Agenda for Tuesday 6/12/07
The agenda for Tuesday's council meeting has been posted. It is about half as long as the last meeting.
Old business concerns the Rules of Order and Procedures resolution, the Administrator's Ordinance, and amending the budget. The budget amendment was started to include the ambulance repairs in the budget as discussed last time. I think the mayor may be making more amendment suggestions after diving into the budget and understanding the ex administrator's, shall we say, "methods."
It appears that he approved multiple vacation sales for employees before being shown the door. He did this knowing that his biggest ally on council, Oscar Martinez, was against these sales. And Oscar had the nerve to lecture the new council that they are "supposed to make the administrator do his job." If he was so disrespectful to Oscar, who could expect him to implement the will of the new council? For the record, his mother was supposed to make him do his job when his job was cleaning his room. At $65 grand a year, he should have made himself do his job of managing the city's affairs. Council's job is to tell the administrator what to do, not forcing him to do the job.
On to new business. First up is financials. Next up is an appointment to the gas board. I was asked by a council member for suggestions after the last meeting. I had none. Jane Weimers is up for appointment. She would do a fine job for Marfa. The rumor I heard kicked around was that Alpine's mayor was trying to find a way to squeeze Flo into the gas company management. I got a better idea, Alpine should hire him as their city manager and see how it goes.
Next up is looking at renewing a curfew ordinance for minors. This one seems out of left field to me. If there is a problem with certain activity, address the problem. Young adults should not be treated as children. Just my opinion, but I know nothing of the intent of this agenda item.
Then we have something related to the TWDB loan.
Then we have an agenda item related to the recent audit. I hope to address council on this matter as I am probably responsible for it being on the agenda. I was not at the meeting when the audit was presented and approved. I did take a look at it after Sauceda started boasting about the good financial shape of the city. Most of the audit deals with accounting practices that are beyond my grasp: balance sheets, depreciation, assets etc. The one thing I know is the budget versus actual. I blogged the hell out of the 05-06 budget fiascos. Flo did not deliver a written version of the 05-06 budget until ten months after it was approved and it was not what was approved. I warned the auditor about all the different and conflicting versions of the budget (proposed, adopted, computer, published, pseudo-amended). He said he could only audit what he was given. What he was given was the proposed budget with none of council's changes before the vote. The difference is on the order of a hundred grand.
This only effects a couple of extensions in the the audit and the discussion. Unfortunately, the actual budget was never documented. The only way to reconstruct it is by listening to the tapes of the discussion prior to the vote. It's amazing that nobody caught this. Flo pulled a fast one on us. He had an "official" budget that he published. It is the famous "white-out" budget with a couple dozen math errors. But he gave the auditor the proposed budget. It even says "proposed" on every page! Of course, the old mayor did not catch this. He was an AWOL budget officer. The old council was in a rush to dispense with the matter. Given all the confusion over budget versions, perhaps it is understandable that they missed this. Still, the budget was a mess under Sauceda, and the council was never able to "make him do his job."
The last item is housekeeping about appointing a newspaper of record.
Good work on the new mayor and council for working to sort out all these loose ends.
Old business concerns the Rules of Order and Procedures resolution, the Administrator's Ordinance, and amending the budget. The budget amendment was started to include the ambulance repairs in the budget as discussed last time. I think the mayor may be making more amendment suggestions after diving into the budget and understanding the ex administrator's, shall we say, "methods."
It appears that he approved multiple vacation sales for employees before being shown the door. He did this knowing that his biggest ally on council, Oscar Martinez, was against these sales. And Oscar had the nerve to lecture the new council that they are "supposed to make the administrator do his job." If he was so disrespectful to Oscar, who could expect him to implement the will of the new council? For the record, his mother was supposed to make him do his job when his job was cleaning his room. At $65 grand a year, he should have made himself do his job of managing the city's affairs. Council's job is to tell the administrator what to do, not forcing him to do the job.
On to new business. First up is financials. Next up is an appointment to the gas board. I was asked by a council member for suggestions after the last meeting. I had none. Jane Weimers is up for appointment. She would do a fine job for Marfa. The rumor I heard kicked around was that Alpine's mayor was trying to find a way to squeeze Flo into the gas company management. I got a better idea, Alpine should hire him as their city manager and see how it goes.
