By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Two Del Rioans spoke to the Del Rio City Council during its most recent meeting, expressing their concerns about a number of city issues.
Bea Vallejo and Carlos Cardenas spoke to the council during the citizen comments portion of the council’s Jan. 24 meeting. Since Vallejo and Cardenas did not intend to address a specific item on the council’s agenda, they had to wait until almost the end of the meeting before being allowed to speak.
Vallejo spoke first.
“The average person does not have time to come and sit and listen and wait to be heard. You have been through most of the agenda, and you have made decisions that affect the citizens and the taxpayers. I am here to share my concerns or complaints, whatever you want to call them,” Vallejo told the council.
“You make decisions, but many times you have not received or read all the facts that are presented. Ultimately, you are our voice, our vote and our representatives in all the endeavors that affect us in Del Rio and in how the taxpayers’ money is used. Whether you like it or not, we the citizens and taxpayers have the right to ask questions of each one of you, and we expect answers,” she said.
“Some city of Del Rio employees are taking it upon themselves to do things, maybe even push policy, that does not exist and make up policy as they please, and you are not overlooking these matters. Example: There’s a city-wide problem with stray animals, cats and dogs and wildlife. The council may determine and approve a policy that is to be followed when people report or when city employees have to deal with animal issues.
“If there is a policy in place whereby prohibiting the feeding of stray animals, please make it known to us. This is a city problem. You should not be placing the responsibility or the burden on the citizens to buy traps and to trap such animals. Many times it is easier for an elderly person to feed the strays and have the animals move on to another house,” Vallejo said.
She spoke about other concerns as well.
“We have another issue with the water, the sewer and the gas rates. People that are living in Del Rio 65 and older are unable to pay a lot of the rates, and there is no breaking down during the year, because you stick to the rates and you stick to whatever you’ve decided to charge. Payment plans are set up, but most of the time these people don’t really have the money, so they’re going to have to do without your services,” she said
“One other thing: When I ask questions of some of you, I am directed to go and speak with some other employee of the city because you don’t know, and they know more than you. That should not be the case. You should be up-to-date with the information, and you should have a specific answer for us,” Vallejo charged.
“The airline issue is of utmost importance. After two weeks, we finally got an update. That is unacceptable, and nothing was posted on the agenda, it was just brought up. When you approve a project to be done, you approve the funds, and you approve who will complete the project and how long it will take. If there are any changes in any set agreement, then you need to place the item on the agenda and deal with it.
“A prime example is Brown Plaza. For months we’ve been asking why construction has stopped and when it will resume. And the only thing that I can tell you is that it is a safety issue. The plastic that you have around the Plaza causes liabilities. There are ditches, there are holes, and the fencing is still down. Today, the fencing was still down, and they only worked for two days; yesterday and today,” Vallejo said.
When the three-minute alarm sounded, and Mayor Al Arreola told Vallejo her three minutes to address the council was up, she said, “This is ridiculous. This is really ridiculous. Because if you’re going to give us only three minutes to talk, when do we ever get a voice?”
“You can always meet with me, ma’am, my door’s always open,” Arreola told her.
“No, the thing is that we need to let you all know what’s going on, and you need to let us know what’s going on,” Vallejo said.
The mayor also recognized Carlos Cardenas.
“I’m here speaking for my cousin Denise. She uses the airline three or four times a year. She lives in New Jersey and in Del Rio. She’s been trying to see what she can do, and what we can do, to get it going. This is something she wrote that I’m going to read you:
“ ‘What I did regarding the airport is to get in touch with radio stations, TV stations like FOX, PBS, and local radio. I tried to get in touch with Sen. (U.S. Rep Tony) Gonzales, but he refuses to take my calls. There’s been no response from any representatives, and that’s what I’ve done regarding the airport. The government people at the airport, like Border Patrol, said they would be more than willing to sign petitions to keep the airport open.
“ ‘When I spoke to the airline staff, that were flying in from Del Rio, they said that there are no issues with staffing. The airlines have plenty of people to fly. What they believe happened is that there is a profit margin and that’s missing for the CFO and the CEO of the airlines, and we lost our grant for federal funding, and that’s the real issue and has nothing to do with a pilot shortage. There is no pilot shortage.’
“Like I said, she flies in three or four times a year, flies in, flies out. When there wasn’t an airline here, she would have to rent a car to come down. She has a vehicle here, but that’s extra money.
“Also, as far as the liability, people waiting outside the train station should have a place to go in. What if they get hurt or held up sitting out there at 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning? We should consider doing something for them at that building, and thank you, Councilman Lopez, for bringing that up,” Cardenas said.
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Contact the author at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com .
