Galveston County had dropped their lawsuit against La Marque City Council Member Joseph Lowry. Sort of.

According to documents posted on the County’s website the suit against Joseph Lowry for over $43,000 in back taxes has been “non-suited” without prejudice meaning it has been dropped but could be refiled. (I secretly obtained a law degree from Facebook U to enhance my Undercover Investigative Reporter degree, also from FU) According to Channel 13 Eyewitness News:

Six Brother Concrete Pumping, owned by Joseph Lowry, was sued in early April by Galveston County, Galveston County Drainage District #2, Texas City Independent School District, and College of the Mainland. They say they’re owed $43,868.48 in back taxes from 2022 and 2023.

The suit #24-TX-0303 filed in the 10th Judicial District of Galveston County has now been listed as “Inactive” but I think it might have been dropped in order to add more delinquent taxes to the amount owe. According to the Galveston County Tax Office he is delinquent on his 2024 taxes for $10,033.65 which includes over $1308 in penalties. So maybe the suit will be refiled to include this delinquency for a grand total of 53,902.13. Or maybe he really doesn’t owe any taxes as he claims.

According to the Editor of the Galveston Daily News, Lowry has the money to pay the taxes and he should. You can browse the documents at the County Tax Office Account Number:  737826 and the County Court Records Case #24-TX-0303.

There are at least 20 (not 10) good reasons to recall La Marque City Council Member Joseph Lowry. You can read them here.

Unfortunately due to a clerical error that recall will not happen. In their first attempt at a recall petitioners fell short by just 7 signatures to put the recall on the ballot. Immediately afterward they refiled and provided over 200 signatures to the city clerk. Yesterday the county dismissed the petition because the forms used for signatures did not contained required information.

The forms used for signatures was provided by the City of La Marque. The Galveston County Daily News has a detailed article, if you have access to it. The petitioners have now asked the City to investigate how this was allowed to happen without any consequences to the City Clerk. According to the complaint:

I’d like to file an official complaint against the city clerk. I have filed for recall for Joseph Lowry and collected signatures twice. The first one came up a few short, okay, I’ll do it again because it matters to me. I turned in 218 signatures for recall on Friday. The petition forms provided by the city clerk did not meet state requirements to be a valid petition. They are missing columns. None contained the VUID or date signed column. 4/12 did not contain the required Date of Birth column. None of the first round of petitions contained the date of birth column either. 

Collecting signatures for a recall is a lot of work. It requires a lot of walking in the hot sun and time from your family especially if you are not using a paid service like they did in Texas City. It is tough work. For a city clerk to make a mistake like providing the wrong forms is unprofessional and could be illegal especially since the Texas Attorney General has a stick up his butt about election integrity.

The petitioners have a point:

This is incompetence, a disregard for professionalism, an unacceptable attitude, and one more example of employees lacking accountability.