Poats Confronts Council On Possible Misuse Of Reinvestment Zones In Prime Commercial Areas--

At the December 3rd city council session on item 7a the council was taking the second and final vote on a new taxing zone that may increase the ad valorem taxes coming from Missouri City and county taxpayers. Mr. Poats expressed his concern about setting up such a tax zone in a prime commercial area rather than using them to rehabilitate older areas of Missouri City, as is the intention according to chapter 311 of the Texas Tax Code.

When Greyling engaged the mayor on the misuses of reinvestment zones in this manner, a somewhat heated exchange took place between Owen and Poats, which lead to the district B council member, Cynthia Gary, asking for a return to civil debate. Repeatedly, throughout the evening, council member Jerry Wyatt and mayor Allen Owen grilled resident after opposition resident speaker in an attempt to defend the project.

One of the opposition speakers pointed out the potential for conflicts if Owen and two other council members continue to participate in this vote based on their campaign disclosure reports, which links the mayor and two others on council with some of the principle corporations that will be benefitting from their overt support and vote on the establishment of this zone.

This piece will be updated at intervals. Currently 3 TIRZs are either proposed or confirmed for this 2 to 3 mile stretch of prime commercial land along highway 6 in Missouri City.

Greyling Meets With Hwy 6 Engineers at Elkins To Discuss Traffic & Safety Issues

Picture from the FBSun (caption below):

"A public meeting was recently held at Elkins High School to discuss traffic and safety issues on Hwy. 6 in Missouri City. The meeting included representatives from the Houston-Galveston Area Council and Texas Department of Transportation."

-Poats seeks active engagement on plans for safety improvement along the Missouri City section of highway 6. Only through interacting with local and regional entities will we be better able to continue responsible growth and development. For years Greyling has been involved with local community groups and has worked tirelessly to draw attention to disparity in development in the area and to seek ways to address this concern that impact so many of our neighborhoods as we go through exponential growth. He has also been working with the local community to engage the local school district on revisiting the concept of single-member school district board representation as a means to improve direct representation and he was recently appointed to a city council finance committee to further study the taxing impact acquisition of the QVCC will have on the public tax rolls.

Greyling is currently serving on the cities TIRZ board in the Sienna hwy 6 area of Missouri City.

At this meeting Mr. Poats is seen reviewing the current plans for our area along this corridor with H-GAC and TXDoT members.

Missouri City Mayoral Exploratory Committee Formed!

Candidates Announcement
Position: Missouri City Mayoral Race 2008

An exploratory committee has recently been formed made up of Missouri City area residents from several neighborhoods to look into the potential run of Greyling Poats, a long-time successful local business owner, citizen of our community and neighborhood activist. Mr. Poats, a former assistant city attorney in Gary Indiana and current city TIRZ board member, ran against Allen Owen in the 2006 mayoral races with only a few weeks campaigning.

Issues that the multi-partisan citizens committee is looking into are term limits, disparity in development, an authentic ethics committee to review recent actions by some on council as well as to improve communications with the police department and the possibility of opening up the cities books for public scrutiny, supporting the schools and single member district representation initiative by community leaders, to name a few. Mr. Poats has been a resident for over 25 years and a taxpayer advocate. He has been very involved in the recent council district races and vigorously supported the opposition for the Blue Ridge Landfill expansion near Missouri City and has been a strong advocate for attracting another hospital to our community after it was announced in 2006 that Christus Hospital had been indefinitely delayed and Hermann closed after several decades of providing health care to our community. In 2005 he provided coalition leadership, which lead to the reduction of a proposed 1500 apartment units to the Sienna community by Houston developers. Poats has continued to be vocal and an active critic of the current administration and its special interest backing. He challenges the incumbent to “just swear off” the out of area campaign financing he has grown dependent on over the years!

Greyling has a wife, Lillian, who serves on the FBISD education foundation, is a university professor and son who is currently attending college. He resides in the Oakwick Forest subdivision.

Stay tuned for updates…