Philosophy
The City of Richardson is a municipal corporation dedicated to the promotion of business. In a very real sense it is a laboratory for putting all one's economic eggs in one basket, the Telecom Corridor, (In 1992, the Telecom Corridor®area name was trademarked by the Richardson Chamber of Commerce) and what happens when the basket drops. It is also an example of government for the few, for corporate citizens and insiders, at the expense of the many.
In the words of the City Manager, "The City provides to its citizens a full range of services including police and fire protection, emergency ambulance service, water and sewer service, solid waste disposal, park and recreational activities, cultural events, and a library. In addition, the City provides planning for future land use, traffic control, building inspection, and neighborhood services and operates two eighteen-hole golf courses. The City also operates the Charles W. Eisemann Center for Performing Arts and Corporate Presentations, which is a multi-venue performing arts and presentation center." [1]
What it does not do is protect the rights and property of the residents, treating the people as their main source of income while giving businesses tax exemptions and abatements.
Every candidate for City Council claims to be conservative, yet the city does many liberal things. As a suburb of about 100,000, it seems excessive to spend money on two golf courses and a center for performing arts when Dallas is just a few miles away. It isn't usual for cities to publish the principle newspaper in a city instead of letting the business community step up and take that responsibility. It seems rather liberal for the city to be giving taxpayer money to groups for the performing arts, rather than letting these groups go directly to the public.
What the city means by neighborhood services is hyper regulation, oppressive coercion using the threat of prosecution to cheat people of property. "Section 13.1 of the Code of Ordinances defines nuisance as: "... a nuisance includes, but not limited to, whatever is dangerous to human life or health, whatever renders the ground, the water, the air or the food a hazard or injurious to human life or health or that is offensive to the senses or that is or tends to become detrimental to the public health."
Then the city presumes that "unsightly vegetation" is a nuisance per se to avoid the necessity of proving harm. They claim that city bureaucrats decide what is beautiful and what is not. Furthermore, an ordinance purports to authorize seizure of the resident's property without due process guaranteed by the 14th amendment. That is absurd on its face and the evidence is that the city itself does not obey the ordinances, choosing to interpret them differently for themselves and for residents. Naturally these ordinances are not applied to businesses since Neighborhood Services looks only to residences. With this and other absurd ordinances, the city detected 23,715 residential code violations [2] in a city of 39,618 housing units[3].
The city treats public property as corporate property owned by the corporation for the benefit of the corporation and makes the public pay for the use of what rightly belongs to the people. As an example, what the city calls "Franchise Fees" are charges made for the use of public right of way on utility bills; the residents pay to use public property. The city owned and operated ambulance service charges residents for the service, the city owned Senior Center and Recreation Centers charge fees. They have gone so far as to create a non-profit corporation (Richardson Improvement Corporation)to do the work of the city, with the City Manager as the corporation president.
"Richardson Improvement Corporation (RIC) is a nonprofit corporation that serves the citizens of the City by improving municipal parks and recreational facilities through land acquisition and the development of parks. The City provides all financial support to RIC and all members of its governing board are appointed by City Council. Because the services that RIC provides exclusively benefits the City and the RIC operations are so intertwined with those of the City, RIC is in substance a department of the City and has been blended into the City’s financial statements in the Other Governmental Funds category and reported as a Special Revenue Fund."[4]
There is a certain kangaroo court nature to justice in the City Code of Ordinances. In Sec. 14-3 guilt is assumed to follow from allegation, without due process.
- Sec. 14-3. - Violations.
- Every nuisance coming under this chapter, whether generally or specifically, is prohibited and forbidden within the city, and any person making, causing, or permitting any of the nuisances as defined generally or specifically shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be subject to the provisions of section 1-8 of this Code.
- (Code 1966, § 13-69)
Since the presumption of guilt has already been made without a trial of judicial procedure, it seems to follow that the government can take control of the private property. It is hard to imagine what would be more damaging to property values than to make ownership rights uncertain.
- Sec. 14-4. - Abatement procedure.
- If any person violates or fails or refuses to comply with the provisions of section 14-2 within ten days after notice in writing; or by letter addressed to such person at his post office address; or by publication as many as two times within ten consecutive days in the official publication of the city, if personal service may not be had as aforesaid, or the person's address is not known, the city may go upon such property and do or cause to be done such work as necessary to abate or remove such nuisance; and the expense incurred, including the cost of publishing such notice, shall be paid to the city and charged to the owner of such property; and to punish any person violating the provisions of this chapter; and the city may cause the work to be done at the expense of the city, on account of the owner of the property upon which the nuisance is maintained or permitted, and cause the expenses thereof to be assessed on the real estate, or lot or lots upon which such expense is incurred. On filing with the county clerk of the county in which the property is located a statement by the city manager, or his designee, the city shall have a privileged lien thereon, second only to tax liens and liens for street improvements, to secure the amount of the expenditure so made and ten percent on the amount from the date of such payment. For any such expenditures and interest, suit may be instituted and foreclosure had in the name of the city, with the right of the city to recover reasonable attorneys' fees. The statement so made, as aforesaid, or a certified copy thereof, shall be prima facie proof of the amount expended in any such work.
- (Code 1966, § 13-67)
Conservative values are sometimes summarized as less government regulation and services and less taxes. Sometimes these values are tempered with moral considerations which inspire restrictions on personal behavior but the philosophy is still based on principles. But there is another brand that calls itself conservative but there is less principle involved.
As Molly Ivins put it, our state's motto has always been, "Low taxes, low services." [5]
Molly Ivins said [6] "And Texas has always been the national laboratory for bad government."
- These people really believe that public institutions should be destroyed. They're trying to destroy the schools. They're trying to destroy the welfare system. They don't think government should be used to help people.
- And it's really not because they're mean. They really think that government is bad. And that we should be doing all this on our own, through the churches. Well, the fact that that's not doable, that it's impossible, that it's an absurd proposition, is not something you can talk to these people about. It's like trying to talk to followers of David Koresh.
- MOYERS: The cult leader, who…
- IVINS: They're like people in a cult. They are so convinced of their own rectitude that they are not open to reason or fact or persuasion.
FY 2010-2011 Approved Budget, pp.397-398
