Sleepless in Midland

MRT on MDC

The Midland Reporter Telegram contained a front page article that should have been a wake up call to complacent taxpayers. See Economic development tax: 10-year review detailing what the Midland Development Corporation has done and not done. In sum, they've taken in millions of dollars from taxpayers with negligible results in regard to industry diversification and job creation.

The anonymous bloggers at Jessica's Well have been hammering away at this for years, and back in '09 I suggested they get out of the house and take the initiative to get the tax repealed. Although I did acknowledge that it might be difficult getting signatures on a petition if they had bags over their heads. But the MRT has outed them. Problem solved. Ditch the bags.

As for what they need to do, the one called Ospurt left a comment on these pages with a link to a site purporting to lay out the procedure for accomplishing just that. There should be no stopping them now.

The Midland Development Corporation has a flashy website that's sure to draw in lots of lookie loos. But here's my favorite part:

Water
Midland has a more-than-ample water supply, and the water needs of industry and residents are met by both underground and surface water sources. The City of Midland controls 700,000 acre feet of underground water resources. The Colorado River Municipal Water District includes the O.H. Ivie Reservoir, Lake Spence and Lake Thomas, which combined contain 65.9 square miles of surface water.

Glad they cleared that up. Citizens are facing a $500 fine for accidentally spilling water onto the street, and here we learn Midland has a more-than-ample water supply. Someone needs to tell the city council.

Not a typical West Texas weekend

Two wonderful events made this an exceptional weekend in our fair city of Midland, Texas.

Texas Size Garage Sale --

The annual Texas Size Garage Sale is a hoarders paradise. As the saying goes, one man's trash is another man's treasure, and an affluent populace goes through consumer products like fire through prairie grass. The easy feel-good way to dispose of gently used merchandise is to donate it to the Texas Size Garage Sale benefiting Meals-on-Wheels.  And man-oh-man, what a selection.

The result was a field day for bargain hunters, hoarders, and frugal shoppers -- actually three days culminating in a final 1/2 off sale where the picked over treasures became real bargains.

Need an analog TV? You would think they were completely obsolete instead of almost obsolete.  The TVs were going for prices from $2 (small TV missing a power cord) to $30 for a 27" Sony. Buy them Sunday and get half off.

One lady left with a pickup truck and a trailer loaded with loot. What a deal.

Fire Department Open House --

Lighter turnout than in the past. The splash party for the kids -- when they turn the firehose on "spray" and let the kids play in the mist -- had been removed from the agenda this year. The kids would have loved it, but it wouldn't have set a good example at a time when the city council has just made criminals of citizens who leak water into the street.

But it was still good.

One more thing about that new watering regulation

There's no sunset provision. They've proposed a permanent solution to a temporary problem. Surely this drought will end some day, but you wouldn't know it by the council's actions. Once passed it's going to be on the books forever. For an example of an ancient ordinance see Listening in on the police radio? Shhhh, don't tell anyone about a 1953 ordinance about listening to radio scanner feeds that's still on the books after all this time.

OK, if you've just stumbled onto this blog here's what we are talking about. The other day the Midland, Texas, city council voted into place an ordinance allowing the Code Enforcement employees to issue tickets without warning to residents who accidentally allow water to run into the street. See Everyone is a potential criminal, they just don't know it previously about the omission of a requirement to warn potential offenders before issuing the $500 citation.

Residents have not yet been given access to the wording of the ordinance. Maybe the meeting minutes, once they go online, will contain the full ordinance. But so far the only thing available at the city website is the Agenda results PDF for the 9/27/11 council meeting. Here's what it says:

MISCELLANEOUS
41. Consider an ordinance amending Title VI, "Police Regulations", Chapter 1, "General Offenses”, Section 19, "Nuisance Water", of the City Code of Midland, Texas, so as to prohibit nuisance water in the public streets; containing a cumulative clause; containing a savings and severability clause; providing for a maximum penalty or fine of five hundred dollars ($500.00); and negating a mental state; and ordering publication. (Code Administration)
APPROVED

Once it's written into the code, Midland residents will be stuck with it for generations to come. On the bright side, that might generate a new source of part time jobs for school kids -- lawn watchers to warn residents if water spills into the street.

Addendum --

Reading that agenda is an eye opener. They've approved hundreds of thousands of dollars of spending on polymer, Earthtec, anhydrous ammonia, potassium permanganate, aluminum sulfate and chlorine all for treating drinking water. But here's the speck of gold in the pan of sand. They approved a resolution to advertise for bids for a raw water project. Those of us who have been conserving water for years have long wondered why, out here in the middle of the desert, every drop of water delivered to residences is "drinking water" whether it's for washing the dog, watering the garden, or flushing down the toilet. Finally, after experiencing real water shortages, they've gotten around to that.

