Category Archives: local news

Eades to quit … and toss the city into a tizzy

eades

Brian Eades has dropped a bombshell.

The good doctor and senior member of the Amarillo City Council is quitting his post this summer and will continue his medical practice in rural western Colorado.

What are the potential consequences of this event? Well, to borrow a phrase: They’re yuuuuuuge, man.

Think of it as a microcosm of the current battle within the national Republican Party: insurgents vs. the establishment.

Eades is one of two City Council members who come from the city’s so-called “establishment.” The other is Mayor Paul Harpole. The three remaining council members — Elisha Demerson, Randy Burkett and Mark Nair — could be called “insurgents.” They vowed to bring radical change to city government when they campaigned for the council in 2015.

What happens now?

The rest of the council gets to appoint Eades’ successor.

Who gets the job? Will the new person come from the establishment sector or will he or she come from the ranks of the rebels who want to continue the change?

The city charter grants limits the mayor’s actual power, so that means Harpole cannot really orchestrate the selection process. He no doubt wants someone who agrees with Eades’ municipal view.

He has only one vote, though. The other three are in the catbird seat.

Or so one might think.

The mayor does have what Teddy Roosevelt called “the bully pulpit.” Does he use his office as a place from which he can preach the municipal gospel to those with whom he works? Does he reach out to the community to persuade rank-and-file residents — folks like you and me — of the need to find someone who can join him in resisting the occasional impulses of his colleagues who might want to move quickly toward some unknown policy destination.

Is there even a need to make such an effort?

Dr. Eades has served the city well during his time on the council. I wish him well as he prepares to leave the region where he grew up and where he has earned a nice living.

I’m betting that Paul Harpole isn’t too happy to learn of this departure. The other three guys are rubbing their hands together.

 

 

Childers finally says he’s sorry for 911 misstep

7cc82baf-9b40-478f-ad1b-4bb3c4fdb38e-9112

Amarillo interim City Manager Terry Childers has re-thought what he said earlier this week.

He said initially in public that he regrets the manner in which a 911 call turned out.

Now he says he’s “sorry.” He’s issued an apology. In public. Out loud. To the city he administers.

There. Now, can we put this matter to rest?

This story needs to quiet down.

Amarillo has been through too much turmoil in the past year.

A new City Council majority promised “change.” It brought it. City Manager Jarrett Atkinson quit, as did other senior city staff.

The council brought in Childers, the former Oklahoma City manager, to steady the city’s administrative ship.

Then came the 911 call to the Amarillo Emergency Communication Center. He got agitated over the way the dispatcher responded to his report of a missing briefcase.

There’s been plenty of criticism being tossed around the city at the interim manager. I’ve heard rumblings that some of it has been quite ugly, although I have not seen or read any of it with my own eyes.

OK. He’s now said he’s sorry, which I guess lies near the heart of what concerned some residents.

Let’s hope this matter can be put to rest, that the interim manager can continue his work running the city and that the council can proceed with its search for a permanent chief administrator.

 

Issue of race creeps into 911 discussion

demerson

An ugly element might be seeping into the Amarillo community discussion over the interim city manager’s handling of a 911 telephone call.

I pray it doesn’t go any further. I also hope the community is prepared to deal with it head-on if it reaches a full boil.

The element is race.

Terry Childers’ phone call on Feb. 14 to the city’s 911 dispatch center has become the source of plenty of talk around town. He didn’t handle himself well when he called the center after misplacing his briefcase at a local hotel. He became agitated with the dispatcher. He wanted to shut down the hotel to search for the missing item.

In short, Childers seemed to blow a fuse. Over a briefcase!

He has apologized to the call center staff. He’s expressed “regret” in a public statement at a City Council meeting. He has vowed it won’t happen again.

Some of the social media chatter — and criticism — about the incident has included some derogatory language.

Childers is African-American.

The potentially troubling element might have revealed itself this week when two city councilmen — one white and one black — offered differing perspectives on whether race has become a talking point.

Councilman Elisha Demerson told Panhandle PBS’s Karen Welch that some of the comments have been racial in nature. Demerson is African-American. He said he’s heard of critics using the “n-word” when referring to Childers.

