carol@stormzero.com – Page 8

The City Charter is Meaningless

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 would have allowed the City Manager to live outside the city limits. Both were soundly defeated. Ten were passed.

You wouldn’t know that by the City’s website or the actions of the City Manager and City Council, led now by Mayor Pro Tem and Council Candidate John Kirkland.

Council Overturns Public Vote Results

The Council, in a 3 to 2 vote with John Kirkland breaking the tie, overturned the will of the voters on Prop M. That’s right. They just decided that your vote didn’t count. Why? Because Ken Paxton might sue the City over it. And, the lawsuit might cost $400,000 to defend.

Prop M was the marijuana question. And, for the record, if I were a City of Bastrop voter, I would have voted against Prop M.

Why didn’t Kirkland and his gang put that question’s results on hold until all the facts were in? That would have been the responsible thing to do. Overturning a public vote is an affront to representative government.

And while we’re questioning financial decisions, why didn’t Kirkland put the vendetta against Mayor Nelson on hold until all the investigations were completed? If the City Council is so worried about spending money frivolously on lawyers, why did the Council majority support Kirkland’s spending of taxpayer dollars in the amount of $137,000+ to continuously denigrate an elected official with false allegations? Why not wait until they heard from those allegedly investigating all this?

And what will they overturn next: letting the City Manager live outside the City even though the Charter says she must live in the City? Oh, that’s right, they already did that too.

Charter Ignored in Calling Meetings

The City Charter says “Such special meetings may be called as necessary upon written notice to the City Secretary by the Mayor or by any three of the other members of the Council.”

I submitted Open Records Requests for the November 21, 2024, December 17, 2024, January 17, 2025, January 22, 2025, and March 4, 2025 special meeting calls. None were called in compliance with the City Charter.

Think about it. If the City Council complied with the City Charter, there must be documents requesting these meetings. But, according to city officials, there weren’t.

In every case but the first one, I was told, in writing, that there were no documents responsive to my request. I received only one response and that was to my first request. It was only sent to me after my repeated protestations that there had to be some document(s) calling the meeting. City Manager Carrillo had requested the meeting via email to the Council people. Because 4 Council people replied they could attend, Carrillo contends that is the equivalent of them providing “written notice to the City Secretary”. Except, Carrillo isn’t the City Secretary.

More sloppy government. And, a City Manager and Mayor Pro Tem flagrantly willing to ignore the City Charter that the public voted to put in place. This City Manager and Mayor Pro Tem Kirkland constantly thumb their noses at you, the voting public.

Charter Changes Not Online

The City Charter has not been updated online. The election took place in November and has been certified by the City Council. Yet, the nine approved changes aren’t there. How can any person be expected to understand what this Council is doing, and under what authority they’re doing it?

Leadership Counts

Leadership counts. It’s expected that leadership will follow the rules. It’s not appropriate for City Council and their staff to make it up as they go along. They have reference material to use if they have questions. They can read the Charter just like I can (except it’s out of date). It’s the framework for transparent and open government. When they don’t follow it, they’re doing a disservice to every taxpayer and voter in the City of Bastrop.

Bastrop County: Back This Bill

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 so, but Bastrop County is more than 97% unincorporated land, so no future planning allowed. We see it and feel it.

Representative Stan Gerdes worked with me on the bill. It had the unanimous support of the Bastrop County Commissioners Court. It made it to a committee where it died. That bill would have applied to smallish counties that bordered on the 6 counties (at the time) with populations over one million.

HB4946 Snippet The bill is back this session. Special thanks to Rep Gerdes and his staff for, once again, shepherding this through the process. Bill number 4946 is exactly the same as the 2023 bill, but now applies only to the five counties in HD17: Bastrop, Burleson, Caldwell, Lee and Milam.

Below is a chart showing the amount of unincorporated land in each, and their rate of growth from the 2010 to 2020 Census. Bastrop County grew at a whopping rate of 31% in just 10 years.
chart showing unincorporated land in HD17 counties

This bill would allow planning for roads, infrastructure, water resources and other affects of rapid development. It would go a long way in keeping Bastrop County from being East Austin. Please contact Representative Stan Gerdes office in support of this bill: Contact form or by phone: (512) 463-0682.

Key points in House Bill 4946:

This is enabling legislation, meaning a county does not have to do it if they don’t want to.
If the governing body chooses not to do this, there is a petition process to get the question to the ballot so voters can decide.
The commissioners court must appoint a Planning Commission which will adopt a comprehensive plan for the growth and development of the county only after noticed public hearing(s) on that plan.
The commissioners court must also hold noticed public hearings on the plan and regulations before final adoption.
Current non-commercial agricultural and ranching operations are unaffected. Commercial agricultural and ranching operations may be reasonably restricted only “to protect the public health, safety, peace, morals, and general welfare”.
Protection of historic designated areas keep the current protections.
Affected property owners may protest adoption under rules set forth in the bill.
A commissioners court may grant special exceptions due to hardship.
The Act would take effect September 1, 2025.

Campaign Literature 101

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 campaign literature. All campaign literature is sophisticated marketing material. It’s meant to manipulate. Don’t be fooled.

