In its presentation to the Kyle City Council Tuesday, an outfit called Pyro Shows of Texas will tout the fact that the fireworks it plans to use for a proposed Fourth of July show here are manufactured by the same companies that are defendants in a $1 million wrongful death lawsuit filed last month by a family in Comanche, Texas, a lawsuit that also names Pyro as a co-defendant.
The council’s consent agenda (meaning this item could be passed without any specific discussion about it) contains an item to pay Pyro Shows of Texas $20,000 to put on the city’s Independence Day fireworks show. And in the materials that accompany the agenda, Pyro boasts it plans to use fireworks made from such Chinese-based companies as Icon Pyrotechnic International and Glorious Company. What the accompanying materials don’t mention is that those two companies plus five others as well as Pyro Shows of Texas were sued for $1 million Jan. 16 over the death of a Comanche man who was killed when a trailer loaded with fireworks exploded while he was preparing for a similar Fourth of July show in 2014.
According to a story in the Jan. 27 issue of the Fort Worth Star Telegram, Russell Reynolds "was preparing the fireworks for the show when there was an ‘early, unexpected ignition’ which lead to ‘subsequent ignitions, explosions and fire. … Reynolds’ wife Sherry and her two children are suing Pyro Shows of Texas and six Chinese companies involved in designing, manufacturing, selling and packing the fireworks for sale."
The Star Telegram story also states "Since the fireworks Reynolds was working with were in the same condition as when they were purchased from Pyro Shows of Texas, the lawsuit contends they were defectively designed and sold without proper safety mechanisms or warnings."
To make sure there are sufficient guarantees everyone connected with the Kyle show is going to be safe, perhaps this item should be pulled from the consent agenda and discussed. Even if just a little more. Just saying.
Then there’s this. The next item on the consent agenda is one to amend an agreement with the law firm of Linebarger, Goggan, Blair and Sampson, LLC, to expand its ability to collect money owed to the city for non-payment of utility services. In return, the firm will get to keep 30 percent of everything it collects. This is the same Linebarger, Goggan, Blair and Sampson, LLC that just last month was ordered to pay $3.4 million to resolve "claims made in a class action proceeding that the firm violated the California Unfair Competition Law by engaging in the illegal practice of law in California by sending letters into California attempting to collect debts owed to various California governmental agencies."
Here’s hoping that not too many of those deadbeats who owe Kyle live in California or in other states that might go after the law firm for doing exactly same thing.
Isn’t there some kind of saying or proverb or something about being judged by the company you keep?
"I am confident these items will be pulled from the consent agenda," Mayor Todd Webster said. "And I have absolutely no problem with them being pulled."
Shortly thereafter, council member Daphne Tenorio said she would pull both items from the consent agenda.
In other items worth noting on Tuesday’s agenda:
- The first place an outside production company will visit when it wants to go on location to make some kind of film in Texas — be it a full-length feature or a 30-second commercial — is the Texas Film Commission which maintains a list of "Film Friendly" communities in Texas. In order to get on that list, a city must establish guidelines for filming within its corporate limits. The council will consider just such guidelines Tuesday.
- The council will consider a plan to install a utility payment drop box immediately south of the VFW building on Front Street. The plan also increases the annual lease on the property paid by the Union Pacific Railroad to $6,970, an increase of $1,574.50.
- Apparently because of some uproar from citizens, the company that is providing the readers that will allow Kyle police to stop vehicles whose owners have outstanding municipal court warrants and seek payment from the operators of those vehicles is amending its agreement so that all data collected by the readers will be deleted from the company’s server upon termination of the contract. It is also throwing in a payment kiosk to be located either at police headquarters or just outside the municipal court as well as direct mailings to offenders at no cost to the city.
- The council will consider a partnership with Gateway Planning/Catalyst commercial for a sustainable development initiative. This organization was part of a larger group that recently developed plans for a project in Cleburne, Texas, to be called Cleburne Station, a 70-acre complex that’s supposed to include about 346,000 square feet of retail space, restaurants and a ballpark that will host a minor league baseball team, the local high school’s baseball games and as many as 80 other events, including concerts and car shows. The city will pay 25 percent of the development costs, but Cleburne is able to fund that cost by adding a half-cent to its sales tax rate. Kyle’s sales tax rate is maxed out so any similar developments that would involve major municipal funds would have to come via voter-approved bond sales and the subsequent increase in property taxes. On the other hand, this city certainly does need plans and directions for sustainable developments.
- The council plans to continue its discussion on funding public transportation in Kyle (which could take on an entirely new context since it was learned that the proposed Lone Star Rail project is, for all practical purposes, dead and buried), and initiate discussions on two related items: First, vehicle idling, which is the leading cause of deadly atmospheric ozone, and, second, whether Kyle should join the rest of civilized Central Texas in the Central Texas Clean Air Coalition.
You can find the complete agenda along all accompanying materials here.
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