If you can’t follow the law how can you enforce it? Remember that if one of your family members is arrested in Galveston County.
Yesterday a hearing was set concerning Sheriff Jimmy Fullen’s lawsuit against the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement. (See Galveston County Sheriff’s lawsuit against state licensing agency) The TCOLE had recommended pulling Fullen’s law enforcement license making him ineligible to serve as Sheriff. Fullen successfully challenged the recommendation claiming the Commission had no authority to revoke the license of a sitting Sheriff. So the TCOLE instead recommended a 10 year suspension. Fullen sued. The hearing was set. The hearing was cancelled.
Fullen’s lawyer, Toni Buzbee, and the Attorney General’s office will meet in mediation to resolve the issue. Yesterday Fullen was able to hide the results of his ethics violation for padding his campaign account with a fake $100,000 personal loan. Usually a complaint like this would end with a large fine but we will never know since he successfully lobbied to have the details of the investigation and the fine confidential. He eventually erased the personal loan off his campaign report as if it never happened.
These forums will give you the opportunity to meet the candidates. You can keep track of of all election information at the CCISD Elections Webpage.
South Belt-Ellington Chamber of Commerce CCISD Trustee Candidates Forum – At-Large Position B Date: Tuesday, April 1, 2025 Time: 6:30 p.m. Location: Sageglen HOA Facility (11610 Sageyork Drive, Houston, TX 77089) Visit www.southbeltchamber.com
Clear Lake Area Chamber of Commerce CCISD Trustee Candidates Forum – District 1 and At-Large Position B Date: Tuesday, April 8, 2025 Time: 5:30 p.m. Location: City of Nassau Bay City Hall (1800 Space Park Dr #200, Houston, TX 77058) Forum will be livestreamed. Visit www.clearlakearea.com
League City Regional Chamber of Commerce CCISD Trustee Candidates Forum – District 1 and At-Large Position B Date: Thursday, April 17, 2025 Time: 6:00 p.m. Location: Grand Living at Tuscan Lakes (1850 E League City Pkwy, League City, TX 77573) Forum will be livestreamed. Visit www.leaguecitychamber.com
This is embarrassing. As a reminder Joe Machol was a high school football referee hence the football analogies and boy did he fumble this one! Again. You can read about Joe’s first fumble at “CCISD Candidate Joe Machol’s Campaign: Fumbling the Kick Off“.
Candidates for CCISD Trustee provided answers to a recent questionnaire covering the issues affecting our school district including funding, retention of teachers, plans for the future and more. The answers, by most candidates, were detailed and based upon their extensive knowledge of the public education system. Seabrook Council Member Joe Machol stood out above the rest, but not in a good way.
His answer to almost every single question focused on the 3 Rs, Reading, Riting, and Rithmetic. Here are some excerpts:
Help students become efficient in reading, writing and arithmetic.
Help the teachers instruct the students in reading, writing and arithmetic.
Getting the Student efficient in Reading, Writing and Arithmetic.
Getting the students the help they need in reading, writing and arithmetic.
Go back to the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic.
Incentives to Teachers when the students achieve the best scores in reading, writing and arithmetic
Go back to the basics Reading, Writing and Arithmetic.
Teachers who are focused on reading, writing and arithmetic.
I didn’t create the issue of schools going away from reading, writing and arithmetic,
Help each and every student become the best that they can be in reading, writing and arithmetic.
ARLINGTON, TEXAS – JANUARY 10: TreVeyon Henderson #32 of the Ohio State Buckeyes scores a touchdown during the second quarter against the Texas Longhorns during the Goodyear Cotton Bowl at AT&T Stadium on January 10, 2025 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by CFP/Getty Images)
Seriously that is his answer to almost every question. While other candidates have thoughtful, detailed, explanations on why they are best for the job Machol is focused on the 3 Rs as if CCISD students are dumber than a rock and teachers are incapable of instruction. His answers are not only embarrassing it is insulting to students, teachers, parents, and taxpayers. His comments about cutting waste is laughable. CCISD, as well as every school district in Texas, has been stretched to the limit due to cuts to education.
I don’t know why Trustee Bowen recruited Machol. He is clearly unqualified for the job especially when a very capable Trustee is already serving the district. I do not believe Machol’s heart is in this race. Based upon his answers to the detailed questionnaire I wonder if he would advocate for cutting out life lessons being taught in CCISD like band, music, theatre, culinary skills, and auto mechanics.
A Report from Austin (BTW halfway through my visit I received my renewal notice. My home insurance increased from $6000 to $9000)
Last week I was joined by another homeowner from the Bay Area at the Capitol (Thanks Doug). We were able to talk with the staff of most of the members of the House Insurance Committee concerning the rising cost of home insurance in our area. The bottom line? I don’t think they understand the severity of the situation here in the Bay Area..
We were able to meet with our State Representative Dennis Paul and his Chief of Staff. As you may know Representative Paul lives two blocks from me and he had his roof replaced after the hail in May so he must know what we are going through but our conversation was not what I expected. He had a lot of excuses for the rising cost of insurance including inflation, supply chain issues, and lawsuit abuse. All of these combined could not account for excessive rates in our area. These are talking points used by the insurance industry. They also talked very briefly about “climate change” or as they call it “frequency and intensity of storms)
We made sure they were aware of the excessive cost of repairs which directly affect our premiums. Roofs replacements after a storm should not cost $32,000 in our area especially when that roof would cost only $8000 under normal conditions. (My estimate was $24,000 and was submitted as $40,000 to my insurance company)
We discussed the fact that the “Free market” is letting the insurance industry free to leave the market. The top 6 companies in Texas will NOT write policies in our area. We are now being pushed into a socialized market run by the State, the Texas Fair Plan, which is not fair.
