P&Z plays it smart by playing dumb

Planning and Zoning commissioners met for about an hour and a half tonight to hash out how they were going to tackle the somewhat nebulous assignment of performing a five-year update of the city’s comprehensive plan. And, pushed by commissioners Michelle Christie and Mike Wilson and encouraged by outgoing commissioner Dan Ryan, the commissioners came to grips with their own limitations and decided their task was going to be limited to making recommendations on what specific areas of the plan need to be changed/updated. The commissioners decided they will not, however, make any specific recommendations for changes in the plan.

Most comprehensive plans are prepared by urban planners, defined as "a professional who works in the field of urban planning for the purpose of optimizing the effectiveness of a community's land ." The key word, at least to me, in that definition is "professional" and the professionals who helped formulate Kyle’s current Comprehensive Plan are these guys, these guys and these guys. All seven members of the Planning and Zoning Commission, more or less, individually came to the conclusion that "Hey, I don’t have the background or the expertise of any of those guys. What I am is a citizen who volunteered to serve on this commission."

To my way of thinking, it takes a wise person with a lot of security in one’s own self to realize his or her own limitations, and, thus, P&Z came across tonight as a commission composed of seven wise individuals.

The commission is still seeking public input on their task and is going to welcome that input during the public comment section at each of their workshops which are tentatively scheduled for the fourth Tuesday in each of the next three months. Next month’s workshop will concentrate on future land use and open space, November’s subjects will be public facilities and transportation and in December the commissioners plan to tackle urban design and downtown revitalization. But try to keep in mind, the input they are looking for is the public’s ideas on what parts of the current Comprehensive Plan need to be tweaked, drastically altered or nuked completely, but not any actual recommended changes

Fogley fumbles recusal attempt

It is a given that the Kyle City Council does not follow Robert’s Rules of Order or any other accepted parliamentary procedures, but there are certain ethical guidelines that are so tantamount to good government, they must be obeyed. Every single person who serves on a city council or a city board/commission/committee in Kyle should know how to recuse themselves so as to avoid any hint of conflict of interest.

Now different municipalities have different procedures for initiating the recusal process. For the sake of example, let’s use a member of a city council as our subject here because the situation I’m talking about involved a neophyte city council member, Damon Fogley, at last Tuesday’s city council meeting. Normally what happens in situations like this is council members will prepare somewhat before they come to council meetings. They will have at least carefully read the council’s agenda and, thus, will be aware of any item which may pose a conflict of interest before the meeting even starts. I don’t know the exact procedure here in Kyle, but in the civilized world of municipal government, a council person wishing to be recused because a particular agenda item may pose a potential conflict will file a signed affidavit noting that possible conflict with the city secretary, who will then notify the council’s presiding officer just prior to the commencement of that meeting.

The key here is "preparation," a council member actually studying the agenda somewhat a day or two, or even an hour or two, prior to the start of the council meeting. I am not sure that every member of the Kyle City Council takes any time preparing for these meetings.

However it’s handled, there are certain rules that apply in all situations of recusal. The presiding officer must know of a council person’s recusal intent before the agenda item comes up for discussion. And the council member who has been recused must physically leave the chamber where the item is being discussed and voted upon. Fogley did neither Tuesday.

The item in question was a rezoning issue to allow a convenience store/gas station type use on a 1.75 acres that was zoned single family residential. at 2050 E. RR 150. Instead of saying anything ahead of time, Fogley sat through the entire discussion of the item and, just as the vote was about to be taken, asked to be recused. But then, instead of getting up and leaving the chamber as is required in any recusal motion, even one as illegal as Fogley’s was, he just sat there like the Say-No-Evil monkey and simply didn’t cast a vote. Not voting or abstaining from voting on an item is not the same thing as a recusal. The item passed 5-0.

Now I’m not going to put the entire blame for this foolishness on Fogley. Just as much responsibility for this inexcusable behavior needs to be shared with city staff. And there is a very simple way to guard against having our city leaders acting like idiots in the future. Between the time a person is elected for the first time to the city council and that person is sworn in, the staff, led the city attorney, must conduct some form of orientation program for these individuals so that they are aware of the basic rules of Robert’s as well as the reasons to recuse oneself and the proper procedure for a recusal. Staff should conduct the same program for all new members to city boards and commissions as well. If handled correctly, such an orientation class could be held in under an hour.