Next up is looking at renewing a curfew ordinance for minors. This one seems out of left field to me. If there is a problem with certain activity, address the problem. Young adults should not be treated as children. Just my opinion, but I know nothing of the intent of this agenda item.
Then we have something related to the TWDB loan.
Then we have an agenda item related to the recent audit. I hope to address council on this matter as I am probably responsible for it being on the agenda. I was not at the meeting when the audit was presented and approved. I did take a look at it after Sauceda started boasting about the good financial shape of the city. Most of the audit deals with accounting practices that are beyond my grasp: balance sheets, depreciation, assets etc. The one thing I know is the budget versus actual. I blogged the hell out of the 05-06 budget fiascos. Flo did not deliver a written version of the 05-06 budget until ten months after it was approved and it was not what was approved. I warned the auditor about all the different and conflicting versions of the budget (proposed, adopted, computer, published, pseudo-amended). He said he could only audit what he was given. What he was given was the proposed budget with none of council's changes before the vote. The difference is on the order of a hundred grand.
This only effects a couple of extensions in the the audit and the discussion. Unfortunately, the actual budget was never documented. The only way to reconstruct it is by listening to the tapes of the discussion prior to the vote. It's amazing that nobody caught this. Flo pulled a fast one on us. He had an "official" budget that he published. It is the famous "white-out" budget with a couple dozen math errors. But he gave the auditor the proposed budget. It even says "proposed" on every page! Of course, the old mayor did not catch this. He was an AWOL budget officer. The old council was in a rush to dispense with the matter. Given all the confusion over budget versions, perhaps it is understandable that they missed this. Still, the budget was a mess under Sauceda, and the council was never able to "make him do his job."
The last item is housekeeping about appointing a newspaper of record.
Good work on the new mayor and council for working to sort out all these loose ends.
posted by RobC at 3:26 PM
29 Comments:
Re the curfew. As long as I can remember, there has been a youth curfew in Marfa. We used to have a city watchman named Martin Barnett (I think that was his name) that was hell on wheels for violators. Curfew violation is a useful measure for juvenile probation.
The job done by the Mayor and City staff in cleaning out the disaster that was Flo's office is nothing less than heroic. Of course, Flo wanted to have the key and come in at his leisure to "clean out" but incriminating evidence would have flown the coop with him. If bloggers will refer to the picture of his office taken a coupla weeks back, they will understand the magnitude of this sorting. Grant documents strewn about in different stacks, really scary. And this, according to a previous City Administrator (who was given the boot as well) said Flo was the best city administrator we ever had. Birds of a feather.
Will the auditor prepare a revision that in some way shows the lie Florencio foisted upon us?
The council will discuss the matter and decide how to proceed. I have heard that the auditor would like to amend two exhibits (attachments) and he would like the city to rewrite the introductory Management Discussion & Analysis" which he would verify.
It's a mystery why Flo gave that version of the budget to the auditor. He had his bound version of the "Adopted" budget. This one, delivered 10 months late, had the 26 or so math errors made after liberal application of whiteout to the proposed budget. So the proposed budget probably looked better.
Oh, and I forgot to tell you a funny side story. The proposed budget given to the auditor had lots of notes and scratchmarks on it. It appears to have been Flo's working copy at the budget adoption meeting. Unfortunately, the notes do not clearly indicate the vote of council. On the youth program, there is a hand-written note to whiteout the entire column, which was eventually done. Go figure. Council had decided to fund only one month of the program, pending further review. It's just ironic that the notes indicate to use white-out!
If one reviews Flo's administrative history as posted in the blog and looks at the reasons he was fired in Taft and Del Rio, you will find that Flo was never EVER under any kind of control by the councils. In fact, he was cited as being insubordinate and uncooperative. Marfa comes out looking very foolish since the Oscar Martinez Council never even questioned Flo like those other councils did and supported him at every turn.
Marge, perhaps you had a few encounters with Mr. Martin Barnett? :-)
On, no, Not I. I was restricted to El Rancho for most of my formative years.
I remember Martin Knight as our "night-watchman" in the olden days. Sometimes he would fall asleep in his car around 9:00 pm. My brother even ran into his parked car one evening AND
awakened him!!
Correction to the previously mentioned "Martin Barnett": Back in the old days we had Martin Knight and Ernest Barnett as city police (I think) with Mac McCormick as night watchman.
