Byram Lass,
I was going to let this go, because I don't personally care about trivial rules. However, since you have continually commented on every supposed "illegal" or "unethical" offense you feel the candidates you don't like have committed, and since you continually like to question the faith and beliefs of anyone who disagree with you, and since you continually make sanctimonious slippery-slope arguments that these offenses are somehow gateway crimes that make you wonder what someone won't do wrong, there is something that needs to be discussed.
Mr. Lass - your employer is VERY clear about personal use of government resources and time. PARTICULARLY with respect to posting partisan political stuff. Now, I'm not the petty type who would go running to the Office of the Inspector General to complain about your activities, but you might want to reconsider how much time you spend on Facebook posting about politics while you're supposed to be at work. Keep in mind, all of your posts are on a public group, and they're time-stamped, it wouldn't take someone very long to figure out that you were using at a minimum government time, and more likely, also government resources, to post such things.
I was going to post screenshots for you of the hundreds of business-hour weekday comments you've made to the League City Politics is a Full Contact Sport Facebook political discussion group, but it's really not necessary. You know what you've done. Instead the following will suffice.
1) Mr. Lass, please reacquaint yourself with John 8:1-11 (since you like to project your religious judgment onto others)
2) Mr. Lass, please reacquaint yourself with the rules of your employer and the experiences of another NASA employee, Mr. John Cobarruvias (this link will help: http://blog.chron.com/techblog/2008/05/updated-nasa-employee-suspended-for-partisan-blogging/ )
3) Mr. Lass, please stop with slippery slope arguments. I'm not going to sit here and say "Oh my, if he'd do this, what WON'T he do?!" I'm not going to sit here and suggest that if you're willing to break these rules that you might show up at a city council meeting and do something irrational (as you suggested I would do, since I was willing to, gasp, break Facebook's "Real Name" rule). I'm not going to do that, because I honestly believe you're a good person with good intentions, just seriously misdirected and deceived by the groupthink of the Green Team. But I'll suggest you remember this and stop making such slippery-slope fallacies in the future when you extrapolate alleged trivial election missteps as indicators that people won't follow ANY rules.
Friday, October 28, 2016
Wednesday, October 26, 2016
League City - If you read it on Facebook, it must be true!
Chris John Mallios and his loyal band of Green Team propaganda clowns over on the Facebook Group League City Politics is a Full Contact Sport like to think they have the market cornered on sharing information with the residents of League City. They pretend to have an open forum for discussion, yet shout down, kick out, and silence anyone who is not in agreement with them. Please consider another source for your information - and I highly recommend digging into the ACTUAL source of information instead of their outrageously distorted version of events. Look at the city website for information on projects that are being discussed. Look at the city website for links to council meeting video archives and minutes. Look at the county tax site for receipts for tax payments (to see what items were paid late or whether they were paid on time). But whatever you do, don't bother attempting to get the truth out of the League City Politics is a Full Contact Sport circus. Here's a few examples of the complete distortions presented by the loyal followers of Brother Hallisey.
1) Mick Phalen Can Use Paint. In an attempt to imply that the tax documents which were shared by various outlets regarding Greg Gripon's failures at managing his personal and business finances, Mick Phalen showed that you can (gasp) alter the files on a computer. However, what you CAN'T alter, are the receipts which can also be looked up, showing that multiple years were paid late, the day before Greg Gripon was going to go on Chris John Mallios's radio show. So go check those out for yourself. While it IS possible to edit documents, the manner in which Mr. Phalen presented his information was meant to imply that the documents sent around WERE faked, but they weren't. Good try, Mick, to attempt to discredit the truth through innuendo, that way you can't be pointed out for lying. But as Byram Lass likes to remind everyone, leaving out any of the truth is the same as lying.
2) Sandra Kelley Lies about Votes at Council Meetings. Besides being generally delusional about the popularity of her positions in League City, Sandra Kelley has been flat out lying on LCPIAFCS. After a tirade about the downtown revitalization beginning with the expense of burying power lines (which she somehow thinks are an aesthetic feature as opposed to an eyesore) she was asked who voted to bury the lines. Her reply was 5-2 (which, to anyone who follows the Council meetings would realize is most likely everyone else in favor except Dugie and Hallisey); however, the vote was actually 7-0. Yes, folks, Pat Hallisey and Hank Dugie both voted for this as well. Will Sandra Kelley and her little minion Mel launch a recall effort for this abandonment? Perhaps Pat should remind his wife how he voted, after she liked Sandra's rant about this, then went on to state, "This last Council has voted yes!" Janice - news flash, your HUSBAND voted yes. Of course, you couldn't POSSIBLY be trying to hide this fact by making these comments on Facebook to avoid the rebellion of his loyal army of idiots on LCPIAFCS, right? And then Sandra went on to imply that something nefarious is at play when Keith Gross left the chamber for the vote. He clearly asked if "abstaining" was essentially a vote against the proposal, and if he wanted to actually abstain he would have less impact on the vote if he left the room. So he left. Now, if Mr. Gross fails to leave the room should someone put forth a proposal that is against the downtown revitalization effort, and instead abstains, you could argue that he's trying to manipulate the vote through his various methods of not voting. But if he remains consistent (which he's been VERY consistent on this so far) then nothing is wrong. But again, with a play out of the smarmy politics for dummies book, if you just IMPLY he did something wrong, you can always deny you meant to imply it. So if you're GOING to spread misinformation, at least do it with some conviction.
Here's some more distortions from the Green Team Propaganda Machine
1) Power Lines are "Historical" Charm (Sandra Kelley on FB, regurgitated by Wiccan Cheryl Barr at the Council Meeting on 10/25). I honestly don't need to say too much on this, but you're really stretching for rationale when you are trying to dissuade the council from voting to bury power lines and the best you can come up with is: I've seen them in other downtowns, they look historical. It's power lines, not your grandmother's heirlooms.
2) Yvonne Tibai can't use a map, how can we trust her to collect other information. She claims to have records showing candidates to have not voted in League City elections; however, she also assumed that Kemah address meant non-resident of League City (I guess we can throw out those Dickinson address folks down in Bay Colony as well). How many votes has she failed to recognize because they were cast in League City elections at polling locations/precincts that ARE League City but without League City addresses? (ALWAYS consider the source) I won't ever know, because she refuses to share the information except in private conversations (possibly because she's altered it, or knows it's incomplete?) Ultimately, this points to yet another reason not to trust anything you read on League City Politics is a Full Contact Sport. They're not used to having anyone fact-checking their claims, since they exist in their echo-chamber of stupidity, and are completely manipulated by a couple less than honest puppet-masters.
3) Inconsistency. This is a good way to determine bias and verify that the Green Team Propaganda Wing is just that, and everyone should look elsewhere for truth. Prime example - Byram Lass challenges someone from Dickinson who comments on LCPIAFCS group; yet is TOTALLY okay with Gordon Vest of Louisiana and Holly Shelden of La Grange chiming in to the group. An immediate neighbor seems more valid of a contributor than a former resident in discussing the future of our city
4) Immaturity. Just how much discussion could this group of deranged hyper-vocal half-wits possibly have about a tattoo on a city council members arm? Is this what passes for "research" and serious conversation with these clowns? Again, yet another reason to find a different source for information regarding League City politics.
I'm not saying you should trust me. In fact, don't, you don't know me from Adam. This is why I provide references for things I state, or at least point you to where the source is. Verify everything. And if you see something incorrect that I've said, please, let me know. I'm only human.
1) Mick Phalen Can Use Paint. In an attempt to imply that the tax documents which were shared by various outlets regarding Greg Gripon's failures at managing his personal and business finances, Mick Phalen showed that you can (gasp) alter the files on a computer. However, what you CAN'T alter, are the receipts which can also be looked up, showing that multiple years were paid late, the day before Greg Gripon was going to go on Chris John Mallios's radio show. So go check those out for yourself. While it IS possible to edit documents, the manner in which Mr. Phalen presented his information was meant to imply that the documents sent around WERE faked, but they weren't. Good try, Mick, to attempt to discredit the truth through innuendo, that way you can't be pointed out for lying. But as Byram Lass likes to remind everyone, leaving out any of the truth is the same as lying.
2) Sandra Kelley Lies about Votes at Council Meetings. Besides being generally delusional about the popularity of her positions in League City, Sandra Kelley has been flat out lying on LCPIAFCS. After a tirade about the downtown revitalization beginning with the expense of burying power lines (which she somehow thinks are an aesthetic feature as opposed to an eyesore) she was asked who voted to bury the lines. Her reply was 5-2 (which, to anyone who follows the Council meetings would realize is most likely everyone else in favor except Dugie and Hallisey); however, the vote was actually 7-0. Yes, folks, Pat Hallisey and Hank Dugie both voted for this as well. Will Sandra Kelley and her little minion Mel launch a recall effort for this abandonment? Perhaps Pat should remind his wife how he voted, after she liked Sandra's rant about this, then went on to state, "This last Council has voted yes!" Janice - news flash, your HUSBAND voted yes. Of course, you couldn't POSSIBLY be trying to hide this fact by making these comments on Facebook to avoid the rebellion of his loyal army of idiots on LCPIAFCS, right? And then Sandra went on to imply that something nefarious is at play when Keith Gross left the chamber for the vote. He clearly asked if "abstaining" was essentially a vote against the proposal, and if he wanted to actually abstain he would have less impact on the vote if he left the room. So he left. Now, if Mr. Gross fails to leave the room should someone put forth a proposal that is against the downtown revitalization effort, and instead abstains, you could argue that he's trying to manipulate the vote through his various methods of not voting. But if he remains consistent (which he's been VERY consistent on this so far) then nothing is wrong. But again, with a play out of the smarmy politics for dummies book, if you just IMPLY he did something wrong, you can always deny you meant to imply it. So if you're GOING to spread misinformation, at least do it with some conviction.
Here's some more distortions from the Green Team Propaganda Machine
1) Power Lines are "Historical" Charm (Sandra Kelley on FB, regurgitated by Wiccan Cheryl Barr at the Council Meeting on 10/25). I honestly don't need to say too much on this, but you're really stretching for rationale when you are trying to dissuade the council from voting to bury power lines and the best you can come up with is: I've seen them in other downtowns, they look historical. It's power lines, not your grandmother's heirlooms.
2) Yvonne Tibai can't use a map, how can we trust her to collect other information. She claims to have records showing candidates to have not voted in League City elections; however, she also assumed that Kemah address meant non-resident of League City (I guess we can throw out those Dickinson address folks down in Bay Colony as well). How many votes has she failed to recognize because they were cast in League City elections at polling locations/precincts that ARE League City but without League City addresses? (ALWAYS consider the source) I won't ever know, because she refuses to share the information except in private conversations (possibly because she's altered it, or knows it's incomplete?) Ultimately, this points to yet another reason not to trust anything you read on League City Politics is a Full Contact Sport. They're not used to having anyone fact-checking their claims, since they exist in their echo-chamber of stupidity, and are completely manipulated by a couple less than honest puppet-masters.
3) Inconsistency. This is a good way to determine bias and verify that the Green Team Propaganda Wing is just that, and everyone should look elsewhere for truth. Prime example - Byram Lass challenges someone from Dickinson who comments on LCPIAFCS group; yet is TOTALLY okay with Gordon Vest of Louisiana and Holly Shelden of La Grange chiming in to the group. An immediate neighbor seems more valid of a contributor than a former resident in discussing the future of our city
4) Immaturity. Just how much discussion could this group of deranged hyper-vocal half-wits possibly have about a tattoo on a city council members arm? Is this what passes for "research" and serious conversation with these clowns? Again, yet another reason to find a different source for information regarding League City politics.
I'm not saying you should trust me. In fact, don't, you don't know me from Adam. This is why I provide references for things I state, or at least point you to where the source is. Verify everything. And if you see something incorrect that I've said, please, let me know. I'm only human.
Monday, October 24, 2016
Larry Millican - League City Council Candidate - Platform Analysis
I really didn't want to write something about Larry Millican. In watching the Council meetings his comments have been rather well thought out, calm, and collected, to the point that I wanted to believe he wasn't part of the "Green Team" machine. Yet after seeing so many things associating Larry with the rest of Pat Hallisey's puppets, I can no longer avoid commenting on Larry's platform. He has jumped in with both feet, and as Holly Shelden pointed out today, "When the character of a man is not clear to you, look at his friends." So, it's time to look at what's wrong with Larry Millican's platform. But before we get there, I have to question - as he put it, his wife is the activist, he's just been along for the ride, so why is Larry running now? Perhaps the question is - what's in it for Larry? Moving on - let's look at the four points of his platform.
1) "Restore respect and dignity to City Council" Now, I've seen our Council be plenty respectful and act with appropriate dignity, up until Pat Hallisey snuck into the Mayor's office, finally winning an election for the first time ever after countless attempts, by running in a special election that occurred with a ballot where the mayoral election was the ONLY contested position. Even then, Pat only won by less than 100 votes in a city of greater than 100,000 residents. Pat campaigned on a promise to fight the rest of council and oppose them at every step of the way. So one has to ask - with such a disrespectful position towards the will of the people who elected (by wider margins, in elections that saw a greater portion of the population vote) the rest of Council, how can one who has aligned themselves with Pat's Puppets actually restore "respect and dignity"? Pat Hallisey's wife is on Facebook "liking" comments that describe candidates for council and council members as "cougars" and "hogs", is that the type of "dignity" and "respect" we can expect with Larry on council? Pat's puppets are wasting their time attempting to get a recall election for councilman Dan Becker, and posting childish selfies at their coordination meetings, and seeking to waste our tax dollars on a special recall election - is THAT the kind of "respect and dignity" we can expect? To that, I say, NO THANK YOU. I'd much rather our city council respect the fact that I have worked hard to earn my money, and act responsibly by taking the necessary steps to reign in spending (more to come on that later) and attract businesses to our town so the tax burden can shift to retail and industrial instead of homeowners taxes.
2) "Restore open discussion and public decision making". Really, Mr. Millican? Public decision making? Like when you asked council to resist seeking public approval to spend $10million on a new Animal Shelter (your wife's pet cause) simply because you were afraid the public wouldn't approve it? Now you've aligned yourself with the Green Team, campaigning against the downtown revitalization effort, which is intended to increase retail sales tax through targeted investment in specific proposals that will increase the number of retail shops downtown while providing a public service with more parking available for events at League Park, that will skillfully bring in grant money to fund 80% of the cost (transferring federal tax dollars paid by our citizens from Washington back to League City). This same Green Team campaign against downtown revitalization uses the justification that the parking garage should be put to the public for a vote, yet you resisted doing this for your wife's pet project, an extreme expense. Now, I'm not saying I'm opposed to a new animal shelter, but the hypocrisy of this "restore open discussion and public decision making" plank in your platform is ridiculous. Which is it Larry, do you want public decision-making when it supports your positions, but don't want it when it might rain on your wife's parade?
3) "Intentional approach to long term economic growth" - Please reference my post on Greg Gripon's identical position (https://leaguecityoutsiders.blogspot.com/2016/10/league-city-council-candidate-greg.html ) Ultimately this is liberal centralized control at it's purest, and Larry claims to be a "conservative". Shame on him.
4) "City employees are our greatest asset". Really Larry? Is that why you support a Mayor who has driven away quality employees? Is that why your Green Team supporters are on a witch hunt to drive out our City Manager and City Attorney? Please explain this contradiction. Even if we ignore the way the Mayor has badgered and harrassed the city staff, at BEST, this line is a platitude, corporate-speak nothingness at it's finest. What aspect of our city's benefits package, pay scale, or work environment do you plan to change? Without specifics here, you're just paying lip service in an attempt to grab some votes.
I'm sorry, but I can't support a big-government, regressive, anti-growth, hypocritical Hallisey puppet for Council.
