EDITORIAL: City Hall Wake Up Call

The conduct and advice of newly rehired City Administrator Thom Lauer during the past week (July 26, 2007) zoning and council meetings underscores our reservations about his hiring. He repeatedly recommended holding the zoning meeting without quorum, in violation of both the Local Government Code and Open Meetings Act. His effort to facilitate the meeting without legal advice and somehow undo it after the fact may have been criminal as it would necessarily involve the destruction or alteration of government records as well as conspiracy. When his advice and recommendations were finally overruled on legal advice, he was dispatched in his police interceptor to retrieve committee members for the meeting.

The planned City Council meeting was a complete embarrassment for our city as there was no quorum and the meeting was not held. The Allen Group had sent five presenters to detail their road and infrastructure plans, but the City of Wilmer doesn't seem interested.

Wilmer is a small town with limited resources and we need to progress and grow as a community and to be able to trust our city government. Most of our businesses and citizens are treated as adversaries by the administration - cooperation and assistance are not typical in dealings with our city. We wonder why the citizens of Wilmer are burdened with supporting this level of official incompetence among both our elected and appointed officials and our paid public servants. How can we begin to trust our city government when our elected officials continue to both act against legal advice and continue to employ those who consistently act against the public interest?