Web Posted: 12/18/2008 8:38 CST

Focus: Citizens not to be heard

Open meetings perversion

Re: The Hollywood Park rental house fiasco:

This “house deal” moves beyond fiasco and looks so bad that I don’t see how the district attorney is not involved.

The deal starts with the purchase of a home at almost list price. No negotiation reflective of a home in bad condition. The purchase was for expansion of fire and police facilities but no plans are in place and no money available.

Normally, when the city of Hollywood Park has a meeting, it is posted on the city marquee. Although the meeting of purchase was legally posted, it was not posted on the marquee where residents would see it.

The motion for purchase was made by Councilman Ken Ballard, the mayor pro-tem. The purchase was through the Economic Development Corporation, whose president is David Ballard, son of the mayor pro-tem. Also sitting as a director on the Economic Development Corporation is Ryan Henry. Ryan Henry is the city attorney.

As reported in the Express-News, David Ballard moved into the home without a lease. A lease was then executed as of Oct. 1, but was not approved by council until near the end of October. This lease does not protect Hollywood Park and its taxpayers from liability because addenda and requirements for insurance were left silent, according to a realtor who reviewed a copy of the lease. The lease even has the Hollywood Park taxpayers paying for the upkeep of the yard.

The Bexar County Appraisal District would say a house that was purchased for $230,000 rents for $23,000 a year. This house is rented to David Ballard for $500 a month. If used for a basis of valuation, this would indicate an investment value of $25,000, not $230,000.

Mayor Richard McIlveen has tried to silence the citizens, taking away their voice in government by not allowing citizens to address their city council unless he deems it permissible in advance. This is a perversion of the Open Meetings Act and the intent of a transparent government.

A tyrant can silence my voice. But in reaching out to other citizens, I am not alone.

All of our voices cannot be silenced when speaking together in unison.

Timothy E. McCallum,

CPA past president,

Hollywood Park Home Owners Association

Silenced in Hollywood Park

Fellow Hollywood Parkers, your three minutes are up. Mayor Richard McIlveen has effectively issued a gag order on residents by removing general citizen participation from council meetings.

This is on the heels of the council’s approval of the lease of a city-owned home for $500 a month to Mayor Pro-Tem Ken Ballard’s son and the approval of an extended-stay hotel that will back up to the Gardens of Hollywood Park, with virtually no resident input.

In the half-dozen years that I have attended council meetings, the four-minute general citizen participation section was first whittled down to three minutes, and — as of the October council meeting — it has been eliminated completely, despite the open protest of two council members.

Now, even department heads are not immune to censorship. At the December meeting, the fire chief was cut off mid-sentence while imparting potentially live-saving information, because the mayor’s agenda preordained that there would be no departmental reports.

The in-your-face message is clear: Your officials can do what they want, when they want, and if you don’t like it, they can shut you up. And the resulting resounding silence? That’s the slip, slip, slipping of residents’ First Amendment rights. Pay attention, Hollywood Park, and don’t let government get away with stealing your voice.

Debbie Trueman,

Hollywood Park

http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/Focus_Citizens_not_to_be_heard.html