Howdy, dear readers! Are y'all as excited about Tuesday as I am? Happy Election Eve-Eve!!!!
Let’s get this out of the way, first, before we talk elections.
Disclaimer: The Curmudgeon is in no
way affiliated with the individual calling themselves the “Cove Guardian.” The
“Cove Guardian” sends out correspondences to selected individuals in the
community.
One, Curmudgeon is too cheap to spend the bucks on stamps and
printing and all that rot, and would rather sit at the keyboard with documents
and such. Who has the time to dig up addresses, etc.? Not CC.
Two, Curmudgeon is too busy chuckling at the Copperas Cove
city council’s antics to focus on all the CCISD “stuff” such as it is. The council is far more entertaining. Also, anyone who knows Mrs. Manning knows she does not have a maid (wink, wink).
Three, Curmudgeon doesn’t make stuff up other than nicknames
for the council members – Dapper Dan (love those ties, dude), Sorry-Charlie
(who has violated the city charter at least once – oops, as has DD Yancey),
Marky-E-Marc Payne (befuddled and bewildered), David
“I’m-a-writer-not-a-talker” Morris, James “I was for it before I was against
it” Pierce Jr. Hmmm….Curmudgeon realizes the only two without nicknames are
Frank Seffrood and Kirby Lack. Maybe Mr. Seffrood should be “What item are we
on?” Seffrood and Mr. Lack should be the Right Reverend.
Anyhoo, Curmudgeon digresses. (Although the Guardian’s little
note and comments about CCISD board of trustees members having access to the
track facilities is a bit interesting. Is it true? Can it be proven? When will
the district open up the track to the community? Is using the track a “thing of
value” that has been provided to these board members? Is that legal, when doing
so could be construed as privileges given to them and not the rest of the
community? Interesting questions.
Again, not Curmudgeon’s fish to fry, or steak to grill.
Okie-dokie, dear readers, it’s election eve-eve, and Tuesday
is THE big day in Copperas Cove.
Curmudgeon has called it before that there would be a face returning
to the political realm (enter Fred Chavez, with Copperas Cove EDC board
experience, who has reentered the public political realm after some years’
absence).
Also, that there would be a dark horse candidate – possibly
someone new (enter Joann Courtland, of Operation Stand Down Central Texas and
military veteran/former pilot).
There is one three-way race and Curmudgeon believes there
will be a runoff election, as odds would have it. Unless there is a resounding
clamoring against Frank Seffrood, who as the head of the KTMPO policy board,
voted with the rest of the board to support the changes to the Business 190
median project. Note: this is not a dig against the Postman….hmm, that may work
for a nickname…because the rest of the board voted unanimously to support the
changes. ‘Nuff about that for now.
Let’s look at Place 1 race:
Not much to say other than Curmudgeon
can GUARANTEE a woman will be filling the spot that Mr. Morris is vacating upon
his term expiring (Curmudgeon still owes him that drink after his bright,
shining moment, one of the best, right actions by the council this year). See my other post, if you don't remember: http://copperascovecurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2018/08/a-bright-and-shining-copperas-cove-city.html
Cheryl Meredith has prior council experience, which is a plus and a minus,
depending on how you look at it. There is a lot to understand in city
government, and if Curmudgeon hears one more time, “Why don’t we just spend the
Business 190 median money on _____ (fill in the blank)?”, Curmudgeon will
faceplant on the keyboard. When government is involved, you can’t just spend
money any way you want to.
There is a gross lack of knowledge among the
majority of the general populace, which is easily cured if people really want
to know real facts and search them out. Sure, it would be “super-dee-duper” to
divert funds to other projects, BUT you can’t spend state and federal fuel tax
dollars on anything else.
Ms. Meredith, one would assume, knows the ins and
outs of government operations going by the fact she has already served two
terms on council.
(BUT, then you have Sorry-Charlie who loves to spiel
about when he used to be on the council,
but for whatever reason, couldn’t file his campaign paperwork on time and then
was FINED $500 by the Texas Ethics Commission for failing to do so. OH, and he
violated the Texas Open Meetings Act by replying all to an email that was sent
from a citizen, thereby creating a walking quorum….so, there’s that.)