Everyone is a potential criminal, they just don't know it

No, not criminal in the old sense, criminal in the sense that the law has expanded so much as to criminalize too many things. And especially problematic is the category of criminal laws that don't require mens rea.

Criminal law overreach is becoming too common these days, as noted in yesterday's WSJ article about the proliferation of laws in the U.S. Code making things illegal but without requiring criminal intent. In those cases the law breaker may not even know he/she is doing anything illegal. See As Federal Crime List Grows, Threshold of Guilt Declines:

This legal protection is now being eroded as the U.S. federal criminal code dramatically swells. In recent decades, Congress has repeatedly crafted laws that weaken or disregard the notion of criminal intent. Today not only are there thousands more criminal laws than before, but it is easier to fall afoul of them. ...As a result, what once might have been considered simply a mistake is now sometimes punishable by jail time.

It's not just the U.S. lawmakers. Right here in our very own town of Midland, Texas, the city council just created a class of criminals who water their lawns the wrong way. They break the law whether they know it or not, and it's straight to the $500 citation. Giving warning tickets is just too bothersome, you know. Apparently, Scott Dufford is the only council member who voted against it. See Nuisance water ordinance changed amid debate.

"This is what they want us to do," the article says the mayor proclaimed. In the summer of 2010 he proclaimed that 60% of the people with whom he spoke were clamoring for a local tax hike. The mayor needs to broaden his circle of friends.

One remark from the article was almost funny, except the joke's on us. One of the councilmen is supposed to have said, "if code enforcement becomes 'too aggressive' the wording can be changed back." Good one. Once it's on the books, it's there for good. There will be no going back.

It's all about control. Too many of the people in power want to control everyone else. And the criminal law makes that very convenient. Go lenient on an accidental law breaker, and he/she is eternally grateful. Hit 'em hard, and they learn who's boss.

Does Midland need a new fire station?

The prospect of a new fire station in Midland, Texas, came up in a casual remark in a recent post, and a commenter insisted on connecting a new station with the city's insurance rating. I wasn't ready to write about a possible new station, but I'm more or less dragged into it.

Published news items reported that the search committee that picked the new Fire Chief over others vying for that job were influenced by the possibility that this chief could raise the city's insurance rating. So it's almost certain that an effort will be made by the fire department to raise the rating.

Around the end of June the Fire Chief stated that Midland's insurance rating could be raised with the purchase of newer equipment and more training for the firefighters. So we can probably assume that new equipment and more training are in the works, although it's hard to find it in the proposed budget.

[By the way, he also mentioned that our neighbor city of Odessa currently has a higher rating, so those Midlanders with a competitive streak can get their gears going.]

The drive for a new station is based on a series of maps the Chief had prepared which show points in the city from which emergency calls were received in relationship to the fire stations. And the maps show circles around the stations with a little area that seems to fall through the cracks.

Anyone with a predisposition for a new station will no doubt be persuaded by the maps that a new station is absolutely necessary. But someone needs to look at the cost, not just of the land, building, equipment and vehicles, but the expense of the 12 to 18 new employees needed to staff it. That's an expense that keeps on taking, year after year. And it's questionable whether the benefit outweighs the cost.

An instructive item in the Midland financial report for year ending 9/30/10 is on page 134, table 21. There were 10,829 emergency responses in the previous year. That sounds like a lot, but the very next line says only 543 fires were extinguished. That's only 5% of the total emergency responses, so we have a fire department doing a lot more than putting out fires.

The agency that determines the insurance rating would look at that 5% not all those other calls.

If there's a problem that needs solving it's separating the fire calls from the other emergency calls. I phoned 911 twice in the past 12 months on behalf of a neighbor who needed emergency medical help. Both times a fire engine showed up first. That seems like an unnecessary use of resources. And perhaps a solution might involve the purchase of more ambulances rather than building a new station. The city of Odessa utilizes "8 front line ambulances." Source: page ii in Odessa's budget. How many does Midland have?

Disclaimer. Hey, I don't enjoy this. I love the fire department, but taxpayers have questions. The Chief is a smart, likable visionary, and with a compliant city council and passive taxpayers, he'll leave his mark on this city. Someone needs to compare the expected benefit with the cost.

The city council listened

There was light turnout at the Midland, Texas, City Council hearing last night to allow taxpayers to voice objection to the coming tax hike. Shouldn't surprise anyone. Last year the people reasoned, argued begged and pleaded for the council not to raise taxes. But the council members had made up their minds well in advance, and the take-away lesson was that it was folly to think a room full of taxpayers could change their minds.

I decided to go last night at the last minute and arrived 20 minutes late. But not to late to hear Jason Moore who drove over here from Odessa to help out. He even missed part of his son's birthday party for this. Midlanders are fortunate to have a good neighbor like Jason Moore.

