What's up with Council?

Looks like there are any number of topics for the people of Irving to talk to the council about, so I hope that you will attend the meeting tomorrow night. Here are a few:
Last council meeting they decided that 400 homeowners in Hackberry didn't have enough sense to understand the apartment complex they were petitioning against and voted to allow it. Turns out that the contractor told them one thing, then did another. That IS hard to comprehend - particularly for lawyers, doctors, pilots, ceo's, cfo's, etc. Maybe they should get an Ivy League fast track degree like the mayor did - I understand you can do it in just 2 weeks, after which you can say you graduated from Yale.
They had the Four Seasons project on the agenda to vote "For" or "Against" their development that the homeowners were complaining about and which would have further run their property values down, but we were able to make it political, and the Four Seasons decided to negotiate, and it was pulled from the agenda. I understand that they have made a satisfactory compromise or at least with 80% of the Fairway Vista folks.
Now, this week is the mother load: As they planned to do months ago, they are poised to replace the entire Flood District III Board - that is the same one they tried to defamed and villify during the campaign. As a matter of fact, the Mayor's reference at the First Methodist forum went something like this, "Does anybody here know what a Flood Control District does? Well, okay, 4 raised their hands. I'll tell you what this board does - they spend millions of dollars with no oversight, and they refuse to give us what we ask for and they tamper with government documents and we are having them audited." The audit is over and they passed with flying colors except for some minor stuff. No one is cooking the books, altering "government documents," they are doing their job, and they are solvent with a tax rate that they reduced from $1.58 per $100 valuation to $.21. But Herb, Rose, and Rick think that the government can better pick the board members and that the ones they have chosen will do a better job for the good people of Valley Ranch. Of course, you and I may become taxpayers to that Flood District before they are done with it! I understand Chris Wallace is one of their handpicked members. He is also head of the Chamber that gets in excess of $1-million a year from the City. Domestic extremists like me consider that a conflict of interest.
The Budget is another. They are budgeting for an unrealistic salary increase for Tommy Gonzalez complete with Four Season's membership, car allowances and gas mileage, increased bonuses, health insurance for the fam, etc. all in a recession when everybody else in town is lucky to even get a raise much less perc's.
They stripped Tom and Beth of their committee assignments, so that they will have no accomplishments when they run for re-election and that also means that their council districts have no voice on the council - which means that just under half of the people in the 5 districts have no representation.
They are meeting at the Four Seasons for their Budget Retreat AGAIN! Too rich for my blood on taxpayer money.
The Citizens Forum still has not been returned to viewing on ICTN, but Sharon Barbosa explained all that and justified media censorship in her verbose typical fashion in a newspaper article in the Dallas Morning News. The City Council now owns all of the news media serving Irving except our blogs. They pay the DMN around $250,000 a year, the Rambler around $10,000 and the Irving Journal (not even a newspaper) around $12,000, own ICTN and the Irving Spectrum. Saddam Hussein owned all of the media too? Sharon must be making a ton of money these days representing all of these industries before the City Council she helps elect. And the Four Seasons was very generous during the campaign with Herb and I believe some others too. It would certainly be interesting to know the Irving holdings of the people who donated over $250,000 to see to it that the incumbents got back in. I am still trying to figure out why anyone would donate that kind of money to a city race? I have heard Billy Bob Barnett was one - do you think he knows something that we do not? I have also heard that people who have said that they oppose the beer and wine sales in Irving, are actually working for it. I haven't seen anyone stepping out on the issue yet, but they have sure had time to take care of the Four Season's, Hackberry, and the Valley Ranch Flood Control Board. Wonder when they are going to start falling on their swords?
Rose wants to sanction Beth for telling on her, but, since she was told that she can't do that, she is just taking over all of the things Beth wanted to do. That's one of the problems when you have a Mayor and his best friend on the council. They double-team anybody they want to pick on. Maybe we should have moral compass training for city council members. Ethics training wouldn't be a bad idea either. It could go along with the "Sensitivity" trainings. Beth will no longer be liaison to Coppell which means that she will have no standing to help fight the Billingsly 10,000 apartment project - I am sure Rose will do everything in her power to help Coppell with that though - maybe she will mediate with Ms. Billingsly - ya think? Beth also lost her assignment to the communications committee which, by the way, she formed and which is also her major and where she felt she could really contribute to the city. But, there again, I am sure Rose's Dallas Baptist degree in psychology will serve us well in that area too. After all Beth is only an honors graduate of Cornell - magna cum laud, as I recall. These are Beth's most important stated objectives,and where she has the training and expertise to be of great benefit to Irving. What a tragedy that her gifts, talent, and knowledge is being wasted. Let's see, does Herb have a degree from anywhere? Rose got her's from DBU was it a year or so ago? The point it, Beth VanDuyne is brilliant, she has a passion to serve her community and has put up with the mayor's insults, Rose's abuse, being shunned by other council members, and she still wants to serve and lead her community. The truth of the matter is, as far as I am concerned, she is the only one qualified and trained to be a city leader.
Has anybody heard how the crack down on illegal immigration is going? I wonder how many have been arrested the past few months. I think someone said that they think they may have gotten them all. Hmmmmm. I don't think that is right, but it is my word against theirs and you know how that turns out.
So what do you do when a large portion of the population is not being represented and the council won't listen or compromise? That is why our laws provide for recall elections.
Apparently, it doesn't matter that they won by a small margin of the vote. That small margin should have given Tom and Beth a stronger position, but, since it didn't, something needs to be done.
I am going to keep track of the council's actions on my website under Recall Election. The site is set up for feedback, so please go there and register your complaints, comments, and any other activities that you think should be added to the list of wrongs being done by this mayor and council members and let me know who you think should be recalled. Also, let us know if you think what they are doing is okay and why, if that's the case. I would also like to know if you would be interested in protesting these activities.
Hope to see you at council meeting...Sue