Esther and Ruth talk about the Socialist who is running for Mayor of NYC and how it may affect Plano. ​

​Esther and Ruth talk about the city buying a school, Council Steve Lavine's plan for the Arts, Ruth reviews Camelot, the Governor's signs two bills, and vetoes one.

​Esther and Ruth talk about the delay at the Collin Creek Mall Development, the City Councils upcoming retreat, the City plans to buy another school, and Trump takes out Iran's nuclear program.

Esther and Ruth talk about Plano updating the building codes, the start of the Iran and Israel war, and a Plano Propaganda video. ​

​Esther and Ruth have new Bad Bill of the Week. They also give examples of smaller lot sizes does not equal lower prices, and the Governor gets lots of mail on one subject.

Esther and Ruth talk about the last days of the legislative session, Esther's visit to the arts district, and the City buying two schools. ​

​

Episode 50 Transcript
Esther: Hello, listeners. Welcome to Plano's Political Pit Bull podcast. I am Esther
Ruth: and I'm Ruth,
Esther: and we have a lot to go over today. But before we do, we are celebrating a milestone. Do you know what day it is today, Ruth?
Ruth: What?
Esther: It is our 50th episode.
Ruth: Yay!
Esther: 50 episodes in. I think that's a good milestone and hopefully there will be many more.
Ruth: On to 100.
Esther: First up, we are recording this on June 2nd, and it is the last day of the legislative session down in Austin. So after today, our money and our liberty will once again be safe.
Ruth: Yay!
Esther: Until the next session.
Ruth:No.
Esther: Until 2027.
Ruth: Okay. It's two years.
Esther So one bill that we have been watching, it rose from the dead. We had gone over this last week. We had said that it died on a point of order,
Ruth: we hoped it stayed dead.
Esther: Yes. Unfortunately, it did not stay dead. No, no, no, they resuscitated it and they made the changes. And SB 15 came back to the floor of the house, and the changes they made were instead of 1400 square feet, for residential lot maximum, it is now going to be 3000 square feet. Better, better. Better. Still though, the people in Austin should not be dictating residential zoning.
Ruth: Yeah, I still have a problem with them.
Esther: Also, they still kept the one parking space per home. Now, theoretically speaking, if you increase the lot size, the house is probably going to get bigger.  One would think that somebody will have a guest over. Where are your guests supposed to park?
Ruth: What if you have more than one car?
Esther Well, then I guess you're not going to be living there. Couples are not going to be living there. Ruth: Oh, Okay. This is for singles only.
Esther: Well, I don't know who's going to buy these things. They're usually not single people buying homes. Sometimes they do, but not ones that are more than one bedroom.
Ruth: I don't know who this is supposed to be for. \
Esther: It's supposed to be for your age group. Yeah. She's looking at me funny.
Ruth: I look like I can afford a home.
Esther: Well, that's the idea. You see, they think down there {in Austin}that if you increase the supply, you'll lower home prices. No. Because our people in Austin have forgotten the most important thing in real estate. That is location, location, location, location. \
Ruth: Also the more land you use, the less land there is. So prices actually go up.
Esther: Right, well, it past. This session has been very strange because Democrats were speaking against the bill. They were calling for local control and not having Austin dictate a one size fits all thing. I was very confused. It was opposite day because normally speaking, you see Republicans saying we have to have there has to be local control. Cities know what's best. The people closest to the towns, that live in the towns, closest to the issue should dictate and know the problem the best. You usually have Democrats calling for more control, more centralized control.
Ruth: In short, on average, Democrats tend to go for regulation and more control, and Republicans would be for less. Yeah, but this was completely the opposite of that. I'm very confused this session because we had a lot of bills like this where it was calling for big government, heavy handed control from Austin. You might as well just,  pack up the zoning board at this rate. I don't know how much they are going to be doing.
Ruth: Wow. It's almost like party lines don't matter.
Esther: Not in this case,  It's been strange. I don't know if it was the case of the Body Snatchers or what.
Ruth: I love how you didn't get the sarcasm.
Esther: I got the sarcasm, I got it. You know, she doesn't know what the body snatchers is.
Ruth: I know what it is.
Esther: All right. Sadly, it passed the House and the Senate. It's on its way to the governor if you want to stop this bill. If you want to keep your zoning board folks, contact the governor and ask him to veto this bill. Keep local zoning local. and there is a link to the governor's website on our website Plano's. Political Pit Bull.com. Another bill that is waiting for the governor's signature is SB 840. That bill was the one that would convert commercial to residential without rezoning. So, if you have an office building. the owner could change it into all condos or all apartments, and the town can't say boo. Please call and ask the governor to veto that one, too, while you're writing to him about SB 15. That's SB 840 and SB 15. Moving on, I took a field trip last week. I decided that I wanted to see our very, very famous arts district.
Ruth: I got some pictures from this. It was funny. I showed some students, they were laughing so hard. Esther: Yeah. So my husband and I, we went down to the Arts District, and we specifically went to the Plano Arts Center. Yes, we already have a Plano Arts center. It's a little house that was built by a family in Plano in Plano's early history on the Haggard Park property. Originally, the Haggard Park was not there when the house was built. It is next to the train station. So here's a question. Where does one park if they want to use the downtown Plano train station? Because if you parked next to the Haggard Park, you could only stay there for three hours anymore and you'd have to get a permit. I don't know. I would think that if you want people to take mass transit, you've got to give them somewhere to park their car if they live more than walking distance to the train station.
Ruth: They're probably figuring if you're using the train, you don't have a car.
Esther: But if you want to go into Dallas and you want to use the train or you want to go to the airport.
Ruth: most people who have a car will just use their car. \
Esther: Not necessarily. I came from a state where mass transit to a big city was it,  so people would drive to the train station, park their car for the day, take the train into the big city, and then come back and take their car from the train station to their house.
Ruth: I don't get that because I don't know, maybe it's just me because I don't like crowds of people, but I don't want to be crammed in with a bunch of people in a space.
Esther: Well, people who don't want to sit in traffic for three hours, they'll take the train, right. Or maybe sometimes the train is cheaper than tolls and the bridges. Where  I was, it was very expensive to take a car. Then you've got to park the car somewhere in the city area and pay for that. So it was easier and more convenient to take the train  or take a bus. But you needed some place for the people to get to it and park their car. You can park your car at the  station over by  the George Bush Tollway, and you can park there for free. Why this one only has  parking for three hours, I don't know. So you have a problem? Nobody is going to want to pay for a permit so they can park longer, then pay for the train pass. They're not going to do that. So that could be one reason why the trains are empty. At least in that station. Yeah. If you live within walking distance or you want to take an Uber, Okay, but not everybody wants to do that. But I digress. Anyway, I went to the little house and I was actually more interested in the little house than I was about the paintings that I saw. It's more of a gallery than a museum. I would not call it a museum.
Ruth: Yeah, I was really confused because when when she was. When they were sending me pictures, the word that was used was we went to a museum. Then they're telling me  how much each is worth and that you can purchase them. And, my brain is going, what? Because when I think of museum, I don't think of being able to purchase the exhibits. You know, that's more what you would think of as an art gallery.
Esther: Yes. So the art in the gallery on the first floor was all by the same, two artists. And saying it's not for me would be a diplomatic way of saying I really didn't like any of the work.
Ruth: It's all contemporary modern art. She doesn't like that.
