Coppell Chronicle Vol. 1, No. 25
Like Pandemic, Mask Debate Continues • DART Buying Land for Silver Line • Most of Council Approves Tax Rate • Reach Out to Your HOA
Like Pandemic, Mask Debate Continues
In Coppell Chronicle No. 13, I wrote this: “I’m confident (and hopeful) that this will be the final Coppell Chronicle article about masks. If it’s not, then either the COVID-19 pandemic roared back in a big way or we were hit with an entirely different worldwide health scare.”
It turns out I was overconfident.
Thanks to the delta variant, hospitals in Dallas County are running out of beds in their pediatric intensive care units. Consequently, County Judge Clay Jenkins issued an executive order on Wednesday that mandates masks in public schools, despite Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive orders prohibiting such mandates.
(By the way, Jenkins does not wear a black robe to work, nor does he make rulings regarding guilt or innocence. In Texas, “County Judge” is the title conferred upon each county’s top elected official. “County Mayor” would be a more appropriate title for the position.)
Jenkins’ new mandate has been upheld by judges who do wear black robes, including Judge Tonya Parker of the 116th Civil District Court, as well as a panel of the Fifth District Court of Appeals. But all of those judges, like Jenkins, are Democrats. Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton, both Republicans, have already asked the Texas Supreme Court to weigh in, and the state’s highest court is comprised exclusively of GOP members. So stay tuned.
In the meantime, Coppell ISD issued a statement that says all students, staff, and visitors – regardless of vaccination status – are required to wear masks indoors. The statement acknowledges that “further legal action” is likely, perhaps before school starts on Tuesday.
Assuming Jenkins’ order is still in effect then, how much it will be enforced is anyone’s guess. I’ve seen lots of photos and videos from Saturday’s celebration of Olympic gold medalist Chiaka Ogbogu in the Coppell High School Arena, and at least half of the people there were not wearing masks, despite the district’s statement about them being required.
There is a group of Coppell ISD parents on Facebook who are encouraging their children to refuse to wear masks at school on Tuesday, and they are using those same photos and videos from Saturday as motivation. This should make for a memorable first day of classes.
DART Buying Land for Silver Line
Here’s what I know for sure: Dallas Area Rapid Transit is acquiring land in and around Coppell for its Silver Line project.
Here’s what I don’t know for sure: the exact locations of all those parcels of land. Many of these real estate transactions are discussed only behind closed doors and/or are subject to litigation.
For example, DART wants to buy 3.2534 acres that Coppell ISD owns near the corner of East Belt Line Road and Sanders Loop. That exact amount of acreage has been mentioned on the agendas for six Coppell ISD Board of Trustees meetings this year. But all of those agenda items described deliberations that happened during closed sessions.
Those 3.2534 acres that Coppell ISD owns are located in Dallas. When it comes to property within Coppell’s city limits, I was able to determine that DART is targeting at least 17 pieces of land. I have maps of eight of those; my requests for maps of the other nine were denied because – according to attorney Gil Garcia, DART’s Senior Assistant General Counsel – those nine properties were involved in litigation when I requested them last month.
So let’s take a look at the maps I do have. We’ll follow the future path of the Silver Line trains as they travel westbound through Coppell.
I published this map of the Coppell Crossing Shopping Center way back in the second edition of the Coppell Chronicle. At that time, I didn’t pay enough attention to the map’s legend, so I assumed that DART was trying to acquire the whole property.
Actually, DART wanted only the sliver marked by the green and red slashes, and DART got it. Valley Ranch resident Nooman Silat, who owns the shopping center, told me he sold that sliver to the transit agency a couple of weeks ago.
“My property is going to be encroached from the air,” Silat said. “There’s going to be nothing on the ground on my property, as I understand it.”
Silat has three tenants at the shopping center: Domino’s Pizza, Rozana Market and Restaurant, and Integrity Wellness Center. He believes only the wellness center may be affected by the Silver Line’s elevated tracks.
“I don’t know how loud the trains are going to be,” he said, “and I don’t know how that’s going to affect their business.”
Directly south of the Coppell Crossing Shopping Center is a building branded Paramount Global Solutions. DART calls that property CB1-021, and it appears the transit agency wants to acquire the whole thing.
CB1-021 and CB1-025 are under the future path of the elevated Silver Line tracks, according to the renderings I shared in Coppell Chronicle No. 23. I had a brief phone conversation on Friday with someone who answered the listed phone number for Paramount Global Solutions, but he didn’t want to say anything on the record. On Saturday, I noticed a sign in front of the building that says the company has moved to Cypress Waters.
As the tracks move west across South Belt Line Road, DART wants to acquire two smidgens of land. DE1-005, which is just 225 square feet, belongs to the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America. DE1-006, which is 450 square feet, is owned by NM Majestic Holdings, LLC.
The tracks will then turn north across Southwestern Boulevard and run right through the site of Soto’s Automotive before reconnecting with the existing train tracks that are north of Pinkerton Elementary School.
DART’s documents indicate that the majority of the Soto’s land will be acquired via “administrative settlement,” as opposed to eminent domain. I’ve stopped by Soto’s Automotive a couple of times and have called the listed phone number, but I haven’t been able to reach anyone there.
While reporting this article, I had a revelation: The Silver Line will stray from the existing tracks in Coppell only because the city is not a member of DART, and DART can’t build a station in a non-member city. That’s why Cypress Waters Station will be built on land (pictured below) that is just outside Coppell but technically within Dallas.
