The following letter was received from one of our neighbors, Gary Bickford. We post it because we believe the information it contains is important for every citizen of the Greater Mission Bend Area. You are free, of course, to agree or to disagree with Mr. Bickford’s position. It is very likely that no one reading this message has ever voted in an ESD election. Let me tell you that there is a great deal at stake here. I do have it on good authotity that citizens from Katy are voting in relatively large numbers to support the overthrow of the representatives in support of Mission Bend. It has been my pleasure to know and to work with Mary Blondell for over 20 years. I personally know her to be a dedicated worker whose mission is guided by her vision of the welfare of our community. She has no unterior political agenda, other that to serve the citizens of this community. Please take a minute to read and give thought to Mr. Bickford’s statement.
Michael Martin, President, Greater Mission Bend Area Council
An Emergency Services District (ESD) is a small government board charged with delivering fire and emergency services to a specific area. The ESD in your area is called Harris-Fort Bend ESD 100 and it has five ELECTED commissioners that oversee its operation. ESD 100 was created in 1998 by voters in the coverage area. It immediately contracted for service with Community Fire Department to provide 24 hour per day emergency response out of three fire stations. The closest station to your home is at Mason and Westpark Tollroad. Community is well staffed by paid firefighters during the day and supplemented at night by professional volunteers. They have saved countless lives and property through their heroic and speedy responses using state of the art equipment and apparatus.
ESD 100 operates much like you probably operate your home. The ESD pays for equipment as it goes; there is very little debt and their financial status is strong! Unlike almost any other government body you pay tax to, ESD 100 doesn’t buy today and pay tomorrow on your kids or grandkids money. ESD 100 has shown great fiscal restraint over the years and invests your tax money wisely for maximum outcome. Further the commissioners of ESD 100 have aggressively sought new ways to collect revenue in order to be able to reduce the ad valorem (property) tax you pay. In fact this year the commissioners of ESD 100 were able to assess a sales tax to those parties that travel into your ESD district, potentially using the service, and then leaving without paying their fair share. This tax strategy will save you money down the road as property taxes will not have to bear the full burden for the cost of service. The bottom line is that we have excellent fire and ambulance protection and the cost to the tax payer (tax rate) is about the same as other ESD districts that provide only fire protection.
So, why all the information on ESD 100? The ESD is in the middle of an election and the commissioners that have worked hard to make sure you and your home are protected with great equipment and responders need your vote. They are being challenged by candidates backed by Special Purpose Committee which is very similar to a Political Action Committee. These challengers are apparently well financed judging by the high quality color political advertisements they are mailing and paying a service company to deliver. Seems odd to spend all that money for a job that pays $50 a month. Maybe these challengers just want to show interest or share their expertise of the ESD service. If that were the case it would seem like one of them would have at least attended an ESD meeting – none of the challengers has ever been to an ESD 100 meeting in the last 12 years, nor have they worked for or volunteered for Community Fire Department. Why the interest on their part all the sudden and where are they getting their money from? Why would a Special Purpose Committee be formed to run for an ESD board?
The challengers charge that the current board has spent too much money and taxes too much. Lets look at what ESD 100 has done to secure, improve, and address the fire and emergency services for the district. The district was formed by a group of concerned citizens because there was very little funding available to the fire department. There were two front line fire trucks- neither in very good shape. It wasn’t uncommon for the first fire truck to arrive at a fire to be almost twenty years old. There was one fire station in district, on Alief Clodine near Hwy 6. A handful of firefighters worked during the daytime since the volunteers had to work. ESD 100 worked aggressively and the first thing the Commissioners did was build a fire station at 1093 and Mason to protect the “far Westside” as it was known then. Then they bought a new fire truck for that station- this is the station that protects your home today. Since then the district has supplied the fire department with a rescue truck equipped with multiple units of the Jaws of Life so that crash victims can be removed from wreckage. They bought and equipped five MICU ambulances– to put this in perspective Fort Bend County EMS has only ten units in service for the entire county. Another fire station was added neat Beechnut and Eldridge for that end of the district. Two ladder trucks have been placed- these aren’t just for commercial fires- they work well on McMansions. Finally four new fire trucks have been added to insure the fleet meets all the needs of the area. Your home sits in a very well equipped ESD with highly skilled and dedicated emergency responders.
Don’t let your fire department be dismantled, de-funded, or stripped of its quality. Your ESD 100 board has worked hard for you and they need your help now.