Esther: Yes. I'm sorry, I want to see something that looks like an adult painted it and not a five year old. 
 Ruth: Oh, wow. Okay. Laying it on.
Esther: You tell me you saw the picture.
Ruth: I did, I did.
Esther: Did that look like your students could do better.
Ruth: Yeah.
Esther: I couldn't tell what these things were supposed to be.
Ruth: That kind of art is either supposed to convey an an emotion rather than a picture, and that's not for everyone. And also for me personally, it's more interesting to see the process of that kind of art than the end result, and I would honestly not pay for the end result if that's all I saw. I'd be interested in how they made it. If they literally just threw paint on a canvas and that's it, or if it wasn't actually an interesting process that went into it. It was more about the technique that was used, but this was just see my artwork on a wall and it's not very impressive. I mean, there was literally one that reminded me of, okay students we're going to practice drawing shapes today. It was literally just shapes on a canvas. A bunch of triangles, squares and circles.  It's not all that impressive.
Esther: Not at all.
Ruth: There was one really pretty one that kind of reminded me a of a flower, or kind of like a pond with flowers.
Esther: I couldn't tell what anything was.
Ruth: It kind of reminded me of  Impressionist.
Esther: The only thing I liked was the metal and glass work.
Ruth: Yeah, that was pretty.
Esther: They were very pretty. The rest, no thank you not for me.
Ruth: (The medal and glass ) are also definitely worth the price, because that kind of work is hard and time consuming. Definitely.
Esther: Well, the price is steep for those metal and glass.
Ruth: Worth it.
Esther: If you have a $22,000 you'd like to spend. You can get one of the glass ones,
Ruth: Worth it is the wrong word I meant understandable.
Esther: To to go see the work in the little art center is free. They do have a donation box which you can put in a donation, and the  guy who was there handed us a sheet and he said, “This is how much you can purchase each work for.”  And the range for the paintings is anywhere between 3000 and 1000. There was one for $660.
Ruth: Which one was the one where it was actually like it was a sunset and a tree. It was an actual painting that you could tell what what?
Esther: That was upstairs. That was a totally different artist. It was the only one that I particularly liked. That one was $495.
Ruth: That was the cheapest one.
Esther: Yeah.
Ruth: And that was the only one you could tell what it was.
Esther: Yes.  Yeah I like things that I know what they are.
Ruth: Yeah I know you're very literal.
Esther: I am, I'm a literal person I'm sorry I can't.
Ruth: She doesn't like interpretive.
Esther: Yeah.
Ruth:  Doesn't even like even like impressionist paintings from, I can't remember the dates.
Esther: Interesting. Each room of the house downstairs they called them galleries. So we had the Muns gallery. Yes. John Mun’s parents apparently have a room in the little house named after them. I don't know what they had to do for that.
Ruth: Money? 
Esther: I don't know.  The city paid to renovate the house. Like I said, I was more interested in the history of the house. They had a picture of the couple who owned the house,
Ruth: Well, you're more interested in history than you are in art?
Esther: True. It's a historical landmark, the house. The second floor has two classrooms. I guess these were once bedrooms, and I guess they held art classes there for kids.
Ruth: Or adults
 Esther: Or adults. That could be fun. And outside the house they have sculptures. Mostly made of metal, but there was one made of wood and it had different carved animals on it. I That one was really pretty.
Ruth: Yeah, that was cool.
Esther: Interestingly, we have this little house, right, and everybody is saying that we need more space for visual artists. Well, in this area of the arts district, we have this cute little house that you can have people show off their works. You don't need to have one person take up the whole house. You could have one person for each room downstairs. There's rooms upstairs where you could show off the work. Also, we have two theaters. We have the Courtyard Theatre and right next to it is the Cox Playhouse, which are literally connected to one another. They're there too. So you have that.
Ruth: I just noticed all these paintings are acrylic. None of them are oil paintings. That's interesting. Esther: Okay. Why is that interesting?
Ruth: Oh, oils were more expensive.
Esther: Oh, okay.
Ruth: It tends to be more expensive paints.
Esther: Nice.
Ruth: I just thought that was interesting.
Esther: Well, for these prices, she should have done oil because I would not buy them. Sorry. Not for me. It was very nice day, but I think we're good with this little house. We have the Plano Event Center. We've got two theaters already.
Ruth: And again, we already came up with the idea of reusing the school that they want to tear down and just have tearing down a building and putting up a bunch of apartments that are just going to  flood up our infrastructure.  Turn that into an arts thing. Recycle, reuse.
Esther: Yeah. Well, speaking of the schools, at the May 27th City Council meeting, the city bought two Plano ISD schools. They bought Davis Elementary and Forman Elementary. Okay. They bought  Davis for $3,050,000. And Forman, which is a larger elementary school, they bought that for $5,375,000. They are going to ask the community what they should do with Davis. They claim they're going to reach out to the community.
Ruth: So these are the schools that are being shut down?
Esther: Yes. Forman will be torn down and a fire station will be built in its place. Okay.
Ruth: So that one they're not even asking about.
Esther: No, no they're not. They have to redo Fire Station three. So I guess instead of tearing down that building, that fire station and then just rebuilding it, they're just going to move it and rebuild. I don't know if they're going to move the fire station, but they're going to build a new fire station. Ruth: Would that be more expensive or less expensive? I don't know.
Esther: Building a new fire station?
Ruth: Versus, uh, renovating it, wholly renovating the old one.
Esther:  I don't know. I guess it depends on what's wrong with it. That might be the one where the bays are not big enough for the trucks.
Ruth: Then yeah, it might be cheaper to just move.
Esther: I mean, you'd have to change the whole structure of that building for those bays. So, yeah, that school is going to be gone. Now, I've talked about this before, I think it's a bad idea for them to tear down those schools, because while our child population is dwindling, it's not going to be that way forever.
Ruth: That's what you think.
Esther: They want families to move in. Well, if you want families to move in, they're going to need schools to go to. So eventually the population is going to do what happened in my old school district. It's going to go up again. Very similar situation happened in my old school district. Child population went down. They closed two schools, tore down one sold the land. Developer came along and built gigantic houses. That school was gone. They kept the other school and they rented it out. They actually oh my G-d, they actually made money. They rented it out for a time, and guess what happened? People started coming in with babies. You know, the old people left, were tired, went to Florida, went to a smaller house wherever.
Ruth: Passed away.
Esther: Passed away, and new families started moving in. And surprise they needed school. They needed schools again. Now they were overcrowded. Well, they didn't have the one they tore down. Ruth: The first part of your story sounds like history repeating. Like literally beat for beat with them keeping one building and then tearing down the other. The school district (PISD) did not keep the building, it sold it.
Ruth: So I thought you said they rented it. They were renting it out.
Esther: That's what happened in in my school district's case, the school district rented it out. I said, don't sell the property. Keep the schools. You're going to need them again. They didn’t listen to me. In this case, the school district sold it to the city. They sold it. Those buildings are gone now. The only thing that the city can do, I mean, it's going to tear down one and it's going to build a fire station. They're bad idea. But I know we need a new fire station. The other one. Davis. I wouldn't tear that down, because I guarantee you, the school district is going to have to come back and buy that school again.
Ruth: One day.
Esther: Plano could actually make some money. In the meantime, they can rent out the space to artists who want studios. It'll take 20 years. Ten years (for the population to go back up.) 
Ruth: We've just killed two birds with one stone in that instance.
Esther: What's the two birds?
