Tag Archives: Amarillo City Hall

local news

Amarillo City Hall intrigue ought to end

Councilmen_2015

Amarillo City Hall has become a source of melodrama and intrigue.

This isn’t how government is supposed to work.

Three men got elected in 2015 to the Amarillo City Council. They promised “change.” It came, all right.

The city attorney quit. The assistant city manager retired. Then the city manager quit. All the while other key positions remained unfilled.

Then the city hired an interim city manager. He shuffled duties around. He reorganized the City Hall bureaucracy, getting high praise from those who report to the manager.

The City Council yanked economic development duties from a non-profit agency and handed them to City Hall operators, again at the recommendation of the new interim manager.

Now the new guy has gotten entangled in a controversy over how the city 911 emergency call center works. His briefcase got misplaced and he placed a call to the center and made some stern demands of the dispatcher who answered his call.

Then more change came about, this time at the call center.

I’m watching this drama — right along with the rest of the city’s residents — from the proverbial peanut gallery. I get that change often can be a good thing. I also get that change isn’t necessarily achieved for the better. Sometimes change for the sake of it takes over and confusion reigns.

To be candid, City Hall ought to be a place that runs with cool efficiency. That’s what the governing council — the folks who are responsible ultimately for how the city works — keeps promising for us.

They vowed to bring about change. They didn’t tell us about the chaos.

Or the intrigue.

How about getting a grip on things at City Hall?

 

local news

How many 911 calls were made?

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You mean there’s a third 911 call?

Interim Amarillo City Manager Terry Childers misplaced a brief case at a local hotel the other day and called the city’s emergency services call center not once, or twice … but three times.

This is getting a little strange.

Audio recordings of the calls have been made public. Childers’ initial call was to report that the briefcase had been “stolen.” It apparently wasn’t. He wanted the dispatcher to scramble police officers immediately to his location. He said he wanted the cops the “shut down” the hotel while they looked for the item. Childers demanded to speak to the dispatcher’s supervisor.

The dispatcher asked a series of questions, which apparently had upset the interim manager.

Then he called twice more.

Over what? A stolen briefcase. No one appeared to be in imminent danger. No physical damage was done. Isn’t the 911 system supposed to be used to report criminal activity (robberies, assaults, those kinds of things), or medical emergencies, or fires?

Well, the city has enacted some changes to the 911 call center as a result of the calls. Maybe the place will run more efficiently.

I’m still scratching my head over how a missing briefcase — which was recovered, incidentally — became the source of such frantic behavior.

 

business news, local news

Timing creates strange juxtaposition

downtownamarilloinc1

The great baseball slugger Ted Williams used to say that “timing is everything” in hitting a baseball.

Thus, the timing of Amarillo’s announcement that it is filling some key administrative positions seems a bit curious.

Why? Well, the city just decided to absorb some key economic development duties, wresting them from Downtown Amarillo Inc., the non-profit agency that has developed a stellar track record in the revival of the city’s downtown district.

So, with the city still lacking individuals filling key administrative posts, it decided to bite off a huge chunk of responsibility from an agency that had been led by someone who’s an expert in the duties that City Hall now wants to take on.

DAI executive director Melissa Dailey is out of the picture. She quit her job this past week on the day before the City Council voted to place those economic duties in the hands of City Hall staffers.

A friend of mine noted on social media today that DAI “is a lot better at that sort of thing. Too bad our City Council is too shortsighted to realize that.”

Yes, it does strike me as curious that the city — which lost its city manager, its assistant city manager, city attorney and utilities director all in the span of a few weeks — would seek to take on an enormous task that had been done so well by another agency.

It’s the timing, man.

 

business news, local news

City seeks ‘change,’ but to what end?

downtownamarilloinc1

I understand full well what Amarillo voters intended when they voted to revamp the majority on their governing City Council.

They sought “change.” They got it. Some of it has been constructive, some of it has been, well, non-constructive. I won’t say “destructive,” because nothing has been destroyed.

Now comes perhaps the most significant change yet: the de-coupling of the city from Downtown Amarillo Inc., the non-profit agency set up to spearhead downtown’s redevelopment.

I look from my perch in the peanut gallery and keep asking: Why mess with a formula that has brought us significant positive movement?

DAI will continue to exist. It won’t get city money. It will operate as an independent agency. At this moment, it doesn’t have an executive director; Melissa Dailey, who led DAI in that position, quit early this week on the eve of the City Council’s decision to cut the city’s ties with the agency.

She saw what was coming and wanted out.

But the question in my mind remains: Have we enacted change just for the sake of fulfilling some general campaign promise?

I look back on my 21 years living in Amarillo and I see significant improvement in the city’s downtown district.

