Tag Archives: Amarillo City Council

local news, medical news

R.I.P., Jim Simms

Sad news broke today in Amarillo.

Jim Simms has died at the age of 73. He’d suffered from a degenerative lung disease that, as I understood it, was similar to cystic fibrosis. He struggled with an oxygen tank over the past several years.

The sadness comes because the city has lost a serious public servant, someone who fought hard on behalf of what he thought was right the city he loved.

Jim was a friend. He was as energetic a public servant as any I’ve ever known over more than three decades as a journalist. His enthusiasm was boundless.

I made his acquaintance during my first year in Amarillo. I arrived in early 1995 and a serious debate was ginning up about the potential sale of Northwest Texas Hospital, which was owned by Amarillo taxpayers and managed by the Amarillo Hospital District; Jim Simms served on that hospital board.

The AHD put the hospital up for sale and then accepted sealed bids from companies seeking to run the hospital. The district eventually accepted a bid from Universal Health Systems and then put a non-binding referendum up for a vote in 1996 that asked: Should the city sell NWTH? The vote came in decisively in favor of the sale.

Simms became one of the key voices promoting the sale.  That’s when I got to know about his tenacity and vigor.

He’d served on the Amarillo school district board of trustees and since 2005 had served on the Amarillo City Council.

Jim enjoyed a successful business career and then sought to give back to the community. The city’s newspaper named him its Man of the Year.

Simms wasn’t always genteel in his approach to debating public policy, but he surely meant what he said.

You knew where he stood and that, I submit, is a testament to this man’s honesty.

The city has suffered a big loss.

 

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Yes, reel in payday lenders

Well, what do you know about that? Amarillo City Council is considering an ordinance that regulates payday lenders.

The council had a public hearing today and another is set for next week.

I do hope the council agrees to watch these lenders closely.

Some of the provisions include limiting loans to no more than 20 percent of the borrower’s monthly income; auto title loans would be for no more than 3 percent of the borrower’s gross annual income or 70 percent of the vehicle’s value.

It’s about time the city took up this issue.

I’ve long considered payday lenders to be only a cut — maybe two — above loan sharks. They prey on those looking for quick cash, those who’ve gotten themselves turned upside down financially. They charge significantly greater interest rates than, say, more established lending institutions — you know, banks and credit unions.

What’s equally interesting is that the Amarillo governing council is actually considering a government-mandated regulation. Our city long has employed a hands-off attitude on these matters. Keep government out of legal private businesses’ affairs, the mantra had been.

An ordinance mandating a ban on indoor smoking? Forget about it. Businesses will do it themselves. Put the issue for a vote, the city decided — twice. Voters rejected the ordinance narrowly both times.

Well, a payday lending regulation would help protect those who can become victims of those with cash to throw around while charging the borrowers a huge interest rate in return.

I consider the City Council’s consideration of this ordinance to be a step forward for the cause of consumer protection.

Enact the ordinance.

 

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Amarillo's mayor does what, exactly?

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A friend and former Amarillo city commissioner posed a simple question at lunch the other day: “How do you think Paul Harpole is doing as mayor?”

Hmmm, I thought about it for just a second.

Then I wondered aloud, what precisely does the mayor do? Not just this mayor, but anyone who occupies that office.

I’ve been thinking about that ever since — and about whether our municipal voting plan produces the kind of government that entices large numbers of qualified individuals to run for municipal office every other year.

The answer to my friend’s question went something like this: The mayor’s office is basically a symbolic one. The mayor has no real power. He represents the same constituency as the other four City Council members; they’re all co-equal. The council relies on a well-compensated and competent staff, led by the city manager, to do all the heavy lifting; they prepare the budgets and make administrative decisions all across the board. The council sets policy with its votes and then instructs the staff to carry them out.

That was a long-winded way of telling my friend that the mayor — who I happen to like and respect very much, by the way — hasn’t done enough for me or anyone else to really make a solid assessment of the job he’s doing.

We pay these individuals $10 per meeting. That’s it, plus some reimbursement for expenses they might incur while representing the city, say, by attending some seminar or business-recruitment outing.

I am circling back to another idea I posited on this blog some months ago about some rethinking I had been doing about the city’s at-large voting plan. We elect all five governing council members from the same citywide voting pool. Why not expand the council’s numbers by two, elect one or two council members at-large and divide the city into three or four voting precincts from which we could elect the rest of the City Council?

At this point, I’m no longer totally opposed to the notion of creating an all single-member district council, with just the mayor being elected citywide.

The city’s population is on the brink of hitting the 200,000 mark. It’s becoming increasingly diverse ethnically and racially. It has become something of a haven for immigrants who leave their homeland and find their way to Texas.

The time might be at hand to consider a serious reshaping of our municipal government structure. We could create one that allows for some diversity on a governing body that represents the population it represents. We could give the mayor some actual clout by allowing him or her to represent the largest pool of residents. Perhaps we could actually pay these individuals more than coffee money for the service they perform on our behalf. We also might consider giving them some oversight over departments within the city and enable them to have some actual influence to ensure the policies are being carried out in accordance with City Council members’ wishes.

Maybe one day when someone asks me how the mayor’s doing, I can respond with a meaningful answer.

What are your thoughts? I’m all ears.

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Amarillo pushes its pedal to the metal

Amarillo’s City Council members — four of them at least — might need an intervention of sorts.

They’ve become suddenly obsessed with speed. I don’t get this decision in the least.

The council voted 4-1 to increase speed limits on Interstate 27 from Hillside Road to Bell Street to 65 mph. Brian Eades, a physician when he’s not making city policy, was the lone “no” vote. I feel compelled to mention Eades’s profession because — even as an ob-gyn — he has a keener sense, it seems, of the health risks involved in this decision.

Council member shouldn’t need to be reminded that the stretch of highway where it’s going to be legal to drive 65 mph isn’t exactly in the middle of nowhere. It remains a fairly heavily traveled stretch of highway. As Dr. Eades noted, “This is not a low-volume traffic area. I think they’re being too aggressive in setting faster speed limits to the public’s detriment.”

The Texas Department of Transportation recently boosted speeds to 75 from Bell to the southern city limits. That area, too, can see heavy traffic volume.

The city acted on a recommendation from my old buddy, Amarillo Police Capt. Jeff Lester, who said a 65-mph speed limit between Hillside and Bell would make for an easier transition to the 60 mph limits north of Hillside for motorists coming in from the 75-mph race track south of the city on Interstate 27.

Whatever.

I just cannot quite fathom this need to boost speed limits along an increasingly urban interstate highway.

As I’ve noted many times in the past, these speed limits aren’t being followed as it is. Post a 60 mph speed limit and drivers will push it to 65 or faster; 65 gets pushed to 70 and beyond; and 75 gets pushed to — gulp! — 80.

What’s the rush?