1) "Restore respect and dignity to City Council" Now, I've seen our Council be plenty respectful and act with appropriate dignity, up until Pat Hallisey snuck into the Mayor's office, finally winning an election for the first time ever after countless attempts, by running in a special election that occurred with a ballot where the mayoral election was the ONLY contested position. Even then, Pat only won by less than 100 votes in a city of greater than 100,000 residents. Pat campaigned on a promise to fight the rest of council and oppose them at every step of the way. So one has to ask - with such a disrespectful position towards the will of the people who elected (by wider margins, in elections that saw a greater portion of the population vote) the rest of Council, how can one who has aligned themselves with Pat's Puppets actually restore "respect and dignity"? Pat Hallisey's wife is on Facebook "liking" comments that describe candidates for council and council members as "cougars" and "hogs", is that the type of "dignity" and "respect" we can expect with Larry on council? Pat's puppets are wasting their time attempting to get a recall election for councilman Dan Becker, and posting childish selfies at their coordination meetings, and seeking to waste our tax dollars on a special recall election - is THAT the kind of "respect and dignity" we can expect? To that, I say, NO THANK YOU. I'd much rather our city council respect the fact that I have worked hard to earn my money, and act responsibly by taking the necessary steps to reign in spending (more to come on that later) and attract businesses to our town so the tax burden can shift to retail and industrial instead of homeowners taxes.
2) "Restore open discussion and public decision making". Really, Mr. Millican? Public decision making? Like when you asked council to resist seeking public approval to spend $10million on a new Animal Shelter (your wife's pet cause) simply because you were afraid the public wouldn't approve it? Now you've aligned yourself with the Green Team, campaigning against the downtown revitalization effort, which is intended to increase retail sales tax through targeted investment in specific proposals that will increase the number of retail shops downtown while providing a public service with more parking available for events at League Park, that will skillfully bring in grant money to fund 80% of the cost (transferring federal tax dollars paid by our citizens from Washington back to League City). This same Green Team campaign against downtown revitalization uses the justification that the parking garage should be put to the public for a vote, yet you resisted doing this for your wife's pet project, an extreme expense. Now, I'm not saying I'm opposed to a new animal shelter, but the hypocrisy of this "restore open discussion and public decision making" plank in your platform is ridiculous. Which is it Larry, do you want public decision-making when it supports your positions, but don't want it when it might rain on your wife's parade?
3) "Intentional approach to long term economic growth" - Please reference my post on Greg Gripon's identical position (https://leaguecityoutsiders.blogspot.com/2016/10/league-city-council-candidate-greg.html ) Ultimately this is liberal centralized control at it's purest, and Larry claims to be a "conservative". Shame on him.
4) "City employees are our greatest asset". Really Larry? Is that why you support a Mayor who has driven away quality employees? Is that why your Green Team supporters are on a witch hunt to drive out our City Manager and City Attorney? Please explain this contradiction. Even if we ignore the way the Mayor has badgered and harrassed the city staff, at BEST, this line is a platitude, corporate-speak nothingness at it's finest. What aspect of our city's benefits package, pay scale, or work environment do you plan to change? Without specifics here, you're just paying lip service in an attempt to grab some votes.
I'm sorry, but I can't support a big-government, regressive, anti-growth, hypocritical Hallisey puppet for Council.
Sunday, October 23, 2016
League City - Vote for Rudy Salcedo (if you support a President Hillary Clinton)
The Green Team is going to try to hide behind the whole council-elections-are-nonpartisan line. The elections themselves may be non-partisan. This just means the city doesn't have to host a primary election, and we can have more than 2 candidates in the general election. It doesn't mean the candidates are non-partisan. The fact is, League City is a majority-conservative, majority-Republican region now. And the fact is, the Green Team will try to hide the fact that they are a liberal, big government, tax and spend, nanny-state supporting faction. But they're not very good at hiding it.
I haven't said much about Rudy Salcedo yet. After all, it's hard to criticize someone who has been largely checked out of this election. I've never seen a candidate attempt to say so little. His website lists the groups he volunteers with, and not much else. Even the Green Team Propaganda Wing (League City Politics is a Full Contact Sport) has been rather quiet, outside of Janice "Please keep my husband out of my hair by giving him an office at City Hall" O'Hallisey posting RUDY, RUDY, RUDY! along with images from the movie "Rudy". So it's rather hard to dispute anything he's said, when he's said nothing. But I figured out why he's been rather absent from the campaign here in League City...
It's because he's been busy on Twitter trying to get HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON elected as your President:
Folks, tell these big-government liberals that you don't want their regressive thinking damaging this great town by rejecting the Green Team. If you support HRC, then by all means, vote for Rudy Salcedo. If you want our City Council to roll over and implement any liberal policies that HRC dreams up, vote for Rudy. If you want a City Council that will push our police department to round up guns when HRC issues executive orders on gun control - vote for Rudy. If you want someone who will stand up to federal overreach and will instruct our police department to ignore un-Constitutional Executive Orders on gun control - vote against Hillary and vote against her supporter, Rudy Salcedo by voting for a proven, established conservative - Todd Kinsey.
I haven't said much about Rudy Salcedo yet. After all, it's hard to criticize someone who has been largely checked out of this election. I've never seen a candidate attempt to say so little. His website lists the groups he volunteers with, and not much else. Even the Green Team Propaganda Wing (League City Politics is a Full Contact Sport) has been rather quiet, outside of Janice "Please keep my husband out of my hair by giving him an office at City Hall" O'Hallisey posting RUDY, RUDY, RUDY! along with images from the movie "Rudy". So it's rather hard to dispute anything he's said, when he's said nothing. But I figured out why he's been rather absent from the campaign here in League City...
It's because he's been busy on Twitter trying to get HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON elected as your President:
Folks, tell these big-government liberals that you don't want their regressive thinking damaging this great town by rejecting the Green Team. If you support HRC, then by all means, vote for Rudy Salcedo. If you want our City Council to roll over and implement any liberal policies that HRC dreams up, vote for Rudy. If you want a City Council that will push our police department to round up guns when HRC issues executive orders on gun control - vote for Rudy. If you want someone who will stand up to federal overreach and will instruct our police department to ignore un-Constitutional Executive Orders on gun control - vote against Hillary and vote against her supporter, Rudy Salcedo by voting for a proven, established conservative - Todd Kinsey.
Saturday, October 22, 2016
League City Council Candidate Greg Gripon's Platform
Based on the Chris John Mallios sympathetic interview with Greg Gripon, we finally know what his platform consists of (besides #LeagueCityProud #HomeGrown). And it's got some serious flaws. Yes, it's time to get back to the issues as we analyze the PRIMARY reason Greg Gripon is wrong for League City's future. And it's because his only desire is to fight to keep us in the past by implementing regressive liberal policies of centralized control and misguided environmentalism run amok. Outside of talking about his dad and sharing stories of the good old days, Greg Gripon expressed his top 3 priorities for the city, as
With respect to maintaining support for the Police Department, outside of paying lip service in gratitude for the police union endorsing him, he said nothing else. Honestly, does this mean he plans to buy more new equipment, improving their benefits, increasing funding for training, what? It's really easy to say you're going to maintain support for something, but that's not a plan. That's a goal, at best, but most likely just lip service.
Now, onto the centralized government-mandated master-planning for development of the west side of the city. If this doesn't stink of liberalism run amok to you, then you lack a nose. Here's a few quotes and points from Greg on this topic:
Now, the city is already working on requirements that subdivisions that are built will have reclaimed water systems to irrigate common land, the entrance-ways, and parks. If that's all Mr. Gripon is talking about, then he's talking about changing nothing and taking credit for it. Now, if he's talking about requiring it for every single residential house, this is a MASSIVE cost increase. Byram Lass claims that Mr. Gripon isn't opposed to growth, but increasing the cost in this nature can be viewed as NOTHING but an opportunity to resist growth, and in Mr. Gripon's own words, this will, "control growth in League City". But let's look more into whether this reclaimed water system makes sense. First, Mr. Gripon claims that 80% of the water use in League City is for irrigation systems, and only 20% is used for bathroom and drinking water. First of all, that's not true. The city's own website states that it CAN be as high as 50-80% of residential use IN THE SUMMER MONTHS (reference: http://leaguecity.com/index.aspx?NID=1585 ). So, 25% of the time, it CAN be as high as 50-80%. The rest of the year, it's virtually none. But let's do the math more generous to Mr. Gripon, and say that summer is a full half of the year in League City and that the 80% figure isn't an upper bound but the average. And let's say it doesn't drop to zero the rest of the year, but let's say it drops to 50% of the use (even though that's likely VERY high). 50% of the year we're at 80%, 50% of the year we're at 50%, that would STILL cap our irrigation usage at 65%. Perhaps Mr. Gripon get's his figures from global figures from Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irrigation_statistics) which includes places that use FAR less water in bathrooms and kitchens, and has far less natural rainwater yet still needs to grow crops. But here in League City it's not 80%. Moving on to even more mistaken claims, Mr. Gripon stated that the water would be free of chlorine and fluoride, and this would make the grass happy. However, very few water processing facilities remove chlorine or fluoride from the water, and most still ADD chlorine to attempt to control bacteria in the "purple" reclaimed water system (we'll come back to bacteria in a minute). In other words, this claim is mistaken. Now the reclaimed water is usually going to be higher in minerals and salts, some of which are good for the grass, but the levels can get too high, and proper treatment of lawns will be difficult to manage. Additionally, the minerals and salts will make for very "hard" water, and this puts a much heavier strain on the valves, pipes, and other equipment in the systems, and reclaimed water systems require much more maintenance (reference: http://www.rainbird.com/landscape/resources/webinars/Reclaimed-NonPotable.pdf ) and on-going operational costs than our current water system (thereby decreasing some of the savings). Additionally, there could be impacts such as challenges in scheduling the early-morning youth sports at parks, as you need to limit human contact while the grounds are still wet from reclaimed water. And for those concerned about our environment, a lot of studies are starting to come out that reclaimed water systems are breeding grounds for anti-biotic resistant genes by passing on antibiotics in the wastewater and providing a breeding ground for bacteria due to lower levels of disinfectant. (reference: https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/bitstream/handle/10919/23863/Fahrenfeld%20et%20al.%202013%20Front.%20Microbiol..pdf;sequence=1) , so this system would be a safety risk for our community. And one final point on the reclaimed water mandate that is part of your platform - who is TRULY going to pay for it? You can say that it's going to be a mandate on developers - but they don't ACTUALLY pay for it. The end consumer of the work the developers do will pay for it. For one thing, running the water and sewer is usually funded by a MUD, which is a tax the homeowners will pay. If it's not, then the developer will pass the cost on with the price of lots, and the homeowners will be paying higher for their houses. In other words, people will stop choosing to build in League City, because Friendswood, Dickinson, and other areas will be most cost effective. But of course, your goal is to "control growth", so that's REALLY what this is all about, isn't it?
Mr. Gripon, sure some people come to League City for it's "green space". But the majority come here for the following: League City has safe neighborhoods with good schools, there's lots of job opportunities in the area, there is a reasonable cost of living and a high level of convenience. Your plans will increase the cost of living and decrease the level of convenience. You see, evidence from other cities that have created too many restrictions on growth and micro-managed the "master plan" to the level Mr. Gripon is proposing, have started to realize bipartisan criticism. Liberals lament that the plan has lead to an increasing level of segregation and a widening inequality between the "haves" and "have nots", as the restrictions on development create barriers that prevent the lower-middle class from being able to live in nice towns (reference: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/04/business/how-anti-growth-sentiment-reflected-in-zoning-laws-thwarts-equality.html). Meanwhile, the right has shown that zoning laws have limited the economic growth of our nation (reference: http://www.forbes.com/sites/timothylee/2011/09/19/zoning-laws-are-strangling-silicon-valley/ ). You see, Mr. Gripon, we need to shift our city revenue to be derived from retail and industry instead of homeowners. This will help keep our area with a reasonable cost of living. If we fight growth, we drive up our taxes on homeowners to find the infrastructure improvements. If we fight growth, we artificially drive up property values, pricing out the working class.
So, folks... it's about CONTROL. Do YOU want the control, or do you want to hand it over to the government? If you want your cost of living to increase while your conveniences decrease, vote for the Green Team (Gripon/Salcedo/Millican). If you want the control, and you want to LOWER your taxes, not increase them, vote for someone else who will support the City Manager and the rest of our City Council as they implement an ACTUAL plan that is seeking to diversify the tax base to decrease the burden on homeowners.
- Traffic
- Maintaining support for the Police Department so it remains "The Best"
- Centralized government-mandated master-planning of the development of the remaining 50% of League City he identifies as not built out on the west side of the city.
With respect to maintaining support for the Police Department, outside of paying lip service in gratitude for the police union endorsing him, he said nothing else. Honestly, does this mean he plans to buy more new equipment, improving their benefits, increasing funding for training, what? It's really easy to say you're going to maintain support for something, but that's not a plan. That's a goal, at best, but most likely just lip service.
Now, onto the centralized government-mandated master-planning for development of the west side of the city. If this doesn't stink of liberalism run amok to you, then you lack a nose. Here's a few quotes and points from Greg on this topic:
- The city needs a document that specifies roadways, zones for buildings, homes, schools, a complete plan
- Anyone who wants to build something must get approval from the city that it is in accordance with the plan
- This will "control growth in League City"
- Architectural restrictions must be in place, as the city, "...must control what's going to be built"
- The city needs to "Make that area grow the way you want it to grow"
- "People come to League City because they love the green space in this town."
Now, the city is already working on requirements that subdivisions that are built will have reclaimed water systems to irrigate common land, the entrance-ways, and parks. If that's all Mr. Gripon is talking about, then he's talking about changing nothing and taking credit for it. Now, if he's talking about requiring it for every single residential house, this is a MASSIVE cost increase. Byram Lass claims that Mr. Gripon isn't opposed to growth, but increasing the cost in this nature can be viewed as NOTHING but an opportunity to resist growth, and in Mr. Gripon's own words, this will, "control growth in League City". But let's look more into whether this reclaimed water system makes sense. First, Mr. Gripon claims that 80% of the water use in League City is for irrigation systems, and only 20% is used for bathroom and drinking water. First of all, that's not true. The city's own website states that it CAN be as high as 50-80% of residential use IN THE SUMMER MONTHS (reference: http://leaguecity.com/index.aspx?NID=1585 ). So, 25% of the time, it CAN be as high as 50-80%. The rest of the year, it's virtually none. But let's do the math more generous to Mr. Gripon, and say that summer is a full half of the year in League City and that the 80% figure isn't an upper bound but the average. And let's say it doesn't drop to zero the rest of the year, but let's say it drops to 50% of the use (even though that's likely VERY high). 50% of the year we're at 80%, 50% of the year we're at 50%, that would STILL cap our irrigation usage at 65%. Perhaps Mr. Gripon get's his figures from global figures from Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irrigation_statistics) which includes places that use FAR less water in bathrooms and kitchens, and has far less natural rainwater yet still needs to grow crops. But here in League City it's not 80%. Moving on to even more mistaken claims, Mr. Gripon stated that the water would be free of chlorine and fluoride, and this would make the grass happy. However, very few water processing facilities remove chlorine or fluoride from the water, and most still ADD chlorine to attempt to control bacteria in the "purple" reclaimed water system (we'll come back to bacteria in a minute). In other words, this claim is mistaken. Now the reclaimed water is usually going to be higher in minerals and salts, some of which are good for the grass, but the levels can get too high, and proper treatment of lawns will be difficult to manage. Additionally, the minerals and salts will make for very "hard" water, and this puts a much heavier strain on the valves, pipes, and other equipment in the systems, and reclaimed water systems require much more maintenance (reference: http://www.rainbird.com/landscape/resources/webinars/Reclaimed-NonPotable.pdf ) and on-going operational costs than our current water system (thereby decreasing some of the savings). Additionally, there could be impacts such as challenges in scheduling the early-morning youth sports at parks, as you need to limit human contact while the grounds are still wet from reclaimed water. And for those concerned about our environment, a lot of studies are starting to come out that reclaimed water systems are breeding grounds for anti-biotic resistant genes by passing on antibiotics in the wastewater and providing a breeding ground for bacteria due to lower levels of disinfectant. (reference: https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/bitstream/handle/10919/23863/Fahrenfeld%20et%20al.%202013%20Front.%20Microbiol..pdf;sequence=1) , so this system would be a safety risk for our community. And one final point on the reclaimed water mandate that is part of your platform - who is TRULY going to pay for it? You can say that it's going to be a mandate on developers - but they don't ACTUALLY pay for it. The end consumer of the work the developers do will pay for it. For one thing, running the water and sewer is usually funded by a MUD, which is a tax the homeowners will pay. If it's not, then the developer will pass the cost on with the price of lots, and the homeowners will be paying higher for their houses. In other words, people will stop choosing to build in League City, because Friendswood, Dickinson, and other areas will be most cost effective. But of course, your goal is to "control growth", so that's REALLY what this is all about, isn't it?
