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The purpose of this Status Report page:
I thought
I would create this page to summarize some of the things that are
important to the Lewisville Citizens and myself. There are
many items that are important and these are just a few that I have
been able to bring to the table to discuss. Most I have
submitted to the City Council so that we can make a decision on the
topic. Here they are in no particular order AND I will try to
update each of these topics as things change.
Video Taping Workshops: As an effort to promote transparency in
government, I have asked for the Workshops to be taped like the regular council
meetings. Before I was elected, I visited almost every city council
meeting and most of the workshops. I noticed that much of the discussion
on what is voted in the City Council meetings have been mostly discussed in the
workshops. Most of the time it is a review of the agenda with Q&A.
We discussed the options (10-31-2009) and we all want
to do this as cheaply as possible. The video department gave a
presentation and stated that it may cost as much as $50K to replace all the 20 year
old equipment and go digital in both rooms. The least expensive
route is to have all the workshop meetings in the council
chambers so that everything can be recorded. Since the City staff suggested
recording using different methods, the first attempt was a stationary camera.
There have been three recordings at the time of this writing and all had good
enough video but the sound was very bad. The video staff is still trying
different things. Hopefully, they will find a solution
soon.
At the Council Retreat on 02-05-2010:
The majority wanted to wait until the August 2010 budget meeting
to talk about it again. I suggested continuing with taping
the way they have been but spend the money on the microphones
that we would use anyway on the full conversion. It did
not pass a vote.
CURRENT STATUS: Should be on the August 2010 Budget
retreat.
TERM LIMITS: When I was running for Council in early 2009, I was
asked how I felt about term limits... I believe in term limits. I think one of the problems
with this Country is that politics has become some type of career for many. I
think George Washington was a great example when he refused to run a third term.
I understand the pros and cons but I think the pros outweigh the cons.
Since the last time terms were changed, it came from the Charter
Review committee, I decided to approach it through the 2009 Charter Review
Committee.
Highland village passed it recently and I like their wording but with two three year terms instead of three two year terms then take off a year with MAYBE no limit to the number of times they can do this. HV has only two times and that may be a good idea but I am not sure how I feel about that.
The Charter Review committee chose not to recommend term
limits.
Note: Some comments that I made at these meetings were to try and make
my points and some to lighten the mood a little. They have been taken out of context. I
can assure you that I believe in term limits and government transparency.
Also, I was asked if I would resign after two terms
because of my recommendation for term limits. My answer
is, I will stay on the Council as long as the voters want me or until I can get enough support for term limits to be
on the ballot in order for the voters to vote on this issue.
The rest is up to the voters at our yearly city elections in May.
07-19-2010, City Council meeting. The topic of
removing term Limits for a TIRZ1 board was on the agenda.
I was the only one that voted against removing Term Limits.
I also stated that this decision was going the wrong direction
and that we should have term limits for council also.
CURRENT STATUS: This Item will most likely not return
unless other Council members change their mind or new members
want to do this. I will continue to promote this.
E-Verify Requirement for Contractors: I introduced this to the
city council to discuss and vote on. I want to require companies that the City
awards contracts to be a participant in the
E-verify Program. This will
help companies be on a level playing field. Much like the federal
requirement that went into effect on 9-8-2009, the twelve states that currently
require it, along with the other various Counties and Cities (Mission Viejo, Ca
and Huntsville, AL are examples). I recommended that we model ours similar
to Mission Viejo ordinance which was implemented in 2007.
The council meeting was held on 01-04-2010. I
made a motion to have City staff develop a draft for the City Council to vote on
but it died do the lack of second on the motion. However, one council
member asked to discuss this at the retreat on
2-5-2010. See the
01-04-2010 blog entry for
more information and links to articles about this topic.
At the Council Retreat on 02-05-2010: After discussion about E-verify… I was the only one that wanted e-verify as a requirement for our contracts and bids. I made the motion to have staff draw up an ordinance similar to Mission Viejo (California) or Huntsville (Alabama). I did not get a second on the motion and therefore it died.
