City Website
It seems that the discussion of the city website project deserves its own post. Let's start off with the presentation to council and the discussion that followed. Thursday was the first time that this matter had been presented to council. What follows is my transcript of the discussion. It is as accurate as I can transcribe based on my recording. The city has their own recording available for any citizen to review. I shared my observations already. People can draw their own conclusions.
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Good evening. My name is Vilis Inde. I have had discussions with the mayor and a few other volunteers regarding a website, an official website for the city. The goal of the website is to basically provide current members of the community and also prospective members of the community, people that are interested in Marfa with access to general public information. We realize that there are various controversial issues currently in the city, and therefore we would be very careful of making sure that anything that we put on the website is not controversial.
Examples are, simple examples are identifying the administrative personnel, council members etcetera, providing emails, phone numbers, also providing the zoning ordinance on the website. I think that it is important for people that are looking at buying property in the city be able to identify what the zoning regulations are without coming into city hall to get them. We also would propose at some point putting information up on the website regarding permit applications and possibly even making it possible that you could download the appropriate forms etcetera.
In the future, once a zoning map has been approved, this could also be part of the plan to have the zoning map on the website, the official website, so that people could again see if they were looking to buy property they could see what zone their property is in.
We would be very careful and have caveats regarding information regarding Presidio County. We realize that Presidio County has its own rules etcetera and we would refer people to the Presidio County website. The current status is that we basically just started. We met. We talked about these issues. We started a very initial draft of the website and we will be moving forward. We will provide future updates as we move forward. Thank you.
Leo: Thank you. Do we have any questions?
Oscar: Is this official notification to council of this website proposal at this time?
Flo: This is a volunteer group between the mayor and us offering the services to the members of council to decide if they want to accept their volunteer efforts and once they see the proof of what they are proposing at a later date.
Oscar: So this is official notification to council of this website today? We have not been officially notified of this previously.
Flo: This is not the official notification other than the mayor's visit with this volunteer group in the infancy stages of preparing a proposed website.
Vilis: I think it is important that we be able to prepare something and then the council will be able to see it, review it, and then make the determination. I mean that's why we're saying that we want to be very careful about having noncontroversial information etcetera.
Rob: Who is on the committee?
Vilis: There, Betsy Burns is on the committee. I am on the committee. There are several people, several other people that have requested not to be identified.
Rob: There are people that are doing stuff for the city that are doing it in secrecy?
Vilis: Not in secrecy, they just prefer not to be identified.
Rob: Council, can I ask that all volunteers working on city projects be identified? I am not comfortable with this.
Dan Petrosky: I am not aware of the legal ramifications but I feel like you Rob. If somebody is going to be doing something, you know, if they are going to volunteer their time and step up to the plate and do something, they are going to be proud of their work, they are not up to no good, they ought to be able to throw their name out there. I mean...
Vilis: The only question that exists here is there is so much animosity within the community that some people do not even want to step forward and do anything...
Rob: (Yeah, you get attacked.)
Vilis: ...because the people are attacked and so some people are willing to help as long as there are other representatives. People can come to me if there is ever an issue regarding this website.
Dan: The main problem I see here is last year when Rob and Ann and Lineaus did so much work on the construction permit ordinance, brought it to council, we tried to get it permitted, tried to get a presentation. There were some objections by a couple of council members. Oscar and I volunteered our time to meet with the committee and see if any objections, get it resolved. All the while there's the mayor going along with the secret agenda here with a counterproposal and comes to Ann, Rob and Lineaus and says, "we got some other ideas too, why don't you consider ours?" There was so much animosity that developed out of that because of the secrecy from the mayor's side on that. The people that were involved in that, my gut feeling now, I don't really trust dealing with them. I mean if it's out, if it's all above board in the open, you do it, you know, come in.
Oscar: And I felt the same way at that time and say the same thing about this. If the mayor and some people do something surreptitiously behind council's back or whatever, that's totally wrong. That's not his place to do that. Volunteers come up here. They volunteer and do a lot of work and volunteers keep this city running. As far as I am concerned, if we have volunteers go ahead and talking about everything that you can think about for this city, and we appreciate everything they do. We certainly want people to step up and do something, but we don't want them to step around the back door and be coming in and out in hiding and say that I don't want anybody to know that I am doing this. Why wouldn't they want the public not to know that they are involved in this. That's what I feel.
