Why No Quorum
In my previous post, I presented my opinion on why the City of Marfa did not pass a budget before the new fiscal year started on October 1. Lanman and Sauceda stacked the agenda for the special Friday night meeting of city council in order to overwhelm council and push through bad fiscal policy with little council discussion.
For the second year in a row, the city did not pass the budget in time and were not allowed to raise property taxes. The tax rate for 2006-2007 is the effective tax rate for 2005-2006 which was the effective tax rate for 2004-2005. Two years in a row this administration has failed to take care of the city's most important business.
Quorum on Friday night was an important part of their scheme. If you were in their position, would you do everything you could to make sure there was a quorum? One would think so. We needed four out of five councilmembers. If the stakes were that high, one would want to aim for five councilmembers and hope for four.
Lupe Devine was out of town but promising a homecoming of her own. Leo Salgado had been telling David and Flo about his schedule conflict for that Friday meeting for two weeks. And Lorina Chavez had already given her letter of resignation because of frustration with city hall. She promised to stay through the end of the fiscal year to help the city finish the tax and budget work. Suddenly the gamble has gotten more serious. We have three maybes. And Mary Williams and Oscar Martinez have had their own personal situations in recent weeks that have made quorums less than certain. Five maybes. Again I ask you, would you do everything you could to make sure you got a quorum? Not if you were David Lanman.
When Lorina Chavez brought her letter of resignation to city hall on September 20th, she met with Mayor Lanman. We can imagine that he was upset because Lorina was his chosen Mayor ProTem. In Lorina's words, the mayor said, "Since Lupe will be here next week, quorum won't be an issue, so you are free to buzz away." According to Lorina, this was said in a dismissive and not friendly tone.
At the special council meeting the next day, Lanman announced that Councilmember Chavez was leaving "for personal reasons." Then Ms. Chavez read her resignation letter citing professional reasons about not being able to accomplish anything with city hall and the council. Her resignation was effective immediately. Sterry Butcher, wearing her citizen hat, asked Lorina Chavez to reconsider and stay through the end of the month. David Lanman sat quietly and did not admit that he was confident of quorum and had already dismissed Ms. Chavez to "buzz away." On Wednesday the 27th, Lanman realized he had a serious quorum problem. He called Lorina again and in a demanding tone said, "We will need you here on Friday because Leo will be gone." The Sentinel reported that Lorina was at home with a sick child that Friday evening. Even without a sick child, it must not feel motivating to have the mayor of the city tell you to "buzz away" because he does not need you anymore.
I believe that the failure to achieve quorum was directly related to David Lanman's disrespectful attitude towards at least two councilmembers. While two councilmembers had valid reasons for missing the last-minute meeting, the mayor has created an atmosphere of disrespect and manipulation at city hall. His need for power, his rudeness towards people with different opinions, his dislike of citizen participation, and his desire to weaken council to make himself a tie-breaker have created a dysfunctional municipal government.
He has been budget officer for two years. For two years, he has failed to pass a budget in time or levy taxes sufficient to fund the city. In the last year, three council members (including two of his Mayor ProTems) have resigned and a fourth has left town. He has formed a strategic alliance with the city administrator and spent way beyond the budget. He has either ignored or been unaware of the intentional and unlawful manipulation of the city's budget without council approval.
We have a serious problem at city hall. The city is suffering from this mismanagement. All of the city's financial foundation for this year was delayed until the last minute when we desperately needed a quorum. In the week before the meeting, Mayor Lanman discouraged a councilmember from attending the most important meeting of the year. Was he hoping for four councilmembers so he could be in a position to cast a tie-breaking vote? What possible reason could he have for dismissing his Mayor ProTem when the city has a 64 percent success rate for meetings this year? I find it quite confusing. Whatever the reason, the results are not good for Marfa.
For the second year in a row, the city did not pass the budget in time and were not allowed to raise property taxes. The tax rate for 2006-2007 is the effective tax rate for 2005-2006 which was the effective tax rate for 2004-2005. Two years in a row this administration has failed to take care of the city's most important business.
Quorum on Friday night was an important part of their scheme. If you were in their position, would you do everything you could to make sure there was a quorum? One would think so. We needed four out of five councilmembers. If the stakes were that high, one would want to aim for five councilmembers and hope for four.
Lupe Devine was out of town but promising a homecoming of her own. Leo Salgado had been telling David and Flo about his schedule conflict for that Friday meeting for two weeks. And Lorina Chavez had already given her letter of resignation because of frustration with city hall. She promised to stay through the end of the fiscal year to help the city finish the tax and budget work. Suddenly the gamble has gotten more serious. We have three maybes. And Mary Williams and Oscar Martinez have had their own personal situations in recent weeks that have made quorums less than certain. Five maybes. Again I ask you, would you do everything you could to make sure you got a quorum? Not if you were David Lanman.
