I’ve been to many, many governing body meetings. Ten years of Council meetings as an elected official myself. Then there were the many years before and after my term of office. As a public information official, I attended county governing body meetings. I’d say I’ve easily attended over 700 governmental body meetings. But not once, … Continue reading “So Wrong on So Many Levels”
Did you know you can comment on bills that are being considered in Texas House Committees? At comments.house.texas.gov, you can register your comments. Can’t make it to Austin and the Capitol for hearings? Take advantage of this. Voice your opinions! This morning, I commented on two bills: the huge film industry give-away (HB 4568 ) … Continue reading “Your Comments Count”
Follow the money. ALWAYS. With an upcoming local election, it’s important to understand how a candidate and ardent supporters interact. Enter John Kirkland and Mel Cooper onto the stage. The Players John Kirkland is a City of Bastrop Councilman and Mayor Pro-Tem running for re-election. Mel Cooper is the chairman and treasurer for a Bastrop … Continue reading “One Hand Washes the Other”
It’s totally immoral for the government at any level to impugn your character without charging you. If you have the evidence, charge me. Or shut up. ~ Tucker Carlson March 10, 2025 Censure #1: Jimmy Crouch, City of Bastrop Council Member and Builder You’re likely unaware that in March 2022, an Ethics Complaint was filed … Continue reading “A Tale of Two Censures”
Senate bill 785 passed out of the Senate Local Government Committee without amendment and is headed to the Senate floor. There’s an identical bill in the Texas House: HB 1835 scheduled in the Land & Resources Committee on April 10. Both mandate that any Texas “municipality with zoning regulations or zoning district boundaries”: (1) shall … Continue reading “Don’t New Jersey my Texas”
What is it? Who regulates it? Does it even exist anymore? I looked up “HUD-code” on the web with interesting results. These two pages, one specifically the home page for HUD’s Office of Manufactured Housing Programs and that program’s Frequently Asked Questions page, are gone. That would seem to mean that program is now defunct. … Continue reading “HUD-Code Housing”
I wrote extensively on March 30 about what appear to be flagrant violations of the Texas Open Meetings Act (TOMA) by the City of Bastrop with its called meeting on March 31. But wait! There’s more. Another meeting has been called. This time for Wednesday, April 2, 2025. The agenda says it’s a Special City … Continue reading “More Sloppy (Illegal?) Gov’t”
At what point does sloppy government actually become illegal government? At what point does the business conducted at improperly noticed special meetings become moot? At what point does a presentation by a council person who is also a candidate become illegal electioneering in City Hall? On Friday, March 28, notice of a City of Bastrop … Continue reading “Sloppy Gov’t or Illegal Gov’t?”
Senate bill SB15 has been passed on the Texas Senate floor and has been sent to the Texas House. The bill’s authors are Bettencourt (R), Campbell (R), Creighton (R), Gutierrez (D), Hagenbuch (R), Hughes (R), Middleton (R), Nichols (R), Paxton (R) and West (D). Co-authors are Johnson (D), Kolkhorst (R) and Parker (R). There’s an … Continue reading “Why Do I Feel Like I’m Back in NJ?”
