Elizabeth Blackstone Mayor pro Tem.

As the mayor has pointed out, elected Killeen city office is a volunteer proposition.  You have to be willing to put up with long and sometimes pointless meetings; arrange your schedule around an impossible Tuesday-at-5 meeting time (setting aside peripheral events); put up with random criticism; and do it all for love, because there is no other compensation.

So I'm pleased that council member Blackstone has stepped up to take on the additional duties of Mayor pro Tem.  She will present a fair face for the city in the absence of Mayor Corbin; she certainly has the wit and presence to represent us well. I hope she also uses this as an occasion to extend her voice in the council, where she as yet has had only a small impact on debate.

Gonzales firing confirmed

KDH is reporting that City Manager Morrison today confirmed his firing of former Finance Directory Barbara Gonzales, and that in doing so he rejected the recommendation of the Civilian Personnel Hearing board.

The immediate effect will be to give Ms Gonzales ammunition to use in her wrongful termination suit.

The mayor asked last week whether the review process makes sense and whether it provides any benefits to the city or to employees.  It's pretty clear the answers are "no".  If the city manager initiates and approves an action and then is free to ignore review of that action, then clearly there's no benefit to the employee.  If the result makes it more difficult for the city to defend itself in a whistle-blower cause, it doesn't seem to benefit the corporation, either.

Claudia Brown's letter to the editor, KDH

I think Dr. Brown got it wrong in her letter to the editor of the Killeen Daily Herald published this morning.  The important point about the firing of Barbara Gonzalez has nothing to do with the mayor's ethnic views (in which I have seen no sign of bias) nor his political resentment of the recall (which he may well harbor--I wouldn't blame him--but which he has shown no sign of).

The central point is whether Ms Gonzalez should have been in charge of Fleet Services at all.  It had no relation to her main function, which was to make sure the city can and does borrow money at the best available rate.  Why was she in charge of the motor pool?

An argument can be made that assigning Fleet Services to the Finance director was capricious and arbitrary, and was almost certain to result in less rather than more oversight of that department.  If Barbara were given a job she had no chance of doing well, it seems hard she would be fired when she did not do well.  That is the important point; whether the mayor showed good judgement on Facebook is a very minor point.

Failure to capture the Gonzalez appeal

I am in the dark with regard to the Review Board hearing on Barbara Gonzalez's firing.  My only sources of information are Brandon Janes's two articles in KDH and Mayor Corbin's Facebook post.  I don't think there is any reason I should be under-informed.  There were people there ready to make a  full record of the proceedings, but they were prevented -- by the authority of the Killeen city government -- from doing so.

Glen Morrison must take responsibility for the decision to decrease the visibility of the proceedings.  He's also the person most likely to suffer if Ms. Gonzalez's dismissal is overturned.  In my opinion, City Manager Morrison must -- from this point onward -- make sure that the public has full information of all  proceedings in this case.  If he does anything less, he decreases his own credibility.

Terry Clark for District 3 Councilman

I endorse incumbent Terry Clark for Killeen City Council.  I do so without any disparagement of his opponent in district 3, Mike Lower, who has also done good service to the council and the city as Mayor pro tem.

My reason for endorsing Clark is that he has shown himself an independent thinker.  Rather than let the mayor do his thinking for him, as many council members have done,  Clark has tried to understand issues and analyze them using information from many sources, not the least of which are the views of his constituents.

District 3 will be well-served regardless.  But I believe it will be better served by an independent, involved, inquiring and well-intentioned Terry Clark.

Growth

Growth is what politics in Killeen is really about.  If there were not competing interests trying to profit from the seemingly inevitable growth of our region, we wouldn't have much to talk about.

There are, of course, many aspects of the problem.

• Do we have a choice other than expanding south? 
• How far south can we expand? 
• Is there water available?
• How are we going to treat the sewage, and where will the effluent flow?
• What's the infrastructure going to cost? 
• Should we try to absorb our neighboring political entities? 
• How much should we borrow given the uncertainty of military funding in upcoming years? 
• What are the disincentives that will ultimately limit growth and how can we limit them?  And should we?
• What are good ways of building the job and tax bases?  Are we overemphasizing some ways and under-funding others?
• What are the right levels of funding for police? Fire protection? Libraries?
• Do we continue the traditional "You want to build something?  We'll change the zoning" policy or implement real land use planning?
• If we have real zoning, do we zone for the elite?  Should there be areas of the city set aside for the well-off?

