Bay Area Houston

Move over La Marque!

Dolph Tillotson wrote an interesting opinion piece in the Galveston County News titled “Texas City voters should be skeptical about recall effort” and he is right. Take a moment to read it. Recall efforts for elected officials are time consuming, requires hard work, are very expensive, and are rarely successful. Some recalls are justified such as the recall effort against La Marque City Council Member Joseph Lowry who have been mired in self destruction with multiple censures by City Council, lawsuits, police reports, censures, back taxes, and allegations about fudging an application to receive $50,000 in COVID money. Whew! But then there is the recall effort against Texas City Mayor Derrick Johnson.

It seems like there is a pattern with some of these recall efforts, much like a playbook:

• Make unsubstantiated claims against an elected official with words like “corrupt”, “cabal”, and “illegal”. You don’t need to provide any evidence, just say it. Over and over again.
• Find a 2 bit blogger (like me) or a self proclaimed “journalist” to repeat the allegations, over and over again.
• Post to social media all the articles and videos from these self proclaimed journalists over and over again.
• Get a local company to soil their name with some of the local voters and promote the recall effort
• Hire block walkers to obtain recall signatures

The recall effort against Johnson seems to have all of the above working against him. I’m surprised that a company that relies on business from the community would offer their name for the recall effort. I’m not surprised that a blogger or self proclaimed journalist is involved. That is what they do. And then there is Texas Hometown Solutions. From Tillotson’s opinion piece:

Texas Hometown Solutions is a paid political canvassing company that, under the name Texas Hometown Strategies, has been involved in three other change efforts in the county over the past few years — a mayoral recall and tax rollback in La Marque and a mayoral recall in Dickinson, said Bryan Rivera, president of operations.

You can see who has donated to this organization below. The recall requires over 1200 verified signatures. Updates will be coming.

And now the rest of the story.

The Houston Chronicle wrote about Bridget Wade fundraising totals. Wade is seeking her second term on the Houston Independent School Board and is probably in lock step with the State appointed and very unpopular superintendent. The Chronicle didn’t get into the details of her report but I will.

Wade raised $75,115. 61% of her total funds, $45,832, was donated by 9 individuals. You can see the list below. $14,000 came from 14 individuals donating $1000 leaving $15,832 donated by those giving less than $1000.

At least she hasn’t received money from the two Texas billionaires or from Patriot Mobile. I remember when running for a school board position required a few thousand dollars, a few signs, and some push cards. Voters usually had a choice between two or more well qualified candidates. It was always a win for the school district. Now it has become a partisan shit show with money pouring in from white wing MAGAts, billionaires, and PACs. It’s sad and has resulted in controversies such as Keller ISD, CCISD, Katy ISD, and others.

BTW CCISD is now back to normal after voters ousted the individual responsible for the chaos.

I don’t think this is over.

La Marque City Manager, JP Pritchett, submitted a letter of resignation to the Council which the Council accepted. The letter can be read below. I45Now has more details.

As I mentioned earlier the JP sent a cease and desist letter to the City, Council Member Lowry, and Police Chief Aragon claiming the city had failed to provide a safe work environment and harassment by Lowry and Aragon. He mentioned that again in his resignation letter. He is currently under investigation concerning providing false information on his employment application specifically that he graduated from college and served in the military. I45Now has details. These are misdemeanor charges.

I think this sends a message to anyone in La Marque that falsifying a city document might get you investigated and indicted. Luckily Sheriff Fullen does not live in La Marque or he would have been gone by now. The District Attorney might want to step lightly if they jump in on the La Marque investigation.

League City Council had this to say about the situation “Thank god for La Marque!” (LOL. They didnt actually say that but I bet they are thinking it)

It’s been a couple of busy weeks in La Marque.

JP Pritchett
Today at 3:00PM the La Marque City Council will have a special meeting. According to the agenda: “To deliberate the appointment, employment, evaluation, reassignment, duties, discipline, or dismissal of a public officer or employee: City Manager”, that being JP Pritchett. JP has been a source of controversy, at least in the eyes of Councilman Joseph Lowry. Lowry has made a number of claims against JP. I am assuming these allegations are being discussed this afternoon and Lowry will have to recuse himself.

A few weeks ago JP issued a cease and desist order against Lowry for a number of issues including demanding that Lowry cease and desist from making any further false statements, harassment, threats, and stalking of Mr. Pritchett. They ask for the City to take immediate action to prevent Lowry from accessing city facilities where Mr. Pritchett works and to prevent any further release of private or confidential information. Based upon this cease and desist letter I wonder if Lowry will be allowed in the same room with JP or if he would have to attend the meeting via zoom.

Councilman Lowry
A month ago an intent to recall Councilman Lowry was submitted to the City. According to the requirements for a recall in District C the petitioner needed about 190 valid signatures. They obtained 268. The County has 10 days to verify the signature before a recall election can be approved.

Police Chief Randall Aragon
The Police Chief was also mentioned in the cease and desist letter. After a bit of googling Aragon has an interesting past as far back as 2015 in Alaska:

The City of Fairbanks’ police chief apologized Wednesday for comments he made about the state’s legal settlement with the Fairbanks Four. Chief Randall Aragon also committed to further investigation of the case.

In 2016:

Fairbanks Mayor Jim Matherly has accepted the resignation of Police Chief Randall Aragon, according to the city’s human resources department.

Again in 2017:

Former Fairbanks police Chief Randall Aragon’s secondary job as a private security consultant was in conflict with his public position, and he personally profited from information gleaned as a law enforcement officer, an investigation has found.

Film at 11.

Death toll from the Texas floods is at 51 with 27 children from the Christian camp still unaccounted for.

Yesterday Abbott said that “prayers worked” claiming that those who were rescued were praying. He obviously forgot about the 27 kids at the Christian camp that are still missing. It’s an incredibly stupid and tone deaf comment to make but for Abbott it is all about the delivery.

So today he has called for a day of prayer. Take some time and join Abbott by sitting on your ass, bowing your head, and praying so you can claim “prayers work” when one or more victims are found alive then continue your day knowing that you actually did something. Remember praying is the least you can do.

Literally.