Here’s my second essay for Constituting America’s 27 Amendments in 90 Days project.  This one explains the 21st Amendment, which repealed the 18th Amendment and Prohibition. 

My commentary on the 21st Amendment, the repeal of Prohibition, will appear next week.

What Libya will look like, or who will run the country after the dust settles remains unknown. The downfall of a murderous dictator is no doubt beneficial; let’s just hope that the end result is better for Libya and the world than the enemy we knew and understood.

Fortunately, when I first ran for Mayor in 2005, my opponent dropped out of the race and endorsed me.  This allowed me to focus not on my own election, but on getting the information to the voters so they could make an informed choice about the city’s future in that election to adopt the city charter.  Between now and May 14, 2010, I will similarly focus on getting correct information to the voters about the benefits and necessity of the city’s sewer system.  This decision by the voters is the most important vote since 2005, and perhaps is even more important to the city’s future.  This city council has spent the last 5 and a half years in meeting after meeting, workshops, fact finding tours, and independent study to prepare them for tonight’s historic vote, and it is critical that we share that information with the voters over the next 60 plus days.

That is why I announce today that I will not run in a fourth election to return as Mayor of Granite Shoals.  While it has been an honor and pleasure to provide leadership to Granite Shoals, it is now up to the voters to decide whether that vision continues for this city, or whether the city, as it has done far too often in the past, kicks the can down the road.  I have faith that the voters, if properly informed as they were in 2005, will make the right choice for Granite Shoals’ future. Granite Shoals is poised to make so much more progress if the voters approve the bonds, as not only is the water quality in Lake LBJ at stake, but also true economic development that will spread the city’s tax burden across the city to new businesses, new homes, and new sales tax revenues.  The future of Granite Shoals is in your hands now.

To publicly serve the city in which I grew up has been an awesome experience, and I look forward to remaining involved with the community as a private citizen.    Because the service has been so rewarding, I will also keep open the possibility of serving the public again in a different forum.

Since the date that Granite Shoals voters approved the home rule charter by a wide margin and I began to serve, the City of Granite Shoals has made great progress toward becoming a better community for all of us.

In this five and a half year period, the city has accomplished many things in a number of areas including the following:

City Governance

n     Hired two first class interim city managers John Gayle and John Hatchel, who both led us through some rocky times and who have placed the city on an excellent foundation for future growth;

n     Hired its first permanent city manager, Judy Miller, who brings decades of experience in city management and planning services to the city;

n     Performed an employee classification study, modified salaries accordingly, and adopted professionally drawn employment policies and job descriptions tailored to GS’s needs.

n     Established a Beautification Advisory Group to advise and assist the city in its beautification efforts.  We had over 40 years of neglect in this city, and this group is responsible for close to $100,000 in grant funds that have been used to clean up the city through our city-wide cleanups and other activities.  The city’s code enforcement office utilized the cleanup events as an incentive to violators to remove junk from their properties.  During the aftermath of the 2007 flood, the city was able to leverage FEMA debris funds to help clean up a number of locations within Granite Shoals.   Tons of debris have been removed from Granite Shoals over the past 5 years, and it shows.  We have a long ways to go, but the progress is undeniable.  The BAG, with the support of the Highland Lakes Master Gardeners, also landscaped the former city hall, which is now the police station, and is landscaping around the new city hall.

n     Solved the issues pertaining to the Sherwood Shores Trust Fund, and have obtained the court’s authority to wind up the trust at the end of 2011.  Since those issues have been resolved and answered, the city council now has easily 30 minutes more each meeting in which to discuss matters that really affect the city. The accounting and administrative overhead of the trust fund will be eliminated at the end of this year.

n     Created a program to allow waterfront residents to purchase, if they so desire, narrow strips of land between the platted lot lines and the 825’ contour normal pool elevation of Lake LBJ; proceeds from this program paid for the large flags and flag poles at Veterans’ Memorial Park, replaced four dilapidated boat ramps, stabilized the lake shore in several parks, purchased playground equipment, picnic tables, trash receptacles and BBQ grills in all of the city’s parks.

