Happy Election Eve-Eve

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!