Mr. Moore knew the council members wouldn't change their minds about raising taxes, but he made some good points, and the council listened. He has long railed against Golden Plaques -- buildings, schools, stadiums -- the expensive monuments built with taxpayer money and named after a politician. Being in the construction industry, he became fully aware of the high price the city paid for the recent construction of a school. And he pointed out that there were many areas that could save taxpayer money on the next *construction project, such as using ordinary bricks on the corners instead of expensive decorative bricks.

He asked that they seek advice from local contractors on how to keep the cost down. The council members agreed and took that opportunity to express that doing business with locals was more desirable then doing business with outsiders even if, for example, a fleet of police cars would cost more through a local dealership than one elsewhere. They neglected to explain how taxpayers benefited from that arrangement.

Another thing Jason addressed was the complicated nature of the proposed budget that was placed online. It's an 80MB monster PDF file and takes a while to load, making it, as Jason explained, very inconvenient for anyone with a slow connection. This was news to the council.

But there's another reason to bash that budget format. It's a 479 page secured, unsearchable PDF file giving the viewer three options: read it, print it, or both. Searching for something is a tedious page flipping eye tiring project. Unfortunately for users, that must be the best they'll do for us, because each year after it's approved by the council, they put it online in a user friendly format and stick a page in the front saying something like this:

"Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting
Presented to
City of Midland
Texas
For its Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for the Fiscal Year Ended September 20, 2009 ...
by the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada ... whose comprehensive annual financial reports (CAFRs) achieve the highest standards in government accounting and financial reporting."

Congratulations for that certificate. However, it applies to the final report only, and they seem to want the preliminary budget to look as much like sausage as possible.

Finally, the quote of the day from Mayor Wes Perry: "You may think we're not listening. But we really, really are."

Tax hike to follow.

--
*The construction project Mr. Moore was referring to was the prospect of a new fire station. That is a topic for a future post, but it's striking how the concept of a new fire station has infiltrated the discussion so inconspicuously yet so thoroughly as to become accepted wisdom. But surely there is a better formula than population growth = new fire station.

Our local Keynesian government

The battle at the national level is getting a lot more attention. But it's probably happening at local levels all over the country. It's the battle between those who think an economy is better off without government meddling and those who think the government should micromanage the economy by favoring some businesses over others. Hayek vs. Keynes on a home town level.

This issue comes to light as the morning paper explains that the Midland, Texas, city council plans to reward the owner of the local mall with a $250,000 grant of money collected from tax payers through the sales tax.

The theory is that the mall shops collected the money, therefore it would be a "pay back to the mall sales tax revenue it generates." If they were sincere about a "pay back," the money would be paid back to the people who were forced to cough it up in the first place. And, by the way, they wouldn't be planning to raise local taxes again.

It must be an intoxicating experience to be an elected lawmaker with loads of money to dole out. It must be like playing Santa Clause but with other people's money.

Our Central Planning Committee at work

The morning newspaper contained an editorial lauding the concept of government control of economic development along a 30 year old highway newly annexed into the city limits. It's Texas State Highway 191 an 18 mile road used by commuters to travel between Midland and Odessa, Texas.

The other road connecting the two cities is former U.S. 80, now Business 20, and it's teaming with vibrant businesses. Some of those businesses may not be deemed as aesthetically pleasing to the style conscious critic as the open empty desert spaces one currently sees while transiting 191. And that's probably what has the government wanting to exercise power over development.

"Ugliness is so grim," Lady Bird Johnson said as her Highway Beautification project performed a facelift along the U.S. roadways a half century ago, and together with her husband, Lyndon Johnson, they built the Great Society we live in today.

"Lady Bird doesn't want you to see what's behind this wall," teased some junk yard owners on the walls they were forced to put up to hide their businesses from sensitive passersby.

So maybe that's what our central planning committee can do -- allow owners to do with their property as they wish, and thereby satisfy those owners who like to think they, not the government, own their land. But then require those owners to put up facades painted to mimic the parched desert landscape commuters now see. Of course, in the interest of free speech, they could also put up signs poking fun at the central planners, and that's when a boring commute would get interesting.

[Image is from Illustrated Road to Serfdom.]

Why did the snake cross the road?

We'll never know. He didn't make it.

This is something you don't see every day. These pics were snapped on the side of a bank building on busy Andrews Highway in Midland, Texas, this morning.

Someone must have called the cops on a snake carcass on the road. And the friendly man in blue put it in a body bag. A police officer's job must be full of variety.

Maybe a herpetologist can tell us what brand of snake this was.

Free the CBS Seven

Let those people go!

OK, just kidding. They haven't been incarcerated, and probably won't be. There's a good chance that you and I are the only ones who know that the CBS7 reporters violated the city code when they eavesdropped on police and fire radio transmissions to supplement their reporting during the last big wildfire.