n     Purchased 131.6 acres of land to use in part for the city’s sewer system, if approved by the voters, large park areas, and renovated the granite building into a city hall that not only will serve the city for generations to come, but will also be a beacon for the city to show its new commitment to progress.  That purchase implemented several key pieces in the city’s comprehensive plans:  obtain green space and open areas for ball fields as current neighborhood parks are too small; implement a sewer system; replace the existing overcrowded city hall that was built over 30 years ago.  People forget that our staff was stuffed into that small space, and that the city frequently had mechanical issues that would soon require significant expenditures.

n     A new city hall was estimated to cost $1.2 million to replace what we had and to add space, and a new very basic, bare bones, community center would cost $300,000.  The city spent $1.2 million to upgrade the existing building to ADA and other code requirements, and the city more than quadrupled its space, providing also for an upgraded community center.

n     360 Global paid $12 million for the property.  Original purchase price was $6.9 million, price ultimately dropped to $3.9 million, which spurred interest in the property by investors, and the city negotiated a price of $3.175 million, and the city later acquired the minerals for $395,000.  A recent appraisal of the land and city hall building (excluding the large metal quarry buildings which have hundreds of thousands of dollars of value) placed the investment value at $5,750,000 million, giving the city so far a net increase in value of $1.2 million, not including the metal buildings  and driveway improvements.   If a sewer system is developed the land will likely double in value.

n     Resolved boundary and ETJ issues with the City of Horseshoe Bay.

n     Adopted a city seal and flag.

n     Implemented a strong ethics ordinance.

n     Resolved the legal issues that divided the city from property owners on Beaver Island and WEB Isle, smoothing the road to future ultimate unification of all sides.

Techonology

n     Replaced the city’s accounting system, which was utilizing QuickBooks, into a fully integrated accounting system designed for small to medium sized cities, which is providing city management and policy makers with much more relevant, better and more current information, and allows water utility customers to pay their bills online.

n     Began the process to put all city ordinances on line so they will be available to the public at all times.

n     Created a presence for the city on the Internet’s social media applications, Facebook and Twitter, being the first city in the county to do so.

n     Implemented a GIS system to start documenting and better locating our city assets, including water lines and streets.

n     Engaged in a test program, at no cost to taxpayers, to archive city council meetings online so that the public can follow the city’s business without having to attend in person.

n     Set up city email addresses for all council members, which not only provides a more professional city presence, but also keeps personal email separate from city email.

Utilities

n     Replaced miles of water lines with CDBG grants and city revenues.  We have many more lines to replace, and those along the areas slated to receive sewer service will be replaced as the city adds in the new lines.

n     Completed a state of the art $6.2 million water treatment plant that is expandable to serve the city for generations to come.

n     Received over $1 million in grant funds to upgrade water lines, add fire hydrants and to upgrade water treatment plant features.

n     Completed a grant-funded sewer study that is the basis for the city’s current phased proposal to provide city-wide sewer service, which is on the ballot in May, 2011.

n     Sought a rule change at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to allow, as is allowed for all other water bodies in the state, the return of clean, reclaimed water into the watershed, which would save the city $5 million from the cost of the city’s sewer system.

Transportation

n     Encouraged TexDOT to replace the traffic light and reconfigure the intersection at Phillips Ranch Road and 1431 to allow for better traffic flow and to add protected turn signals and crosswalks, as well as to add directional signage along 1431 for major intersections.

n     Established a Streets and Water Advisory Group to advise the city staff on coordination and planning for street and water line improvements.  When that group started, they determined that the city was responsible for about 77 miles of roads, one-half of which were paved. The city had been paving 1 to 3 miles of road per year.  By working with the county and planning the street paving, we have paved the equivalent of 38.7 miles of road in the last five years. We have paved a number of unpaved roads and are working to get all of our dirt roads paved while maintaining our existing paved roads.

n     Systematically replaced and placed numerous street name and traffic signs across the city. With funds budgeted this year, we plan to complete the entire city’s current needs.

n     Purchased a new heavy duty vibrating roller, a new mowing tractor with hole-digging implements for signage, and a new dump truck to improve efficiency.

