Two nights ago, the city council held its most important meeting of the year. Not just the year to date, but the entire year. Two nights ago the council assumed the awesome responsibility of planning how much money the city should spend over the 365 days beginning Oct. 1 and exactly what they should spend that money on, as well as deciding the rate at which they would tax property owners in order to help pay for those expenses. And, as it should be, there were a host of concerned citizens ready to speak both in-person and remotely during the public hearings scheduled as part of last night’s agenda.
Except they weren’t concerned about the important part. They weren’t concerned about how the city was going to tax them. They weren’t concerned about how the city planned on spending the money that taxpayers were about to entrust them with. No, instead they were concerned about a comparatively trivial matter — a street name.
Don’t get me wrong. I was openly critical of the council’s decision last week to rename Rebel Road Fajita Drive. But, in the grand scheme of things, that road name pales in importance to the level of the city services our tax money is going to fund for the upcoming year – how the city plans on spending the money they receive from our tax payments.
Now I’m really going to try to be optimistic here. For the last 24 hours, I’ve been trying to convince myself that these people who spoke during last night’s public hearings don’t represent the thinking of the overall majority of Kyle citizens. I remain optimistic that the majority of Kyle’s residents, to reduce this to a personal level, actually do believe it’s more important to make sure their household has an income sufficient to meet their expenses than the name of a street they need to drive on to take their child to school. And I’m praying that the majority of Kyle residents aren’t as completely out of touch with the what’s going on in America today as too many of those speakers, who displayed a complete lack of empathy, were last night. But I’ll get back to that in a moment.
First, let me just throw some numbers to consider. The public meeting on the tax rate took all of three minutes and six seconds, most of which was consumed by City Manager Scott Sellers reading from the required text that must be a part of the record before any municipal government in Texas enacts a tax rate. The public hearing on the budget – how the city plans to spend all the taxpayers’ money over the next year — consumed a whopping seven minutes and 17 seconds. The public hearing on the name of one 1.67-mile section of a farm to market road consumed two hours, 29 minutes and 36 seconds. That is textbook for “Priorities Completely Out of Whack.”
I will admit, however, that, for the most part, the tone, the presentation, the content of what was said by the citizens during that marathon was civil. I did appreciate hearing something I had not heard before — the comment from one resident whose residence in Kyle predated 1969 when Sonny Falcon journeyed down from Austin to sell the very first fajita here. She said that event which was held in such high esteem at last week’s council meeting was not only not considered that big of a deal at the time, but also not that big of a deal anytime after. And, frankly, I must say I believed her. She lived here back then. She should know about what was happening more than any of the rest of us who have located here after 1969. So, yes, I’m going to take her word for it. She probably accurately described, at least from her point of view, the mood of the city at that time. And her point of view, at least in the opinion of this writer, is absolutely valid and worthwhile and I don’t believe anyone who did come here after 1969 should challenge that validity.
There were, however, some absolutely painful moments. Like when some guy called in from Los Angeles to offer a definition of the word “rebel” even though such a definition, while possibly accurate, is completely irrelevant in today’s discussions of these issues. But that cringe-worthy moment absolutely paled to that drop-dead scene of someone named, I believe, Chevo Pastrano, who, demonstrating he is completely, totally, 100 percent out of touch with today’s realities, said in response to keeping “Rebel” as the name of the road in question “I don’t think anyone is going to be offended by that.”
That’s exactly the same thing as saying “Officer, I don’t think anyone is going to be offended if you keep your knee on the black man’s throat’s a little bit longer.” And I hope, I fervently pray, that the overwhelming majority of Kyle residents don’t share that total lack of empathy. And I’m going to be optimistic about the fact that they don’t. I’m not so optimistic as to believe they will be as equally offended by that name for the road, but only that, unlike Pastrano, they will recognize that other people will be. And hopefully, some of those folks will trying to understand why they are offended, even though they might not agree with them.
I’m a huge NBA fan. I did not watch Tuesday night’s city council meeting live because I was watching the unpleasant carnage that befell my beloved Dallas Mavericks at the hands of the Los Angeles Clippers. But I also watched Clippers head coach Doc Rivers in his post game news conference and something he said literally brought tears to my eyes. “I love this country,” Rivers said. “Why doesn’t this country love us back?” Doc Rivers, for one, would be offended by keeping the name Rebel Drive. So would the all the members of the Milwaukee Bucks basketball team who, in protest of another unarmed black man being shot seven times in the back by a white police officer a couple of nights ago in Kenosha, Wis., refused to take the court during yesterday’s playoff contest with the Orlando Magic. So would all the other NBA teams who displayed their solidarity with the Bucks so that the NBA was forced to postpone all three of today’s scheduled games until Friday, at the earliest.
Yes, I am going to remain optimistic. I’m going to keep telling myself that the overwhelming majority of Kyle residents have their priorities straight and that’s why they didn’t participate in last night’s circus. I’m going to keep telling myself that the overwhelming majority of Kyle residents accept the reality that those who are the targets of racism can indeed actually be offended by that racism. I’m going to keep telling myself that the overwhelming majority of Kyle residents are better than some of what I saw on display at Tuesday night’s council meeting.
I’m even going to be optimistic that some of the Kyle residents actually remember that they were warned three, four years ago, that water rates were going to have to be increased significantly this year because the city pledged to share the debt associated with financing a mammoth pipeline endeavor to deliver water to the city from the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer. Kyle’s share of the debt for this project through the end of 2021 is around $52 million, Finance Director Perwez Moheet reminded everyone Tuesday night. As with all debts, it must be paid. So I’m going to be optimistic that the individual complaining about the water rate increase was not just grandstanding, but that he simply wasn’t knowledgeable about this agreement and this debt obligation. I’m going to be optimistic that those citizens who claim they are examining the budget will also learn to examine the source of the funds they are concerned about (Hint: not all municipal expenditures come from taxes, so it’s foolish to assume that they do).
See, I’m trying. I really am. But it isn’t always easy. Especially when I hear that many of these people who haven’t a clue about what’s going on in this city, what the history is, what the solid reasoning is for these decisions, who don’t know how to actually read and understand a budget, have announced they are candidates for political positions.
For the record, the city council during Tuesday’s meeting officially lowered the property tax rate, albeit by only 2 cents per $100 valuation. They also adopted a budget for the upcoming fiscal year as they are mandated by law to do by no later than Aug. 29 (one person speaking at the meeting suggested passage of the budget be delayed, i.e., that the city should defy state law — but, still, I’m going to continue to try to be optimistic) with only a few minor changes. Sellers informed the council it had received a rebate check from the Texas Municipal League’s insurance pool in the amount of $37,000. Council member Robert Rizo suggested that $31,000 of that should be applied toward a 2 percent salary increase for the city’s department heads to match the 2 percent raise awarded to all other city employees in the current budget. The council unanimously agreed. Then council member Tracy Scheel suggested the remaining $6,000 be set aside to help businesses located along the former Rebel Road deal with the required change-of-address costs. That, too, was approved unanimously and enthusiastically.
Oh, and about that road. Officially, it’s no longer Fajita Drive. It’s not officially back to Rebel Road either. It will be referred to in polite society as FM 150, pending the appointment of an ad-hoc committee that will be assigned the task of recommending a permanent new name. Those ideas were also agreed upon unanimously, which is also cause for some optimism.
Like, I said. I’m trying. I really am.
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