It's merely another example of laws we don't need. See Section 6-1-9 in the Midland, Texas, City Code:

6-1-9 Police radio; interception of communications.

No solicitor, or other person, not being authorized by the City, shall intercept any communication and divulge or publish the existence, contents, substance, purpose, effect or meaning of such intercepted communication, and no solicitor or other person, not being entitled thereto, shall receive or assist in receiving any message emanating through the medium of KKA-662, and use the same or any information therein contained for his own benefit, or for the benefit of another solicitor or person.

(Ord. of 3-24-1953)

But it's on the books, probably from days when Dick Tracy thwarted thieves with a two way wrist watch radio.  And the police radio was gaining recognition as the greatest crime fighting device ever.

It's OK to click this link and listen to the Midland County live feed, but it's a code violation to divulge or publish what was heard.

Outlaw divulging intercepted communications and only outlaws will divulge intercepted communications.

By the way,  CBS7 had some pretty good wildfire coverage.

Well well well, a sign of the times

Drought plagued Midland, Texas, is really struggling to quench the thirsty plant life. As others have been telling us for years, large grassy lawns don't have a place in the desert except in the most fluid of times.

With citizens across the town aware of the new move toward conservation, many are adjusting their water usage. This self conscious homeowner wants to deflect any criticism for watering his/her lawn.  Or maybe it's just bragging.

But it's a sign of the times.

Meanwhile, the Midland Reporter-Telegram editorialized early this month against the proposal to fine citizens for watering lawns on the wrong day. And in short order, that punishment threat was dropped. That's getting it done.

And the homeowners who have conserved water for years are finally seeing a small social benefit -- a respite from parched lawn complainers.

Terry Williamson's ode to the common man

It was a touching column by Terry Williamson.

There are two Midlands. There's the affluence of the oil revenue and high salaries as evidenced by the large new houses in the Northwest part of Midland, Texas. But Mr. Williamson points out another side in A drive around town causes a different kind of sticker shock in which he identifies with the people who aren't riding the crest of the wave. Excerpt:

We're the type of people who will drive all over town, using up $25 in fuel to find a station that will save us five cents a gallon. Buying gas is a lot like buying a new car. The first thing you notice when you drive by a gas station is the price. It's the sticker shock that gets you. Your heart races and the mind suddenly goes into panic mode. The only thing you can think of is what you will have to do without this coming week if you fill up today.

The first thought to came to mind after reading the column was the Midland Reporter-Telegram editorial in August of 2010 telling readers to mind their betters and accept the higher taxes and fees the city council wanted to foist on them.

Anyone who watched the local tax hearings last summer had a cold heart if he/she remained untouched by some of the speakers as they described their economic plight and pleaded with the city council not to make it worse for them.

The mayor and council members, who own or work for successful businesses, probably felt disconnected from the sea of commoners in the audience, many of whom appeared as if their main worry was the fear of losing the struggle between income and expenses. Both sides were complaining. The council members were complaining because they weren't getting enough gratitude, and the commoners were complaining about the taxes.  And the council raised their taxes.

Yes, there are two Midlands.

However, to Mr. Williamson's credit, even though the Midland Reporter-Telegram boasted in their heading that Mr. Williamson was the editorial writer at the time that infamous editorial was published, another name actually appears as the author in the online version. So maybe the voice of the common man on that editorial board lost out to the bosses.

The Great American Cleanup

The Keep Midland Beautiful Great American Cleanup / Don't Mess With Texas spring cleanup took place this morning, and the fine city of Midland, Texas, is surely cleaner for it.

Most people learned early on to pick up after themselves. And most find it a little distasteful to have to pick up after other people. If this sounds familiar, it's been said on these pages previously and by others long before. The tragedy of the commons has been with us a long time.

Furthermore, one person's trash usually isn't another person's treasure, especially if the trash consists of cigarette butts and empty beer containers.

Those cigarette filters may eventually degenerate to the point that they become inconspicuous, but first the paper wrapping has to deteriorate, then the individual fibers have to separate from filter at which time they are so thin as to be practically invisible. Until that time, it's just a tossed butt. And there is never just one butt -- they seem to attract others. It's almost as if smokers have been so beleaguered by society that they are acting out in the one distasteful way they can still usually get away with, flicking the butt.

Then there are the beer bottles, or in many cases, shards of broken beer bottle glass. Beer buyers probably don't think about what they are going to with the empties before they buy the beer, and expecting beer drinkers to plan ahead when buying bottles or cans might be too much to ask. The concept of crashing an empty bottle onto a sidewalk or against the street curb is probably something that comes spontaneously. But if they did actually plan ahead, the people who clean up after them might think of them as a little more human and a little less porcine.

