"The court clearly has said it has to be delineated in the budget process and so far I have yet to see that happen, even in the rollover. It's not even mentioned. There's some stubbornness here. I don't understand that." – County Judge Liz Sumter
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of Flite Acres Rd. And Saddleridge Dr. gets a
fresh topping, including the portion inside Wimberley's
city limits, courtesy of county taxpayers and Commissioner Conley.
Note: Commissioner Conley was out of town and not available to comment for this story. We left a message with his office. The commissioner is due back Monday.By Bob Ochoa
Editor
County road crews were spotted Thursday afternoon resurfacing Saddleridge Dr., the main thoroughfare in the upscale Saddle Ridge Subdivision, south of Wimberley at the junction. It was a sure sign that Pct. 3 County Commissioner Will Conley is sticking to his guns, come hell or high water, that he is the Road Overlord in his precinct.
Part of Saddleridge Dr., a long stretch that intersects with RR 12, lies in the Wimberley city limits, yet it is being resurfaced without the city's consent. If the county sends a bill, the city has no intention of paying it, City Administrator Don Ferguson told the RoundUp.
Similar issues are ping-ponging around with Conley's plan to repave Flite Acres Rd. with expensive blacktop. Here again, the plan is to pave Flite Acres, including the portion inside the city at an estimated cost to the city of more than $50,000. City Administrator Ferguson said the city has sent a letter to the county stating it will give consent to the paving of the city's portion (sans any costs to the city) IF commissioners court VOTES to approve a waiver in their inter-local agreement. The city wants to abide by the rules, but Ferguson said he has yet to receive a response from the county.
We recall the words Mr. Conley barked at County Judge Liz Sumter during that famous videotaped commissioners court meeting in late July: "I'm the road commissioner in Pct. 3 . . . you need to understand the way the road system works . . . you don't understand how things are done here in Hays County."
Apparently the road system works the way Conley wants it to work.
Conley is still pushing a vaguely understood proposal at commissioners court that, if adopted by the court and cities in the county, would add miles of city roads to the county's maintenance inventory. County taxpayers will have to weigh in on this one – whether they want to pay the tab, or let Conley decide for them. Don't say we didn't warn you. As things now stand, the county is binded by an inter-local agreement with cities in which the cities must share the repair and resurfacing cost of roads inside their city limits.
The court recently voted to leave basically intact its inter-local agreement with cities. County Judge Sumter said cities will be expected to pay for material costs UNLESS the commissioners court AGREES to pay for the materials. "The funny thing is," Sumter said, "the vote was for all agreements across the board which means all of those agreements must go to the cities to get approved. If one city decides not to pass it, what happens then?"
Conley's fast and loose methods also are not holding true to county budgeting agreements. The Flite Acres project was in the FY 2010 county budget but it did not define the city's cost for materials. "Nothing is now delineated in the FY 2011 budget, or for any rollovers (from the 2010 budget, including $400,000 for hot mix)," Sumter said. "The court clearly has said it has to be delineated in the budget process and so far I have yet to see that happen, even in the rollover. It's not even mentioned. There's some stubbornness here. I don't understand that."
Conley believes he has the votes on the court, going forward, to approve cost waivers for cities virtually at will. The tag team of Conley, Commissioners Jeff Barton and Debbie Ingalsbe are proving to be formidable champions of road builders and contractors. Ingalsbe has managed to sneak in to the budget a mystery private road in Pct. 1 that she wants to take public and maintained by the county. Barton is proudly waving around to his constituents a $750,000 state grant to reconstruct Turnersville Rd in Buda in a partnership with the county, city and US Foodservice. The project will help pave the way for US Food's relocation to Buda. Earlier this year, Barton received a contribution from a US Food operative. Conley, Barton and Ingalsbe, of course, were among the biggest promoters of the 2008, $207 million road bond, the costs of which are coming home to roost for the taxpayers.
29 comments:
Now, Bob, you can't go and lump everyone in the boat with the Three Stooges that supported the road bond.
I voted for and supported the road bond, but for the roads that were either part of the pass-through tolling program (the State paying the County back), or roads that were in serious need of repair outside of the municipalities' limits.
I agree with the potential problem this creates in that the County will be taking on city roads for maintenance, even when the cities may not pay for them. Even though the residents of the cities pay County taxes too, the cities are statutorily obligated to maintain their roads, or else they have no business being a city.
Contracting with the County to maintain the cities roads, so long as the cities pay for it, is not a bad idea for the smaller cities in the County. In fact, it is an efficient and cost-effective method of saving money; however, the County MUST make sure that the cities beart their share of the cost due to, again, the road maintenance of streets within their corporate limits being their responsibility to maintain.
Maybe you should ask the Board Members of Saddleridge why they rate such prompt service?
Jim Thomas President 512-722-3083 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 512-722-3083 end_of_the_skype_highlighting president10@saddleridge.com
Glenda Moss Vice-President
512-393-3429 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 512-393-3429 end_of_the_skype_highlighting vicepresident10@saddleridge.com
Geoff Goetz Secretary 512-847-7192 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 512-847-7192 end_of_the_skype_highlighting secretary10@saddleridge.com
Bob Eastlake Treasurer 512-847-8333 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 512-847-8333 end_of_the_skype_highlighting treasurer10@saddleridge.com
Wrong, Anonymous #1.
This constitutes a long-term county debt that the people of Hays will be paying for a very long time.
Taxes will be rising accordingly as the years go by.
Bond Issues = Higher Taxes
This is true no matter what the Commissioners or their favorite "roadies" say about this bond issue project.
The extravagance of the tax dollar we spend on this program will come back to haunt us.
TxDOT always cries it doesn't have federal or state funds to build and maintain roadways, but here we are being told that TxDOT will reimburse us for most of the cost. Well if TxDOT promise us something it is sure to keep its word, right?
binded --> bound
I hear tell our commissioners have put off some road bonds till next years budget and we're gonna get wacked with big tax hike.
Actually the longer they delay the more it will cost since the road bond was premised on roads being used and creating traffic counts that will generate the payback from TxDOT. The other roads are roads that they choose to include in the annual road budget. Here's a legitimate question - was Saddleridge in the County road budget for this year?
There are many operatives outside the county that have contributed to Barton's campaign. Who do you think he will be representing if he's elected county judge? Watch your backs. Barton is bought, sold and delivered.
I love it when those who are opposed to local tax issues understand that debt equals bondage. Yet these same individuals fail to see the big picture of what happens when Washington's free-for-all spending racks up a debt at a rate faster than at time in history and fail to see the long term bondage and damage this will do to our country.
It is apparent to any enlightened persons that Will Conley is criticized and demonized here on this Blog simply because he is a Republican and gets the job done. Will takes his job seriously and follows what his constituents want from a County Commissioner. Anyone can see that the roads in Conley’s district have improved greatly after many years of neglect.
Yeah, federally focused Anonymous, we are all idiots and don't see Georgie Bush and Obama's free wheeling expenditures. You are the only one who sees it.
To the Anonymous obviously in love with Will Conley because he is a Republican, those roads were slated for repair before Conley got into office.
I think one of the big problems we have in this county is that it is not one county.
What we have here are separate factions of local government wheeling & dealing for their own. That's the way the system is set up here, instead of all of the local leaders working together as a unit for the community good.
Conley and Barton pushed for the road bonds because they and their campaign contributors directly benefited more than the other areas county wide.
I don't hold any grudges. That's the system and how it works. I'm a Republic too, like you; however, I don't delude myself into thinking that Conley is one of the "good guys".
Ultimately, it is not Republican or Democrat that makes the difference. We need leaders who are fair-minded, maintain a degree of ethics in government and work to benefit the entire county. I wish like hell that these people we have now as leaders would do that.
But they don't.
Road Hard..., I do not delude myself into thinking everything is squeaky clean in the workings of Hays County. I think we can all agree that County politics is a nasty business and has always been so. That being the case, we don’t want some wimpy weakling fighting our battles. A strong willed politician is one that gets things done within the law and sometimes right at the edge and he doesn’t always make nice with his enemies. I think that is a fair description of Conley. If in exercising his duties, he disappoints it is your duty to vote him out. I think we all know some of the snipes on the court that know nothing and do noting except harp about those that do. BTW, I don’t love Will Conley, I’m just glad he is there.
Yeah, Conley is a strong willed politician just like George W. was and look at the mess he left us. Conley is in that class of politicians that cares little about ethics and rules set by his own commissioners court. I have noticed some improvement of some roads mostly for the well heeled and the well connected. What about the rest of us?
The problem is that you can't vote out Conley or any other commissioner unless you are in their district.
I believe that all commissioners should be elected by all Hays County voters, but that's NOT how it is done --- but it should be.
Then commissioners would be forced to work together for the entire community good and not just for their little piece of county turf.
So Peter do you not believe that each part of the County deserves representation?
Yes, each part deserves representation, but I believe it is more important for the entire county to be represented as one community. That's my point.
And currently that is NOT the case.
Right now we may as well have 4 separate counties within Hays. East and West are often fighting each other on various issues instead of working together.
A case in point is that a large number of voters in the west did NOT want the road bond package because those residents did not get equal recognition for roadwork in the package. It favored certain areas more and yet those taxpayers in the west will be paying plenty for roads in Conley's district.
Peter, you said “more important for the entire county to be represented as one community”? Maybe just combine all counties and have an even bigger community, wait ... don’t we have that now? I think it is called the Texas Legislature and we all know how well that works ;).
Bigger is not always better, especially when talking about governmen, don't you agree?
Richard, you are not getting what Stern is saying. It's obvious he does NOT want bigger government or county rule.
What he is saying is that each district should have representation, but the primary objective is to have districts working together as opposed to 1 or 2 districts managing the entire county, which it seems is happening now.
The current commissioners do not work together for the community good.
THAT is what he is stating and I agree with him. It is not, and should not be, a Republican vs. Democrat issue. It should NOT be rule for the wealthy special interests without ethically looking out for county residents.
We need leaders who look out for their own district's needs, but also must work towards the good of all Hays County.
Currently, Stern says this is not happening --- and he is right. He gave the road bond package as an example.
Why can't you and some others see what he is saying instead of twisting his words around?
Peter just when I start to agree with you on something you go and write something just about as smart as Bill White's comments about cutting out the tourism budget.
All Commissioners should be voted on by the entire County? Why? How is that representative democracy? Why doesn't everyone in the State of Texas get to vote on the whole slate of our US Representatives? If we did, I promise you that we wouldn't have people like Lloyd Doggett getting in the House to represent us.
No, representative democracy calls for the division of government into "districts", or "precincts" of various sizes and counts based upon various factors (in counties in Texas all counties are divided into fourths with equal populations in each; or very close proximate populations, that allow for equal representation at the County seat of government - in other words, so that the smaller, rural parts of the County have an equal voice to the larger communities in the County; ala, just like Congress' division of the House of Representatives into districts based on population gives larger states more power; but is balanced by the smaller states' ability to have equal sway in the Senate by ALL states only having two senators.)
Why would we want it any differently? We as a County do have differing goals, aspirations, and agendas. We elect politicians to represent these items for our precinct; and then in a perfect world go to San Marcos to battle it out with the other commissioners to hopefully make sure that we get a fair representation financially and politically before the Commissioners Court. However, the art of politics is eaten up with the idea of compromise (just ask Henry Clay), which is how governance works; you compromise where you can, and support someone else's cause, in return, they support you when you need support.
We do elect one representative to the Court as a whole; that is the County Judge. Just as we all vote for President, and Governor, we as a community (whole) vote for the executive of the County. She (or he) then has the power of the bully pulpit with which to influence the way that the Court will vote. Or at least that is how it works in theory. Judge Sumter however has lost her mandate by intraparty bickering, and Jeff's desire to be Judge. It will be interesting to see how Doctor Cobb, Ray, and the new Commissioner from Kyle will be able to function on a four-member Republican Court.
I think I know what Peter is getting at. I feel however the problem with cooperation between Commissioners comes more from the infernal “two party system” than anything else. I can’t think of a thing that has caused more division and anger in our Country. It is an unintended consequence of our forefather’s efforts at arriving at a new nation. I think the general public is beginning to see the light, witnessed by ever increasing numbers of independent voters.
You can see the way it is tying our public servants hands and causing reluctance to pull away form the “party” as is the case of the present National Democrat party and their unpopular President. The Republicans are having a hard time dealing with the religious-right loons in their party as well. Political parties are bogging us down and are the centers for power and corruption in today’s government.
We "would want it different" because what we have is NOT working and it has not worked for decades.
I think your concern and your comment views the question, "Exactly how much representative democracy do we need, and/or, how much representative democracy is too much?" [in our county]
We are NOT speaking about outside the county politically, so Doggett is not a topic for this conversation.
Why would you think that all people in Hays County voting for ALL county candidates would be worse than what we currently have????
What we have now simply is NOT working for the good of the entire county.
For example, right or wrong, I speak with my neighbors and many of them resent paying more taxes for the roadways in the bond package that they never will drive on. It is fair? Were their "interests" represented in the bond issue by commissioners?
Richard, I agree with your last comment re: political parties, but you left out the part about the Corporate/Military Complex controlling both parties and most of our leaders.
Political parties only bog us down because American voters don't want to educate themselves about issues and take responsibility for their stupid voting decisions. They would rather watch "America's Got Talent" or get drunk at the barbeque.
Americans cannot think critically anymore and are followers because they are treated like idiots by television and the public schools. And let's not even get into the Christian churches. Talk about brainwashing.
Oops, I must be a Muslin or an atheist to speak so honestly about the phony American Dream.
Keep borrowing and buying crap, folks. That is what most of you think life is about anyway.
Peter, again, I disagree with your assessment because of its lack of democratic ideals. What you are talking about is either socialist nirvana, or communist dogma.