Please vote Election Day, May 8, 7a to 7p at Fire Station #1 16003 Bellaire
POSTED BY GARY BICKFORD
May 2010 Newsletter
Filed under Newsletters May 4
Ever notice how fast the months just go flying by? It just seems like yesterday I was sitting here pondering the happenings of our neighborhood and wondering about what of these events was noteworthy. This month is a little bit easier. Once again your Council has put together a great program. We invited speakers to come in and present a training program for board members of homeowners’ associations.
No, this was not a public event, but it was an important event. By bringing together HOA board members with members of the management companies with which the HOA’s contract we are doing important networking. We are getting our name out in the professional community and we are gaining recognition. And recognition by decision makers is going to be critical as the GMBAC moves forward with its mission to improve the quality of life in our service area. We cannot accomplish this mission entirely by ourselves. It was interesting that we had people from Tomball attend our training session. We have already worked with leaders in Copperfield. This is important because collectively the communities of the unincorporated areas will have to join forces to fight the blight of urban decay which stands just outside our borders. We will most likely have to join forces with these other communities as we approach the state legislature with proposals we want put into law to allow us to address many problems for which there is no legal solution at this time.
What are these problems? As they say, they are legion. Just look around your neighborhood and note any issues which you think are not being addressed, from the tidal wave of rental property to blatant disregard for deed restrictions. Your HOA stands between you and the chaos which would wash over your community if left unchallenged.
This brings up our ongoing concern. As we noted in last month’s newsletter during the last legislative session over 100 bills were introduced which were designed to basically wipe out the HOAs in this state. Now think about that for a moment. Maybe you don’t like paying those HOA assessments. And maybe you don’t like having to go before an architectural control committee to repaint your house. Then you are just like most of us. Most homeowners don’t particularly like either of these aspects of HOA control in our community. BUT, now pay attention here, what do you think would happen if there were no HOA to protect your investment? What if the guy next door sells his house to an “investor” who lives out of state and whose only concern is “cash flow” as all the real estate commercials state? “Cash flow”. Has a nice ring to it doesn’t it?
Well it does until the new renter does like a guy on Winkleman (across from Petrosky Elementary School) did. He is gone now, thanks largely to the intervention of the evil HOA. This budding entrepreneur asserted his right to use his rented property any way he chose. So he opened up an auto repair shop. You get that? This guy rented a lovely little home which formerly was owned by residents who raised their family in Mission Bend and moved out once the children were grown. And not caring two cents for any of his new neighbors who continue to live in their homes, he opened an auto repair shop in an exclusively residential neighborhood right on Winkleman across the street from Petrosky Elementary School. Next thing you know there are cars parked all up and down the street awaiting for his attention. Auto parts, hoods, door panels, etc., were leaning up against his fence and cars were in his driveway in various stages of disassembly. Get the picture?
All that stood between the neighbors’ property values and this guy’s ambition to run an auto repair shop was – you guessed it – the HOA. The same big bad HOA which is being attacked by forces in the State Legislature as being heavy handed, un-American and several other non-too-pleasant terms. You see, in our current political climate, the rights of this one individual outweigh any concerns for the interests of the community.
It seems as though every legislator is jumping on this Populist bandwagon. Our own State Representative, Mr. Hubert Vo, isn’t just jumping on the bandwagon. He’s leading the charge, having offered one of the first pieces of legislation to gut the HOA’s of their power to maintain control of the community by the homeowners in the community. Did you catch that phrase, “by the homeowners in the community”? The HOA isn’t “them”. It is you and it is I. We are the HOA. The HOA is there to represent “us” and to protect “us” from “them”, those who want to destroy our communities. And to this date, Mr. Hubert Vo has become a voice for “them”.
Now some of you might think I am just grinding a political ax here. That is not the case. Mr. Vo and I may support different political parties, but he stood with our community in its fight with TxDOT and we were pleased to have him as our representative in the State Legislature. We thought of Mr. Vo as our champion. Now imagine our shock when his bill was introduced which would effectively destroy the one agency which stands between the homeowner and total urban blight. We attempted to have a meeting with Mr. Vo but he has avoided this for the past year. Now one year is a very long time for our elected state representative to be too busy to meet with us. But that is the fact of the matter. Now that elections are upon us we can only wonder if Mr. Vo will finally take time from his busy schedule to address our concerns. We don’t have much hope.
In the meanwhile, the 100 bills which would allow urban blight to sweep over your community like that tidal wave are poised and waiting for the next legislative session to open. We are working feverishly to prepare to speak on behalf of the homeowners of Texas, but do not take for granted that we will prevail. Stay tuned.
Michael Martin
President, Greater Mission Bend Area Council mmartin@GMBAC.com