Why did the City Council spend 4 hours to discuss Immigration?

I've heard some people in the blogosphere complain that the city council spent 4 hours discussing immigration in order to show opposition to the controversial Arizona immigration law instead of doing things that need to be done like fixing roads, etc.  Well, actually they don't do the nuts and bolts stuff, that's not their job.

The day to day, nuts and bolts business of the city of SA is run by the city manager Sheryl Sculley and her huge staff.   All of the articles that I have been writing about where property taxes go has links to the hundreds of people employed by the city to run it.  The city council has only a limited role in how the city runs. 

San Antonio has a Council-Manager form of government.  The council, along with a weak mayor is only responsible for the legislative function of the city.  It can pass ordinances, set policy, vote on appropriations and develop an overall vision for the city.

The vote to oppose the Arizona immigration law may seem frivolous, but I can understand its purpose.  Mayor Castro wanted the second largest city in Texas to weigh in on this issue before it gets raised as a bill in the next legislative session.

The day to day decisions are actually made by the city manager, who is equivalent to a CEO of a major corporation, the council is like the board of directors.  They make the major decisions and are the representitives of the citizenry.  If you want to know what the council is actually doing, you know the stuff that doesn't make the news, check out the council agendas.

If you have a problem that needs to be addressed, by all means, contact your city council member and they will help you.  But remember, the city is run by a bureaucracy with a limited amount of money and things take time to happen. 

Cheap Food and Low Cost Housing

I was thinking about illegal immigration today. Most of the jobs that illegal immigrants take are the ones Americans refuse because they don't pay enough and/or they are too grueling. Now many people make the argument that the fact that illegal's will work for lower pay is undercutting Americans who would take the job if it paid better. But think about this, would you pay for a $20.00 watermelon, or a $10.00 pound of grapes? Or how about $7.00 per pound for hamburger meat? What about a house that sells for $150,000 right now with cheap labor versus the same house for $300,000?

Now some people will say that they pay more for produce because they buy from a local farmer, and I applaud them for that. But, does the farmer you buy from pick all the fruit him or herself?????

Just raising an hourly salary from $7.00 to $10.00 would raise the employer's base cost by $6000 per year more per worker. This would be compounded for home builders because they hire subcontractors who would tack on their profit along with the rise in pay. And have no doubts, this cost will be passed on to the consumer. We are all complicit in illegal immigration whether we like it or not.