Two contracts of The Woodlands Township should be on residents' radar during the next few months. The Goodman contract was budgeted and let for transit consultant services, primarily for trolley and water taxi services. The other contract will be considered in a separate article.
The total contract is for $100k. It is to advise the township and provide reports on air quality to H-GAC (Houston-Galveston Area Council)as part of a pilot project, in addition to the transit consultation. $20k is to provide a recommendation for transition of the water "taxis" to the township. That includes the capital improvements needed to bring the boats up to specs that includes dining and completing the maintenance facility for the boats. It does not include a look into alternatives such as custom pontoon boats. Another $22.5k is included to pursue funding sources from federal and state agencies, among others. Another $22.5k is allocated for interfacing those agencies.
Additionally, at a cost of $27.5k, Goodman is contracted to conduct a survey for determining the interest and value of conducting a pilot trolley program between the village centers and Town Center. In this survey, residents will be asked questions at each location. The results will be compiled and reported back to the township. Residents in apartments and homes nearby to the village centers will not be part of the survey unless they visit the village centers and participate in the process there. It seems to me that multi-family dwellings would be a primary source of passengers for such services.
Right now, I am unsure what the actual vision is for the pilot program. Perhaps the contract includes that, but if so, it was not evident. The questions are apparently designed to see what interests residents have, so the vision should come out of those questions.
The trolley system in Town Center has been quite successful. If you have not ridden on one before, I highly recommend doing so, just to have a feel for what the service provides. With a trolley system to the villages, an avenue would also be introduced to visitors and tourists to go into the village centers to eat at a restaurant or shop at a boutique. I am hopeful that we can produce a good vision that serves both the public and the visitor, to reduce gas emissions and take traffic off of our roads, while stimulating the financial health of our village centers. A trolley system has a high chance of success in my mind to improve mobility here. The same question gets asked though. Should that be a function of the government or a private enterprise?
On the other hand, the operations of the cruisers is not a good investment, at least as currently defined. Goodman has already delivered on that part of the contract. They reported a probable loss of $240k annually is expected. However, with some tweaking and additional ridership, the operation could break into the black by "privatization" through the CVB. The taxis are perceived as a major component of drawing visitors to The Woodlands. They are perceived to be the unique difference between a visitor electing to come to The Woodlands in place of another nearby destination in the Houston area. However, the ridership statistics do not demonstrate that conclusion.
The Woodlands Development Co owns the taxis free of any federal dependencies or commitments, and it owns the underlying interest in the waterway corridor. The Federal Transit Administration owns an equitable interest in the waterway corridor. The development company has a long term agreement to extend the waterway westward to the lake. They have acquired federal ARRA money to extend the waterway starting this summer, along with the maintenance facility. Additionally, the company is arranging for federal funding of another parking garage next to the existing one on Lake Robbins at Six Pines.
Another project to fund with federal money, is a fleet of electric cars.
So it goes. The development company has plans for additional services and eventually we will have to assume some of that operation. It would be good to have the corresponding proposal and expected burden on taxpayers. I have yet to explore that part of the development company's plan. I just hope the board is aware of this and has visibly bought into the idea before the project is initiated. What is the plan and when does the township take over the operation and at what cost? I suppose those are the questions for the board.
Related Links
+ Federal Transit Administration
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Election 2010 - No shows at the polls
Have you wondered as I have about the no-shows in The Woodlands Township election, 92% of registered voters who did not vote? I took some proactive steps as I canvassed neighborhoods to check on the pulse of voters. What I found out was simply amazing!
This was not a scientific survey. There was no attempt to balance demographics or lifestyles. It was collected solely from middle class neighborhoods. I did sample different types of neighborhoods. All villages are represented by approximately equal numbers. Generally speaking, each village was different and each neighborhood was somewhat different in responses. A total of 168 unique responses were generalized into categories. The question was "What is your top concern in The Woodlands?" Five categories accounted for 47% of the total. Some people skirted the question, which resulted in the 19% unknown. The "No issues" category came primarily from newcomers, who explained they had not been here long enough to understand local issues. Some were perfectly content with the way things are run. Others just do not understand the political arena nor how things work here.
