11/14 Meeting Report
The meeting started off calmly and professionally and melted down in the middle and ended with the mayor's abrupt adjournment gavel without motion while Councilmember Martinez was speaking. In a stinging rebuke to the administration's pattern of not giving council enough information in enough time to make sound decisions, council soundly rejected almost every agenda item that Mayor Lanman and Administrator Sauceda put before them. We started with the pledge. Unlike last meeting, we were able to get through it without the mayor's gavel. The mood was good.
The meeting started off upside down with the mayor requesting that council consider the last agenda item first. This was a proposed executive session (private) meeting of council members to discuss a lawsuit against the gas company. The intent of the lawsuit was never made clear. Council rejected the idea of going into executive session and requested to hold the talk in open session. This threw Lanman and Sauceda for a loop because they were set up to do a conference call with Attorney Monte Akers in the conference room. The meeting was adjourned while they tried to figure out how to get a phone into the Casner room. Evidently, Monte was sitting by the phone (billing the city) waiting for a call. Florencio did not have keys to the locked gas company office or municipal court offices behind council. Eventually the proposed financial advisor, Larry Skiles, appeared with keys to the municipal judges office. Huh? Judge Ferguson is family (step daughter?). Odd but true. They couldn't get the phone worked out so they moved on to the next agenda item. The mood was mild amusement.
The 20 percent gas rate reduction from Southwest Texas Municipal Gas (SWTMG) was discussed and included a presentation from SWTMG board member Dr. Rangra of Alpine. Alpine already passed the reduction. This issue is a big can of worms. Marfa got $126,000 from SWTMG last year and was hoping for another $45,000 this year. Sauceda was hoping for the money and does not want to see rates go down as that reduces a chance of distribution to the city. SWTMG has by-laws that are official and an inter-local agreement that was agreed on but never signed. The lawyers disagree over which takes precedence. The by-laws say they don't need city permission to cut rates. The inter-local agreement says something else. Melvin from SWTMG claims that there is no money to disburse as their obligations exceed available cash by $44,000. Oscar Martinez spoke in defense of the gas company saying it was a well run organization and that the City of Marfa should not mess with it. The gas rate reduction was passed by council. Gas company customers can look forward to a 20 percent reduction in gas bills effective December 1st. The mood was happy.
On to item five on the agenda, the EPA grant of $90,000 to study landfill alternatives. The landfill has been Mayor Lanman's pet project through the summer when he should have been working with council on the budget. Tom Brown of Naismith Engineering presented information on a possible $90,000 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to pursue an investigation into the alternatives for a landfill. He wrote the grant. The city would administer it and pay a 5% match. The application deadline is November 20th. Naismith would look at all the options including landfill, regional transfer, other landfills etc. It was refreshing to hear a professional engineer talk about doing a formal study. During his talk, he mentioned that they are working with Marathon on a wastewater grant. We watched this summer as the mayor tried to turn the compost area into a landfill next to the golf course. Then he talked to Hugh Howard about buying land from him for an unlined landfill adjacent to the huge Marfa Grasslands conservancy-easement land above our aquifer. This I remind you is from a mayor that was elected under the Green Party. Mike Farley warned about the self-fulfilling prophecy of these studies that would lead to a landfill. He rebutted the mayor's claims of 1) unethical to send trash to Presidio (no, they have a state-approved landfill and want the trash revenue), 2) pressed against the wall with capacity in Presidio (no, it's good for another 5-10 years), and 3) revenue generation from other cities (no, only Valentine and Fort Davis would use it). Lots of calm and sincere discussion on all sides and then time for a motion. Silence. More silence. A plea for a motion from the mayor. Nothing. The grant application died for lack of a motion. Item 6 was a similar grant to BECC for financial assistance and was unanimously rejected by council. The mood was surprised.
