Absurd Ordinances

The Sandy Oaks City Council is now in its second year.  The idea of being a city and having a city government was that city government could offer more than what the county government was doing and could do a better job addressing basic governmental services like road repair, law enforcement, fire protection, and animal.

Instead of tackling these issues, the City Council is spending its time passing absurd ordinances.

Shooting

Alderman David Tremblay said he hears people firing automatic weapons every 4th of July and New Year’s Eve, so the City Council banned the discharge of firearms.

Never mind the fact that what Tremblay hears is probably just black-cats, satellites, roman candles, or any of the other bajillion fireworks that are going off on these holidays.  Think about how absurd the ordinance is.  As in, what does the ordinance ACCOMPLISH?

It accomplishes nothing because it does nothing to stop people who actually fire weapons.  Tremblay thinks that people are firing into the air in celebration.  If a person is that idiotic (which most gun owners are not), is that person really going to be the type to know that there is an ordinance in place banning the discharge of fire arms?

Also, Bexar County already has a law against this.

Trash Cans

Alderman David Tremblay had a line put into an ordinance that trash cans can only be set out on the curb 24 hours before and after pick up.  The City Attorney asked if everyone had their trash collected on the same day and Tremblay was quick to say that they did.  Except that, at the time, there were multiple trash collection services in the city and different people had collections on different days.

Also, what happens when a trash service forgets a house and has to come back a different day?  Mistakes do happen and Tiger Sanitation has been known to send out another collection truck if it has missed a house or 2.  Is that person now going to get a fine?  How will the Marshal know if the trash can is out past the 24 hour deadline, or had just been emptied 20 minutes prior?  How much tax payer money is going to be spent on silly fines and court costs due to a screwed up rule that doesn’t take trash collection mistakes into consideration?

Tremblay claims the reason why the city has the ability to decide how long trash cans can be out is because the city controls the “Right of Way.”  He also spent a year claiming the city didn’t own any roads and wouldn’t maintain any of the roads in the Waterwood subdivision.

Riding Horses at Night

David Tremblay claimed that people ride past his property on horseback at night with very loud stereos.  So instead of addressing a noise ordinance, the City Council banned the riding of livestock at night.

Welcome to Texas, y’all.  We have horses here and sometimes its fun to ride those horses.

Before creating the ban, the City Council had never discussed the issue, and had never received complaints from other people.  They based their decision on the fact that Tremblay complained about loud noise coming from Priest Road.

The southern side of Priest Road belongs to the City of Sandy Oaks, but not all of the northern side does.  Does that mean someone can ride a horse at night on that side of the road?  Does the city know if bar ditch the northern side belongs to the city?  Probably not, since a year ago David Tremblay and all the other City Council Members were claiming that the entire road belonged to Bexar County, even with signs posted saying “Bexar County Maintenance Ends Here.”

And what if I’m riding my horse and then the sun goes down.  Do I camp out in the ditch?  Do I guide my horse back home, just don’t ride it?  Can I still leave my loud stereo on?

Absurd Ordinances

These ordinances (and others) have 2 common threads.  They’re suggested by David Tremblay, and they’re dumb.

None of these have anything to do with what a city is supposed to focus on.

• Roads
• Law enforcement
• Fire Protection
• Animal Control

Fix the roads, get the Marshal’s office set up (legally this time), and get rid of the dogs that are chasing down walkers, runners, and cyclists.  Stop making dumb ordinances for your personal self interests, Tremblay.