Anyway, enough ranting. The KMB project always ends with free hot dogs, chips, soft drinks and cookies at Hogan Park. And today was no exception. However, in the past, the chef's special was always blackened hot dogs -- dogs with a burned crust. Some might have thought it was a result of sloppy grillmanship, but those of us from the "glass is half full" school saw it as a feature of the chef's delicate touch.

So today it might have been a challenge for the food servers to hand out dogs that were grilled a toasty brown but not charred black. However, the dogs were quite good. In fact, some might even prefer those over the burned ones. As Adam Richman of Man v. Food says, "Once you go blackened, you'll never go backened." But maybe you can. Maybe you can.

Batter up

As seen Monday morning at a local ball park.

A different take on the expression "In the batter's cage."

Actually it was a fellow working on the light fixtures. The crane lifted him in the cage up to the point needing work.

Remembering the blizzard of '11

Man, we had some blizzards back in the day. It was the first week in February of '11, and I remember it like it was yesterday. What a severe cold snap that was. The temperature didn't get out of the teens for a full day.

We had to walk over a thin layer of snow just to get the morning newspaper.

It was so bad the TV cable went out, and we had to resort to movies on the VCR. What a terrible time that was. I hope you never have it so bad.

Heat wave

A heat wave rolled in and raised the temperature to a sizzling 37 degrees this afternoon. Feel the burn!

What a relief it was to see the temperature get above freezing after the icy blast that keep the city frozen for almost four days. One day the temperature here in Midland, Texas, ranged from a low of 5 to a high of 12 degrees Fahrenheit. Farther North the folks had it a lot rougher, so we shouldn't complain. But this blogger is grateful to get through it with all of his fingers, toes, pets and plants. Um, might have to wait a month or so on the plants.

These photos were taken this afternoon. And while they won't win any prizes, they try to capture the fascinating imagery a slow drip of freezing water can make.

Hospital parking

What a mess. The multistory parking garage is almost finished, and none too soon for anyone with the need to visit the Midland Memorial Hospital. Take a look at these photos; astute observers will notice a trend.

 



Did you get it? That's right, No Parking!

The meter maids and meter men have have been very busy ticketing cars parked in the wrong spots. I've been visiting the hospital daily for the past six days, but wouldn't you know, the one time I brought the camera there were no ticketed cars around for photographing.

In the ideal world a city wouldn't stoop to revenue enhancement through parking tickets, but throw $3.1 million annual fine revenue at elected officials who can't say "no," and the parking space contraction isn't a crises, it's an opportunity.

Merry Christmas

I love driving around town on Christmas day. The only other time a driver can expect less daytime traffic is during a flash flood.

Seeing all the kids out playing with their bikes, footballs and battery powered toys really drives home the meaning of Christmas -- a time for families to come together.

Here's what my house looks like this Christmas as seen through a special filter.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Open Sesame -- Ali Baba and the garage door opener

There was an interesting news release from the Midland, Texas, Police Department the other day. Seems there have been some burglars working the NW part of town this month looking for unlocked cars in driveways with garage door openers in them. They use the openers for what they were intended, then they raid the garages. In one case they took a car for a joy ride.

A 2008 study tried to categorize burglars. They studied the criminal careers of 456 burglars finding the mean age to be 38.50. They put them into four categories with the mean age for class one, "young versatile" offenders at 35.26 making up 57.7% of the whole group. Other classes were class two, "vagrants" at 21.4%, class three,"drug oriented" at 14.8%, and class four, "sexual predators" at 6.1%.

Never mind the academics.  The gut says our garage door perps are young non-working men driving around in the wee hours looking for opportunities to make easy money possibly to get high. But it says something favorable about our educational system. Someone had to figure out this method of operation.  Maybe they didn't learn the three Rs in school, but they learned how to think creatively.

The news release contained some helpful advice:

Residents are urged to double check that their cars are locked before going to bed, and to secure their garage door openers, especially if they have a rear entry garage and park a car outside of the garage, in the driveway.

Sleep tight.

Long line at ballot box suggests big voter turnout

The line was long at the Midland County, Texas, annex building today on this last day of early voting. But the line moved quickly, and at around 3:00 pm a voter could get in, vote, and be out in 20 minutes. Thank goodness there was a simple ballot this time.

The election office adjoins the tax office, so voters were entertained by the delightful Halloween costumes the County employees wore. Could the tax office have chosen a more appropriate theme than pirates?

Make a Difference Day

Today was the Keep Midland Beautiful annual fall cleanup, and people were out all over town picking up other people's trash. Here's a big hats-off to all of them.

I was out there picking up trash at my usual spot and noticed a new entry in the trash heap of human leavings. "Joose," a flavored malt liquor which is 9.9% alcohol. Parteee!

