By Thomas Warren III, Editor-in-Chief

In December 2016, Amarillo voters were introduced to attorney Ginger Nelson, a recently resigned former member of the Amarillo Economic Development Corporation Board of Directors, who had just announced a campaign for mayor to replace outgoing incumbent Paul Harpole.

Now, nearly three and half years since Nelson took office after beating Jim Lowder and Renea Dauntes to claim her position, it is indisputable that the face of Amarillo government has changed. After all, this is unsurprising considering Nelson and her Amarillo Matters-backed City Council promised to “change the tone” at City Hall.

However, the real question should be, how have Ginger Nelson’s first term promises aged during her tenure as mayor? Which promises, if any, has Nelson delivered on, and which promises are still left unfulfilled?

With these questions in mind, I want to take a trip back to 2016 with the knowledge of Nelson’s tenure over the past three and half years to judge just how those campaign promises have aged. As a note, all of the campaign promises that I will be discussing in this editorial were promoted by Nelson during the 2017 election and were featured in a television spot Nelson’s campaign produced to highlight her platform in that election cycle.

Without further ado, let’s get this party started.

Promise #1: “Putting citizens above politics”

Over the past three and half years, Nelson has been at constant odds with a variety of individuals in the community, with perhaps the most obvious example stemming from the arrest of activist Kip Billups during an Amarillo City Council meeting in 2018. Billups was removed from the Council Chambers by police on orders of Nelson after he refused to stand, in defiance of Nelson’s commands. Prior to this arrest, Billups had been an outspoken opponent of the Mayor, organizing protests against various activities at City Hall. Following this incident, Nelson went on a media tour, explaining why she believed her clapping ban was constitutional, despite pushback from constitutional law experts, and later attempted to deflect her bad publicity by blaming it on Empower Texans.

This is perhaps the most obvious example of her interactions with citizens, but her tenure has also seen a variety of bizarre attempts to squelch citizen information and engagement. Consider that in 2018, Nelson’s City Council oversaw the decision to stop recording public comments in City Council meetings. Nelson’s City Council also voted to increase fees for Open Records Act requests, creating a new barrier for citizens who want information about what is happening behind closed doors at City Hall.

After all of this, Nelson was also scheduled to deliver a presentation at a conference in 2019, which referred to her detractors as the “hyper-vocal minority.”

While the Harpole government certainly had its ups and downs, the Nelson government has been a trainwreck when it comes to putting citizens first. Final grade: F

Promise #2: “Better roads and streets”

In 2016, Amarillo voters approved a bond put forward by the Paul Harpole-led City Council for street repairs. This has been the only truly significant move for street repairs made by any recent City Council, and the Nelson Council has essentially been essentially basking in the credit it has received for a bond which it did not even place on the ballot.

Any major street repairs as a result of the 2016 bond are not the work of Nelson, but rather of the Harpole Council, which included Harpole, Elisha Demerson, Lisa Blake, Randy Burkett, and Mark Nair. Final grade: F

Promise #3: “Cleaning up I-40 and I-27”

I remember hearing Nelson make this promise repeatedly in 2017, and it always struck me as a bit odd, considering the City of Amarillo has little to no role in the maintenance of the interstate highways which run through our city. However, Nelson made the promise, so it is worth looking to see what she has accomplished on this point.

While there has been a contract in place for supplemental mowings of I-40 and I-27 in Amarillo, it was reported in 2018 that the mowings has not all been taking place as scheduled. Despite the mowings, there are still a number of other issues with the I-40 and I-27 highways, many of which cannot be resolved by the City Council, despite any promises made on the campaign trail. Final grade: D-

Promise #4: “Establishing a job creation task force”

Over the past few years, the City of Amarillo has created a number of boards which operate behind closed doors without public meetings, such as the subcommittee which considered proposed renovations to the Amarillo Civic Center Complex for this year’s bond election. So, is it possible that such a task force exists behind closed doors? It’s possible, but why would a candidate campaign on item that she only intended to deliver on out of the public’s view? Nelson has shown over the past few years that she often loves the spotlight, so I doubt the City would create such a board that operates without public knowledge of its existence.

So, taking that option off of the table, we are left to look at the existing municipal boards and committees listed at this link. None of these boards have been created by the Nelson-led Council with the express purpose of job creation. While a few of these boards do undertake job creation-related roles, such as the Amarillo EDC Board, these boards existed before Nelson took office and will exist once she leaves office.

Barring a behind-closed-doors committee, the final grade on this promise is an F.

Promise #5: “Cutting the red tape to improve City services”

While this promise sounds wonderful, any significant cuts of red tape to streamline City services haven’t happened, in this writer’s opinion. Instead, many fees have gone up under Nelson’s Council, including her City Council’s 2019 vote to increase fees for use of the Warford Community Center by between 500 and 700 percent, with Nelson openly supporting the increases.

“The City cannot provide the services at this great of a subsidy across the board,” Nelson said at the time.

Instead of cutting the red tape to improve customer service and citizen access to key services, the Nelson Council has created new barriers to these public services, which do not fulfill her campaign promise. Final grade: F

Promise #6: “Ginger Nelson will stop the infighting and bring stability to City Hall”

This might be the hardest campaign promise to grade, just considering the fact that there will be a few different viewpoints on this. If you are an Amarillo Matters crony or a donor to Nelson’s campaign, then you probably feel like stability has been brought to City Hall. I mean, all you have to do is cut a campaign check and you can fast-track your way to a seat on a municipal committee.

However, for everyone else, this stability has not been delivered. From the scandals surrounding poor conduct of various City departments, to citizens being politically targeted, to citizens being shamed for expressing opposing views, the face has changed, but the mayor has stayed the same from Harpole to Nelson.

This also is not even considering the shutdowns local businesses are facing right now and the Nelson Council’s insistence on pushing a $275 million bond election in the middle of a recession, something which was never done by any Amarillo taxing authority during the most recent recession.

People are losing their jobs and are short on income, but the City of Amarillo is once again back with its hand out, asking for additional tax dollars. They are not worried about whether you disapprove of such actions either, because as long as their donors keep sending in those campaign checks and less than one-fifth of voters continue to show up for municipal elections, they don’t have any fears of Amarillo voters.

So, if you are a part of Amarillo Matters or the select campaign donors who the City Council decides to reward with a committee appointment, then your grade on this point would certainly be an A+. For the vast majority of citizens who are not part of this group, the grade on this point is clearly an F.

With all of this in mind, you may be wondering why this even matters. I mean, these promises were made almost four years ago, right? Why should you care in 2020?

I believe it is worth reviewing Nelson’s campaign promises again, considering how much your trust in the City government will matter in just a few weeks. On November 3, voters will vote on approving Propositions A, B, and C, all of which have been put forward by the Nelson Council. Proposition A would issue $275 million in debt to cover the majority of a $319 million spending package to complete various downtown projects. Proposition B would extend the terms of the Amarillo City Council by two years each, and Proposition C would cut the number of meetings the Council has each year, and thus the number of opportunities taxpayers have to hold the Council accountable in-person, by half.

All three of these propositions were essentially created by committees formed behind closed doors. Each proposition comes with a number of inherent risks and dangers, but on each issue, the citizens of Amarillo are being asked to blindly trust the City of Amarillo and city leaders. They wouldn’t lie, right?

On Proposition A, you are being asked to trust that the City Council will spend the money in the bond the way they have said they will, without any truly binding numbers to hold their feet to the fire. It is also worth noting that the extra $44 million worth of spending in the bond will also be funded with your tax dollars, including with at least another $21 million in debt that you will not have any chance to vote on. What a savings, right?

On Proposition B, you are being asked to trust that the City Council will put the term extensions into place in a way which is fair and transparent, despite no real requirements that they do so. In fact, no ordinances have even been passed to hold the City Council’s feet to the fire on how this item would be put into place. This proposition is essentially one where you have to pass it first to find out what will happen.

On Proposition C, you are being asked to trust that the City Council will still offer you plenty of opportunities to voice your concerns and to be heard, despite effectively declaring a war on public comments through their actions over the past three and a half years, by refusing to broadcast public comments, limiting the speech of citizens at meetings, and placing limitations on who can speak and when.

That’s a whole lot of trust to extend to a city government that has shown over the past three and a half years that its promises often go unfulfilled. While you are being asked to put your faith in government and hope for the best, the government has shown little to no interest in ensuring that your trust will be fulfilled.

The risks of Propositions A, B, and C are just too great for Amarillo at this time. Proposition A is a record bond with very little binding information on how the money will be spent, while Propositions B and C would change the local government in a way that no other government in Amarillo history has ever attempted to do, without much of any guarantee that the City will do what it says it will do.

You can trust your government, right?

Nope.

Because of the years of broken trust at City Hall, I cannot in good conscience agree to trust the City of Amarillo on Propositions A, B, and C. For too long, the trust of the Amarillo citizens has been broken by elected officials more interested in playing politics than in doing the right thing.

Remember, Texas’ first governor, Sam Houston, said, “do right and risk the consequences.” Unfortunately, in Amarillo, the phrase has gone something like “do right and risk losing the support of Amarillo Matters and the swamp.” And, as the past three and a half years have shown, we have a lot of swamp creatures running the show in downtown Amarillo.

Amarillo deserves honesty, transparency, and accountability before voters even consider extending another line of trust to City Hall. At this point, it just doesn’t make sense to trust the City Council on these propositions when they have shown they have no allegiances to anyone but themselves, their campaign donors, and special interest groups who fund them.

While the broken promises are already beyond repair, local taxpayers do have an opportunity to demand some accountability on November 3. Vote against Propositions A, B, and C, and show City Hall we are done trusting them to do the right thing when they have shown they cannot even be bothered to fulfill the most basic of promises they make to citizens at election time.

Early voting begins Tuesday. Get out and vote against the Propositions.