Dan: I think that it's commendable that they want to help develop a website. That's something that I think the city does desperately need. Like you say, give them the zoning ordinances, all the information you can, out there for easy access and consumption. That's something that we desperately need to do. But, I think that, you know, somebody thinks that, "Oh, you know, I want to go hide."
Vilis: What I will do is, I'll just check to see whether people want to continue working on the content committee, and there will be, people will provide their names in the future, but I will not, I cannot provide their names at this time. I will in the future. I will talk with anyone we have had discussions with.
Flo: As I understand it, it is open to any citizen that would like to participate.
Vilis: Absolutely, absolutely.
Leo: Thank you.
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Good evening. My name is Vilis Inde. I have had discussions with the mayor and a few other volunteers regarding a website, an official website for the city. The goal of the website is to basically provide current members of the community and also prospective members of the community, people that are interested in Marfa with access to general public information. We realize that there are various controversial issues currently in the city, and therefore we would be very careful of making sure that anything that we put on the website is not controversial.
Examples are, simple examples are identifying the administrative personnel, council members etcetera, providing emails, phone numbers, also providing the zoning ordinance on the website. I think that it is important for people that are looking at buying property in the city be able to identify what the zoning regulations are without coming into city hall to get them. We also would propose at some point putting information up on the website regarding permit applications and possibly even making it possible that you could download the appropriate forms etcetera.
In the future, once a zoning map has been approved, this could also be part of the plan to have the zoning map on the website, the official website, so that people could again see if they were looking to buy property they could see what zone their property is in.
We would be very careful and have caveats regarding information regarding Presidio County. We realize that Presidio County has its own rules etcetera and we would refer people to the Presidio County website. The current status is that we basically just started. We met. We talked about these issues. We started a very initial draft of the website and we will be moving forward. We will provide future updates as we move forward. Thank you.
Leo: Thank you. Do we have any questions?
Oscar: Is this official notification to council of this website proposal at this time?
Flo: This is a volunteer group between the mayor and us offering the services to the members of council to decide if they want to accept their volunteer efforts and once they see the proof of what they are proposing at a later date.
Oscar: So this is official notification to council of this website today? We have not been officially notified of this previously.
Flo: This is not the official notification other than the mayor's visit with this volunteer group in the infancy stages of preparing a proposed website.
Vilis: I think it is important that we be able to prepare something and then the council will be able to see it, review it, and then make the determination. I mean that's why we're saying that we want to be very careful about having noncontroversial information etcetera.
Rob: Who is on the committee?
Vilis: There, Betsy Burns is on the committee. I am on the committee. There are several people, several other people that have requested not to be identified.
Rob: There are people that are doing stuff for the city that are doing it in secrecy?
Vilis: Not in secrecy, they just prefer not to be identified.
Rob: Council, can I ask that all volunteers working on city projects be identified? I am not comfortable with this.
Dan Petrosky: I am not aware of the legal ramifications but I feel like you Rob. If somebody is going to be doing something, you know, if they are going to volunteer their time and step up to the plate and do something, they are going to be proud of their work, they are not up to no good, they ought to be able to throw their name out there. I mean...
Vilis: The only question that exists here is there is so much animosity within the community that some people do not even want to step forward and do anything...
Rob: (Yeah, you get attacked.)
Vilis: ...because the people are attacked and so some people are willing to help as long as there are other representatives. People can come to me if there is ever an issue regarding this website.
Dan: The main problem I see here is last year when Rob and Ann and Lineaus did so much work on the construction permit ordinance, brought it to council, we tried to get it permitted, tried to get a presentation. There were some objections by a couple of council members. Oscar and I volunteered our time to meet with the committee and see if any objections, get it resolved. All the while there's the mayor going along with the secret agenda here with a counterproposal and comes to Ann, Rob and Lineaus and says, "we got some other ideas too, why don't you consider ours?" There was so much animosity that developed out of that because of the secrecy from the mayor's side on that. The people that were involved in that, my gut feeling now, I don't really trust dealing with them. I mean if it's out, if it's all above board in the open, you do it, you know, come in.
Oscar: And I felt the same way at that time and say the same thing about this. If the mayor and some people do something surreptitiously behind council's back or whatever, that's totally wrong. That's not his place to do that. Volunteers come up here. They volunteer and do a lot of work and volunteers keep this city running. As far as I am concerned, if we have volunteers go ahead and talking about everything that you can think about for this city, and we appreciate everything they do. We certainly want people to step up and do something, but we don't want them to step around the back door and be coming in and out in hiding and say that I don't want anybody to know that I am doing this. Why wouldn't they want the public not to know that they are involved in this. That's what I feel.
