Voted at the old red schoolhouse

I was the only voter there at the time. Three determined and good-spirited volunteers worked the polling place. Two of them were fighting the wind to get the "no signs past this point" marker to stay in place.

The touchscreen on my machine was a bit stubborn for both myself and the volunteer who did the setup. But my stubbornness surpassed that of the machine and I gamely pressed and pressed until it took the input. It was accurate, just unwilling to take input. I suspect the digitizer needed to be recalibrated.

Endorsement: WIlliam Gordon for Place 1

I have reviewed Mr. Gordon's platform on his website and I think it's good. I endorse him for Place 1.

I am pleased that his approach appears that of a pragmatic and economic nature rather than that of a culture warrior. I believe this is the way forward for a successful, responsible/transparent, civil city where all residents get along and contribute to the common good.

I should say that this is an endorsement for Mr. Gordon rather than one against Mr. Townshend personally. I have met Mr. Townshend a couple of times in civic situations and he seems to be a decent fellow. He has treated me fairly and appropriately when we interacted. I appreciate his willingness to serve on the Council.

I have not met Mr. Gordon (that I am aware of) and am endorsing him based on his platform. I also believe his activism in the past has been the irritating sand that began the growth of the pearl -- greater transparency in city governance. Last, and probably least, I've been increasingly willing to "throw the bums out" as they say; inject fresh blood. Try something different. I've heard it said that the definition of crazy is "doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results."

My concern from a governance point of view is that service on the council in the last few years is nearly indistinguishable from dancing to the Mayor's and City Manager's tune. Not talking about Mr. Townshend specifically, but I want councilfolk up there, not marionettes. I want discussion, not rubberstamping. I want people who actively fight for the minimal, appropriate, informed, and transparent use of taxpayer funds. I'm talking about stewardship of taxpayer resources.



Note: I do not know that an endorsement from a blog like this has any positive value for Mr. Gordon. Since I want his campaign to succeed I would pull this post if he found it to be counterproductive.

Destiny+Twitter: Slagel hangs it up

Destiny posted it here. Looks like she might have been one of the first to spot it in the Mayor's twitter post.

Looks legit to me. DMN reporting it, also.

Councilman Omar, re-election campaign committee meeting

"Kickoff meeting for my Re-Election Campaign Committee! So inspired by the support & ready to serve for 2 more years!"

From this tweet.

Councilman Murphy not seeking re-election

DMN article online here.

{edit - DC beat me to it.}

I haven't heard any talk* about this decision. I wonder if it is an indication the incumbents sense a "throw everyone out and start fresh" vibe?

* won't use the word "chatter" because I know how it can upset the locals.

the publicity nature of transparency

Just doing this off my low-quality recording from Ch16, so I am not sure who the first voice was. I think the speaker was recognized as Bob before he spoke, so this would mean Macy or Townshend.

The following exchange suggests that Old School ways of governance have a certain amount of inertia. The CM was quick with the damage control. I don't think it's scandalous or evidence of shady doings, but it does reveal a partiular style of thinking.

Bob: I wonder about the, uh, publicity nature of those organizations we do business with. You know, people will get on there and just... you know, all this "the city does business with so-and-so." Are there effects [unintelligible] get in any trouble with that kind of thing...

Keffler [cuts in quickly]: Uh. Uh. I wouldn't know what that would be, but... uh, we, uh, I mean, we, you know, we, award bids all the time and so it's... it's a very public process. [CM pivots and changes the redirects the conversation].

I will leave it to the reader to decide if the leadership wants transparency or just the appearance of transparency. I hope for the former.

I am reminded, however, of most city "art" museums. They unintentionally give evidence that the city was less interested in art than they were about being seen as the kind of city that has an art museum.


I have heard a possibly-related beltway joke --

There are two things you must do to be a Senator:
1. get elected
2. get re-elected

2/15 work session: need != want

Around 9:16pm

Slagel: "There is the issue of being able to do the things we need to do and there's not a way without a significant tax base growth and sales tax growth to be able to do the things we want to do without a tax increase... It really poses a significant issue for us."

Mr. Mayor, the significant issue here is the conflation of the concepts "need" and "want". There is a subset of voters are that NOT interested in porky, politically-expedient debt-spending when the economic shizznit has hit our collective and individual fans.

Seriously, sir. Have the courage to lead the city council with fiscal conservatism and responsibility in this difficult time. This is not a game, and we ain't playin'.

Slagel: "count the golf courses as public park space"

Shameless spinning of the numbers.

