City embarks on "New" Master Planning without ever revealing "Old", $400,000 Master Plan

Laredo (LT) - The Laredo Morning Times, also known to some as El Empty, is reporting this morning that the City of Laredo is embarking on a brand new "Master Plan", uninspiringly entitled "Viva Laredo".  I wonder how much thought went into that branding process.

Disturbingly, there seems to be a full-court press on the taxpayers to dredge up all sorts of initiatives from the same old names in the private architectural and engineering sector in town.  Just a couple of months ago, we found out of the 4 plazas plan. Now, If you look at the names of those involved, it might seem like a "who's who" of recent contract awardees. Yes, some even donated to the city's recent trip to Washington DC as our friends at Our Laredo have been diligently reporting.

Even more disturbing is the fact that the citizens who paid for the last fiasco entitled the Downtown Revitilization Master Plan never got to see the end product of what their tax dollars were seemingly wasted on.

Are we about to go down the same path?  It's very possible. Remember that, last time around, the big bucks went to a San Antonio firm by the name of Kell-Munoz. This time around, although some non-Laredo firms have been "invited", the major forces behind this effort are clearly local architects and engineers. Maybe they figured it's their turn for a bite at the proverbial apple.

What I would suggest is this: Let's take a look at the last "Master Plan" before any further talk of this brand spanking new "Viva Laredo" initiative. Is there  any overlap? Can anything be salvaged from our previous squandering of tax payer dollars?

For the record, Mayor Pete Saenz did ask for a full report to the public on the Kell-Munoz plan from the city manager. Nonetheless, the Mayor's instructions were somehow completely ignored and here we stand again, on the brink of perhaps another round of corporate welfare without ever getting to see the results of the last one.

After buying "Haunted House", Mercy Hospital is next?

LMT reporter Kendra Ablaza had a story in today's Laredo Morning Times.  Although, judging by today's reporting, Ablaza's story would be more at home if LMT stood for Limited Morning Times since in this particular piece, the Public was given only half of the story behind the purchase of the Canseco home.  Left out, whether by design or by negligence, was the fact that, at one time, Mr. George Beckelhymer had gone before the laredo city council and stated that he would be donating the house to the city.  Also left out, was how a "donation" turned into a $540,000 purchase funded with taxpayer money.

There was also something lacking as far as clarity. The LMT story quotes Council Alex Perez, who was the main force behind this purchase, as having said " It's the poster child of Laredo's Most Haunted. It could just as easily be something great for that area".

It's hard to say just exactly what Perez meant by this statement. Did he mean : "Although at the moment, it's the poster child for a haunted house, it could easily be something great for this area"? This would signal an improvement in the status of the home. Or did he mean " Because it is the poster child for a haunted house, it could be something great for this area".   That would not make much sense to me.

Another unclear quote attributed to Cm. Perez went like this : "After this what's next is that old hospital".  I hope this does not mean that the city is seriously considering  buying the old Mercy Hospital with taxpayer money.  Councilman Perez, himself, has stated previously that the old hospital is an eyesore and that its dilapidated condition has had a detrimental effect on the surrounding area.

So, given the degree to which the owners of the old hospital have failed to adequately maintain their property,  are those same owners about to be handsomely rewarded for neglecting their property as much as they have been?

In the meantime, the city has been refusing to turn on the lights at our local baseball parks so that little league kids can practice.  Talk about misplaced priorities.

Update: What ever happened the $Millions from the sale of the Laredo Civic Center ?

Update on the post below: The Civic center was actually sold by the city of Laredo for $16 million. This as reported by the Laredo Morning Times on September 11, 2013.

Update : Also, I just wanted to point out the Texas law that states that any proceeds from the sale of public property must be used for similar purpose. As a matter of fact, City of Laredo assistant attorney Ms. Hale read the following law aloud to the city council, verbatim during their September 11, 2013 special-called meeting. Texas local government code Chapter 253.D states as follows: The proceeds of the sale may be used only to acquire and improve property for the purposes for which the sold property was used.




A couple of years ago, the City of Laredo sold the Laredo Civic center to the Laredo Independent School District. The sale was for a figure of approximately $15 million. By state law, those funds had to be used for for a specific purpose. The proceeds had to go for essentially replacing the sold facilities. Anything the city did with the money had to be for the purpose of "community". That could be for building a place where the community could congregate and hold a wide range of activities.

The immediate promise coming from the city council was that the money was going to be used to build a convention center near the new outlet mall. Another idea was to build a sports complex which the entire community could use.

Fast forward a couple of years: The proposed TAMIU sports complex is being funded by a bond which the taxpayers voted to approve (this includes the natatorium). The idea of building a convention center near downtown was apparently completely dropped.

