Keller Citizen Legislature

In this episode we have a conversation with Keller ISD Athletic Director Bob Dejonge.  We talk about the proposed stadium, his vision on winning, whether or not Keller High School is changing its mascot plus a host of other topics

UPDATE:  Bob’s answer on the question of Coach Dodge of SLC/UNT Fame

Glad the interview turned out well – Hopefully my answers will be an interesting read…

Coach Dodge was at FRHS before I became the athletic director.  I did have some responsibility in the athletic dept so he and I did have some contact.  I will tell you that I think he is an outstanding coach and a good man.  His is a very driven and goal oriented coach.  He is also a great example of the fact that wins and losses don’t always tell you about the quality of a man or his coaching.  I think that he is just a good of a coach today as he was in his days at Carroll.  It’s all about timing, being patient enough to build a foundation when all the pieces are not in place and knowing that victories just like losses are just a progress report.  You don’t live and die on each game – your use them as tools to make your foundation and program stronger.  As far as his reasons for moving on – I can only say that people make decisions that they feel are best for their careers and families.  It’s not really about a greener pasture – it’s what the best fit is for each individual.

Episode Music by David Kraut – Don’t Listen.

You can find David’s music at his website www.davidkraut.com.

You Don’t Know My Mind – The Dead or Alives

You can find their music at www.myspace.com/deadoralives

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From the City’s website:

The public is invited and encouraged to participate in two meetings on the Keller Public Library renovation and expansion, set for Thursday, July 24, at Keller Town Hall. The meetings are slated to start at 2:30 p.m. and 6 p.m.

Citizens will be able to review the current plans and provide input on the design and layout. In November 2007, Keller voters approved a $4 million bond to renovate and expand the existing library, at 640 Johnson Road.

Representatives from PSA-Dewberry, the architectural firm designing the project, will coordinate the meetings and share the draft plans for the project. City staff will also be on hand to help answer questions from the public.

Mayor Pat McGrail said he believes public input is vital to shaping the library project. He said that even in the beginning, public input was sought through focus groups before the bond election to determine the scope of the renovation and expansion.

“It think it’s very important that we get not only citizen participation, but citizen support,” McGrail said. “We want to make sure that the project matches the vision of what voters had in mind when they approved it.”

Library Director Jana Prock said the public’s opinions are important in determining the physical presentation of the building, which is sometimes as critical as the services and programs offered there.

Her experience in Keller isn’t the first time she’s been involved with library construction. “I have opened two new branch libraries in San Antonio,” Prock said, adding that she developed a new department for the San Antonio Central Library’s new building.

For information, please call the City at 817-743-4010.

I’ll be out of town on vacation, somebody let me know how the presentation goes, will ya?

I’ll lay even money that someone will write a letter to the editor of the Keller Citizen telling how Jim Carson wants to turn down offers of free money.

In our meeting tonight with the Library Board, the third agenda item was whether the city should actively seek grant money to supplement the $4 million expansion/renovation we’re planning to do. There were plenty of huzzahs and absolutelys around the table, but when my turn came I had to be honest and say, “I’m not comfortable with the idea.”

This is as egalitarian as I’m likely to ever get, but I just think it is unseemly for a city as rich as Keller to go around shaking a tin cup at potential donors. Our average household income tops $100,000 per year—can we really justify competing for library grant money against inner-city Dallas and dirt-poor rural areas?

So look for letters to the editor aghast that I would deny the poor, poor children of poor, poor Keller the ability to read because I don’t want to seek grants. And Positively Keller will be positively giddy that I’ve handed them another issue to spin against me. Oh well, I am very much counting on hyper-intelligent people showing up to vote.

Mitch Holmes brought up a good point about the library petition which became law in December, 2005:

Resolved, the City of Keller shall not construct nor remodel any public library, without first submitting the issue of whether to fund the building or remodeling of a public library at a particular site, to a vote of the qualified voters of the City of Keller.

Mitch’s concern was that, because the petition did not mention the source of funds, we could not spend even grant money without explicit permission of the voters. It’s an interesting point that we’ll have the city attorney check out. I’m in favor of asking the voters to repeal the petition, now that we no longer have to fear council end-runs around the voters. Or don’t we?

