Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

I'm excited to announce that my long-time clients and friends, Cheldan Homes, have been selected to build a new home for a wonderful and deserving D/FW family!

I'm honored and excited to be a part of the process by launching this morning the web site for the project at www.extremecheldan.com. If you're interested in making a donation of money, building materials or becoming one of the hundreds of volunteers needed to get a new house done in one week then please visit the site and sign-up.

Ty will yell "Good Morning" to the family on Friday, July 10th and kick off a week of incredible effort by a lot of people. I'll be excited to sport my blue shirt and hard hat and hope to see you there!

A.J.

Cap and Trade wins round 1

The vote came down 219-212. 7 votes passed the largest tax increasing legislation we've seen in a long time, maybe forever. Now there's a lot of different ways to look at the vote and place blame, but here's an interesting one - 8 Republicans voted aye. Here they are:

Mary Bono - CA
Michael Castle - DE
Mark Kirk - IL
Leonard Lance - NJ
Frank LoBiondo - NJ
John McHugh - NY
David Reichert - WA
Chris Smith - NJ

I've linked each name to their congressional web site in case you have anything you'd like to say to them.

It's interesting that 44 Democrats broke from their party and voted against this bill. It was too liberal for 44 Democrats, but not for those 8 so-called Republicans. I'm not mad that the 8 traitors didn't vote "with the party" though. Voting with the party for the sake of voting with the party is bull. The problem I have is that this bill is way beyond anything that the Republican party stands for. This bill is huge government and gross over-taxation, two anti-Republican staples. If the "traitor 8" can't see that then they need to slither across the aisle and get themselves big old "D" after their name. Maybe we should recruit a few of the 44 brave souls that saw through this junk packed middle class killer.

All hope is not lost though, it still has to pass the Senate. Hopefully enough people will get through all 1200 pages and publicize what was really bought and blow the whistle. We need some serious pressure on our senators, but we've got to stay engaged. Pass this blog on or any of the millions of other resources to inspire someone else to care even a little bit about what's going on and take back our country. We've got to get these guys out of Washington and install some common sense.

A.J.

Say "no" to H.R. 2454

Our U.S. House of Representatives will be voting on Cap and Trade today or tomorrow so contact Chet Edward's office if you live in the 17th district and ask him to vote against this costly piece of legislation. It puts way too much power in the hands of the federal government and imposes restriction on energy that will increase what you pay for fuel and electricity.

I would support ways to decrease environmental hazards and increase our use of renewable resources, but this legislation is not the means to accomplish those goals.

I just called Representative Edwards Washington office and was told by staff that he does in fact oppose this bill, but we'll see what happens when the votes are cast. Call or email his office to make sure he knows where his constituents stand on this.

http://edwards.house.gov

Last night's meeting

Last night our Citizen Capital Projects Study Committee met for the last time before presenting their recommendation to the council. There were not enough members present for a quorum so it was not an official meeting, but still informative. No action was really needed last night anyway since the committee had agreed last week on their recommendation.

The recommendation to the council on July 16th as of last week will be as follows:
November 2009 Bond Election
Proposition 1 - Fire Station funding $2.7 million
Proposition 2 - Street reconstruction $848 thousand
Proposition 3 - Storm water drainage repair $2.5 million

As of June 23rd it's estimated that the city can issue about $3.5 million in bond debt and service that debt without raising the tax rate. Should all three propositions pass the city would issue about $6.1 million in bonds and the tax rate would need to increase by about $.075 per $100 valuation. That amounts to about a $100 property tax increase for Joshua's average home value of $130,000.

**REMEMBER - this is a proposed recommendation by the committee and not a binding decision. The city council will be discussing the recommendation and deciding how to proceed in July and August. That's why it's so important for you to attend the meetings and voice your opinion to your city council. Please contact me with your thoughts and ideas from the contact link on the right or email or call city hall to get in touch with other members of the council.

Thanks,

A.J.