Dan: I think that it's commendable that they want to help develop a website. That's something that I think the city does desperately need. Like you say, give them the zoning ordinances, all the information you can, out there for easy access and consumption. That's something that we desperately need to do. But, I think that, you know, somebody thinks that, "Oh, you know, I want to go hide."
Vilis: What I will do is, I'll just check to see whether people want to continue working on the content committee, and there will be, people will provide their names in the future, but I will not, I cannot provide their names at this time. I will in the future. I will talk with anyone we have had discussions with.
Flo: As I understand it, it is open to any citizen that would like to participate.
Vilis: Absolutely, absolutely.
Leo: Thank you.
posted by RobC at 11:15 PM
11 Comments:
Rob,
Thank you. Your post clarifies the issues and removes your "characterization" of the facts. It does not refer to an inaccurate website. It clearly states that all kinds of information would be included on the website, including, but not limited to zoning issues. It identifies one controversial issue, which is the zoning map, which would not be included on the site until a map is approved. Finally, it identifies that I spoke to a Betsy Burns and others about the website.
VI clarification: These other people are not part of the committee or working group. I spoke to them and they provided their input. But they would not join the working group b/c they did not want to be involved in the animosity that seems to arise whenever one works on something for the benefit of the city.
I appreciate your clarification and I apologize for the mischaracterization of members v. persons who provided input but chose not to be members of the working group.
People may now draw whatever conclusions they want from the post. If they choose, they can say, Vilis was only doing this for his own benefit and that of those like him or they can say good for Vilis for volunteering to help with a website that would serve as a benefit to the entire community. My motive was the latter, not the former. (I already have access to the information that I need and do not need to create a website for such access.)
THIS IS MY LAST POST ON THIS BLOG. IF SOMEONE WOULD LIKE TO SAY SOMETHING TO ME, THEN THEY SHOULD DO IT PERSONALLY OR via e-mail: vilisinde@yahoo.com.
This experience has reinforced the saying that no good deed goes unpunished in Marfa. I will, as I stated, withdraw from the website working group, pull my work-product, and resign from the Planning & Zoning Committee. My reputation is of the utmost importance to me. I do not need altruistic motives to be characterized as something other than than. My desire to serve the community has been superceded by my desire to avoid abuse, questioning and mischaracterization of my motives, etc.
It is unfortunate that I am now joining the substantial group of Marfa residents that have much to offer and would be willing to do so, but stay away from community service. The reason is simple - instead of a simple thanks for the work that is being done - volunteers are raked over the coals, their motives are not only questioned, but evil motives are impugned.
Marfa has great potential, but it can only be reached if people work together in a positive manner. Criticism and discussion is one thing - name-calling is another.
Thank you and good luck in finding the help that is needed to allow Marfa to move ahead.
Vilis Inde
An open letter:
Dear Vilis,
Thank you for the calmer tone of your post. Politeness helps. The efforts of you and Betsy Burns and your anonymous advisors are appreciated by council. I also appreciate the efforts. It is an important project. It will get better by including input from more people.
On Thursday you said that the committee included "several other people that have requested not to be identified." Now you say, "These other people are not part of the committee or working group." Forgive my confusion. It is really hard to understand who is involved and in what form. It seems that people that attend a meeting to discuss the website are part of the group. With your departure, this now looks like the familiar mayoral committee of one, Betsy Burns.
As this committee was formed by the mayor without council's involvement or awareness and with no public invitations, it does not seem to be an open committee. It seems to be a group of the mayor's friends working on a project for the mayor. This is not open government. It is unfortunate that his style has caused friction between us as we have barely met before this.
The mayor has the right to solicit help as he wishes. His track record is less than stellar. Council pointed out some history on the proposed building permit ordinance. The mayor opposed it because it would hurt his business. He stated this in a council meeting. He asked Dr. Burns to work with him to create an alternate proposal that would create an ordinance that would allow him and others to do electrical and plumbing work in violation of state law.
Later on, he set his sights on BoA and P&Z. As reported in the Sentinel and Border Hotline, he called BoA "arrested." They have an excellent history of taking care of business in a formal and professional manner. This mayor serves Marfa poorly by making false and critical comments about those volunteers. He proposed to council that his helper, Betsy Burns, be formally approved to make recommendations to council. Before that, he suggested that BoA and P&Z be dissolved and reformed under Betsy. Are you beginning to see a pattern?