However, the other Council members wanted staff to draw up wording for a future meeting to add a paragraph to the contracts that if a contractor has been found guilty of
violating the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA of 1986) then they MAY be banned for up to 5 years.
Again, the official wording will be in a future meeting. I
am not opposed to this but I think that this DOES NOTHING helpful as legal employers are not supposed to violate IRCA anyway. E-verify would help them prevent IRCA violations in the first place.
CURRENT STATUS: This Item will most likely not return
unless other Council members change their mind or new members
want to do this. I will continue to promote this.
287g Trained Officer: The 287g related
ICE ACCESS programs:
Secure Communities, Immigration
Cross-Designation (Title 8) - 287g Program,
Operation Community Shield are a few programs that are part of
the fourteen programs under ICE ACCESS.
The 287(g) program cross-designates local officers to enforce
immigration law as authorized through section 287(g) of the
Immigration and Nationality Act. NOTE: The 287g program
has been changing even more in 2009. The 287g program of 2010
will be quite different than the program has been in the past few
years. New programs that are basically sections and abilities
available from the original 287g are easier for communities to
adopt. For now, we need to look at
ICE
programs
and use as many as we can.
Secure Communities: A Comprehensive Plan to Identify and Remove
Criminal Aliens is a Department of Homeland Security initiative that
improves public safety by implementing a comprehensive, integrated
approach to identify and remove criminal aliens from the United
States.
Operation Community Shield: In February 2005, ICE began
Operation Community Shield, a national law enforcement initiative
that targets violent transnational street gangs through the use of
ICE's broad law enforcement powers, including the unique and
powerful authority to remove (deport) criminal aliens, including
illegal aliens and legal permanent resident aliens.
Our Police chief is working to get Secure Communities
and Operation Community Shield programs in our City. This
is a large majority of the options desired from the 287g
program. One main option is getting access to the national
databases of DHS and ICE.
Learn more about
287g click here.
Since our City participates in a regional DEA task force
and we have one officer that participates in that task force, I would like to
see Lewisville get a 287g trained officer and participate in a regional ICE task
force. At the City Council meeting on
01-04-2010, our police chief
stated that if we wanted him to get involved in the 287g program that he wanted
to train 16 men to do so. Though that would be nice, I do not think that
this is practical financially. I would like to grow to that number if
practical. All I have been asking for is to be involved in
a regional ICE task force.
At the Council meeting for 01-04-2010, I
made the motion to get one or two officers trained and
participate in the 287g regional task force a few days a week.
The motion failed for lack of a second.
CURRENT STATUS: This Item will most likely not return
unless other Council members change their mind or new members
want to do this. I will continue to promote our
involvement in the enforcement of the laws of our Country,
State, and City.
More Police Officers: I have always advocated that we need more
police officers. My personal opinion that I have stated publicly is that
we need, to start, at least 5 more patrol officers per shift (4 shifts makes that 20
officers). Then reassess our needs again. I have spoken to our
police chief many times about this and the outstanding officers that we have in
this City. I have ridden out with officers four times on various shifts
and I can assure our citizens that our officers are very good at what they do.
I have encouraged our Police Chief to look into increasing the staffing of our police
department. He has stated that he had been planning on doing just that.
The Police Chief gave his
presentation at the Council retreat 02-04-2010. He requested that the Council consider
hiring 13 Patrol officers and 11 other positions for the Budget
of 2010/2011. This amount will be inline with basic
minimal staffing (as compared to higher levels of medium and
optimal staffing) based on statistics and figures and a bunch of
formulas that were impressively presented.
CURRENT STATUS: Should be on the agenda for the Budget
Retreat in August 2010.
Liberty Freeway Proclamation: On July 31, 2009 I
received a call from the Mayor of Farmers Branch, Tim O'Hare (a
friend), and he told me about their proclamation to give their
section of I35 a nickname of Liberty Freeway. It is to honor
all the military, past/present/future, for defending our Liberty.