So, I ask once again: What ever happened to the millions of dollars that the City of Laredo received from the sale of the Civic Center?

City of Laredo officials get rich on back of poor

Recently appointed city manager Jesus Olivares heads the pack of City of Laredo "officials" who are making exorbitant salaries on the backs of Laredo taxpayers. Keep in mind that nearly 35 per cent of Laredo's population is impoverished.  Another way of looking at that is that 1/3 of the salaries for these Fat Cats come from people who live in poverty. Not bad. I was going to pose the rhetorical queston: Do they have no shame? But we all know the answer to that- NO.

Many Laredoans had a big problem with then-city manager Carlos Villarreal making $242,000 a year. After eight years on the job, he was able to get the city council to award him that kind of a very generous salary. That was nothing compared to the current city manager Jesus Olivares who came into office and immediately got what Carlos Villarreal took eight long years to reach- $242,000 a year.

Now, if that doesn't make you Laredo Proud, I don''t know what will.  Incidentally, the city manager has already started dropping hints that our property taxes might need to raised again next year in order to continue paying for this type of reckless spending.

City Council Shenanigans

The only thing that was done right in regards to Wednesday's specially-called City of Laredo council meeting was that Mayor Pete Saenz said that the council should have waited to vote on the selection of the "new" city manager.  Everything else was "pretty much" business as usual. At the present time, "business as usual" in Laredo politics means it was done the wrong way.

A couple of months ago, councilman Rangel lead the move to oust then city manager Carlos Villarreal.  They could not get him out of there fast enough. Ultimately, Rangel's move cost the city over $600,000.  Co-incidentally, it was Rangel who led the move to install Chuy Olivares as the new city manager, even though for all practical purposes, Olivares serves as Carlos Villarreals right hand man for the last 8 years?

The council got the pay wrong as well. It took Carlos Villarreal 8 years to get to the obviously extravagant salary of $242,000 a year. Olivares starts at that same salary on the very first day on the job. It does not appear that our city council knows the meaning of fiduciary responsibility.

Take off your cap!

Mayor Raul Salinas stammered and yelled at some young  Laredoans who were awaiting their chance to speak during the public comments segment of Monday's city council meeting. After one individual failed to heed the Mayor's command, the mayor ordered that he be escorted out.  "Officers, take the appropriate action" the mayor screamed. "we will not have this hall disrespected" he continued. With that, that cap-wearing citizen was promptly escorted out by 3 Laredo Police Department Officers......all of them wearing their caps.   I'm sure the mayor didn't mean all caps had to be removed at city hall.

Fox News Latino reports on CEO fired for Laredo comments

The following excerpt is from Fox News Latino.  By the way, did any of the local media report on this?  If they did, I must have been pullling a Rip Van Winkle or something because I completely missed it. 

One correction, the Fox article below mentions that Schmitd was asked why he wanted "to move his company" from Laredo to Fort Smith Arkansas. The original Fort Smith local story states that Schmitd was asked why "HE wanted to move" (not the company). 

From Fox News Latino 

One of nation’s largest hospital healthcare service companies fired the interim CEO of one of its Texas-based hospital systems after he made racially charged remarks about Latinos during an employee meeting.

Community Health Systems, the parent company of Sparks Health System, quickly dismissed interim CEO Tim Schmidt this week after he uttered startling comments in front of about 125 hospital employees.

During a question-and-answer session, Schmidt was asked why he wanted to move the company from Laredo, Texas, to Fort Smith, Arkansas.

“Have you ever been to Laredo, Texas?” said Schmidt, according toThe City Wire, a local website that covers northern Arkansas. “It’s 97 percent Hispanic.”

Word quickly spread throughout the hospital system’s Latino employees – including one doctor who immediately expressed outrage.

Officials at Community Health Systems took no chances and announced on Thursday that they had let Schmidt go from his post at Sparks Health System. It is unclear if he will still remain an employee.

Read the entire article at Fox News Latinohttp://latino.foxnews.com/latino/money/2014/05/09/dont-mess-with-laredo-outrage-over-ceos-remarks-that-leaving-city-because-it-7/

P.S.  I don't know why links to article(s) don't "work". 

Temp dips into 50s in May ; should be a local holiday

Local HEBs experienced higher than usual sales of charcoal briquets, charcoal lighter, fajitas, chicken quarters and assorted carne asada must-haves as Laredo temperatures dropped substantially.  Local weather legend Richard Heatwave Berhler predicted that Tuesday and Wednesday morning lows will be in the mid 50s. 

