The sad, tragic tale of a spineless lackey

So much for independence.

Two weeks ago, District 5 City Councilman Damon Fogley actually stood up to Mayor Todd Webster and voted against rezoning a small parcel of land located near the corner of Ranch Road 150 and Lehman Road from multi-family to warehouse. The main argument against this rezoning is that it ran contrary to the city’s Comprehensive Plan. (There was also the fear the warehouse zoning allows for a sexually oriented business to be located on the site.)

But, all along, there was something strange and confusing about Fogley’s vote. The land in question was divided into two sections. A developer, Robert W. McDonald, sought to rezone the land, which was zoned for apartments. He had two items on the Oct. 7 Council agenda. The first would rezone 13.5 acres of that land to allow him to build duplexes on the property. The second would rezone the remaining 3.1 acres to allow for the warehouses.

Here’s where things got confusing, at least in Fogley’s mind. He asked to recuse himself from the first vote (although he didn’t recuse himself — I get the impression he either doesn’t know how to recuse himself or he has been given bad advice on the proper way to recuse oneself. Instead, he simply didn’t vote on the issue), because, according to the meeting’s minutes "this property is adjacent to his own." Which, incidentally does not seem to be true. But then he voted on the warehouse issue which, as I said earlier, is part of the exact same property Fogley claimed earlier "is adjacent to his own."

So there’s that.

But that’s not where this story ends. Much to Webster’s astonishment, Fogley sided with the pro-neighborhood duo on the council, District 1 Councilmember Diane Hervol and District 6's Daphne Tenorio and against the pro-developer duo of Mayor Webster and Mayor Pro Tem David Wilson in voting against the rezoning. (The two other pro-developer councilmembers District 2's Becky Selbera and District 3's Shane Arabie missed this most recent meeting.)

Item 14 of Tuesday’s agenda, requested by Fogley, calls for the reconsideration of the warehouse rezoning vote. That’s sad.

Yesterday I asked Fogley why he is backtracking on his earlier stance, but, obviously, I never received a reply. I mean, how does someone gracefully say "I am doing this because I am a coward."

So if he won’t tell me the reasons, I can only put two and two together and come up with my own logical explanation. And that is Da Mayor took Fogley to the woodshed, scolded him like some truant school child and told him in no uncertain terms "I got you elected to this council, so now you will only vote the way I want you to vote." And being the spineless lackey that he is, Fogley meekly replied "Yes, sir. Whatever you say, sir. How can I atone for my miserable transgression, sir?"

Only someone from the majority side of a vote can request a reconsideration of that vote. So Webster, with Wilson probably guarding the door of the toolshed, told Fogley in no uncertain terms what was needed to right this terrible wrong.

So now we have Item 14 on Tuesday’s agenda, an item to give the developer what he wants at the expense of the neighborhood in which he wants to stick his warehouses.

Which brings up an interesting point: Why go to all the trouble and all the expense to formulate a Comprehensive Plan if the Planning & Zoning Commission and a majority of the City Council are either going to outright ignore or blatantly defile it?

This whole mess also reminds me of another phenomena and that is the total lack of interest in the public of the political processes in Kyle. This was reinforced recently by the San Marcos-Kyle-Buda edition of the Community Impact newspaper which revealed the voting percentages for municipal elections in San Marcos and Buda are a whopping 10 times higher than they are in Kyle. How do you explain this discrepancy? One obvious reason is that San Marcos and Buda are smart enough to hold their municipal elections in November, not in May, as Kyle does. But there’s something else, something far more troubling. I have spoken to Kyle residents at H-E-B, Wal-Mart, Lowe’s, Walgreens, Starbucks, Applebees and what they have told me is that their interests are completely ignored by those in power at Kyle City Hall, so what’s the use of voting — it’s not going to change anything.

And the sad, tragic tale of one spineless lackey on the City Council just reinforces how these people feel.