We provided some solutions like using better building materials, automatic cutoff valves for water pipes, the use of metal roofs.
I have provided the letter we left with them below. I will have a list of bills affecting our insurance premiums early next week.
Property owners in the Bay Area are being hit with the highest premiums in the State affecting homeowners, businesses, realtors, taxpayers, home buyers and sellers, and even insurance agents. What can you do about it? For a start do this:
Join our newsletter and keep up with what is going on in Austin concerning the rising cost of insurance. We have over 850 signed up! Sign up here: tinyurl.com/BayAreaHouston. I will send a periodic email to keep you informed. No spam and I will NOT share your information with anyone.
Contact our elected officials:
Remember this is NOT a partisan issue. Everyone no matter what party you side with are affected by this issue.
State Representative Dennis Paul. He sits on the Insurance Committee. Email him and his Chief of Staff AND call his office voicing your concerns. Dennis.Paul@house.texas.gov and Greg.Bentch@house.texas.gov ((512) 463-0734)
Feel free to call me or email me. johncoby@sbcglobal.net 281-536-2457
There is no simple solution to this issue. There are no knights in shining armor that will swoop in to help. We are on our own on this issue. In the short future I will try to suggest alternatives for those looking for help.
Texas State Representative Stan Gerdes, a republican with the full backing of Governor Abbott, has filed a House Bill 4814 banning animal role playing by kids in schools. (This is NOT satire) Gerdes claims this bill was a result of a complaint confirmed by the Superintendent of Smithville Independent School District. SISD has 5 schools, including 1 high school. They have a total of 1770 students and 122 teachers. The SISD is what we call “rural” like in farmers and lots of white people in Bastrop County. Many would consider this district to be in “Bum f*** Egypt”.
The bill will prohibit dress up by kids in animal costumes, role playing, and even having cat litter available. Seriously. According to his press release “I filed HB 4814, the FURRIES Act (Forbidding Unlawful Representation of Roleplaying in Educational Spaces) to ensure that public schools are not accommodating or allowing disruptive “furry” roleplaying behavior.” His press release is below. His bill, HB4814, can be found here. It has no co-sponsors or chance for a hearing.
According to the Houston Chronicle this stupidity was debunked in early 2024 but not after it caused considerable chaos including bomb threats and threats against school districts. Even the farmers in the area were taken back by this bill. “What I do in the privacy of my barn is none of your g**damn business.” said one farmer who wanted to remain anonymous. (Ok. That sentence was satire)
The bill has the full support of CCISD Trustee Scott Bowen.
Last year the Texas Ethics Commission began an investigation into Jimmy Fullen, candidate for Sheriff. Fullen padded his campaign account with a fake $100,000 loan. In an amended report he simply removed it from his reports prior to the TEC completing their investigation.
Today that investigation has been completed but Fullen petitioned the TEC to make it “confidential” and the investigation results, fines, or any other disciplinary action will be hidden from the public. Seems odd since Fullen ran on being Mr Transparency. Based upon other ethics fines I would bet he was hit fairly hard for basically padding his bottom line with a fake loan. As I said before:
As noted previously Fullen has removed his $100,000 loan from this campaign reports as if it never happened, probably because it really never happened. He padded his account making it look like he raised a shit load of money. He actually didn’t. In his latest report he has a loan balance of only $24,052 which came from Mark Henry. The $100,000 loan he claimed to have given himself magically disappeared.
Over the next couple of months there will be a series of forums where candidates for CCISD school board will be able to express their plans and concerns if elected. Unfortunately I believe the questions are just too nice, such as questions about school vouchers and how they intend to adjust to the cuts in funding. Moderators rarely will ask follow up questions. I’m also wondering why the educational community has not arranged a forum. Why do we have to depend on the Chamber or the Southbelt news paper to organize an event. Both are having forums soon.
A group of constituents met with local Congressman Brian Babin’s staff to discuss a range of topics including the tariffs, Ukraine, attacks on Veterans, Elon Musk, education, and the stock market. The meeting was cordial, the staff was nice, but the results were just so-so.
Refusing to meet with constituents. One of the issues brought to his attention was the complete lack of communication by Babin. They claimed Babin has had a town hall meeting 10 years ago. One. In ten years. None of us could remember it. They said we could listen to him on a “tele town hall” which is nothing more than a recorded message with answers to hand picked questions. It is a one way conversation.
Ukraine. The staff claims Babin has broken away from Trump concerning his claim that Ukraine started the war by attacking Russia. We have not heard that and he could not produce anything that proves this. We questioned whether Babin approved of what Trump and Vance did to attack Zelensky. He had no response. We questioned what his position was on Ukraine. Again no answer.
NASA. We talked about the chaos at NASA and our federal employees. We reminded him that there has been reductions in force at NASA but they were coordinated and followed a process. There was an orderly exit for employees with none being fired by an email.
Elon Musk. We didn’t hold back on Elon Musk and wanted to know if Babin supported Musk and DOGE. Again no answer. We asked specifically if Babin supported Musk attack on war veteran Mark Kelly. Again nothing specific. The staff member was good at deflecting.
Education. We discussed the cuts to the Department of Education, something Babin has supported in the past. Again no concrete answers.
Don’t hold your breath waiting for a town hall meeting. The only way you will be able to actually see him face to face is to attend an event by the Chamber of Commerce. It usually costs $35.
Posted by johncoby 
Bay Area Houston 