Bedford City Council (Denton, Euless, Trinity: appointed, mineral rights, apartment)

[loves2read]

for those of you on this board who live in Bedford, I hope you read the article in todays FTW paper about two decisions the city council has made regarding the library---there has been an ongoing battle between Charles Orean, one of the lets screw up the city in the name of tax reform members, and Bedford residents and library employees about having the library workforce outsourced....this move would supposedly save the city money yet provide the same level of service so that residents would not lose...why does that seem difficult to believe....if they are not happy with how the library is being run then there are measures they can take to get the current director and staff, the hours, the budget more into line with what they feel is appropriate--the problem is the way to save the most money is to just FIRE the staff working there--and not have to pay pensions of any of them close to retirement age--which would be a big cost saving feature since Bedford just like FTW and other cities has a problem funding retirement for past employees....

Last night's city council meeting resulted in three members of the library review board (appointed by the city council) being kicked off and three new members appointed--the reason: they sent emails to city council members asking that Charles Orean--the council member who has been recommending outsourcing-- be switched as the board member on the library board so that somoene without an agenda and perhaps more open-minded could be involved in the discussions. They said that they found Mr. Orean resistant to changing his mind about outsourcing and other suggestions they made in their sessions...the cirticism was that their comments were just a personal attack on Orean and showed that they basically had lost their good sense--so how could they be capable of deciding what was good for the library...

I think the article said that Jeff Cason was the member who suggested that the 3 emailing members be removed (not Charles Orean) but I doubt he would have done anything w/o talking to Orean and perhaps Orean knew that he could not sponsor the proposal himself w/o showing his true colors...so now there are 3 new members on the library advisory board and Charles Orean is still there...and apparently still wanting to turn the city library over to a firm who would use people hired at minimum wage to run it--if you were going to replace the 3 non-council members, why not go ahead in the name of fairness and replace Orean with another council member not tainted by all this trash talk--start with a clean slate so to speak---apparently that idea would never occur to a council that has more agendas than the ones posted at the meetings....

But the kicker is also that the council voted to BUY the old Food Lion bldg on Forest Ridge from HEB ISD to turn into a new library and NOT use the land they bought across the street from the current library to build the new library that citizens voted to do in a bond election...that money has just been drawing interest...

now there has been nothing said that I can find about how feasible this building will be to actually BE a library...right now the HEB ISD is using it for storage...they paid a ton of money for it when Food Lion went out of business--thought they would turn it into a gymnastic facility for Trinity and Bell and then found out the support system of many poles holding the roof up could not feasibly be removed which they needed to do to make it a gymnastic facility...so it is one very expensive warehouse...paid over a million dollars for it I believe...

There is a good size parking lot at front of the bld and there is good access from Forest Ridge and Bedford Euless for accessibility---but I wonder if this is really the best choice--the bond election called for CONSTRUCTING a new library--I don't see how this equates to the same thing...if there has been no feasiblity study done--how do they know there is not a mold problem (the bldg is not ACed)--there is poor insulation compared to how new buildings are constructed which means the HVAC bills will be more expensive...
how do they know this building will be big enough---they have no plans done for a new library at all---
THIS IS JUST STUPID---it is a knee-jerk reaction to the idea of saving money when it could come back to cost ore than new constructioon...
I just can't help feel that there is something going on below the water that no one is really seeing....
Now we will have an even larger library that we can't afford to support by using city employees to staff----that does not make any kind of sense...

[drjones96]

This is local government in action. Don't you wish more people went to vote at elections other than the ones that happen every 4 years?

[loves2read]

went to the HEB ISD site and saw that the selling price is 225 MILLION and the ISD kept the mineral rights---ot is make more than 100% profit on its initial purchase price about 10 years ago--while it may seem like less than it would cost to build a new library it is not a smart deal for the city if there are problems converting that building into a library...

[tailoma]

I'm glad to see someone else saw it that way. Many residents are so unaware of what happens on a local level, the level that has the most effect on them.

The Food Lion will provide a larger library than the Bedford 2005 bond election asked for. I know the city had a structural engineer inspect the building. Structurally, it has the foundation needed for shelving and books. I would think the poles were a consideration also and must be workable. There are other cities that have made over Food Lion stores, one in Denton won an architectural award.

[loves2read]

DRJPNES--how can anyone go to vote at an election that is not scheduled--there was no ELECTION here with this issue--there was a city council meeting to discuss dismissing the citizens who were on the Library Board--not whether or not to buy the Food Lion bldg--all that discussion happened BEHIND CLOSED DOORS -- city council did that under cover of not wanting information to leak about a significant money purchase--but they could certainly have put in a option to purchase--and then had an open meeting to present information about the purchase and why that site will work as new library and how much it is expected to cost to make the renovations--but did they do that, NO---they have an agenda which they claim is to make Bedford fiscally responsible but they don't act like they want any input from the citizens as a whole--just their clique of voters....and they certainly orchestrate how they present information to the public...

I was so glad to see that Bedford people who were concerned about the outsourcing got petitions together and forced the City Council (meaning Charles Orean and his shadow) to give up the idea of outsourcing--I signed the petition and would have gone to the meeting but our best friend's daughter was having her first child that day/night---if Bedford can afford to spend the money to reopen a swimming pool that only a select group of people use, then I certainly think we have the funds to staff OUR library which so many of our citizens use on a daily basis--but I often wonder how many times Charles Orean goes in there to check out a book or use the computers...a service you don't use is often a service you dont care about.

I think someone got a nice present for making this Food Lion deal a done one...

[tailoma]

[quote]I was so glad to see that Bedford people who were concerned about the outsourcing got petitions together and forced the City Council (meaning Charles Orean and his shadow) to give up the idea of outsourcing[/QUOTE

Orean did not give up his idea of outsourcing. Orean, Cason, and Whistler voted for the LSSI proposal. Nail, Savage and Turner voted no. Mayor Story was the swing vote to vote NO on the outsourcing proposal.

Now the citizens can bury their heads in the sand again. They just need to remember this at election time.

[loves2read]

I phrased that badly--you are correct--Orean did not give up on the idea but for once he and his "team" were outvoted on the council---
I certainly did not vote for him or the others on his slate--and will vote against them--but so many Bedford voters are apartment people who don't care about what happens--Bedford has a large segment of older, retired residents who are so concerned about protecting their pocketbooks that they believe whatever someone says if they are told it will lower taxes...

[tailoma]

Perhaps this can mean the pendulum is starting to swing the other way... wouldn't that be nice.

[loves2read]

anyone notice the letters in Thursday 9/6 FTW star telegram from the triad who always defends Charles Orean and the conservative except-when-it -benefits- the- senior- population---I just don't think the paper needs to bend to those voices all the time--Hogg's suggestion to give back part of the million dollor surplus in the city coffers just shows he has no clue about how to run a city's finances---
let's see how good they do with keeping that new library on budget...

[tailoma]

Take a look at the agenda for next Tuesday's council meeting. The people on the agenda to speak may mean this isn't over quite yet. It will be either an interesting or annoying meeting.