Watch the “Live Here” segment here.

http://www.panhandlepbs.org/panhandle-local/live-here/

Councilman Brian Eades, who’s white, said he hasn’t heard it. He hasn’t heard about it, either.

Who’s hearing it correctly?

It’s quite clear that people of different racial backgrounds hear things differently. I am not going to presume to know whether one man is correct and the other is wrong.

I’ll offer this personal note: I had heard about the alleged racist remarks, although I personally haven’t heard them directly with my own ears or read them with my own eyes.

Does that mean the racially tinged comments are not out there? Hardly.

The community discussion about the interim city manager’s conduct regarding a botched telephone exchange with emergency dispatchers is worthwhile and should be constructive.

But oh, man, it must not become poisoned by what one elected city official has said he has heard.

However, if it does …

 

Manager’s 911 tempest might not be quite over

New-Image

It turns out that Amarillo interim City Manager Terry Childers’ expression of “regret” hasn’t quite buttoned up the controversy surrounding his ill-fated phone call to the Amarillo Emergency Communication Center.

Childers offered his “sincere” regrets Tuesday at a City Council meeting over the way he acted during a 911 call he made to report a missing briefcase at a local hotel. He was brusque with a dispatcher who was doing her job. To be candid, he bullied her over the phone while demanding that she send police officers to the hotel to find the briefcase. He said he wanted the hotel “shut down” while the cops looked for the missing item.

The briefcase was recovered shortly after Childers made the call.

His call has prompted a lot of conversation around the city.

So has his expression of “regret,” which technically falls a bit short of an apology.

Panhandle PBS is going to broadcast a “Live Here” segment Thursday to examine the potential fallout from the event. The public TV station is going to visit with Mayor Paul Harpole and councilmen Elisha Demerson and Brian Eades to discuss what happens next.

See the promo here

Oh, but there’s a good bit more to this episode.

Terry Bavousett, the former head of the AECC, has issued a lengthy public statement about his views of what happened. He has announced his retirement effective next week.

But the statement goes into considerable detail about what Bavousett said happened when Childers made the call and how the dispatcher handled it.

It’s not a flattering portrait of Childers, to say the least.

Where does this matter go from here? That depends on the City Council, which hired Childers as the interim manager after Jarrett Atkinson resigned — under apparent pressure from some council members.

If I were on the council, I would be inclined to accept Childers’ mea culpa at face value. He vowed never to do it again. Take the man at his word, OK? But make damn sure he remains faithful to his pledge to treat city staffers with the respect they deserve as professional public servants.

Then I would be inclined to get moving rapidly on finding a permanent replacement. I’m not privy to the expressions of interest the city has received regarding the city manager’s position. Maybe it has a lot of qualified people interested in coming to work here; maybe it has only a few. Whatever the circumstance, the city should accelerate the search.

Childers well might want to return to Oklahoma City to resume the life he had before coming here. He might want to retire and move back home to Abilene. Or, he just might want to go fishin’.

The city is embarking on an ambitious downtown revitalization effort as well as equally ambitious street and highway infrastructure improvements being done by the state; it needs a permanent chief administrator on hand to take charge.

Incidents such as this have this way of taking on lives of their own. That appears to be the case with the city manager’s phone call to a 911 dispatcher who was doing the job she was trained to do.

Maybe we’ll get an idea of what the immediate future holds for Terry Childers when the three council members talk to Panhandle PBS. More importantly, though, is what’s in store for the city as it continues to move forward.

This fallout from this unfortunate event will recede eventually. My hope is that it does so sooner rather than too much later.

It’s your move, City Council.

Expression of ‘regret’ is good enough, Mr. Manager

childers

Amarillo Mayor Paul Harpole said it quite well last night.

Interim City Manager Terry Childers’ expression of “regret” over the way he handled a 911 call is sufficient. It’s time to “move on,” Harpole said.

Public weighs in

For those who might not know what happened, here it is:

Childers called the Amarillo emergency call center to report a “stolen” briefcase. He became agitated when the dispatcher — acting in accordance with established protocol — began asking a series of questions. Childers wanted the cops to arrive at the hotel. He threatened to “shut down” the hotel and search for the briefcase.

He also bullied the dispatcher, telling her she didn’t know who she was “dealing with.” Actually, she knew that Childers is the city manager, as he told her so when he placed the call.

