Stan Aten
Casie Pierce
A J Strand
Paul Woodfield
                             

09/28/04  Are we wasting our time?

After last week's council meeting, I have fluctuated between angry to sad to worried to outraged to depressed and back to angry.  I heard the hearing myself, so there's no hope that someone else misunderstood what was said and done.

I can't remember whether it happened early in the meeting or after Fantroy's Conflict of Interest Travesty, but at one point Councilman Ed Oakley interrupted the agenda to introduce a class of students who were in the audience.  He said they were witnessing "democracy in action". 

If what those children observed is "democracy in action", then donkeys do actually fly.

There are those who believe we live in a democracy, but our form of government is a republic of representative government.  Like many of our founding fathers, many believe that democracy is mob rule.  What occurred at City Hall last week was not the action of representative government, it was not democracy, it was not even mob rule, it was thug rule. 

At last week's city council meeting, people whom we have a right to expect to be law abiding and ethical brazenly violated the law and our City Code of Ethics.

The fix is in at City Hall, and I'm not sure we can expect honest zoning decisions ever again.  The only thing that is going to stop more of what we saw last week is for our District Attorney or the Texas Rangers or even the FBI to intervene, investigate and prosecute.

The bad doings start at the Plan Commission, which now operates with as little regard for the City Code of Ethics as the City Council. 

		The developer cuts a deal with the council member (some go for as little as an invite to a fancy social do).
		The council member tells his/her plan commissioner how to vote (approve/deny) on the zoning case.
		The commissioner tells the rest of the commissioners what's to be done, and they send the council a recommendation with a unanimous vote.
		The council member who has the deal with the developer tells the council what he wants them to do in his district.
		The council members bemoan what bad planning they are being asked to approve, and then happily vote as the council member  has requested.

It's bad enough we know what they are doing, but you would think they could at least show a little discretion.

A. J. Strand, Paul Woodfield and Stan Aten:  people who just will not give up and stand aside for crooked politicians or their minions.

There aren't many parts of town that are not being victimized by the horrid impact of similar rabbit warrens in various states of decay and over-occupancy.  Crime, murder, mayhem!

A. J. Strand is watching while the city allows and encourages a developer to re-plat a beautiful area into small lots with too many houses that will destroy his community of mixed ethnic homeowners.

Paul Woodfield has spent years fighting to hold back the bad guys from his Gastonwood Coronado Hills neighborhood only to have some Nazi newcomers slip in to take control of an affordable neighborhood with no architectural significance.  Since the Nazi newcomers are minions of Princess Velveeta (the ultimate control freak), it's a foregone conclusion that the Nazis will get their conservation district.

Stan Aten is one of those community treasures (like Joe Martin) who remember or know where to find everything worth knowing. 

These people and a handful of others know the decks are stacked against them, but they still step up to the plate when someone at City Hall or a minion of someone at City Hall tries to throw a spit ball at their neighborhood or the city as a whole.

It's so sad that their incredible energies are diverted to a defense position, but it's so great that they will take a stand even when they know they are tilting at windmills.

sb