City Pension Woes Across the Country

The city of Newport News, Va is the latest city to publicly acknowledge the increasing costs of it's public pension system. Newport News

The pension fund has assumed an annual return of 7.5% and this past year the fund actually lost $34M as the return was a negative 1.3%.

"I don't think we have a more important fiduciary duty," said board of trustees member Philip Hatchett, as he asked the board to review the return assumption.

Hatchett said he expected the review would conclude the number needs to come down.

"The rate assumption is a very big deal," said College of William and Mary accounting professor Marc Picconi.

If it goes down, pension plans have to make up for the slack somehow.

There are two ways: asking employers or employees to contribute more, or slowing down or even canceling increases in benefits.

 Georgetown has to face the reality  that investment returns for the pension fund is going to be lower in the future and they need to take action to compensate for those lower returns before it becomes a crisis.

Proposed City Budget Presented at Workshop Today

October 1, 2016 – September 30, 2017 

As filed with the City Secretary on July 22, 2016 

This budget is projected to raise more revenue from property taxes than last year’s budget by an amount of $1,938,302, which is an 8.60% increase from last year’s budget. The property tax revenue to be raised from new property is $817,580. The amounts are based on the City’s proposed fiscal year 2017 property tax rate of 42.40 cents per $100 of assessed valuation, which is a reduction of 1 cent from the current rate of 43.40 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. 

Property Tax Rate Comparison Per $100 Valuation      FY 2016   FY 2017 
Proposed Tax Rate                                                                 0.43400   0.42400 
Effective Tax Rate                                                                   0.41715     0.39364 
Rollback Rate                                                                           0.44222   0.42739 

The total amount of municipal debt obligation secured by property taxes for the City of Georgetown is $124,723,537.

If the budget raises almost $2M more than last year in property taxes, it can reasonably be asked why that $2M is not being returned to the tax payer instead of spent.  Other tax revenues, such as sales taxes, are projected to increase sufficiently to pay for any necessary budget increases due to population growth.

Attend the workshop and then let your council members know your priorities for city spending.

Beware the Regulators

City councils, county commissioners, school boards and all other governing bodies are always looking for new innovative ways to extract wealth and control their citizens.  Just look South to Austin to see the latest efforts to tax and control its citizens. Austin Regulations

"Unneeded and ill-considered regulation is annoying, costly and damaging, and it fuels corruption. Those in the political class love to regulate. They love the power regulation gives them over their fellow citizens. They love the fact that the threat to regulate causes the potentially affected to make campaign donations, or provide speaking fees or gifts to avoid having the regulation imposed. They love the fact that promising to maintain or “enhance” a regulation causes the beneficiaries (often big business) to keep the payoff money flowing to them. Those who have jobs in regulatory agencies have many incentives to keep the number of regulations ever-growing as a way of obtaining more job security, status and power. In sum, much of the regulatory apparatus is fundamentally corrupt and destructive.

The city of Austin has now decided to try to extort the charter bus industry by demanding that the buses get an expensive permit for “safety reasons” to collect or drop off passengers in Austin. The so-called safety regulations included a demand that a bus could not have more than five different newspapers aboard. The association representing the charter bus industry is now suing the city."

Beware the regulator who acts to improve public safetey!!

Georgetown Budget Trivia Question

Why have legal expenses increased by $300,00 between FY-15 and FY-17.  That is almost a 50% increase!

The big increase seems to be in salaries, social security taxes, insurance and retirement.  Has the city hired another attorney at a "nice" salary?

Even though the increase in legal expenses are small compared to the overall budget, all the little expenditure increases can add up to significant increase in the total budget.

Georgetown EMS is Not Paying for Itself!

Contrary to past claims that the EMS would not cost the taxpayers of Georgetown for the city to takeover the emergency response and transport service from Williamson County, the city finally admits that through the year 2021, the EMS cost is still negative.

The following chart was presented in the FY-17 budget workshop.

It is observed that revenue increases from $1.8M in FY-16 to $2.8M in FY-21, an increase of $800,000.  At the same time personnel costs increase from $1.2M in FY-16 to $1.9M in FY-21, an increase of $700,000.

The ambulances begin to wear out in FY-18 and FY-20 and need to be replaced.  Bonds will be issued for the replacement ambulances and by FY-21 the annual debt service is almost $200,000.

It is clear that not all the costs for assuming responsibility of EMS are included in the above budget.  For example, an additional diesel mechanic was hired to maintain the ambulances.

The bottom line is that in FY-21 the EMS budget is still negative by $500,000+ and is not likely to be positive for a very long time, if ever.