As far as
Ms. Courtland is concerned, one would hope that she is a quick study and as
smart as she looks running her nonprofit. Whoever wins the Place 1 election,
Curmudgeon feels like it is a win-win either way. This one is too close to
call.
Place 2: Now here’s where it gets a little dicey. Incumbent
James Pierce Jr. has his hardcore fan club of a quartet of ladies who have
torches and pitchforks for everyone and anyone who didn’t vote against the
median. However, Mr. Pierce DID vote in
favor of the agreement with FATHOM, and FINALLY started listening to the people
crowing the closer the election came. Question: WHY didn’t anyone start
listening until now? Clearly, the city was bilked by this inept company.
So, Mr. Pierce's FAB FOUR LADIES (Loe, Furey, Deans, Moore) are trumpeting all over social media in his favor because he voted against the
median. Is that reason enough to keep him in office? We don’t always get what
we want? Does “listening” to the people mean we give people what they want?
Just askin’.
Enter Mr. Fred Chavez. He’s pro-EDC. Isn’t it funny, the number
of SEATED councilmen who USED TO BE on the EDC board? Manning, Youngs, Yancey,
and Payne. Wowee, kazowee!
Mr. Chavez has used kumbaya wordage, of “let’s all get
working together again.” Which sounds super-dee-duper. It really does. Sure.
Let’s get the City of Copperas Cove, the Copperas Cove Chamber of Commerce, the
Copperas Cove Economic Development Corporation, and the Copperas Cove Independent
School District working together again. Go team! Okay, tryin’ not to sound a
bit snarky on this part.
Where did it all go wrong? Where did the tension start? It
started in 2015-2016, when council members wanted to start calling groups like
the CCEDC and the Chamber of Commerce to be ACCOUNTABLE. Sure, let’s work together.
But let’s be ACCOUNTABLE to who FUNDS YOU with PUBLIC MONEY, CCEDC and Chamber
of Commerce (at that time).
Not to reopen any scabbed over perceived wounds, but there
were council members who began questioning the EDC’s budget:
WHY were EDC employees getting raises when City of Copperas
Cove employees not getting raises, or at least not as significant as the EDC?
WHY did the EDC spend close to $500,000 over the years to the
Heart of Texas Defense Alliance, for reports that have not differed, even though
over the past three years the City of Copperas Cove has chipped in far less
than the $50,000 per YEAR which was paid to the high-balling military/political
consulting firm?
The same happened over on the Chamber of Commerce side of the
table, when there were city council members who began questioning the chamber
on how it spent its hotel occupancy tax funds:
Where are the receipts and invoices for how the money was spent? An easy question to answer, if your books are in order.
This was the biggest question asked, repeatedly, by at least
one council member, to the point that the chamber president stepped down from
her job in spring 2016 and there has not been a seated, official chamber
president since that time, but a series of interims?
It took one interim chamber president slaving away day and night for about two
weeks or so to get everything together to present to the council. And then, the toxic infighting drove a good leader away from the job.
Please remember, dear readers, in the grand scheme of things,
the Copperas Cove Economic Development Corporation and the Copperas Cove
Chamber of Commerce are NOT EQUALS at the table with the City of Copperas Cove.
The CCEDC is a voter-approved organization which is funded by SALES TAX DOLLARS and seeks economic
development opportunities for the City of Copperas Cove and an EDC, in some way,
shape or form, has been singing the same song for more than 20 years with nearly
ZERO primary jobs to show for it!!! The voters approved 3/8-cent of sales tax
dollars to go to the EDC. It is a valuable commodity but only when operated
correctly.
But the CCEDC is NOT equal to the city. Its board members are citizens appointed by
the city council.
