Do you remember that old cereal commercial, the one where a rabbit kept being foiled in its attempt to get a kid's Trix cereal, and the announcer kept reminding him, "Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids." Well, in this analogy, the rabbit is a pedestrian, roads are Trix, and the kids are cars. I know, it's kind of a stretch, but bear with me.
An agenda item for the December 11, 2023, Richardson City Council meeting caught my eye. The City is on the verge of using eminent domain to acquire parts of two properties on Main Street across from the Police Department. One property is the address of the Ice House. The other is the address of Spice of Richardson, an Indian restaurant.
The visitors' section was full. There was an overflow crowd. For ninety minutes Monday night, speaker after speaker came to the podium and made heartfelt pleas for the Richardson City Council to pass a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and to take measures to address the rise of Islamophobia in America.
Recently, the Richardson City Council got into what passes for a contentious exchange over the question of naming parks (or, at least, naming of bridges in parks). What it boils down to is that the lack of any policies in Richardson results in naming by whim — i.e., when someone on City Council gets a notion to name something after someone, and just mentions it at a Council meeting, and others on the Council agree it's a good idea, it happens. Just like that. I called it government by whim.
Our big neighbor to the south has a different practice.
At the November 13, 2023, Richardson City Council meeting, the Council approved a resolution naming a new park "Twin Rivers Park" and naming the bridge there "Bob and Lynn Townsend Bridge." The vote was 7-0. An uncontroversial action. So why did it feel like some people were left feeling more than a little frustrated, if not with the result, then at least with the process, or lack of one? And why did Mayor Bob Dubey feel a need to apologize?
Coming out of an executive session during the November 6, 2023, Richardson City Council meeting, Mayor Pro Tem Arefin made this motion: "I move that the City Manager be authorized to execute a mutually satisfactory settlement agreement in Walker at al. v City of Richardson, Texas, et al. civil action on 3:22-CV-01164-X pending in the United States District Court, Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division and any documents related thereto." Seconded by Councilmember Joe Corcoran and approved unanimously without comment, this motion at 10:59pm closed the book on a sorry story of Richardson's history.
On the agenda for the November 6, 2023, Richardson City Council meeting was this item: "REVIEW AND DISCUSS STRATEGIES TO PROMOTE PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT AND INVOLVEMENT." This is less than two months when they idea of a community engagement board was raised in the Council's goal-setting meeting, and less than a month since the Council first deliberated on this matter in open session (October 16). Then I was pleased to see the Council quickly tackle this need, but I was not as pleased with the scattershot ideas the Council had. Now I hoped that maybe this month they'd be focused and align on effective approaches.
At the November 6, 2023, Richardson City Council meeting, the Council adopted its tactics for the 2023-2025 term. According to City Manager Don Magner, these were developed with direction from the City Council and inputs from Boards and Commissions, residents and businesses. But let's face it, they were essentially drawn up by Magner. They read like a (long) scorecard by which his performance will be able to be graded.
Let me say, up front, that I very much like the comprehensiveness of this list. It shows just how much is going on at City Hall. There's no comparison to the (relatively) meager list of tactics brainstormed by the City Council at its Saturday morning unrecorded meeting on September 16. But given that the City Council's list might indicate just what they think is important, let's compare it with what the City Manager presented Monday night.
At the November 6, 2023, Richardson City Council meeting, one agenda item struck me as curious. It was listed as "REVIEW, DISCUSS, AND UPDATE ON THE 2021 BOND PROGRAM PARKS CAPITAL PROJECTS AND PROPOSED NAMES." That 2021 bond included $7.5 million for parks. You'd think the Council would keep a close eye on how that money is being spent. Good governance. Keep your eye on the ball and all that. Well, you'd think wrong. Instead, in Monday's update, the seven councilmembers were easily distracted by the unimportant part of that agenda item, the "AND PROPOSED NAMES."
At the October 16, 2023, Richardson City Council meeting, the City demonstrated it can react quickly to suggestions if it has a mind to. The City Council meeting agenda had this item:
"D. REVIEW AND DISCUSS STRATEGIES TO PROMOTE PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT AND INVOLVEMENT"
This was a direct outcome of the September 16, 2023, worksession to develop the 2023-2025 Council Goals. At that meeting (which was not recorded or documented by the City, so I'm relying on notes taken by Justin Neth), Jennifer Justice wanted to establish a Community Engagement Board. Mayor Pro Tem Arefin suggested adding a Diversity Board. The Council felt that this was covered under the Community Engagement Board. Now, just a month later, City Manager Don Magner brought this tactic to the City Council for their deliberation:
"Explore the creation of a board to celebrate and promote diversity, inclusion, accessibility, etc."
The October 16, 2023, Richardson City Council agenda held promise:
"B. REVIEW AND DISCUSS CITY COUNCIL GOALS FOR THE 2023-2025 COUNCIL TERM"
Consultant Rick Robinson spent seven minutes showing slides. They were drafts of new versions of "Role of Council," "Rules of Engagement," "Vision Statement," "Goals," and "New Key Strategies." All of these slide titles were preceded by the word "Proposed," so I assumed the "discussion" part of this agenda item would be a spirited review of the proposals. Instead, the Council spent exactly 20 seconds doing this. Or rather, Mayor Bob Dubey did. I quote verbatim the entirety of the Council's discussion before the mayor moved on to the next agenda item:
Bob Dubey: Thank you. Council, any comments? I think you've captured everything, said it exactly the way we said it. And we appreciate your hard work and commitment to the City of Richardson to make us better, transparent, and more efficient. So thank you very much.Source: City of Richardson.
