My position on taxes

InstantNewsWestU.com asked all candidates to respond to the following question.


 “If elected as mayor or a city council member, do you support a reduction in the property tax rate?  If so, what steps will you take to make it happen?  And if not, why not?”

My answer has 3 parts.

1. I don’t have enough facts to make a common sense judgment about reducing property taxes. If the facts support a reduction, I will vote to reduce taxes. If the opposite is true, I will vote to increase property taxes. I promise to use common sense and good judgment.
2. This question is charged with ideology. I was raised in a very Republican home. My dad had a picture of President Eisenhower on the wall. He would tell his friends that he couldn’t wait until January 1^st so he could be the first one to pay his income tax. He believed that it is a privilege to pay taxes in a country as great as ours’ and he wanted to be first. I share my dad’s belief that taxes benefit the common good.
3. Full disclosure. As a Vietnam veteran, I may have been exposed to agent orange. In 2009 I was diagnosed with prostate cancer, the Veterans Administration told me that I would be eligible for veterans’ benefits associated with agent orange exposure. I received several benefits including an exemption from paying property taxes beginning in 2010. 

West U City Council just bought some really expensive concrete

This is a close up photo I took of the now famous restrictor. The rough dimensions of one third of the restrictor are 6 feet by 1.7 feet. Imagine three yard signs stacked lengthwise. The council voted to buy 4 acres of land from the county for $403,000 and the then trade that land back to the county for the right to saw off one third of this restrictor.

Reinforced concrete weighs 150 pounds per cubic foot and the sliver we just purchased for $403,000 is 6.89 cubic feet.

That's $390 per pound of concrete. 

West U City Council doesn’t want to be confused by facts

This is a view looking inside the storm sewer.

Monday night, April 25^th, our city council voted to purchase water retention capacity from the county for $403,000. That is one transaction - we pay the county money, they give us land.

A second transaction will follow. In exchange for the land we just purchased, the county will give us permission to take a concrete saw and cut a foot or two off of the concrete restrictor the county required us to install at the discharge outlet of the College St. flood project into the Poor Farm Ditch. Note, after this transaction we no longer own the land.

Two transactions, case closed. If only it were that simple.

At the council meeting, the first speaker was Dan Krocker, a homeowner in the College St. flood basin. Dan went into some detail explaining that Riley St. is the most severely flood prone street. The reason is that Riley St is at the deep end of the artificial lake that was created during the course of other flood abatement projects that have been undertaken in and around the area.

Artificial lake? Let me explain. One flood abatement technique is to lower the streets, making them catchment basins. We did this all over WestU including the College St flood basin. But consider the four boundaries of this flood basin. University on the north, Wesleyan on the east, Bellaire on the South, and Southside Place on the west. The three streets are metro bus lines and they were not lowered for obvious reasons. Southside streets have not been lowered. In addition, the effect of their “berm” was made worse for WestU residents when the chain link fence that used to separate the cities was replaced with wood fences that act like a dam.

The College St flood basin is unique. Our city responded by installing a very specific storm sewer which  directed flood waters on a circuitous route all the way back to the Poor Farm Ditch.

Then our neighbors to the south complained and the county responded by requiring a restrictor to be installed at the outlet of the storm sewer into the Poor Farm Ditch under the Edloe St bridge on Bellaire Blvd. This angered the residents because they thought this restrictor would have a negative impact their brand new flood abatement system.

Voice levels rose and fingers were pointed.

Then on April 18^th, our engineers released a study that clearly showed that the restrictor has almost no effect on flood levels on the impacted streets, except for Riley St, where the restrictor has a larger impact because the storm sewer is larger by the time it gets to Riley. But remember, Riley is at the bottom of the pool.

In other words, all of the anger over the restrictor has been misplaced. The restrictor is inconsequential.

At the council meeting Monday night our engineer was explaining all of these details to the council and all of the citizens present at the meeting. Mayor Kelly was hammering this point home at the council meeting when he was asking questions of our engineer.

