Tag Archives: Amarillo City Hall

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Here is my wish for my city

A truly crappy year is moving into its final week.

Americans have elected a seriously deficient individual as president of the United States; we lost a lot of iconic celebrities in the arts, sports, pop culture and politics. I’m going to hope for the best as it regards the new president and, of course, I can’t do a thing about those we lost.

Here at home, Amarillo is in the midst of a serious municipal makeover. Since we’re heading into down the stretch of a tumultuous year, I don’t believe it’s too early to offer a wish or two for 2017 for the city I’ve called home for the past 22 years.

Here goes …

They’ve knocked down a Coca-Cola warehouse and distribution center downtown. They’ve relocated it at a new business park on the north side of the city. What happens next to the now-vacant site depends on what happens in San Antonio and whether our local government authorities can negotiate a good deal for the downtown business and entertainment district.

The old Coke site is slated to become home for a ballpark. Its cost now sits at about $45 million. It is supposed to be the home field for a Class AA minor-league baseball franchise currently plays hardball in San Antonio. That team’s owners want to bring the Missions to Amarillo.

However, San Antonio has to lure a Class AAA team to fill the void. If the Alamo City can’t consummate that deal, then the Missions won’t leave. At least that’s my understanding.

Meanwhile, the Amarillo Local Government Corporation, which the City Council has tasked with negotiating the deal to bring the Missions here, says it needs a signed agreement before it will agree to start construction on the multipurpose event venue at the former Coke site.

My hope is that the city can bring the Missions here; that it can start work on the MPEV; that all the other construction projects now underway — the Embassy Suites Hotel and the parking garage — get completed; that retail outlets lease space in the parking garage.

The Chase Tower is going to see a lot of floors go dark in 2017. Xcel Energy is moving into a new office complex on Buchanan Street and will leave the Chase Tower. And … West Texas A&M University also will vacate the Tower by 2018 when it opens a new downtown campus at the totally made-over structure formerly known as the Commerce Building.

A partner in the Gaut Wittenberg Emerson commercial real estate firm has given me rock-solid assurance that the Chase Tower vacancies will be filled. We’ll be watching, man.

Polk Street is witnessing a serious construction boom at the moment. New restaurants and bistros are being built. The city has just been awarded a Cultural District designation by Texas Arts Commission with the hope of boosting interest in the arts and cultural amenities offered in Amarillo.

So …

The city is undergoing in the midst of a serious makeover. We’ll have an election in 2017 that could be as dramatic and consequential as the 2015 municipal election that brought us three new City Council members.

Oh, and the council is now poring over the qualifications of five competent individuals seeking to become the next city manager.

You want change? It’s here folks.

My hope for the city is that we steer it in the right direction.

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Wrong again … for the right reasons

I am not too proud to admit being mistaken and heaven knows I’ve had plenty of opportunities during the recent election season to acknowledge as much.

For instance, Donald J. Trump is going to become president of the United States over my intense belief that he didn’t have a prayer of defeating Hillary Rodham Clinton.

What do I know?

Accordingly, I was mistaken in fearing that Amarillo’s City Hall turmoil would make it next to impossible for the city to attract top-drawer candidates for the job of city manager. One critic of my blog sought to put words in my mouth by asserting I said the city would fail miserably in that effort. I actually didn’t make that prediction.

My fear was aimed at the potential for failure.

https://highplainsblogger.com/2016/11/atkinson-lands-on-his-feet-amarillo-still-on-the-deck/

This is a case — unlike the presidential election example — where I am glad to have been wrong in my speculation.

Amarillo had drawn a candidate pool of around 30 applicants. The City Council then culled that pool down to five finalists, whose names were announced this week.

I’ve had a chance to pore through the resumes that were posted at Amarillo.gov and I find these individuals to be — to a man — seemingly qualified to become Amarillo’s chief administrator.

The council has been debating among its members about how it will decide on a salary for whomever council members select. Do they offer a salary or do they negotiate with the individual chosen based on the person’s experience? I’ll wait for another day to possibly offer a comment.

