Tonight, the City Council denied Waste Managements proposed rate increase. With Oil Prices the lowest they have been in 3 1/2 years, it was poor timing on their part. If they had brought this proposal last summer, when Diesel prices were $5 a gallon, I think it would have passed.
Browsing Posts in Council Meetings
Went to the TC Visioning Meeting last night, and it seemed to be more productive than the first meeting. Everybody stated that the message of no more apartments has been received and there seemed to be more of a feeling of what direction that we can go in the future for the remaining land in Town Center.
The next step is for the City Council to receive the report sometime after the first of the year.
On Monday:
The Keller Economic Development Board and the Keller City Council will conduct a joint meeting at 6 p.m. Monday, Nov. 17, at Keller Town Hall. The meeting is set to discuss the goals and objectives of the KEDB, the City’s incentives policy and determine target businesses that the City would like to attract.
On Tuesday:
This past Tuesday, the Council met in a work session to discuss the proposed changes to the UDC in detail. The Council is planning to continue its review during a workshop starting at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 18, and will accept comments from the public during the regular session that starts at 7 p.m.
On Wednesday:
The public is encouraged to attend and participate in a second workshop meeting on the Keller Town Center Visioning Project at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 19, at Keller Town Hall. The focus is to help develop an updated plan to guide the development of the remaining parcels in Town Center.
All items above courtesy of the Mayor’s weekly update.
So, after a very busy day at work, I go home eat dinner, plop on the couch and turn on the TV….to channel 27. My wife and I sat and watched the City Council UDC Workshop for over 3 hours. Sometimes I wonder how she puts up with me.
I will say the Council did delve into the UDC changes in a very thorough fashion, with very little tangents. I applaud them for making it through the night without screaming at the minutia.
I felt bad for City Secretary Sheilia Stephens for having to sit through it though.
Jim Carson was cleared of Charter Violations…..if you are new to the site, or to Keller, the comments are worth a read.
Last year I spent my anniversary at a City Council Meeting, this year I have to make up for it and take my wife out to a nice dinner.
I posted this under a different headline, questioning the Texas Open Meetings act, and got it all wrong.
Had lunch today at the new Zaxby’s and ran into Mayor Pat McGrail. He told me there was an article coming out in the Citizen tomorrow detailing how three City Council Members showed up for the 2:00 pm Town Center Vision Meeting on October 16th.
The meeting did not have a posted agenda, therefore it is not allowed to have a quorum show up and discuss items that may come before them at a later point. I know Councilman Mitch Holmes stated on this blog they were asked who wanted to show up for what meeting at their City Council Meeting on October 7th. I know P&Z Members were asked the same question at our meeting.
To be fair, I haven’t read the article nor did I want to interrupt the Mayor’s lunch to discuss this in more detail, so I don’t even know who is in violation. I do know the Mayor told me he stayed away from both meetings to make sure there wasn’t a hint of a violation (two council members and the Mayor do not technically make a quorum, but the law is so widely interpreted by the courts, you go out of your way to make sure you don’t violate it). I am interested to hear the excuse given by the offending council members, and why one didn’t get up and leave when three showed up?
UPDATE: The Mayor called and wanted to clarify things, said that Ray Brown did leave after he realized there were three council members there and that his concern was more on how it would read in the paper rather than the three members being there. He read the blog and wanted to make sure I reported it right. As I said, I didn’t want to interrupt his meal any more than I did, so maybe I jumped the gun. My apologies. We will see the reaction after the paper comes out tomorrow.
UPDATE #2: Councilman Mitch Holmes responds in a comment on this post basically summing up what the Mayor said to me in his voicemail, but with more detail. I’ll repost it here so it will be read by those that just scan the site and don’t read the comments (the juciest part of KCL)
The mayor told me Tuesday night he likes to stick to two council members max at any unposted event to avoid the appearance of a quorum, that appearance being drawn from the fact that three votes can make a majority vote in session. Personally, I disagree… if a quorum is legally defined in the Charter as four, and three appears less than four, then three doesn’t appear to be quorum.