Recreation and Economic Development

n     Recruited the Andy Roddick Foundation International Tennis Center, to be located at the city’s municipal complex, which will not only bring tennis facilities and programs to Granite Shoals youth and residents at no cost, but will also bring in large tournaments that will contribute millions of dollars to the city’s economy (provided, of course, if the city builds a sewer system that will allow the construction of hotel rooms, restaurants and other service industry infrastructure.  The Foundation plans a number of high profile fundraising events to follow last year’s circus event that entertained over 4,000 people and raised thousands of dollars for the tennis complex.  These events will have the dual effect of bringing more people into Granite Shoals for the fundraisers, as well as generating revenues to build the tennis center.

n     Applied for, thus far, about $600,000 worth of grant funds to start developing the park in the city center, with the opportunity to apply for another $750,000 this year.  The city’s equivalent match to these funds will be made by contributing the land and structures that we already own, and will not require an additional city match.  Granite Shoals native and Olympic star Leo Manzano has lent his expertise and name toward developing about 2.5 miles of walking, hiking, biking and running trails.

n     Twice, with the help of local businesses, the city has saved the private postal contract unit.

n     Implemented a hotel-motel tax, which replaced the tax collected by the county, the proceeds of which can be used to for certain tourism and economic development purposes within the city.

n     Negotiated development agreements with two major landholders adjacent to the city to protect the city’s interests should those properties ever develop.

n     Completed a professionally prepared comprehensive plan with enormous public input, and the city has began implementing that plan with a new subdivision ordinance, and is currently developing a new zoning ordinance, non-point source ordinance, and impact fee ordinance to prepare the city for the growth that is already at our doorstep.

n     Annexed areas long considered part of Granite Shoals, but which were not within the city limits, so that the city would be able to provide full services to those areas, including police, fire and code enforcement.

Emergency Management and Public Safety

n     Survived and rebuilt after a 500 year flood event in 2007, using local funds and FEMA matches to repair roads and drainage facilities, as well as provided water front residents with a means and place to remove flood debris.  Secured grant funds for the city’s debris cleanup match to FEMA, and purchased a brush shredder with grant funds to help manage debris.

n     Added two part time paid fire fighters.

n     Obtained hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants for the police and fire departments for equipment and gear, including a new brush truck, mobile incident command and dive station.

n     Replaced the roof at the police station and retrofitted the structure for better efficiency.

n     Provided for 24/7 non-emergency phone service, as well as changed the city’s dispatch to Marble Falls Police Department, which results in increased efficiency.

n     Adopted a city sex-offender registration ordinance, which prohibits all sex offenders from residing or locating within 1,000 feet of any place where children gather, which includes public parks, schools and churches.

n     Stopped the practice of city taxpayer subsidization of out of city fire calls by implementing an insurance charge back program and contracting with individual cities and subdivisions on a truer cost recovery basis.

n     Contracted with Christ-Yoder Animal Shelter/Adoption Center to handle stray dogs and cats and enacted a new animal registration ordinance.

It is a pleasure to serve as your mayor, and as always, I welcome your input, comments and concerns.  Feel free to email me at mayor@graniteshoals.org.

If you wish to be removed from these mailings, just let me know, and if you know of others who want to be added to the distribution, please email me.

After over five years of professional city management, and a clear vision from its city council, the City of Granite Shoals is perfectly poised for excellence. Some have said the city is a diamond in the rough, pointing to its ideal location on Lake LBJ, and located in central Texas, less than an hour’s drive from the booming state capital.

Immediately after the 2005 election, with the charter in hand and an almost 3 to 1 mandate for positive change, the city council got to work. They removed the shackles of old battles and the vestiges of its sometimes colorful past. As a result, the city council and city management no longer have to struggle with the nagging Sherwood Shores Trust issues and the seemingly never ending legal tugs-of-war with the island residents. The city has developed workable solutions to other long-time issues such as encroachments upon city park property, and providing a remedy for lakefront owners who desire to sell their property but cannot do so because a title company or lender insists that they obtain clear title to narrow fill areas. We implemented new accounting procedures and programs and brought in a new auditor, and made a number of changes at city hall to better serve the public.