In other action Tuesday night, the council:

• Seemed receptive the idea presented by an organization called Appa Aguilas to form a soccer program in Kyle, especially if that meant Appa Aguilas was going to relieve the city of the responsibility of maintaining Waterleaf Park.
• Reappointed Mike Wilson, Irene Melendez and Timothy Kay to the Planning & Zoning Commission and appointed former city council candidate Dex Ellison to the commission to replace retiring commissioner Dan Ryan.
• Denied a request to permit overhead electrical service along Bebee Road.
• Approved 5-1 (CM Diane Hervol cast the lone dissenting vote and CM Daphne Tenorio had an excused absence due to illness) a zoning request that will allow the construction of a pair of warehouses on Lehman Road near RR 150.
• Unanimously approved a zoning request to permit the construction 82 rental duplexes directly behind these warehouses.
• In one of the quickest annexation moves on record, the council voted 5-0 (CM Becky Selbera left the meeting without announcing why just prior to discussing this item) to annex the 135.78 acres where David Weekley Homes and Scott Felder Homes are planning a subdivision immediately west of Hometown Kyle. The entire discussion on this issue and the vote consumed less than two minutes of the council’s time. Moments later, the council allowed 2.681 acres of this property to be rezoned so it could be used for retail services right at the intersection of North Old Stagecoach and Cypress roads.
• Discussed the possibility of installing up to three stop signs in the Waterleaf subdivision in an attempt to slow drivers who are apparently racing through the streets of this area at speeds close to 40 miles an hour.
• Heard that, although construction has begun on the Marketplace-to-Burleson road project, the official groundbreaking ceremonies will take place Wednesday, Oct. 7, at 9:30 a.m.
• Was reminded that the council’s first meeting in October will be on the first Wednesday of the month, not the usual first Tuesday, because that Tuesday is National Night Out in Texas and Florida.
• Was informed by City Manager Scott Sellers that Stage 2 water restrictions were returning because (1) water consumption in Kyle was 33 percent greater this year than last and (2) the Barton Springs Pool of the Edwards Aquifer is "steadily dropping" and the San Antonio Pool of the Edwards is in Stage 2.

City Council tries to blame others for its own shortcomings and then fails to demand accountability

Somewhere between the strange worlds of George Orwell and Joseph Heller, you’ll find the planet inhabited by Kyle City Council. Take Tuesday night, for instance. The council tried to penalize two organizations seeking special event application approvals for following the rules the council has in place for such applications instead of trying to find a way to adhere to unexplained policies that are not in place.

The applications in question were for a two-day music festival for veterans Nov. 7 and 8 and a Hays CISD-sponsored Mariachi festival Nov. 7.

Mayor Todd Webster seemed to think these applications should go to the Parks and Recreation Board either before or instead of the council. And perhaps they should, but that’s not the policy in effect now. Or, as CM Diane Hervol so appropriately stated "To tell these people now, at the 12^th hour, that they have to come back through the system, is just not fair."

"It’s not the 12^th hour," Webster retorted.

"But they’re here tonight," Hervol countered. "We put these items on the agenda for whatever reason. Granted these two events don’t appear on the calendar until November ... but now these two events are coming before us and we’re saying ‘Hey, let’s go ahead and put another step in the process and go this way.’ If it was me, I wouldn’t like my time being wasted. I don’t disagree with the idea of changing the process. I’m just saying these two items are before us now."

But then it got even more bizarre when CM Damon Fogley chimed in.

"I think we need to have a very specific, whether it’s through Parks or the city council, we need to have a program in place where we make sure we have guidelines or whatever that may be for each organization that approaches us and asks us for funds," Fogley said.

So then — I kid you not — Fogley voted against the applications because the city did not have in place, "whether it’s through Parks or the city council," unspecified "guidelines or whatever," as if this failure of the city's was the applicants' fault.

But wait, it gets worse. The council actually agreed for the City of Kyle to be a sponsor and attach the city’s logo to what is being billed as the Hays Veterans Music Fest. Now, according to the application she filed with the city, promoter Sylvia Gallo listed this as a for profit event. In speaking before the council, however, she said it was designed to raise funds for several Central Texas veterans organizations. Personally, I could care less whether it’s a for-profit venture or a fund raiser, but if it is the latter I’m convinced the city council should be have installed some accountability into the proceedings. How is the city to know after the event it is sponsoring is over how the festival promoters distribute the moneys it collects? How much, if any, is actually going to veterans organizations? Should the council have insisted that a certain percentage of the proceeds actually go to veterans organizations? As far as I can tell, none of these issues were addressed; I know for a fact they weren’t addressed at Tuesday night’s council meeting. The only subject the council was concerned about was why these applicants didn’t follow rules that weren’t in effect and, in so doing, left themselves open to the possibility that Kyle might, in some circles, become known as "the town that ripped off American veterans."