And those are just the tip of the iceberg.  I forecast interesting days ahead.

Father Kapaun

It's not exactly the city beat, but I'm pleased that the DoD plans to honor Father Emil Kapaun with the Medal of Honor.  I was stationed at Kapaun Barracks in Vogelweg (outside Kaiserslautern) and learned Father Kapaun's story from the command chaplain (32nd AADCOM at the time).

Bravery beyond the call of duty, perseverance and motivation are three characteristics of his behavior while a prisoner of war in Korea.  He was a credit not just to the Chaplain Corps, but to his country.

Rosewood extension

The east-most fringe of the city is about to get its last structural enhancement.  Veterans Memorial Highway will be widened; there will be a new overpass; Rosewood Drive will be built out; and area growth will be focused even more tightly on the area between existing development and Corps of Engineers easements along the Lampasas River.

The cost of extending infrastructure suggests that we ought to continue to expand east.  That's where water is available.  There's plenty of land.  But standing in the way are the political boundaries of Harker Heights and Nolanville.  Maybe we should merge.  If Killeen could annex Nolanville, Harker Heights would have to join the coalition.  We'd go from being the 21st largest city in Texas to the 16th or 17th.  More importantly, there would be ample, easy, growing room to the east.

This could all happen without a political merger. but Nolanville, and to a lesser extent, Harker Heights are (because of their size) unable to support the required infrastructure.  A single political entity with 175,000 residents should be able to finance whatever would be required.

Visibility

There was a lot of conversation at work (in Austin) today about the Monsanto Protection Act -- the provision in the budget Continuing Resolution.  It's already viral: http://www.takepart.com/article/2013/04/04/why-monsanto-protection-act-internet-comment-video

The local implication is that we are immune.  There's no hiding who proposed a measure and who voted for or against it.  May our city council remain superior to the sewers that are our national and state legislatures.

Code violation fines

I wish I had been able to attend last night's council workshop, which focused on fines for city code violations.  From the KDH article and the little bit Mayor Corbin posted, it sounds like the emphasis was on the level of financial penalty.  That is a consideration, of course; the penalty needs to be higher than the cost of non-compliance.  But there is much more to consider (though not necessarily to change):

• Does the city give fair warning of violations?
• Do we make allowances for special circumstances?  If so, how?
• Can a citizen apply for an exception to the code, and, if so, how?
• Is the code applied uniformly across the city?
• Can the code be used punitively, and if so how does the punished party recover parity?
• What is the history of code violation citations?  Is there anything we can learn from the pattern?

If we're going to talk about the level of fines, it seems a fine time to open the entire can of worms.

Quality of argument

The quality of argument in the city council is low.  None of the members have much training or experience in the art, so they make their points indirectly and without force.  The mayor could chew them up and spit them out if that were his role and he had a mind to.

Nonetheless, they do better than their betters at the state level.  In a news conference today, Party 1 asserted that problem X exists and action A will fix that problem; they did not offer much support for that position, which should have allowed Party 2 to argue:

1. Action A is not a cost-effective fix for problem X, and
2. Action B would be a better fix for problem X, and
3. Problem X isn't as severe as Party 1 said, anyway (a tough argument in this case, but one that could be made), 

Instead, Party 2 argues "Problem Y exists and Action A does nothing to address it."

I take back what I said about the city council.  At least they're trying.

Water

This drought will end, but probably not for a couple of years.

The council needs to satisfy itself, and its constituents, that the city has ensured (as far as is possible) a potable water supply adequate to its needs for the next five years.  If there is any doubt about the availability of water, the city needs to control growth to make sure we have enough.

Same as it ever was

"All might go well in a commonwealth if every one in the parliament would lay down his own interest and aim at the general good." -- John Selden's Table Talk.  Selden, an Englishman, lived 1584-1654.

There have since been a few assemblies that approached this ideal.  I think it's what the current City Council hopes to be.  It is certainly the standard they will be judged by.

Major Blair

I'm sorry to hear of the passing of Major Blair, who was mayor of Killeen for a good portion of my residence here.  Blair (no relation) brought a small businessman's perspective to the job, and that was appropriate to the times.  He also had a vision of growth and helped us along that path.

I wouldn't want to go back to the city government of 1976, but Major Blair was an important part of making it better.