With the exception of some issues that are indicative of growing pains of a dynamic community, our city council meetings are now relatively boring, as the old clashes between the mayor and city council regarding city management and vision evaporated with the passage of the home rule charter. Now, the council hires a city manager, who implements the council’s vision and policy, rather than having a mayor who sometimes had different visions or policy choices than the council. Just over five years ago that the city often measured a mayor’s term in months, rather than years.

At the same time the city council was working through and resolving the issues that had been districting over the years, the council also went about methodically preparing the city for its bright future. A new comprehensive plan is in place, a new subdivision ordinance has been enacted, an impact fee ordinance that will require developers to pay their own way is in the works, a new town center and recreational complex is taking shape next to the new city hall, and a new drinking water treatment plant has been completed that can serve the city for generations.

These actions were just a start. The key component of the city’s potential for success is for the city to build the sewer system that it should have built 40 years ago when the federal government would have subsidized it. I can only imagine how different this community would be today had our leaders then had the vision and strength of today’s city council. Today, the city, starting with a grant funded study, and culminating with a phased-in plan to serve the entirety of the existing city population of Granite Shoals, has received a commitment for low-interest subsidized financing from the state’s Clean Water Fund that is 1.5 percent below market for the city’s first phase. Voters in Granite Shoals will determine on May 14 whether to authorize the city council to incur the debt and begin the design, permitting, and construction of the first phase that will serve RM 1431 for commercial development and the first 500 housing connections.

The city’s future is now in the hands of the same voters who, five and a half years ago, passed the home rule charter by a 3 to 1 margin. Those voters expressed a desire for a new era in Granite Shoals in which petty political battles would give way to a professionally managed city government that would begin to address the city’s many troublesome issues. I have full confidence that these voters, now with proof positive that their vote in 2005 has generated all they hoped it would, will take the next step that will ensure Granite Shoals’ future as a viable, attractive, sustainable, and very livable city.

Passage of the bonds will pave the way toward true, positive economic growth that will sustain the city, create jobs, and allow Granite Shoals to continue its progress in upgrading its streets and other infrastructure. The new economic development will provide the city with a more diversified property tax base – relieving the waterfront owners from carrying the lion’s share of property tax revenues as the city builds out its interior residential lots, and commercial property begins to develop along 1431. The sewer system will be the engine that drives the new development, and it will not only spread out property taxes amongst more and new property owners, it will allow the city to generate a sales tax base, and hotel-motel taxes.

The vision does not call for large box retailers or industrial development, but instead commercial ventures that will serve a growing Granite Shoals population that can buy its necessary items closer to home, receive their health care services without driving to another community, and provide service, food and lodging establishments for the influx of tourist dollars that the Andy Roddick International Tennis Center and our parks complex will bring to the city. Rather than rely on an industrial or manufacturing economy, this city can build on its base as a tourist destination, and an incredible community to call home.

Now that I have set the scene for the future, here is the state of the city. Even factoring the legal settlement to the island residents, the city now maintains a minimum three month operational reserve fund, which is something it has not always done in the past. We have a new city manager with the knowledge, experience, skills and wisdom to keep the city operating smoothly, efficiently, and progressively. The city has the second largest tax base and the third largest population in Burnet County.

The city has an incredible opportunity with the Andy Roddick Foundation International Tennis Center to bring in millions of outside dollars. The center, along with the proposed walking, hiking and biking trails that Granite Shoals native and Olympic running star Leo Manzano is designing and to which he is lending his name, and the other proposed recreational projects will also offer residents of all ages a great place to relax and have fun. The state of the city is sound, its current foundation is solid, and its future is very bright. If our voters have the same wisdom in May as they had in 2005, there will be no stopping Granite Shoals from becoming the most desirable city in which to live in Central Texas.

Subscribe to the newsletter by email by sending a note to mayor@graniteshoals.org.

The sewer system must be built to protect Lake LBJ and our groundwater. We have over 2,000 septic systems in Granite Shoals, any many are old and failing. The lack of a sewer system has driven commerce to Marble Falls and Kingsland, where the cost of building restaurants, grocery stores, and the like is far less expensive because they don’t have to build costly large septic systems.

