Crickets on Tuesday?

Well, well, well…

It looks like the Copperas Cove city council has some Copperas Cove city manager finalists.

Finally. About 18 months after Andrea Gardner said “deuces, Cove! I’m outta here!”

The city council has been nothing but crickets with this search after kicking the can down the road repeatedly.

Does the public deserve an explanation? Yes.

The first time around, if you recall, dear readers, there was a bit of a tussle and kerfuffle over the search firm they would use. This took up the greater part of summer 2018.

At last, in the fall, an RFQ (request for qualifications) was sent out for the position of Copperas Cove city manager, and the council received a bunch of proposals back, with their favorite, SGR Strategic Government Resources getting the okay in November.

SGR put together a 97-page document about their process for finding the BEST.CITY. MANAGER. EVER. for Copperas Cove.

You can see it here: http://67.79.126.21:8085/docs/2018/CC/20181120_1357/8591_SGR%20Recruitment%20Proposal-Copperas%20Cove%2010-18.pdf

Don’t sweat. It’s just the whole document. But I want you to see what I am talking about.

Curmudgeon tries not to sigh about people doubting my credibility. Here’s some paperwork and documents in the link above to BACK UP WHAT I’M TELLING YOU.

I’m not just blowin’ this out my rear end, y’all.

Anyway!!! SGR has apparently completed  STEP 4 of this process. A process that has taken since November. Or, since New Year's at least.

One can only guess if the council was presented with semifinalists at all. Because, they didn't tell us ANYTHING. Not even a  "we're working on it, voters!"

We now have finalists!!!!!!

You can see it on SGR's website here:

https://www.governmentresource.com/CurrentSearches

Then, scroll down to where you see Copperas Cove:

Yep. Finalists have been selected.

On Tuesday morning, the city council will meet again. In executive session, as they are allowed to do by law.

Yet again, we HEAR NOTHING FROM THEM.

Not a peep. Not a sound.

Not even a “Okay, y’all, we appreciate your patience. We’ve received some semifinalists from the search firm and are working to go through each of their files to see who might be good for Cove.”

Nada.

It’s a matter of respect, y’all.

It shows a gross LACK OF RESPECT for the city council to not even keep us the Copperas Cove voters and citizens apprised of the progress in the city manager search Or, lack thereof.

They could have said something at the end of ANY of the most recent sessions to at least give us the courtesy of a statement, but nothing: April 16, May 7, May 21.  

Let’s see if they do our community the courtesy of following through with this in Step 5, as follows:

Stakeholder Engagement (if desired)

At the discretion of the Search Committee, we will work closely with your organization to engage stakeholders in the recruitment process. Our recommendation is that we design a specific stakeholder engagement process after we learn more about the organization and the community. Different approaches work best in different communities. Below is an array of options we have used in the past, but we will collaborate with your organization to determine which option, or combination of options, will be the most effective for the unique needs of the organization.

• Interviewing community leaders at the outset of the recruitment;

• Holding a public forum for citizen engagement at the outset of the recruitment;

• Facilitating a Q&A series in the local newspaper with finalist candidates. This would run a week or two prior to the interviews;

• Utilize a citizen committee to conduct the early stage candidate screening and then turn over a semifinalist list to the City Council (if applicable);

• Community leader reception;

• Meet and greet;

• Search Committee and key community leader dinner meeting;

• “Round Robin” forum meetings with various community groups during a multi-day interview process; and,

• Site visits by citizen committee members to the finalist candidates’ communities to report back.

Dear readers, I believe after our city’s biscuits were burned so badly, to use Sorry-Charlie Youngs’ terms, after the chamber was “cut off at the knees” and the EDC was “destroyed” it would be an absolutely magnificent goodwill gesture to welcome these finalists to our fair city so we can ALL get to see them instead of sneaking in and out under cover of night. It’s not like finalists for OTHER CITY MANAGER spots are kept under wraps. (Do a simple Google news search for city manager finalists, dear reader, and you’ll see what I mean!)

Do the right thing, Copperas Cove council. If you’re truly all about us “working together” and being a warm cozy circle of kumbaya, let the rest of the city stakeholders  in on this too!

If you don’t, this reinforces the notion that our council would rather keep the rest of the community out of the loop! Stop hiding from us all. 

People are still angry about FATHOM and other things in the city that were carried out publicly, how the council did not use at lest individual voices - until months and months and months down the road - and right now you’re making a great show of hiding from us publicly. 