On to the main performance for the evening, the $1,265,000 loan from the Texas Water Development Board for a new wastewater treatment facility. This included five agenda items: approve the loan application, appoint a financial advisor, two law firms and an engineering firm. The discussion started with a complaint by council that both Lanman and Sauceda went in separate personal cars at city expense to the pre-application conference in Austin and then did not return to Marfa on Friday after the meeting. Then they presented council with a bunch of resolutions with no written or verbal report of what they learned. [In hindsight, Sauceda and Lanman could have called a special meeting to explain what they learned to council and the public and make their case for this loan before the regular meeting. Their secretive style of last-minute overloaded agendas does not allow this kind of foresight.] It was a long discussion. Larry Skiles addressed financial issues. It would be a revenue bond to be paid back out of a $5 per month fee on utility bills for 20 years. As a revenue bond, there would be no bond election as required for tax bonds. This is a zero-percent loan to Marfa as a disadvantaged community. Our Imhoff tanks are woefully out of date and we have been cited by TCEQ. Mike Pink of Parkhill, Smith & Cooper (PSC) discussed the work that was to be done and the costs. It turns out that the professional service appointments were for the application only and would be paid for with loan money. I complained yesterday that there was no description of work to be done by the loan. In fact, Sauceda said he had not seen PSC's report in months. At 4:00 Tuesday, PSC faxed a breakdown of the expenses to the city and it was distributed to council at the meeting. This was the FIRST time that this information was given to council. Council was frustrated that little information had been shared with them. Florencio proposed five resolutions for this business but did not include any copies of the resolutions in the council packets before the meeting. In fact, Flo asked council to approve resolutions at the last meeting without giving them a copy. They did not fall for that trick a second time. A motion was made, seconded and approved to delay action on this item. It is uncertain if it is dead. In frustration, Skiles announced a return to retirement. After this action, the following four dependent agenda items were skipped. The mood was confused.
Next up? A resolution for architectural professional services for the library. Problem? No resolution had been written. Much discussion about failure to provide council with documentation. Then a thirty minute recess while Florencio called Monte to help him draft a resolution for council to consider. So much for Lanman's concern about big agenda's and little time for citizen comments. Long wait. Resolution 06-28 appears. Tom Greenwood is appointed as architect for the library's addition with Lanman's promise that Greenwood won't tear down the library as he proposed to council earlier. The mood was peeved.
On to Sauceda's repeated attempt to amend the long-passed 05-06 budget to hide his mistakes before the audit. Soundly rejected by council with no discussion. The mood was relieved.
On to the 06-07 budget discussion. A bigger mess has never been seen. We are now six weeks into the new year. We have not seen a budget since the first draft in August ten weeks ago. Council is mad. Florencio hands out a two-page sheet of ideas for budget changes. Budget Officer Lanman has little to say. They discuss the option of not refilling the city hall custodian spot and the nutrition center bus driver and firing the police department clerk. Flo keeps hoping for the $45,000 gas revenue until they tell him a third time to give it up. Flo admits to losing $38,640 tax revenue with the failure to raise taxes a second year in a row. Flo asks what to do with the requests for funds from the Children's Advocacy Center, Visionaries in Preservation, and Family Crisis Center totaling $9,500 and suggests that no money is available. They avoided the subject of the golf association until the audience mentioned it. Lanman said he is working on it. Flo raised the option of dipping into the $12,500 contingency fund and the $25,000 reserve fund CD. Ultimately, Oscar demanded that Flo put something in writing for council to consider and further discussion was tabled until the end of November. The mood was depressed.
The holiday schedule was next on the agenda. It was almost adopted without discussion when Mr. Salgado mentioned that the city could save some money by making some changes here. Council adopted the holiday schedule with the elimination of Texas Independence Day as a holiday and elimination of the one personal day allowance. There was some discussion about the daily cost for wages ($25k vs. 2.5k). Out of a $2.5M budget, roughly $700k goes to salary which is about $2,700 a day in salary. Changing a holiday to a workday does not save money if you still pay the person as pointed out by Sauceda. Council responded that it would reduce holiday-pay and overtime-pay for employees that do work that day. The mood was tense.
