public forum for debate (i.e., the council sessions) which should be the primary arena for discussion of issues before the council.
Ray Brown said:
I think the “criticism” is more an exposure of facts to the citizens that Mayor Tandy and others would rather keep quiet. The website is public and anyone can post their comments on any subject. This type of free exchange of opinions and ideas is crucial to our freedom.
With any luck, within ten years, knowledgeable voters will cast a suspicious eye on office holders and candidates who don’t blog (or otherwise expose their principles and reasoning.)
This morning’s Star-Telegram endorses Pat McGrail for mayor of Keller.
http://www.star-telegram.com/225/story/82937.html
Though I agree with their conclusion, there are two “facts” in the editorial that I strongly disagree with.
The scheme [to issue $8.8 million in debt without voter approval] was met with protests, so the council instead put a $7.6 million Town Center library plan before voters.
The petition legally blocked the council from constructing any library without voter approval. The council did not ‘change its mind’ in the face of protests.
Yet she has no quarrel with [Joe] Petersen’s use of his Planning and Zoning Commission vote to stop a business competitor.
It’s one thing for an editorial board to acknowledge a conflict of interest exists, but it’s quite another to ascribe nefarious motives to someone they’ve probably never even spoken to. They have stated as fact that Joe deliberately harmed another developer. Not only can this not be proved, but I strongly doubt it is true.
Joe Petersen is a developer, and developers are biased in favor of, wait for it, Development! Just as retailers want other retailers—they want to establish a critical mass near their own projects. Developers never build anything on deserted islands. Although the Lakeview project would have theoretically competed with Joe’s Uptown project, it is also quite possible it would have helped it.
As I’ve said before, I think Joe Petersen made a small mistake by not recusing himself from that vote. He has an “interest” in neighboring developments that is markedly different from the general public, but I never made assumptions whether that interest was pro or con.
There’s a big difference between a lapse in judgment and outright malice. The Star-Telegram may not have meant to make such a strong accusation, but their editorial goes too far.
Dino Efthymiou, probable son-in-law of longtime Keller residents Gene and Marge Stockton, writes to the editor in the April 13th edition of the Keller Citizen:
The Fiction Writers have been very busy. Last week they had five letters to the editor in this paper. I asked a person who would know the facts to review those letters and tell me how many false or distorted statements they could count in those letters. The answer was 23.
…
So who are the Fiction Writers? They are the people who are responsible for the destructive blog about Keller. They are the same people, led by Jim Maine, who are wreaking havoc on the school board.
Since the Keller Citizen does not print very long letters, it is understandable that Mr. Efthymiou lacked the space to name the 23 “false or distorted statements.” Luckily for him, however, space on this blog is unlimited.
So if Mr. Efthymiou will please contact me, I’ll be happy to make available all the space he needs for elaboration. Perhaps then this blog won’t be quite so “destructive.”
jim@kellercitylimits.com
Home: 817/514-0858
Cell: 817/874-7755