LET'S HAVE ALL THE FORMER EDC MEMBERS THAT ARE NOW ON THE COPPERAS COVE CITY COUNCIL REMEMBER WHO THE STAKEHOLDERS ARE!!

At least give us STAKEHOLDERS and VOTERS the courtesy of an update instead of us finding out from the search firm’s website that – oh, by the way, there are finalists for Copperas Cove city manager.

BE TRANSPARENT.

The screen shot image below is for you, dear readers.

Keepin' it Classy, on the Dais

Yep.

Sorry-Charlie, just keepin' it classy.
Aside from his election ethics violations, with $500 in state penalties due to his illegal actions.
Aside from violating the Texas Open Meetings act, at least once. Illegal action.

Filing to run for his position on the city council opens in a little more than a year!

Here's the full page in context.

(UPDATE: I'VE BEEN ASKED TO SHARE WHERE I FOUND THIS PIC. It was at the website for the Copperas Cove Leader Press news when Mayor Diaz was sworn in.) See the full article and pic here:
https://www.coveleaderpress.com/news/diaz-sworn-mayor

Congratulations to Ms. Diaz. She had no problem cutting him off mid-sentence at the May 21 meeting, "Charlie, I don't mean to interrupt you, but..." Points for the new mayor!

I'm working on another post, dear readers, but thought I'd slip in a Hump Day Special. I've been crunching hotel occupancy tax numbers and stuff like that.

Peace, Love, and Bunnies!

Hail to the chief

On Tuesday night, Copperas Cove will have a mayor again.

On Saturday, mayor elect Bradi Dewald Diaz rode in the Rabbit Fest parade.

See here?

So what’s with Mayor Elect / Chamber of Commerce logo?

Is she mayor elect of the chamber of commerce or of the City of Copperas Cove?

Just askin’. Why not have Mayor Elect Bradi Diaz? Why Mayor Elect Chamber of Commerce??????

Why????

The Chamber of Commerce is a dues-paying members-only club. There’s nothing wrong with having a chamber of commerce, but should a private organization have that much pull in a city?

Not that a mayor has a vote, but a mayor has pull and gives steering and guidance.

Lines will begin to be blurred again.

Perhaps she ought to resign her position on the Copperas Cove Chamber of Commerce board…

Hey, chamber members, did any of you vote her onto the board last year????

Just askin’.

Will rubber-stamping of budgets and decision making go back five years or more, to “how things used to be”?

I remind the dear readers that the “ruckus” of the past few years wasn’t without some truth in it.

None of the powers-that-be – the Copperas Cove Chamber of Commerce, nor the Copperas Cove Economic Development Corporation – appreciated being questioned.

Now, Curmudgeon understands that some of what was said didn’t have the best tone. But one must look to the best interests of the city and its citizens.

Councilman Mark Peterson was one of the first to start questioning the spending of hotel occupancy tax funds – questioning America’s Drug Free Productions which held the Heart of Texas Bowl in our City for well more than a decade.

That questioning of expenditures then segued into subsequent councilmen asking similar questions – George Duncan and Matthew Russell, in particular, who were backed by both former councilmen David Morris and James Pierce Jr  – asking questions of the Copperas Cove Chamber of Commerce and the Copperas Cove Economic Development Corporation.

It was around that time, also, that our current mayor-elect (who at the time was the chair of the EDC board appointed by the council) who said she was “done” with volunteering for the city because she’d been called a “thief” etc. We won’t rip that open again, but she objected to the questioning. Or, perhaps it was the way the EDC was questioned.

SHOULDN’T the city council QUESTION the EDC – and any other city entity which spends taxpayer funds? In the case of the EDC, sales tax dollars? 

Not dredging up old wounds, but those of us who FORGET history are bound to repeat it. Here we go again...

 

Former Chamber of Commerce president Betty Price was questioned – or the chamber, rather – of how it was spending the hotel occupancy tax funds. It got to the point that Price quit the position and it took a new president who got an audit done as customary and was able to give the council an accounting of how they spent those funds on “tourism activities” – more than $100,000 annually.

SHOULDN’T the council question the chamber of commerce for how it will spend those funds? Or any group, for that matter?

REMEMBER, dear readers, neither the Chamber of Commerce NOR the Copperas Cove Economic Development Corporation are EQUALS to the city government. They do not have a seat at the table as an equal. A "valued partner", perhaps? But they are not equals.