Other businesses gearing up for heavier than normal demand include local panaderia, coffee shops and other business providing well-known comfort foods and run of the mill junk food as well.  

For those who were hoping that local schools would be closed. No dice. 

School districts decide not to let parents know about recent incidents

Ol' Pro8news tonight had a story about how both local school districts failed to notify parents about recent gun-related incidents. Both districts claim that they knew that there was no actual threat so that's why they decided not to notify them.  

Hopefully, the districts are being upfront and transparent about these incidents.  Of course everyone will agree that it is a good thing that in neither case was there any "real" threat.  The question is whether the district should trust parents to not over-react with any information they might have provided. Most parents would probably want more details than are now being given. Also, parents would appreciate it if the districts clarified just exactly what their policy is regarding whether or not parents will be notified: what are the situations that will warrant such notifications? 

It's a Laredo tradition to not let the public know much about what's going on even if it's their own taxes that are paying the salaries of all of these public servants.  

Feds: students may not be refused enrollments regardless of immigration status

I know the question of immigration status and residency are not the same but they often get confused when local school boards take on the question from time to time.  The latest word from the Feds may put the issue to rest for a while, or it may bring it up to forefront once again. It's hard to predict. One thing is almost for sure, Pro8News will include it on it's facebook survey.

From Politico, here are the "painstaking details" of the latest actions.

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/05/feds-schools-cant-shut-out-illegal-immigrants-106489.html?hp=l1

Councilman's idea could result in new reality show: Trash Divers

Amid all the talk of an increase in Laredo's fly population, Councilman Roque Vela has come up with an idea that he hopes will result in Laredoans being more careful in how they process their garbage: Trash Diving.

This is the stuff of which Reality shows are made!  Vela and other council members as well as Laredo Health Department Director Gonzalez seem to think that Laredoans are to blame for the fly problem because they simply fail to separate their recyclables from other trash. This, in turn results in an over-abundance of non-recyclable trash which prevents many Laredoans from properly closing the lids on their Willie Botes.

Vela's solution as we mentioned before, is to go around and do some trash-diving. Literally, going through people's trash to prove that it's not the once-a-week trash pickup that is the problem. Instead, the councilman is very certain that he will encounter countless incidents the real culprit : poor trash handling.  No word on what part of town, the councilman, with local media in tow, plan to start their diving operations.

Also, no word on what kind of super-hero outfits Vela and fellow councilman Vera, who has volunteered to go along on the dives will be donning.

Is Laredo the largest city without a city-owned Civic Center?

A couple of years ago, Laredo made some rather negative news around the nation for being the largest USA city without a bookstore.  That dubious distinction ended when Books-a-Million came to town.  Now, is Laredo the largest USA city without a municipal Civic Center?

After selling off our civic center to the Laredo Independent School District last year, there has been very little talk about how the city plans to fix this embarassing problem.  There has been more talk/action on spending most of the proceeds from that sale to built yet another "sports complex". The only mention I have heard of addressing the no civic center problem was immediately after the sale. There was some talk at city council of allocated about 2 Million dollars (of the nearly $15M total) to built a new "center where people can congregate" near the proposed outlet mall downtown.  But beyond that, very little has been mentioned.

Yes, I know:  what about the downtown outlet mall?   What about the Laredo Town Center Mall near Lake Casa Blanca?   That's precisely my point.

Mayor milks office as May election moves nearer

Well, that just about takes up my  monthly allotment of letter M usage.

Tonight on Pro8news, Mayor Raul Salinas again appeared honoring several small business in town. It's funny how he never did that in the first 7 years of his two terms.  However, during this past year, the Mayor has made the most use of his office in gaining weekly (sometimes daily) visibility. Of course all of this while on the taxpayer's dime.  Is it any coincidence that the timing on these almost weekly "honoring ceremonies" happen to coincide with his current campaign for Webb County Treasurer?

In the meantime, if you own any business whatsoever, you might want to contact the Mayor's office and get in the action. In the process, you might get a little bit of free advertisement for your business,  just not as much free advertising as the Mayor will probably get.

City of Laredo should follow other cities in regulating payday lenders

Laredo's city politicians have a record of being very business-friendly while at the same time virtually ignoring the plight of the less fortunate.  With their approval of the $1 per transaction fee, they once again bowed to the wishes of HEB.  Many probably agree with this because no one wants to be waiting in line trying to figure out how many bags are going to be needed (fee per bag).