Ad Valorem taxes were back on the agenda. The city has already sent out tax notices for a tax rate of 58 cents per $100 which is the effective tax rate we have for not passing a budget in time. Out of that, 24 cents goes to debt, and 34 cents goes to operating the city. This brings in a paltry $170,000 to help run a $2.5M city. This is the source of our financial troubles. This year, 41% of our property taxes goes towards debt. That debt is only $160,000 as Mr. Skiles mentioned to me during a break. This tax rate was finally adopted after the fact unanimously. The mood was tired.
Accounts payable were approved. The return to the executive session agenda item came up again and was dismissed.
Comments from citizens, mayor, councilmembers and administrator followed. Mayor and council are not working together, and both sides had complaints. Lanman blamed much on the lack of quorum over the summer though nobody addressed the usually-vacant seat of Lupe Devine. Council complained about not being given enough information when needed. Council expressed frustration about various roles and responsibilities concerning legislation and running the city. The mood was exhaustion.
Somewhere early in the meeting there was a heated discussion between Oscar and Dave. The mayor gaveled down Oscar Martinez when he tried to speak followed by harsh words and the mayor calling the councilmember "rude." So much for diplomacy. During his mayor's comment, Lanman talked about wanting to get along with councilmembers and getting over the "ego bullshit." Perhaps he can start by dropping name calling as well as his gavel. Remember, Judge Agan does not even have a gavel for County Commissioners meetings, and he's a judge! Lanman also gaveled Mike Farley because he was speaking against the mayor's pet dump.
All in all it was a surprising meeting. Lanman and Sauceda have worked together for a year and a half. Their style is to keep information away from council and public, control the agenda, and chase big money while ignoring the day-to-day operations of the city. Lanman and Sauceda disrespect citizen input and participation. Council put them on notice Tuesday night and let them know that those days are over. It is nice to have a strong council. Now let's see if Lanman and Sauceda are serious about working together with council. We have many serious issues to resolve including finances, infrastructure and employees. The job is not getting done with a part-time administrator, a partial council and a hyperactive mayor. We need long term plans to avoid future problems and short-term productive work to address emergencies. It is time to move forward.
The meeting started off upside down with the mayor requesting that council consider the last agenda item first. This was a proposed executive session (private) meeting of council members to discuss a lawsuit against the gas company. The intent of the lawsuit was never made clear. Council rejected the idea of going into executive session and requested to hold the talk in open session. This threw Lanman and Sauceda for a loop because they were set up to do a conference call with Attorney Monte Akers in the conference room. The meeting was adjourned while they tried to figure out how to get a phone into the Casner room. Evidently, Monte was sitting by the phone (billing the city) waiting for a call. Florencio did not have keys to the locked gas company office or municipal court offices behind council. Eventually the proposed financial advisor, Larry Skiles, appeared with keys to the municipal judges office. Huh? Judge Ferguson is family (step daughter?). Odd but true. They couldn't get the phone worked out so they moved on to the next agenda item. The mood was mild amusement.
The 20 percent gas rate reduction from Southwest Texas Municipal Gas (SWTMG) was discussed and included a presentation from SWTMG board member Dr. Rangra of Alpine. Alpine already passed the reduction. This issue is a big can of worms. Marfa got $126,000 from SWTMG last year and was hoping for another $45,000 this year. Sauceda was hoping for the money and does not want to see rates go down as that reduces a chance of distribution to the city. SWTMG has by-laws that are official and an inter-local agreement that was agreed on but never signed. The lawyers disagree over which takes precedence. The by-laws say they don't need city permission to cut rates. The inter-local agreement says something else. Melvin from SWTMG claims that there is no money to disburse as their obligations exceed available cash by $44,000. Oscar Martinez spoke in defense of the gas company saying it was a well run organization and that the City of Marfa should not mess with it. The gas rate reduction was passed by council. Gas company customers can look forward to a 20 percent reduction in gas bills effective December 1st. The mood was happy.
