In the view of several of those who spoke out this last City council meeting, as well as others who have expressed their opinions online, leadership of our 4-A along with the Coleman city manager have clearly overstepped their authority by allegedly trying to manipulate the process on how a person might become a member of either one of the two economic development boards here in Coleman.

This issue has proven to be very contentious from the beginning. When this item was first brought up at the September 15th CC meeting it immediately found resistance, as council member Jameson, in his own words found

Click 4-A Leadership Under Fire Again! to read the post.



OUR TAX DOLLARS - Yours, Mine, Theirs

JoAnn Meanders on the possibility of dissolving the 4A.  This subject is becoming more and more prominent in the recent past as it is very arguable that having two economic boards may no longer be justified in Coleman especially considering the 4B can handle both industrial and non-industrial development. 

Please click here to read the full article by JoAnn Eddleman.

http://colemanconnected.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=70935&title=meanderings-by-ann-our-tax-dollarsyours-and-mine

http://colemanconnected.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=70941&PID=71452&title=our-tax-dollars-yours-mine-theirs#71452


This is the opinion of one or more persons and may or may not reflect the opinion(s) of ColemanConnected.com. Alternate opinions are welcome and may be considered for publication in this section.

	Eric Joffrion has just submitted this study to us. A summary of this work is presented below. In addition, multiple pages of supporting documents have been included which we will post on the forum. Eric shows clearly that the actual revenue from the electrical system does not come close to what many believe. In addition, these figures do not include having to replace equipment that is ...>

Click New electrical study by private citizen to read the post.

Kay Joffrion

Citizens of Coleman,

Your new Mayor & City Council will vote Thurs. night regarding issues involving you being able to speak at city council mtgs. If the resolution they are presenting is passed, you will have to complete a form (giving your personal info & a description of your subject matter) before the meeting to be able to speak on a subject during the time visitors are allowed to speak at the beginning of the meeting. If you wish to speak on an agenda item you will have to complete a form and only be allowed to speak for 3 min. regarding that item on the agenda. All of this is at the discretion of the Mayor or presiding officer. So if they don't want you to speak, YOU WON'T BE ALLOWED TO SPEAK -- EVEN THOUGH YOU PAY THE TAXES THAT RUN THIS TOWN.

Another part of their "resolution" is that "your comments must be respectful to the members of the city council & staff". The City Mangler & Ms. Merriman were not respectful of me when they made several comments during my term as Mayor. Guess they can dish it out but can't take it!

I would suggest you attend the meeting to voice your opposition to this, but it won't do any good. This city is run by a few people.

Aren't you proud you voted these people into their positions!!

See the forum for more discussion :

http://colemanconnected.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=550&title=agenda-city-council-5-14-15

Editor Note: Thanks for the comments. Link above has been corrected.




This is the opinion of one or more persons and may or may not reflect the opinion(s) of ColemanConnected.com. Alternate opinions are welcome and may be considered for publication in this section.



Petitions for changes in our electrical rates and/or system were presented at last night's city council meeting.  In addition to these petitions,  many citizens were present and voiced their concerns and expressed natural irritation at what was felt to be lack of caring and concern for the residents of the city of Coleman.  These concerns are real. Frustration voiced at council was real. It is clear that the residents of Coleman need and now demand their voices be heard.  I also addressed the council I support of these residents. They want growth, they want help. Growth won't come as long as high electrical rates make opening a business difficult. The number of houses vacant and for sale should warn us that things are not right.  Much work must be done. I hope the voters consider letting me help by selecting me to represent them on the Coleman city council.


This is the opinion of one or more persons and may or may not reflect the opinion(s) of ColemanConnected.com. Alternate opinions are welcome and may be considered for publication in this section.




Congrats on preparation of a new web site. I assume it is still under construction as much of the information available on other city web sites and on our old web site is not yet available on this new site. In particular, I was very disappointed to see that the Minutes have been removed. I feel that posted Minutes are critical to providing readily accessible information to citizens, and it is definitely an easy step toward the city showing a willingness to provide transparency in government.As everyone knows, transparency in government is an issue around here as it should be, and a web site with as much public information as possible is a great tool for providing transparency. In addition to Minutes, many cities post check registers, monthly cash reports, audits, etc. Coleman seems to bend over backward to keep as much information as possible difficult to access. (Please see www.texastransparency.org for what other cities see fit to share online. I could list many city web sites as well.)

