A major objective of this blog is to inform readers and to share information about our city government. While most everyone knows we have a city council and administrative staff, many times fewer know the various citizen committees (and boards and commissions) that play an instrumental role in the activities of the city. It is from those committees that citizen volunteers regularly advise the Council and staff and expands the day-to-day democratic input to the process of local government.
 
Residents from District 1 serve more positions on those various boards and commissions than any other district. It is a huge benefit to the city to have so many willing to serve voluntarily to support our community and to work so hard to make it better.
 
Understanding the roles and history of the boards and commissions is essential to maintaining a top-performing city organization. Many of the members of these committees, boards, and commissions have served for many years either on the same board or on several different ones. Because council members are term limited (which I very strongly support), it is important that the cumulative institutional memory of these volunteers be readily available to give advice to the council and administration; they are the glue.
 
Policy decisions rest with the Council and administrative decisions rest with the staff. Only a few individuals will ever serve more than six years on the Council. Their institutional knowledge will never equal that of the staff. It is the citizen volunteers that often retain the memories needed by the Council to give good advice so informed decisions can be made. The staff also relies upon them to understand the mood of the citizenry and to better judge the services citizens want and are willing to financially support.
 
Barbara Powers perfectly exemplifies how it is often the citizen volunteers that best know what has gone before and how we have gotten to where we are today. When we hear that Keep Garland Beautiful is sponsoring the annual Garland Trash-Off, we appreciate the effort and the benefit but we don't have a sense of the organizational effort both historically and today that makes it all possible. Barbara represents District 1 on the Citizens Environmental and Neighborhood Advisory Committee and serves as Secretary of Keep Garland Beautiful. She Guest Blogs today and shares a history that spans 30 years. Her efforts to compile this history were to again re-certify Keep Garland Beautiful but I thought the information too valuable to not share.
 
My sincere appreciation to Barbara and all of our citizen volunteers!
 
 

History of Keep Garland Beautiful

The city of Garland, Texas has been involved with environmental issues through Keep Garland Beautiful for almost 30 years. Keep Garland Beautiful (KGB) originally was certified in 1981 as an affiliate of Keep America Beautiful (KAB), a national non-profit public education organization dedicated to improving America’s waste handling practices. Keep Garland Beautiful began as a program sponsored entirely by the city of Garland under the management of city staff who also served as the Board for Keep Garland Beautiful.
 
Through staff cuts, turnovers, and lack of organizational development, KGB had such little attention from city staff to the extent that, as early as 1987, Keep America Beautiful attempted to decertify Keep Garland Beautiful as an official affiliate of the national organization. Various city departments continued elements of the program, but not actively as Keep Garland Beautiful.
 
In 1990, after thorough investigation and renewed reporting to Keep America Beautiful, Keep Garland Beautiful re-established itself in the community by volunteer efforts on a grassroots level. Through education and cleanup activities under the coordination of city departments and the Citizens Recycling Advisory Committee chaired by Gayla Dodd, neighborhood organizations, churches, schools, civic groups, and businesses were brought together to impact the environment. City officials realized that the Keep Garland Beautiful program could augment other conservation and ecology-based programs such as recycling, park beautification, water conservation, and anti-littering, thus becoming the vehicle to consolidate these efforts and unite the community.
 
By 1992, Keep Garland Beautiful regained its affiliation with Keep America Beautiful and set its sights on an award. On May 8, 1992, Housing and Neighborhood Services staff, which coordinated the KGB efforts, with cooperation from both Parks and Sanitation departments and Parent Teacher Association (PTA) volunteers, applied to the 1991- 1992 Governor’s Community Achievement Award (GCAA) from the Texas Department of Transportation and Keep Texas Beautiful, Inc., a statewide affiliate of Keep America Beautiful.
 
A July 20, 1992 Report number 92-119 to the Garland City Council Work Session indicated that Keep Garland Beautiful was administered and funded by the Housing & Neighborhood Services Department. The report stated that coordinating volunteers for Keep Garland Beautiful events required approximately one-fifth of one employee’s time. But, to make the program successful, one-half of that employee’s time would be necessary.
 
Further, the Department spent approximately $2,500 for volunteer recognition and $375 for pre-certification. Although no annual fees had been paid since the program’s inception in 1981, $450 was paid in 1992 to renew affiliation. The report also listed $3,000 of in-kind donations given by July 20, 1992.
 
This report, submitted by Managing Director of Housing & Neighborhood Services Jim Slaughter and City Manager Ron Holifield, recommended that Keep Garland Beautiful become a 501c3 organization. By moving Keep Garland Beautiful into a 501c3 non-profit status, the organization could serve as a foundation in order to raise funds for various beautification, recycling, preservation, and anti-littering educational activities in the community. The mission of Keep Garland Beautiful, Inc. would be to serve as a charitable and educational organization for the purpose of educating the citizenry of Garland in ways of improving the community’s appearance. The goal of obtaining the 501c3 status would be for the organization to be self-sufficient within two years and not require additional city funding.
 
