Brady at The Turning Point

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Category: City of Brady

Published on Sunday, 12 May 2013 10:23

Early, unofficial voting results indicate that Tax Payers for Sensible Government (TPSG) attracted a solid majority of Brady voters in the May 11 City Elections. The fact that a record number of voters turned out to vote lends credibility to the outcome. Election results will not be official until the votes are canvassed sometime during the next couple of weeks.

The century old feudal customs of "business as usual" in Brady are nearing an end. Some will celebrate and some will declare it a disaster, depending on whether they were part of the old ruling class or not. All should recognize it as a turning point in the history of Brady. The transition to 21^st century American democracy will not be easy or problem-free.

Success will depend on the honesty and diligence of new council members and a new Mayor. Even more important will be community support. If the new council is honest and open with the people, that support is likely to develop. If they try to operate in secret, it won't .

There are many, many problems that have been ignored for decades. A budget and balance sheet encumbered by spending commitments and debt from past extravagant, frivolous projects will make solving them very difficult.

Brady collects less than $2 million per year in Property and Sales tax. That will not support a $20 million annual budget. That is the situation facing Brady. There is no easy solution.

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BBN Voting Suggestions

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Category: City of Brady

Published on Sunday, 28 April 2013 10:13

Early voting for the May 11 Election begins tomorrow, April 29. The ballot is long and complicated because it combines a General Election for City Council, A Recall Election for Mayor Gail Lohn, a Special Election with two items and a Charter Amendment Election with Twenty Seven Proposals. In addition, voters living in Brady ISD Districts 4 and 6 will elect Board members.

BBN has not been involved with Brady ISD affairs so we have no suggestions about that election.

In the City General Election, we recommend:

• Jack Turk - Place 4 City Council
• Latricia Doyal - Place 5 City Council

In the Recall Election we recommend:

• For Recall and Removal of the Mayor

In the Special Election we recommend:

• For Evening Council Meetings
• Against Changing the EDC from Type A to Type B

In the Charter Amendment Election we recommend:

• For propositions 7, 8, 13, 14, 18, 20, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27
• DO NOT VOTE on propositions 17 & 25
• Against propositions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 19, 21
  

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Groves Withdraws - Urges Vote for Doyal

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Category: City of Brady

Published on Saturday, 27 April 2013 15:10

Tony Groves announced Friday that he was withdrawing from the race for City Council, Place 5. He urged his supporters to vote for Latricia Doyal.

After visiting with Doyal, he realized they were in agreement on the issues. By withdrawing, he hoped to avoid splitting the vote and forcing a runoff election.

Groves withdrawal does not remove his name from the ballot because they were already printed. He said he would probably participate in the upcoming candidate forum to explain his decision to fully support Ms. Doyal.

Contacted by phone, Groves said he will run again for public office in the future.

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Tony Groves Running for Council

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Category: City of Brady

Published on Saturday, 20 April 2013 11:41

Howdy!

I am Anthony “Tony” Groves and I am running for Brady City Council because:

I was asked to get involved,
I want to serve the people of Brady,
I perceive I bring a set of values and tools that can help improve the city government and life in Brady.

I am currently seeking information to learn what needs to be done.

As I learn, I will analyze, seek clarification and develop goals and plans based on the will of the people of Brady.

I seek your vote on May 11, 2013 for seat 5 on the City Council.

My Background:

When I tell people my name, they typically reply “Oh, you are the Colonel’s son.” I take that as a great compliment because I am very proud to be Warren and Juanita Groves son.

I am married to Janis (who has returned to college seeking a degree at Howard Payne University). We have a daughter (Holly) who lives in Brady and a married son (Adam) who is stationed at Sheppard AFB Wichita Falls, Texas with his wife (Jody) and our three grandchildren.

I grew up in a military family always calling Brady our permanent home but only in Brady to visit Mom’s family whenever possible.

I moved to Brady and bought my parents former house in December 2011. Although it is the 26^th place I have lived, I am finally in the place I always loved and called home.

I graduated from Texas A&M with an engineering degree and immediately went on active duty in the Air Force where I served for 30 years. I spent almost 15 of the 30 years overseas flying and in a variety of staff and support jobs.

I am a veteran of the Viet Nam Conflict, the Cold War and The First Gulf War.

After retirement from active duty, I went to work teaching and training cadets at Texas A&M for another 12 years.

Although I still do some “task work” for the Corps of Cadets at Home football games, I am retired with plenty of time to devote to the city and community of Brady

My Values

Integrity,

Service,

Responsibility/Accountability,

and Compassion.

My Tools:

A deep concern for people,

A record of unquestioned integrity,

An analytical mind focused on success

A sense of humor and

Forty-two years of leadership experience and service to my nation, my state, my university and my communities.

I welcome your inputs.

Cell phone: 325-792-6214

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Website: anthonywgroves.com

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Charter Amendments Review

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Category: City of Brady

Published on Thursday, 18 April 2013 02:57

Thoughts on the
May 11^th Election
Charter Amendments

by Harold Byler

     In the past, Brady had a Mayor-Council form of government.  However, the salary was not sufficient to attract a person with the experience necessary to properly manage the city on a full-time basis.  Some years ago, citizens voted on and approved a Home Rule Charter form of government.  In this form of government, the city’s day-to-day business is managed on a full-time basis by a professional City Manager, paid in accordance with his experience.  His performance is evaluated and guided by an elected City Council that sets the policies of the city. The Mayor becomes essentially a figurehead organizing the City Council’s deliberations.   

    The implementation of this new form of government is taking time to establish.  In fact, the elected officials have been slow to accept this concept and in the recent past, the Mayor dominated the City Manager and directed his efforts daily.  The City Council just went along.  The City Managers that were qualified resigned and the unqualified ones accepted their instructions in order to keep their jobs.  This defeated the purpose of the Charter, which was to utilize the experience of a professional manager.    

    Gradually, the City Council is beginning to understand how the charter is supposed to work.  Unfortunately, the limited management experience of the Mayor and the Council members has created confusion.  The Charter Review Committee appears to suffer from the same limited management experience.  Therefore the voters need to carefully evaluate the proposed amendments to our Charter prior to the upcoming election. 

    There is a basic concept in management that must be understood and never violated.  A person’s authority must always exactly equal his responsibility.  He can never be held responsible for anything beyond his authority to control.  He can never be allowed authority to control anything he is not responsible for.  All employee position guides must be carefully written to reflect this concept. 

    The City Manager must be a professional with city management experience because he is responsible for the city’s day-to-day business.  He must be allowed complete authority to accomplish that.  The Council is responsible for establishing the policy of the city, but must not interfere with the City Manager’s control of city employees and their tasks to accomplish those policies.  Doing so usurps the City Manager’s authority and thus relieves him of his responsibility.

    His overall performance is to be evaluated by the Council.  One of these performance measures is how well he meets the budget proposed by him and approved by the Council.  This establishes the fiscal position of the City.  In turn, the citizens evaluate the performance of the City Council and one of those measures is the fiscal position of the City.  While the Council has the right to replace the City Manager, the citizens retain the right to replace the Council members based on their performance. 

    Some of the charter amendments included in the upcoming election do not conform to these concepts and should not be approved by the voters.  There will be various reviews of the amendments available to the public prior to the election.  One source of reviews by experienced, knowledgeable citizens will appear in the forum on the betterbradynow.org website.  It is important that all voters study these reviews and consider the amendments carefully before voting, as this ballot is lengthy and complicated with 31 different items to vote on.

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TPSG Begins May 11 Campaign

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Category: City of Brady

Published on Monday, 11 March 2013 22:37

Tax Payers for Sensible Government (TPSG) spokesman Tom Swearingen announced late Monday the Political Action Committee (PAC) will kick off the May 11 election campaign with two ads that will run weekdays on KNEL radio  March 12 thru March 22.

The May 11 ballot will be lengthy with over 20 candidates and propositions for voters to decide. These two ads only deal with one of them, the Recall of Mayor Gail Lohn. As the campaign progresses, TPSG and BBN will try to inform voters about everything on the ballot.

Ad Copy:

"We Know Best"

"Leadership Styles"

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Mudualistic Warned of Lease Violations

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Category: City of Brady

Published on Monday, 11 March 2013 11:16

Brady City Manager Dale Brown outlined specific, documented violations by Mudualistic, LLC, of their lease agreement with the City of Brady in a letter to company owner Bennett Siebert. The letter enumerating these violations is dated February 23, 2013. A copy was sent to the Brady City Council.