On to item five on the agenda, the EPA grant of $90,000 to study landfill alternatives. The landfill has been Mayor Lanman's pet project through the summer when he should have been working with council on the budget. Tom Brown of Naismith Engineering presented information on a possible $90,000 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to pursue an investigation into the alternatives for a landfill. He wrote the grant. The city would administer it and pay a 5% match. The application deadline is November 20th. Naismith would look at all the options including landfill, regional transfer, other landfills etc. It was refreshing to hear a professional engineer talk about doing a formal study. During his talk, he mentioned that they are working with Marathon on a wastewater grant. We watched this summer as the mayor tried to turn the compost area into a landfill next to the golf course. Then he talked to Hugh Howard about buying land from him for an unlined landfill adjacent to the huge Marfa Grasslands conservancy-easement land above our aquifer. This I remind you is from a mayor that was elected under the Green Party. Mike Farley warned about the self-fulfilling prophecy of these studies that would lead to a landfill. He rebutted the mayor's claims of 1) unethical to send trash to Presidio (no, they have a state-approved landfill and want the trash revenue), 2) pressed against the wall with capacity in Presidio (no, it's good for another 5-10 years), and 3) revenue generation from other cities (no, only Valentine and Fort Davis would use it). Lots of calm and sincere discussion on all sides and then time for a motion. Silence. More silence. A plea for a motion from the mayor. Nothing. The grant application died for lack of a motion. Item 6 was a similar grant to BECC for financial assistance and was unanimously rejected by council. The mood was surprised.
On to the main performance for the evening, the $1,265,000 loan from the Texas Water Development Board for a new wastewater treatment facility. This included five agenda items: approve the loan application, appoint a financial advisor, two law firms and an engineering firm. The discussion started with a complaint by council that both Lanman and Sauceda went in separate personal cars at city expense to the pre-application conference in Austin and then did not return to Marfa on Friday after the meeting. Then they presented council with a bunch of resolutions with no written or verbal report of what they learned. [In hindsight, Sauceda and Lanman could have called a special meeting to explain what they learned to council and the public and make their case for this loan before the regular meeting. Their secretive style of last-minute overloaded agendas does not allow this kind of foresight.] It was a long discussion. Larry Skiles addressed financial issues. It would be a revenue bond to be paid back out of a $5 per month fee on utility bills for 20 years. As a revenue bond, there would be no bond election as required for tax bonds. This is a zero-percent loan to Marfa as a disadvantaged community. Our Imhoff tanks are woefully out of date and we have been cited by TCEQ. Mike Pink of Parkhill, Smith & Cooper (PSC) discussed the work that was to be done and the costs. It turns out that the professional service appointments were for the application only and would be paid for with loan money. I complained yesterday that there was no description of work to be done by the loan. In fact, Sauceda said he had not seen PSC's report in months. At 4:00 Tuesday, PSC faxed a breakdown of the expenses to the city and it was distributed to council at the meeting. This was the FIRST time that this information was given to council. Council was frustrated that little information had been shared with them. Florencio proposed five resolutions for this business but did not include any copies of the resolutions in the council packets before the meeting. In fact, Flo asked council to approve resolutions at the last meeting without giving them a copy. They did not fall for that trick a second time. A motion was made, seconded and approved to delay action on this item. It is uncertain if it is dead. In frustration, Skiles announced a return to retirement. After this action, the following four dependent agenda items were skipped. The mood was confused.
Next up? A resolution for architectural professional services for the library. Problem? No resolution had been written. Much discussion about failure to provide council with documentation. Then a thirty minute recess while Florencio called Monte to help him draft a resolution for council to consider. So much for Lanman's concern about big agenda's and little time for citizen comments. Long wait. Resolution 06-28 appears. Tom Greenwood is appointed as architect for the library's addition with Lanman's promise that Greenwood won't tear down the library as he proposed to council earlier. The mood was peeved.