Most of us learned early on to pick up our own trash, but picking up other people's trash is a little bit harder. The slobs should have cleaned up their own mess. But that's the tragedy of the commons, and that problem has been around longer than we have.

That's where KMB has done such a good job of inspiring citizens to get out and pick up. Oh, we can't forget the free hot dogs. Once again the chef had prepared a batch of blackened hot dogs. Dark and crunchy on the outside, rich and fatty on the inside. Scrumptious! Add some relish and mustard, toss in a bag of chips, and you've got yourself a fine meal.  Bring your own Joose.

Fire Prevention Week

"Only you can prevent house fires," that's what Smokey would say to urban dwellers as most fires occur in the home.

MFD Fire Marshal David Hickman and the fire department of Midland, Texas, are encouraging everyone to learn about fire safety during Fire Prevention Week.  And the MFD held its annual Fire Prevention Poster contest the other day with the theme, "Smoke Alarms: A sound you can live with".

The categories ranged from Kindergarten to 12th grade, and the poster you see on the right was the 9-12th grade1st place winner created by Rubi Sosa of Midland High School.

Fire Inspector James Howard told a heartwarming story of how he spoke with a little girl who helped save her family and the family home by calling 911 and getting everyone out of the house at the first sign of fire. Inspector Howard asked where she learned to do that, and she said, "You taught us when you came to our school." Fire safety education pays off.

The posters will be on display at Midland Park Mall thru Saturday, October 9th.

Fire Safety Week will come to an end when the MFD will conducts an open house on October 9 from noon til 4pm. Among the activities will be the popular "Foam Party." That's when the fire hose is turned on over the lawn, and the kids have a blast!

Maybe now Gary Ott can get a good night's sleep

The Midland Reporter-Telegram reports that editor Gary Ott is retiring after many years on the job. So at long last maybe he can get a decent night's sleep.

Some years ago he wrote about a sleepless night and a lonely drive in the wee hours along the streets of Midland looking for some sign of life, some human activity of any kind. He eventually came upon an open diner where he established human contact. About that same time I was trying to follow the Spurs in a playoff series and was hoping for the score of a late game in the morning paper, but instead there was a two word review: "late game." A cynic might have been been tempted to suggest that instead of cruising the streets Mr. Ott should have gone to work and put the scores in the paper.

More recently he wrote about another sleepless night, but this time he watched TV during the time everyone else was snoozing. See it over there on the right, it's not online. This time the cynic might have been tempted to suggest that he go do some homework on the city budget during those sleepless hours instead of admonishing citizens to do it. But that's for the cynic to say, not us. We mean only the best for Mr. Ott.

Gary Ott will be missed by a lot of people, and his fans will wish him the very best in whatever he does next. As for the sleeplessness, there may not be much comfort in knowing there are 11 kinds of insomnia. But all we can do is sincerely hope that Mr. Ott can get a good night's sleep.

And if he's looking for another day job, here's a tip: Forget the day job and apply for the graveyard shift.

Meanwhile, back at the newspaper, they'll want someone to fill the editor's spot. Could there be a better choice than Stewart Doreen?

Question: When is a conflict of interest not a conflict of interest?

Answer: When it involves a newspaper.

The New York Times' Bill Keller, in an artful reply to that paper's public editor, helpfully explains that they have very wide latitude to define for themselves what is a "conflict of interest" and to decide whether it matters. Never mind that that latitude opens a hole so wide a garbage truck could drive through it.

But that's the New York Times. What about the local paper?

A few weeks ago when citizens made an unsuccessful effort to persuade the Midland, Texas, City Council not to raise taxes someone attempted to suggest a collusion among some of the City Council members and the Midland Reporter Telegram's Editorial Board due to the Editorial Board's published position which seemed to parrot what some of the Council members were saying. The Editorial Board responded with a public beat down of that citizen while waving the banner of government watchdog.

Some might find it suspicious that the head of the Editorial Board, Dave Wedel, was also the Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce at the very time that the Chamber of Commerce President appeared before the City Council at a hearing to express the Chamber's fear of losing out on a share of some of that tax money. Bob Cambell described it like this:

Chamber of Commerce President Rob Cunningham protested a possible $100,000 reduction to the Chamber’s Convention & Visitors Bureau if the sports complex is put under professional management.

Being the coward that I am and having watched the aforementioned beat down I'm certainly not going to accuse the head of the Editorial Board of a conflict of interest. If there are any dots to connect someone else will have to do it. The story template is probably that Mr. Wedel's cross-board membership doesn't cloud his judgment but makes him smarter than the rest of us. Don't agree? Re-read New York Times' Bill Keller's refresher course on how journalists decide what's fair and how insider connections provide a "measure of sophistication ... that someone with no connections would lack."