From the FOKL website:

The Friends of the Keller Library is a registered non-profit organization with more than one hundred and fifty individual and group members. Our mission is to support the Keller Public Library in its effort to provide access to information for life-long learning. The Friends organization is independent of the City of Keller.

If indeed the Friends allowed their mailing list to be used for political purposes, I would think this would violate their non profit status. I also wonder if the City of Keller and the Keller Library want to associate itself with such an organization if this is indeed the truth.

Why are we linking to an organization from the City of Keller website, one that is actively trying to get three current City Councilmen unseated?

These are questions that need to be asked.

Sadly, I am reporting the passing of Mr. Jim Engle this morning.

Jim was the chairman of the City of Keller Library Board, and instrumental in the procurement, storing, maintaining, and manning of the Friends of the Keller Library bookstore at 137 Taylor. He will be missed. Funeral arrangements are to be announced.

Patrick McGee of the Star-Telegram picks up on my two-year rant about education v. entertainment in the library:

http://www.star-telegram.com/407/story/302926.html

Should expanded Keller library serve to enlighten or entertain?

By PATRICK McGEE
Star-Telegram Staff Writer

KELLER — Just when it seemed the debate over the city’s library was over, a centuries-old argument about a library’s purpose has emerged.

After nixing proposals for a new library twice in the past eight years, Keller voters approved a $4 million proposal last week to expand the existing library by 60 percent.

But officials are divided over whether to devote the added space solely to research and reading or to entertainment options, such as DVDs and video games, as well.

Keller City Councilman Jim Carson wants the added space for research and reading rather than entertainment options. He said no more money should go toward things such as Spider-Man movies but instead toward the development of services, such as genealogy research and English instruction.

“There are those of us, like me, that feel that libraries are for learning and learning only,” he said. “Anyone who seeks entertainment should do so on their own dime. … I’d like the entire library to be focused on education and less focused, if at all, on entertainment.”

…

Matthew Battles, author of Library: An Unquiet History, said … “It’s a sign that people are thinking about libraries,” he said. “It’s really neat to hear that there’s such a vigorous debate about what libraries mean to people in their community.”

…

Note that some of the Keller Library’s most important Friends abhor the idea of “vigorous debate” about what should be available at the library. They prefer that experts decide for you. So unless you have a Masters of Library Science, you need to keep quiet.

Prior Posts:
No Common Ground? At All?
Library Action Plan

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.

Very interesting article in the Boston Herald today about how libraries in their area are changing.

Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero II are hits with teenagers at the Palmer Public Library, where librarians at the young adults section set up the consoles every Tuesday for at least one hour, said Krista Navin, a librarian in the young adults section.

“We’re not only trying to meet the [patrons'] reading needs but we also want to meet their social and recreational needs,” said Preusser. “This is where libraries are going.”

The Star-Telegram editorial board seems weary of Keller’s library debates:

One more time

It’s understandable if Keller residents have no fight left in them when it comes to a proposed $4 million renovation and expansion of their library. They have fought enough about the library in recent years; they should approve the bond plan on the Nov. 6 ballot.

In 1999, they fought over spending $10 million on a new library, and then they rejected the idea convincingly.

In 2005, the City Council decided to build a library in Town Center without voter approval, but outraged residents forced them to change their minds.

In 2006, after a heated campaign, voters nixed a $7.6 million Town Center library proposal and tossed three council members out of office.

This year, city officials hired a consultant to help determine whether the current library, built in 1990 on Johnson Road, should be renovated or expanded or both. Then they invited residents to a series of meetings to gather feedback about various proposals. The consultant drew up library overhaul plans ranging in cost from $1.59 million to $9.2 million.

From those plans, the council picked a $4 million, middle-of-the-road approach that would add at least 7,500 square feet of space to the 12,500-square-foot library.

It’s been clear for years that Keller’s library is too small. The city’s population (currently 37,700) has more than doubled since the facility was built. Much of the fighting has been focused on whether to build a library as an attraction for Town Center, but voters stopped that plan repeatedly. It’s time to move forward with renovation and expansion.

The Star-Telegram recommends a yes vote.

KELLER VOTE

On the ballot: “The issuance of $4,000,000 general obligation bonds for renovations to and expansion of the existing Keller Public Library.”