On to Sauceda's repeated attempt to amend the long-passed 05-06 budget to hide his mistakes before the audit. Soundly rejected by council with no discussion. The mood was relieved.
On to the 06-07 budget discussion. A bigger mess has never been seen. We are now six weeks into the new year. We have not seen a budget since the first draft in August ten weeks ago. Council is mad. Florencio hands out a two-page sheet of ideas for budget changes. Budget Officer Lanman has little to say. They discuss the option of not refilling the city hall custodian spot and the nutrition center bus driver and firing the police department clerk. Flo keeps hoping for the $45,000 gas revenue until they tell him a third time to give it up. Flo admits to losing $38,640 tax revenue with the failure to raise taxes a second year in a row. Flo asks what to do with the requests for funds from the Children's Advocacy Center, Visionaries in Preservation, and Family Crisis Center totaling $9,500 and suggests that no money is available. They avoided the subject of the golf association until the audience mentioned it. Lanman said he is working on it. Flo raised the option of dipping into the $12,500 contingency fund and the $25,000 reserve fund CD. Ultimately, Oscar demanded that Flo put something in writing for council to consider and further discussion was tabled until the end of November. The mood was depressed.
The holiday schedule was next on the agenda. It was almost adopted without discussion when Mr. Salgado mentioned that the city could save some money by making some changes here. Council adopted the holiday schedule with the elimination of Texas Independence Day as a holiday and elimination of the one personal day allowance. There was some discussion about the daily cost for wages ($25k vs. 2.5k). Out of a $2.5M budget, roughly $700k goes to salary which is about $2,700 a day in salary. Changing a holiday to a workday does not save money if you still pay the person as pointed out by Sauceda. Council responded that it would reduce holiday-pay and overtime-pay for employees that do work that day. The mood was tense.
Ad Valorem taxes were back on the agenda. The city has already sent out tax notices for a tax rate of 58 cents per $100 which is the effective tax rate we have for not passing a budget in time. Out of that, 24 cents goes to debt, and 34 cents goes to operating the city. This brings in a paltry $170,000 to help run a $2.5M city. This is the source of our financial troubles. This year, 41% of our property taxes goes towards debt. That debt is only $160,000 as Mr. Skiles mentioned to me during a break. This tax rate was finally adopted after the fact unanimously. The mood was tired.
Accounts payable were approved. The return to the executive session agenda item came up again and was dismissed.
Comments from citizens, mayor, councilmembers and administrator followed. Mayor and council are not working together, and both sides had complaints. Lanman blamed much on the lack of quorum over the summer though nobody addressed the usually-vacant seat of Lupe Devine. Council complained about not being given enough information when needed. Council expressed frustration about various roles and responsibilities concerning legislation and running the city. The mood was exhaustion.
Somewhere early in the meeting there was a heated discussion between Oscar and Dave. The mayor gaveled down Oscar Martinez when he tried to speak followed by harsh words and the mayor calling the councilmember "rude." So much for diplomacy. During his mayor's comment, Lanman talked about wanting to get along with councilmembers and getting over the "ego bullshit." Perhaps he can start by dropping name calling as well as his gavel. Remember, Judge Agan does not even have a gavel for County Commissioners meetings, and he's a judge! Lanman also gaveled Mike Farley because he was speaking against the mayor's pet dump.
All in all it was a surprising meeting. Lanman and Sauceda have worked together for a year and a half. Their style is to keep information away from council and public, control the agenda, and chase big money while ignoring the day-to-day operations of the city. Lanman and Sauceda disrespect citizen input and participation. Council put them on notice Tuesday night and let them know that those days are over. It is nice to have a strong council. Now let's see if Lanman and Sauceda are serious about working together with council. We have many serious issues to resolve including finances, infrastructure and employees. The job is not getting done with a part-time administrator, a partial council and a hyperactive mayor. We need long term plans to avoid future problems and short-term productive work to address emergencies. It is time to move forward.
posted by RobC at 9:22 AM
24 Comments:
Again, Thank you,
Rob!!! Seems like things are finally "being taken care of."
