April
19, 2006
City Follies, April
18
By
Jack D. McNamara
The Alpine City Council met Tuesday night April 18 for
several hours, as usual.
The unusual thing about the meeting is that the council, staff and
audience now are appreciating the comedy of situation.
Each meeting is dramatically presented as a series of comic
revelations. The revelations are not really funny if you think the
loss, waste and misrepresentation of public money is always a serious
affair. However —
The highlight of the evening was Mayor Mickey Clouse’s loss of a
quarter-million dollar sewer line.
She presided over the council in March 2003 when the council floated a
$1.35 million bond to benefit a new Border Patrol station and a motel
owned by the same man who is in charge of the station, Agent Dave
Durant.
She also presided over the council when they voted by a
3-2 majority to extend the sewer line by a bore under Highway 90 from
the main line north of the highway to the south side of the highway at
a cost of about a quarter million dollars. The sewer line benefits
Durant’s motel, restaurant and perhaps a home.
Mayor Clouse said last night she believes Durant doesn’t pay sewer
fees. Now that might be true.
The discussion came up because a Chinese restaurant has requested sewer
service and agreed to annexation. The restaurant’s contractor was
before the council arguing for another bore under Highway 90.
The discussion of this project went on for some time before Councilman
Avinash Rangra remembered the 2003 sewer extension. Why not lay an
extension of the motel’s sewer to the Chinese restaurant, which is
along side the motel on the same side of the highway?
Neither the new city manager nor any of the newer members of the
council, all elected since 2004, remembered the motel sewer line.
Manfred Fritsche and I remem- bered so we clapped and cheered when
Rangra
finally cut through the haze. We drew a stern rebuke from the mayor who
forgets quarter-million dollar sewer lines.
The rest of the evening was like that. Early on, in city
manager comments, Chuy Garcia told the public for the first time that
state authorities had told the city staff last October that the animal
shelter was unsatisfactory.
This revelation led to a comic round robin recounting of events since
2003 when a firestorm arose because some local citizens learned the
shelter was unsat.
Once again, it developed that something had been done by a committee
headed by former councilperson Katie Elms. When she did not run for
reelection in May 2005, she gave her file to the “mayor and Philippi.”
The file, naturally, has disappeared.
Mayor Clouse was very eager to get this discussion over and done with
so she hurried along. She recommended the committee be reconstituted,
reelected reappointed resurrected re-something … just don’t get us into
an Animal Shelter debate during an election year pitting herself versus
Katie Elms.
These are only two of the items in an agenda of 10 action items.
Mercifully some items were postponed and turned back to the city
manager. At one point Garcia objected to researching the city’s records
for documents pertaining to a complex matter.
And that led to one of the most comic of the evening’s
comments. Ward 3 Representative Burnis Lawrence recommended that the
requestor, Avinash Rangra, pay Garcia for the research. During citizens
comments I pointed out to Lawrence that the city had signed a consent
decree with me to create an administrative system (which they haven’t
done), hence the constant confusion at council meetings). The
litigation cost the city $10,000 and Lawrence asked me if I had
$10,000, presumably to pay for the administrative audit needed.
Perhaps I should return to Court to inform Judge Kenneth DeHart what
Councilman Lawrence thinks of his Court’s agreements.
The real thigh-slappers came late in the evening with the presentation
of two bills previously undisclosed to the council or public.
Last year, perhaps as early as January 2005, the state “closed out” the
$2 million-plus Gallego Avenue project. The city’s part was complete
confusion as usual and the $100,000 City Manager Karen Philippi had to
be assisted by former City Manager Jerry Carvajal. It was necessary to
get this done so we could apply for MORE GRANTS (which Philippi then
screwed up).
The city failed to pay the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDoT)
$24,909.50 and now they want their money.
Actually they have wanted their money for a long time but Philippi and
her enablers — Mayor Clouse among them — covered up the bills due and
payable.
Anyone who has read this far must believe there is no
possible further comedy here. Oh, but there is.
Action Item 13.c.2. disclosed that the city has been recently notified
by the Texas Comptroller that the city must reimburse the state for
$46,643.18 in sales taxes improperly collected from businesses which
are OUTSIDE THE CITY.
We have been warning neighboring communities that Alpine’s citizens are
aggressive and fully capable of annexing Marfa, Marathon, Ft Davis or
Terlingua. We’re on the march and you can see why.
The comptroller’s letter said they discovered the heist while reviewing
a city of Alpine annexation request. We have only one such request
pending, for territory to the north, said Garcia.
The council rather desultorily discussed making demands on the
comptroller and extending the repayment for installments. After all,
the $46,643.18 represents four years’ sales tax collection — why didn’t
they catch us earlier? Doesn’t that make it the comptroller’s fault?
Anna Monclova was the adult and said of course we pay. The council
compromised on sending the state a letter.
There was some serious business but it was almost incidental to the
hilarity of continuing disclosures of former City Manager Karen
Philippi’s incompetent administration. The costs of Philippi’s works
now approaches $100,000.
Perhaps it is in the water. Perhaps Alpine is, after all,
ungovernable. •
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