A very disappointing show to say the least at the city council meeting last night, there was plenty of seats available for such important decisions being made by our council. I am not sure why certain items were placed on this special meeting, when to me most of the items on the agenda are items that could have been discussed in a regular council meeting where the public is allowed to voice their opinion. I understand that personnel issues need to be discussed in closed session and that a special meeting should be used for these type of items. The items on the special meeting agenda which I dont feel needed to be placed in a special meeting agenda are the raising of commercial water rates, an ordinance for no cell phone use while driving (unless on Bluetooth), parking issues downtown, handicap signs downtown among others. The reason I dont feel that this items should have been placed on the agenda, is because since its a special meeting, the public is not asked to speak as to how they feel about the issue at hand. One of the most important items on the agenda was/is the creation of city police department. I am all for additional law enforcement and I feel that with the resources we have at hand we are doing a good job but there is always room for improvement somewhere. The city is looking at creating a new PD which could include up 8-7 officers and they are asking for a 350,000 budget for it, which anyone with commonsense will tell you there is no way you can run a city police department as it should be ran for that amount of money. 350,000 alone will probably just cover the salaries of the employees, you still have to look at getting cars, insurance, equipment, where to house the inmates, feeding, 911 center among other things. As we stand now, the city gives the county sheriffs office +-$450,000 to take care of the city calls. Which is a bargain if you think about it. In actuality the city gives less then 450,000 because they get back over +-$220,000 in tkt fines. Maybe a better solution would be for the city to give the county sheriff a bit more to hire maybe 5-6 more officers and strictly have those officers assigned to handle city calls. Giving maybe 150,000 - 200,000 more to have the county add more officers is a much better deal then having to create a whole new department that realistically would cost the tax payers a minimum of at least 500,000 to operate. It is obvious which one would be a better deal! PEOPLE you need to speak up, call your council member, call city hall, call the mayor, show up at the next meeting on the 19th of August and voice your opinion what ever side it is you may stand on. There were several items on the agenda that I want to write about but, I have to work so maybe later I will continue. But, before I go I would like to applaud Councilman Andres Sanchez for standing up and not going with the flow and questioning some of the items. Mr. Sanchez voted no for the PD, he also voted no for the hiring of the new City Manager. Mr. Sanchez had a very valid reasons for voting no, they are not personal reasons but logical reasons. He voted no to hiring the city manager because he stated he wanted to go over the other applicants applications before making his decision, which makes perfect sense to me. Wouldnt you want to hire the best candidate? In order to know who is the best candidate you should review the other applicants as well. Also, I believe since there was a council member absent from the meeting, many of the issues should have been tabled until all council members were at hand, If all council members vote and there is a tie, then we have the mayor to break that tie. PEOPLE YOU NEED TO GO TO THE MEETING ON THE 18TH OF AUGUST, SIGN UP TO SPEAK OR GO IN SUPPORT OF DOING THE RIGHT THING! CALL YOUR COUNCIL, MAYOR, CITY HALL AND VOICE YOUR OPINION. I have a headache now! lol.....PS......they council did approve an 8% across the board salary increase to all employees.
Posted on: Wed, 06 Aug 2014 13:59:18 +0000
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