The Mayor pretended to be concerned about the "poor" having to pay for their plastic bags. If this was a genuine concern, he should have also opposed the $1 dollar fee as well.  Also, the mayor was silent when later on in the council meeting, the discussion turned to making our recreation centers more affordable for veterans or the disabled.  Surprisingly, even councilman Garza mentioned the difficulty of a family with four children having to pay $200 in fees anually ($ 50 per year).  Not so surprisingly, no one on the council seconded Garza's concerns.

But I digress; going back to the payday lenders.  The following is from the Dallas Morning News. Notice that the article does not mention Laredo at all when it calls for other cities to follow Dallas's lead in regulating payday lenders. Why is this? Is it indicative of how the rest of the state doesn't really consider Laredo a part of Texas ?   Given our "only in Laredo" style of politics, I wouldn't be surprised.

From The Dallas Morning News

Proponents of payday loans point out that the operations provide a way for cash-strapped consumers to obtain quick cash to tide them over until the next payday. While many of the loans initially are for small amounts to be repaid in full in a short time, consumers who can’t do so often get caught up in a never-ending cycle of debt and fees. In turn, that can engulf neighborhoods and entire communities in cycles of debt, as this newspaper has made clear in editorials throughout the six-years-plus of its “Bridging Dallas’ North-South Gap” project.

The state’s high poverty rates and the number of consumers who don’t have bank accounts make Texas ripe for payday lenders. Dallas ordinances don’t outlaw payday loans but wisely restrict the loan amount that can be extended and the terms under which the loan must be repaid, and require lenders to register and meet tougher zoning rules.

El Paso, Houston, Austin and San Antonio have smartly followed; action from Fort Worth, Irving and Arlington would strengthen the call to action. Cash America and Ace Cash Express, two of the nation’s major payday lenders, are based in Fort Worth and Irving, respectively.

Adding more cities to the coalition is important because, so far, state lawmakers have largely refused to take action against an industry with an enormously active lobby in Austin. Meanwhile, payday lenders have found cracks in municipal enforcement, such as increasing operations in inner-ring suburbs or going online

Reasonable regulations

This newspaper would like to see policymakers:

• Limit payday payments to an affordable percentage of a borrower’s income. Research indicates that monthly payments above 5 percent of gross monthly income are unaffordable.

• Spread costs evenly over the life of the loan.

• Guard against harmful repayment or collection practices.

• Require concise disclosures that reveal both periodic and total costs.

Laredo's plastic bag ordinance: The devil's in the details

Once again, from the Monday, April 21, 2014 Laredo city council meeting agenda:

C. Request by Council Member Cynthia Liendo 
1. Status report on the plastic bag ordinance, with possible action.

Hmmm, not much information on this one.  We know that the city council did pass a plastic bag reduction ordinance last year but left many of the details blank. For one thing, the ordinance seeks to reduce plastic bag usage in the Gateway City, not ban it.  In the process, the question has become whether to bring about a reduction by charging a per-bag fee or a flat fee regardless of how many plastic bags will be issued.

Understandbly, the biggest grocery stores such as HEB have long made it known that they would prefer a flat fee, (say $1.00) per customer per visit.  This is preferred because that way the merchant does not have to keep track of how many bags they will need for each particular customer/visit.  However, this may not necessarily do much for the purpose of reducing the number of plastic bags used in our city. If this route is taken, Laredoans can expect to see about the same number of plastic bags strewn all over town resulting in an offending eyesore to all.

The LaredoTejas editorial board has determined that the more effective method of reducing the number of those annoying fly-away plastic bags is to instead charge a per-bag fee.  This way, people who have a great deal of groceries in their cart might want to avoid paying a few extra dollars for so many plastic bags and start thinking twice about taking along their reusable bags.

Bruni Plaza water fountain to be finally fixed?

It seems that anything with the word Plaza takes a looong time in the City of Laredo.  For decades,the old Plaza Theater has sat vacant. Every few years, someone will bring it up at a city council meeting and the talk will usually go something like this:  The city will finally start moving on renovating the Plaza Theater and soon it will form the anchor of a revitalized downtown.

Well, in case you haven't noticed, the Ol' Plaza is still barricaded and closed.

Now, the subject is the Bruni Plaza water fountain.  There is an item on Monday's 4/20/2014 city council meeting that appears to finally address the dilapiated and dried out old water fountain. Here is what it looks like:

2014-O-051 Authorizing the City Manager to accept the Lamar Bruni
Vergara Trust Grant in the amount of $50,000.00 for the purpose of
repairing the fountain at Bruni Plaza and to amend the FY 2013-2014 Capital
Improvement Fund budget by appropriating said funds.


As far as accepting the  money, that's a given.  Now, as far as using the money as intended, that's anybody's guess.  It won't be the first time the city accepts a grant only to give it back later on because it could not comply with its requirements.