This will not change any addresses and it is much like the Tom
Landry highway nickname on 183. The concept appealed to me to
honor our military. O'Hare stated that he was going to send an
email to each city along I35 north of 635 a letter about the
concept.
I sent an email asking City Staff to contact Farmer's
Branch Transportation department and get some details. See the
10-19-2009 Blog Entry
for more information.
: Farmers Branch and Carrollton have passed
proclamations (08/2009 & 09/2009 respectively). The Lewisville City Council has met on this topic during
a workshop meeting on 10-19-2009. Two of us (myself and another council
member) wanted to proceed, and the others wanted to table this until
more information is received.
I asked for this topic to be on 04-19-2010
Council meeting agenda so that we can bring this topic to a close or
give some direction. After some discussion, it seems that I
was the only one who wanted to go forward with this concept.
Therefore, to keep it alive, I made the motion to give it to the
Steering committee that was recommended by Staff.
Some good ideas came up too. One idea was that since I35 is
also the Purple Heart Trail, that the committee consider sign
toppers for the Purple Heart Trail signs instead.
CURRENT STATUS: We will see what is suggested by the
steering committee. It may be years before this is addressed.
Crosswalk for the senior Community at
Evergreen: The seniors at this apartment complex cross Garden Ridge
Blvd to to go shopping. They are asking for a painted striped cross walk,
some pedestrian crossing signs, and if possible some blink lights. I
submitted this to the City Staff to do some research on what it will cost.
They sent it to the transportation committee. See the
01-19-2010 Blog Entry for
more information.
The transportation committee did not make a decision but
asked for more study on this before they submit a recommendation to the City
Council. They meet quarterly, therefore, they will talk about it again on
April 20, 2010.
On May 17, 2010, it was on the agenda and there was a
motion to deny the crosswalk. There was four Ayes and one Nay
from me (basically I voted for the crosswalk).
I had stated that I had spoken to about 10 residents
from those apartments and I spent some time out there. Their request
was for warning signs and stripes so that drivers will be aware that
people cross there. I could see a need for some warning signs there.
I asked staff to look at it and they suggested to go through the
transportation committee to come up with a solution to this problem.
At the meeting in January, there were about 25 residents that came
to the transportation meeting to ask for a crosswalk. As for the
option that I liked, it is the $7,000 option that would be just
North of the end of the median - I was surprised that it would cost
that much.
One other issue is that was discussed at the
transportation meeting was that two vehicle accidents were at that
crossing and three were at the Main St. intersection during the time
they did research which I think was the last 18 months.
You can watch the
video online: Click Item 7 in the agenda to the left and it will
jump to 0:34:00, I start talking at 1:11:00, and the vote was at
1:21:30.
The $7,000 option that I liked is on page 170 of the
Agenda with Backup material.
CURRENT STATUS: Closed.
Property Abatements: Some comments have been made about my
stance on Real Property Taxes verses Personal Property Taxes. I have tried
to be very clear but some folks just do not understand the difference.
My blog page on abatements from 2007 should be clear enough.
Oil and Gas Drilling: I understand the concerns
from both sides of this issue. I worked in the oil field in 1981 for about 9 months (needed money for college), I know that the gas drilling in Lewisville is a little different but the process of drilling is very similar.
As good as it was back then, it is a lot better now. The
industry has a lot of regulations and we need to make sure they
are followed.
Our City Staff and City Council are very concerned about the drilling. I believe that our Country needs to strive to be independent and self sufficient. However, if they cannot do it safely, then we should not allow them to drill.
Safety is a high priority and this includes the effects on Air/Water/Land around these drill sites. I am for monitoring the drilling sites and our ordinances are continually being reviewed and modified to assure the safety for our citizens. On 02-15-2010,
we voted to hire a consultant to help with the inspections of these sites in Lewisville. The costs are billed to the Drill Site.
Please call me to discuss any issues if you like... Thanks for your support. |
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