Polk Street, once the hub of social life in Amarillo, has begun showing signs of life again. New office complexes have sprouted up. The historic Fisk Building was emptied out and then re-cast into a first-class hotel run by Marriott. Southwestern Public Service has begun construction on a new office complex. The Chase Tower, which once was a decaying skyscraper, has been remodeled and modernized. We’ve seen the completion of loft apartments.

Did all this happen by itself? Well, no.

DAI had a hand in some — if not most — of the improvements we’ve seen.

I haven’t yet met the new interim city manager. Terry Childers seems like a mature, forward-thinking individual with a proven record of success. He’ll be running the City Hall administrative show until the council finds a permanent manager.

My hope is that he knows what he’s doing by recommending all these changes.

My fear is that he and the rest of governing machinery have tossed aside a winning formula without knowing what will take its place.

I am pulling for hope to override fear.

 

business news, local news

Downtown’s future takes a hit

downtownamarilloinc1

They’re messing with an agency with a mission to improve downtown Amarillo’s fortunes.

Just the other day came word that interim Amarillo City Manager Terry Childers is considering moving some of Downtown Amarillo Inc.’s economic development duties to an office in City Hall.

My question then was: Why mess with success, given all the good that has happened downtown while DAI has been on task?

Now comes the latest boulder to get tossed into the machinery. DAI executive director Melissa Dailey has resigned.

I’ll admit that I’m not privy to Dailey’s reasoning, but the timing of her resignation — which the DAI board accepted unanimously — suggests some relationship to what the city manager is considering.

DAI board president John Lutz said that downtown’s future is “bigger than one person.” Fair enough.

Still, this isn’t good news for the city.

I’m not entirely clear about all the issues surrounding Dailey’s tenure at DAI. I’d heard some of the grumbling from those who blame Dailey directly for the Wallace Bajjali fiasco. Yes, Wallace Bajjali turned out to be all hat and no cattle with regard to downtown revival efforts here, but the breakup of the master development company didn’t bankrupt the city.

The two company principals had a huge falling out. One of them, David Wallace, has filed for personal bankruptcy. So they’re gone. Good riddance.

Has downtown’s movement slowed? No. Does DAI deserve to be castigated over the work that’s been done so far? Hardly. It has done well — and so has Dailey. The proof can be seen throughout the downtown district.

However, the non-profit agency now appears to be a target. My strong hunch is that Dailey didn’t want to become collateral damage if the city decides to revamp DAI’s mission.

The city is messing with success.

 

business news, local news

View from atop the tower is quite revealing

MPEV

Amarillo’s downtown district boasts a single structure that you could call a “skyscraper.”

The Chase Tower looms 31 stories over the city and from that top floor one can get a breathtaking view of our spacious landscape.

When you look east from that tower, though, you don’t have to cast your gaze toward the horizon to see the sure sign of change that’s occurring.

Look down just a bit at the Civic Center, City Hall, at the Globe-News Center for the Performing Arts and you see some serious work being done.

You’ll see two vacant lots that have been cleared out. Look a bit south of those two lots and you’ll notice a new structure rising up from the dirt; that would be the new Southwestern Public Service office complex.

The two lots? They’ll belong to the Embassy Suites convention hotel and a parking garage. Site preparation has begun on those two sites.

Oh, and just a bit farther east, right across the street from City Hall, you’ll see another parcel of property. At the moment it contains some vacated buildings once occupied by the Coca-Cola Distribution Center; the Coke operation has moved to a business park and soon the buildings left behind will be razed to make room for “the ballpark.”

I have the privilege of looking at all that change each week when I attend the regular Rotary Club of Amarillo meetings at the Amarillo Club atop the Chase Tower.

I do enjoy seeing the change from week to week that’s occurring on the sites. The SPS building seems just a tiny bit closer to completion; the convention hotel site and the parking garage lot are getting prepped to a little greater degree.

To be candid, I remain a bit surprised that so much work has been done on these downtown improvement projects. After the tumult associated with this past spring’s municipal election that brought us three new City Council members who didn’t seem as dedicated to the project as their predecessors, I feared the worst. I feared that the work would come to a halt.

It hasn’t.

The multipurpose event venue appears to be inching toward its start; the downtown convention hotel and the parking garage are about to take some form.

Amarillo’s downtown business district is going to reap the benefit of the change that’s coming its way.

As the center of the city improves, you can take my word for it: So will the rest of Amarillo.

Yes, the view from the top floor of the Chase Tower looks mighty grand.

 

local news

Amarillo council sets down rules of conduct

ama city council

Does a governing municipal council really need to be told — in writing — how to behave when it’s conducting the public’s business?

I guess the Amarillo City Council needs such rules spelled out.

Whatever. It’s good to know the council has accepted the rules on how to behave in public.

The council adopted a set of rules that requires council members to, um, act like adults. Interesting, yes?