Because the Council didn't care to discuss their work, I guess it's up to me.
At the October 9, 2023, Richardson City Council meeting, the Council denied an application for a special permit for a car wash on Centennial Blvd. The vote was 6-1, with Joe Corcoran being the lone Councilmember who voted to approve the application.
Richardson's draft vision statement sees Richardson as having "a small town feel and big city amenities." In case anyone wonders what that means, this case offers a clue. The City Council spending an hour debating whether to allow a new car wash behind an already existing gas station is definitely "small town." Denying the request because the Council wants something grander behind the gas station is aspiring to be "big city."
At the September 25, 2023, Richardson City Council meeting, the Council received an update on progress to update the City's 2009 Comprehensive Plan. I was disappointed to see that there was little progress, unless the progress has been to plan Community Summit 2. In October, the consultants on the Envision Richardson team will be conducting a Community Summit 2 to gather more public input. Open Houses will be held October 10 and 28. I was disappointed to see little engagement with the Council or by the Council in shaping the Comp Plan.
At the September 18, 2023, Richardson City Council meeting, the Council heard an update on the Public Library design and the Civic Center Campus site plan. I'm a big fan of what I saw for the Library. (I say "saw" because of the recorded video, a neat feature the City Council should consider for all City Council meetings.) Still, I think the preferred campus site plan (Option A2) has a problem with traffic flow that could be easily and significantly improved, as I'll diagram later.
At a special Saturday meeting of the Richardson City Council on September 16, 2023, the Council deliberated its goals for the 2023-2025 term. I can't provide a link to the video because there is no video. The Council decided not to televise this meeting. But in attendance was Justin Neth. If you haven't been reading his reports from City Council meetings, you are missing the best way to follow what's going on. He usually keeps his opinions to a minimum (unlike yours truly) and covers the whole meeting (unlike yours truly). I couldn't attend in person, so my opinions on this goal-setting meeting are entirely drawn from Justin Neth's own report (in which he offers his own cogent opinions).
At the September 11 City Council meeting, the Council approved a request (ZF 23-06) to rezone 36 acres on Waterview Parkway north of UT-Dallas from technical office use to a transit-oriented, mixed-use, planned development. The vote was 5-1 (Dan Barrios voted no; Jennifer Justice was absent.) What makes this case complicated is that the property is owned by two different entities — UTD and a private developer. What makes this case simple is that one of the applicants is UTD. Usually, UTD gets what UTD wants. This case was no exception. I have two reactions.
1964: The Free Kick Game: Vince Lombardi's Packers were the first team to ever invoke the "fair catch free kick" rule. After Elijah Pitts fair caught a punt on the Packers 48 yard line just before halftime, Vince Lombardi informed the referees that they would be trying a free kick. There was confusion among all. Neither team had ever seen it before or practiced it.The Packers lined up on the line of scrimmage with Bart Starr holding the ball. Paul Hornung stepped up and made the 52-yard field goal as the half ended. Everyone was shocked and the Bears were embarrassed as the Packers went on to win 23-12. Lombardi said after the game it was probably a "once in a lifetime" occurrence. He was proven wrong, however, as the Bears would return the favor 4 years later, beating the Packers on the free kick.
Source: Bleacher Report.
I wasn't at that 1964 game, but I was in the stands in Lambeau Field for that 1968 game. I remember I was shocked to see this play call. That Lombardi knew the rule in 1964 doesn't surprise me. That George Halas knew the rule in 1968 doesn't surprise me either, especially after the Packers exploited it against the Bears four years earlier. Great coaches know the rules inside out.
At the August 21, 2023, meeting, the Richardson City Council was shown two draft designs for a redeveloped municipal campus. The Council generally favored the building placements of Option A, but with one controversy. That was a new entrance off Arapaho Rd between the library and a relocated City Hall with a drive that will go by the fountain. It's safe to bet that the building placements in Option A will be part of the selected site plan, but what to do with that drive is very much up in the air.
Below, after the diagram for Option A, are selected comments by the Council Members that I find illustrative of their thinking.
It's been a while since we checked in on a couple of lawsuits against the Richardson Police Department. First, there's a lawsuit by former police officer Kayla Walker charging the RPD with running an illegal ticket quota system. Walker's lawsuit is still slowly, slowly, making its way through the wheels of justice. Then there's the lawsuit by Neco Bonham, who, as an eighteen-year-old in 2021, was stopped by RPD for what seemed like a routine traffic stop, only to end up Tased, punched, and arrested. The district attorney's office dropped all charges against him. The arresting officer was reprimanded. Bonham sued. I haven't read anything about Bonham's lawsuit in over two years. I did read something about the officer who stopped him — he's still with the RPD and, two years later, was promoted.
That brings us to this week's news.
At a work session August 14, 2023, the Richardson City Council reviewed the 2023-2024 budget proposed by City Manager Don Magner. With property appraisals up, the City is awash in additional tax revenue. With the economy booming (historically low unemployment and solid consumer spending), public complaints about the cost of local government are unusually muted. There were no public speakers at this week's Council meeting. Drawing up this year's budget must have been as easy as falling off a log. The bottom line: the City has $15.4 million more in revenues and is having no trouble finding ways to spend it.