One of the council persons, who shall remain nameless unless you want to go view the video, admitted the taking over of the EMS was not about improved service or reduced cost, but, it was about taking CONTROL of this vital service within the city limits of Georgetown.

And Oh, by-the way, Williamson County did not reduce the tax bill for Georgetown taxpayers as a result of no longer proving EMS within the city and ETJ limits.

Forecast Investment Returns

Best-selling author and renowned financial expert, John Mauldin, shares his analysis of investments and economics from his Texas base in Dallas.

JohnMauldin  All bets may be off anyway if the latest long-term return forecasts are correct. Here’s GMO’s latest 7-year asset class forecast:

See that dotted line, the one that not a single asset class gets anywhere near? That’s the 6.5% long-term stock return that many supposedly wise investors tell us is reasonable to expect. GMO doesn’t think it’s reasonable at all, at least not for the next seven years.

If GMO is right – and they usually are – and you’re a devotee of any kind of passive or semi-passive asset allocation strategy, you can expect somewhere around 0% returns over the next seven years – if you’re lucky.

Note also that nearly invisible -0.2% yellow bar for “U.S. Cash.” Negative multi-year real (adjusted for inflation) returns from cash? You bet. Welcome to NIRP, American-style. Would you like that with fries?

The Fed’s fantasies notwithstanding, NIRP is not conducive to “normal” returns in any asset class. GMO says the best bets are emerging-market stocks and timber. Those also happen to be thin markets that everyone can’t hold at once. So, prepare to be stuck.

Given that long-term investment returns have only been 6.5%, it is unrealistic to believe that one can achieve 6.75%, as Texas Municipal Retirement System does.  These experts quoted above believe investment returns will be substantially below 6.5% over the next 7 years.  Isn't it time for TMRS to reduce their assumed rate of return to more realistic levels?  The Georgetown city council needs to introduce the experts at TMRS to present day reality before a crisis is reached for Georgetown's employees and retirees.

Water Services Budget for Capital Improvements

The capital improvements budget for 2017 is a whopping $46.7M according to the proposed budget presented to the city council on Wednesday. Population growth is the main driver for this budget.

Major elements are:

- water mains $6.274M
- water treatment $10.6M
- water storage $6.03M

- improvements and new sewer lines $13.636M
- lift stations $4.532M
- plant upgrades $10.155M

Here is an example of new water storage.

Existing Sun City Water Tank

Proposed Replacement

This increased capacity is needed to service the new Sun City homes being built at the intersection of Sun City Blvd and Hwy 195. There are an additional 900 homes in the planning stages for property adjacent to Shady Oaks and Sun City.

Final Update on Officer Hoskins-Brown

The Wilco Sun reports today that Georgetown has agreed to reinstate officer Hoskins-Brown to the Georgetown police force while paying all litigation costs and back pay.

"According to the settlement reached and signed July 14, the city will pay her $42,624.03 in back pay to compensate the difference between her interim earnings and what her salary would have been. The city will pay$9,358.72 into her retirement system, and pay $12,023.19 for vacation hours and unused personal leave. Combined with the previous lawyer fees and $280 in additional lawyer fees, the city owes Ms. Hoskins-Brown a grand sum of $108,985.94."

The city should be grateful that officer Hoskins-Brown did not seek punitive damages for the emotional distress and disruption to her life over the past three years that this unjustified termination has caused.  To the casual observer it would seem that officer Hoskins-Brown did suffer unwarranted stress and angst.  

Through April 1, 2016, the city paid outside counsel $82,136.63 to litigate this case.  Since additional court actions occurred after that date, additional litigation costs were incurred but are unknown at this time.  The city also declined to identify the cost in city staff time that has been devoted to this case over the last three years.

In any event, this case has cost the city well over $200,000 and in one form or another.  It is time to move on and learn from this experience so that it not repeated in the future. 

The California Public Employee Retirement System (CalPERS) Reports $30.8B Loss

This loss is a result of investment losses and the assumption of unrealistic investment gains. CalPERS

"Despite Governor Jerry Brown last summer demanding CalPERS immediately “lower its investment risk and volatility of returns” by reducing its “assumed” annual investment return from 7.5 percent to 6.5 percent, the CalPERS board voted 7- 3 on November 15, 2015 only to slowly reduce the investment return expectation over the next decade.

CalPERS has notoriously minimized the annual pension contribution for its 3,007 government entities by fantasizing that its superior investments expertise will allow its investments to compound every year without loss for the next three decades at an annual rate of 7.5 percent.

To understand just how inflated CalPERS’ assumed investment return really is, the U.S. Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation estimate for private sector defined-benefit investment returns is only 4 percent.

