Last Night's City Council Meeting/Public Hearing - Part 2

READ PART 1 HERE

The Public Hearings were now closed and it was time to hear from our elected officials.

I wish I had a transcript of this discussion, but I just don't have the time to go back and listen to the live feed (anyone interested in taking on that project for me???? nudge nudge!!).

What I was able to do was use the Twitter account to provide live feedback. If you don't know about Twitter, I highly recommend you sign up, get a free account and follow @concerncoppell. If that is too much to do, then just save the website bookmark and read frequently.

Billy Faught was the first to speak and he thanked everyone for taking time out of their day and evening to join in this discussion. The citizen's didn't seem to care for his comment Faught: I'm not sure where to go from here. This was a forum for the citizens to discuss. I agree w many of you that this is a hard time

about 11 hours ago from Tweetie
One resident was very frustrated by Mr. Faught's comments that she publicly disagreed with Mr. Faught's comments and left the room. Obviously an awkward moment for the room, Mr. Faught commented, "maybe if I talk longer, everyone will leave". It was definitely said in humor to help the room.
One by one, the City Council members spoke.
Some highlights from the council members that are obviously in favor of some type of tax increase:Mahalik: hate to tell you, but the school system is going to raise taxes on you double digits. u want quality of life, you have to pay 4 it
Faught: we are trying to make right decisions for the future. there are no conspiracies here.
Mahalik: now is the time for hard decisions. we will compromise, i'm sure we will. taxes are coming, it is a matter of when
Tunnell: every meeting is public and you are invited to join us. we have projects that we haven't done so we didn't have to raise taxes
Tunnell: you need to take those $15M of expenses and consider them with Northlake.
Tunnell: we will raise taxes.
Brancheau: we decided last night that we are going to have raise taxes. robbing peter to pay paul isn't the way to run a government
Brancheau: I hope we have the political will to follow through with our agreement to raise taxes
Hunt: we did decide as a group that we will have to raise taxes. we know what deficits are coming.
Hunt: I appreciate all of the additional comments and discussion from the citizens. there won't be 'no new tax'.
Hinojosa-Flores: thank you for being here. i took a paycut last year and i understand about no higher taxes. i hear you loud and clear
Hinojosa-Flores: maybe this isn't the year to raise salaries. maybe next year.
Council Member Franklin was the only member to voice an opinion in opposition to the tax rate increase next year. Some highlights:Franklin: there wasn't a lot of communication at the last meeting. it deserves discussion.
Franklin: we are here to serve and protect you. to help enhance your quality of life. lets state some facts. we have ways to be creative
Franklin: we do not need to raise taxes next year if we are creative. we can do this. i am firm in that. we can keep taxes flat.
Franklin: we are going to have to pay our debt. we will. i don't subscribe to the notion that citizens will forget about Northlake
Franklin: one of the scenarios that city staff put together was a zero increase. it is prudent. we can do it. the risk is marginal.
Franklin: right now, plain 'ol fiscal prudence is necessary. our resources are our people.
Franklin: i will not support any tax increase. [APPLAUSE!!]

Mayor Peters then closed down the meeting with these comments:

Mayor Peters: Representative government is a good thing and our citizens should feel proud about their voice.

Mayor Peters: Ditto to Council Franklin's comments and statements. We don't have to raise taxes next year. And we shouldn't.

Mayor Peters: Next public meeting is September 1st with the vote on September 8th

Some final thoughts I have about last night probably could be summed up by a short conversation I had with a local Coppell newspaper Citizens Advocate's Editor, Jean Murph.

She was sitting next to me at the back of the room and asked me something like, was I happy with Monday night's budget workshop meeting?

My response was something like, 'well, I wouldn't say I was happy about it because all of City Council didn't flush out the final issues that taxes didn't need to be raised next year.'

Then, and this is where it became clear to me why I've been passionate about getting involved with our Municipal government....Ms. Murph asked me why I didn't feel like this issue had been discussed properly, because tonight was the first Public Hearing to do just that.

Reflecting on this question last night and this morning, it hit me that if the citizen's of Coppell hadn't been informed, hadn't had good discussion before Tuesday night's meeting, there was a good chance their voices could not have been heard.

Yes, the City of Coppell does post all of the public meetings on their website the way they need to, but information travels in ways that isn't just one way and as busy as most people are with school starting, there is only so much you can keep up with about every detail.

In fact, that is why we elect City Council members to do this work for us. To keep up with the issues, to understand all the details and represent us.

So my thoughts have come down to a few questions and statements:

If last night was the first Public Hearing...the first night that City Council could hear from the people that elected them, why did Council Member Brancheau say there was an agreement after Monday night's special budget workshop meeting with at least 4 City Council members to raise taxes?

Was the decision to raise taxes going to be made without any public input from the Public Hearings?

Did last night's meeting matter to the majority of our City Council?

What if only a few citizen's were at last night's meeting and didn't know about this until after it was voted and passed on September 8th?

Thank you Marvin Franklin and Mayor Peters for your thought process about next year's taxes.

If it isn't necessary to raise them next year, why would they be raised?

It seems that our Councilmember's need to realize and appreciate public opinion. This type of debate is healthy and necessary to keep the interests of our City at the forefront.

If any City Council members were aggravated or irritated about the amount of people in the room or the applause for speakers opposing a tax rate increase or the freedom to wear a T-Shirt that say's "No New Taxes", then I would ask those City Council members why chose to be elected and why they choose to serve our city and our citizens.

This is one man's opinion, but after speaking and hearing from so many of you, I know I am not alone.

The next Public Hearing is September 1st at 6p. Be there.