An Editorial...The Killer P's
In 1979 a group of 12 Texas State Senators, dubbed the "killer bees," hid out in a garage apartment on Bee Caves Road in Austin to keep the Texas Senate from reaching a quorum and debating a bill.
A large group of Texas House Democrats did it again in 2003, dubbed the "killer D's," to avoid voting on Texas redistricting.
And in Grove, we have our "killer p's," three political city councilmen who for whatever reason couldn't find time to show up at a previously approved council meeting to listen to the Blue Ribbon Committee's findings concerning a new civic center and city swimming pool.
The meeting had been on the books for at least two weeks. Kudos' to Larry Parham and Terry Ryan for attending, and boo's to Mike Davenport, Gary Bishop and Gary Trippensee for not showing up.
Strangely, by not attending, a quorum was not present and thus no council meeting ever occurred.
The Blue Ribbon Committee has come up with solid recommendations for a new swimming pool and new community center and its duties are over, other than making presentations to citizens of Grove, if asked, and to the entire council, if they will show up.
Turning their backs on a group of responsible citizen volunteers who were asked to spend hours putting together the proposals, is irresponsible child-like behavior on the part of the three councilmen.
Mark this down as the second major mistake on their part. (The first was overriding a 5-0 GMSA board vote to allow the measly utility rate increase to take effect June 1, thus avoiding a transfer of $360,000 from the city coffers to prop up GMSA.)
A new swimming pool and community center will benefit ALL Grove's citizens.
Citizens unhappy with the decision to not attend Monday night's meeting should telephone them:
Mike Davenport: 786-3630
Gary Trippensee: 787-2440
Gary Bishop: 786-6916
A large group of Texas House Democrats did it again in 2003, dubbed the "killer D's," to avoid voting on Texas redistricting.
And in Grove, we have our "killer p's," three political city councilmen who for whatever reason couldn't find time to show up at a previously approved council meeting to listen to the Blue Ribbon Committee's findings concerning a new civic center and city swimming pool.
The meeting had been on the books for at least two weeks. Kudos' to Larry Parham and Terry Ryan for attending, and boo's to Mike Davenport, Gary Bishop and Gary Trippensee for not showing up.
Strangely, by not attending, a quorum was not present and thus no council meeting ever occurred.
The Blue Ribbon Committee has come up with solid recommendations for a new swimming pool and new community center and its duties are over, other than making presentations to citizens of Grove, if asked, and to the entire council, if they will show up.
Turning their backs on a group of responsible citizen volunteers who were asked to spend hours putting together the proposals, is irresponsible child-like behavior on the part of the three councilmen.
Mark this down as the second major mistake on their part. (The first was overriding a 5-0 GMSA board vote to allow the measly utility rate increase to take effect June 1, thus avoiding a transfer of $360,000 from the city coffers to prop up GMSA.)
A new swimming pool and community center will benefit ALL Grove's citizens.
Citizens unhappy with the decision to not attend Monday night's meeting should telephone them:
Mike Davenport: 786-3630
Gary Trippensee: 787-2440
Gary Bishop: 786-6916
Labels: Council Meetings
posted by Editor | 1:50 AM
2 Comments:
Our editor tells us, "Strangely, by not attending, a quorum was not present and thus no council meeting ever occurred," but he may have actually missed the point. The lack of a legal quorum might provide the answer as to why three Grove city council members chose not to attend this meeting.
Could it be that due to legal technicalities such as the requirements of the Open Meeting statutes, the city council could not conduct an "official" special meeting? If so, in order to participate on an "unofficial" basis, but stay as informed and supportive as possible, two members could attend and three could not.
To determine whether the council supports the Blue Ribbon Committee and their recommendations, let's watch what the city council says and does in the coming weeks, particularly during their regular meeting, rather than jump the gun in a desire to be critical.
It might well be that the Observer, guided by its political bias, has come to a misguided conclusion in their editorial.
City Council may call a special meeting anytime it wishes with 48 hours posted notice. This meeting was agreed to two weeks ago at the last council meeting.
Three members stayed away on purpose, causing a lack of a quorum and thus no meeting, for whatever reasons. Maybe they wanted to show their disdain for the Blue Ribbon Committee.
"Stay as informed and supportive as possible?" You must be joking.
Anonymous
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