Joshua this week

Tonight, June 22 at 7:00, is a special council session to canvass the vote from June 13th. Only two council members are required for a quorum tonight for this agenda item and I believe that's all we'll have due to most of the council having prior engagements. I will not be sworn in tonight as previously published. Please make plans to attend the July 16th council meeting where we'll get that done.

Click here for tonight's agenda

Tomorrow, June 23 at 7:00, is a meeting of our Citizen Capital Projects Study Committee. I believe this is their last meeting before presenting their recommendation to the council on July 16th. This is an interesting committee that has worked hard to understand and prioritize the big needs of the city. Come witness the process and become informed.

Click here for tomorrow night's agenda

Keep the Trees

As I left the house yesterday I noticed that a whole row of mature trees next to the main road had been hacked down. These are trees I've admired for a long time partly because so much of the surrounding area is wide open it was nice to have them. There were bulldozers working further into the property so I'm guessing they're clearing it for a new development. That's just irresponsible and wrong as far as I'm concerned.

Don't get me wrong, I'm waving the banner of free enterprise, but I'm also interested in conservation and retaining the features and beauty that God gave us here on Earth. I believe they can coexist. Quite nicely actually.

Do these developers think that if one thing obstructs any view of their precious concrete monument-to-come that nobody will ever know it's there? Mr. Developer, you need to get out more. I've been to every state in the country expect for Alaska and more so in the Dallas/Fort Worth area than in most have I seen such approaches to commercial development.

Actually it happens in most residential developments too. Flatten a piece of property, stack houses next to each other like sardines and then put sticks in the front yard with a half-dozen leaves on them. "Sorry about that 40 year old Post Oak that would have given you and your neighbor some shade right away, but we would have had to put one less house in this block", Mr. Developer says to Mr. & Mrs. New Homeowner.

Some of the most attractive retail centers I've seen in my travels managed to exist within the natural landscape with a cool sign in a reasonable spot on the street. You look back through the trees and see a building that looks like it grew there too. It can be done.

I'm no extremist and I don't want to impose regulations on development that keep properties from being developed because a tree has to be cut down. I just want developers to think this stuff through, get creative and maybe go with a few less houses or parking spots. Texas has too few trees as it is, in my opinion, so let's try to hang on to the ones we have.

Amendment 1-hour later to my conservative brethren: It's irresponsible behavior that causes our liberal, big-government adversaries to enact legislation to force our behavior. Keep that in mind.

A.J.

P.S. Hey Texans, quit throwing your trash on the road too. Few states in the county have as much trash on the roads as Texas. Our well known state tagline for not throwing your McDonald's bag out the window when you're done is cool and all, but it's not working.

Swearing in rescheduled

Due to scheduling conflicts with most of the city council I will not be sworn in on Monday evening as previously reported. We will instead get it done at the regular council meeting on July 16th.

Thank you to everyone who is interested in attending and I look forward to seeing you in July.

Call or email if there's anything I can help you with before then.

Thanks,

A.J.

Council Meeting June 18, 2009

Last night's meeting was pretty quick - over at 8:30. The agenda was pretty streamlined, but a few cool things were included.

While nothing is in stone there is a possibility of a $1 million dollar federal grant to assist in some of Joshua's drainage issues. It would require a $400,000 match from the city, but that's manageable. It's too soon to know when the money would become available if at all. I'll pass on more info as I get it.

Joshua has launched a Facebook fan site. I'm proud to report that I'm fan #2!

Councilman Isom gave a good presentation last night on "The Mayor's Action Challenge for Children and Families". This is a meeting that he and our city manager, Paulette Hartman attended in April. The intent is to implement initiatives in the city to assist children and families in four key areas:

• Opportunities to learn and grow;
• A safe neighborhood to call home;
• A healthy lifestyle and environment; and
• A financially fit family in which to thrive.

More info is available at www.mayorsforkids.org - Check it out and give the city some feedback on the program or ideas you'd have to participate.

It was great to see a couple more citizens in attendance last night. Our next council meeting is July 16th so put it on your calendar.

Happy Friday, everyone. Have a great weekend!

A.J.

