Tax Return Preparation— Electronic Filing We are ready to help you with a broad range of tax needs including
* * * *
Form 1040— Personal Tax Return Business Returns —Corporate & Partnership Tax Planning & Projections Complimentary Electronic Filing for School Teachers, Peace Officers and Firefighters
VOL 6 No. 11
Sandersen Knox & Company, LLP 130 Industrial Blvd, Suite 130 Sugar Land, TX 77478 (281)242-3232 www.sktx.com; info@sktx.com Phone: 281-980-6745
ww www.fbindependent.com .fbindependent.com
FORT BEND FAIR. BALANCED. INFORMATIVE. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13 , 2013
P. O.BOX 623, SUGAR LAND, TX 77487-0623
Fill the “Empty Bowls” City adopts policy on License Fly-overs in Fort Bend Plate Recognition data
By SESHADRI KUMAR Sugar Land City Council in a 6-1 vote has adopted a resolution establishing the policy for the License Plate Recognition cameras. Sugar Land Police Chief Doug Brinkley presented the policy for approval at the Feb. 19 city council meeting. Except when needed for law enforcement matters including evidence and the investigation of crime, the retention period for keeping information from the LPR cameras should not exceed 30 days and the information shall not be shared with the general public except to the degree required by law, and except when needed by other governmental agencies for law enforcement matters, according to the policy. Monitoring of the LPR system will be done passively and not in real time. LPR systems will be placed so as to provide information from various public places only, including public streets, public Jennifer Gomez is holding a “love” bowl. parks, public parking lots, etc. Use of LPR systems must be consistent with applicable law regarding the rights of privacy and other constitutional rights of individuals. Following the adoption of the policy, the city has issued a request for proposals for hiring a consultant who will help design the LPR camera system. Councilwoman Amy Mitchell cast a dissenting vote as she felt the city needed to hire more police officers to combat the climbing crime rate, instead of spending on a technology whose efficacy in crime control has not been substantiated. Mitchell said she had asked for specific data from the police Vickie Coates, left, Executive Director, EFBHNM, Connie Esposito, chief which showed how LPR Chairperson, Fort Bend Empty Bowls, and Consuelo Haller, Director of Marketing, Whole Foods are holding hand-crafted “empty bowls.” The fourth Annual Fort Bend live entertainment from the Empty Bowls is set for Friday, Cradle of Texas Chorus and the April 5 from 6:30 p.m.-9:30 Harbor Light Choir, performing p.m. at Safari Texas Ranch. Motown favorites. Whole Foods Fort Bend Empty Bowls is Market of Sugar Land is one the single largest fundraising of the sponsors of Fort Bend event benefiting East Fort Bend Empty Bowls and they have designated Wednesday, March Human Needs Ministry. Guests of the event are served 20th as Community Giving Day a simple meal of soup and bread in support of Fort Bend Empty as a reminder of families in Bowls and East Fort Bend Fort Bend County who don’t Human Needs Ministry. On Wednesday, March have enough food to eat. Local restaurants will be providing the 20th, when you shop at Whole Foods Market of Sugar Land, 5 tasty soups. The hand-painted soup percent of the day’s sales will bowls have been donated by be donated to East Fort Bend local professional and amateur Human Needs Ministry. Tickets are $25 per person . artists. These bowls will be For more information contact available for purchase to raise funds to help families in need Connie Esposito at Connie@ HumanNeeds.org or call 281in our community. The evening will include 261-1006.
