BRENHAM CITY COUNCIL TO SWEAR-IN NEWLY ELECTED MEMBERS
Two newly elected and two re-elected Brenham City Council members will be sworn into office during their meeting on Thursday.
While four positions were up for election this year, there were no contested races from the Brenham City Council.
Susan Cantey was elected to the Position Six at large seat. Cantey has been active in community, serving on numerous boards including the Trinity Hospital Foundation Board, Unity Theatre Board, Animal Friends of Washington County Board, and as Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce. She was named Woman of the Year in 2000.
Charlie Pyle was elected to the Position Five at large seat. Pyle previously served on the City Council for 5 years beginning in 2006. Pyle and his wife Traci have owned and operated Must Be Heaven in Brenham since 1999. He has also served on several local boards including Planning and Zoning and the Hotel Occupancy Tax Board.
Keith Herring (Position One) and Andrew Ebel (Position Three) where both re-elected to their positions. Herring has served on the Council since December 2004. Ebel previously served on the council from 1992 to 2004, and then was elected again in 2007.
The council will also elect a Mayor Pro Tem during their meeting. The mayor pro tem presides over city council meetings when the mayor is unavailable.
In other business, the council will enter into executive session to consider the City Manager Terry Robert’s employment agreement and related issues. Any action taken on the discussion will be done in open session.
I hope city council will consider all sides of the story when discussing property taxes and increases. Such as how much the pay scale of residents has increased as well. I am not sure how a city economy is supposed to prosper if the residents that have live and work here are given the bill for ‘weekenders’.
Another substantial property tax increase for seniors who are barely getting by on FIXED incomes. How many more of them will be forced to give up their homes and move into the growing number of income based housing projects that are profit sources for wealthy investors? I am thinking it may be time to establish and circulate a petition for a rollback and tax freeze for seniors on the next city election ballot. If the council members themselves had to live on social security alone, they would have rolled back and frozen property taxes on senior homeowners with low incomes and modest homes some time ago. Brenham may be heaven for the cows, but it has no heart or appreciation for low income seniors who have worked and contributed for 45 + years to help build this city.
I agree. I also hope council pays close attention to the work performed by the three city of Brenham assistant city managers. They too should prosper from the increase in taxes.