When Lorina Chavez brought her letter of resignation to city hall on September 20th, she met with Mayor Lanman. We can imagine that he was upset because Lorina was his chosen Mayor ProTem. In Lorina's words, the mayor said, "Since Lupe will be here next week, quorum won't be an issue, so you are free to buzz away." According to Lorina, this was said in a dismissive and not friendly tone.
At the special council meeting the next day, Lanman announced that Councilmember Chavez was leaving "for personal reasons." Then Ms. Chavez read her resignation letter citing professional reasons about not being able to accomplish anything with city hall and the council. Her resignation was effective immediately. Sterry Butcher, wearing her citizen hat, asked Lorina Chavez to reconsider and stay through the end of the month. David Lanman sat quietly and did not admit that he was confident of quorum and had already dismissed Ms. Chavez to "buzz away." On Wednesday the 27th, Lanman realized he had a serious quorum problem. He called Lorina again and in a demanding tone said, "We will need you here on Friday because Leo will be gone." The Sentinel reported that Lorina was at home with a sick child that Friday evening. Even without a sick child, it must not feel motivating to have the mayor of the city tell you to "buzz away" because he does not need you anymore.
I believe that the failure to achieve quorum was directly related to David Lanman's disrespectful attitude towards at least two councilmembers. While two councilmembers had valid reasons for missing the last-minute meeting, the mayor has created an atmosphere of disrespect and manipulation at city hall. His need for power, his rudeness towards people with different opinions, his dislike of citizen participation, and his desire to weaken council to make himself a tie-breaker have created a dysfunctional municipal government.
He has been budget officer for two years. For two years, he has failed to pass a budget in time or levy taxes sufficient to fund the city. In the last year, three council members (including two of his Mayor ProTems) have resigned and a fourth has left town. He has formed a strategic alliance with the city administrator and spent way beyond the budget. He has either ignored or been unaware of the intentional and unlawful manipulation of the city's budget without council approval.
We have a serious problem at city hall. The city is suffering from this mismanagement. All of the city's financial foundation for this year was delayed until the last minute when we desperately needed a quorum. In the week before the meeting, Mayor Lanman discouraged a councilmember from attending the most important meeting of the year. Was he hoping for four councilmembers so he could be in a position to cast a tie-breaking vote? What possible reason could he have for dismissing his Mayor ProTem when the city has a 64 percent success rate for meetings this year? I find it quite confusing. Whatever the reason, the results are not good for Marfa.
posted by RobC at 5:39 PM
8 Comments:
Because David loves the power and his short fuse keeps him from listening to reason. Doss had the right name for him way back when..... The mess keeps getting worse and now the appointment of a new councilperson is being considered. Maybe one of the Tres Mujeres is being considered since she thinks "Mexican" is doing such a good job shows how much she knows. She would make a good puppet.
Why didn't the most Honorable Mayor come clean and say that he told Lorina to "buzz away" when asked why Lorina did not show up for the meeting???? DO NOT try to blame Lorina and Leo for the mess Flo & Mayor have created. It is trickling down!!!
Flo and Mayor are talking cut backs but do not mention where is really, really big expense is Flo's $65,000. annual pay for 3 days work and not even a citizen of Marfa. Cause he got paid for serving on the jury in his county for a whole week!!! Now is that fair.???
he will NEVER own up to that - he is to blame for nada!
I'm glad you posted this. I didn't know what to think about Lorina. I was sure she would have gone to the meetings, because she gave her word to stay thru the end of the fiscal year. She had been professional and dignified on Council. I didn't know about the sick child, but even without that happening, I can't fault her for not attending after being told to 'buzz away'.
I am a citizen volunteer who made the mistake of disagreeing with David not too long ago. He summoned me to his office and began to berate me in a loud and ugly tone. When he finally finished yelling, I stood very still, somewhat in a state of shock. I was quite frightened and was trying my best not to let him see the tears welling up in my eyes. Thats when he said, "you are dismissed
The Mayor is a boor. His reputation in Terlingua and Alpine is checkered, to say the least. I have been told he is "abusive" to women and the last anon post exhibits that, because that is his reputation. The way he treats citizens at council meetings is shameful.
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Worse than a boor--he's abusive--I heard he has a restraining order against him in Alpine for badgering two women in their workplace.
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