Friday, August 18, 2017

NEECE, DE LEON HEAR RESIDENTS AT TOWN HALL MEETING


Special to El Rrun-Rrun

Just as he promised during the election campaign, City of Brownsville District 4 Commissioner Ben Neece held a Town Hall meeting at the Brownsville Public Library where he gave a report and listened to the a report of activities and to address citizen concerns.

The meeting was held on Wednesday, August 16.

Neece and At-Large "A" District Commissioner César De León, who was invited to speak, also fielded questions from the audience.

At the door was a questionnaire for citizens to list their top five issues and concerns. The meeting was opened with Cub Scouts from Pack 777 leading the Pledge of Allegiance.

Neece addressed the activities of a group called Main Street USA consisting of 23 entities that share interest in the downtown area and was formed to pool resources and to eliminate duplicated and sometimes conflicting goals and methods to redevelop downtown infrastructure.

The citizen concerns voiced by the residents weer of the bread-and-butter variety of nay urbanized area: Streets, drainage, police protection, and ineffective public transportation for the poor and elderly in the district.

Neece and De León stressed that the newly formed Budget Committee approved by the commission at a recent meeting is working to trim costs from the upcoming budget which goes into effect October 1st. It will then be presented to the city commission for approval.

"Beginning in January, the Budget Committee will begin working on a Citizen’s Budget, based on the desires and needs of the people," Neece told those attending.

Both Commissioners stressed that frequent Town Hall meetings, website feedback, and open workshops were the key to making this change in direction in budget development a success.

A downtown property manager expressed his frustration at the various city departments’ red tape involved opening a business that often resulted in being shuttled back and forth among departments and PUB to acquire the necessary permits and certificates of compliance. That red tape results in additional costs in time and money, he said.

One citizen stood to specifically address the problem of over-staffing and nepotism.

“Look at the City HR (Human Resources) Department," he said. "There are 17 people working there. Seventeen and most of them related! There are so many that they don’t even have desks for all of them. General Motors in Detroit doesn’t have 17 people in its Human Resources Department”!

After the meeting, Neece and De Leon said they would continue to have Town-Hall style  periodically and special meetings when and issue merited the public's input.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great, a pot head and a millennial - just what the City needs.

Each one working individually wouldn't be a problem - but together, makes for a toxic cocktail.

Anonymous said...

what about downtown streets, crime garbage, lighting, and all that?! Neece said nothing? Typical.

Anonymous said...

Good job commissioner Neece

Anonymous said...

Get a job, Duardo, you useless never-was.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for reaching out.
Maybe a couple of these with different members of the commission every once in awhile would be nice.
Food could be provided.
Maybe a pot luck.
Lincoln Park?
Have a pachanga!!!!
Like the old days in Brownsville Politics.

Anonymous said...

I am glad to see this type of activity in progress, but for some reason, I missed the advertisement announcing such meeting. Perhaps Channel 12, a huge sticker in the front of the Brownsville Herald, but please stay away as much as possible from social media that many of us old-timers do not participate in or even know how to us. We miss a lot because of this and I would certainly drag myself and my walker over to each meeting to express my concerns over the embarrassment of being a citizen of the dirtiest city in the valley, whose only objective is to develop beer joints and pubs in downtown and has not done anything to improve the aesthetic value of the buildings on Adams, Washington and Elizabeth. We need to make it look attractive enough for people to want to go shopping there or even take a
leisurely drive during the evening when we "show-off" our town to those who come visit. I am really looking forward to see Cesar de Leon prosper as a young commissioner who really has his heart and intelligence in it, but he needs to distance himself from some people who do cannot demand such respect.
Be your own man, Cesar! Stay away from "dime con quien te juntas y te dire quien eres" even for meetings like this.

rita