Mr. Gripon, sure some people come to League City for it's "green space". But the majority come here for the following: League City has safe neighborhoods with good schools, there's lots of job opportunities in the area, there is a reasonable cost of living and a high level of convenience. Your plans will increase the cost of living and decrease the level of convenience. You see, evidence from other cities that have created too many restrictions on growth and micro-managed the "master plan" to the level Mr. Gripon is proposing, have started to realize bipartisan criticism. Liberals lament that the plan has lead to an increasing level of segregation and a widening inequality between the "haves" and "have nots", as the restrictions on development create barriers that prevent the lower-middle class from being able to live in nice towns (reference: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/04/business/how-anti-growth-sentiment-reflected-in-zoning-laws-thwarts-equality.html). Meanwhile, the right has shown that zoning laws have limited the economic growth of our nation (reference: http://www.forbes.com/sites/timothylee/2011/09/19/zoning-laws-are-strangling-silicon-valley/ ). You see, Mr. Gripon, we need to shift our city revenue to be derived from retail and industry instead of homeowners. This will help keep our area with a reasonable cost of living. If we fight growth, we drive up our taxes on homeowners to find the infrastructure improvements. If we fight growth, we artificially drive up property values, pricing out the working class.
So, folks... it's about CONTROL. Do YOU want the control, or do you want to hand it over to the government? If you want your cost of living to increase while your conveniences decrease, vote for the Green Team (Gripon/Salcedo/Millican). If you want the control, and you want to LOWER your taxes, not increase them, vote for someone else who will support the City Manager and the rest of our City Council as they implement an ACTUAL plan that is seeking to diversify the tax base to decrease the burden on homeowners.
League City Politics at Its Ugliest
Intimidation, harassment, and assault are completely unacceptable. The beauty of our election system is that it allows all of us to have our "say" without the need for such tactics. I'm sure you've all by now read Justin Gripon's accounting of an alleged incident of harassment that borders on assault against his sister. I see three possibilities at play here.
1) Justin Gripon's story was completely and accurately presented to the public. If we assume this possibility, it is ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING. If you, like me, are opposed to the Green Team's election, KNOW THIS - the election will be decided by shedding the light of truth through to eliminate the spin from the green team. This election will be decided by properly spreading the word that this city needs a solid plan for the future with increasing the tax base to shift the burden of infrastructure improvement costs from the homeowner to the retail sales tax and hotel occupancy taxes. This election will be decided by showing the true colors of the green team. Should anyone who reads this website want to get involved, the right way to get involved is to share the message with your friends and neighbors and resist the spin machine that is League City Politics is a Full Contact Sport. I absolutely disapprove and am disgusted if anyone who thinks they agree with me and support what I am doing was involved in this incident. Do the right thing, and issue an apology, and stop with any such tactics. Now, if possibility 1 is really what happened, then there should be an actual investigation. There is absolutely no reason NOT to contact the police. Please do so, Ashley! Most grocery stores have cameras in the parking lot, please release the images/videos captured of this incident so that the public can help find the offender. There are crazy people on every side of an issue or election, and they need to be removed from the equation. After all, some of the Green Team supporters have threatened to open a "can of Texas whoop@$$" on yours truly, so I know it goes both ways, and it's completely unacceptable.
2) Justin Gripon's story was slightly exaggerated. This is very likely, and isn't meant to say anything wrong was done or said by Justin. After all, in the rather charged atmosphere of this election, it's very easy to misinterpret the statements and questions from people who disagree with you. Perhaps the factual timeline of events has been misinterpreted as the story passed from Ashley to Justin, then from Justin to Facebook. Perhaps someone waving her down and asking rude questions was interpreted differently by Ashley. Perhaps there wasn't any appendage from the alleged harasser that actually entered her vehicle, and the person just leaned against the truck as they asked questions. Again, security camera footage should help resolve this. But ultimately, there is ZERO reason for anyone who is opposed to a candidate to engage in direct confrontation with anyone associated with that candidate. The opposition would be FAR better served by helping spread the message of how candidate Greg Gripon is wrong for League City's future instead of confronting him, his friends, his family, or his "surrogates" directly.
3) Wagging the dog. In light of all of the discussion surrounding Greg Gripon's inability to manage a budget and failure to keep up with his taxes (we'll ignore whether all levels of government have been paid for all taxes, liens, and judgments, and focus on the fact that at the bare minimum he didn't keep up with it for many years), Justin and or the Green Team in general devised a plan to divert attention away from Greg's poor management of his business and finances. Taking a page out the playbook for many liberal causes, they crafted a victimization story, one so disgusting if it is true that anyone who dares challenge the narrative is automatically branded an insensitive jerk at best. Now, I want to be able to take Justin and Ashley at their word, like Chris John Mallios takes Greg Gripon at his word. However, I, and most of the 100k+ people in League City don't personally know these people. So instead, I have to look at the story of the alleged harassment, and I'm hard pressed to understand how it happened. See, unless Ashley happened to be wearing a Greg Gripon for Council shirt (in which case, the story makes a LOT more sense), then the person only had two reasons to think Ashley Gripon is affiliated with Greg Gripon - 1, she was driving a Lynn's Landscaping truck, or 2, the person recognized her as Ashley Gripon. Now I think we can rule out 2, as anyone who knew her to be Ashley Gripon wouldn't need to ask her, as the story alleges, if she is one of Greg Gripon's "surrogates", they would already know that she is his daughter. This leaves 1, and I just don't see how anyone would make the leap to thinking someone in a Lynn's landscaping truck is a political "surrogate" for Greg Gripon, as the logical assumption would be that the truck is driven by simply an employee. In other words, this entire scenario seems VERY unlikely, and the conversation doesn't seem remotely like one that someone would actually initiate.
Now, I wasn't there, so I'm not assigning a likeliness to ANY of these 3 possibilities. I've already made a statement assuming that it's case 1 - that I find any such action taken to be completely disgusting and will not be associated with anyone who does such things. But I truly hope that it's simply a matter of case 2. However, it should be rather suspicious if the Gripon family does NOT contact the police for an official investigation to be launched, as simply releasing the security camera footage should indicate which case occurred, and point the finger at case 3 being the most probable.
1) Justin Gripon's story was completely and accurately presented to the public. If we assume this possibility, it is ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING. If you, like me, are opposed to the Green Team's election, KNOW THIS - the election will be decided by shedding the light of truth through to eliminate the spin from the green team. This election will be decided by properly spreading the word that this city needs a solid plan for the future with increasing the tax base to shift the burden of infrastructure improvement costs from the homeowner to the retail sales tax and hotel occupancy taxes. This election will be decided by showing the true colors of the green team. Should anyone who reads this website want to get involved, the right way to get involved is to share the message with your friends and neighbors and resist the spin machine that is League City Politics is a Full Contact Sport. I absolutely disapprove and am disgusted if anyone who thinks they agree with me and support what I am doing was involved in this incident. Do the right thing, and issue an apology, and stop with any such tactics. Now, if possibility 1 is really what happened, then there should be an actual investigation. There is absolutely no reason NOT to contact the police. Please do so, Ashley! Most grocery stores have cameras in the parking lot, please release the images/videos captured of this incident so that the public can help find the offender. There are crazy people on every side of an issue or election, and they need to be removed from the equation. After all, some of the Green Team supporters have threatened to open a "can of Texas whoop@$$" on yours truly, so I know it goes both ways, and it's completely unacceptable.
2) Justin Gripon's story was slightly exaggerated. This is very likely, and isn't meant to say anything wrong was done or said by Justin. After all, in the rather charged atmosphere of this election, it's very easy to misinterpret the statements and questions from people who disagree with you. Perhaps the factual timeline of events has been misinterpreted as the story passed from Ashley to Justin, then from Justin to Facebook. Perhaps someone waving her down and asking rude questions was interpreted differently by Ashley. Perhaps there wasn't any appendage from the alleged harasser that actually entered her vehicle, and the person just leaned against the truck as they asked questions. Again, security camera footage should help resolve this. But ultimately, there is ZERO reason for anyone who is opposed to a candidate to engage in direct confrontation with anyone associated with that candidate. The opposition would be FAR better served by helping spread the message of how candidate Greg Gripon is wrong for League City's future instead of confronting him, his friends, his family, or his "surrogates" directly.
3) Wagging the dog. In light of all of the discussion surrounding Greg Gripon's inability to manage a budget and failure to keep up with his taxes (we'll ignore whether all levels of government have been paid for all taxes, liens, and judgments, and focus on the fact that at the bare minimum he didn't keep up with it for many years), Justin and or the Green Team in general devised a plan to divert attention away from Greg's poor management of his business and finances. Taking a page out the playbook for many liberal causes, they crafted a victimization story, one so disgusting if it is true that anyone who dares challenge the narrative is automatically branded an insensitive jerk at best. Now, I want to be able to take Justin and Ashley at their word, like Chris John Mallios takes Greg Gripon at his word. However, I, and most of the 100k+ people in League City don't personally know these people. So instead, I have to look at the story of the alleged harassment, and I'm hard pressed to understand how it happened. See, unless Ashley happened to be wearing a Greg Gripon for Council shirt (in which case, the story makes a LOT more sense), then the person only had two reasons to think Ashley Gripon is affiliated with Greg Gripon - 1, she was driving a Lynn's Landscaping truck, or 2, the person recognized her as Ashley Gripon. Now I think we can rule out 2, as anyone who knew her to be Ashley Gripon wouldn't need to ask her, as the story alleges, if she is one of Greg Gripon's "surrogates", they would already know that she is his daughter. This leaves 1, and I just don't see how anyone would make the leap to thinking someone in a Lynn's landscaping truck is a political "surrogate" for Greg Gripon, as the logical assumption would be that the truck is driven by simply an employee. In other words, this entire scenario seems VERY unlikely, and the conversation doesn't seem remotely like one that someone would actually initiate.
Now, I wasn't there, so I'm not assigning a likeliness to ANY of these 3 possibilities. I've already made a statement assuming that it's case 1 - that I find any such action taken to be completely disgusting and will not be associated with anyone who does such things. But I truly hope that it's simply a matter of case 2. However, it should be rather suspicious if the Gripon family does NOT contact the police for an official investigation to be launched, as simply releasing the security camera footage should indicate which case occurred, and point the finger at case 3 being the most probable.
Thursday, October 20, 2016
Candidate Greg Gripon - Let's make this simple for you.
Please print this, put a line through each of these liens and judgments which show as outstanding on the county's website, then sign the bottom of the page saying that you have, in fact, paid off all of the crossed out items. See, I'd love to take you at your word, but you spoke some seriously slippery words when you said you'd taken care of Clear Creek [ISD] and Galveston County (which surprisingly left out the State and the Federal Government). Here's the problem, as I see these are all still outstanding. I've determined them to be outstanding by searching on http://www.galvestoncountytx.gov/cc/Pages/RecordsSearchCCO.aspx for Lynn's Landscaping and Greg Gripon. See, previously, I'd forgotten to search for your business name, but since you talked about it SO proudly today, I figured I would search for that as well. Then I removed anything that was neither judgment nor lien, then I removed any of those which had a corresponding release. These are the ones that remained:
Lynn's Landscaping:
2013027212 - A OF J - 5/13/2013 - $8,253 - Owed to County/City
2014039640 - ST TAX LIEN - 7/15/2014 - $7,232 - Owed to the State
2015025907 - FED TAX LIEN - 4/28/2015 - $5,340 - Owed to the Federal Government
2015034338 - FED TAX LIEN - 6/1/2015 - $56,701 - Owed to the Federal Government
2015045121 - ST TAX LIEN - 7/16/2015 - $5,058 - Owed to the State
2015062700 - FED TX LN - 10/2/2015 - $45,532 - Owed to the Federal Government
2015065582 - A OF J - 10/16/2015 - $29,382 - Owed to CCISD
Greg Gripon:
2016012635 - FED TAX LN - 3/7/2016 - $43,139 - Owed to the Federal Government
So between the suspicious delay in responding, and now the half-answer you gave Mallios in your interview today, and the fact that all these still show as outstanding, that doesn't look very good. But perhaps you did pay all of those recently, if so... one has to ask HOW? And even if you have a VERY good explanation for all of that, given the extensive history of liens and unpaid taxes, please tell me how we can trust you with any sort of oversight of taxpayer money?
And just so I don't have to make a separate post just for Marc Edelman, because that would only feed his arrogance (and really, he should seriously work on his hubris), allow me to clear things up for you. As flattered as I am that you think I'm the City Manager (which clearly indicates just how spot-on and accurate you acknowledge my posts are), and despite how much I'd just hate to disappoint you, I am NOT, in fact, Mark Rohr. In fact, I've never set foot in the state of Ohio, much less attended a university there. And as for readership, you're welcome to assume nobody else is reading this blog. However, I can confirm that Chris John Mallios, Bill Heins, and yourself are reading it (which is already more than you claim), and unless y'all have a serious obsession with my blog to the tune of >4500 page hits in under a month, your estimation skills are "piss poor".
Lynn's Landscaping:
2013027212 - A OF J - 5/13/2013 - $8,253 - Owed to County/City
2014039640 - ST TAX LIEN - 7/15/2014 - $7,232 - Owed to the State
2015025907 - FED TAX LIEN - 4/28/2015 - $5,340 - Owed to the Federal Government
2015034338 - FED TAX LIEN - 6/1/2015 - $56,701 - Owed to the Federal Government
2015045121 - ST TAX LIEN - 7/16/2015 - $5,058 - Owed to the State
2015062700 - FED TX LN - 10/2/2015 - $45,532 - Owed to the Federal Government
2015065582 - A OF J - 10/16/2015 - $29,382 - Owed to CCISD
Greg Gripon:
2016012635 - FED TAX LN - 3/7/2016 - $43,139 - Owed to the Federal Government
So between the suspicious delay in responding, and now the half-answer you gave Mallios in your interview today, and the fact that all these still show as outstanding, that doesn't look very good. But perhaps you did pay all of those recently, if so... one has to ask HOW? And even if you have a VERY good explanation for all of that, given the extensive history of liens and unpaid taxes, please tell me how we can trust you with any sort of oversight of taxpayer money?
And just so I don't have to make a separate post just for Marc Edelman, because that would only feed his arrogance (and really, he should seriously work on his hubris), allow me to clear things up for you. As flattered as I am that you think I'm the City Manager (which clearly indicates just how spot-on and accurate you acknowledge my posts are), and despite how much I'd just hate to disappoint you, I am NOT, in fact, Mark Rohr. In fact, I've never set foot in the state of Ohio, much less attended a university there. And as for readership, you're welcome to assume nobody else is reading this blog. However, I can confirm that Chris John Mallios, Bill Heins, and yourself are reading it (which is already more than you claim), and unless y'all have a serious obsession with my blog to the tune of >4500 page hits in under a month, your estimation skills are "piss poor".
