MCC Exclusive: EXPLORATORY COMMITTEE Formed In Missouri City To Look At Potential Candidates For City Council In 2008--

Missouri City Mayoral Exploratory Committee Formed!

Candidates Announcement
Position: Missouri City Mayoral Race 2008

An exploratory committee has recently been formed made up of Missouri City area residents from several neighborhoods to look into the potential run of Greyling Poats, a long-time successful local business owner, citizen of our community and neighborhood activist. Mr. Poats, a former assistant city attorney in Gary Indiana and current city TIRZ board member, ran against Allen Owen in the 2006 mayoral races with only a few weeks campaigning.

Issues that the multi-partisan citizens committee is looking into are term limits, disparity in development, an authentic ethics committee to review recent actions by some on council as well as to improve communications with the police department and the possibility of opening up the cities books for public scrutiny, supporting the schools and single member district representation initiative by community leaders, to name a few. Mr. Poats has been a resident for over 25 years and a taxpayer advocate. He has been very involved in the recent council district races and vigorously supported the opposition for the Blue Ridge Landfill expansion near Missouri City and has been a strong advocate for attracting another hospital to our community after it was announced in 2006 that Christus Hospital had been indefinitely delayed and Hermann closed after several decades of providing health care to our community. In 2005 he provided coalition leadership, which lead to the reduction of a proposed 1500 apartment units to the Sienna community by Houston developers. Poats has continued to be vocal and an active critic of the current administration and its special interest backing. He challenges the incumbent to “just swear off” the out of area campaign financing he has grown dependent on over the years!

Greyling has a wife, Lillian, who serves on the FBISD education foundation, is a university professor and son who is currently attending college. He resides in the Oakwick Forest subdivision.

Stay tuned for updates at MCC or http://poatsformayor.blogspot.com/...

FBN: FBISD Approves November Record Bond Referendum To Address Excessive Growth!

FBISD Board Approves 3.25% Modified Salary Plan, $428M Bond Referendum
by Bob Dunn,
Aug 2007

Teachers at Fort Bend Independent School District will see annual raises in the coming school year of either $1,750, or 3.25% of their current salaries, whichever is greater.

According to a revised salary proposal, which the FBISD Board of Trustees voted to adopt Monday night, non-teaching employees at the district will receive a raise of either 3.25% of their current pay, or 3.25% of the mid-point salary within their district pay grade, whichever is greater.

Trustees also approved a $428 million bond referendum – which will be put to a vote of FBISD residents in November – that would allow the fast-growing district to build four elementary schools, two middle schools and a high school within the next three years or so, in addition to making more than $138 million in repairs, refurbishments and maintenance to existing campuses. . . (click title link above for more).

TCE Covers Blue Ridge Landfill Victory!

Blue Ridge Landfill Opponents To Get Their Day In Court, TCEQ Rules

Opponents of industry giant Allied Waste’s plans for a major expansion at Blue Ridge Landfill will get a chance to air their grievances in what’s known as a “contested hearing,” the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality decided Wednesday.

“They granted us a hearing on every issue we asked for,” said environmental attorney Richard Morrison, who represents a citizens group called Coalition Against Blue Ridge Landfill Expansion, which opposes the expansion.

Morrison also said the TCEQ ruled that three Houston TV stations have standing in the case and can present arguments at the contested hearing, which likely will be scheduled at a hearing next month.

Allied had argued that the three stations – KTRK Channel 13, KHOU Channel 11 and Fox affiliate KRIV – shouldn’t be allowed to raise concerns they have, that the Blue Ridge expansion would result in refuse being piled so high it would block out the stations’ Doppler radar signals.

Allied Waste operates Blue Ridge Landfill at 2200 F.M. 521, a mile north of Fresno in Fort Bend County. Allied wants to increase the landfill “waste footprint” from the current 302 acres to 784 acres, and increase the maximum height at which refuse can be piled, from the current 58 feet to 170 feet.

But at that height, say officials with the TV stations, the giant mound of garbage would block weather radar signals from the stations’ towers, 3 miles or less away to the northwest, hampering efforts to track hurricanes, tornadoes or other severe weather. . . (click the title link above for the full story).

Get updates on this grass-roots effort at: http://cabrle.spaces.live.com/

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Side note/comment:

This blogger finds it a wonder that with all the real problems threatening our homes/health (i.e. no MC hospital/school over-crowding/high foreclosures/expanding airports & landfills that this city administration/mayor supported) that Mr. Owen would be pushing a tax buster purchase of a private golf course by the city. They don't even discuss the possibility of the involved MUD & HOA fund handling the purchase and protecting the tax paying public.


Stay informed and keep in touch!

FB Chronicle Reports: Owen Leads The Charge To Save QVCC With Higher Missouri City Taxes!

Follow the link above for the full story. . .

From FBN: Missouri City Mayor Pushes To Bail-out Private Golf Course With Higher City Taxes!

This controversial piece on the move by special interest backed mayor Allen Owen of Missouri City to save his neighborhoods golf course, apparently with city financing and eminent domain, draws many comments. Click the title link for the full story and ask yourself will he do this for Willowisp CC (already closed and being sold off), Sienna CC, Riverstone CC (currently being planned) and Sweetwater CC (all within 3 miles of QVCC)?

Stay informed and keep in touch!

FB Chronicle: FBISD Bond Committee Members Call For More Transparency In Government!

Committee scales back school bond proposal to $429 million

By ZEN T. C. ZHENG
Houston Chronicle

After nearly two months of number-crunching and debating, a Fort Bend school district committee on Tuesday night slashed nearly $48 million off a $490 million bond proposal.