Safety signifies true safety issues such as children in the middle of the street without adult supervision, or ants on the trails establishing a high risk to allergic children and adults. Crime concerns are mostly from the press or politicians, not any first hand experiences except for one. Mobility issues were generally the result of living close to a major road. "Close" is rapidly changing from being the adjoining street to the major road, to three streets away from the major road. Access and noise were the focus of those discussions. Loud trucks and motorcycles are the primary concern, but the constant hum of traffic is also irritating.
Covenants were large issues in several neighborhoods. I have passed on the complaints to the administrative staff. I found issues in almost every village.
The big government category is a serious one. Many people beyond this exercise have expressed their concern about putting too much power in the hands of a few, especially when it seems there is a little voting club along with what appears to be some rubber stamping and inept, unprepared decision making. Term limits has been suggested to overcome the "been there too long" and to remove defensive attitudes associated with pet projects. After all, taxes belong to the public, not the government.
So what gets people out to vote? You can immediately strike off the "No issues" crowd or in this case 37% of the registered voters. They were happy. If we assumed the 19% unknown group also are no-shows, then we have 56% of the registered voters expected not to show up. So what happened to the other 36%? Could they have been out of town for mother's day? Some yes. Could they have had other priorities? Maybe, but my assessment is that at least 36% of the registered voters were just not sufficiently interested enough to go out and vote. Ball games, picnics, children activities, and all those things you want to do on a Saturday were beckoning on such a beautiful day.
How do we fix the problem? It is fairly hopeless. So what do candidates do? There is not much hope to tell you the truth. Incumbents get the draw because there are no intelligent voters. This is what some are saying and this is what will bring America down. People will complain when their taxes go up. Hey - not my problem say those who challenged the incumbents. People will complain when they suffer from a crime because of the wrong metrics and an ineffective police staffing method. They will complain when the traffic is bad. Those who can see the future issues cannot reach the general public, who is too busy to discuss the issues. Urban living is more complicated than people seem to realize. That makes the issues more complicated as well. What everyone needs is a means to understand the issues with little time invested. Based on the discussions I had, we are a society that crosses our fingers and hopes for the best. That is, things will work out out of natural order and process.
Elections are great but we won't have many contenders, given the lack of consideration of the process. Who wants to throw away their money on a public that does not care? This is a new The Woodlands? This is what it has become?
Consider that the 2% who responded with a "you are wasting your time here. He is my pastor" attitude. Instead of 2%, it probably turned out to be in the neighborhood of 25-50%. I will likely explain that in another article. These are the loyalty votes, not based on issues, not based on anything, except that the man preaches sermons on Sunday mornings, has lived in this community a very long time, and is an expert collector of people's money. Sad but true. There really is no way for the public to be educated. As it turned out, there was probably no reason for his team to spend so much money, but they were not sure. What is apparent is that the election for some reason was very very important to him and his team, enough to spend lots and lots of money to make certain he was elected for this two-year term. These two years are the critical years for establishing a new government. The people of this community will be hand fed into the desired results by those who are commercial-centric. Issues such as expansion west will be pushed onto the population of this community. You can expect the quality of life to continue to deteriorate as a result. My family is a victim of the general issue of development, so we know first hand about it.
If you are one of those who did speak out by voting, make sure your voice is again heard when we consider a new government, have a meeting on taxes, establish a budget, and every major major issue along the way. I hope to publish major subjects that need your attention as we go forward. There will be two meetings a month. One will be in the evening where you can speak out. Those who did not vote I do not expect to take part in any of the proceedings, but realize at least some of you missed your chance for good cause. I hope you participate in the meetings. Now I have to say that you will not likely be pleased with the opportunity to speak out. The Board of Directors will continue with the before meeting / after meeting method of resident comment. It is a cold governmental process. Residents will probably never be able to engage in the actual discussion and deliberation of issues. Well, maybe at town halls.
I hope this makes some people stop and think about what happened on May 8th and will help those interested to overcome the election process issues. We have only begun to fight. We will take it wherever it needs to go to get fixed. Maybe, just maybe by some remote chance, we will see some reforms, stoppage of arrogance and actual representation of the real public. I am not holding my breath.
| Top Issue | Number | Percentage | Percentage removing the no issues and unknowns | |
| MUD | 2 | 1% | 1% | |
| Other Svcs | 2 | 1% | 1% | |
| Trees | 5 | 2% | 3% | |
| Other | 4 | 1% | 2% | |
| Schools | 1 | 0% | 1% | |
| Parks | 0 | 0% | 0% | |
| Mobility/noise | 12 | 4% | 7% | |
| Animal Control | 2 | 1% | 1% | |
| Garbage | 0 | 0% | 0% | |
| Crime/law enforcement | 17 | 6% | 10% | |
| Safety | 4 | 1% | 2% | |
| Alerts/watch | 1 | 0% | 1% | |
| Ad valorem taxes unfair or too high | 17 | 6% | 10% | |
| Common area maintenance | 4 | 1% | 2% | |
| Covenants and related services | 16 | 6% | 10% | |
| No issues | 104 | 38% | ||
| Unknown | 53 | 19% | ||
| Big government and local politics | 17 | 6% | 10% | |
| Against commercialization | 5 | 2% | 3% | |
| In favor of commercialization | 2 | 1% | 1% | |
| Loyalty | 4 | 1% | 2% | |
| Total including no issues and unknown | 272 | 100% | ||
| Total less No issues and unknown | 168 | 62% | 100% |
Safety signifies true safety issues such as children in the middle of the street without adult supervision, or ants on the trails establishing a high risk to allergic children and adults. Crime concerns are mostly from the press or politicians, not any first hand experiences except for one. Mobility issues were generally the result of living close to a major road. "Close" is rapidly changing from being the adjoining street to the major road, to three streets away from the major road. Access and noise were the focus of those discussions. Loud trucks and motorcycles are the primary concern, but the constant hum of traffic is also irritating.
Covenants were large issues in several neighborhoods. I have passed on the complaints to the administrative staff. I found issues in almost every village.
The big government category is a serious one. Many people beyond this exercise have expressed their concern about putting too much power in the hands of a few, especially when it seems there is a little voting club along with what appears to be some rubber stamping and inept, unprepared decision making. Term limits has been suggested to overcome the "been there too long" and to remove defensive attitudes associated with pet projects. After all, taxes belong to the public, not the government.
So what gets people out to vote? You can immediately strike off the "No issues" crowd or in this case 37% of the registered voters. They were happy. If we assumed the 19% unknown group also are no-shows, then we have 56% of the registered voters expected not to show up. So what happened to the other 36%? Could they have been out of town for mother's day? Some yes. Could they have had other priorities? Maybe, but my assessment is that at least 36% of the registered voters were just not sufficiently interested enough to go out and vote. Ball games, picnics, children activities, and all those things you want to do on a Saturday were beckoning on such a beautiful day.
How do we fix the problem? It is fairly hopeless. So what do candidates do? There is not much hope to tell you the truth. Incumbents get the draw because there are no intelligent voters. This is what some are saying and this is what will bring America down. People will complain when their taxes go up. Hey - not my problem say those who challenged the incumbents. People will complain when they suffer from a crime because of the wrong metrics and an ineffective police staffing method. They will complain when the traffic is bad. Those who can see the future issues cannot reach the general public, who is too busy to discuss the issues. Urban living is more complicated than people seem to realize. That makes the issues more complicated as well. What everyone needs is a means to understand the issues with little time invested. Based on the discussions I had, we are a society that crosses our fingers and hopes for the best. That is, things will work out out of natural order and process.
Elections are great but we won't have many contenders, given the lack of consideration of the process. Who wants to throw away their money on a public that does not care? This is a new The Woodlands? This is what it has become?