This piece of literature was paid for by Americans for Prosperity (AFP). That’s a PAC, a political action committee. Who are they? Who else have they funded?

A look at their legally required reporting to the Texas Ethics Commission shows AFP supported ten current Republican Texas House members¹. Six of those ten voted to impeach Ken Paxton, including Stan Gerdes. The other five were Angie Chen Button, Janie Lopez, John Lujan, Morgan Meyer, and Ben Bumgarner.

School Choice

So while Stan Gerdes and the other five have all signed on as co-sponsors of HB3, the House bill on Education Savings Accounts, they also voted to impeach Ken Paxton.

Did you know there are two school choice bills? Maybe not and this literature doesn’t tell you that.

The Texas Senate has passed one (SB2) and has sent it to the Texas House for consideration. And, that’s where it sits.

The Texas House has its own bill (HB3) and that one has its first public hearing on Tuesday March 11. Should that pass as it is written, the Senate and House will have to come together to iron out the differences between the two bills. If they can’t do that, school choice will not make it to the Governor’s desk.

If you’re going to call Stan Gerdes’ office as this literature suggests, ask which of the two bills he supports. If his staff says the House bill, HB3, ask if he’d also support the Senate bill. If not, why not. The devil is in the details, as they say.

Read Between the Lines

¹ Only one rep receiving AFP donations voted against Ken Paxton’s impeachment. The other three are new reps.

Honoring God & Country

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 without prayer and dutifully honoring our flag. The mayor pro tem and city manager need to modify their special meeting agenda template to include an invocation and the pledges immediately!

Texas Flag In ten years in elected office, I can’t ever recall starting a meeting without an invocation and flag salute. In our case, our Council President led the flag salute and an individual Council person offered the invocation, except for special occasions such as reorganization meetings or those where a new Council person was sworn in. There, we had invited guests.

Special meetings are simply council meetings called in addition to regularly scheduled meetings and for special purposes. They should open with a prayer and flag salutes just like regular meetings. But in the City of Bastrop, they don’t.

(Update 3/7/25) The “Rules of Procedure for the City Council and Boards & Commissions of the City of Bastrop, TX” revised on September 17, 2024, mandates the Pledges. It states “The Council shall recite the Pledge of Allegiance, first to the United States Flag, and then to the state Flag of Texas.” (emphasis added) That would apply to all meetings. It specifically refers to “regular” meetings of the City Council for invocations, making it optional for all other meetings.

I call on Mayor Pro Tem John Kirkland and City Manager Sylvia Carrillo to immediately add an Invocation and Pledges to the United States Flag and Texas Flag to all City Council meeting agendas. No special guests need be invited to do so. The special guests aren’t the point. The prayers and pledges are.

Not doing so sends a message that prayer is unimportant and that there is no reason for elected officials doing their jobs to honor the flags of this great nation and state. Not doing so is a slap to every single person who has served in our armed forces and who has died for the freedoms enumerated in our Constitution and under which this Council operates.

Let’s get this fixed immediately.

Slow This Down

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 civil engineer, planner, surveyor or well versed in any other land use profession. So why was I appointed to our local planning board? I was treasurer of a citizens group involved in a local affordable housing issue. Development was exploding in our town, just like here. I knew that planning was a critical driver of what our community would ultimately look like. But my background meant I had a lot to learn.

This is where your citizens are today. They, like you and I, didn’t wake up one morning knowing what is a plat, what are setbacks, what’s an ADU, how is density calculated, what’s the relationship amongst development, school taxes, city & county taxes. They didn’t wake up knowing how to participate in the planning process: concept plans, public hearings, first readings, second readings, advisory reviews, conditional uses, and so much more.

SLOW THIS DOWN.

The last time y’all changed the code, it took 7 months with multiple listening sessions in the City. In a less formal environment, people could ask questions and learn. But not this time.

If you stay on this course, only 23 days will have passed from the first Planning & Zoning public hearing to final adoption by this Council, just a few more than that from the city-wide mailing. Take out weekends and holidays that city hall is closed, that’s only 16 working days. Sixteen days for average citizens to absorb what you’re doing, ask questions, understand the process, and attempt to have their voices heard both pro and con.

Lot layout with 2 ADUs I’m not opposed to most of what you’re considering. My main concern is that you’re ignoring density by not addressing ADUs on small lots. Lot with two ADUs So while you’re banning duplexes, you’re still allowing a single family home and 2 additional dwelling units on that same lot. Ban two dwelling units, but allow three by ordinance? That’s increased density. Is that really what you want to do?

SLOW THIS DOWN.

Indefinitely postpone these ordinances until your planners draft a full buildout plan showing what this city will look like when built out according to these new codes. Give your citizens time to absorb this information so they can make informed comments on these major changes to their city. That’s the responsible thing to do as elected officials.

Thank you.

Dem Chairs Strike Again

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 Democrats and require all committees to be majority Republican.”

Their side of that split hair is that “committees” does not equal “Permanent Standing Subcommittees”. They fail to tell you that bills can be assigned to those subcommittees, that they can and are chaired by Democrats, that those committees can kill bills assigned to them, and they’re funded just like regular committees.