We would love to give Mr. Wedel "Three cheers for being a government watchdog!" But he has only given us an opportunity to say "Hip, Hip ... uh, ok, maybe we can give you the benefit of the doubt."

Midland County Fair

A recent TV news report said the last county fair in Midland, Texas, took place in 1966. So after a long rest, this Rip Van Winkle is waking up this weekend for a relaxing, slow start.

The crowd was small which was a benefit for fair goers. No long lines, no tussling with mobs straining to see something, and easy movement throughout the whole thing.

Food booths helped satiate the fair goers' appetites. Your loyal blogger had a delicious chicken fajita burrito. Yum! They piled on shaved cheese and chopped lettuce with their bare hands, but any fear of germ transmission was dispelled by the hope that any germs on their fingers probably rubbed off onto the currency they had just handled.

Livestock was the star attraction with beautiful horses, shorn sheep, and cows with horns sticking out a yard on each side.

 

The little guy on the left above is a gorgeous 5 month old pony named Tonka. Isn't he a doll? Audry Cuyler is his proud owner.

 

The entry was a little different. The entrance to the Horse Shoe Arena on Cotton Flat Road was manned by a guy whose job it was to tell people that that entrance was for exit only. Fair goers had to travel the road and locate inconspicuous signs directing them to the I-20 entrance.  But it was all worth the effort to see those beautiful animals.

It can only get better.  Fair to Midland!

Drama unfolds in City Council tax session -- now for the performance awards (Satire alert)

The Midland, Texas, City Council spent many grueling hours yesterday listening to, arguing with, and explaining to citizens why the citizens should want higher taxes.

As everyone knows by now, when the clock struck 9:22 last night they closed the public hearing, made their speeches, and voted unanimously to raise our property taxes and garbage fees.

It was a gut wrenching experience for anyone who sat or stood through the whole thing, but it was rewarding in its own way. It was a reality show come to life. And some of the stars gave such outstanding performances that they deserve recognition. And now it's time to pass out the awards.

2010 Midland Budget Process Awards

Better Left Unsaid Award -- The winner is Jeff Sparks, the only Council member who voted "NO" to the motion to hold an evening session thereby telegraphing to the audience that he had already made up his mind. He sat silently throughout the entire proceeding, but wins this award hands down by saying to the citizens at the end: "Stay involved," leaving citizens thinking, "Fat lot of good it does."

Thinnest Skin Award -- The judges had a very hard time with this one as there were so many qualified candidates. But they finally settled on the Midland Reporter-Telegram, the official newspaper of the city of Midland -- it's in the Code -- for its editorial "Our View" in the 8/18/2010 print edition which chastised Jason Moore for his use of the word "cahoots" as a synonym for "agreement" in comparing the City Council's and MRT editorial board's attitude about the tax hike. The tipping point for the judges was the statement in the editorial that Mr. Moore's remark was "maybe even slanderous."

The Do As I Say Not As I Do Award -- To the City Council, for telling the citizens to read the budget, yet ducking all questions about the budget by handing them off to the Director of Finance or someone else to answer.

Tenacious Reporter Award -- This one goes to Midland Reporter-Telegram reporter Bob Campbell who patiently sat through almost 2/3 of the evening session surpassing all the TV crews by far.

Anger Mismanagement Award -- Councilman Scott Dufford, a self described "tax activist" who said, "I was angry when I first ran in 2001, but now I'm not so angry." He's still angry all right. Only now it's directed at people who disagree with him.

Think Inside the Box Award -- The award goes to Councilman John James. A citizen (me) tried to suggest to the Council that the public meetings could be broadcast on the government access channel without cost by using cameras the city already owns and city employees or volunteers to operate them. Mr. James, in a glib summation of the morning proceedings to attempt to explain why he wanted to raise taxes, put that citizen (me again) in the same category as another individual who went before the council asking for thousands of dollars in largess from the city. Tax payers would like to think the council members can, to use a phrase that got abundant usage at the hearings, "think outside the box" to find ways to cut expenses. The inability to distinguish a resourceful suggestion from a request for a handout earned Mr. James this award.

New Media Awareness Award -- Councilman Scott Dufford for making a begrudging acknowledgment of the existence of blogs. He proclaimed that he never reads blogs, but with one and only one exception: When they agree with him.

Sore Winner Award -- The Mayor and each of the Council members fought hard to defeat their political opponents and win enough votes to get to sit in governance of the rest of us. This prize goes to those members who belly ached about not getting enough thanks for all they've done for the city. Here's a tardy "Thank You." I guess you showed us.

You-Can't-Fight-City-Hall Award -- This one goes to all the people who patiently waited their turn, overcame their fears, faced possible humiliation and spoke out against higher taxes. Also known as the "The Don Quixote Award."