My last post about City of Bastrop officials’ actions violating the citizen-adopted Home Rule charter was pretty long. But that doesn’t mean those are the only violations of Charter provisions. Voters adopted the Charter making the City a “Home Rule” city. Voters have to approve all changes to the Charter. At least, one would think … Continue reading “Another Charter “Stick in the Eye””
Last November, five months ago, y’all who live in the City of Bastrop went out and voted on Charter Amendments: 12 of them to be exact. Defeated were G (57.3% opposed) and L (62.4% opposed). All others passed. Prop G would have required replacing all gender-specific terminology with gender-neutral terminology in the Charter. Prop L … Continue reading “The City Charter is Meaningless”
March 15 update: House Bill 4946 has not yet been assigned to a committee. I’ll update this post once this happens with committee contact information. Last legislative session, I wrote a bill that would allow the County Commissioners, if they so chose, to manage growth on unincorporated lands. Cities already have the right to do … Continue reading “Bastrop County: Back This Bill”
It’s started. The other day I received this piece of campaign literature from Representative Stan Gerdes. Oops! I’ll bet that’s what you thought too. No. It wasn’t from Stan Gerdes. It was about Stan Gerdes. It was from Americans for Prosperity. About a year ago, I wrote a post called “Read Between the Lines” about … Continue reading “Campaign Literature 101”
Apparently, the Bastrop City Council doesn’t need the blessings of our Lord at Special Meetings. Nor do they need to honor our Country and our State. Last night, Bastrop Mayor Pro Tem John Kirkland opened the meeting and immediately moved to Citizen Comments. It felt odd and discomforting for elected officials to be conducting business … Continue reading “Honoring God & Country”
Public comments delivered by Carol Spencer at the 3/4/25 City of Bastrop Council Meeting. The Council had multiple ordinances modifying its B3 Zoning Code on the agenda for 1st reading, with second reading and adoption one week later. In college, I majored in French. I then joined IBM in computer sales. I was not a … Continue reading “Slow This Down”
Don’t be fooled. You’ve been told TX House Representatives, including HD-17 Stan Gerdes, voted to ban Dem chairs. That’s only true if you’re touching their side of the hair that they split to fool you. The Texas GOP Legislative Priority list says “The Republican-controlled Texas Legislature shall end the practice of awarding committee chairmanships to … Continue reading “Dem Chairs Strike Again”
In 2019, the City of Bastrop adopted new development code ordinances. It took a long time because the City gathered a lot of public input prior to holding any Planning & Zoning public hearings or City Council public hearings. The City held public meetings to “share future development plans and to solicit community input”. These … Continue reading “What’s the Rush?”
Let’s be VERY clear about the J6 Choir controversy the Democrats used to delay the vote for Kash Patel as FBI director. Let’s be VERY clear. The J6 Choir video that the Judiciary Committee Democrats are SO opposed to is one of incarcerated J6ers singing the National Anthem while President Trump cites the Pledge of … Continue reading “J6 Choir: Let’s be Very Clear”
The City of Bastrop held numerous public hearings before it adopted the current zoning ordinance. The public had many opportunities to provide input. Modifications were made based on that input. The Council held public hearings on the ordinance to obtain more public input, and then it was adopted. That happened just 6 years ago in … Continue reading “A Fix Without a Problem”
If you live in the City of Bastrop, you may remember quite a few charter amendments on your ballot last November. Two failed. All the rest passed. November? That’s almost 3 months ago. Are the changes in effect yet? Good question. So, let’s figure that out. State law allows charter changes to be placed on … Continue reading “Effecting Charter Changes”
Did you know that the Texas Legislature meets for only 140 days every 2 years? Some of us think that’s good as it limits the damage they can do. Others think it’s not enough time. One would think that with only 140 days, they’d work every single day for the State of Texas and its … Continue reading “The Clock is Ticking”
Bastrop County Republicans overwhelmingly voted for Republicans in November. We swept all contested races. Why, then, would our Republican Texas House representative vote for Democrat chairs? He claims he didn’t. But, he did. Perhaps he didn’t read the rules before he voted on them. After all, they were sent to House members at 4AM, all … Continue reading “No Dem Chairs Vote Rings Hollow”
It took 2 hours. See my post “The Poison Pill” in which I predicted that within a few hours, Rep Stan Gerdes would tell you that he banned Dem Chairs, but he wouldn’t tell you “the rest of the story”. And, that’s exactly what he did. He did not tell you about Permanent Standing Committees … Continue reading “As Predicted”
This morning at 4AM while most of us were sleeping, including many of our TX House Reps, the 232 page Texas House Rules bill dropped. That’s right, 4AM. I’m writing this at 4PM the same day and that package was adopted by the Texas House just an hour ago. No amendments were allowed. Exactly as … Continue reading “The Poison Pill”
I’m sure each of us has an idea of what we think it means to be a mayor. I always thought the mayor ran the city, determined policy, crafted the budget, hired and fired. Basically, I thought the mayor was the executive in charge. But, guess what? That’s not always the case. The city’s form … Continue reading “When a Mayor ≠ a Mayor”