Before Kelly was finished questioning the engineer, Steve Segal called the question. This is a parliamentary tactic which ended the discussion and precluded any further debate on the issue. City councilmen Segal, Fry, and Boehme voted to stop debate and then voted to purchase the land. Kelly voted “no” to stop debate and “yes” to purchase the land.  Councilman Guffey was absent.

The debate was cut off by Segal at the very point where Kelly was exploring other engineering solutions that might actually provide true relief.

Note: Segal was on the council in 2006 when it was decided not to help the streets that dead end at the fence separating WestU from Southside. This could have been done by spending another $1M on top of the $8M to install a storm sewer in those streets that would drain floodwater to the larger storm sewer on College.

I was astonished.

The issue of the restrictor is moot. Earlier in the meeting Steve Segal said we ought to purchase the land because we “promised those folks we would.” That was all well and good when he thought the restrictor would bring some relief to the flood victims. When the engineer confirmed that the restrictor would have minimal effect, common sense would dictate that you change your mind.

The argument was raised that since this land is cheap we should leap at the chance because it may never come by again. But as I say above, we will no longer own the land once we sell it back to the county in exchange for eliminating part of a useless restrictor.

Is the argument now that the land we purchased is somehow valuable or useful for another purpose?

I am confused by the facts. Have we been had?

Would I vote to build a 4 story parking garage on this street?

NO

All other candidates said they would not support spending city funds on a parking garage.

I am the only candidate to say that I will not support a parking garage, period.

We have zoning laws in West U for a good reason. Changing those laws is a serious matter and this proposed project does not qualify.

Effects of the restrictor

Click here to see a study of the effects of the restrictor on the College Avenue storm sewer system.









I received this study from Mike Ross on April 18th. You can see from the data that the restrictor has almost no effect on the flood prone area of College St. Only one city council person is running for reelection. At last week's candidate forum, that councilman said that the county's offer to sell us land for almost a half million dollars to abate the effect of the restrictor was phenomenal progress. How could he say that if he knew of this table prepared by our engineers?

More importantly, what if the city council did not know of this table? How can our elected officials make decisions when they are kept in the dark? The more I delve into this problem, the more it looks like Mike Ross obfuscates more than he clarifies.It shouldn't be this difficult to get to the facts.

At the candidate forum, I raised my concerns about the information Commissioner Radack had about the restrictor (see my comments on this blog). The current city councilman accused me of dwelling in the past and wasting time over things that happened in the past. He urged us to move forward as fast as possible and buy the mitigation capacity the county offered to us for sale. The data on this table tell us that we should not spend another nickel on the restrictor.

My position is that common sense and good judgment matter. I promise that I will do my best to gather the best information possible before I make decisions.

I have had less than a month to review the restrictor and associated flooding problems. In the email that accompanied this table from our engineers, Mike Ross said that he sent it out because questions had been raised. It was me that raised those questions.

A common sense issue that I will raise is that the restrictor could cause the outlet to clog up with debris faster than it would without the restrictor. The common sense solution to that problem is to have a city wide storm sewer clean out program in place. I assume we are already doing that.

Mayors against illegal guns - I support this campaign

Mayors against illegal guns

I support this coalition and will ask our new mayor to join with mayors all over the country to join this effort.

The tragic shooting of Gabby Giffords once again shows us the need for background checks. Only 2 other cities in Texas have joined. West University Place led the country in banning talking on cells phones in school zones. We should take the lead in Texas in supporting this important legislation.

Secretly taping conversations with people who can help us is a bad idea

Last December I became very annoyed by the news reporting about the restrictor. There was a lot of heat but no light. At the time I wrote a letter to all papers asking for clarification.  My position paper on this issue in this blog is basically the letter I wrote last December.

You will note that one thing I wanted clarified was that Commissioner Radack said that he knew who was creating frays and it wasn’t Mayor Kelly. He said someone needed to ask him who it was. I urged the newspapers to ask the question – “who is creating the fray?”

When I spoke to the commissioner this week, I asked him the question and he declined to answer at this time but restated his position that it wasn’t Mayor Kelly.

To say that he remains furious with Mike Ross for secretly taping conversations with him is an understatement.

Why our City Manager and sole negotiator with the county would do anything to antagonize the elected official who represents us is a mystery.