The $429.4 million bundle that the 60-member committee agreed on includes $1.02 million in campus improvements. On the wish list are numerous improvements to First Colony Middle School, including its interior, sound systems, carpeting and locker rooms, and a divider wall at Goodman Elementary.

The bond package would swell a bit more if improvements are considered for Blue Ridge Elementary School.

Fresno resident and committee member Rodrigo Carreon brought attention to the deterioration of the 38-year-old campus, and on Tuesday night the district agreed to investigate the campus' renovation needs.

"I'm happier now," said Carreon, who graduated from Blue Ridge in 1979. "The school district hasn't done anything to my school. It's falling apart. The kitchen, the restroom and everything there are still the same. They have been used for 38 years." . . . (click title link above for more)

Chronicle Crime Report On Rash Of Vehicle Burglaries In Sienna Plantation (Missouri City, TX)--

Burglaries hit Fort Bend County subdivision

RUTH RENDON
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

RICHMOND — Fort Bend County authorities are investigating a rash of vehicle burglaries in the Sienna Plantation subdivision while residents were reminded that locking their cars and rolling up windows will deter the crime. . .(click title link above for more).


MCC/CRD Comment:

Interesting that the article seems to spend more time pointing the finger at the 10,000+ residents of this community rather than looking into some of the causes and why many current and former homeowners may have not been kept informed on this rising problem. One resident reported to MCC that they requested a gated security area from the HOA and developer, but were flatly turned down. In another report some residents claimed they had contacted the HOA and were told something to the effect that there was nothing to worry about.

Question: Why doesn't the HOA newsletter/website carry the actual crime reports for the community?






(c) calvin 2007

Never forget that life can only be nobly inspired and rightly lived if you take it bravely and gallantly, as a splendid adventure in which you are setting out into an unknown country, to meet many a joy, to find many a comrade, to win and lose many a battle.

~ Annie Besant

FBStar: FBISD Bond Report--

FBISD Nov. bond election somewhere between $386 mil-$430 mil

By Barbara Fulenwider

Five Fort Bend ISD bond committee meetings later with numerous questions asked and answered, there’s still a final meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 14, but the committee has firmed up enough at this point to propose somewhere between $386 million and $430 million, according to Mike Seale, chief operations officer.

“All the committee has officially recommended at this point is $386 million. There’s another $44 million that is still under consideration,” Seale said Monday. . . --get the full report by following the title link above.

Can Electronic Voting In Fort Bend County Be Fixed? Yes Says This Study! -- Click title link for full FB Herald Story --

Are voting machines vulnerable?

By Stephen Palkot
August 6, 2007 1:09 PM CDT


The voting machines used for elections in Fort Bend County were found recently to be vulnerable to various attacks.

A team of researchers from the University of California at Davis conducted security tests on three electronic voting machines, including the Hart InterCivic eSlate machine used by Fort Bend County, for a study commissioned by the California Secretary of State's office.

Its report, a "Top-to-Bottom Review" of the systems, concludes the eSlate voting machines do not have ample safeguards to prevent the possibility of a voter or poll worker manipulating elections results through a "direct attack" at a voting location. . .

. . . Fort Bend County Elections Administrator J.R. Perez said Fort Bend County residents can be secure in their votes, since the process must be monitored by election judges and county election workers.

"You have to remember on election day there are election judges whose duty is to watch and maintain order and make sure that doesn't happen," he said.

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MCC comment: The last two paragraphs above, IMO, are just not that reassuring given the history, ethics and investigations that have occurred in this county over the recent past.

FBISD Bond Committee Exposes Possible Waste In Coming Proposal--

Follow the title link for the full FBN story.

FB Star Covers Arcola Airport Expansion Fight--

Click the title link above for this FB Star update on the continued attempts to expand Houston SW Airport in Arcola by county and airport officials. This expansion could impact tens of thousands of homeowners in the Missouri City area who live on the fly-way.

FB Star Coverage of BRLE--

Click title link for more--

Background:

http://www.fortbendstar.com/072507/n_The%20Texas%20Commission
%20on%20Environmental%20Quality%20to%20hear%20testimony%20today%20on%20landfill.htm

FB Chronicle Front-page: Update on CABRLE Victory (Contested Hearing Allowed)--

Get this FB Chronicle front-page update on the CABRLE victory and upcoming contested hearing by clicking the title link above.


Background at:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nb/fortbend/news/4998528.html

http://www.fortbendnow.com/news/3170/blue-ridge-landfill-opponents-will-get-their-day-in-court#c016385



Stay informed and keep in touch as MCC/CRD will continue to follow this local effort to stop this expansion!

Florida Company Linked To Campaign Finance Scandals And Our County Commissioners Gets an Update From KMBBB.com

Susan over at KMBBB.com broke this story over a year ago from a newspaper in Florida. It seems to point the finger at many of our local county commissioners. Click the title link above for the full piece and follow the ones below for background:

http://salcostello.blogspot.com/2007/02/breaking-news-pbs-overcharged-states-by.html

http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_action=doc&p_docid=11ABCAD69421D6D0&p_docnum=3

http://www.fortbendnow.com/news/1963/fort-bend-county-could-get-money-back-in-wake-of-pbsj-scandal

http://www.fortbendnow.com/news/1905/commissioners-say-they-didnt-receive-contributions-troubled-firm-said-it-made

http://www.fortbendnow.com/news/1911/engineering-firm-sponsored-fundraisers-never-paid-contributions-officials-say

KMBBB.com also posts for free the campaign finance reports and disclosures of this same local politcal clique, if you want copies before voting.

Stay informed and keep in touch!