Most of Council Approves Tax Rate
The Coppell City Council on Tuesday unanimously voted to approve the city’s budget for the fiscal year that begins in October, and they also voted to approve an unchanged tax rate of 58 cents per $100 of valuation. That second vote was not unanimous.
While opposing the proposed tax rate, Council Member Biju Mathew took issue with two highlights of the budget that had just been approved:
Budgeted revenues total approximately $119 million, a decrease of 0.04 percent.
Budgeted expenditures also total approximately $119 million, an increase of 3.07 percent.
“We need to cut spending,” Mathew said. “We cannot wait for three years’ gradual reduction. In my personal finance, I would not spend more money than I have. More importantly, I would not use the savings account money to meet today’s expenses.”
(Note to self: Invite Mathew to speak at a Koller family dinner soon.)
Mathew then made a motion to approve a “no new revenue” tax rate of 55.17 cents per $100 of valuation. John Jun seconded that motion.
Council Member Don Carroll asked how the council could approve a tax rate of 55.17 cents when they had just unanimously approved a budget based on a tax rate of 58 cents.
Kim Tiehen, the city’s Assistant Director of Finance, started to look around the room for an answer to that question, but City Manager Mike Land stepped in. Land said Mathew’s proposed reduction of roughly three cents to the tax rate would necessitate a reduction of $2.7 million worth of expenditures.
“The only way to get those expenditures is to reduce personnel, period,” Land said. “Without reducing personnel, the only way to make that work is then to have to do exactly what you don’t want to do, which is to close the library at certain times, close The CORE at certain times, not offer programs throughout the city. Or we don’t build streets, we don’t do alleys, we don’t do sidewalks. There is a tradeoff to eliminating roughly $2.7 million, if that’s what you want to do.”
Mayor Pro Tem Brianna Hinojosa-Smith then requested an executive session so she could ask City Attorney Bob Hager a question behind closed doors. After that executive session ended, the council took a vote on Mathew’s motion for a tax rate of 55.17 cents. Only he and Jun voted for it.
Hinojosa-Smith then made a motion on the tax rate of 58 cents. That motion passed on a 5-2 vote, with only Mathew and Jun opposed.
The average taxable value of a home in Coppell is up to $411,167, an increase of $4,675 from last year. With no change to the city’s tax rate of 58 cents, the owner of an average Coppell home with a homestead exemption will pay $2,385, or $27 more than the previous year.
Of course, homeowners pay property taxes to more entities than just the city. Tiehen threw some shade at those other taxing entities by displaying this graphic, which demonstrates that 51 percent of the total tax bill for the average Coppell home ($10,328) goes to the homeowner’s school district, while 23 percent goes to the city.
Before making his motion for a reduced tax rate, Mathew asked Tiehen why the public hearings regarding the budget and the tax rate were being held on the same night that the council would vote on those matters. She pointed to a piece of state legislation that I don’t want to take the time to bore you with, but she also told him that voting on the same day as the public hearings is not a new practice. Separately, Tiehen reminded the council that they held multiple budget workshops prior to Tuesday’s meeting that were all open to the public.
Tuesday’s meeting included three public hearings: one on the city’s overall budget, one on the budget for the Coppell Crime Control and Prevention District, and a third on the city’s tax rate. Nobody signed up to speak at any of them.
Land also pointed out that, at Mathew’s request, the city established a new email address so that residents could easily provide input on the proposed budget. Land said that address received a grand total of three emails.
Reach Out to Your HOA
A friend of mine recently asked if I knew how he could get in touch with his homeowners association. Then I saw a woman on Facebook asking if anyone knew how she could get a hold of her homeowners association. Because I live in a neighborhood with no HOA, it never occurred to me that this information would be hard to find.
Lo and behold, I found a couple of useful documents without trying. While searching for something else in the city secretary’s archive of public documents, I stumbled upon:
A map of Coppell neighborhoods with HOAs, which is dated April 2017
A list of contact information for Coppell’s HOAs, which is dated July 2020
If you see something on the map or list that needs to be updated or corrected, here’s the form you’ll need.
Community Calendar
Emily Elbert: The singer-songwriter and Coppell High School graduate will perform with Lorde on the Aug. 20 edition of Good Morning America, according to The Dallas Morning News, which reported that Elbert will do the same a week later on The Late Late Show with James Corden.
Community Health & Wellness Expo: The Coppell Chamber of Commerce will host this free event from 8 to 11 a.m. on Aug. 21 at the Coppell Arts Center.
Monsters, Inc.: The Coppell Arts Center will host a drive-in screening of the Pixar classic – which, somehow, came out 20 years ago – at 8:30 p.m. on Aug. 21. (“2319! We have a 2319!”)
It is difficult to understand why Councilmembers Matthew and Jun would approve and vote in favor of a budget (how much to spend) and then minutes later, propose a much lower tax rate (requiring spending cuts of as much as $2.7 million) unless, like so many politicians these days, they lack the courage to identify specific spending cuts, and prefer only to engage in gross posturing (“look at me, I’m a fiscal hawk”).
They knew both items were on the agenda. They knew the vote on the spending would come first. They didn’t propose a single spending cut and approved the amount to be spent and the items to be paid for without comment. But they expect the voters to be fooled by their meaningless show of concern for the tax rate?
Both also campaigned on increasing the property tax exemption, but not once during this budget cycle (Matthew’s 4th and Jun’s 1st) did they propose such an increase or identify either the budget cuts, fee increases or tax rate increases that would allow for an increase in the property tax exemption while balancing the books. Just more hollow posturing from typical politicians.
Parents playing Russian roulette with their children's lives. Very sad!