Still misunderstood

Luckily, the majority of voters understood what my campaign was about. They read my web site, essay, newspaper ads, newspaper interviews and blog posts. I put a lot of information out, but with all that my former opponent still doesn't get it. In today's edition of the Joshua Star which contains some final remarks about the campaign from me and Mr. Maxfield he apparently still thinks I ran for office because I didn't like the things the city was doing. That's too bad so I'll quickly run through it one more time for his benefit. I ran for office because I knew I could do a better job of communicating with the citizens of Joshua and bring what they have to say to city hall. Along the way I identified my point of view on several issues, but in rare cases did I actually disagree with direct action taken by the council. Most of the issues noted during the campaign have yet to be finalized by the council. I just wanted everyone to know where I would stand in case I got the opportunity to participate in the decision.

You don't like the number of council meetings I've been to, Mr. Maxfield, but I wonder if you had read through all available council meeting agendas, minutes and council packets before your decision to run for office? I did. Does the point in time in which someone decides to get involved make them less effective once they do? I think not.

As for not understanding how things work at city hall I'll concede that unless one has been on the council one would not fully understand all that goes on with the council, but I happen to be an intelligent individual and a quick study so I'm sure I'll get the hang of it. Hopefully no one will read what you said and choose not to get involved if they've not previously been involved. That would be a shame. Perhaps you'd prefer a Kennedy run for office next year in Joshua...someone born into politics with all governmental knowledge supposedly DNA encoded by some fictional birthright.

My last point is the one that I feel the strongest about. You stated that I criticized you for being "for" the city staff. I never remarked about the city staff during the campaign and I certainly never would have placed any of them in a disparaging light. I've enjoyed and appreciated all my interactions with the staff and found them to be pleasant, professional and extremely competent in their positions.

You were correct about one thing you said though, Mr. Maxfield. This "kid" did run a more active campaign and I did get out and work harder.

Council Meeting June 18th

The regular June City Council meeting is Thursday evening. There's a link to the agenda on this post. This will be my last council meeting as an audience member for a few years so please join me so you can see what's going on at city hall. I'll be glad to visit with anyone for a few minutes afterwards too.

Come be witness to the process our forefathers envisioned 233 years ago. It's not just Joshua, it's history in the making.

A.J.

Making it official

I'll be sworn into office next Monday evening the 22nd at a special session of the city council after the vote is canvassed. It's an open meeting so anyone interested in attending is welcome.

Show me the money

Caution: This is my first of many very boring city business posts. I'll do my best to interject some humor where possible to try to keep you interested.

Last night's meeting of the Joshua Citizens Capital Projects Review Committee was interesting (at least to me). As is the case with probably any city in America there are way more projects that everyone would like to get done than there is money to do them. At this stage it is extremely likely that a bond election will be on the ballot in November. The question for the committee was what are the top priority projects to present to the voters? The tentative answer as of last night was a new fire station, road work and drainage repair.

The committee will be presenting their final suggestions to the city council in July. We, the council, will then need to work pretty quickly to make a final decision on what to put on the ballot. There are options with no tax increase and there are options with a tax increase. I'll try to get the full project list with costs for you to see here or on my web site.

The city's current financial position will allow about $3 million in bond debt without a tax increase. The committee's efforts last night to get the most done for the least amount of money was reminiscent of the movie Apollo 13 when they were trying to find just the right sequence of electrical systems without overdrawing amperage that the lunar excursion module had left in it's batteries to get Jim Lovell and company home safely. Houston we have a problem.

A.J.

Just getting started

I stopped by Joshua City Hall this morning for a brief meeting with our City Manager, Paulette Hartman and met the rest of the staff. It was a nice time and very informative. I've had the pleasure of interacting with several members of the staff during the course of the campaign and I've always enjoyed it and found them to be very professional. I'm looking forward to getting to know everyone better. I'll be back up there on Friday for a little more in-depth orientation so I'm looking forward to that.