Wow! Thanks, Rob, for your absolutely lyrical reporting! I heard there were nearly fisticuffs, much sturm und drang as it were.
Congratulations to Council!!!
Can't say I agreed with everything they did, but they didn't just follow.
I'm glad they approved the gas rate reduction. Martinez brought up that city is dependent on the water for operating funds, and that isn't the proper way to do things. The thing is, that the city also is getting dependent on gas company reimbursements for revenue.
Think that the city could probably reduce the trash by at least 25% (and save some money) with a good recycling program, and a fee for yard waste to be transported to the landfill. Face it, landfill hours are somewhat eratic, it's a long way out there, you will either have hooked the trailer up for no reason, or have all of that stuff in the pick up bed for who knows how long till you can get out there again, and a lot of people have cars, no pickup or trailer. No one wants to put those dirty bags in their cars. Get plenty of dirt and dust with just the wind.
Don't know what to think about the $1.265M loan. Just wonder why high-powered law firm, bond writers, engineering firm would be interested in this project. If the loan would have covered all of their fees and the actual work, and might actually be less than the approved loan amount, it doesn't seem like any of them would have made much on this project.
I'm glad council did not amend last year's budget. I am looking forward to the audit (that wasn't on the agenda). Might find out what the 2problems and the 2plugs are about. Hopefully they will have a better handle on the new budget. Hope they can visit the issues of employee position descriptions and policies right after or along with the budget.
Again kudos to council, lets get on with business and get 'er done.
Rob, as usual, you did a topnotch job of summing up all the events of the night and making them understandable.
If the council is finally going to stand up for itself, I feel most of the credit for that goes to you. You have done a great service for our community. Three cheers for Rob!
WAY TO GO, CITY COUNCIL!
We are proud of you for finding your voices. Don't stop now however, because there is more to do. Get rid of Lupe or make her attend these meetings. Evaluate Flo and get rid of him, or evaluate Flo and make him (finally) toe the mark and work for YOU. Put an end to his 3 day work week and his excuses for why nothing is ever ready. Make him accountable! Lastly, put an end to his spending and going over budget on contract services, professional services, other professional services, more contract services, etc. That is where the budget needs to be cut. This ridiculous spending on lawyers and advisers has got to go! If Flo can't do these things without consulting a consultant every single time, then he doesn't know his business as an administrator and we can't afford to keep him on payroll. If the police chief couldn't police, he would be out of a job. Flo gets by with a million things that he would fire any other employee for.
Please council, make us proud!
what is this about firing the police departments office help? On what grounds? Has this person been evaluated, reprimanded, warned - have any of the usual, correct steps been followed? is this solely for the purpose of cutting the budget? if so, how many more personnel will have to be cut?
if flo would be forced to cut out his freewheeling spending habits, there would be money in the budget for salaries and even a raise once every 3 years.
Congrats to the Council for FINALLY stepping-up and not following the same OLD PATTERN. Don't let the so called mayor and our wannabe adminstrator pull the wool over your eyes. What needs to be done is that someone needs to take the gavel away from Stimpy and use it to knock some sense into him and Ren. COME ON COUNCIL DON'T TAKE ANYMORE EXCUSES FROM STIMPY AND REN! EITHER IT'S IN BLACK AND WHITE OR NO CIGAR BUDDY! DON'T GIVE THESE TWO CHARACTERS ANYMORE ROOM TO DO DAMAGE TO OUR CITY!
