Must be some Browns fans in League City
Published March 25, 2011 There is an election coming up, so you can expect some hyperbole. But the notion that something has gone fundamentally wrong with government in League City in the past two years — that things are getting worse at city hall, rather than better — is a view that has lost touch with reality.
Today, people in La Marque are in the same position that people in League City were in two years ago. There have been so many miscues in the handling of its public affairs that it’s hard to keep track.
It’s that way in Galveston County because it’s that way in life. In any classroom, some kid gets the highest grades and some kid gets the lowest. On the athletic field, one team ends up in first place and someone must finish last.
The idea that municipal government in League City was somehow a model before some fundamental changes in the past two years is astonishing — in the same way that a claim that the St. Louis Browns were the most successful baseball franchise of all time would be astonishing.
In early 2008, League City was, without a doubt, the most colorful, most outrageous source of political entertainment in the county. It wasn’t a close call.
An editorial in The Daily News, published April 30, 2008, put it this way:
“The workings of city government in League City often have been bewildering.
“For years, people pointed to Galveston’s city hall as an endless source of amusement. But League City’s decision to oust one garbage contractor in favor of another — and the way it awarded the bid — could only have happened in League City.
“That action would have failed the smell test in Galveston. It would have been unthinkable in Texas City.
“If that were the only example, voters could write it off as an unusual lapse in judgment. But League City’s list of examples of questionable dealings is long. Of the major cities in Galveston County, it has the shakiest administration at the top.”
Since then, municipal government in League City hasn’t reached perfection but it has come a long way.
Of course, it’s an election year. People are going to peddle nonsense. It doesn’t mean you have to buy it.