Regardless, respecting the mayor’s preference for the more conservative approach, not to mention Doug’s litany of AG questions, we had a mix-up when three showed up. To keep the mayor’s wishes, Councilman Brown left within just a few minutes… five by my estimate. I sat next to him in the back, and didn’t even know Councilman Baker was in the front of the room until he stood up and walked back to Ray to discuss which of them would leave. Then Ray got up, whispered to me he was leaving, and left.
To explain the mixup, Ray told me Tuesday night that two weeks earlier, when the mayor was confirming attendances, both he and John heard the mayor and me agree that I’d attend the evening session. I don’t doubt they understood that, but I agreed to attend the afternoon session, and put the 2:00 time in my BlackBerry as we spoke. Plus, their understanding would have destined the evening session to the same dilemma, so my case is almost made. The only question, then, is how five of us thought we were attending two events, with no more than two attending either one.
I can’t answer that. But between the letter and intent of the Charter, copied above by Jim… which allows three to attend… and Ray’s leaving within the first few minutes of the 2:00 session… reducing council attendance from three to two… I think there’s only enough substance left in this story for the most conspiring of theorists. In fact I think it’s a non-story and will be interested to read what the Keller Citizen makes of it.
I absolutely agree with Jim that the Texas Open Meeting’s Act hurts cities, particularly when there is a town hall meeting that several elected officials might want to attend out of interest for their community. But I also don’t see why we don’t just post them, and let them come. I feel I missed too much of what was said at the 7:00 session by trying to watch it in a 2 1/2 inch box. And the mike never gets passed around very well during the spirited exchanges, so the viewing audience misses that entirely. Then there’s the absolutely vulgar sound the podium mike makes to the viewing audience when it gets gnarled around.
Update #3: I went to the Keller Citizen office to get an advance copy of the paper. The story mentioned that three council members attended the 2:00 meeting, but said nothing at all about quorums or the Texas Open Meetings Act.
–Jim
Update #4: I renamed the post and apologize to the readers for getting this all wrong. - Doug
But do their residents?
As many as 17,000 homes could have a new address if the U.S. Postal Service goes through with a proposal to split the Keller ZIP code and create a new one for north Fort Worth.
The proposal is fueling much debate about neighborhood identity and raising concerns about emergency response times, property values and insurance rates, said Colleen Demel, executive director of the North Fort Worth Alliance.
Some of the fastest-growing areas in Fort Worth north of Northeast Loop 820 and east of Interstate 35 are in the Keller ZIP code. Children in that area attend Keller schools, but their parents pay Fort Worth taxes.
“Some folks like the Keller address because they think it a status symbol,” Demel said.
The North Fort Worth Alliance is holding an information meeting about the change at 7 p.m. Monday at Heritage Church of Christ, 4201 Heritage Trace Parkway.
Highlights of the agenda include:
Consider a resolution amending Resolution No. 2589, dated September 18, 2007; and authorizing the renewal and amending of the Interlocal Agreement for Police Services with the Town of Westlake, Texas, from October 1, 2008 through September 30, 2013.
I have an opinion on this item, but let’s just say that it isn’t a well informed opinion. I hope we have done the cost analysis to determine if this agreement has been and will be beneficial to the City of Keller moving forward. I also hope that fuel costs and ever increasing wages have been taken into account. I’m sure they have, so I’m just putting it out there.
Section 551.087, Texas Government Code – Deliberations Regarding Economic Development Negotiations: (1) To discuss or deliberate regarding commercial or financial information that the governmental body has received from a business prospect that the governmental body seeks to have locate, stay, or expand in or near the territory of the governmental body and with which the governmental body is conducting economic development negotiations; North Hills Family Practice.
I have already commented that I am not in favor of giving out taxpayers money to developers, especially ones that are already here. What does that mean? Nothing, absolutely nothing. It’s my opinion, I just happen to share my opinion with anybody that will listen. Does it mean the City should deny the applicant? No, but I felt the need to express my opinion on this matter.
I hope the allergy drugs kick in soon. 
