Conroe City Council Meeting 5/28/09

The Conroe City Council held their meeting tonight at 6:00pm.

Proclamations

• Councilman Jim Gentry read a proclamation honoring the Texas Confederation of Clubs, a motorcyclist club in the Houston area. The proclamation also declares May 2009 Motorcycle Safety Month.
• Councilman Jay Ross Martin read a proclamation honoring the Texas Young Artists Competition.

Discussion

• The Conroe Fire Chief Ken Kreger recently graduated from West Texas A&M with a Bachelors' Degree in Emergency Management.
• Citizen David Burns reported the deterioration of Live Oak Creek near his home on Greenway. Mayor Melder instructed the City Engineer to inspect the situation.
• Jimmy Johnson with Jazz & More announced the group's yearly Conroe Music Festival which will occur on July 4th and asked for the City's participation in the event.

South Conroe Gateway
The Mayor announced that the proposed $464,700 Gateway for South Conroe would honor the Moore Family of Conroe, which includes former Mayor Carter Moore. Mayor Melder acknowledged the "recent attention" that the proposal has gotten and reported that the city was taking action to reduce the cost of the gateway. Attaching such a popular figure to the project will only make it more difficult for council members to reject this extravagant expenditure.

I agree with The Courier's assessment of this situation.

Knox Building
The Council voted 3-2 to purchase the Knox Building from Montgomery County for $125,000. Councilmembers Porter and Gentry dissenting.

Banquet Room Fee
A $200 fee was charged to Conroe Tower tenant Terri Mendez for use of the banquet room on site. Ms. Mendez provides free yoga classes to City employees. All but $50 of the fee was relieved by the Council.

Gladstell Speed Limit
An ordinance was passed to decrease the speed limit from 45 mph to 40 mph on Gladstell Street between I-45 and Sgt. Ed Holcomb Blvd.


Meeting Minutes (PDF)

Some cheese with that whine?

Montgomery County is earning a reputation for electing officials who don't know how to (or care to) comply with simple ethics laws. As if breaking the law wasn't enough, now these characters are threatening to cut off support for charity organizations if citizens continue to report them for breaking the law.

As The Courier reported, County Commissioner Mike Meador was the recipient of yet another TEC complaint. Among other things, Meador accepted contributions from corporations, which is not allowed. Meador's excuses read like a jr. high student whose homework was eaten by the dog.

"If it says 'incorporated' on the check, I don't take them" - Newsflash 2009: The majority of most corporations don't print "Incorporated" on their checks. This is not a viable way to check an organization's status.

"I cooked for the Chamber, and they paid me for the fish and cooking oil" - If that's the case, that should have been a personal reimbursement, not a contribution to the campaign. Or did he spend campaign money for fish and cooking oil for a Chamber event?

“We get tons of checks,” "It (the Twin Shores check) just slipped through. It wasn’t on purpose. To go and check every one would take days.” - I doubt he gets that many checks that have a questionable corporation status and even if he did, that's the cost of compliance. It's called following the law!

"I’ve had other elected officials tell me they’re going to quit giving to the fair and to schools. Who they’re (complainants) going to hurt here is the kids and schools.” I beg your pardon, but "complainants" are helping the Texas Ethics Commission enforce the law, correct? If he wasn't breaking the law, there wouldn't be any problem here. So either he is suggesting that he should be able to keep his illegal contributions for "the kids" or that the fines he is having to pay will come out of the campaign account he was using for "the kids".

1. The TEC has an obligation to enforce the law. If you don't like it, get out of public life.
   
2. Why are elected officials making charitable donations from their campaign accounts? Citizens make these contributions for a political purpose to help a candidate win an election. Why is the money being spent on an unrelated purpose? If someone wanted to give money to a fair or a school, they make a donation to the fair or the school.


3. If an official is being fined for their carelessness and disregard for the law, that official should be paying that fine from personal funds. It's not fair to the people who contributed to the campaign for their contribution to be wasted on a fine. If the official received a speeding ticket, would it be appropriate to pay that fine from campaign funds?


4. If an official is so concerned about the welfare of the charitable organizations they are contributing to, they shouldn't have a problem making these contributions from personal funds. To say that they can't make contributions because they're having to pay fines from their campaign account to the TEC is like saying you can't making your tithing at church because your brother didn't get his bonus check this month.
   

Continuing to fill tears into the river, Constable Don Chumley has had to hire an attorney and an accountant to keep up with all of the dough he's rolling in.

“It’s money I’m having to spend on that, that I could be giving to the fair and to schools,” “It will probably be $300 to $400 every time I go to the attorney; and the accountant, I have no idea.” - He's right about not having an idea.

First of all, the TEC laws are not complex. They ask you to complete a form, which can be done electronically to report what money you have received and what money you have spent from your campaign account. They require some very basic information on each contributor/payee, like their name, address, occupation and employer. To say that you have to hire an attorney AND an accountant to perform that task says that the Constable is incapable of keeping basic records. If he's incapable of keeping basic records, he needs to hang up his hat. But his complaints stem from not filing the semi-annual report on time. I guess he has to hire an attorney and an accountant to compensate for laziness.

Either these elected officials are incompetent, lazy, or unscrupulous. In any event, they should stop whining and simply follow the law that everyone else in Texas has to follow. If they can't do that, they should spare us the agony and let someone take their place who has enough respect for the law to send in a form twice a year with accurate information.

The Courier, 5/24/09

Senator Hutchison's office needs a geography lesson!

Sen. Hutchison's visibility campaign took a wrong turn today when her office released the Senator's "Weekly E-Update.". The picture on the front page shows her giving the commencement address at Sam Houston State University, noting she was in Nacogdoches, Texas. In her whirlwind tour of unfamiliar places, Senator Hutchison may not have realized that she was actually in Huntsville, Texas. Nacogdoches, as most Texans know, is home of Stephen F. Austin State University, Sam Houston's chief rival! It may have been a while since Senator Hutchison lived in Texas full time, but Sam Houston State has not moved 2 hours to the northeast while she was away. Next, I suppose she'll be giving the UT commencement in College Station.

Rick Perry is an embarassment

Goofy Governor Good Hair is a moran. Texans will certainly make their voice heard to that effect come next November, one way or another. Governor Perry, it's ok that you are a moran. But please refrain from going on TV, and talking to reporters, and...well, talking. Between yourself and your predecessor, Texas has become the laughing stock of the world. We were once a proud state with a rich heritage. Now, we're the breeding ground of some of the stupidest politicans in American history. STOP! If Perry really tries to secede, at least we'd have a reason to lock him up.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Lone Star Democratic Club Fundraiser

The LSDC of Montgomery County is holding its annual fundraiser in Tomball this year. With a wine/beer tasting, live auction, and silent auction, it promises to be a good time! The small admission charge gets you access to all of this fun and an italian dinner. Come on out and show your support for a worthy progressive organization. Yours truly is calling the auction.

Event Details

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