Had CalPERS’ Board adopted Brown’s proposal to cut their public pension plan investment return assumption to 6.5 percent, the California Legislature have been required to increase the state’s annual pension contribution by 43 percent."

Thus we see the results when a pension fund fails to align its assumed investment returns with reality. Texas Municipal Retirement System (TMRS) clings to the fiction that they can earn 6.75% annually for the next 30 years when infact they have only earned 5.42% over the last decade.  TMRS needs to change their assumed investment return to more closely align with reality, whether it is 5.42% or the 4% estimated by the Pension Board Guarantee Corporation.

Electric Grid Subject to Physical Attack

The Wall Street Journal has provided a history and analysis of physical attacks on the electric grid in the U.S.

"The U.S. electric system is in danger of widespread blackouts lasting days, weeks or longer through the destruction of sensitive, hard-to-replace equipment. Yet records are so spotty that no government agency can offer an accurate tally of substation attacks, whether for vandalism, theft or more nefarious purposes.

Most substations are unmanned and often protected chiefly by chain-link fences. Many have no electronic security, leaving attacks unnoticed until after the damage is done. Even if there are security cameras, they often prove worthless. In some cases, alarms are simply ignored.

The vulnerability of substations was broadly revealed in a Journal account of a 2013 attack on PG&E’s Metcalf facility near San Jose, Calif. Gunmen knocked out 17 transformers that help power Silicon Valley; a blackout was narrowly averted. The assailants were never caught."

Utilities have been giving "lip service" to their efforts to protect the grid.  The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued regulations three years ago (WSJ) that power companies nationwide must identify key transmission substations and other hubs that, if knocked out of service, could cause blackouts or other major problems. The utilities must then put defenses in place, and unaffiliated experts must review their security plans. The regulations were to be effective this year. It appears little progress has been made.

Supposedly, the Texas grid is not subject to FERC regulations, but, it is common sense that Texas utilities would take the same or more restrictive measures to protect the grid.

At Georgetown's budget workshop yesterday, the staff reviewed the budget for the city owned electric utility and described all the on-going and proposed capital projects, but, there was no mention of efforts to secure the city owned electric distribution system. It evidently remains vulnerable to both cyber-attacks and physical attacks.

Does the city have plans to cope with extended outages of the electric grid if it is disabled by cyber or physical attacks?  That is a question worthy of being asked!

Budget Workshop Observations Update

The city staff is presenting 138 pages of mostly numbers to the council.  It is difficult to understand where the spending increases are occurring and will require further detailed analysis. However, the following information was gleaned from the presentation on 7-12.

The staff expects to underrun the current year budget by a small amount.

Lone Star Rail is included in the budget in the amount of $49,500, but, it is viewed as a placeholder until the council makes a decision whether or not to continue participation.

The city plans to hire 13 additional people next fiscal year.

SunEdison's bankruptcy has no impact on Buckthorn, LLC and they plan on completing the solar plant in the first quarter of 2017.

Utility charges are expected exceed costs by $8,070,041 and that amount will be transferred to the general fund to pay for city operations.

The fire department plans on hiring 3 fire fighters and 3 paramedics within the next year.

The EMS Paramedic Fund continues to run a deficit and is expected to remain in deficit over the next 5 years as indicated in the proforma income statement that was presented.

Finally, a planned expenditure of $35,000 for support on an Affordable Housing Tool is included.  This is very disturbing and additional information is required to understand exactly what this expenditure is for.  It is the "kiss of death" if this is the HUD tool.  The city MUST NOT get engaged with HUD on this tool if city sovereignty is to be preserved.

City staff confirmed today that the Affordable Housing Tool is a study to identify different characteristics of affordable housing and to look at mechanisms to encourage affordable housing. It is unrelated to HUD's "Assessment of Fair Housing Tool"!

Georgetown Pays to Lobby State Legislature Against Citizens

Most citizens do not realize that cities pay to belong to state organizations that lobby state legislatures on behalf of the cities and often against the citizen's best interests.  Georgetown belongs to the Texas Municipal League (TML).

Arizona just decided that cities should not have the authority to hire lobbyist to lobby other government entities. Weekly Standard

Americans for Prosperity estimated that in Texas, "well over $50 million was spent on lobbying by local taxing entities," as of a few years ago. According to Texas Public Policy Foundation Vice President Chuck DeVore, Austin spends about $1 million every year to lobby, and "Texas school districts and special districts spent about $344 million in the 2009 legislative session." DeVore asks, "[s]hould a city have the right to use city taxpayer dollars to ask for more taxpayer money from the state?"

More in-depth information relevant to Texas is available at the Americans for Prosperity link above.