It would be nice to see that old water fountain at Bruni Plaza be fully operational again.

City to increase water conservations fees, fines

The city council continued its war on the taxpayer by introducing several increases to fees and fines as a way of conserving water. Perhaps money is the only thing the taxpayer will listen to when it comes to saving water.

The question is:  Is the city still selling water to the fracking companies?? If no, then that's a good thing.  If yes, how much water is being sold monthly and why punish the taxpayers for following the example of the city in regards to water usage?


From the April 7th, 2014 agenda

Public hearing and introductory ordinance amending the City of Laredo
Code of Ordinances, Chapter 31, Article III, Division 4, Water Conservation
and Drought Contingency Plans in multiple sections to include a reduction in
the gallons per capita per day consumption (GPCD) from 150 GPCD to 130
GPCD by year 2019 and 110 GPCD by year 2024, a change from 6 stages
to 4 stages in the drought contingency plan, one change to the water
treatment plant capacity, four changes to the water demand triggering
conditions, one change to include a $20.00 water surcharge to customers
using more than 15,000 gallons of water per month during a Stage 4, one
change to adopt the same water waste fees from the Water Conservation
Plan for Stage 1 of the Drought Contingency Plan, one change to increase
the penalty on the Drought Contingency Plan to $500.00 per violation per
day, and one change to establish higher water waste fees for Stages 2, 3,
and 4 of the Drought Contingency Plan; providing for publication, severability
and an effective date. (Approved by Operations & Finance Committees)

Willl Mayor, council and staff take credit for this also? Monterrey flights cancelled

Our local daily, aka el mty is reporting that AeroMexico flights between Laredo and Monterrey have been "quietly" cancelled.  The quiet part was no doubt because that's how the local politicos wanted it.  Monterrey is a huge industrial metropolis of several million people and so Laredo has lost a large market.  All that travel and free private-jet flights to and from Mexico and other Latin American countries are not looking very productive at all.

Laredo Morning Times reported it as such online:

Residents wanting to travel to Monterrey, Mexico by air will have to find a different airport to fly out of. AeroMexico Airlines canceled its daily flights from Laredo International Airport to General Mariano Escobedo International Airport in Monterrey on Aug. 10 after less than a year in service.

Airport Manager Jose Flores said although the partnership with the Mexican airline was valuable, the daily output was not up to the standards of the billion dollar airline giant. “The flight was just not profitable,” he said. “Rather than continue with an unprofitable rout, they decided to cancel the service.”

Representatives from AeroMexico could not be reached for comment Thursday.


Of course, AeroMexico representatives could not be reached for comment. Again, that's how the Mayor and the other local politicos want it.

G.O.U.G.E. to address city council's attack on Laredo garage sales

G.O.U.G.E. or  Grassroots Organization United for Garage-sales Entrepreneurship will be calling their first, organizational meeting to deal with the current pounding garage sales are taking under the present city council.   Only last year, a permit was required for the first time ever in order for someone to hold a garage sale: the permit fee was $5.  This year, the fee was tripled to $15 per garage sale. At that point, the reasoning was that the fee increase would generate an additonal $27,000 to help the hapless city officials offset a growing budget deficit.

Now, you can forget those additional $27,000 going in the city's coffers. At last night's meeting, Cm. Alex Perez made a motion to reduce the number of garage sales allowed per year from three to two. If the city was expecting to rake in $27,000 for 3 garage sales a year, then it makes sense to figure that the city will stand to lose 1/3 of that money ($9,000) by reducing the allowed number of garage sales.

Like the saying goes: "Ellos solos se estan cortando el pescuezo".

Anti-LDF trend continues at city council

As LaredoTejas recently reported, cities throughout the Rio Grande Valley continue to fund their respective Development Foundations rather generously-especially when compared to the city of Laredo. Laredo's essentially anti-LDF trend continued last night at the city's council's meeting. The wheels were sent in motion to cut back the funding to LDF even further. Eventually, what the city manager and council want is to completely take over the money available currently for the LDF.

Councilman Vera suggested that the city look at what it would cost for the city to create their own Economic Development department. He instructed city manager Carlos Villarreall to report back with figures on how much it would cost the city to fund "an economic director and two assistants".  If the current allowed funding of $270,000 is allocated to these three new positions, the breakdown might be something like: 1 Director at $110,000 a year and 2 assistants at $80,000 a year each. If these, new political positions are not created then chances are that the money will be used by the mayor and council to expand their vacation-like trips throughout the country. Even when not travelling, the mayor & council could use these thousands to wine and dine so-called prospective investors.