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OK, all finished now. I'm sure any Council member who accidentally stumbles onto this blog post knows it's all in good fun. No hard feelings, and hopefully we can all laugh about it now. The Council members told us over and over again that they did the best they could, and we have to believe them. The same thing is probably true up and down the city hierarchy, from the three guys who screw in the stop signs all the way up to the financial wizards who produced the finished budget. Everyone performed at the maximum of their ability, and that's all we can ask. So thanks, City Council. See ya next time.

City Council tax hearing 8/17/10

Things got testy at times today at the Midland, Texas, City Council hearing. The Council did its best to convince everyone that there is no way to cut the budget. And the citizens did their best to convince the Council members that they didn't want to pay any more in taxes.

Neither side budged. A couple of the citizens got a little hot under the collar, and the same could be said about at least one of the Council members. The "Even Keel" award goes to Mayor Wes Perry who managed to keep a calm and sometimes cheerful attitude throughout the entire procession.

Then there was the incomparable Jason Moore. Those who saw him for the first time may have thought he could have been the star player on his high school football team when he was younger. And those who heard him spar with the Council may have thought he had been the captain of his high school debate team. He made some eloquent and artful remarks, and he held everyone's attention when he spoke.

The Council voted to recess the morning session and reconvene tonight at 7:00pm to let the rest of the community have a say, so it's not over.

But one thing was abundantly clear. Those of us who gripe about high taxes really have not given them enough credit for what they've done in the past. Raise taxes and the taxpayers let them have it. Cut services and the citizens who want those services let them have it. Cut jobs or salaries and the city workers let them have it. There is no way to please everyone, and they've taken on a thankless job.

Anyway, take a look at some photos from this morning's meeting.

If body language could talk! Whew!

City Council needs to hear from taxpayers

The local Sunday paper had a nice collection of letters to the editor about the announced tax hike by the Midland, Texas, City Council. As you might suspect, the taxpayers are against it. But you can't fight city hall. Or can you?

The next Council meeting is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, August 17, at 8:30am -- not an ideal time of day for anyone who has a day job. But, apparently a couple of the city council members told the audience at the last meeting that they might move to temporarily adjourn the 8/17 morning meeting and reconvene at 7:00pm so that local taxpayers could have their voices heard.

The Midland Tea Party and others may want to take advantage of that. In fact, they might just show up at the city hall that night even if the city council decides not to reconvene.

Go to the Midland Tea Party meeting on Monday night to add your two cents on the subject.

Dallas District Clerk's records now online

A couple of months ago we wished upon a shooting star that Ross Bush, the new Midland County District Clerk, would put the official records online so that anyone wanting to see them wouldn't have to run the gauntlet and get strip searched as part of the Court House entry routine. In the process, we discovered that they are already available online, unfortunately it's quite expensive to use with a yearly fee of $120 plus a $0.10 per page fee, paid in advance, to view or print a document. See previously.

In that previous posting we noted that the District Clerk of Harris County (Houston) has their records online. Well now it looks like the Dallas County District Clerk's records are online too.  See District Clerk Reaches Historic Milestone with Public Access to Court Records at the District Clerk's blog.

[Aside: "District Clerk's blog?" Yep. Note to Ross Bush: if you want to blow our minds, start a "District Clerk's blog" of your own.]

What you have to do to see the Dallas records online is first go here, pick the type of court, do a name search, and get the case number. Then go here and plug in the case number. Pretty nifty. And based on the sample searches I did with some very common names, it's free!

Maybe it isn't fair to compare Midland with larger cities. We may not be able to keep up with the big boys. But if we hope to be something other than an ordinary small community we should at least try to keep the gap from growing so large that we give up trying.

Dogs for adoption -- get them while you can

This afternoon, as with every Saturday afternoon for the past three years, Laura Hollifield and some other Animal Outreach volunteers had some of the pets under their care up for adoption at the PetSmart here in Midland, Texas.  Here are a few photos from today's adoption showcase.

 

That's Ms. Hollifield in the first picture above left, and these are some of the dogs that were available today.

Regina Louise Carmichael, a heeler/corgi mix, shows off her one blue eye and one brown eye as she poses for the photo, above left. Those three pups in the next shot demonstrated how relaxed they could be in a crowd.

 

What fine pets these dogs would make.



That's Cowgirl above left in the bandana, showing off one of her tricks.  And on the right we see a curious canine investigating that big eye of the camera.  Maybe she'll be on TV.

They were such lovely dogs. And they are sure to make great pets for someone caring enough to adopt them. The animals have already been vaccinated, spayed or neutered, so the new owners won't have to worry about that.

Animal Outreach doesn't have a facility for the dogs, so volunteers provide foster homes for them until permanent homes can be found. It must be sad for the foster families to part with them, but one volunteer said it means they've helped one more animal and can go on to help another one.  Keep up the good work, y'all.