Greg Gripon's Best Clinton Impression Yet!
Comments on Chris John Mallios's radio interviews:
Welcome aboard Mr. Heins, appreciate you joining the discussion! Here's the thing... much like the Republicans had a problem with having debates on NBC networks, much like they complained about the biased moderaters from CNN, why would actual conservatives go into unfriendly territory to be interviewed by the Proud Democrat Chris John Mallios? His handling of discussions and rules on the Full Contact Sport Facebook Group show he's completely incapable of being an impartial interviewer. The fact that he removes people for being non-residents when they disagree with his Green Team propaganda, yet allows obvious non-residents like Holly Shelden (of La Grange) and Gordon Vest (of Louisiana) to continue to comment shows his bias. Furthermore, the fact that the only place he sought out questions for the candidates was from the Green Team Progaganda Wing (Full Contact Sport Group), why would anyone besides the Green Team show up for his show? Furthermore, it wasn't a debate, there was zero one-on-one with any candidates, it was one-on-one with Chris John Mallios, who lofted such softball questions to Greg Gripon, I'm not entirely certain that Pat Hallisey didn't script the entire thing (the show is called Political Theater, after all). Please tell me how YOU define qualified? I sure haven't seen anything out of the semi-literate comments written by Greg Gripon that indicate he's remotely "qualified" to serve on city council. And I particularly enjoyed his Clinton-esque evasion of the topic of his taxes. When Mallios asked about them, Gripon stated that he'd had some tax troubles, but they were "taken care of". When Mallios, in the toughest question he actually asked of Gripon, followed up with, "So the lien is paid?", Greg answered, "Clear Creek and Galveston are..." Greg Gripon has YET to state that he's cleared the FEDERAL tax lien. He's had his friends give vague responses that things are okay, and he's had a very carefully sculpted response ready to avoid discussing the federal tax lien. Until he clearly says he is fully current on ALL taxes at ALL levels of our government, I'm going to consider him completely unqualified to run our city. After all, how can we trust he'll manage the city's finances any better than he's managed his business and personal finances? And I'm not buying his boohoo hard times sob story, QUALIFIED people come through those, and the last thing they fall behind on is their taxes. After all, if you want to "serve" the people, you should pay your "fair share", right Mr. Turski? And if he DID manage to pay off the >$60k in outstanding taxes, where did that money miraculously come from all of a sudden now that he is running for office? Mighty suspicious. (And sorry, Mr. Heins, for answering with a new post instead of a reply, but I wanted my followers to be able to link to it directly.)
Welcome aboard Mr. Heins, appreciate you joining the discussion! Here's the thing... much like the Republicans had a problem with having debates on NBC networks, much like they complained about the biased moderaters from CNN, why would actual conservatives go into unfriendly territory to be interviewed by the Proud Democrat Chris John Mallios? His handling of discussions and rules on the Full Contact Sport Facebook Group show he's completely incapable of being an impartial interviewer. The fact that he removes people for being non-residents when they disagree with his Green Team propaganda, yet allows obvious non-residents like Holly Shelden (of La Grange) and Gordon Vest (of Louisiana) to continue to comment shows his bias. Furthermore, the fact that the only place he sought out questions for the candidates was from the Green Team Progaganda Wing (Full Contact Sport Group), why would anyone besides the Green Team show up for his show? Furthermore, it wasn't a debate, there was zero one-on-one with any candidates, it was one-on-one with Chris John Mallios, who lofted such softball questions to Greg Gripon, I'm not entirely certain that Pat Hallisey didn't script the entire thing (the show is called Political Theater, after all). Please tell me how YOU define qualified? I sure haven't seen anything out of the semi-literate comments written by Greg Gripon that indicate he's remotely "qualified" to serve on city council. And I particularly enjoyed his Clinton-esque evasion of the topic of his taxes. When Mallios asked about them, Gripon stated that he'd had some tax troubles, but they were "taken care of". When Mallios, in the toughest question he actually asked of Gripon, followed up with, "So the lien is paid?", Greg answered, "Clear Creek and Galveston are..." Greg Gripon has YET to state that he's cleared the FEDERAL tax lien. He's had his friends give vague responses that things are okay, and he's had a very carefully sculpted response ready to avoid discussing the federal tax lien. Until he clearly says he is fully current on ALL taxes at ALL levels of our government, I'm going to consider him completely unqualified to run our city. After all, how can we trust he'll manage the city's finances any better than he's managed his business and personal finances? And I'm not buying his boohoo hard times sob story, QUALIFIED people come through those, and the last thing they fall behind on is their taxes. After all, if you want to "serve" the people, you should pay your "fair share", right Mr. Turski? And if he DID manage to pay off the >$60k in outstanding taxes, where did that money miraculously come from all of a sudden now that he is running for office? Mighty suspicious. (And sorry, Mr. Heins, for answering with a new post instead of a reply, but I wanted my followers to be able to link to it directly.)
Wednesday, October 19, 2016
If you email Jefferson Rothbard
be sure to check your spam folder for replies, anonymity comes at a price.
Thanks for reading, Chris John Mallios!
So within a few hours of my request that people post links to the league city outsiders on the League City Politics is a Full Contact Sport Facebook group, Chris John Mallios updated the description of the group to read the following:
"Anonymous postings (or links to such sites) will be removed"
Chris John Mallios, I challenge you to take the following action(s)
Either:
(1) Change the name of your Facebook group to one of the following
a. League City Democrats
b. League City Green Team Propaganda Discussion Group
c. Friends of Chris John Mallios
d. Pat Hallisey's puppets
e. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, we're all brainwashed here
or
(2) Change the description of your group to read the following: This is a group where people who think like me and agree with me are allowed to discuss how much we all agree with each other WITHOUT profane language (for the most part) and cheap shots (unless they're directed towards our opponents). Everyone has an opinion so respect the opinion we all collectively hold or you will be shouted down. Remember 3 Things 1. League City is a place for us oldtimers who grew up here and nobody else. 2. it's nothing personal unless we don't like you 3. Politics is not life and death, but if you cross us we'll threaten your livelihood and challenge your manhood. Please do not advertise or spam, except to advertise for Pat Hallisey's indoctrination sessions, Mel Kelley's delusional recall efforts, or Green Team recruiting events. Anonymous postings are not allowed, but feel free to drop innuendos towards our opponents all you like. You shall never question the following lies I have told: 1. I, Chris John Mallios can track IPs from Facebook users (even though it's impossible and I, Chris John Mallios wouldn't have the faintest clue how to do it), and 2. This group is for League City residents only (you know, unless we agree with you - Holly Shelden of La Grange, for example - or you went to high school with Pat Hallisey - Gordon Vest for example -, in which case, comment away, while I will silence any actual residents of League City who happen to not want their real name used, or anyone who agrees with that kind of person.
If you refuse to make one of these changes, then you are admitting that you, sir, are the true coward. You are the one afraid of ideas. You are the one who is pretending to offer up to the community a "safe place" (there's another Democrat buzz word for you) to "debate" issues that matter to our community, when in reality, you're simply attempting to convince the rest of League City (the people that aren't as completely immersed in local politics as you are), that your ideas, and those of your like-minded individuals are the voice of the will of the people in an attempt to influence this election.
In light of Chris John Mallios's update to the description for his Facebook group - please do NOT post links to this blog on the group. Instead, if you find a question I raise to be one worthy of seeking answers from the regulars on his group, or if you find one of the comments to be one that they need to see, just summarize the point with a post on his group, or copy and paste the actual text instead of pasting a link.
"Anonymous postings (or links to such sites) will be removed"
Chris John Mallios, I challenge you to take the following action(s)
Either:
(1) Change the name of your Facebook group to one of the following
a. League City Democrats
b. League City Green Team Propaganda Discussion Group
c. Friends of Chris John Mallios
d. Pat Hallisey's puppets
e. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, we're all brainwashed here
or
(2) Change the description of your group to read the following: This is a group where people who think like me and agree with me are allowed to discuss how much we all agree with each other WITHOUT profane language (for the most part) and cheap shots (unless they're directed towards our opponents). Everyone has an opinion so respect the opinion we all collectively hold or you will be shouted down. Remember 3 Things 1. League City is a place for us oldtimers who grew up here and nobody else. 2. it's nothing personal unless we don't like you 3. Politics is not life and death, but if you cross us we'll threaten your livelihood and challenge your manhood. Please do not advertise or spam, except to advertise for Pat Hallisey's indoctrination sessions, Mel Kelley's delusional recall efforts, or Green Team recruiting events. Anonymous postings are not allowed, but feel free to drop innuendos towards our opponents all you like. You shall never question the following lies I have told: 1. I, Chris John Mallios can track IPs from Facebook users (even though it's impossible and I, Chris John Mallios wouldn't have the faintest clue how to do it), and 2. This group is for League City residents only (you know, unless we agree with you - Holly Shelden of La Grange, for example - or you went to high school with Pat Hallisey - Gordon Vest for example -, in which case, comment away, while I will silence any actual residents of League City who happen to not want their real name used, or anyone who agrees with that kind of person.
If you refuse to make one of these changes, then you are admitting that you, sir, are the true coward. You are the one afraid of ideas. You are the one who is pretending to offer up to the community a "safe place" (there's another Democrat buzz word for you) to "debate" issues that matter to our community, when in reality, you're simply attempting to convince the rest of League City (the people that aren't as completely immersed in local politics as you are), that your ideas, and those of your like-minded individuals are the voice of the will of the people in an attempt to influence this election.
In light of Chris John Mallios's update to the description for his Facebook group - please do NOT post links to this blog on the group. Instead, if you find a question I raise to be one worthy of seeking answers from the regulars on his group, or if you find one of the comments to be one that they need to see, just summarize the point with a post on his group, or copy and paste the actual text instead of pasting a link.
Contact Information & Request
Should anyone wish to reach me, you can email me at jefferson.rothbard@tuta.io .
If any of you Green Teamers wish to address my questions or respond to my positions, or let me know where you feel there is factual information on which I've been anything less than 100% truthful, and you don't want your fellow Green Teamers to know that you actually engaged with the "deceiver" from "never never land", I won't even let anyone know that you contacted me if that's your desire.
I realize this will bring the wrath of Turski down on you; however, if anyone is brave enough to endure that verbal shellacking, please start posting links to the blog on the League City Politics is a Full Contact Sport Facebook group any time you see a new one up. I don't want anyone to have the excuse of ignorance when challenged as to why they didn't respond to my questions and concerns.
Also, please share links to the blog with as many Facebook groups as you can that have anything to do with League City and Galveston county - we need to get the word out to everyone that the Green Team is NOT the team that represents the will of the people.
If any of you Green Teamers wish to address my questions or respond to my positions, or let me know where you feel there is factual information on which I've been anything less than 100% truthful, and you don't want your fellow Green Teamers to know that you actually engaged with the "deceiver" from "never never land", I won't even let anyone know that you contacted me if that's your desire.
I realize this will bring the wrath of Turski down on you; however, if anyone is brave enough to endure that verbal shellacking, please start posting links to the blog on the League City Politics is a Full Contact Sport Facebook group any time you see a new one up. I don't want anyone to have the excuse of ignorance when challenged as to why they didn't respond to my questions and concerns.
Also, please share links to the blog with as many Facebook groups as you can that have anything to do with League City and Galveston county - we need to get the word out to everyone that the Green Team is NOT the team that represents the will of the people.
Tuesday, October 18, 2016
League City Politics - Real Context (Not Just History)
I had so many thoughts over the last 24 hours regarding what this post should cover. Initially I started with a desire to clarify a few things and thank a few people. Then I thought about criticizing the superior level of decorum displayed on the League City Politics is a Full Contact Sport Facebook group last night by Bill Heins. But then that all changed today... I decided to do all of that, but more importantly, to highlight what the City Council election this year really means. Because after all, genuine substance trumps the silly games that pass for politics over with the Green Team crowd on League City Politics is a Full Contact sport.
So first, let's get some clarifications and thank yous out of the way. Byram Lass - thank you for honestly pointing out how misguided Yvonne Tibai was with her whole Debbie Drury lives in Kemah mess. And yes, you ultimately did correct the rest of the clowns regarding Brenton Spry's address, but my post was still 100% correct in that Marc Edelman and Mick Phalen have been stirring up their own breed of half-truths and distortions. So, congratulations, you actually got something right for once. Of course, you still have YET to show ANYTHING that I've said to be a half-truth. Please do, or stop claiming anything I've said is anywhere short of the truth. Also, thanks for reading the blog! But seriously, if you're going to try to answer someones question about a specific factually correct or incorrect statement, you really should address that statement, not the merits of the author of the page where that statement was a comment by someone else. You mad, bro?
Now, let's just address Bill Heins quickly. You posted a less than exemplary photo of Debbie Drury. I'm sure you've done far worse things in your time, and I'm also 100% certain that that photo has absolutely NOTHING to do with how Debbie Drury would perform on City Council. It stinks of grasping at straws. Posting like that also showed poor judgment, and I'm certainly relieved to know that you are NOT on the ethics board any longer, as you clearly have a complete lack of personal ethics.
Okay, and now on to something that actually matters. Holly Shelden likes to claim that anyone who disagrees with her knows "nothing of LC politics, the players and history". Well, Holly, we don't need a lesson in history that goes back to the times when Bill Heins "studied girls at Texas A&M", we don't even have to go back to the last time Pat O'Hallisey actually had a full-time paying job. I've actually found a GREAT piece of writing that accurately and succinctly describes the two factions which are vying for power in League City with the election this fall, as it's the same two factions that went to battle back in the Spring. This website post (http://rrhelections.com/index.php/2016/03/16/league-city-mayoral-preview/) , written by Daniel Surman, who I assume is the same Danny Surman who has posted on the League City Politics is a Full Contact Sport page, clearly predicted the outcome of the mayoral election through analysis of the candidates support base. For those who don't feel like clicking on the link and reading, let me summarize, there are two factions in League City. In one corner, you have the Tea Party aligned with the Chamber of Commerce, interesting in attracting businesses to League City in an effort to shift the burden of funding the infrastructure and operations of this city to outsiders (through retail sales tax revenue increases) instead of the resident homeowners, and this corner holds most of the current City Council. In the other corner, you have the old-timers who are seeking to preserve their idealized, nostalgic image of League City from their youth by preventing progress and improvement. This group is currently headed up by the mayor, Pat Hallisey. The post then predicted that the anti-improvement group would likely win the special election for Mayor, as the old-timers are much more likely to turn out for a special mayoral election that has nothing else contested on the ballot. However, if you read his analysis of the current demographics in League City - there's ZERO reason for this group to expect a positive outcome in a YUUUUGE general election that has a Presidential race on the ballot. Moving beyond this analysis, the Green Team laughingly has made such claims as Justin Gripon's, "a overwhelming support from the community as a whole that support political change to steer our city towards a planned sustainable future." Ignoring that even the bulk of the support for the Green Team is really just anti-business and seeking to keep their oak trees around, and ignoring your party-line progressive Democrat terms like "sustainable", please keep in mind that y'all exist in an echo chamber. You are CONSTANTLY surrounded by the same group of ~20 people who all think like you. You've misinterpreted the echos of their single-minded comments as widespread support. You don't have that. But we'll let the election results explain that concept to you.