The corridor to nowhere

The City Council approved Tuesday night a resolution recommending the development of a corridor — not a road, mind you, but a very wide swath of land somewhere in which a road might be constructed — between Arroyo Ranch Road, located off Ranch Road 150 2½ miles northwest of where 150 meets 2770. and the intersection Yarrington and I-35.

The plan is that sometime in the next five, ten, 25, 50, 100 years or thereabouts, Ranch Road 150 would be diverted at Arroyo and placed somewhere within that corridor? Why? Because the transportation "experts" around these parts believe transportation only has to do with infrastructure and has nothing to do with mobility and as a result they want to convert 150 into, at least, a four-lane expressway to accommodate all those thousands and thousands of folks who want a faster way to get from Dripping Springs to San Marcos and points south. Right now, 150 runs right through the center of downtown Kyle and a four-lane highway could not be accommodated there without knocking down some historic buildings (and probably city hall itself) and building a bridge over the railroad tracks, which is also impractical for too many reasons to list here.

But, the council was told Tuesday night, a form of 150 will still run down Center Street. Only that stretch will be called Business 150 after the new highway is complete.

Council members asked a lot of questions about the proposed corridor including relevant ones such as how it will impact Jim Miller’s certified organic farm located in that area (council members were assured that road will be constructed nowhere near Miller’s farm) and a lot of irrelevant ones. They also seemed concerned about the long lines of traffic that develop at certain times on Center Street in downtown Kyle — especially when a train blocks the crossing at the eastern edge of downtown — and how this new alignment might alleviate that traffic. (The answer is probably that it won’t alleviate that because much of that traffic is generated by the schools in the downtown area or the parents of children in places like Hometown Kyle taking their children to Lehman High School.)

I had some questions I thought were obvious ones to ask, but never were. The main question was what percentage of the traffic traveling east through downtown on RR 150 wants to go north on I-35? I have a sneaking suspicion that percentage is fairly significant and those motorists are not going to want to be diverted way to the south in order to go north, so they will continue to follow the Business 150 or whatever it will be called through downtown.

Second, the corridor, as outlined Tuesday night to the council, stops at Yarrington and I-35. But RR 150 doesn’t stop at I-35. It connects with State Highway 21 and offers many Kyle residents, especially those living near 150, arguably the best route between Kyle and Bastrop and then on to Houston and points east. Is Business RR 150 going to reconnect with regular RR 150 somewhere that doesn’t take the motorists using this route to get to Bastrop too far out of their way?. Or is 150 really going to stop at I-35? If so, what happens to what is now RR 150 between I-35 and State Highway 21? (I have heard nasty, unsubstantiated rumors, that highway officials eventually want to extend super-highway 150 to Interstate 10 west of Flatonia and have that serve as the principle truck route between Austin and Houston, which, then, becomes the rationale for locating that Godzilla truck stop at I-35 and Yarrington.)

I also can’t conceive of RR150 ever being seriously considered by any conscientious motorist to be a logical alternative connector between Dripping Springs and Houston. That’s ridiculous. That’s why I am calling ths the corridor to nowhere. (OK, I’ll grant you, it may provide a faster access between Dripping Springs and San Marcos and then points south, but is that really a major need that has to be addressed at this time?)

In all the talk about this road, I would have liked to have had someone on the council address these issues. But, as I’ve said so many times before, the fix was in.

Does anyone here listen?

After the city council wrestled Tuesday night with the question of how to cram nine nominees into a seven-person Economic Development and Tourism Board (the first seven on the list of nominees were named to the board and the last two, Jim Hough and Jo Fenety, were named "ex officio" members), Mayor Pro Tem David Wilson posed the following hypothetical to board chair Brian Ziegler, the only person returning from the last ED&T gang:

"An industry approaches us and your committee is the first one activated, that’s the first contact. The industry doesn’t want to be identified by name. They don’t want to be identified that they’re interested. They don’t want to identify also that they have competitors. How do you see this board operating? Would it be the first contact? Would it be a discussional item? Would it be, along with the city manager and a development director in attendance, a kind of a group that would lay it out and get support for it within the group before it’s presented to council or presented to anyone? In your view, how would that play out?"