Consider that the 2% who responded with a "you are wasting your time here. He is my pastor" attitude. Instead of 2%, it probably turned out to be in the neighborhood of 25-50%. I will likely explain that in another article. These are the loyalty votes, not based on issues, not based on anything, except that the man preaches sermons on Sunday mornings, has lived in this community a very long time, and is an expert collector of people's money. Sad but true. There really is no way for the public to be educated. As it turned out, there was probably no reason for his team to spend so much money, but they were not sure. What is apparent is that the election for some reason was very very important to him and his team, enough to spend lots and lots of money to make certain he was elected for this two-year term. These two years are the critical years for establishing a new government. The people of this community will be hand fed into the desired results by those who are commercial-centric. Issues such as expansion west will be pushed onto the population of this community. You can expect the quality of life to continue to deteriorate as a result. My family is a victim of the general issue of development, so we know first hand about it.
If you are one of those who did speak out by voting, make sure your voice is again heard when we consider a new government, have a meeting on taxes, establish a budget, and every major major issue along the way. I hope to publish major subjects that need your attention as we go forward. There will be two meetings a month. One will be in the evening where you can speak out. Those who did not vote I do not expect to take part in any of the proceedings, but realize at least some of you missed your chance for good cause. I hope you participate in the meetings. Now I have to say that you will not likely be pleased with the opportunity to speak out. The Board of Directors will continue with the before meeting / after meeting method of resident comment. It is a cold governmental process. Residents will probably never be able to engage in the actual discussion and deliberation of issues. Well, maybe at town halls.
I hope this makes some people stop and think about what happened on May 8th and will help those interested to overcome the election process issues. We have only begun to fight. We will take it wherever it needs to go to get fixed. Maybe, just maybe by some remote chance, we will see some reforms, stoppage of arrogance and actual representation of the real public. I am not holding my breath.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Unions and Politics
I have learned many things in this election. One of them is the lack of ethics in some activities. As many in The Woodlands know, our fire department has a union. That is not atypical but what they try to influence is simply not acceptable and not ethical. Candidates were asked to complete a questionnaire. OK, why not? I did not know that the deck was already stacked. The questionnaire was apparently for show only. There is one purpose for the process, to appear to be "fair". While candidates were doing everything they could to get their views to the public, the union was working as a special interest group, taking precious time away from the candidates and for what? For what I am about to reveal to you.
True, they are not yet employees of the The Woodlands Township, they could at least act like it. They chose the most likely to succeed to serve their special interests (spending more money than required, supporting programs that have no value to residents). For that reason, until they stop their (possibly illegal) attempts to swing an election, they will not get my support. I will advise all candidates to not complete their questionnaire next year.
When will the residents stand up for what is right? Some candidates endorse the union activities. This activity has to stop. I do not think it had much of an impact, but I noted a dark non-open method of approaching voters.
Here is a copy of the flyer passed out at the polls. At least an apology to the public is needed from those responsible. I have met the person who was passing these out before when I worked at the polls. I am told he is a representative of the union.
Notice that there is not a PAC (Political Action Committee) nor a union nor an association placed on this document. It is a product of the "employees" of the Woodlands Fire Department. Next time you see a firefighter, ask him why they tried to influence the election outcome. Try to get real information, not settle for just words that say nothing. They were out there at the polls. This needs to be investigated and whoever is accountable should be held accountable.
True, they are not yet employees of the The Woodlands Township, they could at least act like it. They chose the most likely to succeed to serve their special interests (spending more money than required, supporting programs that have no value to residents). For that reason, until they stop their (possibly illegal) attempts to swing an election, they will not get my support. I will advise all candidates to not complete their questionnaire next year.
When will the residents stand up for what is right? Some candidates endorse the union activities. This activity has to stop. I do not think it had much of an impact, but I noted a dark non-open method of approaching voters.
Here is a copy of the flyer passed out at the polls. At least an apology to the public is needed from those responsible. I have met the person who was passing these out before when I worked at the polls. I am told he is a representative of the union.
