Mayor Pro Tem David Wilson: All hat, no cattle

If you want to know the problems facing Kyle as well as why so few of the city’s residents participate in the electoral process, here it is in an allegorical nutshell. Stand around Mayor Pro Tem David Wilson for any length of time and he will regale you with how much he supports veterans. If there’s a flag ceremony, he’s going to be there front and center. If it has to do with pinning medals on servicemen, he’s going to fight his way to the front of the line. But if it comes down to significantly supporting veterans in such a way that it would put Wilson on the wrong side of the development interests that control all city functions, Wilson will immediately hoist the white flag and capitulate to the development camp. Yeah, sure, he will support veterans up to a point, but he is not willing to fight on behalf of their interests, especially if those interests are opposed by developers.

The same is true of the elderly. When the city’s PID process first reared its ugly head, Wilson said during council deliberations "I don’t want this to be an issue that people are afraid they are not going to be able to live in a community because they have a flat income stream and maybe are afraid that this is going to be added on top of them. I just want to assure people that is not the case." But when push comes to shove, Wilson is going to make sure that is exactly the case. Why? Because the development community insists on it and when the development community insists, the elderly are going to need to seek another champion.

Take last night’s City Council meeting, for example. I know she’s only been on the council for two meetings, but newcomer Daphne Tenorio is quickly developing into a leader to pay attention to and also someone willing to give former Mayor Pro Temp Diane Hervol some much needed cover. The two of them are rapidly displaying signs that they are going to be pillars supporting the interests of everyday Kyle residents against the entrenched developer establishment. Tenorio self-financed her election campaign so she is not beholden to anyone except the general population. Hervol was elected before I arrived in Kyle, but regardless, she is displaying some backbone.

Last night, as expected, the city passed its city/developer friendly, but anti-new-homeowner PID policy. However, before that happened Hervol supported Tenorio’s motions that would, on the surface lend some support to disabled veterans and those aged 65 and older, by exempting those who fall into those two categories from PID assessments.

Wilson was beside himself and the result was that he uttered a statement so completely outlandish, it rivaled Donald Trump’s diatribe against Mexican immigrants, if not in its bigotry, at least in its utter stupidity.

"Let’s say they are all disabled veterans (that move into a subdivision) they are not going to take care of the obligation that you have set up," Wilson said.

It’s hard to know where to begin with a statement like that. First of all, he proves his absolute dismissal of the best interests of disabled vets when those interests could be viewed as detrimental to the entrenched development community. Second, the notion that all the homes in an entire subdivision would be purchased by disabled vets is only slightly less probable than the notion that all the homes in an entire subdivision would be purchased by zombies. And finally Wilson is insisting these disabled vets, who have already fulfilled an obligation to their country that we should reward, fulfill a yet another, this time financial, obligation they had no part in formulating.

The guy whose company’s income depends on the city’s passage of this policy volunteered there was nothing "in the statutes" that allowed for these kinds of exemptions, but when pressed by Hervol he was forced to admit there was nothing "in the statutes" that prohibited them, either. Frank Garcia, who’s acting in the role of the city attorney, said "I have not researched whether they would be illegal (but) I don’t think there’s anything that prohibits them or permits them. But if they are allowed, it may defeat the purpose of the PID policy." Which would, of course, benefit future Kyle homeowners but force the city to provide basic city services to these homeowners, which the city is trying desperately to avoid providing strictly from taxes.

Finally Mayor Todd Webster said "Look, we have to develop a functional PID policy" although neither he nor anyone else promoting this policy has ever explained why.

Council member Damon Fogley doubled down on the insult to veterans by saying such an amendment would discriminate against veterans like him who are not disabled. But, of course, since he’s in bed with the development community as well, instead of siding with those veterans and moving they also be included in the exemption, he simply threw all veterans under the bus. It really was a shameful display.

Council member Shane Arrabie feigned cluelessness by saying such an exemption would force the exemptions to be in place "before we know who actually comes into the district." The policy, of course, would be in place, but not the individual exemptions. I going to give Arrabie the benefit of the doubt, however; I think he’s smart enough to know this, he just needed to say something in public to reassure the controlling interests he was firmly on their side.

As expected, the vote was 5-2 against Tenorio and Hervol and then 5-2 to pass the policy.