Forget for the moment a person should never try to answer a hypothetical question. That’s why such questions are not permitted in courtroom examinations. Let me try to place Wilson’s hypothetical in context. Less than 30 minutes before Wilson posed the question, the council heard a recommendation from the firm it hired to develop its economic development strategic plan that the city rename and rebrand its Economic Development and Tourism Board and give that newly rebranded board the assignment of recruiting targeted businesses to Kyle. Which to me, sounds like a great idea. It sort of reminds me of that popular cartoon depicting the buzzard sitting on the telephone pole telling his fellow vulture "Patience, hell. I want to kill something." Yes, instead of waiting around hoping some business someday might express interest in doing something here, or even more improbably, the Greater San Marcos Partnership might dump a high-tech manufacturing firm in our laps, let’s go out and round up the usual suspects. As far as those businesses that might express interest in Kyle on their own, without any sort of recruitment effort, let those prospects deal directly and immediately with the Economic Development personnel on the city’s staff. In other words, assign each function specific individual tasks instead of everyone involved in economic development tripping over each other all trying to do the same thing in their own way.

So, in my mind, the way I would have liked to have seen Wilson’s hypothetical addressed would have been something like this:

"That’s an issue we would need to address when the specific situation actually arises, But as you just heard in the economic development presentation moments ago, I believe our committee should concentrate on four specific tasks. First, identifying a broad range of companies that fit within the general parameters of those categories that were recommended to us. Second, identifying within those groups those companies that are the most likely to want to establish a business in Kyle and those that would fit our future growth and comprehensive plans. Third, develop individualized strategies designed to convince each of those companies to establish a presence in Kyle. And fourth, visiting those companies to deliver our sales pitch."

That’s the answer I would have loved to hear. That was the answer that would make me believe the city might be actually thinking about getting serious about business development and creating more and better jobs right here in Kyle. Is that anywhere close to the answer Ziegler gave? Judge for yourself.

"About two or three years ago we had an economic development opportunity come to the committee desk," Ziegler said. "They were presenting a 380 agreement (Agreements that enable cities to provide incentives to encourage developers to build in their jurisdiction. They are called 380 agreements because they can be found in Chapter 380 of the Texas Government Code.) At that time there was not a single person — I think there was six or seven members of the committee at that time — had no idea what a 380 agreement was. So not only did we have to negate the presentation, then we had to learn what a 380 agreement was over the next month. There are so many things the common citizen isn’t going to understand when it comes to economic development. I think one of the priorities when we tried to realign this board was to get people who would have an understanding of economic development moving forward. We need to remain competitive geographically and without having the expertise in place I think we’re going to get left behind. So, to answer you question, if this was brought to us, I think we would kind of feel the candidate up front, kind of have a discussion with him around whatever project they want to put in place. And at that point we can make some serious recommendations to council."

It made me want to stand up and scream "Is anyone around here actually listening and understanding what your economic development experts just recommended to you minutes before or have you just decided to ignore their recommendations entirely and wait for more fast food restaurants to set up shop in Kyle?"

“One of those chicken and egg situations”

Office buildings. They are conspicuously absent in Kyle. Those three, four, five story buildings that house a variety of small business tenants — lawyers, architects, accountants, public relations practitioners. I’m sure we have Kyle residents in all those professions and most of them are probably commuting somewhere else each day to work.

But how do you approach this? Do you wait for a number of professionals to want to set up shop in Kyle and then construct a building to house them? Or do you employ the Field of Dreams approach: If we build it, they will come. That dilemma was at least acknowledged at last night’s city council meeting when Roger Dale, of the Natelson Dale Group, presented the group’s recommendations for an Economic Development Strategic Plan.

"That is one of the fundamental challenges Kyle has," Dale told the council in response to question on this very topic from Mayor Pro Tem David Wilson. "You’re talking about attracting industry but you don’t necessarily have a place to put them. It’s one of those chicken and egg situations. A developer doesn’t want to build something unless they know there’s someone that’s going to come there but no one wants to come there unless there’s somewhere to come. You kinda have to get off the fence on these situations. It’s not easy. There’s not a simple solution but the steps we believe you can take are Number 1, coordination with developers. And there are developers who would like to develop that space if they knew there were demand for it. That’s their long-term plan.

"What they say they need is better documentation that there is a flow of prospective tenants that would occupy their space," Dale continued. "We have some recommendations as part of our marketing program on how you create that information flow to the developers to give them some justification for building spec buildings and getting them financed and so forth. It’s not a magic bullet. It’s a challenge that’s always going to be there.