Well, Childers ended up misplacing the briefcase. It was recovered. Childers said the tone he used with the dispatcher “was not consistent” with the standards he sets for himself and those who work at City Hall.

The recording of at least three phone calls, though, went viral through the city, prompting a lot of questions about the way Childers treats other public employees.

This has been an embarrassment for the city.

I have commented on this matter in this forum, but I am more than willing now to move on, as the mayor has suggested.

The city made some changes effective immediately at the call center as a result of the call. I am not going to comment on whether the changes are justified. I only wish that the city emergency services hierarchy had let it be known before now about alleged problems with the call center operation.

As for the interim manager and his relationship with the folks who hired him — the five men who serve on the City Council — let’s hope they work this out among themselves. They do, after all, work for the rest of us.

Let us also hope that the city proceeds with all deliberate speed in finding a permanent manager.

Now, Mr. Manager, get back to work.

 

Still prefer to stand in long line to vote

NA-BT370_statep_G_20121102163931

We went to the polling place tonight.

We arrived at the place where we usually vote. The parking lot at Arden Road Baptist Church was full. We walked through the door and turned left down the hall, walking past a long, long line of Randall County residents.

We made another turn down another hall and took our place at the end of the line.

It took five minutes past an hour before we cast our ballots.

Man, it was fun!

I remain committed to voting on Election Day. I remain equally committed to the manner we do it in Texas. We have this open primary system. We all stand in the same line. We inch our way to the room with the voting booths. We declare which party we want to vote in. We cast our ballots. Then we leave.

We don’t register with political parties. We make our choice on Election Day — or least we declare our choice when we reach the end of the line.

There’s a certain pageantry to standing in long lines with other citizens seeking to exercise their rights as Americans. We chatted among ourselves, careful of course not to talk about partisan preferences. We joked with election judges who came out to remind us of the need to have our photo ID and voter registration cards handy.

Some states — such as my home state of Oregon — do all their voting by mail. That’s fine, too, I guess. It boosts turnout, which is the best outcome of that process.

However, I remain an old-fashioned kind of guy. There just remains a certain semblance of ceremony attached to going to the polling place, waiting in line, chatting up your neighbors and then doing your civic duty.

I love the process.

 

Legislators remain neutral in presidential race

democrat_republican

The Four Horsemen of the Texas Panhandle legislative delegation are keeping their political powder dry.

According to the Texas Tribune, none of the four has endorsed any of the seven remaining candidates for president of the United States.

Silly me. I said “seven,” even though only the five Republicans still standing are what matters, given this region’s heavy GOP bent.

State Sen. Kel Seliger of Amarillo is neutral, as are state Reps. Four Price and John Smithee of Amarillo, and state Rep. Ken King of Canadian.

It’s an interesting twist to see so many legislators lining up for candidates in both party primaries.

I’ve been of two minds on whether elected officials should make endorsements in party primaries. If they remain neutral, then they can say they “support” the winner without having to demonstrate it. There won’t be any hell to pay if they back the “wrong” candidate. Their vote, of course, remains a secret and if they don’t want to disclose who gets their vote, they aren’t obligated to tattle on themselves.

Then again, why not lead? Why not show us your allegiance to give us a clue as to how you believe the country should be run, in what direction it should travel?

I, of course, fully endorse the secret balloting that’s one of the hallmarks of our representative democracy.

If they don’t want to tell us who they support, that’s their business.

Not ours.

 

Trump doesn’t know …

Trump-and-gun-and-cadets

A Texas Panhandle political leader and I were having lunch today at an Amarillo restaurant.

We talked about a lot of things: loyal pets, the state of affairs in the county where he works, Amarillo City Hall turmoil related to the interim city manager. Then we talked briefly about the presidential campaign.

My good friend is as loyal a Republican as you’ll find.

I asked him, “Is your party going to nominate Donald Trump as its candidate for president of the United States?”

“It’s not the party” that’ll nominate Trump, if it comes pass, he said.

People are angry, he said. They want things done. Trump needs to do three things, my friend said: secure the border, bolster our military and get rid of Obamacare and send health insurance back to the states.

Fine. I said. Will he get it done?

