I Will Not Be A Candidate For Reelection in May
by Kemah Mayor Bill King
January 13, 2005 
 
Dear Fellow Citizens,  
 

After several months of serious consideration, I have reached a decision that I would like to share with you.  I have decided that I will not be a candidate for re-election as Mayor this May.  The principal impetus for this decision is the demand on my time from my firm’s business.  It has been increasingly difficult over the last year to juggle the competing demands, and I have, therefore, concluded that it would be a disservice to the City and my firm to attempt to continue to do so for another two years.  

I am very proud of some of the things we have accomplished in Kemah over the last three and one-half years.   If you will indulge me a brief space, and at the risk of appearing self-laudatory, I would like to share some of these things with you.  

Kemah Police Department – When I became Mayor, the KPD was a disaster.  Kemah had the highest per capita traffic fine revenue in the State, i.e., we were the biggest speed trap in the State.  Our chief had just resigned amidst a sexual harassment scandal and several of the top officers in the Department were being investigated by other law enforcement agencies.  My first week on the job, I fired three officers and instructed the new leadership that I wanted a safety-based, not revenue-driven, traffic enforcement policy.  Through the solid leadership provided by Chiefs Buchanan and Owen over the last three years, the KPD has been completely turned around.  During my first months in office, I received complaints about the Department almost daily.  In the last year, I have received hardly any complaints but have received scores of compliments and notes of appreciation regarding our officers.  Our traffic fine revenue is now back within State standards and we have substantially increased patrol officers salaries, education and training levels.  

City’s Finances – When I became Mayor, all of the City’s reserves had been used to complete the community center.  The City was running 60-90 days past due on its vendor payables and the sales tax portion due KCDC.  We were on the verge of laying off essential personnel and overly dependent on an unrealistic level of traffic ticket revenue.  Through refinancing the City’s debt (at extremely favorable interest rates) and carefully controlling costs, the City is now on a solid financial footing.  Traffic ticket revenue is less than half of what it was the year before I was elected.  When I leave office in May, the City will have in excess of $500,000 in emergency reserves, a total fund balance in excess of $2,000,000 and the total debt will have been reduced by about $300,000.  And we have accomplished this while keeping Kemah’s tax rate the lowest in Galveston County and one of the ten lowest in the State of Texas.  We also completely overhauled the annual budget process making a detailed line item budget available to all citizens both in hardcopy and via e-mail.

Parks & Green Space – Kemah inherited the park on Harris from CCISD when it incorporated in 1963.  From 1963 until last year, the City had never constructed any parks.  In the last three years we have undertaken three initiatives on parks and green space.  First, we acquired two dilapidated, repetitive flood loss homes on West 6^th and 7^th Streets, demolished those structures and constructed a neighborhood park.  Second, we have concluded an agreement with the County for the County to convey the 57-acre spoil site to the City and will this month submit grant applications to Texas Parks & Wildlife to develop that property as part green space and part traditional park space.  This area will include playgrounds, a baseball field and a soccer field.  Finally, and what I am most proud of, we have acquired the repetitive flood loss property along SH146, just south of 7^th Street .  Included in this acquisition is a building that was built in 1912 as the original Kemah schoolhouse.  We are in the process of relocating that building to Bradford Street where it will be restored and used as a City museum and visitors center. 

City Code – Since its incorporation in 1963, the City has adopted 411 ordinances.  There has never been any attempt to organize these ordinances.  Many are obsolete and some are contradictory to later ordinances.  This general state of disarray has seriously impeded the staff’s ability to enforce the ordinances.  We have reviewed all 411 ordinances and grouped them into basic categories. At the December Council meeting, Council approved an organization of these ordinances into a city code.  This code will be completed before I leave office in May and will be available in hardcopy at City Hall and on the City’s website.

WCID Annexation of South Kemah & Kemah Oaks – As almost all of you are aware, water and sewer service was extended to South Kemah and the west half of Kemah Oaks from WCID No. 12 through a City water department established during the Blackledge administration.  This was a bad idea at the time and proved to be disadvantageous to the City, WCID No. 12 and their respective taxpayers.  It also effectively taxed the residents of those areas while denying them the right to vote in WCID elections.  Unfortunately, annexing an area that has already been developed is a fairly complicated process.  The City and WCID No. 12 had been attempting to complete the annexation process since the early 1990s.  In 2002, we put together the first comprehensive effort to actually complete the process and succeeded.  To our utter astonishment, however, the WCID Board began slow walking the annexation process.  Eventually we discovered that four of the five WCID Board members had decided that the annexation would affect their re-election prospects and were committed to scuttling the annexation.  Fortunately, we were able to convince the entire community of benefits of the annexation and Board candidates supporting the annexation were overwhelmingly elected in the last WCID election.  As a result the Board has voted to complete the annexation.  These residents will now be able to deduct their tax payments for income tax purposes and to vote in the next WCID election.  Most importantly, the WCID tax rate for all taxpayers will go down.  In fact, the WCID has already lowered the 2005 tax rate.

Regional Planning – Our area is obviously in a phase of very rapid growth.  Regional highway projects have a huge impact on our community.  Prior to my election, Kemah had never been engaged in any of the regional planning processes.  Over the last three years, we have actively engaged TxDOT on area projects. I have also served on the Transportation Policy Council of GHAC and the Transportation and Infrastructure Advisory Committee of the Greater Houston Partnership.  We have pressed for improved roadways in this area, increased funding and, most importantly, a comprehensive, regional hurricane evacuation plan.

In leaving office, there are three things that I am going to ask you to consider.

First, I have previously shared my intent not to seek re-election with Greg Collins and he has indicated that he intends to be a candidate.  I intend to endorse and support Greg for election as our next Mayor.  Greg has served on Council for 10 years and served as mayor pro tem during my administration.  I know him to be an honest and dedicated public servant.  I believe he has earned the privilege to serve as mayor and that he is best qualified person for the job.

Second, KCDC’s income over the next few years will be in the range of $700,000-800,000 annually.  Recent changes in the state law have placed some restrictions on how this money can be used.  In general terms, the money can only be spent on economic develop projects and parks.  With the park space we have on the drawing board or already completed and with the economic growth we are currently experiencing, we do not need to spend this much money on either of these categories.  However, we desperately need a new funding source for street construction and renovation.  The state law allows the City to move one-half of the KCDC sales tax revenue into a special fund dedicated to the street construction.  However, to do so requires an election.  Therefore, I am going to ask Council to call an election and for you to vote for a proposition on the May ballot which will transfer one-half of the sales tax currently collected by KCDC to a street construction fund.  I hope all of you will join me in urging Council to call this election and that you will vote in favor of the proposition in May.

Third, I am going to begin actively campaigning for the consolidation of Kemah, Clear Lake Shores and Lazy Bend as one city and that we dissolve WCID No. 12 and make it a city water department.  As some of you know, I have long held the view that this would be in the best interests of this community.  However, had I formally proposed this consolidation while mayor, the “old guard” would have argued my support was some kind of personal political agenda.  However, in stepping down as mayor, the only interests I have in seeing this become a reality are the same ones all of you do as fellow residents and taxpayers.

I will be sharing with you in some detail some of the benefits of such a consolidation, not the least of which would be about a $1,000,000 annual savings through eliminating duplicate administrative costs (two police chiefs, three attorneys, two city secretaries, etc.).  There are other reasons as well, but the most important reason is that this truly is one community and I believe it is time we start acting like it.

It is a unique honor to serve as mayor of the town where you were born and raised.  It is an experience that I will always cherish and of which I will always be proud.  I want to thank those of you who supported me.  I hope that I have lived up to your expectations.