Ruth: You have an empty building. That may need to be used in the future, and then artists want space for their shows and studios.  Two birds, one stone.
Esther: Yeah. This is true. I have been saying do not sell those schools. Do not sell the schools. They are stubborn because there is going to be no other place to put new schools when 15 years from now we have families moving in and nowhere for them to go to school.But guess what? There's not going to be any land left in Plano. Everything will be gone, so there will be no place for them to build a school. So I don't know what they're going to do then. This is not forward thinking.
Ruth: Government never really usually does.  Usually it's always short term. Never a long term, and then in the long term, the future government has to try and fix the problems that were caused by the old government. It's a never ending cycle of governments fixing each other's problems.
Esther: Now former Councilman Shelby Williams, he pointed out something, he is still giving his updates on the council meetings, which is very nice of him. \
Ruth:
Esther: Okay. So he pointed out something. The taxpayers are paying for these schools twice. I know. Don't look confused, wait for it, I will explain. So, the taxpayers, with their property taxes,  paid for the schools to be built when they were originally built. And then of course, they paid for the upkeep and the maintenance of the schools through their Plano ISD taxes. Which is in their property taxes. Ruth: Okay.
Esther: Now they're paying for city council to buy the schools and take that money out of their city taxes to buy the schools.
Ruth: Okay, now you lost me
Esther: Two jars same wallet. We have city taxes, and we have school taxes. My property tax bill gets divided between the city, the school district, the county and Collin College.  So some money went to this PISD. Some money went to the city. I paid my PISD taxes and they went to the upkeep of those schools.
Ruth: That's one jar.
Esther:. My city taxes that I paid, the other jar, is now buying and using my taxes to buy the schools with my city tax money to the school district.
Ruth: Oh, okay, I get it. They're taking from two jars.
Esther: Yeah, the two jars are going back and forth. Meanwhile, still my money. So we're basically paying twice.
Ruth: Yeah. But you're. But in this instance, you've already paid that money. Nothing's changed on your end. They're just taking from two different pools that they split it into.
Esther: Yeah. But it does seem odd doesn't it. It's not like I'm going to be getting a reimbursement with the money that the school (district) gets for the schools that they sold. I'm not going to get it. I'm not going to get cut.  And the last thing that happened is the council liaison assignments. So we have a very long list of boards and. committees and organizations, and with every new council, the mayor, he doles out the assignments. It's a long, long list and I'm not going to read it all. I will tell you some highlights. So the water district, hr picked Phil Dryer and Ron Kelly to do that. For dart, they picked Anthony Kelly and Nathan Barbara for that.  Parks and Rec and Planning Board thhe liaisons are going to be Holmer and Horne. So those two are going to get to pick who sits on that board. Okay. the one that we, um, the most interested in is P&Z. Who did the mayor pick to basically pick the people to sit on P&Z? He picked Horn and Downs. Now Horn was on there before and Downs husband David Downs sat on P&Z. So, needless to say, if you want to follow the comp plan, if you want to keep the density low you're not getting on P&Z. Not with these two in there. Nope. Sorry.
 Well our very important dog is still Gemma. Gemma is a friendly dog who is about three years of age. She is a very sweet and playful dog. Gemma will make a great companion for you. She was never claimed by her owner and wants a new home. Gemma is an affectionate dog. She is at the Plano Animal Shelter. So if you want to find out more about Gemma, please visit our website www.planospoliticalpitbull.com and click on the link Pit bulls for adoption. Please remember to like, share and subscribe. Help us with those algorithms please. That is all for today. Hope you enjoyed the episode. This is Esther
Ruth: And this is Ruth
Esther: For Plano's political Pitbull signing off. 

​Esther and Ruth give a TX Legislative Update on Bills they are following. Also, they discuss the results of the Plano Creek Study. The results are not good.

​

​Epi 47 0
Esther: Hello, listeners. Welcome to Plano's Political Pit Bull podcast. I am Esther
Ruth: and I'm Ruth,
Esther: and today we have a whole bunch of Plano stuff. First, I must make a correction. In the last episode, I said the Texas legislature passed $7.7 billion in public school funding. I should have said a $7.7 billion increase in funding. So we got $7.7 billion more. I believe, if memory serves me correctly, the total package was about over $100 billion. So sorry about that.
Now moving on. So we had a bond election in Plano, as well as electing our city council and school board, we also had some bond proposals on the ballot. We went over all of these bond proposals that were on the ballot in previous episodes. And every single solitary one of those things passed in large numbers. There was not a single one that failed. I am shocked because it said very plainly said, if you pass this, your taxes are going to go up. Personally, I voted for one and I voted no on the rest. How they passed, I don't know?
Ruth: It's almost like people don't understand what they are.
Esther: Could be, could be. I mean, it wasn't exactly (it was clear for me anyway) but maybe it wasn't clear when they said this will increase your taxes.
Ruth: They word them so long and lawyer speak that your eyes kind of glaze over and you really just skim through it.  I know from personal experience.
Esther: Maybe they have to like bold that? This will increase your taxes.
Ruth: Why would they do that?  
Esther: Well the legislature makes them put the wording in there about the taxes.
Ruth: They make them do it. That's why they do it.
Esther: Apparently, it's not that clear, I guess, to people that your taxes are going to go up. But they're going to complain about their property taxes going up. Nevertheless, brace yourself folks. Next year your tax bill will be higher.
So at the City Council meeting on April 28th, there were a few things that happened that I must go over. So first, I didn't know what to call this. Maybe as we're talking through it, we can come up with a name for this segment.
Ruth:Okay.
Esther: So the city approved some night vision binoculars. They approved a purchase for night vision binoculars.
Ruth: For what purpose?
Esther: For the police department. For the swat.
Ruth: Oh, okay.
Esther: Right. Everybody's like. Oh, okay. Great. Yeah. Night vision goggles. 14 of them. So I asked Ruth, just like I did with the chicken coop. Can you look up and find out how much night vision goggles or binoculars? Not goggles. These are specifically binoculars go for on Amazon.
Ruth: So I'll also I'll preface that all of the ones I found on Amazon came up first, I didn't go that far down. But the ones that I found that were at the top and all included recording capabilities.  At the low end you had,  this list price there on sale right now. On the low end you have $79.99 list price, and on the high end you have $209.99 list price. There's probably cheaper. There's probably more expensive. I didn't look at it for that long.
Esther: I figure okay, night vision binoculars with recording, how expensive could they really be? Ruth: Depends how fancy you want to go.
Esther: Mhm. Yeah yeah yeah I guess so. But these are pretty fancy. You get the recording you get a little SD card or some kind [of thing to save on.] So you can back up the recording and watch it later. You can see it night which you know the whole purpose of why you want night vision binoculars to see at night.
Ruth: There's probably other functions that you might want that these don't include. I don't know. I've never used night vision goggles or binoculars before.
Esther: Well, the idea of binoculars is to be able to see far. You want to really get up close and personal, but from afar. Okay. But you can't do that during the [night]time unless you have specifically ones for night.
Ruth: So the reason I'm saying that there might be other functions that some of these, like the cheaper ones, don't allow for is I'm thinking it in a, camera sense. More expensive cameras, you have more functions that you can get more deeper in the weeds of how exactly you want the picture to look like.
Esther: The purpose of these is so the cops can see afar at night.
Ruth Yeah.  but  if you want to take a picture at night for example, you have to change the shutter speed. You can change  how much light can enter the camera lens? I don't know if it's similar with these or not.