Hear hear to Crazy! Here's an interesting twist. The police dept. clerk's job was created at the same time as the municipal clerk's job. The municipal judge is a pal of Flo's. The police chief is not because he speaks up to Flo/Dave. Also, the police dept. clerk has openly opposed Flo and has spoken up in council meetings. Instructions were given by the city govt. to have the Chief issue a gag order, which he would not. So what happened next? Equal positions, equal hours, equal pay but one boss is "in" and the other boss is "out." The Mayor and Flo gave the municipal clerk an illegal raise (remember that long ago blog issue when the Public Work guys heard about this raise and mutinied?) and even tho her clerk hours have been cut on instructions of Flo to pare that budget down, she works full time now with EMS hours. Is this what the City of Taft called "inefficient use of city personnel" when they sacked Flo? No, the police department clerk is an exemplary employee, on time, efficient and very knowledgeable. The only time she has been "disciplined" is when Flo first came here, he told her not to run around with Jane Wiemers and Marge Hughes, who had openly opposed him during the Gracie Parras riots and continue to oppose him and the Mayor. Then she was issued a city gag order because she had the audacity to ask in a council meeting why the city bills weren't being paid. I believe she makes a whopping 10K a year and would make an excellent code enforcement officer. She was JP in Balmorhea for years and knows all the Marfa ordinances. Yes there is somebody at City Hall who can read! And PS that solid waste grant money from the FIRST grant that was supposed to pay for the car and a code enforcement officer, is still sitting in an account with very little drawn down on it. No Code Enforcement Officer has ever been hired. We have a millionare dogcatcher who works part time out of the goodness of his heart (and that's another position Flo wants to get rid of) Flo has now applied (or Megan G. did) for a $64K recycling grant. Wonder who will misadminister that?
Re making Flo toe the mark. Please refer to his administrative history. Three City Councils grappled with him, as the Mayor of Taft said, for the better part of a year in executive sessions trying to straighten his act out. One of the 7 reasons for his second ouster from Del Rio was insubordination. He cannot be straightened out. If the Mayor can't do without him, the Mayor needs to quit. Hell, the Mayor needs to quit anyway. Since the City Council seems to have come to its senses, we have two experienced city govt. types, Leo and Oscar. They know how to conduct the city day to day. We can do without Flo and Dave.
I wasn't at the meeting but it has been reported to me that the Mayor engaged in one of his meeting-long tantrums because he wasn't getting his way. I heard he berated Mary Williams for not accepting "free money" for his EPA landfill grant. At 5% match, if I understand correctly, that is $4,500 out of city coffers that WE DON'T HAVE. How does this man manage to run his own business???? I hear he is independently wealthy. That's nice. He's got a cushy income and can spend long days at City Hall ruining the city's finances.
THIS JUST IN. Lanman has alienated Rangra for sure and probably Melvin as well. Rangra, when the meeting got late last night, went to Lanman and asked if Marfa was going to sue the gas board for money and Lanman assured him that they were not. Rangra found out that later, after he left, Lanman tried to revive the issue so Rangra is now really mad that Lanman lied to him.
Dear Crazy, Flo doesn't need a reason to fire somebody and he doesn't go by any policies and procedures. Remember when he fired Gracie Parras out of hand when he first got here, then forced Leo out? The reason he used was "insubordination." He should be familiar with the term.
Yes, i remember when flo fired gracie and the circumstances under which that happened. but after that fiasco, surely the fool would not try that again. he ought to know by now that people are watching every move he makes. what is the status on this anyway? first i heard of it was last nite.
concerning the money that has been given and is being given to marfa EMS by citizens who don't want their voluntary contribution to go to the general fund - don't be surprised if flave uses all or part of it to pay ems salary and other costs. just because it is in a separate account doesn't mean that they haven't got designs on it because, as they say, the general fund has been subsidizing the EMS budget all this time. they are NOT happy about people short cutting their system and putting it directly into the separate EMS account. it is definitely in their sights. this is firsthand info.
According to the current EMS budget, it is in the General Fund as EMS Ambulance. One of the revenue sources is called Gifts and Donations so if we private citizens take the voluntary contribution off the water bill and write a yearly check to Bert Legarde, is this where those checks go, into the General Fund gifts and donations? I know EMS has a separate account apart from this general fund account that they have tobacco settlement money and some grant funds in although one of their grants (RAC) is in the revenue portion of their general fund account along with the EMS surcharge money. And yes, currently gifts and donations, RAC grant, Medicaid/Medicare, Ambulance Service, and the surcharge are all lumped into paying salaries, benefits and other expenses in the general fund.