Some of the concepts that Texas Municipal League supports are directly against the interest of most citizens.

The Texas Municipal League came out in support of the Kelo v. City of New London decision, which affirmed the government's use of eminent domain for the purposes of economic development.

The Texas Municipal League wants cities to have more decision-making power. Legislative agenda item number one aims to defeat any legislation that would erode municipal authority in any way. This would include cities being allowed to self identify as "sanctuary cities."

The league opposes any legislative effort to give voters the right to reject property tax increases that exceed the rate of inflation and population growth!

Thus it is clear that TML often does not support the best interest of the taxpayer, but, of the city themselves.  It is time to support legislation that will stop taxpayers funds being used to lobby against citizens and taxpayers.

Georgetown FY_2017 Budget Meetings

The City Council will meet July 12 & 13 at 2:00pm at Council Chambers, 101 E. 7th St., Georgetown, Texas.

Workshop overview, discussion and possible action regarding the FY2017 City of Georgetown Budget and Tax Rate -- David S. Morgan, City Manager

A copy of the proposed budget is available at the above website.

Public Pensions Under Continued Stress

As we have identified previously, pension plan investments are seriously underperforming.  TMRS, the pension manager for Georgetown employee's pensions earned just 0.34% on investments of $23B last year.  They continue to assume they will earn 6.75% on their portfolio, even though they admit the annualized return for the past ten years is 5.42%.  As the pundits like to say, this is NOT sustainable!

Pensions determine their assets and liabilities through formulas that depend heavily on the fluctuation of interest rates. When those rates fall, investment returns suffer and obligations to future retirees become larger.

While lower rates do boost the value of existing bonds, the negatives outweigh the positives for many funds. Pensions lose money when bonds with bigger payouts purchased years ago mature and are replaced with loweryielding securities.

The consequences of any losses are real: Large companies must compensate for weak returns and mounting obligations by pumping money into their plans, thereby devoting less to capital expenditures, acquisitions and research.

At public plans, underperformance often means taxpayers or workers are asked to pay significantly more to account for liabilities that are expected to rise as lifespans increase and more Americans retire.

Georgetown's managers need to pressure TMRS to adopt more realistic investment assumptions, even though that will cause the city contributions to employees pensions to increase.  Better to do it now and pay over times instead of waiting for a crisis.

More Federal Government Overreach

The EPA is now trying to regulate farmers, bakers, brewers and other food producers through application of the unconstitutional Clean Power Plan. WSJ

"The EPA is trying to put itself in charge of regulating farms—an outstanding example of “mission creep” and bureaucratic overreach. Regulating agriculture is not the EPA’s job—we already have an Agriculture Department. The EPA’s approach would demand proof of exactly which farm produced every pound of corn, wheat, soy or cottonseed used by customers of those farms—a practical impossibility in the U.S. agricultural system.

There is a growing world-wide effort to establish the “bioeconomy,” an economy based on use of renewable raw materials to make the products that humans need, and to reduce and eventually eliminate dependence on fossil carbon. The aim is essential—the world will eventually run out of fossil carbon. Yet sound policy must be informed by sound science. The EPA’s treatment of biogenic carbon and fossil carbon as if they were identical is wrong at the most basic scientific level. America’s farmers and the consumers of what they produce would be collateral damage of the EPA’s misguided plans."

It is time for all Texans to say stop with the overreach and if necessary actively reject such regulations through all means available.

Guest Post on Williamson County Elections

3 minutes at Commissioner Court Mtg  28 June 2016

I am Bill Kelberlau from Williamson County. I am a 6^th generation Texan.   I am a retired Navy CAPTAIN with over 25 years of active and reserve duty, and a decorated war veteran. For those who do not know, a Navy CAPTAIN is the same as a full bird Colonel.  I am also retired from industry, GTE, Texas Instruments, and Raytheon in many areas of management, engineering and customer service. I have been a part of Williamson County for over 37 years.

Around the 2012 time frame Williamson County residents and I, here in Commissioners Court expressed our concerns about the integrity of Williamson voting process.  We requested strong consideration be given to implementation of a paper audit trail process. This was 2 election administrators ago.  Although both county chairs at the time supported the idea nothing was done.

Although the current election administrator has done an excellent job of improving training and other procedures internally the fundamental issues of external intervention remain.

ESS IVO systems have a documented history of system weaknesses, vulnerabilities and actual election irregularities in many states as well as Texas. These vulnerabilities are easily exploited and are outside the control of an election office.   All it takes is money.

Williamson County elections office currently has no expertise or procedures in place to detect or evaluate an external intrusion.   Also the office is not fully in compliance with state election statutes.

