Podcast #1: Interview with Mayor Rob Franke (Part 1)
April 27, 2006
Cedar Hill Podcast #1, April 2006 - Interview with Mayor Rob Franke (Part 1)
Rob Franke has served the City of Cedar Hill in various capacities over the past 18 years, and is currently in his fourth term as Mayor.
Part 1 of 2 part interview.
Stone Color for the Government Center
April 25, 2006
Here’s your chance to help us make a decision that will last for the next 50 years.
As most of you know, we are in the process of designing a new Government Center. It will be located right across the street from the Cinemark movie theater. Construction is slated to begin in this year with an estimated completion date in early 2008 Before we can start building, however, we have to chose the color of stone.
There are two choices — white and rose. Below are pictures of facades made with both types of stone. If you want to see the samples first hand, you can drive by the site on Uptown Blvd. (just don’t stop in the street to look). Please leave me a comment with your preference.
Our History
April 20, 2006
I love history. Whether it is world history, American history, or even Cedar Hill history, I am fascinated by how events of yesterday shape the events of today and tomorrow.
Thinking about Cedar Hill’s history, I recently asked our City Secretary about our past mayors. Since 1939, we have had 12 mayors. Our current Mayor, Rob Franke, is the 12th mayor in a distinguished list of mayors, beginning with J. C. Potter in 1939.
- J. C. Potter
- B. “Doc” Phillips
- T. W. “Turk” Cannady
- Phil Vines
- Ithiel Worden
- Mark Bielamowicz
- George W. Walters
- Archie Hall
- Kenneth Lander
- W. S. Permenter
- Dr. Chris L. Rose
- Rob Franke
Of course, there have been many city council members. Here is a complete list of council members from 1945 to the present. No city records have been found of council members prior to 1945.
City Opposes Fuel Terminal
April 17, 2006
By BRIAN ALLEN / Today Newspapers
UPDATE: On April 18, The Musket Corp; a subsidiary of Love’s Travel Stops and Country Stores, Inc. announced it has withdrawn an air permit application it filed with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to operate a bulk fuel terminal on the Mid-Texas Auto Park property.
In response to unprecedented community feedback on the issue (most of it not in favor) city officials have announced opposition to a proposed fuel terminal on environmental grounds.
The Musket Corp., a subsidiary of Love’s Travel Stops and Country Stores, Inc., filed an air permit application with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to operate a bulk fuel terminal.
They plan to put the terminal on the Mid-Texas Auto Park property (south of Holcim cement on Hwy. 67) and would use it to transfer ethanol and other fuels from railroad tanker cars to tanker trucks.
Musket has requested permission from TCEQ to transfer as many as 3,456,000 gallons of fuel per day, which would generate as many as 345 truckloads worth of fuel.
The city council, however, is not in Musket Corp’s corner. It has written a letter to the TCEQ asking it to deny Musket’s permit application.
“Our city’s formal opposition is based on a variety of factors, but is primarily centered on our concern about likely impacts on area air and water quality, and resulting risks to the health, safety and welfare of our citizens,” the letter reads.
Ellis County is designated as a non-attainment area re-garding air quality, and Mayor Boyce Whatley said officials are concerned the terminal will negatively impact the county’s non-compliance.
And he’s not alone in his concerns.
“I’ve had more phone calls in the past few weeks than I had in seven years on the council,” he said.
The council has also requested a public hearing on the issue.
The Midlothian Family Net-work, a group dedicated to “quality of life matters in the cement capital of Texas,” has been following the issue and is encouraging citizens to write Love’s management.
“Please write Jenny Love Meyer (Love’s spokesperson) at Love’s/Musket and ask her company to go away,” the network’s website urges.
No date has been set for a public hearing yet.
The proposed Midlothian site would be the second ethanol loading facility in Texas. Motiva Enterprises has a facility in south Dallas.
Ethanol’s chemical properties do not allow it to be mixed with gasoline in storage tanks.
Meyer has said that the ethanol at this facility would not be stored but moved from rail cars to truck tankers and then shipped to storage facilities in Dallas-Fort Worth.
Public School Finance Reform Update
April 13, 2006
On Wednesday, April 12, 2006, I attended a meeting with State Senators Florence Shapiro and Royce West to discuss Governor Perry’s plan for public school finance reform. This was the beginnings of a dialog with local elected officials and business leaders about the proposals.
By way of overview, the plan proposes broadening the applicability of the franchise tax so that more businesses pay a larger portion of the total taxes, and at the same time, lowering property taxes on residential and commercial properties. The Legislature will use the additional tax revenue to fund at least 50% of public education.
Here are some of the highlights:
- The reformed franchise tax will be broader and assessed at a lower rate. It provides a lower franchise tax rate of 1% (and .5% for certain low-margin employers, like retailers, wholesalers, and restaurants) than the current rate of 4.5%.
- Unlike previous proposals for franchise tax reform, it provides employers incentives for hiring more workers, providing health insurance, investing in worker pensions, and investing in dependent healthcare.
- Sole-proprietorships and general partnerships owned solely by natural persons are exempt from the tax.
- The small business exemption is doubled from $150K to $300K in total revenue.
In exchange for the expanded business tax, property taxes will be reduced. This will be accomplished by lowering school districts Maintenance and Operations tax (M&O) to $1.00 from the current $1.50. Essentially, that means cutting the amount of taxes a school district can levy for school operations.
The new plan will also impose a $1 per pack tax on cigarettes.
The end result would be an infusion of new tax dollars. Both West and Shapiro agreed that the amount of tax revenue projected under this plan is conservative. They expect the tax reform will increase tax revenue by as much as $8 billion.
There will be a lot of debate about how to use the “surplus.” Currently, the extra revenue raised will go into the general revenue fund, but there are those that want it statutorily earmarked for education.
At this point, the plan is still a commission report so it could look very different by the time it is sent to the Senate. Even so, the general consensus is that, of all the plans, this one seems to bring about the least resistance.
The legislature is scheduled to go into special session Monday at 2:00pm for 30 days. Shapiro thinks we will finally see action during this session. If not, the result could be that the Comptroller (who is running for Governor) could, in a political move, shut down the schools.
In terms of the legislative procedure, the thinking now is that the Speaker of the House will divide the proposal into 6 different pieces of legislation. Once the individual pieces are passed by the House, they will go to the Senate, and be put back into one package.
One troubling development is the prospect of lowering the appraisal cap from 10% cap to 5%. For fast growing cities like Cedar Hill and Frisco, this could severely limit a city’s ability to hire new police officers and firefighters, and expand infrastructure necessary to support the new growth. Similar caps have been defeated in prior sessions. I talked with West and Shapiro individually following the event to make sure they understood the implications.
It is sad that Texas SAT scores rank 47 in the nation. 1 out of 3 students will drop out. Of those that make it to college, 30% have to take remedial courses. This plan won’t solve that problem. We must quickly to turn our attention to real education reform.
You can read about the specifics of the plan at
http://www.governor.state.tx.us/priorities/tax_reform/TTRC_report.
Welcome!
My name is Wade Emmert and I am a Council Member for the City of Cedar Hill. This web site is a way for me to share with you some of my thoughts about issues important to the City.
It is my sincerest goal to be a good steward of the citizens’ trust. Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to serve you.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me at Wade.Emmert@cedarhilltx.com or (214) 740-3164.