If not, here is another example published in the Sentinel from about a year ago when the budget process was starting up. "'As chief financial officer, I recognize no financial committees whatsoever,' the mayor announced. 'Citizens will have the right to participate, but there will be no more groups over here, or subcommittees.'" In this case he managed to insult the former members of the finance committee. He also mistakenly called himself CFO. He is not. He is the budget officer. After rejecting citizen help, he and Flo blew the budget deadline by ten weeks and failed to raise property taxes for the second year in a row.
Do you find it interesting that he said that there would be "no more groups over here, or subcommittees," and now he has another private group working for him? I remind you that the governing body in a Type A general law city is the city council with the mayor as a non-voting member and presiding officer. Any group that is formed without council's knowledge is less likely to have their support.
OK, how about another example of the mayor's style. By all accounts, the mayor has made a mess by taking over the permit process (an administrative task, not mayoral) and then doing a poor job. Many problems resulted from his incorrect permit approvals. Many of these mistakes have caused conflict between neighbors and problems for the city's boards to clean up. BoA recommended that the city create a three-person advisory committee to review permit applications for the administrator. Knowing he was going to lose control over his pet project, the mayor started recruiting his friends to fill the positions in order to retain influence. Then he had Flo write the agenda so as to appoint the members immediately after approving the committee without giving all citizens a chance to volunteer.
I am sad that Betsy has been used by the mayor in a way that has hurt her. She is a smart and experienced person with lots to contribute. Unfortunately, the mayor has used her and her credentials as tools in his behind-the-scenes power grabs. The mayor seems to be up to his old tricks again using his friends to get things done his way, behind the scenes. This is not open government.
I already voiced my opinion that your proposal favored property purchasers and developers with few issues that addressed the needs of people that live here without the means to buy and develop real estate. I hope that this constructive criticism leads to a website that is more inclusive.
You are right to point out that the zoning map is in fact very controversial, one of the most controversial subjects today. A real minefield. The mayor calls BoA "arrested" and tried to eliminate P&Z yet he refuses to sign the city's only approved map. This is obstructionist. I have heard a rumor that you might be able to shed light on seeing that you have discussed the matter with the mayor: The mayor does not want to sign the map adopted by a previous council in April 2001 because he is waiting to sign a digital map on the website. Of course it is not legal to create another map outside of the formal P&Z process. It is possible for the mayor to sign the existing map and then digitize it for the web. But not if he refuses to sign. At this point, it does not really matter. Lanman could proudly put his signature on that map immediately, or he can continue to obstruct P&Z progress for another eleven weeks before he is likely out of office.
You are right in stating that there is much animosity in city politics today. If you study the history, you will see the mayor behind most of these problems. You and I are citizens. We can contribute or comment as we wish. It is our right. I believe that you are working to create a website for the benefit of others not yourself. My comment about the narrow focus in your presentation may have been sharp but was meant to highlight other areas that you appeared to overlook. I believe that you and your group are acting selflessly to do something good. I know that you have good motives. I hope you continue. I do not believe that the mayor is acting selflessly. I believe that the mayor has other motives and is using this group to pursue them, just as he has in the past.
It is not too late to turn this negative situation around. Imagine the positive impact we could have on the community if you and I found a way to work together. I am glad that this will now be an open committee. I will not join if I am unwelcome. I have a few suggestions; I can pass them on to the chair for consideration. Lots of people might have good ideas if you invite their participation. Why don't you stay on board and take suggestions from all that might participate?
And why not hold your meetings in a public place with public notices? This is not the mayor's style. When he heard that the building permit committee was going to hold a public hearing in the Casner room, he refused to let them use the room and marched down to the Sentinel to demand that they not publish the notice. He was successful and the public hearing had to be rescheduled for another time at a public place not controlled by the city.
Please consider my invitation to make a positive change in the political environment by showing people we can work together without the mayor's divisive interference.
Sincerely,
Rob
The website is already set up at City Hall. It just needs to have info input. And the logo changed!
The key factor in all this animosity is the Mayor.
Evidently, the council was not involved in any way with the setting up of the original website. They don't seem to know it exists.
There seems to be one commom denominator in all our city's problems: Mayor David Lanman.