(From an old post, and bears repeating:

 

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)

Back to Tuesday night's upcoming meeting: 

In the latest hearing for the city budget amendment to give funds for the chamber – after the deadline of course, making them YET AGAIN an exception for the rule, the chamber’s request for funding included $1,260 for the “registration of convention delegates.”

So, dear city council, what the heck does that mean and what is that money being used for?

Nobody’s asked them, have they?

**crickets crickets crickets**

If not, why not?

Who the heck stayed in the hotels this long for Rabbit Fest last year?

All the vendors? I call bs

Don’t be afraid to ask questions, council! (And not questions about flying cars, pleeeeeez)

Duncan and Russell were part of the crew who said yes to FATHOM – a painful, ill advised decision that will affect us for 12 more years.

I would hope that ALL the council members, both past and present, have learned the sore, sore lessons of the past few years.

DON’T STOP QUESTIONING.

HAVE PUBLIC DISCUSSIONS.

Speaking of public discussions, WILL SOMEONE PLEASE AT LEAST LET US KNOW WHY WE HAVE NO CANDIDATES FOR CITY MANAGER?

When was that agreement with the headhunter group approved? November? And here it is, almost summertime?

What are we waiting for?

The municipal government/city manager field is not a huge pool, y’all?

Who are you waiting for?

The council has an executive session on the agenda for Tuesday night.

Let’s see if they remember how to say something, anything, after that meeting.

Give us something to go on.

Or, is Dapper Dan negotiating behind the scenes like he did with the interim city manager, cherry-picking and trying to get his own candidate of choice on board?

Don't forget this
https://copperascovecurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2018/04/this-is-serious.html

Filing opens in July, y’all, for council! 

Has anyone counted the number of questions I've asked in this post?

I've been told by one commentor previously that my posts don't have legitimacy.

Well, then, how about someone else step up to ask these questions?

If the questions, themselves, are valid?

Curmudgeon believes they are...

Peace, love and bunnies, y'all.

Hail to the chief.

Deja vu

I’m baaaack.

It’s been a quiet new year, and I am done sitting shiva for Mayor Frank.

So, what do we have here now in Copperas Cove?

A new mayor, a throwback to Ye Olde Days of 15 years ago. Before she was defeated by Odie O’Dwyer, and we all know what happened to Odie…another tale, another day, but a funny one I’ll have to remind us of, especially prior to election time. Filing opens in July, y’all!

So, what DO we have here?

No city manager, more than 14 months and counting, without any candidates being offered to the public to see that the council is getting done what they’ve elected.

So, what in the world has the council been doing with all the foot-dragging going on?

We have one councilman, Sorry-Charlie Youngs, who at the April 2, 2019 meeting wanted to give the Copperas Cove Chamber of Commerce more hotel occupancy tax funds than was legal to give. He voted AGAINST giving them a lesser amount “on principal” because he wanted to give them more. 

(Never mind that the chamber came asking for funds outside of the time period the city asked for groups to apply. ALREADY ASKING TO BE AN EXCPETION TO THE RULE!! Y’all, when it this going to stop? Let’s just scrap rules and do what we want anyway!)

Why was Charlie’s request illegal, you may ask?

Well, according to the state hotel occupancy tax code, municipalities that collect hotel occupancy tax may only distribute 15 percent for promotion of the arts.

The majority of those funds already doled out to other organizations who played by the rules and applied for funds at the right time.

By giving the chamber the full amount requested for Rabbit Fest (which somehow promotes the arts) the Copperas Cove city council would have been acting illegally.

Something Charlie evidently wanted to do anyway.

But don’t forget --- he’s already acted illegally, not once, but TWICE since being elected to office two years ago.

Let’s revisit, read up for a refresher

A little more than one year ago, I posted about this. Please, read, refresh your memory as I did mine just now:

http://copperascovecurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2018/04/sorry-not-sorry-charlie.html

And yet NO ONE, save a former councilman, has had the stones to call him out on it.

Do we really want council members elected to office who act illegally, and continue  to do so?

But, I guess if he says he’s sorry, it’s okay.

Let’s start doing that for all lawbreakers.

I mean, if they didn’t really mean anything bad by it, let’s just look the other way.

We need council people with the intestinal fortitude to stand up to bullies and those who insist on their way, and doing what they want, when the want.

But, given the current climate, Curmudgeon predicts we’ll head backwards 15 years.

Ah, lovely deja vu.  

It’s almost open filing time for HOT funds again. I predict the chamber of commerce will revisit its quest to get the lion’s share of funding again, “like things used to be.”