Now, how should one choose a side in this election. Let's start by explaining which side is which. The Green Team (Gripon, Millican, and Salcedo) are the anti-business old-timers. These people want to keep League City as they have idealized it. A small town, with a bunch of oak trees, them, their families, and their kind here. None of these new people who've moved in as the population doubled since the turn of the century, just the oldtimers. Much like the make-up of the national Democrat party, this faction is largely made up of the lower class and the upper class of League City residents. And that makes sense, the lower class is nervous about being priced out of the area as values will go up with additional development. The lower class is fine with the city being funded by property taxes, as they don't pay that much property tax regardless. The lower class loves getting the benefits of living in a nice area, as long as someone else is funding it. The upper class wants to preserve their green space at all costs, because they can afford it. But this city is mostly made up of the middle class and the upper-middle class. These are the people who will pay the costs for operating and maintaining this city, as they are paying the bulk of the property taxes. These are the people who will be benefited by attracting businesses to League City, which would increase the tax revenue from retail sales taxes, and enable the city to lower our property taxes. The faction that is supporting this effort to attract business, and accepts the reality that this area is GOING to develop, whether we like it or not, and is willing to address this by steering it along in a direction that benefits the residents (ALL the residents, not just the old-timers) is the faction that the Green Team opposes (Drury, Kinsey, Spry).
So, as Marc Edelman made clear, if you want to save some oak trees at all costs, and you're okay with high property taxes and hopey-changey sustainable liberalism, vote for the Green Team. Just know this - this area is GOING to grow, it's GOING to get developed, and at best you'll be delaying the inevitable, and I ask, at what cost?
If you support lower property taxes, you want to shift the costs of operating this city and improving our infrastructure to non-residents who come to our town to shop, and you want a city council that will be proactive to get ahead of the development and ensure our city remains competitive with surrounding towns at attracting the businesses that will drive retail sales tax revenue, then oppose the Green Team and vote for Drury, Kinsey, and Spry.
My apologies to Brian Brown, he isn't actually a member of either faction; however, the amount of brown-nosing of the Green Team cheerleaders he has done on the League City Politics is a Full Contact Sport Facebook group is shameful, so I guess he can be lumped in with that group by his personal choice more than for his actual positions.
So first, let's get some clarifications and thank yous out of the way. Byram Lass - thank you for honestly pointing out how misguided Yvonne Tibai was with her whole Debbie Drury lives in Kemah mess. And yes, you ultimately did correct the rest of the clowns regarding Brenton Spry's address, but my post was still 100% correct in that Marc Edelman and Mick Phalen have been stirring up their own breed of half-truths and distortions. So, congratulations, you actually got something right for once. Of course, you still have YET to show ANYTHING that I've said to be a half-truth. Please do, or stop claiming anything I've said is anywhere short of the truth. Also, thanks for reading the blog! But seriously, if you're going to try to answer someones question about a specific factually correct or incorrect statement, you really should address that statement, not the merits of the author of the page where that statement was a comment by someone else. You mad, bro?
Now, let's just address Bill Heins quickly. You posted a less than exemplary photo of Debbie Drury. I'm sure you've done far worse things in your time, and I'm also 100% certain that that photo has absolutely NOTHING to do with how Debbie Drury would perform on City Council. It stinks of grasping at straws. Posting like that also showed poor judgment, and I'm certainly relieved to know that you are NOT on the ethics board any longer, as you clearly have a complete lack of personal ethics.
Okay, and now on to something that actually matters. Holly Shelden likes to claim that anyone who disagrees with her knows "nothing of LC politics, the players and history". Well, Holly, we don't need a lesson in history that goes back to the times when Bill Heins "studied girls at Texas A&M", we don't even have to go back to the last time Pat O'Hallisey actually had a full-time paying job. I've actually found a GREAT piece of writing that accurately and succinctly describes the two factions which are vying for power in League City with the election this fall, as it's the same two factions that went to battle back in the Spring. This website post (http://rrhelections.com/index.php/2016/03/16/league-city-mayoral-preview/) , written by Daniel Surman, who I assume is the same Danny Surman who has posted on the League City Politics is a Full Contact Sport page, clearly predicted the outcome of the mayoral election through analysis of the candidates support base. For those who don't feel like clicking on the link and reading, let me summarize, there are two factions in League City. In one corner, you have the Tea Party aligned with the Chamber of Commerce, interesting in attracting businesses to League City in an effort to shift the burden of funding the infrastructure and operations of this city to outsiders (through retail sales tax revenue increases) instead of the resident homeowners, and this corner holds most of the current City Council. In the other corner, you have the old-timers who are seeking to preserve their idealized, nostalgic image of League City from their youth by preventing progress and improvement. This group is currently headed up by the mayor, Pat Hallisey. The post then predicted that the anti-improvement group would likely win the special election for Mayor, as the old-timers are much more likely to turn out for a special mayoral election that has nothing else contested on the ballot. However, if you read his analysis of the current demographics in League City - there's ZERO reason for this group to expect a positive outcome in a YUUUUGE general election that has a Presidential race on the ballot. Moving beyond this analysis, the Green Team laughingly has made such claims as Justin Gripon's, "a overwhelming support from the community as a whole that support political change to steer our city towards a planned sustainable future." Ignoring that even the bulk of the support for the Green Team is really just anti-business and seeking to keep their oak trees around, and ignoring your party-line progressive Democrat terms like "sustainable", please keep in mind that y'all exist in an echo chamber. You are CONSTANTLY surrounded by the same group of ~20 people who all think like you. You've misinterpreted the echos of their single-minded comments as widespread support. You don't have that. But we'll let the election results explain that concept to you.
Now, how should one choose a side in this election. Let's start by explaining which side is which. The Green Team (Gripon, Millican, and Salcedo) are the anti-business old-timers. These people want to keep League City as they have idealized it. A small town, with a bunch of oak trees, them, their families, and their kind here. None of these new people who've moved in as the population doubled since the turn of the century, just the oldtimers. Much like the make-up of the national Democrat party, this faction is largely made up of the lower class and the upper class of League City residents. And that makes sense, the lower class is nervous about being priced out of the area as values will go up with additional development. The lower class is fine with the city being funded by property taxes, as they don't pay that much property tax regardless. The lower class loves getting the benefits of living in a nice area, as long as someone else is funding it. The upper class wants to preserve their green space at all costs, because they can afford it. But this city is mostly made up of the middle class and the upper-middle class. These are the people who will pay the costs for operating and maintaining this city, as they are paying the bulk of the property taxes. These are the people who will be benefited by attracting businesses to League City, which would increase the tax revenue from retail sales taxes, and enable the city to lower our property taxes. The faction that is supporting this effort to attract business, and accepts the reality that this area is GOING to develop, whether we like it or not, and is willing to address this by steering it along in a direction that benefits the residents (ALL the residents, not just the old-timers) is the faction that the Green Team opposes (Drury, Kinsey, Spry).
So, as Marc Edelman made clear, if you want to save some oak trees at all costs, and you're okay with high property taxes and hopey-changey sustainable liberalism, vote for the Green Team. Just know this - this area is GOING to grow, it's GOING to get developed, and at best you'll be delaying the inevitable, and I ask, at what cost?
If you support lower property taxes, you want to shift the costs of operating this city and improving our infrastructure to non-residents who come to our town to shop, and you want a city council that will be proactive to get ahead of the development and ensure our city remains competitive with surrounding towns at attracting the businesses that will drive retail sales tax revenue, then oppose the Green Team and vote for Drury, Kinsey, and Spry.
My apologies to Brian Brown, he isn't actually a member of either faction; however, the amount of brown-nosing of the Green Team cheerleaders he has done on the League City Politics is a Full Contact Sport Facebook group is shameful, so I guess he can be lumped in with that group by his personal choice more than for his actual positions.
Sunday, October 16, 2016
League City Weekend Update - Politics as Usual
While the Green Team likes to claim they're attempting to restore civility to League City politics, and pretend they are somehow an alternative to the factions that have controlled this city longer than I can remember. They claim they aren't tied to developer money, despite the fact that their lord and savior, Pat O'Hallisey sure has taken plenty of developer money over the years. But really, it's more of politics as usual. Disappointed Democrats, sad to see this region turn red in the last 20 years, and some bitter RINO's have formed a coalition of smarminess and deceit. They think they can trick the rest of the population into voting for their candidates by cashing in on the general anti-incumbent sentiment that is popular in our country right now. But the fact is, the people of League City are smarter than these clowns assume (and smarter than most of the clowns, in fact). The Green Team Progaganda Front (Facebook group League City Politics is a Full Contact Sport) moves seemingly rudderless from rant to rant in hopes of latching onto any possible current discussion as a means to further their anti-Council agenda. Here's my take on the latest discussions they've had
Campaign Finance Reports
Always exciting reads, especially at the local level, Marc Edelman and Mick Phalen have lead the surge to continue the smear politics of discrediting council candidates because they have received funding from developers. However, they seem to ignore that, while true that Kinsey got the biggest single donation from a builder, Salcedo and Gripon both got $1,000 donations from Jeff Payson, a builder (Cervelle Homes). One shouldn't throw stones from glass houses. Then they latched onto a discussion that only tin foil hat conspiracy theorists would find interesting at all, and launched into hypothesizing why Brenton Spry's address would be listed in Kemah when he donated to Debbie Drury's campaign. As verified by Mr. Spry's neighbors, it's clear he lives in League City now; however, if you clowns have nothing better to do than worry about this listing, have fun. Personally, I found it MUCH more interesting to note the following: Greg Gripon failed to list the occupation or employer for ANY of his donors whatsoever. Pat Hallisey who hasn't had a paying job that wasn't tied to the city or county in longer than I'm able to find record managed to scrape together $1,100 to fund his puppet for council, and Larry Millican is apparently wealthy enough to loan his campaign a lot of money. But ultimately, none of that matters to me. You see, I'm more concerned about the path forward each candidate envisions for this city, how they plan to vote on investing in this city, and how their plans will impact my wallet.
Parking Garages and Other Improvements
Oh the shortsightedness of the Green Team, it would be laughable if they didn't have a real chance of gaining control of our city government. You clowns rant and rant about the parking garage being proposed as a part of the downtown revitalization plan. However, all of your arguments are based on a few invalid assumptions:
1. The parking garage isn't needed and won't be utilized
2. The parking garage is going to cost $10mil to the taxpayers of League City
3. The parking garage will negatively impact the surrounding businesses
4. The parking garage is tying up funds that could be used to solve a wealth of potential other challenges faced by League City.
Let's address each of these. I, personally, have avoided many city functions at League Park due to the lack of available parking. When I have made it to these events, outside of the humor of Karl Wankowicz hanging out at the Meet the Mayor tents, despite being neither an elected representative of this city nor a city staffer, I have noticed that there are people parking in lawns up and down all the side streets in the area of League Park. A parking garage could help these homeowners avoid this hassle
The cost to League City residents is going to be substantially lower than the total cost of the project - as the plan is to get grant money to cover 80% of the cost. This is essentially a net return to the people of League City some of the federal tax dollars we've all involuntarily contributed. I for one would love to see some of my Fed tax dollars come back to this town instead of being pumped into Obama's programs and other towns.
Surrounding businesses will see a boost in business thanks to the added businesses that will be surrounding the parking garage. Spillover effect is real (just ask Karl how many more friends he has since he's latched onto Pat Hallisey's coattails).
But the last point is the ultimate one, and it highlights how shortsighted the anti-progress Green Team is being - given that 80% of the funding would come from the Feds, only the 20% of the cost could be freed up for other projects. The whole purpose of this parking garage is an investment in the city that will boost retail sales tax and hotel occupancy tax in the future, thus funding FAR more projects than the 20% investment in a parking garage would fund. And it just might bring in enough money that in the future our tax rates could be lowered. Funny how y'all on the Green Team fail to see this, yet then rant that the city didn't lower tax rates the fractions of percentage this year to decrease the unanticipated increase in revenue based on increasing appraised values.
Latest Galveston Daily News Article
Former Mayor Tim Paulissen, it's truly amazing you didn't win your election for County Commissioner, given just how slimy of a politician you truly are. I wanted to give you the benefit of the doubt. I wanted to believe you the whole time you were Mayor. But your alliance with the Green Team and the massive amounts of spin with which you've distorted your commentary on current events has taken away that benefit. Much like I pointed out on the blog earlier, when you tried to pretend that the 2010 propositions showed a public in support of a strong-mayor form of government (which I very clearly explained wasn't the case at all, and to which you have yet to respond, choosing instead to simply drop the discussion as if it never happened), your interpretation now of the Galveston Daily News article regarding the Mayor trying to research the nature of the exit of city staff in recent years borders between comedy and super-slimy spin. Let's break down your comments (reference the bottom of this post), and those of the people who responded to you bit by bit (since that's how I like to do things, baby steps, so the simpletons of Team Green can follow along like a color by numbers picture).
1. Mr. Mallios wants to praise you for admitting you were wrong. But I don't think you actually regret anything you've ever done, I think you just didn't anticipate you were hiring someone with a backbone that would stand up to your team, and now you're saddened to see that there is pushback.
2. The City Council still controls the vision. While the CM has clearly submitted many thoughts that the council has implemented, that doesn't mean he's controlling the vision. If I were on council in a council-manager form of government, I would EXPECT my city manager to present me with plans, ideas, options that should contribute to the vision. Otherwise, he would just be a city administrator at best. But of course, you are still bitter that you weren't a "strong-mayor", and you're saddened that your buddy Pat isn't one now. Much harder to reap the benefits of a spoils system for your political machine when there is a professional and skilled City Manager gumming up the works, eh?
3. While high turnover is disappointing in general, and often points to there being an issue, I love that former mayor Paulissen and the LCPIAFCS clowns have jumped to assuming the problem is the City Manager. Here's some other equally valid possibilities that y'all are ignoring
One further topic was brought up in an attempt to discredit the city manager while y'all were commenting on the former mayor's post, and it also needs clarification. Kimberly Patrick Harmon brought up that the City Manager brought forward the study regarding the parking garage for vote with one bid. Brian Brown, in his eagerness to demonstrate his lack of Google skills, jumped on the bandwagon and cited Texas local government code requirements for purchases, and then Byram Lass chimed in with some NASA-geek non-related nonsense. Let's clear all of that up:
1) There is no requirement for professional services to seek multiple bids if any of the list of exemptions in section 252.022 apply (Brian Brown, you should have read further down, assuming you got your information from www.statues.legis.state.tx.us/SOTWDocs/LG/htm/LG.252.htm ) - you're looking for section 252.022 (4)a procurement for personal, professional, or planning services.
2) If you had paid any attention to the deputy city manager, they don't even know anyone else to contact for bids to perform such a study.
There's nothing nefarious going on here, but you can keep your tin foil hats on, if you like.
3) Kimberly Patrick Harmon - as presented at the council meeting, the bill for this study was under $200k. Please explain why you interpret this as "nearly a million dollar expense".
When y'all lie, exaggerate, and spin in this manner, all you're doing is making your Green Team look petty and dishonest.
Reference - Tim Paulissen's comments from the LCPIAFCS group, on Friday, October 14th, 4:59 PM:
"Just finished the story on the front page of the Galveston County Daily News and it brings to mind a question that I asked Mr. Rohr in the beginning about the rumor that he comes in and runs off all the staff. He assured me that he would not be the case. Fast forward to today, and the city has gone through lots of staff. He needs to go. My biggest mistake was saying okay to his hiring. Credit to Mr. OKeefe, everyone pressured him to give him the green light, he had big reservations. Can't remember if Mr OKeefe voted for him or not. To everyone who reads this, my apologies. He is supposed to run day-to-Day, not run the vision. That governance policy is BS and we all know that. Vote for the green team, so we will have the votes to send him packing!"
Campaign Finance Reports
Always exciting reads, especially at the local level, Marc Edelman and Mick Phalen have lead the surge to continue the smear politics of discrediting council candidates because they have received funding from developers. However, they seem to ignore that, while true that Kinsey got the biggest single donation from a builder, Salcedo and Gripon both got $1,000 donations from Jeff Payson, a builder (Cervelle Homes). One shouldn't throw stones from glass houses. Then they latched onto a discussion that only tin foil hat conspiracy theorists would find interesting at all, and launched into hypothesizing why Brenton Spry's address would be listed in Kemah when he donated to Debbie Drury's campaign. As verified by Mr. Spry's neighbors, it's clear he lives in League City now; however, if you clowns have nothing better to do than worry about this listing, have fun. Personally, I found it MUCH more interesting to note the following: Greg Gripon failed to list the occupation or employer for ANY of his donors whatsoever. Pat Hallisey who hasn't had a paying job that wasn't tied to the city or county in longer than I'm able to find record managed to scrape together $1,100 to fund his puppet for council, and Larry Millican is apparently wealthy enough to loan his campaign a lot of money. But ultimately, none of that matters to me. You see, I'm more concerned about the path forward each candidate envisions for this city, how they plan to vote on investing in this city, and how their plans will impact my wallet.