Today, though, I want to offer an ever-so-humble mea culpa.

My optimism is being restored a little bit at a time that the council will find someone who can do the tough job of shepherding the city through its myriad changes and challenges.

I don’t like being wrong about the city’s ability to find a good crop of candidates. Liking it is far different from acknowledging it — and I acknowledge my error with a healthy dose of hope that Amarillo can continue its journey toward a brighter future.

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City manager slate looks solid, competent

Amarillo City Council members might have delivered their constituents an early Christmas present.

It comes in the form of a slate of five finalists for city manager, each of whom appears qualified, competent and able to lead the administration of a city on the move.

To be totally candid, the on-paper quality of the finalists surprises me, given the tempest, turmoil and tumult that’s been City Hall’s curse for the past year. Councilman Mark Nair believes the quality of the finalists is a testament to the perception beyond the city limits that Amarillo is a fine place to work and do business.

One of the finalists, interestingly, is Bob Cowell, the current interim city manager. It’s interesting to me because Cowell didn’t apply for the permanent job when it came open after City Manager Jarrett Atkinson quit shortly after the City Council — with its three new members — took office in the summer of 2015. He thinks City Hall has achieved a level of stability that makes the manager’s job more attractive.

The finalists comprise a number of individuals — all of whom are white males, by the way — with many years of municipal government experience. Some have been city managers; others have county government exposure. Four of the finalists have extensive experience in Texas local government, which in itself is a positive element to bring to this job.

Who’s the favorite? I haven’t a clue. I won’t go there, given my abysmal track record of predicting such things.

Check out the link below. It contains the resumes of all five finalists.

http://amarillo.com/local-news/2016-12-23/amarillo-city-council-selects-city-manager-finalists

I do, though, want to restate an earlier comment about who should make this selection. I believe the current council needs to move on this; it need not wait for the May 2017 election and hand this task off to the next City Council. The city charter gives the council the authority to make this hiring decision, which is the only one the council makes under our strong-manager form of government.

I get that the city has gone too long as it is without a permanent chief administrator. The former interim city manager, Terry Childers, was supposed to stay on the job until after the next election. Then he exhibited some profoundly bad form by mouthing off with a profane epithet to a constituent during a City Council meeting.

Childers submitted his letter of resignation, cleared out his office and hit the road.

He’s a goner.

Amarillo’s future — with a big downtown redevelopment project already underway, along with initiatives throughout the city — awaits the next city manager, whoever he is.

Merry Christmas, y’all.

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A new Amarillo city manager on the horizon?

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Amarillo might not be wallowing in the administrative darkness much longer, according to Mayor Paul Harpole.

Good deal? Let’s hope so.

The City Council reportedly has culled a list of 30 or so city manager applicants to around 10 … give or take an undisclosed number. Harpole said the council will announce a list of finalists quite soon, maybe next week.

Then the city will interview the finalists in a sort of public audition, Harpole explained.

http://amarillo.com/local-news/2016-12-20/amarillo-city-council-narrows-hunt-city-manager

This public audition more or less falls in line with what has been done at Amarillo College as it has sought to select college presidents. It’s a good way to go. It enables the public to size up the individuals who are competing for a chance to assume a highly public office.

In the case of the city manager, we’re talking about someone who would oversee a significant government bureaucracy. He or she will command a budget of several hundred million dollars, which pay for services for a city comprising around 200,000 residents.

Amarillo City Hall has been through a pretty rough spell for the past year or so.

City Manager Jarrett Atkinson quit more than a year ago. The City Council hired an interim manager, Terry Childers, who immediately got into a significant public relations kerfuffle involving a misplaced briefcase and the Amarillo Emergency Communications Center. The council commenced a search, then called it off. Childers then popped off to a constituent and called him a “stupid son of a b****.” Childers then quit and went back to Oklahoma City.

This is the backdrop that the crop of finalists will confront.

The winner of this contest then will get to steady the municipal ship.