In my duties as a P&Z Commissioner, I often send an email to the Mayor and City Council explaining in detail why I voted for or against something. It was actually recommended we do this by Stan Lowry, our City Attorney, and encouraged by our Mayor as it help facilitate better communications between the bodies.
The other day I received a response to my email from Councilman Jim Thompson asking if we could go have lunch sometime so he could put a face with a name. Last Friday, Councilman Thompson and I had a very nice lunch at Cheddars. The conversation was completely off the record and a get to know you session and I must say that I walked away from the meeting with the impression that Jim is a very likeable guy with a strong sense of doing the right thing for Keller.
I wish to thank him for his time. He goes on to my list of possible canidates for my first podcast. On the podcast front, I am hoping to get the gear needed in the next few days. A huge repair bill on my boat at the same time as paying college tuition set me back a little.
Next Tuesday, February 5, the council will consider a resolution to spend $55,000 of taxpayer funds toward the purchase of a statue. The statue would be placed at Keller Veteran’s Park at the intersection of 1709 and 377. The remaining $25,000 is to be raised through voluntary donations via the Rotary Club.
I will argue with some fervor that Keller should never purchase art with tax monies.
But I’m happy to offer a compromise. Let’s just put the issue of whether to purchase a statue to the voters. We have an election coming up in May anyway, and adding this question to the ballot would be no trouble at all.
Besides, the people of Keller have had little chance to make themselves heard regarding art purchases. To my knowledge, the only survey question they’ve been asked was part of a Parks & Rec survey around 2002. When asked to comment on the priority levels of various parks features and amenities, ‘Statuary on the trails’ ranked 27th in a list of 27 items.
Mitch Holmes posted the following excerpt on another thread. I agree with him that it deserves its own discussion:
Effective representation takes three accurate listeners on every vote, sometimes four in cases requiring a super majority.
Keller saw a poor example of that just last Tuesday night, when we voted 3-2 to reject a would-be win-win Clean Vehicle Fleet Policy. It would have codified our fleet vehicle acquisition and record keeping practices, while also qualifying us for an $800,000 COG grant for a second left turn lane from westbound 1709 on to southbound 377 (it’s going to cost us $1,000,000 to do it ourselves).
Does anybody benefit from long waits at that intersection?
Does anybody benefit from more traffic cutting through Old Town?
70 area cities, school districts and counties have passed this, with no regrets. Councilmen Carson, Harness and Brown carried the majority rejection, and with it, qualification for the $800,000 left turn grant, for reasons given:
a) Carson: DFW air is getting cleaner without clean air policies (convince the tens of thousands of us who head east into the brown haze every morning, or the exponentially growing adolescent asthmatic population who’d today make up an entire voting block, if they were old enough).
b) Harness: Other major road projects in Keller found funding without a clean vehicle fleet policy, so this one can, too (I need help with that one).
c) Brown: If Social Security can become so onerous in 70 years, so can the North Central Texas Council of Governments (ah, Social Security… the untouchable sure scare argument).
It would be nice to see the videos from the meetings where this was discussed.
UPDATE: At your service, –Jim:
Original $1 million proposal by Freese & Nichols to fix the intersection, and my criticism of same:
Council20071120_377_1709.wmv
Original council discussion 12/18/07 of Clean Fleet Vehicle Policy, which was tabled by council:
Council20071218NOxPrecouncil.wmv
Council20071218NOx.wmv
Presentation of Clean Fleet Policy by NCTCOG and council discussion:
Council20080115CFVP.wmv
Original KCL post of this issue, which drew 44 comments, none of which were from Mitch:
Polluted Thinking
At this Tuesday’s council meeting, the following people will be waterboarded appointed to serve on Keller’s Boards and Commissions.
I can tell you the council had a difficult time with these appointments—the caliber of applicants was just extraordinary. We wondered aloud about the possibility of expanding the size of some of these boards to take advantage of all the talent. While we ultimately decided not to do that, we did make clear that we desired more autonomy and involvement from our boards—particularly the library board, since they will help shape Keller’s future library.
If you know any of these people, please take the time to offer them a little bit of congratulations, and a whole lot of thanks for their willingness to serve. continue reading…