Parking Garages and Other Improvements
Oh the shortsightedness of the Green Team, it would be laughable if they didn't have a real chance of gaining control of our city government. You clowns rant and rant about the parking garage being proposed as a part of the downtown revitalization plan. However, all of your arguments are based on a few invalid assumptions:
1. The parking garage isn't needed and won't be utilized
2. The parking garage is going to cost $10mil to the taxpayers of League City
3. The parking garage will negatively impact the surrounding businesses
4. The parking garage is tying up funds that could be used to solve a wealth of potential other challenges faced by League City.
Let's address each of these. I, personally, have avoided many city functions at League Park due to the lack of available parking. When I have made it to these events, outside of the humor of Karl Wankowicz hanging out at the Meet the Mayor tents, despite being neither an elected representative of this city nor a city staffer, I have noticed that there are people parking in lawns up and down all the side streets in the area of League Park. A parking garage could help these homeowners avoid this hassle
The cost to League City residents is going to be substantially lower than the total cost of the project - as the plan is to get grant money to cover 80% of the cost. This is essentially a net return to the people of League City some of the federal tax dollars we've all involuntarily contributed. I for one would love to see some of my Fed tax dollars come back to this town instead of being pumped into Obama's programs and other towns.
Surrounding businesses will see a boost in business thanks to the added businesses that will be surrounding the parking garage. Spillover effect is real (just ask Karl how many more friends he has since he's latched onto Pat Hallisey's coattails).
But the last point is the ultimate one, and it highlights how shortsighted the anti-progress Green Team is being - given that 80% of the funding would come from the Feds, only the 20% of the cost could be freed up for other projects. The whole purpose of this parking garage is an investment in the city that will boost retail sales tax and hotel occupancy tax in the future, thus funding FAR more projects than the 20% investment in a parking garage would fund. And it just might bring in enough money that in the future our tax rates could be lowered. Funny how y'all on the Green Team fail to see this, yet then rant that the city didn't lower tax rates the fractions of percentage this year to decrease the unanticipated increase in revenue based on increasing appraised values.
Latest Galveston Daily News Article
Former Mayor Tim Paulissen, it's truly amazing you didn't win your election for County Commissioner, given just how slimy of a politician you truly are. I wanted to give you the benefit of the doubt. I wanted to believe you the whole time you were Mayor. But your alliance with the Green Team and the massive amounts of spin with which you've distorted your commentary on current events has taken away that benefit. Much like I pointed out on the blog earlier, when you tried to pretend that the 2010 propositions showed a public in support of a strong-mayor form of government (which I very clearly explained wasn't the case at all, and to which you have yet to respond, choosing instead to simply drop the discussion as if it never happened), your interpretation now of the Galveston Daily News article regarding the Mayor trying to research the nature of the exit of city staff in recent years borders between comedy and super-slimy spin. Let's break down your comments (reference the bottom of this post), and those of the people who responded to you bit by bit (since that's how I like to do things, baby steps, so the simpletons of Team Green can follow along like a color by numbers picture).
1. Mr. Mallios wants to praise you for admitting you were wrong. But I don't think you actually regret anything you've ever done, I think you just didn't anticipate you were hiring someone with a backbone that would stand up to your team, and now you're saddened to see that there is pushback.
2. The City Council still controls the vision. While the CM has clearly submitted many thoughts that the council has implemented, that doesn't mean he's controlling the vision. If I were on council in a council-manager form of government, I would EXPECT my city manager to present me with plans, ideas, options that should contribute to the vision. Otherwise, he would just be a city administrator at best. But of course, you are still bitter that you weren't a "strong-mayor", and you're saddened that your buddy Pat isn't one now. Much harder to reap the benefits of a spoils system for your political machine when there is a professional and skilled City Manager gumming up the works, eh?
3. While high turnover is disappointing in general, and often points to there being an issue, I love that former mayor Paulissen and the LCPIAFCS clowns have jumped to assuming the problem is the City Manager. Here's some other equally valid possibilities that y'all are ignoring
- The Mayor! Considering that just last week at the council meeting, Mr. Dill (who serves on the Finance Committee) had to once again remind the Mayor that no member of council should be running around on their own getting involved in the day-to-day operations of the city, obstructing the duties of the city staff, and causing problems, it would be seriously negligent to ignore the Mayor's role in staff turnover in League City! And while we're on the Mayor - who was the source that triggered this article in the Galveston Daily News? Given that the City Manager refused to comment, I highly doubt this was his doing (as Mr. Brown wants to believe). Given that the first sentence mentions the Mayor's name, and the first quote is attributed to him, I find it VERY likely he is contacting the paper, trying to spin his latest witch hunt effort to come off as Pat O'Hallisey, the Great Irish Protector of League City, which is not only highly unprofessional, particularly as this article is starting to get into HR issues, which should never be aired as dirty laundry, but also further demonstration of his desire to violate the City Charter which provides for a council-manager form of government. I bet the council is having second thoughts about their vote to NOT pursue action on the complaint about the mayor. And while we're on the topic of inappropriate involvement, why is the mayor's wife advertising HR issues (informing the LCPIAFCS clowns that the HR director is gone as of Thursday) and then promising to find out if the HR director was fired or resigned. First of all, if our city is run at all like a business, that type of information shouldn't be given out to anyone (much like an employer would only confirm whether someone previously worked for them or not) and only would reveal the nature of someones break with the employer should they be given permission to do so. Mrs. O'Hallisey - you were NOT elected by the people, please stay out of the day to day operations of our city.
- You Clowns on LCPIAFCS - The turnover seems to be the highest at the highest levels of city staffing. These are the people who are required to attend the City Council meetings. If I had to sit there with a straight face while clowns came in and complained about the mayor's office not being fancy enough, or our logo being sailboats instead of oak trees, or any of the multitude of ridiculous things that Heins, Barr, Mallios, Wankowicz, and Lass like to complain about, I'd be looking for a new job too!
- Political Volatility - Given the amount of disgust which you clowns show for the city staff and the way you are headhunting the City Manager and the City Attorney, the city staff are probably all terrified of what would happen should the Green Team take power in the next election. Concerns about stability would lead many to seek other opportunities for employment.
- Asking too much for too little. I've pointed out in numerous other posts that the clowns backing the Green Team have expectations that clearly nobody could ever meet, given the completely illogical pairing of such keep-my-taxes-low-at-all-costs types like John Bowen and Mick Phalen, with the tax-and-spend liberals like Chris John Mallios and all the special interests like the Dog Park Kelley's, and perhaps the same has happened with our city staff. We're wanting them to accomplish massive amounts of work and not rewarding them accordingly. When you work a lot for too little pay, you look for a new opportunity.
One further topic was brought up in an attempt to discredit the city manager while y'all were commenting on the former mayor's post, and it also needs clarification. Kimberly Patrick Harmon brought up that the City Manager brought forward the study regarding the parking garage for vote with one bid. Brian Brown, in his eagerness to demonstrate his lack of Google skills, jumped on the bandwagon and cited Texas local government code requirements for purchases, and then Byram Lass chimed in with some NASA-geek non-related nonsense. Let's clear all of that up:
1) There is no requirement for professional services to seek multiple bids if any of the list of exemptions in section 252.022 apply (Brian Brown, you should have read further down, assuming you got your information from www.statues.legis.state.tx.us/SOTWDocs/LG/htm/LG.252.htm ) - you're looking for section 252.022 (4)a procurement for personal, professional, or planning services.
2) If you had paid any attention to the deputy city manager, they don't even know anyone else to contact for bids to perform such a study.
There's nothing nefarious going on here, but you can keep your tin foil hats on, if you like.
3) Kimberly Patrick Harmon - as presented at the council meeting, the bill for this study was under $200k. Please explain why you interpret this as "nearly a million dollar expense".
When y'all lie, exaggerate, and spin in this manner, all you're doing is making your Green Team look petty and dishonest.
Reference - Tim Paulissen's comments from the LCPIAFCS group, on Friday, October 14th, 4:59 PM:
"Just finished the story on the front page of the Galveston County Daily News and it brings to mind a question that I asked Mr. Rohr in the beginning about the rumor that he comes in and runs off all the staff. He assured me that he would not be the case. Fast forward to today, and the city has gone through lots of staff. He needs to go. My biggest mistake was saying okay to his hiring. Credit to Mr. OKeefe, everyone pressured him to give him the green light, he had big reservations. Can't remember if Mr OKeefe voted for him or not. To everyone who reads this, my apologies. He is supposed to run day-to-Day, not run the vision. That governance policy is BS and we all know that. Vote for the green team, so we will have the votes to send him packing!"
Thursday, October 13, 2016
Hate-filled Venom of Half-truths and Innuendo
Okay, supersleuths over on League City Politics is a Full Contact Sport. Since Byram Lass likes to refer to this blog as hate-filled venom of half-truths and innuendo... here's your challenge. As far as I can tell I've posted the following: facts, questions, and subjective opinions. It's up to you if you want to believe my opinions are "hate-filled". I view it more as full of disgust... mostly disgust at the hate with which y'all treat our elected council members and the city staff, your nearly complete lack of logic or rational thinking, and your attempt to shout down anyone who doesn't agree with you. However, I'm a human and prone to error - so here's your challenge - point out anything I've said that is a "half-truth" or an "innuendo". I'll either retract my statement or show you how you're wrong.
Moving on, let's talk about something that your group keeps bringing up that is completely untrue - the mayor's office. The mayor, in fact, has an office. Y'all were called out (by a real person no less!) to meet at City Hall tomorrow, and your peanut gallery turned into a cricket farm. Jake Lass, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps you've been sold a lie by Pat Hallisey and his most ardent cheerleaders (his wife and the Kelleys). Perhaps you truly don't realize they're lying to you (after all, why would your friends lie?!). Why don't you take Mr. Heimlich up on his request to meet at City Hall and find out. Then y'all can finally put this myth to bed. #MythBustersLeagueCityEdition
Moving on, let's talk about something that your group keeps bringing up that is completely untrue - the mayor's office. The mayor, in fact, has an office. Y'all were called out (by a real person no less!) to meet at City Hall tomorrow, and your peanut gallery turned into a cricket farm. Jake Lass, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps you've been sold a lie by Pat Hallisey and his most ardent cheerleaders (his wife and the Kelleys). Perhaps you truly don't realize they're lying to you (after all, why would your friends lie?!). Why don't you take Mr. Heimlich up on his request to meet at City Hall and find out. Then y'all can finally put this myth to bed. #MythBustersLeagueCityEdition
Tuesday, October 11, 2016
League City Must Have a Jump to Conclusions Mat
I thought I was done for the night after the lengthy post earlier... but I can't resist commenting on this: Marc Edelman has lost his mind, and all it took was a parking garage to push him over the edge. He's created three separate threads today alone complaining about the parking garage that's part of the proposed Downtown Revitalization effort. But the latest thread really takes the cake for busting out a jump to conclusions mat. Given Marc's history with city politics, I find it rather hard to believe he's truly as clueless as his post makes it seem. Much like continuing to share the deceitful sign from a previous election that falsely claimed the Democrats were endorsing Heidi Hansing and Geri Bentley, I wonder just how much of what Edelman writes isn't simple ignorance but actual deceitfulness. Here's his post:
"So let me get this straight, we are going to build a parking garage to revitalize the old downtown area, however the majority of the parking spaces are going to have to be reserved for a park and ride so we can get the federal government to pay for 80% of the cost. Then the majority of the parking spaces are going to be available at night when the majority of the adjacent businesses are closed, but we are going to have to create a new tax called a Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ) to levy against all the adjacent businesses to help pay for the 20% of the cost that the federal government will not cover. Then there will be some ground floor shops built into the parking gareage to increase revenue to the city who will compete with the businesses who will pay taxes to subsidize these new businesses rent. All I can say is wow."
Please keep in mind, I'm not entirely sold on the parking garage yet; however, I'm not opposed to it yet. I don't have enough information about it yet to have an opinion on it, and I'd like to know more about what the anticipated economic benefit is, the margins of error on that estimate, etc. But then again, I'm a rational person, which isn't something I can say for sure about Marc at this point. That being said, this post needs to be analyzed line by line.
"So let me get this straight, we are going to build a parking garage to revitalize the old downtown area, however the majority of the parking spaces are going to have to be reserved for a park and ride so we can get the federal government to pay for 80% of the cost. "
- Yes, getting the federal money requires this parking garage to be used for more than a place to park when the city hosts events in the parks downtown. Setting it aside for a park and ride would meet the qualifications. This is an opportunity for League City to get back some of the money the residents pay to the Feds instead of all our money being shipped off to other cities/countries. Sounds great to me. There's nothing "Libertarian" about failing to make use of programs that the Fed has set up simply because you disagree with the programs. League City residents wouldn't be getting a refund of Federal taxes if we don't get this money from the Feds.
" Then the majority of the parking spaces are going to be available at night when the majority of the adjacent businesses are closed, but we are going to have to create a new tax called a Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ) to levy against all the adjacent businesses to help pay for the 20% of the cost that the federal government will not cover. "
- Nights, weekends, holidays the parking spaces would be available to residents and visitors for any use. This part of the statement is true. These are also the times when most shopping and dining are done. These are also the times when the city likes to host events at the parks (like the 4th of July event). In other words, these are the times when the additional parking would be needed. Your statement is predicated upon the assumption you made that this is "when the majority of the adjacent businesses are closed". Please clarify which businesses you are referring to. The desire is to create a hotbed for restaurants and retail shops, all of which would likely be open at night (you know, when us productive members of society are typically free from the entanglement we lovingly refer to as "work").
- You pretend ignorance about how a TIRZ functions, and I find it hard to believe. The council discussed this to a level that could best be described as beating a dead horse, and you were previously on the Planning and Zoning commission, so I highly doubt you can be so ignorant as to think of the TIRZ as a new tax being levied. It should more accurately be described as an allocation of taxes to be spent closer to home. It's no additional tax rate on the properties. It's not an increase in appraised value on the properties. It's simply earmarking any future tax increases due to appraisal increases to go towards development in that area. Some have pointed out that the County has tended to oppose creation of TIRZ as if that's an argument to oppose it. That's a good thing, and of course the county will oppose it - it's robbing them of added revenue in the future by earmarking the funds for the TIRZ to be used only in that location. No more shipping money to the island from League City. Sounds great to me. Please comment if you can dispute this explanation of a TIRZ.
"Then there will be some ground floor shops built into the parking gareage to increase revenue to the city who will compete with the businesses who will pay taxes to subsidize these new businesses rent. "
- Yes, ground floor shops will increase revenue to the city - giving the city the opportunity to fund infrastructure and improvements throughout the city without increasing our taxes. Sounds good ot me... yet you've deceptively implied that neighboring businesses will be subsidizing the rent for the new businesses. First, you assume that these will be "new" businesses, and ignore the possibility that existing local businesses might move into these locations. Perhaps a second location of Barry's Bistro would be perfect in one of these slots. Secondly, you assume that the city (or whoever ends up being the landlord, I believe that part of the plan is not fully developed yet) will be subsidizing the rent. Pretty sure the rent from these retail shops will be subsidizing the parking garage, not the other way around. Not to mention they'd ALSO be contributing retail sales tax revenue. If anything, these neighboring businesses will be getting a very low cost boost to business from the added amount of potential customers brought in by the additional businesses (few people visit just one shop on a shopping trip), and the city has figured out a way to get the Feds to foot 80% of the investment.
