Town Hall Concerns Reporting: Crickets

I wondered why there were no news stories on the specific town hall meetings held in various City of San Angelo Districts.  After attending one, I understood why.

The first part of the program involved personalizing the respective City Council representative.  The second had new City Manager Phillip Urrutia give essentially a state of the City update.  The third "took the hall" out of the town hall meeting as citizens did not get to hear one another.  

The format had attendees wander to different areas to share their concerns with Urrutia or various Assistant City Managers/Department Heads.  

It harkened back to the Animal Services Open Houses held by former Shelter Chief Morgan Chegwidden in early 2024.  Those were held in response to a series of complaints citizens made to their City Council representatives.  I wrote at the time:

San Angelo is five years into programming that kept unwanted dogs out of the shelter. It should be no surprise that they fill the streets. 

Councilman Harry Thomas said just that at the Council's last meeting. “There are more dogs on the streets than there’s ever been.” 

Yes there are. It's from years of "letting them roam unaltered."

I attended the specific Town Hall meeting to share an animal related concern.  It dealt with an irresponsible citizen who'd abandoned over 40 cats and two dogs.  The City claimed this person was a "cat colony manager" even though they'd never fixed their pets, did not consistently provide food/water, nor provide veterinary care for any sick or injured pets.  Numerous pets were poisoned on their watch.  

This owner was reported many times for poor treatment of their animals and consistently failing to follow city ordinances  (spay/neuter, microchip, animal cruelty).

I did not get to share my concern as I needed to leave the meeting at 6:45 pm to care for some of our critters and the City Manager was still presenting.   

This also happened to me relative to Mayor Thompson's Data Center Town Hall but that was available to watch later on video. 

Time will reveal if City Council hears a report as to common constituent concerns across districts and any plans to address those at a high level.   

Six meetings, one video and no opportunity to hear specifics as to why people attended.  Did someone did not want to get lectured by a 92 year old lady, like Rep. August Pfluger?