City should work to benefit residents, businesses

I guess Mr. Stanowski’s been under a rock since he gave up his nasty fight against public housing. The city is more focused on resident’s and businesses quality of life than ever. Neglecting infrastructure? The entire city is under construction with projects for drainage, streetlights, bike lanes, and the list goes on. The same comparative analysis used for administration pay was used for the recent increases for police pay. No one surveyed citizens regarding what we could “afford” to pay our police either, because it doesn’t work that way. Public safety is essential, as is competent professional city management. “Paying enough to keep them from leaving” is the same standard the police union used for their pay increase. Mr. Stanowski’s needs to clean his glasses and look around. Galveston is better than ever..

Hmmm... I was curious to see the source materials for Mr. Stanowski's claims. When I googled "business insider most miserable cities" and got the most recent list of "50 most miserable cities" (September 28th, 2019), Galveston isn't on it. (Although Port Arthur - at #2, Huntsville - at #20 and Pasadena - at #48 are.) A deeper dive maybe? In the source material - a ranking of 1002 cities based on population decline, employment, income, percent uninsured, commute time and poverty rate - I find Galveston at #104, not quite in the worst 10%.

I'm the eternal optimist, so who does Galveston beat in this survey? Memphis, Baton Rouge, Philadelphia, Mobile...

We know Galveston has her problems. I'm not sure how paying market rates for city services can be blamed for those problems, but whatever.

The city's non-family version of tourism undermines the park board's efforts to change Galveston's drinking-party image. Mr. Stanowski mentions well-connected insiders that burden businesses and residents. Until Mr. Maxwell stops issuing contracts to well-connected insiders, businesses and residents will be overrun. Motorcycle cruising events and Mardi Gras concert crowds are out-of-control on The Strand. It's time for a change.

I think the city has been on a positive trend with the current management and council, and improvements throughout the city; but because of years of deferred maintenance and lack of capital improvements Galveston has a long way to go.

I always thought one of the problems was a 2 year term of office where elected officials are always campaigning for office instead of governing with the goal of making the best decisions for their city’s long term financial, and residential health

Changing to 3 year terms was defeated at the polls. One would think that since council is is a nonpaying job, this wouldn’t be a problem. But it has been in the past.

Does anyone have a different proposal besides longer terms to discourage governance and decisions based on future electability?