Someone, forwarded me an email that went out this morning. It is interesting. It seems the leader of the Chamber is heading up a "Vote Yes" campaign for the bond and the City Charter Amendments.
What make it most interesting is his salary and benefits are paid for by the city. The Richardson Chamber of Commerce gets over a million dollars a year of financial support from tax payer funds.
So in effect, the city leadership is using taxpayer fund to lobby. That is a no-no, legally. But in Richardson, that is normal business. And as I think John Murphy told someone once before, if you don't like the way things are done, sue us.
Anyways, here is the text of the email forwarded to me. At least one insider doesn't like what is about to happen.
| Subject: | Join our "Vote Yes" Richardson Bond Program & Charter Amendments
Campaign Committee |
| From: | Bill Sproull |
| Date: | Mon, Aug 31, 2015 11:01 am |
| To: | (a bunch of people) |
| Cc: | (a bunch more people) |
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All,
You have been specially selected as a community leader who we feel can be a
very important contributor to the successful passage of the upcoming Richardson
bond program and charter amendments. As you know, the City Council has called
for the election on these critical items on the Nov. 3rd ballot, and we want you
to join us on the Richardson Vote Yes Campaign Committee that will work to get
voter approval of these ballot items.
We invite you to attend our organizing meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 8th, 5-7
pm, at the restaurant Texas in The Shire on Bush 190. If you cannot attend, but
would still like to be on the campaign committee, please let us know.
This campaign shouldn't be too difficult to wage, since there's no tax
increase required to fund the bond program, and the Charter amendments insure
the direct election of the Mayor (fixing the unintended consequence of the
Council appointing the Mayor in case of a vacancy that was created in the last
Charter election). As of now, we know of no organized opposition to either the
bond program or Charter amendments. However, we don't ever want to take the
election outcome for granted, and with Early Voting starting Oct. 19th, we only
have 7 weeks to Get Out The Vote!!
The main things we need from you are your name and for you to reach out to
your network. We will do the work of getting the mailings, phone calls, emails,
and yard signs (etc) developed that you can use.
Please join our Campaign Committee and our organizing meeting on Sept.
8th. You can RSVP to this email address. We look forward to working with you
for a better Richardson!!!
Ken Hutchenrider
Erica Yaeger
John Murphy
Jeanne Hooker
Ron Taylor
Janice Peters
Bill Keffler
Mary Bedosky
p.s. If you prefer we use a different email address for you during the
campaign, please let us know.
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It isn't the first time Mr Sproull has helped with the endevours. Think back to the Richardson Citizens for Charter Change. Remember all those closed meetings they were not allowed to hold because the charter stated ALL meetings shall be open.
ReplyDeleteIt's another Deja Vu moment!!
Well, they are trying to stack the deck once again. Mr. Sproull.....Do you have the courage to let the citizens of Richardson know to whom you sent the email? Or did the city tell you again to be their scape goat? I urge all citizens to read the Charter review and $50,000,000 Bond Package slated for the November 3rd. election.
ReplyDeleteOn another subject....I don't think we all have slab or leak problems. All of a sudden our water bills went out of sight, and they want to increase our rate 8%. Come on people, the citizens are not stupid.
The bond initiative is not $50 million, it's over $120 million and if you think you can incur that kind of debt without tax liability, you should buy some beach property in El Paso.
ReplyDeleteOld debt gets retired, some existing debt is restructured at better rates. - sure there is a tax liability for any debt but that doesn't mean that the tax rate or even tax revenue has to be increased to support new debt.
ReplyDeleteSure old debt gets retired and new debt issued. Its called refunding. What doesn't change is the allocation of tax revenue that has to be spent on debt service. And with this great big bubble in valuations, there will a very large bucket of fresh money to spend. And the more they spend the bigger the inflation.
ReplyDeleteThere is just something wrong with the head of the chamber and members of the charter commission campaigning for the changes they want. It just smells.