Esther I think the purpose is, and I don't even know if they want to be able to record, so they can see perpetrators at night, for the Swat team, when they maybe go in and want to bust down a door. Okay, fine. No problem. Well, the city council decided it was going to approve $111,779 for night vision binoculars. Now, at first glance, one would think, oh, they must be needing a lot of binoculars. No, that is for 14 only. So then I decided I gotta see how much this is worth for each binocular. It came out to over almost $8,000 for night vision binoculars each. $7,984.21 to be exact. Now this was pulled from the consent agenda. This was actually considered non-controversial. I could have told you if I was sitting on city council, it would have been controversial. It was pulled by a citizen who really didn't ask about [if]these things lined with gold? Do they fly around?
Ruth: Um. I decided to look up high tech night vision goggles/ binoculars. Um, some of these are going for, like, $9,000.
Esther And what, pray tell, do they do?
Ruth: That's a good question.
Esther: Do you want to see the a fly at night?
Ruth: I specifically said high tech. Because that's what I'm assuming they're going to get. They're not going to get like flimsy Amazon stuff. They're going to get the the real good stuff.
Esther: This better be really good.
Ruth: Let's see. Combines thermal and visible light images to highlight objects of interest. Enhances target recognition and detailed clarity for improved situational awareness. Provides flexibility to switch between thermal imaging, visible light imaging, or a fused combination of both modes. Okay, so it has different modes.
Esther: Thermal? That's not night vision, that's heat.
Ruth: It includes heat vision.
Esther: So in case you missed the person with the night vision you get the heat vision too?
Ruth:  Well yeah. Sometimes. Offers thermal imaging with high resolution of 640 by 512 pixels. Offers high definition optical resolution of  two 2500 by 1440 pixels in both daytime and in in both daytime and low light conditions.  Achieves high thermal sensitivity with a nose equivalent temperature difference.  Features and optical channel with ultra with ultra low light sensitivity of 0.001 locks at f 1.0, you don't know what any of that means.
Esther: I have no idea what any of this means. You probably do. I don't.
Ruth: Allows for recording videos, replaying footage, capturing snapshots, searching recorded events directly on the device.  Facilitating detailed analysis and documentation of observations. So you can document.
Esther: I could understand they wanting to document. Yes that is important.
Ruth: Uh then it has a bunch of other bells and whistles like Wifi. Can function as a Wi-Fi hotspot.
Esther: A Wi-Fi hotspot?
Ruth: integrates a GPS receiver for accurate positioning and geotagging of the observations. They might want that.
Esther: For what? They know where they are.
Ruth: For other people?
Esther: I'm sorry.
Ruth: And it's backed by a five year warranty.
Esther: Oh, it better be at that price. Better be a lifetime warranty.
Ruth: So that's the $9,000 one.
Esther I'm sorry, I can't. I can't.
Ruth: So [there is one for]$8000 by the same company. Oh. Never mind, it's just on sale.
Esther: You think they got a deal? I'm sorry, I can't,  I love the police. I love you guys. You guys are great. I just can't. There must have been something cheaper. There must have been something cheaper. How about $1,000? Can you get something good for $1,000? But $8,000 for one binocular. And that's not what binoculars do. This is more of a thermal, so you could get heat imaging inside the house, which is a different tool.
Ruth: So a lot of the time these are used for either military grade or for hunting.
Esther: Hunting?
Ruth: Yeah. People people will use these for hunting.
Esther: Gee, they're really wanting to go after those deer. That is not fair. The Plano Police Department needs more military grade equipment? Why do we need military grade equipment?
Ruth: That's just what it seems. It seems like the higher end ones are military grade or for hunting. You're serious about hunting.
Esther: Oh, you must be really serious, but you said military grade. This is not a war zone. You're not in Iraq, or Vietnam. Push it up to today, Gaza or Ukraine. You're in Plano. I just I can't. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I just can't. You don't need military grade equipment.
Ruth: I'm just assuming I'm not. I don't know if that's actually what they're getting.
Esther: For $8,000. I think that's what they're getting.
Ruth: Actually I said $9,000.
Esther: Oh nine okay.
Ruth: But I think 8000 was was just on sale.
Esther: Maybe they got a sale.
Ruth: Yeah. Right.
Esther: The amazing thing is that not a single council member said, why are these so expensive?  Just ask, what do you need this for? Why are they so expensive? What do they do? And then maybe when you get the answer, okay, then you can justify it. But the fact that nobody asked a single solitary question of why so much, bothers me. I don't think I could do it.
Ruth: Well, you're always thinking about the dollar signs.
Esther: You you have to tell me, how is it that we are one of the safest cities in America, oftentimes voted the safest city for our size, and yet you need military grade binoculars?
Esther: Why are you cracking up?
Ruth: You don't want to know what I just found. I found one that's $13,500.
Esther: For who, The Swiss National guard.
Ruth: I don't know what it does. I just thought that was hilarious. I'm gonna look. I'm gonna look. You go on. Go on.
Esther:  I'm wondering if somebody is trying to take advantage of the government.  I just have to question that.
Ruth: I don't think they're sold to the government.  I think these are also sold to consumers.
Esther: Not for the majority of the population. . I am going to move on.
Ruth: Yeah. Move on. I'm just very interested in this.
Esther: Now she's interested. All right. I'm going to need my phone that you are using to look this up, though. In a minute.
Ruth: Okay,
Esther: I just I can't get it. I'm sorry. Love the police. Grandfather was a policeman. He didn't have night vision goggles in his day.
Ruth: I'm sure he didn't have a lot in his day that they now have.
Esther: He did not. Moving on to the cultural arts plan. Did you know we have a cultural arts plan? Ruth: I've heard, briefly.
Esther: Yes. So apparently Plano has a cultural arts plan that a committee has made.
Ruth: You don't sound happy.
Esther: I'm not happy about this. It took them a year to make this plan, this committee, and they did a survey. I'd like to know who they surveyed. I did not get this survey, because my answers would have been very different. So I'm wondering who they surveyed. They claim they surveyed the residents. The residents said that they often leave Plano for arts and culture, because we have Dallas. Which has a lot of art. It's got large museums. We also have Fort Worth.
Ruth: You know, it has the whole arts district.
Esther: Very large arts district. We have a itty bitty arts district in downtown.
Ruth: I literally think they want Plano to be Dallas.
Esther: I think so, but we'll never be Dallas because that's  why people move here. See, people want to get away from Dallas to live in the quiet nicety of the suburbs.  So, 89% of Plano households have an above average interest in the arts. That's nice, that's good, that's lovely. They didn't say what kind of art, but just they have an above average interest in the arts. So they said again, didn't see the survey. 23% of residents attend art events in Plano.
Ruth: I didn't even know there were art events in Plano.
Esther: Well, that might be part of the problem. Some people don't even know, as you do, that we have art events in Plano. Apparently Plano is not advertising it. You can find a lot of things on Eventbrite and in the magazines, Plano magazines, Plano Living, and Community impact has a whole calendar of events, and you can look through all those things. Plano already spends 1.5 million in grants, which is more than any other surrounding cities. This committee wants a cultural affairs manager.
Ruth: Okay.
Esther: So they looked at this survey and they said, we need to make some priorities.
Ruth: Yes. Because arts is a major priority for the city right now.
Esther: Yeah, not the construction. You know, what should be a good art display for Plano.
