Will Conley won re-election for, no doubt, many reasons, but there wasn't nearly enough discussion on the county's financial future to claim a mandate to "keep investing heavily"
Editor's note: Outside of his close circle of supporters and political contributors, the reality is very few voters are informed of Mr. Conley's actual plans going forward into his 3rd term as Hays County Commissioner for Precinct 3. It is a large area Conley represents, about 275 square miles, stretching from the county's western and southern borders with Blanco and Comal counties to the west side of San Marcos. The precinct includes Wimberley and Woodcreek and a good number of long-settled subdivisions like Burnett Ranch, Rolling Oaks and River Mountain Ranch. It surrounds some of the most treasured, scenic open spaces and natural water features in the county. An estimated 30,000 voters reside inside Precinct 3. Conley defeated Mr. Brannon in the Republican primary, winning re-election with only 2,604 votes. So we are mystified by Conley's claim of a mandate for anything. Sooner or later, Conley – who will have been paid close to $1 million in salary and taxpayer-paid benefits by the end of his 3rd term in 2016 – must start a dialogue with his 30,000-plus constituents. He could start with a series of town hall Q & A meetings or an occasional electronic newsletter. No doubt his many constituents would appreciate hearing about his vision for future development, road plans, water supply, subdivisions and big box stores on the drawing board – and all the assorted financial and quality of life costs involved. Talking in vague terms, as is Conley's habit, about "investing heavily" and "modernizing" Hays County just won't cut it anymore. Let's hear what you have planned for your constituents, Mr. Conley, in all the graphic details.* Send your comments and questions to roundup.editor@gmail.com, to Mr. Brannon at sam_brannon@hotmail.com, to your county elected officials (see below), or click on the "comments" at the bottom of the post
Commentary: Fiscal conservatives should be asking questions
By Sam Brannon
Just one day after last Tuesday's Republican primary election, the headline of the San Marcos Mercury read: "Conley claims mandate for roads, capital projects."The story opened as follows: "Pct. 3 Commissioner Will Conley says Republican primary voters’ verdict in his race is a mandate to keep investing heavily in roads and infrastructure while modernizing Hays County government."
Having just re-elected Will Conley to serve another 4 years, and with a new transportation plan in development and numerous other large capital projects on the drawing board, we'd be wise to pay close attention to this statement and its various implications.
Fiscal conservatives and other good government types should be asking some very specific questions of our county elected officials prior to assuming that any new spending is both necessary and affordable.
County Commissioner Pct. 3 in blue
Among that list of questions, I suggest including:• What capital projects are being discussed for the next 2-, 5- and 10-year horizons, and what are their estimated costs?
• How do we intend to fund them (debt, savings, pay-as-we-go)?
• What are the 2, 5 and 10 year debt targets for the county? What are the tax rate targets?
• Will new debt issues be taken to the public for vote in a referendum prior to commitments being made?
• What does "modernizing Hays County government" mean?
I've been asking similar questions for 18 months now, and the questions have to this point gone unanswered. In December of 2010, there were 3 of us asking. By Mar 22, 2011, there were 93 of us asking. On May 29, 2012, there were 1,017 of us asking in Pct. 3 alone. It’s a good time to add your voice to the discussion, and to make sure we get answers.
As many of us are aware, Hays County's debt has risen 810% in the last 7 years (population increased about 20% in the same time period) to $291 million. Hays County now ranks worst among 254 Texas counties when you compare debt to appraised property value, and 6th worst in debt-per-person.
Will Conley won re-election for, no doubt, many reasons, but there wasn't nearly enough discussion on the county's financial future to claim a mandate to "keep investing heavily." Those who are concerned about property taxes, government spending and public debt would be well advised to begin having these conversations with our Commissioners and County Judge, before the planned heavy investments gather too much steam.
County Judge, Bert Cobb - bert.cobb@co.hays.tx.us
Commissioner Pct. 1, Debbie Inglasbe – debbiei@co.hays.tx.us
Commissioner Pct. 2, Mark Jones - mark.jones@co.hays.tx.us
Commissioner Pct. 3, Will Conley – will.conley@co.hays.tx.us
Commissioner Pct. 4, Ray Whisenant - ray.whisenant@co.hays.tx.us
15 comments:
Conley didnt say mandate, the author of the article did. Conley has won many elections, by wide margins (with many differnt people voting in those differnt elections),and things he has supported has passed by wide margins as well (i.e road and parks bond). No one cares what Brannon has to say, he had it handed to him in the worst enviroment possible for Conley. He still got whiped. Bob, in eight years of service to our community you have never said anything postive about Will. No matter what the boy does he will never please you. This is why he dosen't waste his time with you or a small faction of people like you. He is in touch with the citizens he represents and that is all that is important. How about you start doing something postive instead of continuing to lie and spread rumors about one of the most popular and successful elected officals in Hays County. In other words get over it and get a life.
In touch with the citizens he represents, you say? 2600 of 30,000? Mr. Conley showed his colors by dissing a large number of the citizens he supposed to represent. The small faction he truly represents are the developers and speculators from Midland-Odessa. I hope Mr. Brannon continues to be the thorn in Conley's side.
Conley getting re-elected to plunder Hays County for another four years is exactly what you get when the populace refuses to vote.
Conley's people turned out in high enough numbers to defeat his opponent, but 2600 people out of 30,000 should not be dictating anything at all.