ReplyDeleteEveryone knows from time to time you have to update your city. You have to spend on capital. That is not in your operating budget. As a municipality you use bonds. This bond if I read it correctly does not increase taxes at all. I am not certain why this is even relevant. Unless you think something in here should no be done. https://www.cor.net/index.aspx?page=2211
ReplyDeleteThe issues are about public participation and ownership. This council doesn't value public input. Slagel and Murphy valued public input. (Naysayers will disagree but I don't agree with them.) The council has not cared a lick about public input. Don't you think 110 million is worth having sincere public input sessions? It very dawned upon even one council member to propose it.
ReplyDeleteUmm, there were public hearings. Did you attend?
ReplyDeleteBy the time there are public hearings it's all said and Done. At that point the only purpose of hearings is to fulfill legal obligations and check the item of of the list. The package is complete and Moses won't move that mountain. Why not public hearings WHILE the package is being assembled? Afraid of public input maybe? afraid of losing a bit of control? More concerned with control than leadership maybe?
ReplyDeleteYou can communicate to Council at any time you wish and perhaps influence a decision before opinions are hardened. The public hearings allow you to also make your statements or ask questions in public.
DeleteDid you choose to speak at any of the Council meeting visitor sections during the time the budget, the bond program, and the Charter changes were being constructed?
ReplyDeleteYou live in Stepford, not Richardson. The purpose of council meetings is to give the appearance there is due process and to actually TELL what they plan to do next. There is no oversight on behalf of the public. As far as charter commission activities, the citizens were given 3 minutes before they started and 3 minutes after they had been presented the city attorney's changes over 6-7 months. There are videos here to show evidence of the events. Yet the city only shows you the 3 minute segments. Also, the commission members were instructed not to engage, but to gather information. Just like the council and the self imposed gag order in the ethics ordinance.
DeleteAnd still you avoid answering the question. Whether you had 1 or 2 or 3 minutes, did you make any effort to speak in the meeting?
DeleteYou aren't getting it. An elected deliberative body would welcome multiple occasions specifically designed to provide input. Have you ever looked at other cities? Many do this. We do not. If you speak at a visitors section the council will not respond. If a deliberative body holds a public input session then they can respond to inquires and they can question a speaker. Limiting input to visitor's sections allows them to hide behind the TOMA.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you have against leadership actually asking fire public input in public sessions and allowing the public to ask specific questions?
Council cannot reply to any topic not on an agenda. It's the law. I have nothing against free flowing public input. There is lots of opportunity to communicate and have dialog with individual Council members. I think you are not getting it. If the public forums in the style you want are not available, why not recognize that there are a variety of ways to express concerns and questions outside of public hearings that can be effective? Get to know Council members, cultivate relationships, speak up at any opportunity and you'll find that you may have as much influence as that millionaire that is fussed at so much on blogs.
DeleteDuh... I know all of the council members. I know how the TOMA works. Please do not speak down to me. What shows leadership is not hiding behind the open meetings act to avoid actually being questioned and engaging in a true public dialog and not shoving input into a visitor's so that the council can't respond. Try knowing your fellow citizens and bring to know them. Try reading what someone actually writes rather than deflecting with an automatic response. You might understand why well meaning citizens many of whom who have lived in the city for decades and who themselves have been leaders think this council is out of touch.
DeleteCheers October 1, 2015 at 6:45 PM. You can stand at the podium all day long and speak til blue. They have their agenda on what to tell the public. As a citizen, try to get something on the agenda to talk about. It won't happen. The idealized notion these people are reasonable and well meaning may be partially true. But more than that, they are feeding the ego to tell others what the business of the public is over what the public is asking them to do.
ReplyDeleteOle' Sproulll is up to his same bag of tricks. The plutocrats run Richardson and the little people get to foot the bill. I'd like to give Bill the foot, both Keffler and Sproulll.
ReplyDeleteThe only way the citizens can thwart these crooks is to show up and vote them and their public larceny out of town. It is amazing how long the Chamber of Commerce operatives have been getting away with doing the city's dirty work. Pack of thieves they are.
Wait, let me check my calendar. Is this April 1st? You do realize this is 2015 and Bill Keffler left the City Manager's Office two years ago. Dirty work? Like helping to bring the TI plant to town along with many other development projects that bring employment and tax revenues to town?
ReplyDelete