The Copperas Cove Chamber
of Commerce is a “nonprofit” organization that is made up of PAYING BUSINESS
MEMBERS. The Chamber does NOT represent ALL businesses in Copperas Cove only
those who PAY THEIR DUES. It is a members-only club which is as only as effective
as its programs, which for YEARS had been so caught up in races and in bicycling
and worshipping the all-holy-rabbit-fest that it lost sight of the BUSINESS COMMUNITY.
Breaking ties with getting hotel occupancy tax funding was the BEST THING that
could have happened to the chamber to get it back on track.
All that said, Mr. Chavez has high hopes that groups can work
together. But that does not mean that groups like the EDC and chamber should
get carte blanche.
Nor should the chamber get special privileges that other organizations
DO NOT get, privileges which this CURRENT SEATED COUNCIL has bestowed upon them.
(Let’s look again at the crying military affairs committee who is still SO
UPSET that they can’t grill steaks nor afford the civic center, but other
PBULIC PURPOSE groups are shut out of the civic center rental. Again, working together
does NOT mean not holding groups accountable….)
All that about Place 2 and Curmudgeon believes, like with Place
1, the race is a little too close to call at this point. It is a tossup. Mr.
Pierce has brought his “A” game campaigning, but then again, Mr. Chavez is not
an unknown among the voting core of the city.
Okay, take a break. Curmudgeon has thrown a lot of stuff out
there, not fecal matter from male cattle, but stuff. Go potty. Get a drink.
Come back to me, Dear Readers.
Stretch break over? Okay, continuing on….
The Mayoral Race:
Odds are that there will be a runoff. Can the Postman
Seffrood pull off a second term? Perhaps there are some who think he needs to
sit out a bit, despite his call for volunteerism and talk of the value of
community.
That would leave Joe Acfalle and Azeita Taylor. Mr. Acfalle is – ta da!!
– a current member of the CCEDC board. Curmudgeon senses a theme here. What is
it that EDC board members know that the rest of us don’t? Anyhoo, Mr. Acfalle has
a strong local following already, but that did NOT seem to help him in the race
for Coryell County district clerk, when he received 159 votes in the March 2018
primary in a four-way race that had 4,683 voters. Will more Copperas Cove
voters turn out for him than they did for the March primary? Unless he has drummed up more support, odds are not in his favor to move on to the runoff. So far, more than 10,000 voters have turned out in the county to vote? How many from Copperas Cove, so far? We'll see....
Lastly but of course not least-ly, Ms. Taylor has stayed
out of the political realm officially since her last run in 2015.
However, she
hasn’t been out of it altogether, building up her following via the chamber of
commerce people (all hail the holy Rabbit Fest, without which we would have
ZERO sales tax dollars in May and therefore the chamber gets to use a city facility
for FREEEEEE, but all us peons must pay full price. Just sayin’, an unapologetic
snark leak here.). Also, she has beefed up her education in homeland security and emergency response, and has likely earned some votes from those on that side of the voting realm -- that is, if they believe in her ability to lead
Curmudgeon believes it will come down to a runoff between Ms. Taylor and Mr. Seffrood.
HOWEVER, in all races, it all comes down to who shows up to vote.
Let’s talk current members and election numbers: There are
rumblings of a recall, which Curmudgeon will write about another time. Mr.
Pierce is safe from that, should he get reelected. He has said that if he wins,
this will be his final term in office. Forever. He wants lifetime term limits
for all positions – two terms only, and that’s it. Curmudgeon gets and
understands Mr. Pierce’s wanting to roust the GOBC’s hold on the city (as in,
Good Old Boys Club). Until enough people care and seek to be well informed, the
GOBC or whoever is in “charge” and their cronies will keep showing up. In the
2015 election runoff between councilman Morris and Azeita Taylor, a mere 22 votes separating them, 278 to 256. So fewer than 600 voters from among thousands decided one council seat, a pivotal one at that.
What’s Curmudgeon’s closing point? Vote y’all. Vote. Vote
informed. Vote smart. Don’t vote like your friends. Vote with your brain, not
with your buddy.
See ya on the flip side. Or, who knows where Curmudgeon will
pop up?
Y'all are fab, by the way... more than 25,000 page views since January! Wow!