The new rules require council members to: maintain order and decorum at council meetings and obey the mayor’s edicts; treat each other and city staffers with courtesy and respect; refrain from using their position to obtain special privileges; and refrain from condoning illegal or unethical behavior.

It fascinates me in the extreme that the council felt the need to adopt these rules and codify them in writing.

Every single one of those guidelines seems as though they always would be understood from the beginning.

A lot of things changed when the City Council took office this past spring. Three new guys joined the five-member council. They promised “changed,” and delivered it in spades. Some of it was good. Some of it was, well, not good. One of the not-good elements emerged quickly as at least one of the new council members began arguing publicly with Mayor Paul Harpole about this and that policy matter.

What’s more, the call for former City Manager Jarrett Atkinson to resign right out of the chute was seen as, well, far less than respectful  . . . not to mention the demand that the Amarillo Economic Development Corporation board be fired summarily.

Change? Yeah, we got it, all right.

Now, though, the change that voters said they wanted has been tamped down a bit to require a level of decorum.

The Amarillo City Council is acting like a collection of grownups — even as it puts its rules of behavior in writing.

 

local news

Ah, the chaos of construction in downtown Amarillo

amarillo

I have just returned from an appointment in downtown Amarillo.

It was in a building at Eighth Avenue and Buchanan Street. I couldn’t spot the building from the street, so I drove an extra  block to City Hall to ask for directions to the place (that’s right, I’m one of those few American males who actually asks for directions when I cannot find my destination).

They told me where it is located. I found the site. Good thing, too, because the construction all around it had me worried I’d miss my meeting time, as I was on a tight schedule.

So, what’s all the commotion about?

That Xcel Energy office complex is rising up out of the dirt across the street from where I was meeting my interview.

And … next to that construction site another one is taking shape. That’s going to be where the Embassy Suites convention hotel is going up.

OK, I get that few of us welcome the chaos associated with all this construction. However, as I’ve noted before, the end product — which I hope includes that ballpark on the east side of Buchanan — will contributed to a downtown district that will make all of us proud of our city.

I have griped as much as the next guy about construction delays. I try, though, to take the long view.

Patience will be required of us to await the finish.

It should be a thing of beauty.

local news

Will this ‘movement’ keep its momentum?

MPEV

Amarillo gave birth earlier this year to something called a “movement.”

It comprised a group of young residents who became inspired by the city’s effort to revive its downtown district.

It called itself the Amarillo Millennial Movement, as its members were mostly of the millennial generation. Young folks. Engaged. Energetic. Articulate. Ready to rumble.

They took up the cudgel for the multipurpose event venue that had been placed on the ballot in a non-binding referendum. The MPEV issue won the voters’ endorsement. The City Council then ratified those results and handed the project off to the Local Government Corporation. Make it happen, council members told the LGC.

Meanwhile, it’s to ask: Will the Amarillo Millennial Movement stay engaged in the process as it moves forward?

I became acquainted during the year with a couple leaders of this movement, the AMM. Their enthusiasm impressed me greatly and I share their happiness with the results of the citywide referendum.

It doesn’t end there. Movements by definition need to grow. They need to build on their success and strive for more successes.

I trust that AMM will keep its eyes on the LGC, the council, Downtown Amarillo Inc., City Hall’s senior administrative staff. Keep poking, prodding, needling if you must.

Do not be afraid to speak your mind. I, for one, am tired of hearing the same, tired old voices. A group of younger voices has spoken out on an important project for their city. Keep it up!

local news

Code of conduct? Go for it!

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Amarillo’s City Council might be heading for perhaps its most productive round of change yet.

Council members are considering the adoption of a code of conduct for the governing body.

The five-member body met in a work session and decided to consider such a code that governs now council members interact with the public, city staff and each other — and how the council should operate in executive, or closed, session. As Councilman Brian Eades — the council’s senior member — noted of the proposed code of conduct, “It’s something we’ve never had to have before.”

Perhaps it’s time.

Yes, council members have behaved badly at times since the new crew took office this past spring. There’s been a good bit of public sniping, some snarkiness among council members and allegedly some hard feelings among council members and certain city staff members.

The code ought to include how the council should conduct itself when it’s meeting officially in public session. It also ought to stipulate — and I do not know if city guidelines do so already — that council members should not interfere with staffers’ performance of their duties as instructed by their administrative supervisors.

I had heard through some back channels that there had been a bit of administrative meddling from council members in that regard; if so, that has to stop.

The three newest council members ran on a platform of “change.” Some of it has been good; some of it has been, well, weird.

If the change agents who were elected are ready to adopt a comprehensive code of conduct that ensures professionalism and collegiality — even in the face of disagreement — then the city will be making some serious progress.

Go for it, gentlemen.