After doing statistical analysis on some of the 2016 primary election results there are strong indications of  algorithmic intervention. There is insufficient time in this 3 minutes to even outline the basics of this problem.

I have met with the Williamson County election administrator and provided some of this data to him. As I mentioned previously he currently has no capability of dealing with external intervention.

Williamson County is currently at the mercy of ESS and whoever has the money and desire to control the outcome of an election.

It is not who votes, it is who counts the vote.

I would be happy to meet with the Commissioners Court and provide the detail behind this short summary.

On page 40 of Governor Abbott's book, “ Broken but Unbowed”, he states a commitment to “prosecuting election fraud”.  I plan to confirm that commitment.

SunEdison Bankruptcy Slogs Along

The Wall Street Journal reports that as owner of an array of alternative power projects in various stages of development, the company agreed to start selling some assets while it weighs whether to reorganize or shut down after a series of sales.

Court records reveal an army of advisers has been raking through SunEdison’s portfolio, seeking to put together deals that would make a dent in the company’s $8 billion pile of debt.

Hedge fund D.E. Shaw has offered to buy SunEdison’s stake in a California solar power project for $80 million.

Top leaders have departed, including former chief executive Ahmad Chatila. The company is also the subject of probes by the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as an internal investigation prompted by whistleblowers.

It is currently unclear whether or not Buckthorn, LLC, which is the SunEdison subsidiary which is contracted with Georgetown, is on the chopping block or not.  Stay tuned as this debacle plays out.

New Report Describes Electric Grid Vulnerability to Cyber Attack

A new report from the Manhattan Institute describes has the electric grid vulnerabilities to cyber attack is increasing as grid-internet connectivity increases.  Here is the Executive Summary:

Electric grids have always been vulnerable to natural hazards and malicious physical attacks. Now the U.S. faces a new risk—cyberattacks—that could threaten public safety and greatly disrupt daily life.

Utility executives and other experts argue persuasively that U.S. grids, especially long-distance grids, are currently well secured. Yet the key issue is not today’s security but tomorrow’s. Here the risks are growing rapidly. The push for “greener” and “smarter” grids requires far greater grid-Internet connectivity to ensure the continuous delivery of electricity. These greener, smarter grids will involve a vast expansion of the Internet of Things that greatly increases the cyberattack surface available to malicious hackers and hostile nation-state entities.

Cyberattacks overall have been rising 60 percent annually for the past half-dozen years, and utilities are increasingly targeted. A Cisco study found that 70 percent of utility-security professionals say that they have experienced at least one security breach. For their part, federal and state governments genuflect to the goal of reliable, resilient, and affordable electric service. Yet comparatively trivial sums are directed at ensuring that grids are more secure, compared with the vast funding to promote, subsidize, and deploy green energy on grids.

The central challenge for U.S. utilities in the twenty-first century is to accommodate the conflict between political demands for more green energy and society’s demand for more reliable delivery of electricity. Greater grid cybersecurity in the future means that policymakers must rethink the deployment of green and smart grids until there are assurances that security technologies have caught up. While the government needs to improve its vital role in helping with cyber “situational awareness,” the private sector must lead the way in defending against cyberphysical threats that evolve and move at tech-sector—not bureaucratic—velocities.

To lay out the state of affairs and provide recommendations for sensible U.S. grid cybersecurity policies, this report examines:

1. The forces that have made electricity far more critical than ever. The “information economy” is fundamentally electricity-dependent and is now a threefold bigger part of U.S. GDP than the oil-dependent transportation sector that dominated America’s economy in the twentieth century.

2. The structure of America’s grids and the history of blackouts. Outages have become increasingly common. Lloyd’s estimates that the damage from worst-case outage scenarios from cyberattacks would range from nearly $250 billion to $1 trillion.

3. The challenge of an “on-demand” economy that is escalating the peak demands for power. The twenty-first century’s unique— and widening—gap between average and peak energy demand is forecast to more than double in the coming decade, even as far more episodically available green-generating capacity is added to the grid.

4. The new character and magnitude of cyberphysical threats. A recent report found an over 400 percent rise in 2015 in the number of times that hackers probed for vulnerabilities in cyberphysical systems, a.k.a. the “Internet of Things.” With security experts claiming that the “next Cold War has already begun—in cyberspace,” the key is to keep critical infrastructures, especially electricity, off the front lines.

5. The skewed priorities in grid spending. During the past decade, wind and solar power, which cannot meet society’s 24/7 energy needs, accounted for over 75 percent of new generating capacity. In the same period, more than $150 billion in federal spending went to green- and smart-grid programs, while the U.S. Department of Energy spent $150 million on cybersecurity R&D.