You know, a big part of the problem is that people don't trust those two with their money. There is much confusion and misinformation. The city suffers when people don't trust the moneyhandlers. Flo doesn't help when he hides financial matters and prefers auditors like Painter. (Who better to whitewash a budget fiasco than a Painter?) Dave is clueless. I have never seen him issue a coherent statement on budgetary matters. What we need is an illustration of the city's finances. where the money comes in, pauses, and goes out. What do you think?
We have all been hammering away at getting a free Local Management Audit from the State Comptrollers Office but it has to come from the Council as a formal request. This would sure clear the air.
So, they have designs on the 'speacial EMS funds', do they? I believe they also have designs on the hotel/motel tax too.
And they have already gotten some of the Parks & Rec funds to relieve some burden from the General Fund.
What are the functions of this city government? To provide police service by having their own police department or contract and pay the Sheriff. To provide a Fire Department. To provide the water, sewer and trash services. The city owns the water and sewer services, quit the trash collection some years ago and contracts on behalf of the citizens for trash. Streets are a responsibility of the city, and the citizens approved a one-quarter percent sales tax to help the city meet this obligation because the city could not fund proper maintainance much less paving the unpaved streets . The city owns part of the gas company presumably in order to provide the lowest rates to the citizens. It looks like the city has had parks since it was first platted. A few years ago the city pool and baseball fields were in critical need of renovation. The city secured a grant and the citizens voted to sales tax themselves one-half a percent to take care of capital improvements. The city decided to provide EMS/ambulance service. I don't know the history of EMS, but I am sure it is something the citizens want and is regulated by the State. The citizens, for years, have been voluntarily making contributions to the Volunteer Fire Department and the EMS, and allowed EMS to start charging for services that were free and raise rates for other services. Fire and EMS have had various fund-raising efforts in the past and pursued grants for new vehicles. The city must have Fire and EMS in order to survive. Mr. Flo and Mr. David are in charge of the National Flood Program and Emergency Management for the city. Until recently they didn't even know they were participants in the National Flood Program and couldn't find the Emergency Manuel that was developed specifically for Marfa through a State grant administered by the Rio Grande Council and funded through the County.
The taxpayers only want an accounting.
That is why they are changing the way they make their voluntary contributions directly to the EMS. They pay property taxes, sales taxes, special sales taxes, contribute, pay for services used, get overcharged for trash and gas, allow the city to slide from month to month on its bills and volunteer for various needs. This is one thing they can do to get the attention of the city government without getting into an arguement with the Mayor and Administrator.
A FREE SERVICE !!!
A Local Management Audit.
If there is not a resolution to ask for one on the next agenda I suggest that each and every person in the audience stand up and ask the Council to request one at the next meeting. Right after the Pledge. No comments or extra words. Just "I want the City to request a Local Management Audit from the State."
Or to save the Councils precious time, if it can be organized, for everyone to stand up and only one person speak that one sentence.
Please, Council, put it on the next agenda. The more time and work we have to put into getting you to consider this matter as an agenda item, the more disgusted we get with you all.
Ok! I am convinced. Three more water/sewer accounts have had their EMS/Fire surcharge removed.
I will no longer have the city using my money, which I had intended to go to EMS and Fire,to pay for for glass doors to keep citizens out, for trips to Austin and San Antonio to "investigate" landfills and water loans,or for anything else those moron twins get a wild hair about.
Digressing to whimsy. Earlier blogger referred to Ren and Stimpy. Mayor as Ren, Flo as Stimpy. Check it out.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren_and_Stimpy
here we have actual cartoon footage of Renimpersonating our mayor at a council meeting. joebob says check it out.
and here we have footage of mayor ren using the gavel on himself for a change. joebob says check it out.
and now stimpy is tempted to use the "erase history" button on the budget. joebob says check it out.
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