Tell you what: as soon as the golf courses are open to the public for general recreation (for free) I'll let you count them in the park/resident level of service number.

Check out the graphic on the right. Notice how golf courses reside in the "publically owned, low accessibility" quadrant. Do you really want to publish that number when the consultant told you other cities around us do not? At what point does boosterism veer into intentional misinformation?

It's taken from a document on the National Parks and Recreation Association website; this is the "they" the consultant spoke of.

On a serious note: I will give Bob credit for asking whether or not the old, currently-unsused NPRA guideline included golf greens.

If you have to tell us...

Mr. Smith - saying that "we are not arrogant or condescending" is similar to saying "I'm classy" or "I'm cool"; it's evidence to the contrary.

It is not clear what the council thought they would gain by having Mr. Smith appear. I assume they wanted something productive, something that would help citizens understand the lawsuit. Instead they got a socially tone-deaf play-by-play of the case. I suspect this will not be well-received by the target audience as a good faith effort at reunification between the city and concerned citizens.

Boo, sir. Boo.

COR council meeting audio 200901005 20091012

10/5 and 10/12.

Much better audio this week, at least what I've heard. I am about 2 weeks behind on all my audio and blog consumption.

[10/14: I've just noticed that the city is posting audio files so I'll stop reproducing that effort.]

Finally posting audio for 9/21 council meeting

And it sucks.

The audio from the visitor mic is nearly unintelligible. The other mics are about the same as always.

Haven't listened to all of it yet, but I am keenly interested in the SV revitalization stuff.

Keffler: "hope I can diffuse this one"

If you haven't read DC's blog entry on this yet, it's worth your time.

fevered notes on the 9/14 council meeting

Unedited audio posted here for you mp3 player types.


This post is a mess, but feel free to slog through. I am quarantined at home with the flu and all my brain cells are sizzling with the fever. Hope some of it makes sense.


Notes from the Work Session, pt 1

I finally get to disagree with Amir!
At around 7:01pm Mr. Omar falls into the trap of trying to overcontrol city departments communication with the the public (ie, the customer). "I would love any piece of communication ... somehow go through Communications before it gets there... you see that a lot in corporations and I think it would make sense for us to do it here as well."

No, no, no. No. Overcontrolling worker communication with the customer is expensive and counterproductive. For an argument about why this is so, take a short ride on the Cluetrain. (full text starts here)




From Michelle's presentation
Around 7:04pm. One of the goals is "help the city position itself positively to current and future residents, visitors, businesses, others"

Why should we pay the city to propagandize us? I'd be more interested in seeing objective analysis than Feel Good softsoap. Sometimes the emperor really has no clothes, and the sooner we find out about that the better off the city will be.

How about this reach-around: "We want to focus on the fact that when you move to Richardson you have made a smart choice... and it's because you all on the city council and the leaders who have come before you have made some smart decisions..." I guess when you're asking for the council's vote a few strokes do a world of good.

"Key message document" - Here, city employees. These are your talking points.


"Brand positioning" - the idea of brand positioning a city makes me want to projectile vomit. If your city has the stuff it will have good word of mouth. If it's a turd then you can't polish it (mythbusters notwithstanding). I read a biography of David Ogilvie that had a quote something like this: "Marketing is showing the customer two quarters and convincing them not only that they are different, but that one is worth more than the other." Do we really want to attract warm bodies stupid enough to fall for sub-corporate marketspeak?

"We've already started the taping of council meetings and webcasts... one of the things we'd like to take a look at with CITV is to realign their workplans to be consistent with our key messages..."
Translation: We've already been forced to publish our meetings; in order to regain leverage we should force CITV to push our propaganda.


Nixle vs. Twitter.
Twitter is used by the whole planet and no one has heard of nixle before this very second, but it's been pitched as "Twittr for governments" so we're leaning toward nixle. Great call! I am completely sidestepping whether or not the whole Twitter meme is idiotic.


And I get to agree with Michelle on something: it does makes sense to retain the current publishing schedule of Richardson Today. Push out more time-sensitive stuff through the web or email. I also agree with the move to cheaper thinner paper; the current stock is weirdly stiff. I disagree with the need for expensive color on each page.

Anyone who has made their living from the phone will tell you that scripted phone greetings are widely hated by the public and the workers. Sold-on-hold messages will have to be subtler than "reinforcent of our key messages".






Notes from the council meeting

* dog park. Nice idea, but I've never been to one where I felt comfortable with my dog. There's always some Type-A d-bag out there with his aggressive dog. I bought a house in part so my dog could run in the yard.