6. The state of grid cybersecurity today. Even as cybersecurity concerns are causing most other industries to integrate cautiously into the Internet of Things, policymakers—despite warnings from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security—are pressing electric utilities to accelerate grid integration with the Internet.

Texas State Senator Konni Burton on Local Control

Senator Burton has written an excellent letter/editorial on the subject of local control. Senator Burton

"As we near the beginning of the next legislative session, tension between the state and local governments on a number of issues is apparent.

Whether it’s the growth of the local property tax burden on Texas families and businesses, restrictive ordinances killing innovation and driving out businesses, or even who goes to the bathroom where on public and private property, state government policymakers are increasingly at odds with their locally-elected counterparts.

While this type of tension between levels of government is certainly not new, the stakes have never been higher."

We need to remind ourselves and our local legislators that the government which governs least governs best, and when the political subdivisions of the state overreach, it is the responsibility of the state to intervene on behalf of its citizens.

More on HUD Grants and Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing, Part 1

The e-book Agency Tyranny contains a blueprint for how the federal government plans to take control of local housing decisions.

It is no surprise that the genesis of this activity is the United Nations. In 1946, the General Assembly adopted a resolution to promote and create research leading to standards for Housing and Town Planning. This new resolution was the precursor to the Vancouver Declaration on Human Rights and Vancouver Action Plan presented in June of 1976.

A key provision in the Vancouver Action Plan was that land use should be determined by the long-term interests of the community, especially since decisions on location of activities and therefore of specific land uses have a long-lasting effect on the pattern and structure of human settlements. Land is also a primary element of the natural and man-made environment and a crucial link in an often delicate balance. Public control of land use is therefore indispensable to its protection as an asset and the achievement of the long-term objectives of human settlement policies and strategies.

The Vancouver Action Plan proposed that the world’s governments control the land for the purposes of “social justice”, “development schemes” and “society as a whole”.

In 1987 the UN commissioned a report entitled, “Our Common Future”, or the Brundtland Report, that tackled protection of the environment.

The report concluded, “Poverty is a major cause and effect of global environmental issues.” The solution was to transfer the wealth of industrialized nations, namely America, to poorer countries. Much of that wealth was in the form of private property.

Five years later, in June 1992, these globalist ideals coalesced in a 2-week meeting in Rio de Janeiro called the UN Earth Summit. The outcome was a 40-chapter plan of action to manage the world’s resources, healthcare, education and private property called, Agenda 21.

Many "progressives" have contributed to the erosion of private property rights, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, Howard Zinn, and Bill Clinton to name but a few.

Political historian, David Upham writes that, “Progressives in the twentieth century have in large part aimed at turning the American people away from their traditional attachment to property rights.”

“Within intellectual circles, Progressives have tended both to acknowledge that the Founders attached great significance to property rights and to denigrate them precisely for this attachment. The harsher critics, beginning with Charles Beard, ascribed to the
Founders selfish motives in establishing a constitution that provided generous protections for private property; his claim was that the principal goal of such a constitution was to protect the wealthy elite against the democratic majority.”

The next segment will examine how these globalists ideas of eliminating private property rights have taken hold in America.

Councils Goals and Strategies for Georgetown

The city council hired an expert interpersonal guru last fall to help them work together and to develop a set of goals and strategies for the city.  Here is the result:

Council Goals 

Culture

• Georgetown is a truly diverse, vibrant, inclusive, and

socially dynamic city where everyone has the

opportunity to participate in, and benefit from, our

economic, political, and social activities

Employee

• Our outstanding and innovative City Employees work

diligently to bring the Vision of Council to life and

deliver exceptional services to our customers while

exemplifying our Core Values

Internal Process

• Our policies and procedures are easy to understand,

and consistently and professionally applied. Our

internal processes are effective, efficient, fair,

inventive, and transparent, and make us a desired

destination for residents and businesses

Customer

• Anyone interacting with the City will have such a

positive experience that they will tell everyone about it

Financial

• To maintain a fiscal environment conducive to

attaining the goals of the City

Blogger Comments: The goals seems to be a mixture of description of the current status and a statement of the desired goal or end state. Very confusing. It is also disappointing that there are no measurable financial goals established. For example: Annual budget growth shall not exceed population growth plus inflation.

