ThirdGenAggie06,

Thank you for informing me that the City of Bay City does attempt to take attendance at their city council meetings. I was unaware of the “sign-in sheet.” I guess it is because I tend to avoid sign-in sheets, as do other people. Unfortunately, as I was checking the archives on the City of Bay City website for the council meeting minutes, I did not see a list of those who attended, attached with the minutes. Would you please be so kind as to inform me of where you did find the minutes you were referring to, with the attendance record. I would definitely like to find this so I can inform you as well as myself of how many times Mr. Bricker did attend a city council meeting. I do like to do my research before I just throw out some information or a number.
As far as the forum is concerned, and you may have read my letter to the editor, the forum seemed too biased on both occasions. It should not have bee hosted by an entity that the incumbent had worked for before he was mayor. I would like to point out that if anyone wants to get a hold of Mr. Bricker, he has made all of his personal information available on his Facebook page and on his website. Mr. Bricker has made his personal cell phone number available for the public to call and ask any questions they may have.

I have looked on Mayor Knapik’s Facebook page and cannot find any personal information for him. The only thing you can find for Mr. Knapik is his e-mail address. I can of course find his office number, but if I am working during the day, I need an after hours number to call. This shows me that Mr. Bricker really wants to keep in contact with the citizens of Bay City. I do agree they probably would have tried to slaughter him with questions about his political inexperience. But what does being inexperienced in politics have anything to do with a person not being able to do the job. There were three Presidents of the United State that had no political experience when they were elected, BY THE PEOPLE, to be president. Those three presidents were Zachary Taylor, Ulysses S. Grant, and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Ronald Reagan had no political experience prior to becoming GOVERNOR of the State of California. He then went on to become the 40th President of the United States. So what I am getting at is that political experience has to start somewhere. Whether, it is being Mayor of the City of Bay City Texas, or President of the United States of America.
In closing, I want to take part of something you stated and give you my opinion.
“…Knapik's tenure needs to end, I'm just not sure if Bricker is the right person for the job…” If you believe Knapik’s tenure does need to end, there are only two candidates to choose from in this race. Those candidates are Mayor Richard Knapik and Mark Bricker. If you think Knapik has not done well and Bricker is inexperienced. I would suggest that you sit back and think of which is the lesser of two evils here. Should you choose someone who has already proved to you that they cannot do the job right, or do you want to choose someone who is a fresh face and wants to fix the wrong his opponent has created?

Thank you for your time,
Fernando G. Aguilar, Jr.

As a correction, Fernando, attendance it taken at EVERY city council meeting as there is a sign-in sheet on the back table near the main entry. As a former resident who's job it was to attend, I can tell you that I attended every city council meeting in 2008 and most of 2009 and that sheet was there EVERY time. Trust me, there is a record kept of everyone in attendance. Most public meetings in Matagorda County have some kind of attendance records. Check the minutes from any given meeting, they're open records.

As for the forum, I can't blame Bricker for being unavailable for the one-on-one forum, although having a public hearing at the same time as the forum just seems strange. If Bricker and Knapik stood side-by-side at a forum, I find it hard to believe that Bricker, a 20-something year old with no real political experience, would not get slaughtered with questions about his lack of political knowledge. Bricker knew that was going to be a problem when he signed up for Mayor, that his experience would be called into question. But what he needs to remember is that avoiding the tough questions is a horrible way to deal with them. You just have to do it, at least you'll earn respect for being honest with the people and answering the tough questions that everybody knows you dont want to answer. I think the lack of willingness to attend a forum, publicly broadcast, was a horrible decision and looks cowardly. Again, just my opinion, but think... how many people see it the same way I do??

I don't know how many times Bricker has attended city council meetings and I don't know how much he really knows the current council, so I'm not making judgements. But I can say that I personally don't believe I ever saw him at one of the meetings, which is easy to assume considering there were often only 5 or so people in attendance.

All that being said, the one-on-one forum could have gone his way, though, and Bricker needs to know that. Bricker needs to remember that there are a lot of Knapik-haters out there and it would just depend on whether or not they showed up and went on the attack. In my opinion there is more to criticise Knapik about than Bricker at this point. The choice to sue the Attorney General of Texas because he didn't like their ruling was simply laughable. There are lots of voters out there are just sick and tired of the drama and lawsuits and want something different. There has been a lot of controvery in the last few years regarding the current officials policies and procedures and personally, I KNOW it's time for a change.

Knapik's tenure needs to end, I'm just not sure if Bricker is the right person for the job. But he can start by giving people what they want... a public face-to-face forum...

Ms. Franklin,
I am so sorry that you were unable to make the April 27th forum, it was a great forum. All of the candidates gave great answers to the question that were asked. I was unable to make it myself, but I did listen to the forum on Happy Radio's website (www.kkhafm.com) under the Podcasts section. I am sure you are familiar with Happy Radio, since you are from Bay City, they are a great station to listen to. Unfortunately Mr. Bricker, like everyone else in an elected position, has to start somewhere. I have never heard of a program where you can train to be an elected official, but correct if I am wrong and please do send me a website if a training does exist. I would also like to know where you can find out the names of all citizens that have shown up to each City Council Meeting. I was not aware that the City of Bay City keeps track of all those in attendance at the meetings. Ms. Franklin, please do not take this comment as an attack on you. I am simply informing you of where you can go and listen to the forums. I was also unclear of any training for a newly or soon to be elected official, or the attendance taking policy of the City of Bay City.

With best regards,
Fernando G. Aguilar, Jr.