Let’s all hope for the best as the council proceeds with the only hiring decision the City Charter empowers it to make.

The City Council needs to get this one right.

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Two candidates for mayor … with likely more to declare

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Jeremy Bryant has joined Ginger Nelson in the race for Amarillo mayor.

The filing season opens officially Jan. 18 and concludes on Feb. 17. So it is not yet a lead-pipe cinch that these two individuals are going to actually be on the May municipal ballot. They say they will, so we’ll take them at their word.

Bryant is a businessman; Nelson is a lawyer. Both are pledging to restore “unity” to City Hall.

This is possibly shaping up as a most lively Amarillo City Council ballot. Good deal!

http://amarillo.com/local-news/2016-12-18/second-candidate-emerges-amarillo-mayor

Mayor Paul Harpole hasn’t yet declared his intention; we don’t know if he’ll seek a fourth term or hang it up. My guess is that he’ll call it a public service career … but it’s just a guess.

With two candidates already declaring their intention to run for mayor so early in the election cycle, it stands to reason to believe that more are on their way to City Hall to file their campaign papers.

And that’s just for the mayor’s office!

I’m wondering now what the future holds for the rest of the council. Three seats are occupied by individuals who were elected in May 2015 promising to be the agents of “change” for a city they contended had grown stale and too secretive.

They brought change, all right. The city manager and city attorney quit. They hired an interim city manager who served for a whole year before he decided to bail, but only after he muttered a profane epithet at a constituent.

What will the ballot challenge hold for those guys. One of them, Elisha Demerson, might run for mayor; another one, Mark Nair, is reported to be considering whether he wants to seek a second term; still another council member, Randy Burkett, appears the most likely incumbent to run again.

Then we have the fifth council member, Lisa Blake, who was appointed to fill the vacancy created when Brian Eades quit and left the city. Blake is untouched by the dysfunction that’s been demonstrated during the past two years.

I do hope we get a full ballot in 2017. Amarillo voters would be well-served by being given the chance to hear from a lot of candidates who believe they can do better than those who are already on the job.

I am looking forward to seeing if my wish comes true.

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Amarillo mayor’s race produces a fascinating dynamic

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Let’s focus for a moment on two individuals who might run against each other to become mayor of Amarillo.

One of them is Elisha Demerson, a member of the Amarillo City Council who is generating some community chatter about his apparent desire to be mayor. He might have a decision to make, given the announcement that came this week from the other individual I want to discuss.

That would be Ginger Nelson, who has announced her mayoral candidacy. Nelson is quitting her post on the Amarillo Economic Development Corporation to focus entirely on running for mayor.

Nelson also is producing a lot of buzz around the city. The business community appears to be rallying behind her. A banker friend of mine told me today that Nelson is the real deal: “She’s articulate, smart and has the city’s best interests at heart,” my friend said. Others with whom I am acquainted have said the very same thing about her.

Understand this, too. I don’t know Nelson. I haven’t met her. I’d like to visit with her at some point prior to the election. So, I just might do that.

Oh, and what about the current mayor, Paul Harpole? I’m hearing he’s going to call it a public service career and will make room for Nelson.

Where does all this political intrigue leave Demerson?

I believe it forces him to seek to retain his council seat rather than mounting a futile campaign to defeat someone with Nelson’s chops.

You see, much of the support for Nelson comes from those who believe the City Council’s dysfunction is unacceptable. That dysfunction began appearing immediately after three new council members took office after the May 2015 city election. The city manager and the city attorney quit. The assistant city manager retired.

One of the new council members was Elisha Demerson. Coincidence? I think not.

I know Demerson only a little. We’ve been acquainted for a number of years. His years on the Potter County Commissioners Court predate my arrival in Amarillo, but I’ve learned about the rocky time he had as county judge.

His brief tenure on the City Council also coincides with additional rockiness. Is there a pattern here … or what?

So, with the municipal election about six months away, we’re already getting set to view a bit of political drama.

As if we haven’t had enough of it already for the past two years.