This is the opinion of one or more persons and may or may not reflect the opinion(s) of ColemanConnected.com. Alternate opinions are welcome and may be considered for publication in this section.



The Ever Confidential AEPEP Contract

 

 

It seems that this issue just keeps getting more and more entwined and convoluted.

 

In April, after hearing the pleas from Coleman, our state representative in Austin sponsored two bills to ensure contracts between electrical providers and cities could no longer be confidential. These bills would have provided relief to Coleman citizens and businesses by allowing us, the citizens, to finally be able to fully review the contract that is holding us hostage with AEPEP.

 

You would think that our city leaders would have fully supported this effort. After all, for many years we have heard repeatedly that the contract is secret and there is simply nothing they can do about it.

 

On March 19^th, a very passionate debate took place in Coleman at the city council meeting, where it became abundantly clear that somehow our city leaders were not actually on board with this effort to bring the AEPEP contract to the light of day. In fact, to everyone’s utter surprise, it was just the opposite.  You can see what happened if you watch the video at http://colemanconnected.com/post.asp?id=1&t=audio-video-of-very-passionate-discussion-3-19-15

 

On the agenda of the very next city council meeting, this item appeared:

 

The City Council may consider, discuss and/or take actions regarding the approval of a Resolution opposing House Bill 2715 and House Bill 2716 in their entirety

 

Many people showed up to voice their opinion on this matter and …… IT WAS TABLED BEFORE THE MAYOR COULD EVEN FINISH HER INTRODUCTION.

 

Of course, everyone knew something BIG had happened to convince Mayor Pro-tem Payne to quickly call for this resolution to be tabled, but no one knew what the “something” was. 

 

If it had ended there, it would probably have just been forgotten history; but, of course, such things have a propensity to live on and get more repugnant as they go. And that is just what has happened.

 

On April 20^th, eight (8) city leaders and citizens from Coleman traveled to Austin, without authorization from any board or council, to convince our congressman not to support these bills.

 

The 8 were:

 

1. City Manager, Paul Catoe,                                      -- paul@web-access.net
2. Mayor Pro-tem Gary Payne,                          -- glpayne1@verizon.net
3. Mayor-Elect Nick Poldrack                                  -- 625-3370
4. City Attorney, Pat Chesser,                                  -- patchesserlaw@yahoo.com
5. EDC Executive Director, Kim Little                 -- edcolemanedc@outlook.com
6. EDC Secretary, Roy Poage                           -- porkhide@aol.com
7. County citizen Kay Poage, wife of Roy Poage
8. Citizen Rodney Cole Jr, as chauffeur.

 

 

 

Yes, these 8 people traveled all the way to Austin in what can only be described, in my opinion, as a covert action to sabotage the processes of transparency that had been started in Austin to give much needed relief to the citizens of Coleman.

 

WHY did this happen and who authorized it?

 

We spoke with Mayor Kay Joffrion on this matter.  She let us know that ....


Read the full article here on the forum
http://colemanconnected.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=535&PID=882

 

 

 

 

This is the opinion of one or more persons and may or may not reflect the opinion(s) of ColemanConnected.com. Alternate opinions are welcome and may be considered for publication in this section.



	Although this is not an official count, we heard that as of today 667 have voted in this election. Of course, we with A-C-C-T are counting on a heavy turnout and it looks like that is happening.  We need to hear from the county! Your vote could make the difference in the outcome of this election.

This is the opinion of one or more persons and may or may not reflect the opinion(s) of ColemanConnected.com. Alternate opinions are welcome and may be considered for publication in this section.

Yesterday we sent out the following email to the two citizens that are running for the position of city council member, west ward.

****


Dear Candidates,

If you would like to put together a short 100-200 word "As you go to vote" message to the voters, supporting your candidacy, please email it back to us ASAP and we'll publish it on ColemanConnected.com

Thank you for your willingness to serve Coleman.

Support@ColemanConnected.


***

As of today, we have not received any response from Ms. Merriman.  If we receive a response from Ms. Merriman, we will happily publish it.


Ms. Jeannie Moss responded with the following: