The following article was first published on November 2, 2020

By Trent Rosser, opinion columnist

We are gathered here today to mourn the passing of a great little city, Amarillo, Texas.

Amarillo was killed on November 3, 2020 when the voters were misled and voted to pass the the propositions that were on the ballot. The Mayor of Amarillo, Ginger Nelson, along with the rest of the City Council and the city manager, Jared Miller, had pushed and misled voters to pass these props. They even used celebrities, from national celebrities like John Schneider to local celebrities like retired columnist Jon Mark Beilue. They claimed that they had a civic center executive committee. This so called "committee" consisted of a members of a PAC called Amarillo Matters and establishment supporters. There was also a man named David Lovejoy on the committee. He is a local radio personality who was not only on the committee but used his platform to push the first proposition and appeared in television ads advocating for it.

Prop A was to build a new civic center as well as to move city hall. This civic center was supposed to be bigger and bring in concerts, and new entertainment. It was also supposed to also hold graduations. But wait, wasn't that what we voted on with the MPEV? After it was approved, it became what a lot of citizens claimed it would be. Just a ball field. The only concerts that came to the ballpark were after the pandemic hit and baseball was cancelled.

This prop was to cost over $300 million, but could have been done cheaper. Prop B was to give the council 4 year terms instead of 2 years. And Prop C was to cut the public meetings from once a week to only 26 times a year. The last 2 were very vague. When would the 4 year terms start? Would the citizens get another vote for city council and Mayor? As for the meetings, they could not have a single meeting for 3 months, then do a couple of meetings in 1 week. Of course this meant losing council transparency.

Amarillo suffered a slow and painful death at the hands of the city council, starting with the council trying to ban the First Amendment right of free speech by banning clapping at city council meetings. They also tried to ban cameras and recording devices in meeting. It even escalated to a man being arrested at a meeting for clapping.

Amarillo took a major blow when the council initiated a trash cart program, with lots of negative feedback from its citizens. The audacity of the council claiming to "Keep Amarillo Beautiful" yet requiring the citizens to throw bulk items of trash in the front yard, and not by the dumpsters, was extremely hypocritical.

A shot near the heart weakened Amarillo when the council decided in their wisdom to move the public meetings to a time when working men and women found it nearly impossible to attend. Luckily, Amarillo recovered quickly when the citizens demanded that they didn't move the meetings to 7am. Unfortunately, Amarillo took a turn for the worse when the council moved the meetings to noon and limited the number of citizens that were allowed to speak, along with limiting the topics that the citizens would be allowed to speak on.

A knife was dug deep into the back of Amarillo when after numerous citizens asked the council not to raise taxes. However, all members unanimously voted to raise them. Again misleading the citizens. Mayor Nelson and Councilman Eddy Sauer had both claimed on their election platforms that they were against raising taxes or for low taxes, but they both voted to raise them. Both also supported trying to get props passed by the voters.

This slow death started years ago when the council closed all the brush sites. As the citizens nursed Amarillo back to health, the council reopened two of the brush sites with very limited times and days. The council called it a victory as Amarillo was left laying in pain.

One of the things supporters of Prop A claimed was that it was is only city property taxes to go up. They claimed that if you rented and didn't own property, then you wouldn’t be paying taxes for the new civic center. But they were wrong. It meant landlords having to pay the extra taxes, and where do you think they got it from? They had to raise rent to pay the taxes.

So therefore, Props A, B, and C put the final nails in the coffin for the death of Amarillo. From brush sites to trash carts. From using local personalities to push their agendas to punishing anyone who disagreed with them.

Of course, all of this is just metaphorical. However, I do believe this City Council could actually cause the death of Amarillo. I do believe that it is time for a new civic center, but not at this cost. The City Council has already planned for it to pass by buying property to move city hall, just like when they bought new trash trucks and carts before they even talked to the citizens about implementing the trash cart program.

This used to be a safe city, and I believe that if we are going to spend more money during a pandemic, then it needs to be on the police. They are understaffed and underfunded. They cannot do the job without the correct tools.

This City Council has proven to be anything but concerned for the citizens of Amarillo. To shut down businesses and then raise taxes during a pandemic, and then to have the audacity to want to raise them again? They have constantly ignored citizens and if these props do pass, it will become worse.

Today, go out and vote, and when you do, think about how nice Amarillo used to be. Neighbors used to have block parties and everyone looked out for each other. We could become the greatest little city again, but not if our grandkids will still be paying for a ball field and a civic center. The City Council and others claim that we need Prop A for tourists, but who wants to go to a city that is riddled with crime?

It's time that we take our city back from the greed of PACs and individuals that work exclusively for these PACs, like the City Council, and those who push their agendas. It's time to give this city back to the working man!

Vote against Props A, B, and C, and together we can stop the agonizing death of Amarillo.