The recommendation from that report states, “Council shall authorize staff to continue the Keep Garland Beautiful re-certification process, including developing a 501c3 non-profit organization to continue KAB activities in the City.” The By-Laws of Keep Garland Beautiful were attached to the report and approved at that time.
 
Pursuant to the City Council’s action of July 20, 1992, steps were taken to form a 501c3 organization. Keep Garland Beautiful, renamed Garland Clean & Green, Inc., renewed its certification and affiliation with Keep America Beautiful in 1992. Articles of Incorporation of Garland Clean & Green, Inc., a non-profit corporation, were filed with the Office of Secretary of State of Texas Corporations Section on October 1, 1993, with Amendments being filed in the same office April 12, 1994.
 
Garland Clean & Green, Inc. began in 1992 with the Housing & Neighborhood Services Department, but throughout its existence moved to the Health Department, the Solid Waste and Recycling Services Department, and Code Enforcement. In 2000, Garland Clean & Green, Inc. was moved back to Housing & Neighborhood Services and assigned to Community Services Manager Jan Dolph. However, because proper paperwork had not been filed, Garland Clean & Green, Inc. lost its 501c3 status and on February 3, 1999, the Internal Revenue Service informed the organization that it would be listed as a private foundation under section 508b.
 
As a result of Garland Clean & Green, Inc. losing its non-profit status in 1999 and its president in 1998, the organization met with the City Council appointed Citizens Environmental Advisory Committee (CEAC) in May 1999. The Advisory Committee requested the May meeting after it heard from two Keep Texas Beautiful representatives at its April 1999 meeting. Members of the Citizens Environmental Advisory Committee requested these meetings due to concerns with the lack of direction of Garland Clean & Green, Inc. and a desire to revitalize the program.
 
Gayla Dodd, founding president of Garland Clean & Green, Inc., and Gay Worth, its past chairman, told the Citizens Environmental Advisory Committee that while the organization currently receives no funds from the city, it was supported during its first three years. The Advisory Committee learned that many people were needed to make this organization function efficiently. Sixteen members initially formed Garland Clean & Green, Inc., but eventually three individuals did everything, thus tiring of their burden. The Advisory Committee also learned that an effective program needs an Executive Director to devote at least 20 hours each week to manage the program.
 
After hearing from representatives of Garland Clean and Green, Inc., the Citizens Environmental Advisory Committee began discussions to acquire the duties of this organization. CEAC, made up of nine members—8 appointed from each City Council Representative and one appointed at-large by the Mayor—also discussed the need for City Council to appoint members to the vacant positions. The Advisory Committee shared its concerns regarding a more focused direction for CEAC with the City Council, which then appointed the Health Department to study the issue.
 
As a result of this study, the Garland City Council recommended that the Citizens Environmental Advisory Committee be revitalized, refocused, and given higher visibility by the Council. It recommended changing the name to Citizens Environmental and Neighborhood Advisory Committee (CENAC), along with a new mission statement and specific duties. The revised enabling ordinance for CENAC Sec. 10.33 included initiating a Keep Garland Beautiful program in affiliation with Keep Texas Beautiful. This Policy Report Number 99-123 was presented in a City Council Work Session on August 2, 1999 and signed by Assistant Director of Health John Teel, Managing Director Health & Environmental Services Pat Fowler, and City Manager Jeffrey B. Muzzy.
 
In keeping with the City Council’s change in the city ordinance forming a Citizens Environmental and Neighborhood Advisory Committee and giving that committee Keep Garland Beautiful, the CENAC developed its By-Laws, the first adopted November 10, 1999, which included initiating Keep Garland Beautiful; then amended April 2001, which changed from initiating Keep Garland Beautiful to maintaining Keep Garland Beautiful; and finally Amended August 8, 2001 which covered the date of election of CENAC officers to be at the October meeting annually, in accordance with other City Council appointed committees.
 
After CENAC’s purposes came to include Keep Garland Beautiful, Cecile Carson of Keep Texas Beautiful addressed the CENAC as to how to incorporate CENAC and Keep Garland Beautiful. She informed CENAC that it could be listed as the Board, which CENAC agreed to do. CENAC decided to disband the Garland Clean & Green, Inc. designation and adopt Keep Garland Beautiful in March 2000.
 
A draft of the by-laws for Keep Garland Beautiful designating CENAC as the Board was distributed to the CENAC at its June 14, 2000 meeting. A second draft was distributed at the October 11, 2000 meeting.
 
From October 2000 to the present date, the duties of Keep Garland Beautiful have been overseen by various staff members in the city of Garland, including Neighborhood Services Department, Community Relations Department, and Environmental Waste Services Department. With Keep Garland Beautiful in the by-laws of CENAC, that committee desires a more active role in KGB. The 2008 – 2009 Goals for CENAC, approved by the Garland City Council, include working towards a 501c3 status for Keep Garland Beautiful. The committee’s goal is to fulfill the KGB by-laws with CENAC serving as the Board of Directors. As the Board, it hopes to provide more guidance in order to fully serve Garland and to truly make an impact on this community.