* Ho. Lee. Crap. Mr. Morgan's questioning of the Council paid off tonight. This 2r + 2yr + 1yr crap is a fig leaf, an obvious attempt to skirt the law. What good is a contract length limitation if it can be subverted this way> What if it said "2yr + 2yr +2yr until Mr. Keffler's eventual demise". Would that lifetime contract not breach the spirit of the law? Well done, Mr. Morgan. I suspect that this kind of term-skirting will not be implemented in future contracts with COR.






Notes from the Work Session pt, 2

* Audiocasting. I think audiocasting is a great idea. It uses very little bandwidth compared to video, and screen shots or images can be podcast(or even embedded) in the mp3 files if they are useful.

* neighborhood sign toppers. I think these definitely increase neighborhood awareness. I am asking my own neighborhood association about this at the next meeting (by proxy, because I'm sick) since there is a bylaws requirement. The enforcement of uniqueness is a bit odd. I think it would be sufficient to have a simple text sign with the neighborhood name on it (see below).

It's weird that the HOAs have to pay for the signs ($40-$85, two required per pole!) and also pay the city to install them ($45-$75 per sign - can't do it yerself). Sounds like union rules to me.

It's also weird that only $2k of the $6k installation cost was collected.

I think a better solution would be to let HOAs buy cheaper, plain signs at cost from the COR sign shop. But I do support the decision in the meeting to install the signs at city cost.

Comments on 8/31 work/council meeting

Work session

* Keffler's response to Visitor Morgan's "5 year contract" issue was interesting. It wasn't "that isn't what happened", or "you don't understand the law", but rather, "we had our lawyers check off on that." I hope Mr. Morgan shares anything he learns on this topic.

* More practical and insightful questions from Mr. Omar (school zone lights).

* bike lanes on grove and elsewhere - so far 100% of the time (see update below) I have driven down Grove since the installation of the bike lane I have seen cars driving in the bike lane. Dave says "the ones that live along there are pleased; the ones that do not live along the roadway are the ones that are not [pleased]." Ya think? This confirms my previous comments about the NIMBY aspect of this traffic calming project. I live off Grove and am not convinced of the overall value of the project yet.

[update: it's now the 6th. I drive Grove at least 2x/day. 4 days after writing the above "100%" post I finally traversed Grove without seeing someone driving erroneously in the bike lane. This occurred at 6:15pm on a Sunday afternoon. So I stand corrected.]


"bulb-out" - well, I learned something today.

Mitchell: "It's an esthetic thing". Really? Cars parked alongside the road are pretty?

Macy: "my beady little brain". Hey, I didn't say it.

Mr Solomon: bike lanes are causing congestion, and drivers are having to choose other routes. That, Mr. Solomon, was the intention of the traffic calming project.


Council Meeting
Didn't run long, so there is going to be a couple hours off his at the end of the mp3 I posted.

COR work and council meeting, 20090831

Uploaded the audio for those that can't are prefer not to stream.

Haven't listened to it yet, so my comments will follow a little later.

As before, it's unedited and there will be blank hiss on the recording where it was blank hiss on ch16.

More notes from the 8/24 city council meeting

I am eating my own dog food at the moment (listening to the .mp3 I uploaded of the Ch16 broadcast from 6pm-10pm). I zipped through the video earlier but didn't pay close attention. On closer listening I have a few more thoughts.

Keffler's car compensation
I completely agree with visitor (is that the right term?) Mr. Morgan's call to re-visit the city's auto allowance for Mr Keffler, and indeed all city employees.

I believe that no one but the city employee should enjoy vehicle benefits; under no circumstances would anyone other than the designated employee use the benefit. And then even when on city business. This means no joyrides, no grocery runs, no dinners and a movie. Perhaps the car could be fitted with a woo-woo so we could always hear where it's going:


I trust that Mr. Keffler and his family drive better than Li'l Sis (or Bubb Rubb, whoever was driving that Supra in the video).

Civility
I appreciate the general civility of council members when dealing with each other, speakers, and visitors. It's better than I expected.


Executive sessions
I'd like to see a sunset provision on the sessions. Audio or videotape those sessions and set them aside for a year or five years. Then publish them on the COR website.

Collections fee last year
Does anyone know what the unusual collections fee was that is not expected to recur during the next budget period?
Is it 3498 - Attorney Collection Fees - $40,000?