Tonight is our Citizens Capital Projects Review committee meeting at 7pm at City Hall. I encourage everyone to attend. It will help you get a feel for the proposed projects in the city and what may or may not be included in an upcoming bond election. I'll be there with several empty seats around me so come say "hi" and fill one of them up.

A.J.

Phase 1 complete

The election is over. Alex (my 5 year old son) and I spent the afternoon picking up our campaign signs from all our residential locations. I wanted to personally thank everyone who supported us in that manner. Most of you were home, but a few were not so we left a brief message on your front door. It amazed me how excited you all were! I'm so proud of every one of you who heard what I had to say and said "yes, we're with you." We did this together!

I was able to relax this evening a bit and tomorrow, aside from working, I'll be taking the day off from city business. Tuesday evening though we've got a Citizens Capital Projects Review Committee meeting that I'll be attending. this committee is reviewing all the major spending projects that the city is considering and will be making a recommendation to the city council on what to pursue. This will directly affect whether to go for a bond election in November and how much to try to borrow. You should pay attention to this. Come on down to city hall at 7pm on Tuesday the 16th.

We've got a city council meeting on Thursday the 18th. I will not be officially on the council yet, but I'll be in attendance in the audience. Come keep me company.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the web site yet so keep checking back. I obviously don't need a campaign site so I'll figure out what format I'll move it into to best convey the happenings around town. Most of the real info will probably be here on the blog no matter what though.

Thanks again, y'all. It's going to get interesting now.

A.J.

We did it!

In case you're here at the blog without having seen my web site, we won! While the voter turnout was still just 7% we gained a point from the general election and I call that progress. Here's the tally:

A.J. Mathieu 122
Butch Maxfield 102

Thanks,

A.J.

Thank You

The polls are about to close, but my thanks are the same win or lose. First and foremost, thanks be to God for placing the burden of service and action on my heart. I'm forever changed. Thank you to my family for supporting me the whole way and putting up with politically dominated conversation for the last few months. Thank you to all my loyal supporters who contributed money, motivation, perseverance and of course votes. Thank you to my Joshua High School journalism teacher, Mr. Larry Grigsby who taught me to communicate a message effectively, good ad layout and journalistic integrity which plays so nicely throughout life.

I've had a great time running this race and I appreciate everyone who received me so graciously along the campaign trail. No matter which side of the table I'm sitting on going forward I'll return from the council meetings and report to you here what's going on in the city of Joshua and I look forward to hearing from anyone who wants to get more involved in the business of running our city.

Sincerely,

A.J.

The ads are out

Today's Joshua Star has hit newsstands and as expected my opponent has a nice big ad. The fact is though that he used a lot of space, but didn't really get to the heart of this race which is who will best represent you on the city council.

Let me first address the most obvious omission from his ad...a phone number or email address. Since day one I've been running my campaign on the platform of Returning Representative Government to the People. I've been identifying the difference in Mr. Maxfield and myself as the type of candidates and leaders we are. When my campaign began I fully expected him to return with a similar message, to step up to the plate and compete on the field I started on. After all what are we in this for if not to represent the people of Joshua to move our city forward. It's been nearly three months now though and he hasn't said one word about being at his seat at city hall and ready and willing to hear from you. He obviously spent a lot of time putting together his ad, but before he sent it off to the paper he just couldn't bring himself to put his phone number at the end. I'm passionate about this and will not let it go.

I have never disputed anything good that has gone on in the city during Mr. Maxfield's term in office. since the council votes unanimously on almost everything, that list would be the same regardless of his participation. All I've really ever said was that I wanted to only move forward with big spending projects after doing everything in my power to make sure it was the right time to start them and that the majority of people wanted to get it done. Up until today Mr.Maxfield just wanted to keep mentioning projects with very little detail hoping that just the mention would make him look involved and proactive.

Mr. Maxfield's mention of restaurant alcohol sales was a bit confusing, but if Joshua wanted to pursue it it would come from the citizens of Joshua and be voted on by the citizens of Joshua, not the rest of the county. Both Cleburne and Rio Vista just passed local option propositions regarding this. I never said it was something the city council would or should take up. I mentioned it last month because a lot of people mentioned it to me and, once again, I'm here to talk about what you want to talk about. The fact remains that Joshua would attract more restaurants if the option was there. That's got nothing to do with me it's just the way things are. The desire for more dining options was one the most mentioned points to me as I walked the city.