Ruth: What?
Esther: The traffic cone. That should be a good display. Mhm. Perfect. Here's my art piece because this is how Plano is right now.
Ruth; Modern art and its finest.
Esther: Yes. They want Plano to be an arts destination for the community and have more varied, high quality offerings in Plano. Better access to information, event activities for the adults and young. Hands on activities for all ages. Expand the role of arts and culture in economic development and affordable work place and creative incubators for artists.
Ruth: Incubators?
Esther: Incubators.
Ruth: What does that mean?
Esther: I have no idea what an incubator for an artist is.
Ruth: I've never heard of that before.
Esther: Let Dallas make the incubators for the arts.
Ruth: Wait, I need to look up what that is.
Esther: I don't care. It's stupid.
Ruth: That's hilarious.
Esther: Sorry. Didn't mean to use that word [stupid]. It's nuts. [Continuing with the arts plan] interest in market demand for specific facility projects or developing cultural arts center. Here it comes. Let's make a building for the artists. So in the survey, 46% of respondents want to support local artists so they can stay in Plano, and 51% want to go want a go to for information on arts events.  41% think we should develop more creative spaces in the city. I wonder if any of these questions were do you want your taxes to pay for this?
Ruth: I found out what an art incubator is.
Esther: Oh, okay. What is an art incubator?
Ruth: It's not as funny as it sounds.
Esther: Rats.
Ruth: I don't know why they chose that name. So in  art incubators are a new but growing phenomena in the world of local art agencies. They are facilities that create a nurturing environment for small and emerging arts organizations by offering low cost or subsidized space and services.
Esther: Of course. Of course. Subsidized, why didn't I realize that?
Ruth: Arts incubators are part of a larger universe of business incubators, of which there are more than 500 in North America, according to the National Business Incubator Association.
Esther: Wait a minute. Hold on. Wait a minute. Say that last part again.
Ruth: National Business Incubator Association.
Esther: There is a national incubator association?
Ruth: Yes, according to this article. Well, abstract of of a larger article.
Esther: There is a union for incubators. Oh my head. Only in America, folks, could there be a union for this. Would you like to know what else the survey found? 38% of respondents said enhancing and diversifying arts and creative events and opportunities for all.  37% said increasing affordable spaces for artists and arts and cultural organizations. There's your incubator again. Guess what? We're gonna have to pay for the incubator. They also talked with artists and organizations, and here's what they said they want. Stronger district for the arts. A stronger district for cultural identity.
Ruth: They want to do art in Plano.
Esther: More performance, exhibition, and studio spaces. Better connections and opportunities. Again, affordable workplace. Funding, of course, for the arts. Only 39% of surveyors strongly support government funding for the arts. Well, that should tell you that majority don't want to fund this. They want it, but they don't want their taxpayer dollars to pay for it. I'm in agreement. 26% somewhat support and 21% were neutral. 3% don't want to support it at all, and 4% are somewhat not supportive, and 7% are unsure. Why are you unsure? I don't know.
Ruth: Why are you. Why is 21% neutral? That's practically the same.
Esther: I guess they don't really care either way about the arts and if our taxpayer dollars paying for them. Here's the funny part. So in the presentation, the presenter added together the 39% strongly and the 26% somewhat support. They added those two numbers together to make it look like it's bigger than it is. No no no no no no no no no no no adding, no adding, keep them separate. 39% only strongly supported government funding for the arts. A majority do not. So you know where this is going right?
Ruth: No.
Esther: They want money for an arts building. That visual arts building that they wanted. Where there could be studio space.
Ruth: Didn't we already talk about that?
Esther: Yes. That's what they want, and this is the way that they think they're going to get it, by doing this little survey, and having this little committee.  Well, Plano really wants this. No, they may want it, but they don't want to pay for it.
Ruth: They don't want the city to be in charge of it. They want there to be more arts in Plano, but they don't want it to be. They don't want their own taxpayers to pay for it. They would rather it be offered within the private sector.
Esther: Well, that's what the respondents of the surveys wanted. So, some funding ideas they had were grants, marketing, giving money to individual artists. 
Ruth: The city will never see that money back.
Esther: Economic development of the creative sector. So now we're going to give welfare, but for the creative sector. And support incentives for creative enterprises in Plano. Of course the hotel occupancy tax funds. Now this is actually where you could fund the arts, because the hotel occupancy tax can only be used for certain things to bring in tourism. The arts is one of those things. So perfect. Okay, fine. I have a bone to pick the legislature about that, but that's what we have to do. Fine, take that money. Technically it's from people who are out of town and don't live in Plano, but they're giving back.
Ruth: So I understand the want. You probably have a bunch of artists in Plano who don't want to move to Dallas, but there's not any opportunity in Plano for them to work, and them to pursue their passion. That's probably what this is coming from.
Esther: I'm sorry.
Ruth: I'm just explaining because you're you're you're acting like it's a big joke, and I'm just explaining the mentality.
Esther: They are dead serious. I think this is nuts.
Ruth: I'm trying to explain the mentality. You don't have to agree with it.
Esther: I don't agree with the mentality. No. The mentality, no. I understand they have a passion. I understand they want to do this for a living, but at the end of the day  you make a living by selling your work. Now, granted, most artists get rich when they're dead.  Unfortunately that's when their artwork goes up in value, but there are things that you can do with art that can be profitable, that you can live off of. Not too many, but there are.  So some other ideas for city government was they want an office of cultural affairs. They want a policy alignment. They want to review and align policy in all areas of city arts and culture to best serve the evolving needs of residents and workers and the creative community. Cultural Arts Commission, they obviously want to update the ordinance and policies governing that. And here we go again, cultural facilities, proactively support and partner in projects that meet the community needs for cultural facility spaces. So I do have some good news on this front. The council members, they had some good ideas of how not to spend our money. So Anthony Ricciardelli, he agreed that they continue to fund art through the hotel occupancy tax. Prince had brought this up in the first place, so he agreed with Prince on that. Not through the general fund! Which was one of the bright ideas of the committee. No, he said bad idea basically. Not in that way, but that was the gist of it. Because we have a lot of debt coming down the road and a lot of other things that, frankly, in my mind, are not more important. He also said to be careful about funding and giving grants to for profit artists. These are for profit artists, they make their money doing this. We should fund non for profit. He also warns against using bonds to fund arts. We don't need any more debt. He is skeptical about subsidizing workplaces for artists? I agree this is a bad idea.
Ruth: The problem with the city finding arts is also. You'll never see that money back.
Esther: No
Ruth: Art is not that profitable, unfortunately.
Esther: And it's also very, very personal. What is beautiful to you may be ugly to me. I hate, despise. I don't like modern art. If I have to figure out what it is, it's not for me. I like Monet  and Michelangelo. Ruth: She likes things explain to her.
Esther: The beautiful Renaissance artist, and I'm going to talk about the Renaissance in a minute. But I don't want to pay to see art that looks like a five year old  drew ir Okay. That is not for me.
 Ruth: Sometimes with some modern art, it's not about the finished product. It's about how they made it. I find watching people make art, even if it's modern art a lot more interesting than the art itself. Esther: Sure. Okay. Again. Not for me now.
Ruth: Well, you're not an art fanatic.
Esther: I like art. I went to Italy and saw some of the most gorgeous pieces of work by some of the masters. You cannot believe how gorgeous Michaelangelo’s David is.
Ruth: You know what I mean?
