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.