Talk to people who live outside of West U. I have. There is little sympathy for "snooty rich people who live in our little enclave dumping our excess water downstream."

As I say on this blog, engineering issues aside, this is a political issue more than anything else. We can ill afford to squander the little political capital we have. Mike Ross dug a very deep political hole for us when he secretly taped conversations he had with one of the most powerful people in the county.

Reply

A word of clarification

Proximity to the Poor Farm Ditch is not a relevant factor in the restrictor issue.

The restrictor is placed at the outlet of a specifically designed storm sewer built to relieve rainwater accumulation in the College St area. It is only those homes that are affected by the restrictor.

The presence of the restrictor will affect no one else in West U. I am in no way minimizing the impact of the restrictor on the people in the affected area. I care about them and I will work hard to find a solution.

But giving people a false sense of security by telling them the problem is solved when it isn't - is plain wrong.

I assumed this fact was well known but as I talked to people I realized that most do not know the specifics of the project.

.

What comes after phenomenal?

At last night’s candidate forum at Kroger’s, I spoke about the restrictor problem and said:

• According to County Commissioner Radack, the College St. drainage system is an inferior system and it was designed to handle a “two year” flood – not a five or ten year flood.
• Houston Council Member, Anne Clutterbuck’s office said that they are still waiting for an official written request from West U for access to mitigation acreage owned by Houston. We were told to submit that request last January and as of this week, we have not sent one.
• I challenged the statement made by both mayoral candidates that once the restrictor was removed, College St. could withstand an Allison type rain event. We have not had a major event in several years so only time will tell if that is true but we are a long way off from having the restrictor removed.
• Even though it was announced yesterday that one third of the restrictor will be removed because the county agreed to sell us one third of the acreage required, that will be of minimal help in the event of a large event.

Council member George Boehme took great exception to my remarks saying that it did no good to dwell on the past and we should look to the future because “phenomenal” progress was made when the county agreed to sell us land.

The question for George is – If that is phenomenal progress, what word will he use when “real” progress is made?

It is important that voters be told the truth. As I pointed out, engineering gives people the illusion of safety. Flood insurers are not fooled by illusions and neither should our voters be similarly fooled.

Common sense and good judgment matter. Good judgment involves telling voters the truth. 

Flood Issues in General

Engineering often causes more trouble than good because it creates the illusion of safety in areas that are really not (e.g., Katrina)! Insurers are not fooled by illusions, and flood insurance rates prove there is risk in building in a flood zone.

Photo Credit: Instant News West U.

Some factors to consider:

• Floods are natural events.
• It's possible that the particular area in question has always been at risk of flooding.
• The development of West U. has enhanced the risk of the flooding.
• It's important to realize that people have been building in flood zones for a long time, but they always seem shocked when flood damage occurs.

Source - Dr. Theodore Grantham - University of Barcelona

Political issues - Poor Farm Ditch

Edloe Street bridge on Bellaire, looking north. The restrictor is approximately underneath where I was standing to take this picture. Photo Jim Shields.

More than anything, however, this strikes me as a political issue relating to who has jurisdiction/authority over flood control.
• What is the relationship between Harris County Flood Control agency and West U. City government?
• How much say does the city have over how the county manages floods?
• What have been the actions of the City Council up to now? From what I can tell, Mike Ross has been our sole negotiator with the county, he may need help from our elected leaders.

I spoke with Anne Clutterbuck's office today. They told me that at a meeting last January, the City of Houston told West U officials that they would need an official written request from West U before they could consider the possibility of West U using any of Houston's catchment capacity to mitigate the runoff from our College Street project into the Poor Farm Ditch. They have received no such request from us.

I suggest that the City Council set up a sub-committee to research the problem, evaluate the technical documents, and assess the feasibility and cost of various alternatives (e.g., removing/modifying the restrictor, constructing addtional flood-control, litigation against Brayes or the flood control district, etc.). It would also be helpful to construct a timeline that indicates the history flooding events and measures that have been taken in the City over the past 50-100 years to address flood risk.

Engineering issues raised by Dan Krocker - Poor Farm Ditch

Edloe Street bridge looking south from the West U side. Photo, Jim Shields.

