Nothing But Window Dressing
You’ve got to love our Lubbock City Council. If there is a chance for grandstanding, you can bet there will be a parade to garner attention.
Here’s some background:
In 1999, Lubbock voters approved $37.4 million in bond projects, and, in 2004, they approved $30 million. But, because the city said it would not increase the tax rate to underwrite the bonds, the money for the projects trickled out over a long time period.
Because the knuckleheads who have been running City Hall for the past four or five years were too busy spending their time trying to run local businesses out of town and a so-called Christian mayor with a vendetta who provided phony “servant” leadership while stabbing people in the back apparently were too preoccupied to remind the citizens how those bond programs had been set up, Lubbock citizens became suspicious of the council and its motives.
This past summer when a citizens advisory committee proposed a bond election, some on the committee tied to the previous mayor and his lackeys on the current council proposed that a special citizens committee be established to keep an eye on the approximately $50 million that the voters approved in November to ensure that the money is spent as planned.
So, yesterday, at the urging of Councilman Todd Klein, who has his eye on either replacing Patti Jones as a Lubbock County commissioner or Tom Head as Lubbock County judge, the council created (on a 6 to 1 vote with Paul Beane voting no) a straw man committee that will “watch out” for the best interests of the citizens.
The reason it’s a “straw man” committee, in my opinion, is that this council has already approved spending most of the bond money on the improvements to part of 34th Street and other areas before the committee was appointed, leaving it with little to do. But, even with little to do, the forming of the committee will make those who want to embarrass some of on the council feel like they have accomplished their goal.