Term limits

Over the years, I've changed my mind about term limits.  Elections are the most effective term-limit devices.  Certainly it is handy to have a mechanism by which incompetent, lazy and/or self-serving representatives have a guaranteed limited tenure.  But if we collectively continue to vote them in, we shouldn't expect to be bailed out by term limits.  I would certainly prefer to have the chief spokesman for our state not be a buffoon and will vote with that in mind.  But if the majority of Texans continue to choose him they should be able to reap as they sew.

There are two wrinkles with regard to term limits for local offices.  In a voting population as small as Killeen's, it's possible (though I've seen no evidence that any office holder has been interested in doing it)  for a representative or a group of representatives to manipulate conditions to keep themselves in office.  Perhaps  term limits are the right way to guard against that possibility.

The second wrinkle is that term limits give representatives an excuse to leave.  I suspect that most people who have served as mayor or city counselor for their full term limit feel that they served enough; it's hard, unpaid work after all.  Term limits allow them to retire undefeated with honor.

More automated offender-catchers

Vamping off yesterday's blog, here are two ideas for Killeen entrepreneurs:

1. Loud vehicle detector.  On the corner of Rancier and W.S. Young, mount a directional detector and video and audio recorder that can find and document vehicle sources in violation of Killeen's loud music ordinance.  If the city gets $10 per citation, we can offset sequestration.

2.  School zone speed cam.  I guarantee you'll be rich and the city can pay for WCID 2 out of fines in front of Hay Branch Elementary.

School Bus Cameras

If I read the KDH report of last night's City Council Workshop correctly, KISD asked the Council to consider an ordinance authorizing use of bus-mounted cameras to detect and record vehicles that illegally pass school buses stopped to pick up or drop off passengers.

On the surface, it sounds pretty good:

• Most of us are disgusted by drivers who engage in this behavior.  It's like speeding in a school zone.
• There's almost nothing we won't do to protect our children (except maybe ensure they have health care).
• In general, nobody likes a scofflaw.
• There's allegedly no up-front cost.

But the provider of the service stands to make a lot of money.  This article says that American Traffic Solutions takes 75% of fines from successful prosecutions based on camera evidence.  That seems excessive, and (in part because of the high fines associated with the misdemeanor) is an incentive for the service provider to maximize the number of citations.

It's probably a good idea, but the council needs to gather a lot of documentation before acceding to the school district's request.

Feeling shut out.

While I was off feeling sorry for myself, the city council made it a lot harder for me to see what's going on.  Workshops start at 1700 now.  I'm trying to bring up two boards and soon a new chip at work; 1700 is the middle of the afternoon.  We're back to (very bad) audio only for workshops.

There are many low-cost options for openness.  That the council has decided not to employ them suggests to me that a majority of them are happier to deliberate in relative private.

At least Brandon Janes is taking good notes and  publishing them in the KDH.  I look forward to finding out what occupied the council until 2100 tonight.

I guess I'm back

With an election and a juicy lawsuit in the works,  this is probably a good time to bring back the Killeen Politics blog.

There will be more about the election later.  The headline topic this week is Barbara Gonzales's Whistle Blower law suit against the city.

Mrs Gonzales was, until recently, the Director of Finance, responsible for the city budget, management of city debt, accounting and some miscellaneous activities including maintenance of city vehicles.  She was fired after an investigation into theft of vehicle parts.  Her lawsuit contends that she was not fired because of the theft of parts or for any fault of her own, but because she called attention to improprieties committed by her boss, Glenn Morrison, the city manager.

The case might get complicated later, but it's fairly simple now.  There's a good summary in a story by KWTX-TV.  Brandon Janes has been a doing a good job documenting events in the Killeen Daily Herald.  Barbara's filing (I wish she had used an attorney who can write) is viewable; pay particular attention to the two attachments to the filing, which are allegedly a) Defects in financial controls uncovered by the city's external auditors in 2012; and b) the letter in which Glenn told Barbara sbe was fired.

When you've caught up on your reading, we'll dig a little deeper.

I may restart this blog.

Things seem to be getting interesting -- or at least blogworthy -- in city government.  I've always liked writing about what's going on.

The reason I stopped was because my wife left me, after 41 years.  I said at the time that I did not know if I would recover, and I'm now sure I will not.  I'm a sad, broken man.  That probably doesn't mean I can't spend some time in my lonely evenings thinking and writing about events in my home town.