Esther: Or the last Supper.
Ruth: You know what I mean?
Esther: It doesn't compare. There is no comparison. These people today are not going to be remembered like those folks. Okay.
Ruth: You're so mean.
Esther: I am mean this about this. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I just am stating a fact. Name me a great modern artist.
Ruth: I don't know. I'm not in that sector.
Esther: Can anyone out there, who is not in the art community, name a great famous modern artist or contemporary art?
Ruth: There might be someone out there, but I don't  follow that.  I'm in the animation sphere.
Esther: Okay. So, Homer, she disagreed with Anthony on one thing. She said she heard a lot of feedback from residents that there needs to be a centralized group within the city government. “There needs to be a dedicated city staff member overseeing the arts.”  That last part is a quote. Of course she wants centralized control of the arts. The great thing about the arts is you don't control it. You can't control an artist. Artist do not like to be controlled.  You're not going to tell them what to paint, right? Ruth: Unless they're a commission artist.
Esther Yes, unless they're a commissioned artist, that's a totally different story. Someone wants to commission their portrait. Okay. But still, you can't centrally control art. It comes from their soul. From inside of them. So they were all for using the hotel occupancy tax. My concern is this next council that's coming on. You've got two people, Steve Levine, who wanted them to take out a $5 million bond this past election for a building for the arts, for an arts center. No, but he's going to be on council.  You've got Julie Holmer who loves pickleball and she's a big arty person. And now we have another person, Chris Downes, she was on the Arts Commission. So we got three people on the council that we're pretty sure is going to want more funding for this, and that's scary to me. I must say that Councilman Williams, he does his overview or post city council meeting reviews. They're very good if you want basically a summary of what happened on everything. And he, said that Jared Peterson had made a quote about how the Renaissance was such a wonderful time for art, and it helped so much in the culture. I can't remember the the exact quote he mentioned. Here's the thing, in Italy, at the time of the Renaissance, the government that was controlling that area of Florence and Rome and all those little provinces, because at the time the Italian peninsula was not united. So those little governments, which was basically little independent states, they did not pay for art. Two large entities paid for the Renaissance. It was the Catholic Church, and it was the Medici family which was a very wealthy banking family in Florence. They commissioned works. They were patrons of Michelangelo and Da Vinci and Raphael. The Catholic Church, paid for more stuff and more art than probably even the Medici’s or any other wealthy family.
Ruth: That's probably why you have a lot of Christian depictions within from the Renaissance.
Esther: Well, this is Sistine Chapel. That was Michelangelo. So, yes, they were huge donors and huge patrons of the arts, the church and the Pope, at that time. This was all privately funded. So, the government was not involved in one of the most breathtaking, monumental periods of our time. We don't need the government. Get some rich people, and Steve Lavine might be one of them, and they can be these people's patrons. Not the city taxes. Thank you No, this is not Soho. This is not the village. You want to pay for it yourself. It's that simple. The taxpayers want roads. They want water. They want electricity. They want to get to point A to point B, and yes, they want entertainment, but they can pay for it themselves. Better yet, keep their taxes low, and maybe they can be patrons, too. Very important dog of the week is Gemma. She is a friendly dog who is about three years of age. She is very sweet and so playful too. Gemma will make a great companion for you. She was never claimed by her owner and wants a new home. Gemma is an affectionate dog too. She is at the Plano Animal Shelter and if you are interested in taking a look at Miss Gemma, please go to www.planospoliticalpitbull.com and click on the link Pit bulls for adoption. That is all the time we have for today. This is Esther
Ruth: and this is Ruth
Esther: for Plano's Political Pit bull signing off. 

Transcript from episode. It is not perfect and had to be edited to be understood when read. However, it is good for people who would rather read.
Episode 46 0
Esther: Hello, listeners. Welcome to Plano's Political Pit Bull podcast. I am Esther
Ruth: and I'm Ruth,
Esther: and today we have the results of the 2025 Plano City Council election and a legislative update. First, I'll give you the legislative update.
Esther: SB2, that is the school voucher bill, was signed by the governor on May the 3rd, 2025 and will go into effect September 1st of this year. There will be enough for 100,000 students to get $10,000 each and go to a school of their parent's choice. Special Ed kids and low income children get first priority. With over 5 million students in Texas public schools, 100,000 students leaving public school, actually, it's less than that because a lot of these kids have already left the public school, won't affect anything for the public schools. I would hazard a guess they won't even notice that they're gone. Also, the majority of those 100,000 students are going to be special ed kids because again, they get first priority.  You said the other day maybe that'll be good because a lot of schools don't know how to deal with special ed kids.
Ruth: Yeah, and they're kind of overwhelmed, at least in some schools. When I was doing [student] teaching they were over flooding the programs for special ed. So it doesn't really help the kids either way because they're not getting the attention they need.
Esther: So this could be a good thing for the schools. It alleviates pressure on the public schools, and it helps the kids as well. So please nobody panic okay. Nothing's going to happen to your public schools. 5 million plus kids [in the public schools]. It's 100,000.
Ruth: It's a drop in the water.
Esther: A drop in the bucket.
Ruth: Drop in the bucket. That's what I meant.
Esther:  Or the ocean.
Ruth: Right.
Esther: Because I guarantee you that half of those kids, let's say 50,000 of them, already go to either a private or a charter school. They're just going to be allowed to get some help right now.
Esther: Well moving on. The House passed a meme bill.
Ruth: A what bill?
Esther: A meme bill.
Ruth: Okay.
Esther: I had a feeling you'd get a kick out of this. So HB 366 has gotten the bad Bill of the week award from me. Now, I did give extra points because it's only a page long, but it didn't help in this case. So here's the bill. “It applies to a person who is an officeholder, candidate, or political committee. Makes an expenditure that exceeds $100 for political advertising, publishes, distributes, or broadcasts political advertising described in the next section. A person may not, with the intent to influence an election, knowingly cause to be publish, distributed or broadcast political advertising that includes an image, audio recording or video recording of an officeholders or candidate's appearance, speech, or conduct that did not occur in reality, including an image, audio recording, or  video recording that has been altered using generative artificial intelligence technology. Unless the political advertising includes a disclosure that the image, audio recording or video recording did not occur in reality.”
Ruth: People can't use their common sense? Some things are clearly a joke.
Esther: Yes. So, no more altered AI Trump memes, or Biden memes without a disclosure.  An offence under this section is a class A misdemeanor. So would you like to know how this bill came to the idea of Representative Phelan?
Ruth: They got the idea from Europe.
Esther: No
Ruth: Because they're doing that.
Esther: No. That wasn't it.
Ruth: You know, jailing people for making jokes on the internet.
Esther: No, they didn't get the idea from them. Somebody made a meme of Representative Phelan. This is this is what I've heard.
Ruth: Oh, and it hurt these little feelings.
Esther: It did. It was of him standing next to Nancy Pelosi. So obviously, a little Photoshop, you know, cut and paste. Nancy Pelosi standing next to the representative to make it seem like he is in cahoots I guess.
Ruth: They are making a statement that they think that they're the same.
Esther Yeah.
Ruth: Freedom of speech?  
Esther: So I guess it didn't hurt his campaign because he won. I guess it it hurt his feelings. He didn't like that because that picture's not real. So he wants a disclaimer.
Ruth: It's honestly no different than those old political cartoons that people would make. This is like the new version of that.  Where it was over dramatized stuff. It wasn't actually factual. It was based in what people believed to be true, but  it was over exaggerated.