Council  Strategies

Process

• Council developed 14 strategies in November 2015 – 9 tier-1 strategies – 5 tier-2 strategies

• 14 teams developed “tactics” to achieve each strategy – Cross functional groups – 5-7 team members

• Tactics presented in priority order by strategy – “Sub-tactics” identified in packet

Themes

• Communications and Branding – Identity – Education and Outreach – Cross-functional promotion and coordination teams – Consistency – Special event promotion

• Cost Analysis – Understand baseline O&M (e.g. Transportation) – Understand impact of decisions (e.g. land use, large capital investments) – Key capital asset replacement strategies

• Employees – Training – Professional Development – Recruitment

Strategy 1.1: Attract, Hire, Develop and Retain the Best People, and Compensate Them for the Value they Create

• Establish and Consistently Administer a Competitive Compensation Program Based on Performance Results

• Guide and Define Workplace Culture

• Implement the Newly Created Employee Training and Development Program

• Consistently Communicate the Current Compensation and Benefits Plan To Employees

Strategy 1.2: Create a Customer Service Mindset

• Develop and Implement a Customer Satisfaction Program

• Create More Opportunities for Local Businesses to Do Business with the City

• Provide Educational & Outreach Programs on City Department Functions & Activities

• Evaluate Creation of City-wide Customer Service Center

Strategy 1.3: Implement the Special Event and Destination Strategy

• Create a Comprehensive Special Events Strategy

• Maintain and Promote Calendar of Special Events

• Simplify Special Event Application

• Cross-functional Promotion and Communication of City Events

• Activate Area Beyond Direct Square

• Explore Feasibility of a Special Event Coordinator

Strategy 1.4: Build and Maintain Entertainment Platforms/Venues

• Build and Program City-owned Venues – Garey Park – San Gabriel Park – Downtown West

• Citywide Space Inventory and Needs Assessment

• Cross-Functional Team to Review and Promote City Events

• Activate Spaces – Natural gathering spaces – Green space in dense areas – Sunday activities

Strategy 1.5: Expand and Diversify the Tax Base (Increase Commercial Percentage)

• Create and Maintain a Positive Relationship with the Business Community Through a Business Retention Program

• Conduct Studies to Develop Meaningful Data to Drive the City’s E.D. Program

• Develop a Comprehensive Economic Development Strategic Plan

• Develop a Process to Understand the Fiscal Impact and Trade-offs of Land Use Decisions

• Update the City‘s Comprehensive Plan and Capital Improvement Plans to Align Resources and Preserve Opportunities for Retail and Employment Growth

Strategy 1.6: Accumulate Funds to Account for Unfunded and Unanticipated Liabilities

• Ensure Financial and Budgetary Policy Addresses Liabilities

• Update Quarterly Financial Report to Include a List of City-Wide Liabilities, and an Update on the Balance in the Council Discretionary Fund

• Incorporate O&M Costs in Planning of Capital Projects

• Implement a Policy and Phase-In Approach for an Economic Uncertainty Fund to Address Short-term Revenue Declines

• Develop a Comprehensive Facilities Master Plan and Funding Strategy for Key Facility Replacements

Strategy 1.7: Create a Strategy to Increase Mobility

• Complete Review and Propose Amendments for the Unified Development Code (UDC Chapter 12: Pedestrian and Vehicle Circulation) Related to Development Standards to Ensure They are Designed to Improve Mobility Efforts Within and Between New Developments

• Continue to Develop and Implement Existing Transportation Plans Develop and Implement New and Updated Plans

• Conduct a Feasibility Study of a Control Center for Traffic Operations and Signal Coordination

• Continue to Adequately Fund Existing Transportation Infrastructure

• Continue to Address Maintenance of Existing Infrastructure

Strategy 1.8: Attain and Maintain Superior Public Safety and Enhance the Perception of Safety

• Fire Department Attain Center for Public Safety Excellence (CPSE) Accreditation AND Police Department Attain Texas Police Chiefs Association (TPCA) Recognition

• Achieve and Consistently be One of the Top-tier Public Safety Agencies to Work for within Central Texas.

Strategy 1.9: Attract Younger Workers/Young Professionals to the Community

• Tailor Branding and Communications Towards Young Professionals

• Improve Social Environment for Young Professionals (25-44)

Strategy 2.1: Improve Communications and Advertising

• Gain clarity on the City organization’s branding strategy

• Work to Create Consistency in Messages and Themes for Communications and Marketing Across the City.

• Assess Department Resources and Make Needed Adjustments to Ensure Capacity to Generate and Sustain Communications and Marketing Content Across Multiple Platforms.

• Assess and Enhance Existing City-wide Logo, Design, Graphics, and Presentation Guidelines.

Strategy 2.2: Create and Maintain Outstanding Aesthetics, and a Welcoming Appearance and Spirit

• Identify, Review, and Enhance Development Standards Related to Beautification

• Clarify and Understand Costs Associated with Beautification and Secure Funding (including appropriations, grants, volunteers, etc.)