Mr. Murphy and open records requests
Sounds like Mr. Murphy would prefer to put a chill on open records requests. I have not made any such requests but highly value the ability to do so. I will take Mr. Keffler's response at face value, that he and his team are dedicated to discussing requests with anyone that wants a real answer. I am less impressed with his subsequent discussion of car allowances.

Notes on the 8/24 council meeting

Work session

* The word "actually" started to annoy me in the Routh Creek Parkway presentation.


BTW, I recently rode the entirety of the trails in that area. Nice ride, but there are some things to be aware of. Some of the corners are blind and bike riders will have to reduce their speed. There are homeless people in the park, though none were doing anything weird/dangerous when I was there. There are several intersecting trails, and the signage is not very good. It would be easy to get turned around if one had no sense of direction. You're not going to get lost, per se, but if you don't pay attention you could easily spend a lot of time backtracking.


* Mr. Omar asks relevant questions in a civil manner. Keep up the good work, sir.



City Council Meeting
* I can corroborate the issue that the Motorcycling gentleman reports (sensors not tripping the lights). I experience this both on motorcycle and bicycle. This is particularly unpleasant if you are at the front of a line of cars. You (and the cars behind you) can't go because your bike won't trip the light.

* looks like the session ran past 10pm. I will program the MythTV box to record until 11pm.


Audio of the session[s]
I pulled the audio out of the 4hr recording and am attempting to post it here. Caveats:

* it's unedited. At the beginning you will hear the buzzy audio off the channel 16 slideshow until the work session begins. You will hear it again between work session and council session.

* I don't plan on editing anything. Next week's will be 5hrs long and I'm not going to trim it if it runs shorter. My ability/willingness to post this stuff is directly related to how much I can automate the process.

* theoretically this means you could subscribe to an xml feed on this blog and get the council meetings and other audio (like the recent burglarly arrest) as a podcast. I don't know the details of how that will work yet. The enclosure is there in the alleged feed location if I look at the raw xml, but not in an RSS reader or podcast catcher. Hmmm. Will play with it.

Flip Page technology will save us!

Ok, Mr CVB expert at the council meeting. Here's my input:

1. You don't email a digital brochure to 100k meeting planners. You send them the link and they pull it off the website as needed. To do otherwise is annoying and wasteful of our bandwidth.

2. Next time you think you want to make something "jazzy" go visit Google. Go ahead, do it now. I'll wait. There is a reason that Google is the most visited, most useful page on the internet. Look at all that blingy jazzy crap! Wait, there is none. It's simple and straightforward. Blingy presentation for the sake of bling is the mark of a man who is in over his head / unsure of his content. Look! Shiny objects! Must collect that foil and blue hairpin! Caw! Caw!

3. I wanted to barf when you said that the ludicrous flip page technology was "huge for us", "will save us a lot of money", and will give people instant access". Someone has swallowed a load of corporate duckspeak on that one. You already have a cheap, effective, cross-platform and free technology called HTML. Use the 2.0 dynamic stuff if you must, but this page turning crap is a stunt. And it's a stunt that costs money, distracts from content, and is very likely to annoy your development staff. Trying to make the web look like print is a classic rookie mistake, the mark of a man who is in over his head / unsure of his content. See a pattern here?

There is an IT term for BS crap like this: AMS (Airline Magazine Syndrome). An exec is on a plane ride and reads some softsoap article about an expensive, useless technology. Returns to the office and starts raving about it. Rams it down the throats of customers and developers alike and will not listen to reason. Two years later the project is dropped as an utter failure and the exec starts his new round of misguided windmill tilting.

Oh, don't even get me started on the viewer plugin that users will likely be required to see this abomination, or which OSes will be supported.

[spit]

Program that DVR....

... to pick up the council meetings.

That little thumbnail is from MythTV's analog of the "now playing" list. Quality doesn't look great on the broadcast but the audio is acceptable.

I wonder if Ed is going to take his days-since counter offline?

City Council districts

[This is a reworking of a post I made elsewhere]

It took me a while to find any information on the City of Richardson website that shows what city council district one lives in.

I am not generally stupid or web ignorant but it took me a while to find. There are references on the COR site to the city being broken up into quadrants for this purpose, but no indication of the boundaries that I could find.

Here is what I found; a page that has a GIS-created map with a district overlay on it. It's the top map.

As with most of the other documents on cor.net, it comes up in .pdf. I wish cor.net would quit encapsulating everything in .pdf. It's unnecessary, wasteful of bandwidth, requires proprietary software (which we are likely not getting for free) and annoying. Time to write email to the COR webmaster...