"All I can say is wow."
- Well, on this one we agree.
And yet, after all this nonsense, you clown on League City Politics is a Full Contact Sport ate this crap up. Here's a sampling of the brilliant replies:
Holly Shelden: "The city has lost their mind! Something is very fish"
- Yes, Holly, the deceitful post from Marc was VERY fishy!!
Byram Lass: "You 'll need a lot of drinking establishments to pay that bill. Which means a lot of people stumbling out onto 518. That won't last long"
- Byram, I seriously am amazed at your ability to waffle between theocratic fascist and self-professed Libertarian. Talk about jumping to conclusions... 1) Why would you need bars, sorry, "drinking establishments" to generate tax revenue? Retail shops, coffee shops, restaurants, even Upcycling Boutiques all generate tax revenue, why do you assume it needs to be "drinking establishments"? 2) Most all "drinking establishments" in the area are located near major roadways... I've yet to see people "stumbling out onto" the streets. Where have you witnessed this, please let me know, I'm going to bring some popcorn and enjoy the show this weekend.
Cara Herr: "Stupidest thing they can do. This is ridiculous. They are off their rockers. More wasted tax dollars and space. Just stop building anything for a while. Quit ruining league city. We used to love this town... now it's hard to when its over populated and it's getting over run by house apartments fast food places and gas stations. How much crap can one town hold."
- Prone to hyperbole much? I can think of a LOT of worse things they could do, without even reaching to extreme examples. For starters, they could be wasting space in City Hall for our Mayor to have a full-time office for a part-time position, or doing nothing to revitalize the rather run-down downtown. What's ridiculous is the amount of commentary on it when the plans aren't even finalized and the city is simply trying to study the feasibility and possible return-on-investment. That's called being proactive - looking to bring in tax revenue from someone other than all the homeowners (and getting the Feds to foot 80% of the bill, no less!). But then you REALLY go "off [your] rocker" when you show your true colors - you miss the way things were and you're refusing to accept that this city has grown up around you. It's not the sleepy little bedroom community any more. League City is the 2nd fastest growing city in the country, and if you don't like that, you should probably move. Unless you're rich enough to buy up the rest of the land and keep it the way it is. Can you do that? I doubt it, else you'd be much more excited about the city taking steps to attempt to increase revenue from sources other than homeowners. But seriously, there's plenty of open space over in Rosharon or Damon if you can't handle the growth and can't afford the land.
In summary, everyone chill out. Stop listening to Marc Edelman and his Democrat allies. Do your own research, find out the pros and cons.
"So let me get this straight, we are going to build a parking garage to revitalize the old downtown area, however the majority of the parking spaces are going to have to be reserved for a park and ride so we can get the federal government to pay for 80% of the cost. Then the majority of the parking spaces are going to be available at night when the majority of the adjacent businesses are closed, but we are going to have to create a new tax called a Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ) to levy against all the adjacent businesses to help pay for the 20% of the cost that the federal government will not cover. Then there will be some ground floor shops built into the parking gareage to increase revenue to the city who will compete with the businesses who will pay taxes to subsidize these new businesses rent. All I can say is wow."
Please keep in mind, I'm not entirely sold on the parking garage yet; however, I'm not opposed to it yet. I don't have enough information about it yet to have an opinion on it, and I'd like to know more about what the anticipated economic benefit is, the margins of error on that estimate, etc. But then again, I'm a rational person, which isn't something I can say for sure about Marc at this point. That being said, this post needs to be analyzed line by line.
"So let me get this straight, we are going to build a parking garage to revitalize the old downtown area, however the majority of the parking spaces are going to have to be reserved for a park and ride so we can get the federal government to pay for 80% of the cost. "
- Yes, getting the federal money requires this parking garage to be used for more than a place to park when the city hosts events in the parks downtown. Setting it aside for a park and ride would meet the qualifications. This is an opportunity for League City to get back some of the money the residents pay to the Feds instead of all our money being shipped off to other cities/countries. Sounds great to me. There's nothing "Libertarian" about failing to make use of programs that the Fed has set up simply because you disagree with the programs. League City residents wouldn't be getting a refund of Federal taxes if we don't get this money from the Feds.
" Then the majority of the parking spaces are going to be available at night when the majority of the adjacent businesses are closed, but we are going to have to create a new tax called a Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ) to levy against all the adjacent businesses to help pay for the 20% of the cost that the federal government will not cover. "
- Nights, weekends, holidays the parking spaces would be available to residents and visitors for any use. This part of the statement is true. These are also the times when most shopping and dining are done. These are also the times when the city likes to host events at the parks (like the 4th of July event). In other words, these are the times when the additional parking would be needed. Your statement is predicated upon the assumption you made that this is "when the majority of the adjacent businesses are closed". Please clarify which businesses you are referring to. The desire is to create a hotbed for restaurants and retail shops, all of which would likely be open at night (you know, when us productive members of society are typically free from the entanglement we lovingly refer to as "work").
- You pretend ignorance about how a TIRZ functions, and I find it hard to believe. The council discussed this to a level that could best be described as beating a dead horse, and you were previously on the Planning and Zoning commission, so I highly doubt you can be so ignorant as to think of the TIRZ as a new tax being levied. It should more accurately be described as an allocation of taxes to be spent closer to home. It's no additional tax rate on the properties. It's not an increase in appraised value on the properties. It's simply earmarking any future tax increases due to appraisal increases to go towards development in that area. Some have pointed out that the County has tended to oppose creation of TIRZ as if that's an argument to oppose it. That's a good thing, and of course the county will oppose it - it's robbing them of added revenue in the future by earmarking the funds for the TIRZ to be used only in that location. No more shipping money to the island from League City. Sounds great to me. Please comment if you can dispute this explanation of a TIRZ.
"Then there will be some ground floor shops built into the parking gareage to increase revenue to the city who will compete with the businesses who will pay taxes to subsidize these new businesses rent. "
- Yes, ground floor shops will increase revenue to the city - giving the city the opportunity to fund infrastructure and improvements throughout the city without increasing our taxes. Sounds good ot me... yet you've deceptively implied that neighboring businesses will be subsidizing the rent for the new businesses. First, you assume that these will be "new" businesses, and ignore the possibility that existing local businesses might move into these locations. Perhaps a second location of Barry's Bistro would be perfect in one of these slots. Secondly, you assume that the city (or whoever ends up being the landlord, I believe that part of the plan is not fully developed yet) will be subsidizing the rent. Pretty sure the rent from these retail shops will be subsidizing the parking garage, not the other way around. Not to mention they'd ALSO be contributing retail sales tax revenue. If anything, these neighboring businesses will be getting a very low cost boost to business from the added amount of potential customers brought in by the additional businesses (few people visit just one shop on a shopping trip), and the city has figured out a way to get the Feds to foot 80% of the investment.
"All I can say is wow."
- Well, on this one we agree.
And yet, after all this nonsense, you clown on League City Politics is a Full Contact Sport ate this crap up. Here's a sampling of the brilliant replies:
Holly Shelden: "The city has lost their mind! Something is very fish"
- Yes, Holly, the deceitful post from Marc was VERY fishy!!
Byram Lass: "You 'll need a lot of drinking establishments to pay that bill. Which means a lot of people stumbling out onto 518. That won't last long"
- Byram, I seriously am amazed at your ability to waffle between theocratic fascist and self-professed Libertarian. Talk about jumping to conclusions... 1) Why would you need bars, sorry, "drinking establishments" to generate tax revenue? Retail shops, coffee shops, restaurants, even Upcycling Boutiques all generate tax revenue, why do you assume it needs to be "drinking establishments"? 2) Most all "drinking establishments" in the area are located near major roadways... I've yet to see people "stumbling out onto" the streets. Where have you witnessed this, please let me know, I'm going to bring some popcorn and enjoy the show this weekend.
Cara Herr: "Stupidest thing they can do. This is ridiculous. They are off their rockers. More wasted tax dollars and space. Just stop building anything for a while. Quit ruining league city. We used to love this town... now it's hard to when its over populated and it's getting over run by house apartments fast food places and gas stations. How much crap can one town hold."
- Prone to hyperbole much? I can think of a LOT of worse things they could do, without even reaching to extreme examples. For starters, they could be wasting space in City Hall for our Mayor to have a full-time office for a part-time position, or doing nothing to revitalize the rather run-down downtown. What's ridiculous is the amount of commentary on it when the plans aren't even finalized and the city is simply trying to study the feasibility and possible return-on-investment. That's called being proactive - looking to bring in tax revenue from someone other than all the homeowners (and getting the Feds to foot 80% of the bill, no less!). But then you REALLY go "off [your] rocker" when you show your true colors - you miss the way things were and you're refusing to accept that this city has grown up around you. It's not the sleepy little bedroom community any more. League City is the 2nd fastest growing city in the country, and if you don't like that, you should probably move. Unless you're rich enough to buy up the rest of the land and keep it the way it is. Can you do that? I doubt it, else you'd be much more excited about the city taking steps to attempt to increase revenue from sources other than homeowners. But seriously, there's plenty of open space over in Rosharon or Damon if you can't handle the growth and can't afford the land.
In summary, everyone chill out. Stop listening to Marc Edelman and his Democrat allies. Do your own research, find out the pros and cons.
A Lesson in Demographics for League City Council Candidate Greg Gripon
Before I get to the meat of this post... please allow me to address a couple comments from the League City Politics is a Full Contact Sport peanut gallery today, in particular, those from Candidate Greg Gripon's son, Justin Gripon. Justin, I had a previous post (I guess you and your father are choosing to ignore the citizens in League City, since you didn't bother to read the post) where I addressed the claim by Mel Kelly that there is slander on this blog. First and foremost, get a dictionary - the word you mean to use was libel (the written form of defamation, as opposed to slander, which is spoken). But ignoring your limited vocabulary, I'll address your amateur lawyering - you've actually bordered closer to defamation than I have. See, I've made no proclamations of factually untrue information. I've made reference to facts, I've presented logic, and I've presented opinions. None of these could be considered defamation. Now your accusations of slander, that might actually border on it. But go ahead and dismiss this blog as "poor discussion"; however, unless you address the questions and positions I've raised, you can't achieve any "unity" in this city "to steer our city towards a planned sustainable future" - I'll get back to your use of the word sustainable later.
Now, let's get onto demographics and what matters to the voters of League City. According to your clowns in the LCPIAFCS group (which is really nothing more than the propaganda arm of the Green Team - Hallisey/Salcedo/Gripon/Millican), here's what makes for a good councilmember (please reference the quotes I have at the bottom of the post to see where I compiled this list from if you dispute the list)
1. Show up/Be Active in council meetings/workshops, be active in the city (committees, leadership roles, volunteering), Take a Stand
2. Be involved in our city for a long time/Have good roots in this town
3. Heart in the right place/Not looking to build a resume/Positive sense of community
4. Ability to communicate effectively
5. Focused on citizen needs vs new businesses yet understanding of challenges businesses face in League City
6. Volunteering time not money
7. Possessing "original" thoughts
So let's discuss all of these, and how much they matter to the typical League City voter (this is called your "demographic"), and also what REALLY does (and should) matter to the League City voter.
1. If we're happy with the city, the direction it's taking, and living busy, productive, enjoyable lives taking advantage of the many benefits this great city offers us, then we aren't going to attend council meetings/workshops. Sure, y'all love to attend them, just ask Bill Heins how much time he wastes trying to attend the ethics council meetings since he isn't allowed to serve on the board. And while, on the surface, this may seem like a positive contribution to the community, I ask, "Is it?" See, I'd rather you spend your time working, earning money you can spend on a nicer house, and paying more taxes so my share of the total bill seems a little smaller. Perhaps we'd have less politicking and a more productive improvement schedule if a few less of you clowns showed up to city council meetings to stop wasting our council's time as you whine about things like the mayor not having an office fancy enough to fit your friend Pat Hallisey, or complaining about the city logo being sailboats instead of an oak tree, as if that makes a whole hill of a beans of difference to the average voter. We want infrastructure improvements, we want to make sure we have a water supply that will meet our needs. We want traffic problems solved. And most importantly, we want the taxes lower for every homeowner while accomplishing all of this. Justin and Greg Gripon have said a lot of liberal buzz-words, like hope, change, unity, and most importantly - green and sustainable. Sure sounds a lot like they desire to bring Obamanomics to play in League City. I for one don't want a "community organizer" or "community leader" on my city council. I want a business-minded problem solver.
2. Being involved with our city for a long time and having good roots in this town. This sure sounds like a euphemism for "Keep League City for us". The question is - who is the us. In Greg Gripon and Pat Hallisey's case, this is the people who've lived here for their entire lives. Now I'm not saying there's anything wrong living in League City your entire life. I hope to spend the rest of my life here, and I hope my kids find great jobs that enable them to live here too. But when you word your desires this way, it comes across as "for us, not those people who moved here in the last 10-20 years in those new developments". But we're here now. Pat Hallisey and all the other city "leaders" who financed their campaigns with money from developers created this situation. Now the only thing to do is accept it. And a lot of these "new" people in town have good, fresh, new ideas that clearly you old-timers lack. After all, if you had such great ideas, our downtown wouldn't need revitalized, it'd already be a shining gem in Galveston county.
3. I don't know anyone (and yes, this even includes the Green Team candidates that I don't support) who has their "heart in the wrong place". I think they actually believe they'll improve this city. I find them to be misguided, maybe not very bright, but I do believe their heart is in the right place. And I believe their opponents have their hearts in the right place. So, congrats, this is like saying you insist on a candidate that is human. Now, as for "looking to build a resume"... what's the problem in this? You don't build a resume by doing a bad job. You don't build a resume on failures. You build a resume on success. Avoiding people who have higher aspirations or are looking to build a resume is just a way of saying you seek mediocrity. Only mediocrity stagnates and isn't looking to build a resume. I would LOVE to have this city run by people who are building their resumes - that means they have the courage and ambition to take action and the follow-through to accomplish something great for this city.
4. Ability to communicate effectively - this one I'll firmly agree with. Unfortunately, Greg Gripon's posts have demonstrated he cannot communicate clearly. His posts on Facebook are often barely able to be read due to the grammatical mistakes and creative use of capitalization and punctuation. That's not how I define "effective communication". That being said, I'll agree with the Green Team on this one - the City should do a better job of communicating with the citizens. The City Manager hasn't effectively communicated his plan for the downtown revitalization to the citizens, and it's enabled the Green Team propaganda machine to distort the message (lying about the associated costs, acting as if it's going to be entirely funded by our property tax money, hiding any potential tax relief that would come from the increased commercial activity, failing to discuss the increased access to functions such as the 4th of July celebration downtown - I for one have turned around and gone home after finding nowhere to park). Don't worry - I'll add more about downtown revitalization in a separate post.
5. Only a through-and-through liberal could believe that there is a dichotomy between attracting businesses and representing the citizens. Mock the City Manager's "3-legged stool" all you want, but the fact is - running a city costs money. We need traffic improvements, we need our water supply boosted to accommodate the anticipated growth of this town, we need services and parks to continue making this a top targeted neighborhood for families as they choose where to buy a house. All of this has to be funded. The options essentially boil down to - tax the homeowners, or lure in businesses and allow hotel occupancy tax, sales tax, and business taxes to fund the improvements. We can debate the merits of the downtown revitalization plan as to whether or not it will prove effective at attracting business and tax money raised from somewhere other than the homeowners' property taxes; but I'll say this: I've seen NO plans from the Green Team to address these costs. I've seen a lot of talk about saving 30 Oak trees, and fighting anything that costs money. But any businessman will tell you that it's not "spending" money when you're "investing" in something that is going to return you far more money. What the tax and spend liberal Green Team doesn't tell you is that they most likely love the property tax funding this city the way it is. The lower income people still have access to all this city offers, and the people in those expensive new houses foot the bill. But the fact is, this is a conservative-dominated demographic now. Moving on to a second point, pretending that running a small-time landscaping business translates to an understanding of the challenges businesses face in League City is laughable. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with small, local businesses. I think they're great. But it's the big out-of-town business money that will enable the city to shift the expenses off the homeowner while continuing to improve this city. Anything that can do that is great.