Granite Shoals residents and visitors provide a significant portion of Marble Falls’ $7 million in sales taxes which, if those funds stayed here in the community, could offset our growing property taxes (Granite Shoals’ sales taxes are about $65 thousand a year in comparison). Increased commerce will not only provide additional sales taxes, but will build up property taxes along 1431 and other commercial areas. With the property value growth from a new sewer system, the city can reduce its reliance upon waterfront property owners to fund the majority of the city’s operations.

You may soon hear from some opponents to the sewer system. The opponents say that the wrong people are being served in the first phase and that the city should build the system all at once. Unfortunately, in phasing, some of us will have to wait for future phases to reach us, and the city’s engineers have carefully laid out the phases to keep costs at a minimum.

The first phase will be built closest to the plant, and future phases will expand from there. To show that the city is serious about fully serving the entire city, I will propose a resolution at next week’s city council meeting that formally outlines the city’s phased plan, and which will state that part of the plan includes stubbing out some untapped lines into Phase 2, and closer to Phase 3. Phase 1 and its untapped lines will cover almost all of the city’s eastern shoreline of Lake LBJ, an important step toward providing future service and protecting water quality.

While I too would far prefer the city to build the entire system at once, the cost of putting the entire project in place at one time would require the city to more than triple its tax rates to levels above those charged by the school district. Our residents cannot afford to pay for the entire system at one time, which is why we must phase in the system, and allow growth in the tax base to help pay for later phases. (In my last newsletter, I incorrectly stated that the estimated the cost of all phases was about $40 million; that number is actually about $60 million).

As to cost, the opponents use scare tactics and false assumptions to also say that Granite Shoals cannot afford the system at all (which conflicts with their argument that the city should install the entire system at one time). For the average homeowner, your taxes might have to go up by as much as $0.038 cents per $100 (or $38 per year on a $100,000 home) starting in 2012. People 65 or older will not pay ANY tax increase on their homestead. No one will pay a monthly service fee, estimated to be $35 a month for sewer service, until their home is tied into the system. The city will be paying for that tie in. If we delay this project, these numbers will do nothing but increase.

The opponents are circulating a petition that would require the citizens to vote in May on whether to build a sewer system, which would delay the system by at least a year, even if the voters passed the proposal. If there weren’t significant costs to the city associated with a delay, I would not be speaking out about the petition at all. But before you consider signing a petition to put this project to a vote of the citizens, I encourage you to consider the costs of delaying the project.

A delay will cost the city tremendously in several ways. First, the historic low 3.3 percent interest available to the city on the bonds will almost certainly be higher in a year. Second, construction costs will likely increase in a year’s time as the economy improves. Third, hundreds of thousands of dollars of land and easement rights donated to the city conditioned upon the city diligently moving forward with a sewer plant could be lost. Fourth, we cannot ensure that in a year from now the city will qualify for the state program that currently is providing the city with the opportunity for low interest bonds. And finally, the city now has a chance to control its destiny in timing and the provision of sewer service, and delay will cost us that control.

Finally, please see the attached letter from the Lower Colorado River Authority regarding the water quality benefits of a sanitary sewer system. While the LCRA is clearly not threatening the city in any way, I know that if the city delays or fails to build the project, some state or federal entity – or even a group of environmental activists – could try to force Granite Shoals to build a sewer system to protect the water quality of Lake LBJ, and at that time, the city will no longer control the timing or the terms like we do today.

Timing is critical for Granite Shoals.

We now have a remarkable opportunity while interest rates are at an historic low, construction costs are down, the city has land and easements that have been donated to it conditioned upon the city building a sewer plant now without delay, and we have the chance to do this under our own terms, favorable to
Granite Shoals, and on our own schedule. If we delay this opportunity, we stand to lose all of these things.

Please join me in supporting a sewer system for Granite Shoals, and thanks for your consideration.

Proposed Phasing of Granite Shoals Sewer System



Proposed Phases for GS Sewer System

[You can follow the City of Granite Shoals on Facebook at www.facebook.com/GraniteShoals or on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GraniteShoalsTx]

Mayor Frank Reilly wrote about the City of Granite Shoals’ new vision as set forth in its 2010 Comprehensive Plan in the March 4, 2010 edition of the River Cities Tribune.   You might need to use the zoom feature in your browser to be able to read it.

A New Vision for Granite Shoals