• Continue and Increase Stewardship of all Public Rights-of-way (Including TxDOT) • Enhance Community Branding at Key Points Within the City

Strategy 2.3: Create an Asset Maintenance and Revitalization Plan

• Develop a Uniform Asset Management and Work Order Process

• Develop Baseline Annual Costs to Operate and Maintain (Annual Budget)

• Define Impact of Operation and Maintenance (O&M) when Capital Additions and Replacements are Approved/Added

• Clarify Capital Retirement/Replacement Strategy

Strategy 2.4: Create a Comprehensive Annexation Strategy [Formerly Donut Hole Strategy]

• Create a Broad-Based Annexation Plan with Alignment to the 2030 Plan

• Effectively Communicate Planning Efforts and Outcomes

Strategy 2.5: Monitor, Promote, and Communicate a Long-term Water and Utilities Plan and Strategy

• Implement and Monitor the Integrated Resource Plan (Long-term Water and Energy Plans)

• Develop and Execute a Communication and Marketing Strategy for Customers Relating to the Resource Plan

Blogger Comments:  Again it is disappointing that there is no strategy to limit the growth of city government.  It is well accepted that excessive regulation curbs business growth.  There is no strategy to limit regulations and requirements to those that meet public health and safety needs and reduce or eliminate all others.

Officer Hoskins-Brown Judgement

Stephanie Hoskins Brown won in District Court on June 28,2016. Visiting Judge Rick Morris ruled that the City of Georgetown MUST pay Officer Hoskins-Brown attorneys fees of 43,942.00 and 772.00 in appellate cost and additional cost incurred in the trial court today. This cause is remanded to the Civil Service Commission to make the determination as to whether Plaintiff's suspension will be upheld or if it should be reversed and reinstatement granted. Since there has been no new charges she should be reinstated. There are penalty clauses if the city tries to appeal to the Court of Appeals and it is unsuccessful the sum of 15,000.00 will be awarded. The sum of 5,000.00 is awarded if petition for review is filed by not granted bu the Supreme Court of Texas, and the sum of 7,500.00 is awarded if the petition for review is granted but the appeal to the Supreme Court of Texas is unsuccessful. It is time for the City of Georgetown to give up and quit wasting taxpayers hard earned dollars.

Here is the judgement document.

Novel Budget Idea!

The State of Texas Leadership has just sent a letter to all state organizations requiring that they submit a budget for 2018-19 that is 4% less than the current budget.  Even though the state population is increasing, the leadership believes we can accommodate that growth and still provide essential services.

The City Council would be fulfilling their financial responsibilities if they sent a similar letter to the city manager directing a budget submission 4% smaller than last year.

Here is the State's letter:

City Council Punted on West Majestic Oaks Lane

The City Council missed another opportunity this past Tuesday to do the "right thing" for the citizens of Georgetown, and for those adjacent to the city by doing nothing and leaving West Majestic Oak Lane open to through traffic.

It is clearly a safety issue for those who live in Woodland Park. Do they have to suffer a serious incident caused by a speeding vehicle taking the "shortcut" before the council will do the "right thing" and close the street at the Sun City boundary?

It is only common sense that safety trumps convenience, yet, the council refused once again to exercise common sense.

Councilwoman Eby said she was concerned that the city be consistent across the city when similar issues arise.  Well, the city appears they are consistently going to put convenience above safety. Now the city is going down the same path by preparing to approve two connector roads between a new 940 home development called The Madison and the existing Shady Oaks development. There are two major roads planned out of The Madison, one to Hwy 195 and one to Ronald Reagan. Clearly there is no need to connect to the narrow Shady Oaks streets.

The same old tired excuses of public safety and mobility are trotted out as justification. What about the safety of the people who live in Shady Oaks? If public safety is so important to The Madison, then maybe a fire house should be included in The Madison's development plans. The police will have quick and easy access from their headquarters down Shell Road and then up Hwy 195 to The Madison or a substation could be included in The Madison's plans. Certainly many other solutions to mobility and public safety exist that do not require disrupting old established neighborhoods.

It is also reported that the city's development code requires that a development connect to nearby existing rods. If this is true, it is time to revise the development code and allow common sense to prevail.

It is time that the city learn from past experience and consider the desires and needs of the current citizens and those in adjacent neighborhoods as it plans for future growth.  The roads in the older established rural neighborhoods were not designed for higher speeds and increased volume that are generated by the new urban neighborhoods.

It is not too late to reverse this "non-decision" and change the rules for development that does not permit new large urban developments to dump vehicles into rural neighborhoods.

Do the "right thing".