6. Volunteering time not money. This is absolutely shameful. To pretend that either form of contribution is more valid than the other is simple arrogance. While some of us may not have time to volunteer our time because we're busy working or raising families, if we're giving back to our community with the fruits of our labor, it is JUST as beneficial to the community. Think of it this way - If I make $100 per hour working, and I donate 10% to charities that benefit the community, then I'm donating $10 per hour. If, instead, I were to work less and donate my time, then I'd need to be doing work that couldn't be hired for $10 per hour. Collecting tickets at fundraisers, working the gate at the boat show, and walking dogs are all things that can be hired out for less than $10 per hour. In other words, I'd be cheating the community if I gave my time instead of my money. Furthermore, if I were to work less so that I'd have time to volunteer, I'd also have less money to contribute to the put towards my house, and I'd be paying less in property taxes, thus robbing the community of even more contribution. Some of us have time we can contribute, some have money. Neither is less valuable to the community.
7. We should care more about which positions a person supports and how they'll vote than whether they have "original" thoughts. A lot of "original" ideas that I've heard thrown about are just terrible. But more importantly, please oh PLEASE tell me one single original thought Greg Gripon has originated. He's simply a Hallisey puppet. Y'all should be more careful when you criticize Kinsey as simply echoing what the rest of Council has said until Greg ever has a thought that wasn't first spoken by Hallisey.
See y'all at the council meeting tonight!
References
From LCPIAFCS:
Holly Shelden - "How many times have we seen people up for election that show up for events, or create events, only when running and have never had anything to do with anything LC before? Then once elections over, we never see them again? This is not the kind of people we want representing or in governing positions for LC! These are people, who only have self interest or self business or self promotion in mind! Why would anyone vote for them? We have seen the end result so many times. And it has never been positive but brutally destructive for the good of government in LC. I am about people who show up, care, and have been involved in our city for a long time before they are called to run because their heart is in the right place!"
John Bowen - "If you are running you should speak to the council to help the people know who you are and where you come down on issues."
Laura Teatsworth - "i think its more than just attending city council meetings that makes a viable candidate for me to consider a vote (imo). I ask myself-are they an active in the city (on committees, leadership roles in the community, volunteer (coach, mentor, aid and/or assist) and do the have a postive sense of community. They have (imo) to have the ability to communicate effectively and voice their opinions/take a stand when there is a difference of opinion. To me-its more than attending a meeting...."
Jerry Jones - "Let's get back to focusing on citizen needs,versus making it comfortable and too easy for new businesses to come into town. We have what they want,so we don't need to give it away."
Byram Lass - "Greg's integrity and commitment to LC as demonstrated through his volunteer efforts. Additionally as the owner of one of LC's most successful small businesses, Greg understands the challenges that business owners in LC face. If we want to increase business growth, we need someone who understands those issues."
Karl Wankowicz - "I will not vote for a candidate because they are a man or because they are a woman.
I could care less as to how many awards they've won.
Ordinarily, individual endorsements for a candidate don't sway me though in this years council race, seeing current members of the council cabal endorse a candidate is enough to cause me to look elsewhere. League City is really behind the eight ball insofar as infrastructure projects and property taxes are concerned and I blame the current and past council directly.
True involvement in our city makes a difference. Not bragging about themselves showing up or throwing money to organizations. Serious involvement in various causes and events matters.
Regular attendance and active participation at council meetings and workshops matters. Not merely showing up suddenly because it helps their campaign.
When I attended the recent LCPOA candidate forum it became crystal clear as to who took things seriously and and who worked it for PR purposes. Some candidates spoke from their heart, some listed facts and accomplishments around town. One was there because they seemed to feel obligated to be there and yet another spoke not of local issues or positions at all but turned it into a self promotion.
So, what really matters? The health and well being of our great city REALLY matters!"
Karl WAnkowicz - "I really don't care if a city council person has shaken hands with a senator, congressman, or even the Pope.
Show me what you've personally accomplished in League City.
Tell me what local organizations you belong to and actively participate with.
If you are an incumbent, I look for active participation and original thoughts and expression (Kinsey loses major points here).
If someone feels that taking pictures with big-wigs or splashing money around town makes them worthy of being on city council, they are sadly delusional."
In reference to Debbie Drury (Still from LCPIAFCS) -
Sebastian Lofaro - Also her comment about all the giving back she does in the community. Writing a check is not the same as giving your time and effort! $40k a year, big whoop... I bet she will spend that much or more during this election.
Byram Lass - Unfortunately she was poorly rehearsed as she had to keep looking down to read her script. I was disgusted with her $40K statement. Christians should not be boastful of their giving. Rather we should give humbly and quietly without trying to glorify ourselves, for the Father receives no glory when we boast in pride.
Tim Paulissen - "As all of you have been saying, it's time to take back our city back from this outsider and send him packing. Research your candidates, look at their handlers and pick fresh faces that have good roots in our town and look out for us, not someone building his resume."
Now, let's get onto demographics and what matters to the voters of League City. According to your clowns in the LCPIAFCS group (which is really nothing more than the propaganda arm of the Green Team - Hallisey/Salcedo/Gripon/Millican), here's what makes for a good councilmember (please reference the quotes I have at the bottom of the post to see where I compiled this list from if you dispute the list)
1. Show up/Be Active in council meetings/workshops, be active in the city (committees, leadership roles, volunteering), Take a Stand
2. Be involved in our city for a long time/Have good roots in this town
3. Heart in the right place/Not looking to build a resume/Positive sense of community
4. Ability to communicate effectively
5. Focused on citizen needs vs new businesses yet understanding of challenges businesses face in League City
6. Volunteering time not money
7. Possessing "original" thoughts
So let's discuss all of these, and how much they matter to the typical League City voter (this is called your "demographic"), and also what REALLY does (and should) matter to the League City voter.
1. If we're happy with the city, the direction it's taking, and living busy, productive, enjoyable lives taking advantage of the many benefits this great city offers us, then we aren't going to attend council meetings/workshops. Sure, y'all love to attend them, just ask Bill Heins how much time he wastes trying to attend the ethics council meetings since he isn't allowed to serve on the board. And while, on the surface, this may seem like a positive contribution to the community, I ask, "Is it?" See, I'd rather you spend your time working, earning money you can spend on a nicer house, and paying more taxes so my share of the total bill seems a little smaller. Perhaps we'd have less politicking and a more productive improvement schedule if a few less of you clowns showed up to city council meetings to stop wasting our council's time as you whine about things like the mayor not having an office fancy enough to fit your friend Pat Hallisey, or complaining about the city logo being sailboats instead of an oak tree, as if that makes a whole hill of a beans of difference to the average voter. We want infrastructure improvements, we want to make sure we have a water supply that will meet our needs. We want traffic problems solved. And most importantly, we want the taxes lower for every homeowner while accomplishing all of this. Justin and Greg Gripon have said a lot of liberal buzz-words, like hope, change, unity, and most importantly - green and sustainable. Sure sounds a lot like they desire to bring Obamanomics to play in League City. I for one don't want a "community organizer" or "community leader" on my city council. I want a business-minded problem solver.
2. Being involved with our city for a long time and having good roots in this town. This sure sounds like a euphemism for "Keep League City for us". The question is - who is the us. In Greg Gripon and Pat Hallisey's case, this is the people who've lived here for their entire lives. Now I'm not saying there's anything wrong living in League City your entire life. I hope to spend the rest of my life here, and I hope my kids find great jobs that enable them to live here too. But when you word your desires this way, it comes across as "for us, not those people who moved here in the last 10-20 years in those new developments". But we're here now. Pat Hallisey and all the other city "leaders" who financed their campaigns with money from developers created this situation. Now the only thing to do is accept it. And a lot of these "new" people in town have good, fresh, new ideas that clearly you old-timers lack. After all, if you had such great ideas, our downtown wouldn't need revitalized, it'd already be a shining gem in Galveston county.
3. I don't know anyone (and yes, this even includes the Green Team candidates that I don't support) who has their "heart in the wrong place". I think they actually believe they'll improve this city. I find them to be misguided, maybe not very bright, but I do believe their heart is in the right place. And I believe their opponents have their hearts in the right place. So, congrats, this is like saying you insist on a candidate that is human. Now, as for "looking to build a resume"... what's the problem in this? You don't build a resume by doing a bad job. You don't build a resume on failures. You build a resume on success. Avoiding people who have higher aspirations or are looking to build a resume is just a way of saying you seek mediocrity. Only mediocrity stagnates and isn't looking to build a resume. I would LOVE to have this city run by people who are building their resumes - that means they have the courage and ambition to take action and the follow-through to accomplish something great for this city.
4. Ability to communicate effectively - this one I'll firmly agree with. Unfortunately, Greg Gripon's posts have demonstrated he cannot communicate clearly. His posts on Facebook are often barely able to be read due to the grammatical mistakes and creative use of capitalization and punctuation. That's not how I define "effective communication". That being said, I'll agree with the Green Team on this one - the City should do a better job of communicating with the citizens. The City Manager hasn't effectively communicated his plan for the downtown revitalization to the citizens, and it's enabled the Green Team propaganda machine to distort the message (lying about the associated costs, acting as if it's going to be entirely funded by our property tax money, hiding any potential tax relief that would come from the increased commercial activity, failing to discuss the increased access to functions such as the 4th of July celebration downtown - I for one have turned around and gone home after finding nowhere to park). Don't worry - I'll add more about downtown revitalization in a separate post.
5. Only a through-and-through liberal could believe that there is a dichotomy between attracting businesses and representing the citizens. Mock the City Manager's "3-legged stool" all you want, but the fact is - running a city costs money. We need traffic improvements, we need our water supply boosted to accommodate the anticipated growth of this town, we need services and parks to continue making this a top targeted neighborhood for families as they choose where to buy a house. All of this has to be funded. The options essentially boil down to - tax the homeowners, or lure in businesses and allow hotel occupancy tax, sales tax, and business taxes to fund the improvements. We can debate the merits of the downtown revitalization plan as to whether or not it will prove effective at attracting business and tax money raised from somewhere other than the homeowners' property taxes; but I'll say this: I've seen NO plans from the Green Team to address these costs. I've seen a lot of talk about saving 30 Oak trees, and fighting anything that costs money. But any businessman will tell you that it's not "spending" money when you're "investing" in something that is going to return you far more money. What the tax and spend liberal Green Team doesn't tell you is that they most likely love the property tax funding this city the way it is. The lower income people still have access to all this city offers, and the people in those expensive new houses foot the bill. But the fact is, this is a conservative-dominated demographic now. Moving on to a second point, pretending that running a small-time landscaping business translates to an understanding of the challenges businesses face in League City is laughable. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with small, local businesses. I think they're great. But it's the big out-of-town business money that will enable the city to shift the expenses off the homeowner while continuing to improve this city. Anything that can do that is great.
6. Volunteering time not money. This is absolutely shameful. To pretend that either form of contribution is more valid than the other is simple arrogance. While some of us may not have time to volunteer our time because we're busy working or raising families, if we're giving back to our community with the fruits of our labor, it is JUST as beneficial to the community. Think of it this way - If I make $100 per hour working, and I donate 10% to charities that benefit the community, then I'm donating $10 per hour. If, instead, I were to work less and donate my time, then I'd need to be doing work that couldn't be hired for $10 per hour. Collecting tickets at fundraisers, working the gate at the boat show, and walking dogs are all things that can be hired out for less than $10 per hour. In other words, I'd be cheating the community if I gave my time instead of my money. Furthermore, if I were to work less so that I'd have time to volunteer, I'd also have less money to contribute to the put towards my house, and I'd be paying less in property taxes, thus robbing the community of even more contribution. Some of us have time we can contribute, some have money. Neither is less valuable to the community.
7. We should care more about which positions a person supports and how they'll vote than whether they have "original" thoughts. A lot of "original" ideas that I've heard thrown about are just terrible. But more importantly, please oh PLEASE tell me one single original thought Greg Gripon has originated. He's simply a Hallisey puppet. Y'all should be more careful when you criticize Kinsey as simply echoing what the rest of Council has said until Greg ever has a thought that wasn't first spoken by Hallisey.
See y'all at the council meeting tonight!
References
From LCPIAFCS:
Holly Shelden - "How many times have we seen people up for election that show up for events, or create events, only when running and have never had anything to do with anything LC before? Then once elections over, we never see them again? This is not the kind of people we want representing or in governing positions for LC! These are people, who only have self interest or self business or self promotion in mind! Why would anyone vote for them? We have seen the end result so many times. And it has never been positive but brutally destructive for the good of government in LC. I am about people who show up, care, and have been involved in our city for a long time before they are called to run because their heart is in the right place!"
John Bowen - "If you are running you should speak to the council to help the people know who you are and where you come down on issues."
Laura Teatsworth - "i think its more than just attending city council meetings that makes a viable candidate for me to consider a vote (imo). I ask myself-are they an active in the city (on committees, leadership roles in the community, volunteer (coach, mentor, aid and/or assist) and do the have a postive sense of community. They have (imo) to have the ability to communicate effectively and voice their opinions/take a stand when there is a difference of opinion. To me-its more than attending a meeting...."
Jerry Jones - "Let's get back to focusing on citizen needs,versus making it comfortable and too easy for new businesses to come into town. We have what they want,so we don't need to give it away."
Byram Lass - "Greg's integrity and commitment to LC as demonstrated through his volunteer efforts. Additionally as the owner of one of LC's most successful small businesses, Greg understands the challenges that business owners in LC face. If we want to increase business growth, we need someone who understands those issues."
Karl Wankowicz - "I will not vote for a candidate because they are a man or because they are a woman.
I could care less as to how many awards they've won.
Ordinarily, individual endorsements for a candidate don't sway me though in this years council race, seeing current members of the council cabal endorse a candidate is enough to cause me to look elsewhere. League City is really behind the eight ball insofar as infrastructure projects and property taxes are concerned and I blame the current and past council directly.
True involvement in our city makes a difference. Not bragging about themselves showing up or throwing money to organizations. Serious involvement in various causes and events matters.
Regular attendance and active participation at council meetings and workshops matters. Not merely showing up suddenly because it helps their campaign.
When I attended the recent LCPOA candidate forum it became crystal clear as to who took things seriously and and who worked it for PR purposes. Some candidates spoke from their heart, some listed facts and accomplishments around town. One was there because they seemed to feel obligated to be there and yet another spoke not of local issues or positions at all but turned it into a self promotion.
So, what really matters? The health and well being of our great city REALLY matters!"
Karl WAnkowicz - "I really don't care if a city council person has shaken hands with a senator, congressman, or even the Pope.
Show me what you've personally accomplished in League City.
Tell me what local organizations you belong to and actively participate with.
If you are an incumbent, I look for active participation and original thoughts and expression (Kinsey loses major points here).
If someone feels that taking pictures with big-wigs or splashing money around town makes them worthy of being on city council, they are sadly delusional."
In reference to Debbie Drury (Still from LCPIAFCS) -
Sebastian Lofaro - Also her comment about all the giving back she does in the community. Writing a check is not the same as giving your time and effort! $40k a year, big whoop... I bet she will spend that much or more during this election.
Byram Lass - Unfortunately she was poorly rehearsed as she had to keep looking down to read her script. I was disgusted with her $40K statement. Christians should not be boastful of their giving. Rather we should give humbly and quietly without trying to glorify ourselves, for the Father receives no glory when we boast in pride.
Tim Paulissen - "As all of you have been saying, it's time to take back our city back from this outsider and send him packing. Research your candidates, look at their handlers and pick fresh faces that have good roots in our town and look out for us, not someone building his resume."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)