What with the recent breakins, we need another night watchman.
And we need a curfew. But not just for kids. No we need a curfew for everybody. The police need the right to stop any citizen for any reason after dark. Anytime they are outside, even if on the front step of their house. Big Brother is here to watch you and take care of you and your children. They need the power to stop and detain and question anybody. It's for your own protection. Don't you see?
It's all very Nineteen Eighty-Four. "The Thought Police have telescreens in every Party household and public area, as well as hidden microphones and informers in order to catch potential thoughtcriminals who could endanger the security of the Party." (see wikipedia)
How would the city pd know about thought criminals???? do they have thoughts?
So, Rob...does the official oppression continue against you in the guise of "just helping out?" As in the PD leaving a business card on the dash board of your truck on the evening of the "fire Flo" meeting, ostensibly to "turn off your headlights"? Remember the dead fish on the doorstep in the Godfather. Insiders know that there is a close faction that was led by Flo and includes the municipal court and the police department. This was the group that brought us the tempest in a teapot over Rob's big security breach city secrets. This group was openly anti-blog which of course means Rob, the arch enemy. This includes police officers openly bashing the new mayor and city council. I think it would be prudent for the PD to be more politically sensitive considering the hands that now feed them.
Where is the nightime police presence when vandals are bashing in the doors of public buildings like the library, museum, and clinic? What was that we read in the paper about some sort of patrol we can sign up for per the new Police Chief? Do public buildings need to sign up to be protected?
The county jp in Presidio acts as the Municipal Court Judge. Their net (yeah, given they are bigger) revenues for the city coffers from municipal court for 2005 was apprx. 40,000. That is after state fees were sent in to Austin. What does Marfa Municipal Court bring in after state fees are paid? And what revenues do city police traffic tickets bring in?
Rob, while you are looking at the budget, a suggestion now that we are on the topic...The expenses for municipal court, salaries, $100 an hour for the Jeff Davis County Attorney to come over and prosecute, do we still pay a police officer time and a half to act as bailiff for municipal court? How often is municipal court held?
Yes, just helping out. I have been the recipient of plenty of help recently. Why do I always get help after council meetings? Good thing I don't believe in conspiracy theories. Otherwise I might suspect that the officer who drove his truck into the curb a few feet away from where I sat on my doorstep last night and then questioned me with both his flashlight and the headlights on his police truck might have been responding to my comments against a curfew addressed to the city council a few hours earlier!
The mayor described how the chief of police wanted the curfew so that he could stop and question young adults without the need for probable cause. Oh my. They don't even need probable cause for adults sitting on their doorstep!
I told council my opinion that they should not make it a crime for a young adult to be walking home after visiting a friend to play a game or study. But you know, this city runs an after-school day care at taxpayer expense, we might as well make the police the parents of all children at night as well. But there's a silver lining. Judge Ferguson says that the parents usually just pay the fine and the city gets to keep most of the revenue as there are not many state fees associated with this income. So really, it all works out just fine. Those bad parents will end up paying the police to do their parenting job! What a perfect system.
I asked the officer what he was doing last night. He said he was looking for a vehicle. I informed him that I was not a vehicle and he went on his way. I've got a new rule, let's only hire officers with an IQ that exceeds the caliber of the firearm they are carrying.
I'd like to know the division of curfew violation fines and fees as to what the city gets and what the state gets.
State curfew laws require the city to hold a public hearing to renew the municipal law every three years. Council voted to post a notice for that public hearing. Bring your questions and constitutional rights to that meeting.
I think the police department should be contracted to the Presidio County Sheriff department at least we would all reside in the same county. As it is now we have a Jeff Davis county Municipal Judge, a Prosecutor and the Chief of Police!!!!!!!!!!!! And a Terrell County Reserve deputy on the payroll. You figure.
The Municipal court cannot generate that much money for the city as court costs have increased.
The curfew can be violated when an officer gets a grudge against a particular juvenile I know that for a fact.
Last blogger, you are right! Why did the old Martinez council scramble to reappoint their favorite as Municipal Judge who lives in Ft. Davis? She brought her favorite, the Jeff Davis County Attorney, to prosecute for her. And then the PD, in a stroke of nepotism, got two Jeff Davis police officers, uncle and nephew, and now one of them is the Police Chief, courtesy of Flo's last day on the job. The question remains: does this Jeff Davis combo do anything for the revenues of the City of Marfa? Or the public safety?