Notice that there is not a PAC (Political Action Committee) nor a union nor an association placed on this document. It is a product of the "employees" of the Woodlands Fire Department. Next time you see a firefighter, ask him why they tried to influence the election outcome. Try to get real information, not settle for just words that say nothing. They were out there at the polls. This needs to be investigated and whoever is accountable should be held accountable.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Our traffic and government transparency
I think about this often these days. In my mind, we still do not have a transparent government. For example, are decisions related to development of our western frontier something our community should be concerned about? Are there decisions related to the mobility of the region in which our government should be making a stand? You and I have seen but not been involved in plans by TXDOT to expand The Woodlands Parkway to highway 149. The reason to expand? Development! Think about the effects of that expansion? Like one board member told me this week. "The western section of The Woodlands Parkway will be six lanes also." Well, if the western section will be six lanes, then the front part will be 8 lanes, or worse, a freeway! How do we protect our community from continued decline by utilizing our roads as commute freeways? Who is representing and protecting us? Is it the Township Board who endorsed the TXdot proposed widening of highway 242 for the entire length so as to promote more transient traffic through our community? Do you know that 50% of that roadway is for The Woodlands, but the remainder is for transient traffic? No wonder our crime rate continues to erode! I have heard soem interesting ideas in the past few weeks from residents on this subject.
Typically some of the most important issues are discussed behind "closed doors". Our politicians might be working on some of these issues privately, but the issues are in gray areas that everyone should be concerned about. The newspapers do not seem to be there nor residents. We live in a complex society that is filled with influence as a value to support enterprising individuals, organizations and companies toward their hidden agendas.
Do you want status quo in our government? I sure don't! Who is helping us? The development company?
Typically some of the most important issues are discussed behind "closed doors". Our politicians might be working on some of these issues privately, but the issues are in gray areas that everyone should be concerned about. The newspapers do not seem to be there nor residents. We live in a complex society that is filled with influence as a value to support enterprising individuals, organizations and companies toward their hidden agendas.
Do you want status quo in our government? I sure don't! Who is helping us? The development company?
Saturday, April 17, 2010
What are The Woodlands resident issues found in our government request system?
| Type | Incidents | Percent |
| Events | 1 | 0% |
| MUD | 1 | 0% |
| Other svcs | 1 | 0% |
| Trees | 1 | 0% |
| Other | 2 | 1% |
| Schools | 2 | 1% |
| Parks | 4 | 1% |
| Mobility | 6 | 2% |
| Animal control | 8 | 2% |
| Garbage | 8 | 2% |
| Website | 9 | 3% |
| Crime | 13 | 4% |
| Safety | 13 | 4% |
| Alerts/Watch | 13 | 4% |
| Solicitation | 15 | 4% |
| Assessment questions | 17 | 5% |
| Other requests | 21 | 6% |
| Streetlight repair | 32 | 9% |
| Common area maint | 46 | 13% |
| Covenants | 55 | 15% |
| Information | 87 | 25% |
| Grand Total | 355 | 100% |
I reviewed the 355 resident requests from the Township Request Database over the past three months. January 1st to near the end of of March 2010. Not all requests were from residents, but the vast majority were. Obviously from the data, all who reported an issue through the database had a variety of questions and concerns. You will note that I have distinguished between safety and crime. Safety had something to do with mitigating a specific visualized risk to life or health. Crime concerns were related to the news, or general statements about the crime reported outside of the view of the resident.
Information is a catch-all and can be about anything, such who to call on advice how to approach an issue. If information was sought for the Neighborhood Watch program, that was included in Watch. Mobility does not include all road issues. It is limited to change or safety issues related to mobility, whether by foot, bicycle or automobile. Common area maintenance includes park maintenance and water runoff from easements. Solicitation is usually a request to consider the use of a service provider.
The Township Service Request Database can be accessed at this link.
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to place a comment or email me.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
The Woodlands Independence from Houston
Isn't it great to have a guarantee of not being governed by another city, especially Houston? We don't have their taxes, police force, their ordinances, their firefighting standards, their trash and garbage schedules, their environmental standards, their 911 call centers, or their standards for a "quality life". We set our own standards and our own direction. That was what I considered when we began our trek to govern ourselves.
I remember participating in the meetings with residents to determine what our issues were, where we wanted to go, and what was most important to us. Security and taxes were our utmost concern. Water should have been also, but our vision for that issue seemed further out then. Our water problems have accelerated as the build-out accelerated, and the Montgomery county growth significantly impacted water consumption. Slower reservoir recharging due to drought has also impacted the urgency to supplement our well water with potable surface water. Now that issue is probably our biggest tax threat.