cameras in other places where installed, have brought down the crime rate, but she did not get it. Mitchell also asked for crime solve data from the LPR cameras in Town Square and in five patrol cars. Brinkley said the Town Square camera data is not a good example for LPR where the role of LPR is minimal because most of the crime is petty theft from the shops. The First Colony Management District has also installed dozens of video surveillance cameras, but virtually no crime has been solved as a result of these cameras, Brinkley said. However, to prove the efficacy of the LPR, Brinkley cited a recent shoplifting incident in the Target store. Based on the description of the car from eyewitnesses, the police reviewed the video, identified the suspects’ vehicle and traced them through the license plate number. Brinkley also cited the burglary at his own home and with the description given by the eyewitness, the vehicle could have been easily identified and the culprits traced. (The suspects have now been caught by conventional crime detection method.) Brinkley, later told this reporter, that LPR is not going to solve all the crimes. When there is an eyewitness account of the getaway vehicle, the police could review the LPR data and narrow down the potential suspects, eventually leading to their arrest. And, in nearly 25 percent of all burglaries, there is an eyewitness account to help solve the crime, he said. “The goal of the LPR
Fort Bend ISD students Rahul Kilambi, an eighthgrader at Sartartia Middle School, and Anna Brooks, a fifth-grader at Pecan Grove Elementary School, were named winners of the District Spelling Bee, which was held on February 9. As winners of the bee, they have the opportunity to compete against area district winners at the HoustonPBS Spelling Bee, which will be held on March 23 at the
University of Houston. Brooks is unable to attend the HoustonPBS Spelling Bee and in her stead will be alternate Riya Chakraborty, a seventh-grade student from First Colony Middle School. The top two spellers of the HoustonPBS Spelling Bee will advance to the 2013 Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. HoustonPBS is the first public broadcaster and the third largest local sponsor of
Living in a migratory path of many species of birds makes Fort Bend an interesting place to live, but sometimes challenging if you’ve caught the identify-the-bird bug. The Sandhill Crane is one of the few crane species in the world not endangered. In fact, we are in one of the two major southern routes that “feeds” a complex migration path that converges where 500,000 cranes come together on a central part of the Platte River in Nebraska before moving into breeding grounds in Canada. This occurs between March 1 and April 7th. However, on another migratory path from Cuba, Florida and Mississippi, the Sandhills are endangered. The Whooping Crane, of course, is the most famous endangered crane. Several “Whoopers” have been spotted flying over, but with a population of 600, that is less common to see. Cranes hold their necks and legs straight out in flight. While the Whoopers are white, the Sandhills are more gray to taupe. Adults have the distinctive red cap. Immatures are mottled gray. They make a deep, rolling drumming sound. They look for and land in grasslands, meadows and wetlands where they eat insects, seeds and invertebrates. Our website will feature a number of fly-over birds to listen and watch during this time and a video of the Sandhills on the Platte. Photograph copyrighted by international birder Margaret Sloan.
Insurance company fee on hold for 90 days
By BARBARA FULENWIDER Missouri City councilmen who adopted an emergency fee schedule to charge insurance companies as a way to recover city expenses put a 90-day hold on implementing the fees. Implementation was to begin March 1 but council wanted time to “air this thing out,” according to Mayor Allen See CRIME, Page 3 Owen.
FBISD Spelling Bee winners
10701 Corporate Drive, #282, Stafford, TX 77477 Mailing Address: P.O. Box 623, Sugar Land, TX 77487 Seshadri Kumar Publisher & Editor
www.fbindependent.com 281-980-6745
Fort Bend Independent, (USPS 025-572) is published every Wednesday (for a subscription rate of $20 per year) by Fort Bend Independent, LLC., 10701 Corporate Dr., #282, Stafford, Texas 77477. Periodicals Postage Paid at Stafford, Texas. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Fort Bend Independent, P.O. Box 623, Sugar Land, Tx 77487.
the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Spellers advance from a challenging series of school, district, and regional spelling bees. More than 100,000 spellers from more than 1,000 schools a n d 4 2 Te x a s c o u n t i e s participate in the event. Pictured from left to right are: Rahul Kilambi, Anna Brooks, Riya Chakraborty; and (back) Dr. Teresa Grimm, FBISD Dyslexia Coordinator.
“There was just too much misinformation about it out there floating around. We can’t change anything in the ordinance for 90 days so when the 90 days are up we’ll go back and look at it to see IF we want to make any changes or not,” he said. Owen also said council wanted to see that “if it had been implemented on March 1 what would we have billed the insurance companies and does it really have an impact on covering city expenses. Also,” he said, “the 90 days give council an opportunity to get more citizen feedback on it. We can visit the HOAs and give everyone more information about it and we can get more input on it. The 90 days are really more of a cooling off period and give everyone a chance to have more say about it.” The following fee schedule adopted by council at their Feb. 4 meeting was in background information that Missouri City Fire Chief Russell Sander provided to council at a special March 4 meeting. Insurance companies will be billed only for emergency calls that involve the fire department and special rescue teams. “Tier I events usually require the response of one fire engine to control the situation and the cost of this response averages $500, which includes materials used. For example, a fire truck is dispatched to a motor vehicle accident without injuries. Upon arrival, if firefighters have to mitigate a fluid spill, i.e., motor oil on the ground, then the fee is assessed to the at-fault party’s insurance company. See FEE, Page 3