On the subject of term limits Mr. Maxfield is correct. Since 1998 Joshua has had a 4 term limit on council members. What he did not mention was that the term lengths were extended just a year or two ago from two years to three years. I would not have voted in favor of that pursuit on the council because 12 years at city hall is way too long.

As I said above, I'm passionate about getting our city's government and citizens back to what our founding fathers intended - an open government by the people and for the people, but it's in your hands now, Joshua. You can vote for someone who showed up and raised his hand "yes" or "no" along with the rest or you can vote for someone who will be engaged with you and reporting back the facts of each issue. Either way, cast your ballot on Saturday.

Thanks,

A.J.

Just a couple days to go

Early voting has ended and the total was 74. That's two less than leading up to the May 9th election so I hope all the additional voters that I've been encouraging to come out will show up on Saturday.

Newsweek thinks Obama is God

Well, well, well...it's been implied, alluded to and even joked about, but Evan Thomas of Newsweek just couldn't hold back any more on Saturday.



"...in a way Obama's standing above the country, above the world, he's sort of God."
-Evan Thomas, Newsweek

Not "like a god", but "God". Evan Thomas is under the impression that our mere mortal president and desecrator of the Constitution of the United States of America is the true, living God of the Bible. Wow. Now there's a lot wrong with that that is self-explanatory, but as a Christian I really need not worry about Mr. Thomas' misguided ideas because no matter how many people think Obama is God it won't ever be so.

Here's a couple other points:
1. Evan Thomas, Newsweek Magazine, Chris Matthews, NBC, MSNBC and so and so on are journalistic hacks so far biased that they can not even be considered news sources anymore by any stretch of the imagination. They are nothing more than cover to cover opinion pieces and liberal progressive propaganda.

2. The fact that three days have passed since this blasphemy was spoken and Barack Hussein Obama has not come out publicly to knock down this title in which he was bestowed speaks volumes. Eventually he'll be asked about it and his response will be that it was just such a crazy statement that he didn't have to respond. Bull. His silence is a quiet acceptance of the name he calls himself in his mind already.

I've got 3 days until my runoff election. If this openly conservative post is too much for you to handle than I may not be your guy. Three things in my life will always come before any election. God, my family and the protection and defense of the Constitution of the United States.

God Bless America

A.J.

Thanks for stopping by

With my mailer arriving at homes this afternoon I'm seeing a big increase in traffic to my web site and this blog. Thanks for taking a few minutes to learn a little more about me as a candidate for Joshua City Council Place 4. I applaud you for wanting to be an informed voter. I've entered into this race to set an example as a candidate for how I would like anyone asking for my vote to handle a campaign. I've been upfront with everything I could think of that you might want to know about me when making your decision on who would get your vote. I hope you've found my web site and this blog to be informative. Please contact me if you have any questions.

Early voting ends tomorrow and next Saturday, the 13th, is the big day. Whether you vote for me or not please make your voice heard by casting your ballot.

Thanks,

A.J.

Johnny-come-lately

I just received word that my opponent, Mr. Maxfield and place 2 councilman Mr. Walden have been out knocking on doors for Mr. Maxfield's campaign. That's a great idea and I'm sure I've heard of another candidate doing the same thing...who was it? Oh yes, it was me! I find it very interesting that Mr. Maxfield didn't find it important enough to go meet his constituents before the general election, but now that his victory may not seem so secure he's ready to walk and talk.

Don't be fooled by trend followers. Keep your eye on the trendsetter who had visited 1500 homes before the general election and is continuing to do so.

This is a great example of a typical politician's behavior - do as little as possible until it seems like you might lose your seat at the table. It's time for a change, Joshua. It's time for someone who goes to the people first. That change will not happen unless you get out and vote on June 13th.

Thanks,

A.J.