It is not surprising that two different engineering firms came up with different answers. The models that are used to predict the extent of flooding under different scenarios have a lot of uncertainty and are hardly objective. Typically, the hydraulic models that are used to simulate floods rely on several variables

• the drainage area (the total area contributing to runoff during a storm event),
• the permeability of the land surface (porous surfaces such as grass and green-scape will produce less runoff in a storm that pavement)
• the topography of the landscape (which determines the direction and velocity of runoff),
• the intensity of the rainfall event (e.g., inches of rainfall per hour over a particular duration).

Modifying any of these variables will give you a different prediction for potential flooding effects. In general, hydraulic engineers don't fully report the uncertainty in predictions and study results are often presented as hard facts. So that's probably part of the problem here.

Source - Dr. Theodore Grantham - University of Barcelona, the good looking man in my family photo

Common sense and good judgement matter

When I entered the race for city council, several of the local newspapers asked me why. I said that there were four open positions and only four people running and that one of the candidates has two newspaper stories about him that demonstrated extreme poor judgement and lack of common sense.

I will let Ken Hoffman's story in the Houston Chronicle speak for itself.  You can watch Hoffman's video of the incident.

The other story about George Boehme was about the incident last fall in his restaurant where he sold alcohol to a minor. According to recent news reports, Boehme has delayed his day in court 10 times. What is there to hide?

Common sense and good judgement matter. West University Place has a fine record of good government administered by our citizens. It was and is my opinion that the voters needed an alternative to George Boehme.

The solution to the Poor Farm Ditch problem involves money

The restrictor is the approximately six foot by six foot panel located on the left side of the Edloe Street bridge. This view is looking north toward West U. Photo Jim Shields. 

Here are two taped conversations worth listening to:

Selection One

Selection Two

These conversations were taped by West U City Manager, Mike Ross, when he was speaking to County Commissioner, Steve Radak.

It is clear from Commissioner Radak's position that:

1. The restrictor was installed with everyone's knowledge because West U could not solve our flood water problems by creating problems for our neighbors downstream.

2. The county never had a solution to the downstream problem.

3. Commissioner Radak said that our citizens should know that our new flood control system is an "inferior system" and that it was designed as a "two year flood" system - not even a "five year flood system."

4. Commissioner Radak said that the restrictor problem will not be solved overnight and that, even though we may think we will fix it with no cost, it will cost a lot.

From what I can discern with my limited knowledge of this issue, we can remove the restrictor when we find a catchment basin. That will cost money.

How much money?
and
When will this happen?

- are the questions of the day.

Candidate forums

Please come to the candidate forums - two have been scheduled

1. Wednesday, April 13 7PM - Kroger's at 5150 Buffalo Speedway

2. Thursday, April 28th 6:30 PM - West U Rec Center, 4120 Bellaire Blvd.

One of our residents, Dan Krocker, has already sent out a four page letter to all candidates asking about our position on the College Street flooding problem.

Please see my position paper regarding this issue.

I welcome comments

Jim Shields

A Word about Nicknames

When I entered the race for city council, the local newspapers asked me for a "headshot." My wife and I were on our way to Spain for a vacation with our wonderful daughters and I did not have time to have a picture made. I suggested to one of the reporters that she go to the Houston Brass Band website and use the picture of me holding my tuba.

She did, and that photo was posted on the internet. Then a gentleman known as "Hairballs" at the Houston Press saw it and used it to ridicule me because I am "pudgy and ruddy faced," and he called me "tubaboy."

My daughters, as you can imagine, did not like people making fun of their dad. But after some lighthearted family discussion in Spain, my children recommended that I go with the flow and use humor to diffuse the mean spiritedness.

I do play the tuba in a very fine band and I believe that music is good for your soul. Playing the tuba and trombone gives me a lot of joy and the people who hear our concerts are uplifted. That's a good thing.

When we moved into our West U bungalow in the 70's, most of the homes were bungalows. When my daughter Catherine designed this blog for me, she was inspired to title it Bungalow Boy for West U City Council. Who am I to question the wisdom of my children?