Autobiography - The Galindo Group

Ram Galindo THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN Page 122
My insertion above of 1999 to 2002 happenings in Bryan in the midst of a historical
recollection serves also to help me shine some light on the little exposed issue of
property tax-revenue allocation. In rough numbers, since its annexation in 1981, the City
of Bryan alone has extracted more than fourteen million dollars from property owners in
the area of my developments. When a train takes its maximum fifteen minutes allowed
by ordinance to block our thoroughfare entrance street, a house could burn down, a
heart attack victim could die for lack of an ambulance, a mother in labor could miss the
hospital and/or a robbery could be consummated. The city has no stations on our side
of the tracks to provide these services. It is failing in its charter obligation to do so in
return for the taxes it levies. Even if it did, the cost of supplying them is only a fraction of
the property taxes collected. Until the year 2000, the balance of these revenues have
gone into the city’s general fund and used by its handlers to serve and improve other
parts of town with capital investments, usually as local contributions to secure other
funds. This situation has a strong smell of effete neo-colonialism.
The lack of awareness among the public about the power of the leadership to
redistribute funds at its whim is a major problem. If only a few are aware of this privilege
and they have the power to affect the decision, they can benefit their favorite
neighborhoods at the expense of others, as happened in Bryan. I am sure the example
of my own experience is not unique. An amelioration of this situation, I believe, derives
from having borough representation in city councils. In this manner, every part of town
has its own watchdog and the possibility of large abuses by one borough over another
is diminished. In my opinion however, a city would still need peacemakers and overall
spokesmen. Thus I think a combination of a majority of precinct with a minority of atlarge
councilmen and mayor is a good solution. My thanks for this improvement to
democratic representation go to the Federal Voting Rights Act, courtesy of a Democratic
administration. The 1999 golf course initiative for my side of town came about only after
Bryan’s adoption of this type of government representation in 1995.
While today, due to diversified interests, I am more an observer than a committed player
in the happenings of Bryan, twenty-five years ago I was scrambling to win every little
local battle that faced me, and I needed all the help I could get. In 1978, Joe Elliott left
his aerospace job in California once more and came back to Texas to help me found the
domestic branch of CGL and to accelerate our development pace. When my brother
Chris returned to Texas in January 1979, he took over the engineering company and
brilliantly tested for his professional engineer and land surveyor’s licenses, even though
his academic training and early professional experience had been in petroleum
engineering. He later formed his own company known as Galindo Engineers and
Planners and supplied much of the subsequent engineering services that my
developments required.
But all was not negative; I was fortunate to have a few supporters and allies in my local
battles. One of them was very powerful. Ford D. Albritton was at the time the most
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