Is the City of Richardson, Texas Corrupt?

It is a great substitute when funny papers are not so entertaining.

Have to take it with a grain of salt. Some of it is accurate. Some of it is misleading. Some of it is just plain wrong.

It is nothing more than a means by which city leaders engage in manipulating the public opinion.

The city management does its level best to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

What would you expect from a city staff interested in promoting its own agenda?

They should have been retro-active, then the city would have fresh, new blood looking into the funny business that has been pervasive in Richardson.

There were already term limits before the change. All the citizens had to do was run a good candidate against the incumbent machine that has been developed keeping the entrenched in power.

The change did not really put term limits in place because there are loopholes that can be exploited by unscrupulous politicians.

As much as the staff can get away with, as long as it adds something of value to the city.

Municipal government should focus on managing the city's assets and keep the public business out of private enterprise.

Private enterprise is a good way for public employees and their friends to make money by putting city assets to work.

It doesn't matter if the business looses money or not, as long as it makes the city look good to outsiders.

Sure, they have the public's best interest at heart. They should be able to make up their own employment rules and take advantage of any opportunity to increase their compensation.

It doesn't matter if it violates anybody's sense of honesty and integrity, as long as it can be justified in the courts.

The general public doesn't know or care about who cheats or breaks the rules. They just expect it.

Of course. Each person selected to serve on a Board or Commission is required to have extensive experience in a field particular to the specific Board or Commission to which they are appointed. There are no political favors or "friends" appointed without having first had their talent examined for applicable skills.

Are you kidding? Richardson is the same as the other small towns in the area where only cronies and confidants are selected to serve the agenda of the Management and staff, and the Council along with the members of Boards and Commissions are no more than self dealing windbags out for the free entertainment and meals.

That depends on what "qualified" is. If "qualified" means the appointee has been approved by the Council and Management, and have been assured that they will be quiet and play along, then you have what is currently considered "qualified". Experience is a plus, but not necessary because Management makes all the decisions for them.

Why not? Just because the Charter is an extension of State Law doesn't mean anybody has to abide by it. It is perfectly acceptable to continue rolling over debt by refinancing, no matter how big it gets, as long as the interest payment can be met, and even if the Charter prohibits refinancing.

The Charter is not really a set of laws. It is merely a set of guidelines intended to set general opinions on how the City should be managed and run.

No! If the laws set out in the Charter that was enacted to control government are inconvenient for zealous politicians and public employees, then the laws should be carefully reviewed for amendment by a Commission of elected wise citizens independent of the political agenda of the public employees and City Council.

Sure. The State Law permits new definitions to be used in place of conventional wisdom when it comes to what the applicable laws really mean.

Public employees who sacrifice their lives at the alter of service to the public should be given everything the city can afford. They are our heroes. We cannot survive without them.

The public employees give themselves fat pay checks and ridiculous benefits because they know things that nobody else does about the inner workings of the city. Without the inside team, the city would collapse on itself.

Our career employees are the best. It is necessary to give them everything they ask for so they will not leave us high and dry.

As long as final decisions are voted by the Council in public, anything that goes on behind closed doors or in private conversations is perfectly legal. The public does not deserve to know what public employees and elected officials are doing to conduct the public business.

If the Chamber of Commerce, or anyone else receives public money for any purpose, a full accounting to the public is required. Anything less signals widespread corruption that rightly should establish a bad reputation for those involved.

The Chamber of Commerce is designed to take public money from the City to perform acts of its public business, yet be unaccountable to the citizens of the community as required by State Law.