Is this what democracy looks like?
Hey, Democrats, how's about next time you put up a fight?
Will Conley is wrong for Hays County and by not fighting against his re-election, the Democrats are as much to blame as anyone.
This county is not nearly as Republican as our elections might indicate. What we have is a failure to communicate our Democratic values.
So, liberals/Democrats/independents will need to get themselves organized and motivated to make the changes in who is representing us in county and state government.
We let the Republicans return Conley to four more years, that has been decided by your Republican neighbors. Now, how about we join together to get rid of that do-nothing ignoramus Jason Isaac and work to elect Dripping Springs' long-time school board member John Adams to be our State Representative?
We win some, we lose some, but we really need to stop losing them all.
One thing to remember, Davis, is that Will Conley re-drew the lines to make Pct. 3 even more Republican, so the average Democratic campaign likely won't work.
Another thing to remember is that Conley won on dirty politics - of the worst sort - untruthful character assassination. Unfortunately, it worked, largely because Brannon is still somewhat new here. It was effective at keeping a bunch of reform voters home, and turning many of the Republican core back to the big-spending special interest liberal.
I think Sam is right again... We have to be engaged on the issues, and keep pressure on the REAL conservatives to keep pressure on Conley and the rest of the court, lest they believe they have a big spending mandate.
Can we get answers to the questions Brannon posed?
Responsible public officials usually want to keep their constituents well informed and involved in the decision making. Conley is well paid by the taxpayers with excellent benefits to boot.
If he is falling short in reaching out and communicating with his constituents it seems to me it is their responsibility to remind him of that. Communication is a two-way deal, don't you know.
I like the idea of town hall meetings. Too much is happening for all constituents to know what changes are coming down the pike to the neighborhood.
Just tell Conley what you want to know more about. Maybe he'll start playing the role of good communicator. I would think that is part of his job description. I'm sure it is a part of the official training he receives as a county commissioner.
The part those speaking reasonably about what Conley may have in mind for us is that Conley does not really work for us. He works for the people who pay him, and have no doubt promised him a job when he does leave office, the ones who need an inside guy at the Courthouse in order to enact their business plans.
Conley is not a public servant, he is a private servant. He abides by the wishes of his masters in Midland and at the various road companies. He isn't interested in what The People might want, because The People don't pad his wallet or his future.
It would be nice if Conley were interested in our opinions, but if you have ever been to Commissioners Court, you will have been treated to this young, arrogant man's disregard and disdain for public opinion.
He is all about pavement and tract housing and big parks that can attract more population.
We The People just got played.
To anonymous who said s/he hopes Brannon remains a thorn in Conley's side. I'll tell ya, a lot more of his constituents need to get with the program. It's call democracy and public accountability. Slackers are not allowed.
It would have been nice if his constituents had gone to the polls and voted the arrogant fool out of office.
Now, we have to settle for being ignored at the occasional town hall?
Geez, people. You had a chance to rid us of this man and you blew it.
So Wrong said ... "It would be nice if Conley were interested in our opinions, but if you have ever been to Commissioners Court, you will have been treated to this young, arrogant man's disregard and disdain for public opinion."
I hate to beak it to you and others of your ilk but when you make over the top statements like you did in the rest of your comment, Mr. Conley will never value your opinions on anything. Frankly, you sound like one of those sue happy misfits over at the WPOA.
"suite"happy WPOA misfit! Who sued two people who had never even served one single day and yet refuses to sue two people who served on the board during the time of the WPOA's alleged "misconduct", one of whom conventialy resigned just before the suites were filed. Talk about misguided suite happy people....I give you WSP!
What could be so hard about communicating with constituents in an age of ubiquitous electronic media and social networking? Mr. Conley must be inept at utilizing these tools or simply uninterested. I know some private individuals who run circles around Conley in communicating and he's the public servant, paid $80,000 a year! The burden (courtesy) of communicating lies with Conley not his constituents. Do you really think 30,000 people in his precinct know what he is up to? Hardly.
I agree, it is up to Conley, not his constituents, to keep the people informed and in the loop on the planning process.
Too much of what Conley and his cohorts do is done in secrecy, because they have to. People in general in Hays County do not benefit from the kinds of things Conley runs up the debt to finance. If people were in on this process, if their opinions really counted for more than the occasional public comment at Commissioners Court, money would not be being spent as it currently is being spent.
People, if they would and could, would draw the line on big roads and more subdivisions moving into the County. But Conley and his ilk are dedicate to a failed and discredited philosophy of growth at all costs as the remedy for economic health. This just is not true.
All living things have an optimum size and when that size is exceeded, the creature suffers. An economy, a community, an ecosystem has a optimum size, too, and if we overdo it, we will all suffer.
Hays County suffers from a virtual blackout of in-depth questioning reporting of its public officials. No tv no radio no newspapers of any real information value for voters to make informed decisions.
Newspapers like the View and Dispatch are mere pr house organs for officials like Conley. The only outlet with a squinted-eye approach is the Round-up. I guess I could be thankful for that but much more is needed.
There is just too much space in the shadows for local public officials to hide their development plans and true intentions.
Communication is EVERYTHING. What I hear is that Conley hands out small bites of info to small groups of people but never the whole enchilada. Sounds to me more like a ploy to manipulate enough voters to win elections than a genuine desire to communicate.
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