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Welcome to the fray, mayoral candidate Nelson

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I do not know Ginger Nelson, other than what I’ve heard about her.

Solid citizen, seasoned lawyer, dedicated to Amarillo’s economic future, smart, idealistic, well-educated … and all the other good things one attaches to those who seek public office.

Nelson is running for Amarillo mayor. Hers is the first name on the municipal ballot that I expect will fill to the brim by the time registration closes for the May 2017 election.

The story I saw in the Amarillo Globe-News didn’t mention, though, a word about the current mayor, Paul Harpole.

http://amarillo.com/news/2016-12-14/it-s-official-amarillo-has-1st-mayoral-candidate

A little birdie or two has told me Harpole isn’t going to seek re-election. Officially, he’s undecided. My strong hunch is that he likely won’t run now that Nelson is running.

Nelson brings a good bit of civic involvement to this race, stemming mostly from her work on the Amarillo Economic Development Corporation, an organization near and dear to Harpole’s heart.

It stands to reason, therefore, that a candidate with strong AEDC ties likely could preclude the incumbent from seeking another term. Nelson said she’s quitting the AEDC to devote all her energy to winning the mayor’s seat.

I think this bodes well for a City Council that has been roiled in conflict since the May 2015 election. Harpole has been part of what former interim City Manager Terry Childers called the “dysfunction” at City Hall.

A fresh face and fresh ideas — along with a demonstrated commitment to economic growth and stability — might be just what the city needs at this juncture of its redevelopment. It’s been a rough ride at times during the past two years: the resignation of a city manager and the abrupt departure of his interim replacement; ongoing hiccups with downtown redevelopment and the relocation of a baseball franchise to Amarillo; occasional flaring of tempers among City Council members.

I’ll await along with the rest of the city’s residents Mayor Harpole’s decision on whether he intends to run. My grumbling gut tells me he’s out, paving the way for someone of Ginger Nelson’s leanings to seek to guide the city toward a bright future.

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Municipal incumbents need to defend themselves

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David Swinford used to feign anger at me whenever I wrote a column insisting that state legislators — no matter how effective they were — deserved to be challenged every election cycle.

The Dumas Republican, who served in the Texas Legislature for several terms, usually would skate through without much opposition — although he did get a stout primary challenge late in his legislative career from Anette Carlisle, who now serves on the Amarillo College Board of Regents.

My only suggestion then was that all incumbents need to defend their record and it was up to challengers to make them do so.

Here we are in Amarillo, getting ready for the filing dates for our City Council. That rumble you hear around the city might be the sound of challengers getting ready to run against this five-person governing body.

We’ve seen the names of a couple of mayoral hopefuls. One of them belongs to Elisha Demerson, who currently serves on the council. Another name is Ginger Nelson, an economic development expert. The current mayor? Officially, Paul Harpole is undecided about seeking another term. I’m beginning to think he’s going to call it a municipal public service career.

What about the rest of the council. You have Randy Burkett and Mark Nair, two of the three change agents who were elected in May 2015. Nair also apparently is trying to decide whether to run again. Burkett seems a lock for another run.

Those two fellows clearly will need to defend themselves against challengers. They have some explaining to do, as does Demerson — the third new guy.

They engineered the departure of a competent city manager, Jarrett Atkinson. Then they brought in an interim manager, Terry Childers, who turned out to be, um, less than stellar; Childers is gone. There has been backbiting and needless bickering, causing Childers to bemoan what he called a “dysfunctional” atmosphere at City Hall. Atkinson wasn’t the only senior city administrator to hit the road. City Attorney Marcus Norris resigned and Assistant City Manager Vicki Covey retired. All in all, City Hall’s level of expertise took a serious nosedive … rapidly!

Then came the departure of Melissa Dailey — apparently at Childers’ insistence — from her post as head of Downtown Amarillo Inc. I’m still puzzled over that move, given the demonstrable success that DAI had delivered in downtown’s ongoing revival.