The measure will pass 60-40.

There will be fewer than 1,000 people who vote; possibly fewer than 750. (The beauty of having an election when nothing else is on the ballot.)

There will be no organized opposition, other than a few LTTE and posts here on this blog.

As soon as it’s built, the TC Library people will start clamoring for a larger space.

Our taxes will go up.

We will have a recession, and there will be talk about cutting the library hours, but it won’t pass as it will be an admission that it was the wrong time to build a library. Instead, they will cut Parks and Rec spending.

Replacement of Fire Station 2 will be put off so far in the future that my 8-year-old will have graduated High School before it’s built.

Maybe when the city issues the bonds for all the new projects we are about to embark on, they will find a subprime lender.

Private economists warned the worst slump in housing in 16 years and the turbulence in financial markets from a resulting serious credit squeeze could push the economy into a recession as more borrowers fall into default, dumping even more homes onto an already glutted market.

“You have a lethal combination of higher mortgage payments, lower house prices, a weaker job market and more cautious lenders,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com. “That is a very noxious mix and it is the reason for this surge in foreclosures.”

Zandi put the possibility of a recession at 40 percent, almost four times the possibility he had estimated in July, before the current credit crisis hit.

Not the time to embark on a $30,000,000+ spending spree.

Tuesday night, the Keller City Council voted to put a $4 million library expansion on the November ballot. The $4 million amount was derived by summing the cost of Option 2a, $3,760,000, and technology costs of $133,500 and a $156,000 calculation error made by the consultant.

I argued my little heart out that we should choose Option 1 ($1.5 million, renovation only) so that we could 1) make considerable improvement for the least amount of money, 2) not scare the voters with relatively large numbers, 3) do it quickly so we could establish trust with the voting taxpayers and get on with other important expenditures, and 4) keep our options wide open on what expansion we can do in the near future. Alas, the vote was 4-to-Jim.

After the meeting, I was asked—in the nicest possible way—to not actively oppose the library bond. It seems there is worry that I’ll use this forum to defeat the bond proposal.

So to my fellow council members, I respond with the following challenge: I’ll gladly shut up, if you’ll start talking.

Tell the voters everything they might like to know in the voting booth. Tell them how much it will cost in terms that are meaningful to them—per person, per household, per $100 of taxable value, etc. Tell them everything else we plan to do with their money, and how much that’s going to cost them. Tell them how we think that will affect the tax rate. Tell them, by name, which streets or other projects will have to wait another year in order to hold the line on tax rates. Tell them what we expect to do if they vote no and the bond package fails.

Make sure the future capital spending/borrowing/taxing plan is complete. Make the staff disclose all developer agreements like the Highland Oaks Crossing Channel and Larry Cole/Pate Orr. Make them swear there are no more expenditures that are known to staff but don’t appear in the budget or the Capital Improvements Program. When in doubt on costs, guess. Our guesses are better than the average voter’s.

Tell the voters why we did not raise their taxes last year, but this year we will. Tell them why the homeowners of Belaire’s $1.2 million street reconstruction was again left out of the budget this year, while the Police Department puts $1 million into a savings account for a new jail.

Tell them our new Parks, Recreation & Open Space Master Plan recommends acquiring 499 of the remaining 698 undeveloped acres in the city for parkland. Tell them whether you intend to spend the $30-50 million required to do that, and when.

Tell the voters what their new library will look like. How much space will be devoted to children’s services? A teen area? Computers? Since our consultant (who is an architect) offered no conceptual drawings of any kind, we’ll need to do it ourselves, and we don’t have much time.

Tell them how their new library will be managed. Will hours be expanded/contracted? Will the video collection increase proportionally with the library square footage? What policy on computer usage will be in place? Will the collection be overhauled, as the Library Director desires? What will that look like? How much will that cost?

Tell the voters what will happen if the economy or housing market takes a turn for the worse.

Blow them away with your candor. Make the Star-Telegram editorial board gush over your forthrightness.

Tell them the whole truth, so I don’t have to.

Video of library discussion: (decision was made during precouncil)

http://kellercitylimits.com/video/Council20070904LibraryPrecouncil.wmv
http://kellercitylimits.com/video/Council20070904Library.wmv