My friend doesn’t know. But if he does, he said he’d vote for him for a second term as president — presuming, of course, that he gets elected this November. My friend didn’t vote for him in today’s Super Tuesday primary; he didn’t tell me who got his vote, and I didn’t ask him.

My pal believes the nation is on a course to “implode.” He wants something done. Now. Suffice to say I do not share his gloomy vision of the future. I chose not to engage him on that, as we both had to be other places.

As we walked out the door, my friend said, “I’ll tell you this much: Donald Trump doesn’t know what he doesn’t know.”

He meant that Trump has never worked in government. Never been exposed to its inertia, or lack thereof. He doesn’t know what he’s getting into if lightning strikes (that’s my description) and he gets elected.

That could be a curse or a blessing, depending on what you want, my friend indicated.

I came away from my meeting with my pal getting what he meant. My own sense is that Trump’s utter ignorance of government has made itself quite evident with every proclamation and brash promise he’s made.

I sincerely hope we don’t have to pay for his ignorance come next January … and I will hold on to the belief that we won’t.

 

Puppy Tales, Part 17

puppy

I’ll be brief with this post. It’s getting late and we’ve had a bad day.

I told you about how Mittens our kitty seemed to know intuitively that her brother, Socks, was no longer with us when he died suddenly in November 2014. She became even more lovable than she was, showering us with affection in a way that Socks used to do.

Tonight, we’re getting the same vibe from Toby the Puppy. We said goodbye to Mittens this afternoon. We took her to the veterinarian’s office when the carcinoma in her cheek made her unable to eat. She was willing to eat, but she just couldn’t chew her food. The infection became too intolerable for her.

She died peacefully. Mittens was 14 years of age.

We came home and moped around the house.

So did Toby. On a normal evening at home, he’d want to play fetch with whatever toy he had laying around the house. Not tonight.

This evening he curled up with us and just looked at us.

Tonight we received a demonstration of what Radar O’Reilly used to say on “M*A*S*H,” which is that “Dogs (and cats) are people, too.”

Man, they know when you’re hurting.

 

Mourning another loss

kitty

It doesn’t make a damn bit of difference how you lose a pet that becomes a member of the family.

If it’s quick, unexpected and, well, shocking, that’s tough to handle.

If it’s something you expect and are waiting for the inevitable, that stinks, too.

Today we said goodbye to our 14-year-old kitty, Mittens. We knew it was coming. She had developed a tumor in her left cheek about three months ago. The doctor took a tissue sample and sent it out to be tested. It came back malignant. She has a carcinoma, the doc said. We gave her some antibiotics and some pain meds.

She did well for several weeks after the diagnosis. But the doctor warned us: There’s no permanent cure available short of surgery, radiation and chemo therapy. At Mittens’ age, with the risk of organ failure as she came out of the anesthesia, we decided to forgo the heavy-duty treatment.

Well, she stopped eating late this past week. It’s not that she didn’t want to eat. She just couldn’t. The tumor had broken the skin inside her mouth. It had become infected. She couldn’t chew.

Today was the day we dreaded.

My wife reminded me that “this is the price we pay” for owning pets with which we fall in love. It happened with Mittens’ brother, Socks, who died quietly and suddenly in November 2014. Believe me, that one hurt, too.

Today, our hearts are broken once again.

My mother used to joke about those who dismissed cats, people who couldn’t see the personality that these critters possess. Mom knew better. My wife and I knew better, too.

We’ve had a number of cats during our 44-plus years together. They’ve all occupied special places in our hearts. Mittens was no exception.

She was a relentless bird hunter and managed to help us de-mouse our home when he had a mild infestation of the rodents a few years back.

She also was sweet, despite being ultra-shy around people she didn’t know. With her “mother” and me? She was full of love and was unafraid to demonstrate it.

When Socks died, Mittens seemed to know intuitively we were hurting and she became even more demonstrative with her affection. I can’t prove that she felt our pain … to borrow a phrase. I just knew it.

In recent months, we had decided to take her traveling with us in our fifth wheel (see picture). We learned to our pleasant surprise that she traveled quite well.

She rode up front in the kennel in our truck and when we parked and set up our campsite, she would find her favorite places to settle inside the RV. No sweat, man.

Yep, we are mourning today.

Then again, we still have Toby the Puppy to make us laugh. I suspect we’ll be laughing a little harder at the way he carries on.