I recall going door-to-door getting support from the community for all three propositions. I did not want Houston to annex us; the date they could do that was quickly approaching. They could annex us as early as 2014, and from all indications they would have strong financial incentives to do so. All they had to do was to build a fire station within a certain distance of our community and bang! They could have and would have done it.
I wrote several articles on the subject of those propositions, and many people read them. I did my own risk assessment based on the knowledge I had gleaned from working with many people on the project. That exercise took a lot of time, but it was well worth it. Today, I stand firm on what was done. That was a good decision. We have not lowered our taxes as much as I had hoped. In fact, the WCA has not lowered its taxes at all. I will write another article on taxes a little later.
Here are the links to articles I wrote on the Township creation (three propositions) back then. You can see I have cautiously supported the Township concept from the beginning and have never backed off.
1. Residents Value System
2. Road to Governance
3. Governance in a nutshell
4. Panel Discussion with Woodlands Decides
5. The Decision
6. Congratulations to The Woodlands
I remember participating in the meetings with residents to determine what our issues were, where we wanted to go, and what was most important to us. Security and taxes were our utmost concern. Water should have been also, but our vision for that issue seemed further out then. Our water problems have accelerated as the build-out accelerated, and the Montgomery county growth significantly impacted water consumption. Slower reservoir recharging due to drought has also impacted the urgency to supplement our well water with potable surface water. Now that issue is probably our biggest tax threat.
I recall going door-to-door getting support from the community for all three propositions. I did not want Houston to annex us; the date they could do that was quickly approaching. They could annex us as early as 2014, and from all indications they would have strong financial incentives to do so. All they had to do was to build a fire station within a certain distance of our community and bang! They could have and would have done it.
I wrote several articles on the subject of those propositions, and many people read them. I did my own risk assessment based on the knowledge I had gleaned from working with many people on the project. That exercise took a lot of time, but it was well worth it. Today, I stand firm on what was done. That was a good decision. We have not lowered our taxes as much as I had hoped. In fact, the WCA has not lowered its taxes at all. I will write another article on taxes a little later.
Here are the links to articles I wrote on the Township creation (three propositions) back then. You can see I have cautiously supported the Township concept from the beginning and have never backed off.
1. Residents Value System
2. Road to Governance
3. Governance in a nutshell
4. Panel Discussion with Woodlands Decides
5. The Decision
6. Congratulations to The Woodlands
Friday, April 9, 2010
Good news to Indian Springs and Panther Creek
Actually, the good news includes the Village of Creekside Park as well.
The start of the Creekside Park fire station on Kuykendahl is delayed until the 3rd or 4th quarters of this year due to delays in road construction. Therefore, the relative governing bodies decided jointly to accelerate the construction of the Indian Springs fire station and staff it with the personnel from the temporary fire station currently off of Gosling. This action will make Fire Station #8 (Indian Springs) operational before Fire Station #7 (Creekside Park). The Indian Springs Fire Station is now planned to begin operations in July 2011 followed by Fire Station #7 in January 2012.
After all the insistence that Fire Station #7 had to be done first and the urgency was tantamount, we now have a different scenario. It was not that urgent after all. Residents in Panther Creek and Indian Springs, including myself, have been asking to accelerate the Indian Springs Fire Station for a long time, even before the 2010 budget process. Now that some of the hurdles have been jumped for the Indian Springs Gosling location, that location is now more advanced in infrastructure and can proceed without the obstacles that Fire Station #7 has.
So residents and business owners alike in the southwestern part of Panther Creek and the southeastern part of Indian Springs are thankful that a better emergency response time is on its way to their homes and retail areas. Thanks to those who contributed to this decision.
Sometime this month, we should see the land acquisition agreements completed for both fire stations with final approvals for the project scheduled in May, with ground breaking for Indian Springs in July and for Creekside Park in January 2011. Also, those who are interested should be present at the DSC meeting in May to see the proposed plan and how these stations might impact residents' lives. The Indian Springs station is to be at the corner of Gosling and Flintridge.
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