Patrick Praises Watchdogs' Diligence

By Nick Georgandis

Managing Editor, The Katy Times 

 

Conservative radio talk-show host Dan Patrick challenged members of the Katy Watchdog$ to make the school district responsible for every dollar at the group's general meeting Saturday afternoon at the Cinco Ranch Library. 

 

"It's very important to have watchdog groups and people watching the dollars we spend,"  Patrick said. 

 

"Spending is out of control.  Soon you'll be taxed out of your homes and your businesses,-- that's the way government works.  You must monitor all your tax dollars, particularly what the school charges because it's 60 percent of your tax bill." 

 

Approximately 60 people attended the meeting as Watchdog$ co-founder Chris Cottrell highlighted the events of the summer, including the group's role in the defeat of the $261 million KISD bond and the work of the KISD Bond Committee. 

 

"What happened in May had everything to do with the community's perception of a fiscally irresponsible and arrogant Board and superintendent,"  Cottrell read from a prepared statement. 

 

Both members of the Watchdog$ and Patrick criticized KISD and other area districts for building large athletic facilities and also for naming them after sitting superintendents. 

 

"It reminds me of the ancient Egyptians where they built these fabulous pyramids on the backs of the little people," Fred Hink, Watchdog Charter Member, said. 

 

"We have these school districts building monuments to themselves and at some point we are going to go bankrupt.  It's time to start reining them in." 

 

Patrick, who has had two children active in athletics graduate from KISD, questioned the need of spending so much money on a sports arena. 

 

"My daughter was a terrific volleyball player, but that gym we played in was just fine," Patrick said. 

 

"We had a tough time getting 200 kids out [people to sit in the stands to watch the game], let alone 5,000.  They spent $84 million on an arena and a football stadium in Cy-Fair and not one student is educated in that arena." 

 

Patrick also addressed the naming of the facilities as well as districts renting them out to private ventures. 

 

"I think Dr. (Leonard) Merrell is a fine superintendent, but I'm a little concerned about superintendents putting their names on all these arenas," Patrick said.

 

"Biblically, that's not what we should be doing.  I don't think they're helping themselves out with their P. R. campaigns.  And Katy ISD has leased their building out to the Katy Copperheads.  Is it the school district's business to be building arenas for private enterprises?" 

 

Patrick is the Republican nominee for State Senate District 7, an area that includes all of KISD north of I-10. [He won that post, served admirably and is now running for Lt.Governor.]

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Mr. Georgandis, editor of the Times, left the Watchdog$ meeting early and before Mr. Patrick had finished.  Mr. Patrick spoke for about an hour and then answered anyone's questions for about 45 minutes.  (The Watchdogs don't censor questions, so he got to hear the question and see who was asking it!).  He was very candid and answered all questions without beating around the bush. He drew many rounds of applause from the crowd. 

 

One of Mr. Patrick's statements that I would have loved to have seen in print occurred when Mr. Patrick's told about another group of Houston area citizens who defeated a school bond initiative and who were subsequently asked to meet with the superintendent and the board members to work out a compromise measure that they could all support.  When the question came from a member of the audience, "What do you do when the Board and the superintendent won't even talk to you?"  Mr. Patrick replied, "Then the Board and the Superintendent deserve to have their bond defeated!" 

 

[The Katy Watchdogs often tried to get Leonard Merrell to talk to them about the bond, and he would not.]

 

Mr. Patrick also reiterated his oft made statement on his radio show, that governments need to listen to voices of dissent, and that there is nothing wrong with citizens asking questions and forming opinions that do not agree with the government's and being vocal about them. He even encouraged the Watchdogs to oppose those things that are not in keeping with the principles of conservative Republicans and to hold elected officials accountable when they do not properly represent their constituents." Tax and spend liberalism," he said, "does not have a place in our society." {I would add that it doesn't have a place in Katy Texas, especially!]