Here is more on how lidar (light detection and ranging) works and what we will learn from it.
Below is the agenda for this meeting, and underneath that my agenda analysis and my meeting analysis.
Agenda analysis
Note that start time is 6:15 pm.
a. Taxes, items 6-9: These items are all related. Here's your opportunity to complain...or praise...the City for their use of your tax dollars.
b. Ferguson meter installation, item 10: The City will likely accept the bid to update all its water meters. This will allow remote access monitoring and better accuracy.
c. Feral cat program, item 11: See my earlier comments about this new initiative at this page at the # 2, Administrative Reports. I'm glad to see this up for discussion again, if anything just to alert cat owners and to prevent blowback onto City leaders if someone's beloved housecat gets left out, trapped, and then fixed. This also elevates this item from part of the Administrative Reports portion of the meeting to an explicit agenda item, so no one will be able to later complain that they didn't know anything about it. This sort of item needs plenty of air time.
I favor this program, by the way. Cats are the #1 predator of birds, and in the US alone some estimates are that they consume over 1 billion birds per year. One can easily justify this program on that basis alone. While I personally own no cats, I am close to someone who adores them. They are a supporter of this very method of controlling the cat population.
d. Tree trimming at football field, item 14: Apparently IC ISD wants to trim trees around the football field. Here's how this works. The land the field is located on is owned by the City of Mertzon and is leased to IC ISD. That lease requires approval from the City before any tree work is done.
I don't know which trees are being considered, but any tree work at City Park is very sensitive politically. One reason for the sensitivity is that the Live Oaks are old and native, and the District has long been a tree taker and not a tree planter. One reason our community floods so is that the native habitat has been removed and replaced with impervious cover. The least green neighbor we have is IC ISD! Not a single tree was planted with the 2019 bond funds, yet enormous amounts of impervious cover was put down. Anecdotally, modern school construction all over Texas is apparently designed by architects who are excessively reliant on cement and appear to have no concern about the natural environment. Take a look at the more recent school construction around the state and see if it includes any xeriscaping or green cover. I'm betting you will find very little, if any.
My opinion is that even if the District wishes to trim a tree, they need to commit to the City that they will plant a tree. They have a lot of catching up to do for all the trees they have removed in the last century. The City and its residents would not be in the situation we are now in with community wide flooding had IC ISD been more conscientious about preserving our natural environment.
e. Interlocal agreement with TML on cyber security, item 12: I've not written much about TML, the Texas Municipal League. The City is a member, and they are a nonprofit association of cities whose purpose, broadly, is to support Texas municipalities. They are non regulatory (they don't regulate cities), in contrast to the TEA (Texas Education Agency) who most definitely regulates IC ISD. TML is also provides insurance to municipalities.
2. Meeting analysis. Here are the meeting documents for this meeting.
a. Public Hearings, items 6 and 7: the public was a no show. My take is that governmental bodies eventually fail to take citizens seriously when they don't participate in, even if by simply attending, their board meetings, including budget meetings. Advocacy tip: whatever your advocacy issue is with local government, your cause will benefit from your understanding the economics behind the government policy or practice you are protesting. As I have previously written, government budgets are statements of community values. So, for example, if your city leaders don’t value ordinance enforcement and the rule of law they will not generate revenue to employ code enforcement personnel and judges. Here is an earlier blog post where I argue that government budgets are statements of community values.
b. Tax rate, budget, items 8&9: Here is the handout for the meeting, showing an effective tax increase of 3.5% at page 8. In terms of budgeting those funds, the Council approved among other things a salary increase of 3% for City employees, except for the City Manager. I suspect none was sought for the City Manager at her request; she received a large pay raise last year, I believe.
A 3% increase for City employees is not enough in my opinion. That isn't enough to keep up with inflation. In addition, every interaction I have with City staff is positive and professional. These folks work hard and deserve more. For my regular readers, you know that I consistently lobby for increased salaries for governmental employees. Taxpayers get what they pay for, in my opinion, and scrimping on public employee salaries is not the answer to achieving good government. Government employees need decent wages so they can do more than just get by. Paying low wages to city employees, just like low salaried public school teachers, is a wrongheaded community value.
c. New water meters, item 12: The Council approved this $182,785 purchase of "smart" water meters. The purchase is roughly 2/3 funded by grant money and 1/3 funded by the City. More on this later.
d. Feral cat program, item 11: The Council formally approved what they agreed upon last meeting, but without all of the commentary last meeting about alternate methods of population control. The costs to the City are $25.00 per cat, which is a substantial reduction were the cat domesticated. I'll report back on the success of the initiative later. For more reading, Texas Health and Safety Code Chapter 281 covers treatment of animals.
e. Tree trimming at the football field, item 14: The tree approved for trimming is the large tree south of the home bleacher. The Council agreed that a City staffer will be present during the trimming, the one sure sign during the discussion that the Council was taking its role of stewardship for the trees seriously. That said, even in view of my comments above, there appears to little awareness of the fact that the City can manage its relationship with the District to require it to be more environmentally proactive and less reliant on impervious cement and pavement. Watch this blog for my coverage on how much additional impervious cover is being added by the District with the 2024 bonds.
f. Interlocal Agreement with TML on Cybersecurity, item 12: I have published the entire agreement, which is an insurance policy for cyber attacks. At paragraph 11, "The Fund agrees to handle all cyber liability and data breach response claims, and provide a defense for any and all cyber liability and data breach response claims covered under this interlocal agreement..."
g. Next meeting of the Council: September 9.
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