"The other thing that can help that is to have, if not buildings, at least shovel-ready sites. The infrastructure’s in place. The approvals are in place. So that if you can’t initially get a spec building, at least you can get a build-to-suit in a fairly quick period of time. That’s not as ideal as having a building ready. But get that there. Get the ball rolling. It’s one of those things that success begets success. You get the first deal in and you’ll have more success who ultimately want to do spec buildings.

"It’s a step-by-step process. I can’t say we have a magic solution for it, but I think the city is already taking some very good steps in terms of its coordination with the development community and its long-term vision in terms of infrastructure planning to make that eventually a very viable thing here in Kyle."

As I wrote earlier this week, Dale told the council it would be most "feasible" to concentrate the city’s economic development activities on attracting high-tech manufacturing firms to Kyle. But he also said other priority targets are "destination related recreational facilities (i.e., water parks, amusement parks) and professional and business services," such as those that would occupy the office buildings addressed above.

To recall or not to recall: That is the question

During the public comments portion of last week’s special city council meeting, one person stood up and announced he would be generating a petition to recall Mayor Todd Webster. Personally, I do not and will not support any effort to recall da mayor. If asked, I will not sign a petition designed to force a recall election. As any steady reader of this journal can testify, I disagree with da mayor on any number of issues. But those disagreements are strictly political. Those disagreements can be best summed up like this: I am pro the individual resident of and visitor to Kyle; da mayor is pro developer. To say I want him recalled because he doesn’t agree with my political views is tantamount to my saying "Unless you play the game my way, I’m going to throw a temper tantrum, pick up my marbles and go home." Besides, he’s lived here far longer than I, so I am going to grant him some squatter’s rights. What I will say is this: If da mayor seeks re-election, there’s a real good chance I won’t vote for him. That’s how the political process works.

I could support a recall of an elected official if I was shown irrefutable evidence that official committed a criminal act or committed a serious violation of the Code of Ethics. I have seen absolutely nothing to indicate that either one of these transgressions applies to Webster.

Not only that, my problems with da mayor extend to others on the council as well. Da mayor did not act alone in muzzling democratic discourse at the last city council meeting. That is definitely an action that could precipitate a recall election, in my opinion. But what’s a citizen to do? Recall the whole lot of ‘em? There is a time for a recall and that time is called Election Day

Most of those problems I have with the city’s elected leadership stem from the fact that their service on the city council is a part time job. They soak up the information they are force-fed but they are either too lazy or simply don’t have the time to conduct independent research to determine for themselves the accuracy of this information they are fed. At no time was this more apparent than when the liars who sold them a bill of goods about PIDs (and subsequently were rewarded for their lying ways by being put in charge of all PIDs in the city) stood before the council and said PIDs could only be used for new developments and that it was impossible to use them for existing projects. Not one member of the council stood up and said this wasn't true, but I'm blaming this on council stupidity/laziness, not duplicity. Just a little bit of independent research by any member of the council would have exposed these lies. But such an exposure would have put these council members on the side of the individual residents of Kyle and, for the most part, our council is just as pro-developer/anti-resident as da mayor.

And their misinterpretations of the city charter are becoming legendary. My favorite came when one council member argued against adding more council meetings to the schedule because the charter specifically says when the council is supposed to meet.

However, I can’t mount a successful argument that stupidity is grounds for recall.

What’s more, the citizens of this city permit 5 percent of the registered voters to decide who will set policy for everyone who lives here. If you don’t like the way the cake tastes, then make sure the next time you choose the ingredients.

I must also admit that city council stupidity is not confined to our fair city. Dallas, where I moved from, has full-time city council members but that does not make them immune to having elected officials acting like idiots. I’ll never forget during one Dallas City Council meeting when an airport agenda item came up, one council member went on about a 20-minute tirade about operations at the airport. When he was finished, the other 14 members of the council just sat there with stunned looks until one of them broke the silence to tell the angry council member the agenda item in question concerned a completely different airport. (The city of Dallas has jurisdiction over three airfields that are located within its city limits, although only two of them, Love Field and Executive Airport, actually have planes landing and taking off from them.)

Finally, I believe it would be duplicitous on my part to criticize da mayor and others for tacking on expenditures to the current budget that could have waited a year, thus driving up the tax rate more than it needed to be, and then advocating actions like a recall for which the city would have to shell out the money to pay for an extra unnecessary election.