You and your neighbors are unhappy about sharing the cost of improving roads for the good of the "community". Maybe the roads in Kyle and Buda needed upgrading; and in a "community" that becomes a "shared (ala - community)" cost.
In principle, the same problem you have with high taxes for roads can be applied to the problem with even higher taxes for public education. It is a common complaint that people without children in public school resent having to pay for their education. Yet, they benefit from having a public education system, or so we're told by those in control.
As for whether or not this experiment in local communism would help our County's governance, what is good for the goose is good for the gander. Why not expand it? I say let all of Texas vote for all of the state representatives, US Representatives, and so on. Hell, I woulld love to vote for the Mayors of Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Austin. Your point, Peter, is heard, and I understand your angst in wishing for something that will never be. It is not constitutional. Why would you want to tweak that which has served this country so well for the last 240+ years? Are you a subversive radical trying to overturn the government? Isn't that the same thing as "regime change"? Isn't that the same thing that the libs accused GW Bush of trying to do? Doesn't this sound hypocritical and elitist of you? Come on Peter, you have made better arguments for sanity before, this however is astronomically ignorant and foolish.
Several things in response. I did not say I personally was unhappy about paying for roadways in other parts of Hays County. I said some of my neighbors are, but I can understand why they feel that way.
As for "democratic principles" I would ask you "What democratic principles?"
When Barton and others get much of their campaign contributions from outside of Hays County you have to ask yourself, "Why?" and "Is there a conflict of interest involved?"
Is that part of the democratic principle you speak of?
I won't argue it with you because you are entitled to your opinion and I also know that what I proposed won't ever happen --- BUT, I used the "device" to present to people the reality that our current county leaders for the most part do not work together to resolve many of our county's urgent issues.
Public education is not in the best interests of the entire community if so many problems with really educating children are inherent within the public education system.
In essence, we are paying to permetuate an education system that fails too many of our children.
Is it a "democratic principle" to provide the parents of troubled or failing students in [public education] with vouchers to go use for private education? Isn't THAT socialism or communism?
Our democracy is failing in many ways and we need to review the path we are going on. The Corporate/Military Complex determines our development on the national and local levels. Most of us are just trying to survive financially.
Without our Hays County leaders working better together it will be continually difficult to move in more positive directions.
That was the primary point I am trying to make. Hays County residents / voters should convey that to their officials and we all should vote for candidates accordingly, for the good they may bring to the community.
“Is it a "democratic principle" to provide the parents of troubled or failing students in [public education] with vouchers to go use for private education? Isn't THAT socialism or communism?”
No, Peter the voucher program is a backstop for a failed Social Program called Public Education or more properly, Aid to Dependent Educators. The kids have been the pawns in this struggle and have been victimized to the point we have high school graduates that can’t read or write competently. The teachers and administrators have certainly had their standards of living increase.
When you are in a hole, it is time to stop digging!
Peter:
Some good points. I would still say that we can't abandon democratic principles for the wanton desire of "getting along". Since when in American politics have we "gotten along"?
As for public education - if the system is failing, which in a good many districts it is, then the voucher system is free market principles being applied. How is that even comparable to the situation involving the "community" election of representatives? Another problem with your at-large schema, is that it has been often found to be racially discriminatory in the event that there is a super majority of one race (usually anglo) over the other races in the super minority (usually of 10% or less - Hispanic or African-American). In the event of an at large election, the odds are more favorable for the overwhelming majority to vote for the person of their race (whether they do it intentionally or subconsciously), in which case you have now created a problem that is a violation of the Voting Rights Act and numerous other federal regulations and statutes. See, yet again there are problems with the principle you espouse.
I understand the idea of using this as a demonstration to highlight that the powers that be are not working together for the common good, but to propose the idea of communal elections? Please, the idea of such is ludricrous, and subversive.
As for roads, I am glad to hear that you are now a proponent of growth and road improvements. Will let the powers that be know that they have your support. :>)
The voucher program is NOT a "free market" enterprise. It is only for a handful of the student population --- the ones doing poorly or failing. It is discriminatory to permit only that population to receive vouchers. If a voucher program is developed, it should be for all students and their families.
While I support the road projects now that they have been approved by the voters, I still believe --- as I did before --- that the amount is too costly for the value the roads will bring.
I also do NOT trust the promise of TxDOT to reimburse the county for most of the roadway costs. I think the county will ultimately incur a long time debt, but that's just my thinking for whatever it's worth.
Hey Al-Anon who said:
"Dear Anon who thinks he is a piece of fabric ("muslin")."
Why do they know your family invented the "toothbrush"?
Because anyone else would have called it a "teethbrush."
What a gooberhead you are to be so proud of your white trashiness. You and your kind are why half of America is in the outhouse.
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