Mudualistic is the developer of the problem-plagued ATV Park project located next to Simpson Lake Club at Brady Lake. Community opposition to this project has been vocal and persistent since its inception. BBN published the reasons in an article entitled "City of Brady ATV Park Opposition - Three Reasons" in November, 2011. Numerous articles (scroll through the City of Brady category in the main menu) have appeared since that time and a court case to halt development is still pending before the state Court of Appeals. Questions have also been raised about EDC funding of this non-industrial project.

Mr. Brown mentions violation of state law, hunting on city property, extracting water from Brady Lake, harvesting timber, failure to report and remit money due, ADA non-compliance and failure to provide contact information in his four page letter. In closing, Mr. Brown reiterates that previous verbal agreements with the city are not binding and simply do not exist under the law.

Mr. Brown warns that failure to remedy these violations within 30 days may lead to termination of the lease between the City of Brady and Mudualistic.

Documents:

Letter from Brady City Manager Dale Brown to Mudualisitic

Lease agreement between the City of Brady and Mudualistic

Mudualistic Lease Maps

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Six Candidates File for Two Brady Council Seats

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Category: City of Brady

Published on Monday, 04 March 2013 16:44

Incumbent City Council members Missi Davis (Place 5) and Brendan Weatherman (Place 4) filed for re-election. Both will have opponents, giving Brady citizens an opportunity to change the character of the City Council if they choose.

Running against Brendan Weatherman for Place 4 is long-time Brady resident Jack Turk.

Opposing Missi Davis for Place 5 are Latricia Doyle, Gabe Moreno and Anthony Groves.

The Election is scheduled for May 11, 2013. The last day for new voters to register and vote in this election will be April 11, thirty days before the election. (Complete Election Calendar from the Texas Ethics Commission)

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Local Elections 2013

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Category: BBN News

Published on Monday, 04 February 2013 00:00

Individuals often have grandiose opinions about national issues while ignoring the candidates and issues in local elections. But the problems and issues currently facing the City of Brady are identical to the problems facing the nation as a whole. Those problems include: 1) runaway spending financed by debt, ever-increasing taxes and fees for service; 2) public officials (both elected and hired or appointed) who disregard the laws supposedly in force; and 3) dogged pursuit of ill-conceived, impractical projects that do not benefit the public as a whole but reward political cronies.

In many ways, local elections require more information and consideration than National elections. There are only four elected national offices for any individual voter: President/vice-president combination, two US Senators and one US representative. At the local level, there are over thirty elected offices in McCulloch County alone.

Political races hinge on the individual voter at the local level. They call it “grassroots” politics. Local voter preferences are mirrored up the line to the very top. If people in Brady want official accountability in Washington DC, they will have to demonstrate the principle at home. It will spread from there.

Brandon Smith sees local elections as the best, last hope for solving our national problems. Here is an excerpt from his article entitled “Our Last Chance For A Political Solution”:

It is within our counties and states that the line will be drawn between sovereign self determination, and centralized federal encroachment.  Unfortunately, many Americans completely dismiss local elections as meaningless or irrelevant, and not without reason.  The ‘Good Old Boy” syndrome has dominated local politics for decades, driving away sincere and honest candidates with subversive money games and trickery.  Politics has become a vicious theater of fakery and deceit, rather than a service done for one’s community or nation.  ... For the common voter, the whole edifice has been poisoned, and most would rather not participate at all rather than continue the farce of choosing the “lesser of two evils”.

I have always cringed at discussion of local elections, but I now understand that I, like many others, have been conditioned to do so.  Corruption succeeds where good men refuse to participate.

The deadline for candidates to file for a place on the ballot in the 2013 local elections in McCulloch County is March 1. The election is scheduled for May 11. (See 2013 Election Law Calendar published by the Texas Ethics Commission)

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Mayor Fuels Fire of Discontent at Special Council Meeting

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Category: City of Brady

Published on Wednesday, 30 January 2013 17:02

At the Special Brady Council meeting Monday (Jan. 28), the Mayor shocked the audience and members of the Charter Review Commission with her denial of remarks she made at the January 14 meeting. Several people were so surprised they stood and called the Mayor on her denial.

Read more: Mayor Fuels Fire of Discontent at Special Council Meeting