Well, I think the short answer is yes on both cases. Safety and revenue are up. I think the municipal court is run well, though I hear that the county has to do some municipal magistration because of the remoteness of the judge. I think the police are doing a good job and if anything, are in need of restraint.
But you raise a good issue. Marfa was poorly served by an administrator that lived hundreds of miles away and only started to stay in Marfa for occasional weekends when he wrecked his truck and realized his job was at risk for a variety of professional reasons. He was the chief administrative officer.
We have two municipal officers that do not live in the county, the police chief and the municipal judge. They are both professional and competent, but neither choose to live in Marfa.
Why in the world does such a small, quiet town need such an overabundance of law enforcement? With all the city police,county officers,game wardens, the highway patrol, customs and border patrol on the streets of Marfa, I am suprized they aren't running into each other on a regular basis!
In my opinion, we have a serious duplication of some services. I,too, believe,as Anon of 6/13, 6:35 pm, that the city would much better off if they contracted with the county.
Why are some, such as Councilwoman Williams and Councilman Salgado against the idea? Why are some citizens against the idea?
Hey, you ain't seen nothing until there is a hot pursuit locally!! We're talking about a high speed parade of ALL law enforcement vehicles within range. Not long ago, some dope dealers ran the checkpoint, bp and dps hot on the trail, they blew the light at Marfa, turned east into the residential area, followed now by the pd and so as well. Lead car was Highway Patrol whose mother in law lived in said residential scene of high speed chase. Down came the shotgun. Bandits careened off down the Ft davis highway where they were met with another caravan, and some spikes, which rained on Everybody's parade.
Ya gotta love the interagency cooperations, especially when it gets airborne. Love those big customs Blackhawks!
Incidentally, this is a good time to remind all to read "Drug Lord" about Pablo Acosta, who was finally run to ground down at La Mula or somewhere really remote. The final gun battle is reminiscent of these multiagency chases.
Aw, the good times. Help me out with this memory. Stolen car coming from Alpine. Local officer commandeered a Suburban and blocked the bridge coming in to Marfa. When the thieves hit the Suburban, he shot the guy on the passenger side dead. And the Suburban was totalled as well as the stolen car.
Hey, folks. Ease up a bit here with all the criticism of the police dept. Abdicating this municipal duty poses problems of its own. The Sheriff is an elected official (elected county-
wide)whose first responsibility lies with providing protection to, guess who, THE COUNTY. Where in his list of priorities will Marfa's needs find their level?
Our police are doing a good job and their actions will always seem
to bruise someone's feelings. A bit of patience, please, while the
ship of state resumes course after two horrendous years of turbulence.
I'd like to see an elected official runnning the ship of state when it concerns the police department. If that means the Sheriff, I'm all for it. If that means that the council wakes up and starts to tell the police how to respect citizens, I'm all for it. Otherwise, we have a chief that seems to report to noone except the guy who hired him, whoever that is. It is not a matter of bruised feelings; that is disrespectful. Tell that to the 20-something woman who offered to walk a few blocks home to get the drivers license for her partner who was driving when Gabino told her to stay in the car and put his hand on his pistol!
When I first received my driver's license, I was told that I must carry it with me at all times when I am driving. Why is it that some younguns think that they are entitled to special priveleges such as going home to get a driver's license? I'm sure that Texas driving laws have not change that much since I got my first license. Even though Marfa is a little town, Texas' laws still apply here. Let's continue to operate that way!
Yes, Texas laws still apply, including nepotism laws.
Of course you are required to carry your license. Did you ever forget your wallet/purse when you ran out for a quick errand? The officer was giving them a hard time when he did not need to. That is the point. He could have easily radioed in the name and address and plates of the driver to confirm that there was no real problem. He could have even written a warning or a citation to be dismissed after the driver showed his license to the judge. He could have acted neighborly to some taxpaying residents. He was being so difficult that the passenger tried to be helpful and get the ID for him.
His response? Hand on the gun and the implied threat of deadly force. By the way, I'm sure these "younguns" were older than the officer. He should have respected his elders! Ha!
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