Esther: Yes. But you could see how this could be an issue. I can understand his side of the argument, because if you could take an image and manipulate it and now you could put somebody in a, shall we say, inappropriate situation in a picture and say, oh my gosh, look what he did.
Ruth: But people know that. People know that AI it exist. People know that Photoshop exists. People know people can do this stuff. People have to use their common sense.
Esther: Yes. I mean, question obviously. Say, is this a real photo?
Ruth: You have to question everything on the internet now. Nothing could be real, and people know that or they should know that.
Esther: Yeah. And we see it with the AI, and they're actually making video of what appears to be  the president. Or they could do any politician. But right now, the president.
Ruth: Mostly it's being used for joke videos, like them playing D and D or something.
Esther: Yeah, or singing. They have him singing, President Trump, singing. 
Ruth: really just innocent joke videos.
Esther: Again, you could tell sort of that it's fake because the audio is off.
Ruth: It's not perfect.
Esther: Yeah, it's not perfect yet, but eventually it will get there. Somebody said eventually you are not going to be able to tell what's real and what's been created by computers.
Ruth: Look, we've always had that issue even before Photoshop existed. I mean, with information on the internet, just with type, just with words. No pictures, no video. We've always had that issue of is this true? That's why they teach in school now how to verify if something is true or not. Verify your sources.
Esther: How can you verify that a picture is real? She's thinking, folks.
Ruth: That's a little more complicated because it's so new.
Esther: How to know that now? Filters are okay. They don't mind if you want to make them more pretty.
Ruth: I think with videos and pictures, you just kind of have to use your common sense and also look in other areas if this tracks with behavior, past behavior. You've had doctored videos before of like cut clips and all that, things taken out of context and everything.
Esther: Why I gave this the bad bill is because I feel like this could be misinterpreted to include a kid who wants to make a joke video about, let's say Donald Trump or the speaker of the House or the governor or whoever. Well, could this be used against this kid whose not a candidate, and maybe he's not a member of a political committee, but just made a joke video that was funny. And now the  the candidate sees it or the opponent sees it, or, or the person who it's about sees it and makes a complaint. Now the police have got to figure out who made this. Track them down. This person's got to come in for questioning. They're going to want to search the computer. This opens the door to big government  harassing people who just want to make a joke. Or maybe they don't like Trump, let's say, and they want to embarrass him.
Ruth: I mean, people do that all the time. People do that with Joe Biden.  People did it with Hillary  Esther: They did a lot with Joe Biden. How many times did we have that meme where he's falling up the stairs and then down the stairs and then up the stairs?
Ruth: Or Mike pence and the fly that was on his head. That was a meme for a while.
Esther: But that actually happened. If they made the fly talk, that did not happen.
Ruth: People can realize that that flies can't talk.
Esther: This [bill] is so broad. You can get into sticky situations. So I do not like this bill.
Ruth: This is insulting people's intelligence also.
Esther: It is. Yes, I would say that. I mean, it's pretty obvious when you've got a Trump, AI video and he's singing something that that's not actually him.  
Ruth: So this all started with a picture. Somebody edited a picture of this guy next to Nancy Pelosi? Esther: Yeah. And I guess there was wording at the top or something. I'm not sure this is what I have been told. Okay.
Ruth: I feel like if it was just a statement against him trying to just say that these two are practically best friends, and they're too close together in ideals. I'm not sure what the statement was, but [the bill] is kind of skirting against freedom of speech.
Esther: It it does. It skirts against freedom of speech, and now you have to have a disclaimer. All he's asking is you have to have the disclaimer. “This did not happen in reality.” 
Ruth: Any time I see one of those disclaimers, because they have those on some things now, I'm just like, you think I'm stupid. It just annoys me.  Like, no duh, it's a joke.
Esther: Sources tell me that this is not likely to pass in the Senate, but you never know. I've seen  people were not happy about it. They said this was a waste of time and they wanted  them to get to work on property taxes and school vouchers and other stuff.
Ruth: This is small stuff.
Esther: This little bill here was a waste of time and it did not have unanimous support with the Republicans. Specifically, Shelley Luther thought that this was headed down a slippery slope, because if you pass one thing, you make a little hole and then you pass another and another and it's a domino effect. And it's like, well, we have this we're just expanding it a little bit to the next thing and sooner or later  you've got a huge bill that's going to really interfere with your freedom of speech in a big way. This is a little way. Yeah, you can do it but you have to put the disclaimer.
Ruth: I know it's like skirting on the edge, but that's the thing. It's a really fine line. And freedom of speech is supposed to protect the stuff you don't like.
Esther: It's supposed to protect the speech you don't like. And the only way to combat speech you don't like is with speech you do like.
Ruth: Even if it's untrue you know. I know there's a lot of misinformation. There's a lot of lies out there, but people have to be smart enough to not trust everything they see on the internet. I don't trust anything.
Esther: Thomas Jefferson said question everything and that means the internet too. Well we'll move on. If you do not agree with that bill or heck maybe you do reach out to your reps in the Senate and tell them to vote no or yes, depending on your thing. I am a no on that one. And I have a feeling Ruth is too.
Ruth:Yeah.
Esther: So the election. Well. Like most things, some people are very happy with the results, and some people are very depressed today.
Ruth: You have that with every election?
Esther: It was not a good night for the non establishment crowd in Plano. So, Plano politics can be broken down between two sectors the establishment or the old guard and the young kind of rebel crowd, and establishment won overwhelmingly. Not only that, but we have more Democrats now on the city council. That's new. The city council, some would consider it very moderate Republican, now has not one, not two, but three Democrats. If you consider,  Bob Kehr a Democrat. It's depends on how you label him.
Ruth: I think he's independent.
Esther: Well, I would call him an independent personally, but in Texas he'd be called a Democrat because the last primary he voted in, which I believe was 2022, he voted in the Democrat primary. So for many, many years, he voted in Republican primaries, and then all of a sudden he voted in one Democrat primary. Then in 2024 he didn't vote in any primary, Democrat or Republican. So. I would have to call him an independent, but because the last primary he voted in, he voted under the Democrat primary, he's considered a Democrat.
Ruth: I think that's kind of stupid.
Esther: I think you should need at least like two times, two consecutive times to be considered that party. Until they maybe have you register finally as one party or another. And in Texas  that is a bill that's in the legislature now. I have no idea if it's going to get very far.
Esther: Getting to the results. So in place two, this is Anthony seat who I'm going to miss dearly, Bob Kehr won by 55.68% of the vote. Carson and Douglas Reeves got 20 and 23%, so  they made up 43% together. Bob is the one that I was just talking about. He's the independent/Democrat. Christine Downs got 54%. So she won that race. John was unopposed. However, he did get some undervotes. People skipped his race. 5978, to be exact, decided to just skip that race and not vote for him at all. You couldn't write anybody in, so that's kind of the way you protest. Vidal got 53% of the vote and Hayden got 46%. Then place five surprised me. Gary Carry got 42% and Steve Lavine got 57%.  Steve Lavine is the other Democrat. The Republicans are very upset. Their slate, and they had a slate out, lost resoundingly. Steve Levine and his group had a slate and they all won. So it's going to be very rocky,  I'm predicting.  We had four candidates on [the show] we wanted to have everybody, and we interviewed them and they were very gracious.  I was hoping to have everyone on so that they could make their case equally. Everyone was going to have the same questions, and the voter got to decide. The other side decided not to come on. I don't know if that helped or hurt them. I think what helped is the low turnout. If you look at these numbers, about 21,000 people came out to vote. Almost 300,000 people live in Plano. Let's say half of them are children. So let's say 150,000 are adults. That is an abysmal turnout.
