Texas Municipal League – A Gigantic Waste of Time and Money

It’s getting cold and feels like fall. You know what that means! Time for the Texas Municipal League Annual Conference! This is an annual circle-jerk of nonsense and bureaucratic babble, brought to you by a group that is unabashedly pro Big Government and whose number-one priority is looking out for government workers – not the taxpayer. They are first and foremost an organization BY government bureaucrats FOR government bureaucrats.…taxpayers be damned.

Naturally, Lampasas taxpayers send City employees and politicians every year to listen to this nonsense and spin their wheels….at great expense to the City of Lampasas.

We will delve into how the TML actively works to screw the taxpayer (with YOUR money) in an upcoming post. But for now, just look at some of the ridiculous session descriptions for this year! I think my favorite is number two. A stereotypical pile of bureaucratic bullshit babble filled with buzzwords and circular yammering:

Village of The Hills – Stay or Play? (presented by TCMA — Texas City Management Association)

Find the courage to break with the past in order to tackle the future. Hear insights from leaders in the Village of The Hills on how to implement cultural change.
Speakers: Eric Ovlen, Mayor, Village of the Hills

Race and Equity: How Your City Can Implement Targeted Strategies to Improve Outcomes (presented by TABCCM—Texas Association of Black City Council Members)

In this session, local leaders will explore “targeted universalism,” a strategic framework that can create the transformational changes that cities need and are looking for to improve life chances and enhance and sustain equitable policies and programs while embedding racial equity throughout the city as a core lens.
Speaker: Ariel Guerrero, Co-Founder, O&G Racial Equity Collaborative

Elevating Trust in Local Government

Be empowered with the tools necessary to tap into the hearts and minds of citizens, re-engaging them in community visioning. Specifically, learn about the differences between community-based strategic planning and other plans, the anatomy of a community-based plan, and effective techniques for engaging citizens in the planning process. Attendees will learn how to take what citizens are saying and synthesize it into clear directives for the city and ensure that their plan lasts and is implemented effectively.
Speakers: Rick Davis, City Manager, City of Baytown; Nick Woolery, Innovation and Strategy Director, City of Baytown; and Dan Griffiths