Monday, December 20, 2010

City council meeting: question on committee appointees

I told you the system is broken!
An interesting question came up tonight during the city council meeting on channel 13. During the public forum, a citizen spoke out about some committee appointments that were about to be made by new council for district 2, Esteban Rangel.  It appears that of 3 appointments, 2 of them involved "out of district" appointees. Mr. Rangel was urged to reconsider. The speaker said something to the effect of "you should consider appointing the people who elected you instead of those who live in other districts".

Nevertheless, the appointments were made. Presto! Only 1 district 2 resident out of 3 appointees. That looked bad to me. I don't know if this is standard procedure for the city. It sounded to be like the guy speaking out had mae a pretty good argument against appointing "outsiders'.  Does common sense count for anything anymore? The whole thing just seemed wrong.  What y'all think?  Whatever district you live in, should outsiders be appointed by your councilperson?

5 comments:

  1. Were any appointees tied to united ISD? And did Rangel get his promotion there yet?

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  2. Nope, Belinda Guerra is a trustee.....but at LCC. Probably someone's calling the shots for him. He seems too wet behind the ears.

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  3. That is sucky policy & sucky representation. In past posts on my Que Fregados blog, I have said that maybe we should move to what bigger cities to and actually have people interested apply to specific committees. The council person can choose from QUALIFIED individuals that would be from their district and not pay back a favor or choose their friends. Boo to Rangel!!

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  4. Wait - Belinda Guerra is no longer an LCC trustee since last Feb. When she announced her involvement with someone that would create a conflict, she stepped down. Just a clarification. Guess she was looking for something to do instead of LCC.

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  5. OOPs thanks for the correction. In regards to the councilperson/committees question, I think we should call our respective council members and ask that they sponsor an ordinance to that effect (re:your above suggestion). The explanation I was given by the city is that there is nothing to prevent Rangel from doing what he did. Not that it makes it right-of course. It's just poor policy to allow it. What makes it worse is that all the other councilpersons voted yes to his appointments. That means that they're all in on it.

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