About me

I am John Bertini.

I am running for West University City Council. I served on City Council back in 2000 for a self-imposed single term. I am seeking to serve again because I am concerned about:

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• Setting our municipal priorities straight,

• Exercising fiscal prudence,

• Focusing on safety,

• Addressing infrastructural needs,

• Maintaining all that is good about our little city and

• Being courteous while campaigning (and hopefully thereafter … serving on city council).

 

I have lived in WUP all my life. In those 69 years, I have seen a lot of changes to the city. Being a remarkably safe place to live, with excellent city services and enduring amenities have made our city an envy to many.

You may not know about a “Master Plan” within which is embedded a complex and costly plan to tear down and relocate most of our municipal buildings. I have many questions:

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• Cost? (the real end-of-project price tag)

• Effect on our taxes? (Not will they, but: how much will they rise?)

• Potential impact on bond rating? (The risk is not zero!)

• Depletion of capital reserve fund? (Remember the emergency downed tree limbs clean-up after Hurricane Beryl?)

• Respect for our history? (We can remodel and upgrade in place?)

• Esthetics?

• Need for greater citizen awareness and input?

 

I recognize the need for strategy; but such impactful plans need to consider alternatives and draw in with a welcoming attitude more voices on inquiry and suggestions. The more I probe on this matter the more I am concerned.

If you share my concerns, please vote for me (I am at the bottom of the ballot). Thank you!

John Bertini