Ruth: It always is.
Esther: The fact that local elections affect you more than the president, than the governor, then your congressperson.
Ruth: Yeah. It's really interesting how people during general elections, it's if their candidate doesn't win, it's the end of the world, and they're we're all going to die and it's all going to be a catastrophe. But then local elections, it's all blase and I don't care and don't even know who their mayor is. Even though that's going to affect you way more than anything the federal government is going to do to you.
Esther: Every day you leave your house, you drive on city roads, you go to city parks. Perhaps you go to the city library. You pay city taxes, property taxes. Your sales tax goes to the city and the state. They control your lives much more. They decide whether or not you have to get a permit for something that you need repaired. They decide whether or not something is against the law in your town. All the regulations. And look at all the money they give away to large corporations who move in here. Zoning, zoning changes the face of a town. Anyone who has lived in Plano for more than ten years can see it. If you've lived in Plano for more than 30 years, you see it. How Plano has changed, and it has changed because we used to be Agriculture and now we're changing into a high density city. Plano has become the most dense city in the state of Texas. More dense than Austin and Dallas. That is local.
Ruth: Yeah, the federal government didn't do that. The state government didn't do that. The local government did that.
Esther: They changed the zoning.
Ruth: You may like it. You may hate it, but either way, that's their control.
Esther: They made us more dense, more congested, we need more services. We need more police, more fire which we don't have enough firefighters.
Ruth: We're running out of water.
Esther: We're running out of running out of water. Water is a big thing that locals do. Those that did not come out and vote because they weren't paying attention. Which I don't know how you missed an election. The signs were freaking everywhere, and then at the library, there's a big sign that says vote here.
Ruth: Willful ignorance.
Esther: Right, and I say this, especially in the case of Steve Lavine and Gary Carry's race, there are still more Republicans and Democrats in Plano. That should have been an easy race for Gary to win, but he  lost. His side did not get the message out. Steve Lavine's side did a lot better in what we  say is work it. He outworked the other side in his group.
Ruth: Local elections historically have always had the lowest turnout, and it's really sad to see because then whoever gets picked doesn't reflect the residents.
Esther: You have  21,000 people deciding for almost 300,000 residents. That's not fair.
Ruth: That's not how it's supposed to work. That's not how its was built to work anyway.
Esther: Not at all. Apathy is a real thing, and I don't understand it. I'll tell you this, folks, I have looked into the winners.We don't endorse here, but afterwards, it's another story.
Ruth: She is just going to let it all out.
Esther: I can tell you from what I saw, from what they were saying, and they were saying not a whole lot.
Ruth: Probably strategically so.
Esther: We are going to have a higher tax bill come next year. The budget's going to be bigger. And this group, my prediction, they're going to do whatever the city manager and the staff wants.
Ruth: I don't understand how you would run to be on city council, and then just let other people tell you what to do. What was the point of you running? Why did you want this position?
Esther: People do that who are sitting on council now they're a rubber stamp.
Ruth:  Well, yeah,  I'm also talking about them too.
Esther: They say, “We should trust our staff. They know better”.  Why?
Ruth: Why did you run?
Esther: Trust no one and question everything. Now, the staff could be right. Maybe they are right. I'm not saying that they're wrong all the time. What I am saying is that the city council is the people who hold the purse. They must guard it because that's our money.
Ruth:  Because the city Council is the ones that are voted. The staff is not voted in.
Esther: The City manager is also not voted in.
Ruth: The council is then the voice of the people that is supposed to either agree or disagree with what the staff says. Not just be yes men.
Esther: Do you think that anybody who voted for the other side is now going to be represented? I don't think so. Not with this crew.
Ruth: No, it's completely one sided.
Esther: I know folks who email city council. The only ones who responded  were Anthony and Shelby, no one else.  I've heard this from multiple people. “Oh, Anthony and Shelby got back to me no one else did.”  That's just wrong.
Ruth: Well, okay, devil's advocate here. We don't know how these guys are going to operate. We don't know if they might answer people, we don't know yet. Give them a chance. Being a bit of negative.
Esther: I can tell you, Steve Lavine, ain't taking my phone calls.  He is for public private partnerships. He is going to be for more economic development. He wants the arts center, the visual arts center that we talked about.  He wanted $5 million for it. He is going to push that hard,  and so is Downs, and so is Julie Holmer. They're going to push for that arts center. They are going to want to build a new one when we've got four public schools that are going to be sitting empty. Also he's going to want the city to pay for it. That is a nonstarter here for me. That is a waste of taxpayer money. Do it privately. I'm not hopeful.
Ruth: Clearly not.
Esther: Prove me wrong. Please, please prove me wrong. I challenge you four to prove me wrong. Maybe you will speak to your constituents that didn't vote for you, and believe me, they know who didn't support them. Because its mostly people with “R” after their name.  This is also a bad record for the Republican Party of Collin County, because no one who got endorsed won. The Republican Party of Collin County use to never endorse.
Ruth: Yeah, that's a bad look.
Esther: They started endorsing in local elections even when there were two Republicans competing against each other. And in this race not a one of these folks that they endorsed won in Plano.
Ruth: Yeah, that's bad for them.
Esther: That is very bad for them. It is a bad sign for that party. The Democrats are very happy, because all their folks that they endorsed won.
 Ruth: all the way down the slate.
Esther: Again, I challenge you. I challenge you to prove me wrong, not to raise our taxes. To be good fiscal conservatives with our money. Guard our money. Ask questions. Do not take anybody's word for it. Question everything. Because if you don't, then you're going to prove me right. If they're even listening.
Ruth: Probably not. I'm very pessimistic on that.
Esther: Probably not. But if you are. I challenge you. Prove me wrong. Right now, I'm not hopeful. Good news is, hopefully these two years go by real quick.
Esther: Well, I have good news. Spot was finally adopted.
Ruth:Yay!
Esther: So that means we have a new VID of the week.
Ruth: You always forget to put VID. You always put VIP.
Esther: I put VIP in my notes. Yes I do, and I have to change it to D okay. Very important dog. Well, our new very important dog is named Gemma. Gemma is a friendly dog who is about three years of age. She's very sweet and so playful too. Gemma will make a great companion for you. She was never claimed by her owner and wants a new home. She is an affectionate dog too, and she is at the Plano Animal Shelter. So if you are interested in Gemma please go to our website www.planospoliticalpitbull.com and click on the link Pit bulls for adoption and you can see all about Gemma. She's a very cute dog. She's got very nice pictures.
Ruth: Sounds very sweet too.
Esther: Well, I have some other good news we have finally figured out Rumble!
Ruth: Yay!
Esther: We are on Rumble! So if you go to our website now, we will have a link to Rumble for each episode.
Ruth: I helped her with that.
Esther: She did. I was having problems. I could not figure this out, but we figured it out. Thanks to Ruth over here. So we are now on Rumble for those who prefer Rumble. Please remember to like, share and subscribe and also comment. It helps us with those algorithms folks. That is all the time we have for today. This is Esther
Ruth: and this is Ruth
Esther: for Plano's Political Pit Bull signing off.