We need a return of leadership, openness and integrity at city hall. All the elements are there: dedicated employees, a city council with three seats opening up to anyone willing to try their hand at governance and various groups of volunteers desiring only to assist in some useful way.
We need a new mayor who will stop all this cronyism, favoritism and secrecy that is dividing citizens and keeping our town in turmoil.
This just in:
The Mayor and Flo did exactly as predicted. The Mayor went down on Wednesday. Flo went to Corpus for the weekend and met the Mayor for today's meeting in Austin. They will not return until THURSDAY.
I have it on good authority they are again looking at landfills!
I am moving two following comments from the "Opinions" blog to the "City Website" blog where they belong.
Dear Rob,
I am revisiting your blog just to check whether you have in fact corrected the mistatements made in your report of the last city council meeting.
Although I have advised you on two different ocassions that the website you refer to ("see the city's website complete with cartoon choo-choo...") has nothing to do with my work, you have FAILED to remove it.
You continue to state, even in your latest blog, that you promptly correct mistakes, although you clearly do not. Your failure to provide accurate information undermines your credibility.
Why should anyone believe what you have to say? Which part of your statements are accurate and which are not?
Vilis Inde
This comment has been removed by the author.
[After reflection, I have decided to edit my comment. I agree with suggestions that a calmer tone is helpful. I extend an offer to help any commenter that would like to remove or edit their comments. Blogs are dynamic. I make these changes to do my part to make the discourse more civil.]
Hi Vilis,
I made an invitation for you to accept my offer to contribute suggestions for the city website. My offer was sincere. You and I had (and still have) an opportunity to show people in Marfa that we can work together for something positive despite our differences of opinion and despite our different levels of friendship with the mayor.
In answer to your question about the website and which part is true, please refer to my exact statement:
"To see what the mayor has come up with so far, see the city's website complete with cartoon choo-choo and the mayor's idea of a new city slogan."
This is clearly stated as the mayor's work and not yours. It is not a comment about you. It is a comment about the mayor. Tell me what part of that statement is false?
If you need it, I will clarify to all that my remark was about the work that the mayor had done previously ("so far") and not your work. I posted on this city choo-choo website long before you were asked by the mayor to work on the new website. It is old news.
The mayor started that project a long time ago with another person or group without the knowledge of council. That is his style. I don't like it. That's my opinion. Why don't you ask council what they think of the choo-choo site that was published without their knowledge or consent? It makes Marfa look silly and unprofessional. Don't you agree?
cityofmarfa.com
By the way, the only reason that anybody knows about this published website is because I saw a $25.00 expenditure report last summer that was to a person that does web work. I guessed at the domain name and was surprised to find it on my first guess!
To answer your questions: "Why should anyone believe what you have to say? Which part of your statements are accurate and which are not?"
People should believe me only if they think I am a credible source of information. I'll let my work speak for itself. Take a look at the great amount of research presented about the city budget. Take a look at my positive help to get the EMS variance request accelerated from a 4-6 week delay to granted in 24 hours with the help of elected officials in Austin.
Both parts of my statements are true. I never stated that the choo-choo work was yours. I will correct mistakes. I was not mistaken.
The situation has gotten quite unpleasant with all kinds of people turning on each other including elected officials, the paper, myself, volunteers, and anonymous citizens. We all have a role in setting the tone of public discourse. I admit that I can do more to make this more positive. I should not react so quickly and strongly. I apologize for the tone of my earlier comment to you.
Rob
The City of Marfa website is indeed an old topic. Months ago, when Rob devoted an immense amount of time building spreadsheets of the various iterations of budgets that Flo was trotting around (none of them legal), it was discovered that 500-800 was paid to create this website. Months ago! Maybe over a year ago! The council evidently knows nothing about it. The Mayor and Flo had it created but obviously have paid it absolutely no mind because it doesn't have any information in it! Vilis, your presentation indeed hit the nail on the head about what the contents of a municipal website should contain, with the exception of the mapping. The reason? Here is where the negativism of the blog comes in. For those of us who have spent two long years of watching the municipal government train wreck, we know that one of the Mayor's personal projects was putting P&Z maps on line. He was advised repeatedly by the committees that he has tried to dissolve that this was not feasible. So he recruits you and other well meaning volunteers to create another website that will have mapping on it. And you wonder why the blog is negative? We are knee jerk negative. Please go back in the blog archives and view the tenor of the earlier blogs and then read forward to the present and witness the growing incredulity and anger and NEGATIVISM that have grown.
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