The fifth council member, Lisa Blake, is new to her job. She was appointed by her colleagues to succeed Brian Eades, who quit the council when he moved out of state.

Does the council deserves a stout challenge? Do all five incumbents — whether they’re running for re-election or seeking another seat on the body, which Demerson might do — need to account for the actions they have taken during the past two years?

Absolutely! Without question!

Although I no longer am into predicting political outcomes, it does seem a pretty good bet — at least at this moment — that the City Council ballot is going to contain a healthy number of candidates. They will seek to persuade voters that they are the best fits for the job of governing a city in midst of profound change.

Voters deserve choices. I’m hoping we get them as the municipal election cycle comes to a full boil.

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How about some more ‘change’ at Amarillo City Hall?

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Let’s talk among ourselves about the upcoming municipal election.

Amarillo went through a “change election” in 2015 when voters unseated two incumbents and installed a majority of new guys on the five-member City Council; the third new guy won a seat vacated by an incumbent who was just keeping the seat warm until the election.

In May 2017, voters will fill the five seats on the council.

I’m wondering if someone will run solely on the platform of serious change in the city’s voting plan. I’m wondering also about discussing publicly a reform that would involve electing four council members from single-member districts, two of them at-large along with the mayor, who of course also would run citywide.

I wrote in 2013 that I was rethinking my earlier opposition to changing the city’s current five-member at-large council voting plan.

https://highplainsblogger.com/2013/12/re-thinking-single-member-districts/

So I’ll ask the question here. Are we ready to have a serious, adult conversation about changing the City Council’s voting plan?

I’m no longer confident that the at-large system is serving an increasingly diverse city of 200,000 residents, with burgeoning ethnic and racial minorities. The city is growing and it’s becoming a different community than it was a decade ago; it’s a much different place than it was 20 or 30 years ago.

Would such a plan be approved if it were put to a vote? We’ll never know if we don’t try. The city charter would need a serious rewriting. Changing it requires a municipal election.

First, though, we need to have a discussion among those willing to serve on the City Council, to set governing policy.

The so-called “agents of change” who were elected in May 2015 ought to demonstrate a serious commitment to significant change in the city’s governing policy.

That change ought to include a reform of the City Council composition. A hybrid council — partly single-member, partly at-large — such as what I’ve suggested hardly is unique. Indeed, it preserves an at-large option for two council seats that is similar to what’s been enacted in cities of comparable size all across Texas.

The debate until now has been whether to create single-member wards, while keeping the mayor’s seat as the only at-large seat on the council. I think a hybrid solution is more feasible.

At the very least, it’s worth a serious community discussion.

First, though, candidates ought to step up and initiate it.

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City needs to rid itself of ‘dysfunctional’ perception

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It’s been said that perception often becomes reality.

That’s occasionally a harsh truth no matter how unrealistic the perception might be in the minds of many.

Amarillo’s former interim city manager, Terry Childers, went out with a bang. No, make it a boom! He muttered a seriously profane epithet in mid-November at a constituent into a hot mic and then quit the next day. He cleared out his office and drove back to Oklahoma City.

But he had scolded the City Council about what he called the “dysfunction” within City Hall’s government apparatus and he laid the blame for that perception at the council’s feet.

Was he wrong? Was he way off the mark? Was the interim manager looking for scapegoats?

Who knows? Who should care? The perception is likely out there in the community that comprises career government administrators.

It’s a perception that the City Council must address directly, head on and candidly as it continues its search for a permanent city manager.

Whether it’s true or it’s all a figment of the former interim city manager’s mind doesn’t matter. Some potential administrative candidate might look at what Childers said and determine, “You know, I don’t want any part of that.” How many other top-drawer administrators might draw that conclusion based on the perception that’s been tossed out there by the guy who left City Hall in a huff?

Indeed, the council might want to examine precisely why the interim manager couldn’t restrain himself that fateful day when he said what he did to one of his bosses, a constituent whose property taxes helps foot the Amarillo government bill.

Therein might lie the perception that the council needs to cleanse from its public image.