One Permanent Standing Subcommittee with a Dem chair is Property Tax Appraisal. Right out of the starting gate, Democrat Committee Chair Chris Turner has introduced a bill to require that counties reappraise properties annually. Tarrant County voted to do them every 3 years, along with limiting provisions for appraisal increases, and school districts (think teacher’s unions) are up in arms.

three dollar signs Doing appraisals every year is very costly. It requires a large staff, support systems, annual hearings for those who contest their appraisals, legal fees and more. Why do this? One big reason is because upping appraisals allows governing bodies (elected officials) to claim lowered or stable tax rates.

(Tax rate * (Appraised Value-Exemptions)) / 100 = Your Tax Bill

You see it all the time. Elected officials claim they lowered the tax rate. But your property taxes went up. That’s because the taxable value of your property went up. If they can’t raise your taxable value, then they’ll be forced to raise the tax rate to collect more and more money for government services.

There’s no reason at all to appraise properties every year. The Texas Constitution allows it to be done every 3 years. I came from a state that did it less often than that. We didn’t have “appraisal districts” with all the related expenses of such. And, as elected officials, we had to carefully manage spending in order to keep the tax rate from rising out of control.

Remember that equation above? Today in Texas, the biggest variable to bring in more tax dollars each year is the appraised value. We all know that because we’re getting slammed each and every year. And, elected officials continue to claim they presided over a stable or lower tax rate when running for re-election.

In the state I came from, the appraised values stayed constant from one appraisal to the next (often six to ten years). It was the tax rate that rose to bring in more tax dollars. When the ratio of total appraised value to total market value ran in the 60% range, we hired a professional appraisal company to re-appraise all properties to market values. When that was done, the amount raised in taxes before and after the appraisals had to be the same.

One time fee. One year out of six or seven. And, when we increased spending, the tax rate went up. If our city was growing and we had to provide expanded services, the added assessments of the new growth covered that. As elected officials, we couldn’t run behind the fiction of lower tax rates because they were directly related to our spending. It’s why my motto for more than 30 years has been “Take care of the spending and the tax rate will take care of itself”.

Annual appraisals are a waste of tax money. And, now, a Dem chair of a TX House subcommittee wants to mandate them. This is but one example of damage done by Dem chairs. Let’s hope the Texas House or Senate is smarter than that and defeats this bill before it ever gets out of that Property Tax Appraisal subcommittee.

What’s the Rush?

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 were held on April 10 2019, May 9 2019, June 8 2019 and June 26 2019. The draft code, technical manual, and draft pattern book were released on May 24, 2019 so the public could review them. Another public meeting was held to solicit input on the technical manual on August 22 2019. The Planning and Zoning Commission did not take action to approve the code until September 26, 2019. The Council’s first reading of the new zoning ordinance was October 22 2019. The second reading and final adoption took place on November 12 2019.

From the first public meeting to final adoption was seven months.

Why, then, is the City Manager Sylvia Carrillo trying to push through a new code in just 23 days? There’s always a reason when that happens. So, what’s the rush?

City of Bastrop P&Z Meeting Last night’s meeting agenda was far too long. The meeting started at 5PM. I don’t know what time it ended because I left at 9:30 when there were still two items to be discussed and voted on. There was a full house when it started. By the time I left, there were barely 25 people in the room.

City of Bastrop P&Z Meeting 9:30PM Even the Commissioners were exhausted. So exhausted, in fact, that one of them left the meeting. Another read a motion for setback code changes when he meant to read a motion for lot size code changes. He was so tired he didn’t even realize he was reading the wrong prewritten motion. Setbacks hadn’t even been discussed yet.

Four hour meetings are unfair to the governing body, but most especially to the public who have to work the following day, may have had to arrange child care or may be elderly. Again, what’s the rush?

For all the bloviating about drainage, street width, cost of street maintenance by Carrillo last evening, pushing this forward in such a short time frame only makes sense in the context of future development. What’s on the drawing board for which these changes are needed? What’s the rush?

Citizens need to remember that the Gateway development was defeated on May 14, 2024. That date is important because the developer can resubmit an application one year later: May 15, 2025. If Carrillo has her way, the new code will be adopted by March 11, 2025. That’s 2 months for the Gateway developers to have access to the new code to lay out a conforming development.

Previously, developers were required to comply with a grid layout of streets and roads-including the Gateway development. If these proposed changes become law, that will no longer be the case, facilitating a different design for this project and every other.

What else is on the drawing board? Are there mapping changes? Zone changes to specific areas? There’s something in Bastrop’s future for which these code changes are necessary, that’s for sure.

I spent eight years on a planning board, six years on a town council. I know this game. Nothing of this magnitude and effect on citizens gets rushed through this fast without an ulterior motive. It’s likely the Planning & Zoning Commissioners have no idea what it is, and perhaps only the Council majority that votes together knows. Maybe only the City Manager knows. But there is an ulterior motive that will reveal itself in time. Otherwise, what’s the rush?