Bay Area Houston

OMG this is bad and sad.

The video of public comments at the July 14th La Marque City Council meeting begins at 1:45:00. Comments made by some of the speakers were disturbing and most were directed at Councilman Lowry.

The first speaker identified himself as a disabled veteran, fighting cancer, and was walking with a cane. He said Councilman Joseph Lowry had posted disparaging remarks online as well as threatened him to “Whip my butt”. He then challenged Lowry to meet him outside. He warned the Council that if the threats do not stop he could take action against the city.

After he spoke Lowry called for a Point of Information and then proceeded to deny the allegations. According to Roberts Rules of Order any point of order or point of information must be acknowledged by the Chair before the speaker speaks. A point of information is used to request information not to make a statement. A point of order is a challenge to the rules or the conduct of the Council, not to make a statement.

Other speakers included former Council Member James Ross, and Kayley Winkleman. Winkleman gave an update on the recall petition she submitted as well as questioning whether the Chief of Police had an active law enforcement license when he applied. Others demanded a return to civility specifically calling out Lowry.

You can see the comment sections starting at 1:45:00.

This could get painful.

The Economic Development Corporation (EDC) of La Marque will have a joint meeting with City Council on June 28. Once posted, the agenda and other files can be found here. There isn’t much information about the purpose of the EDC. It seems, based upon the title, they are an advisory committee to the Council providing input on the issues affecting the economy of La Marque. (duh) One of the roles of the EDC was to distribute COVID money from the Federal Government and now this is under scrutiny.

Last month a former City Council Member spoke at the Council meeting concerning the money (about $1 Million) that was distributed to various companies. According to the rules for applicants, companies must be within the City of La Marque, the address could not be a home, and the company had less than 50 employees. Seems pretty easy. After reviewing some of the applications there have been questions about the screening process for applicants and some may not have qualified.

The EDC has the authority to demand repayment from any company that provided incorrect information on their application or did not actually meet the requirements for the COVID money. It is believed this joint meeting will begin the review of all applicants. There is no doubt that COVID hit the economy extremely hard and many were looking for a hand out from the Feds but there were rules to be followed.

Or maybe not. You can read about the application process below. The meeting will be available online.

And now, the rest of the story.

Yesterday I wrote about the La Marque City Council meeting and the censure vote of Councilman Joseph Lowry. The city attorney, sitting next to Lowry, was advising council not to take up the censure of Lowry based upon something the city had just received. What was received wasn’t disclosed to Council. Until now.

The letter (below) was a Cease and Desist Letter from the Boswell Law Firm addressed to Councilman Joseph Lowry, the Chief of Police Randal Aragon, and the City of La Marque concerning defamation, harassment and threatening conduct. The lawyers were representing the new City Manager J.B. Pritchett. The letter documents defamatory, threatening statements by Lowry and threats by Aragon to convene a grand jury, stalking and tracking of Pritchett, unauthorized disclosure of private information, and failure of the City of La Marque to provide a safe work environment.

The letter goes on to demand 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.

Needless to say this is some pretty crazy shit. Now you know why the City Attorney cautioned the Council from taking any further action on the Lowry censure. You can read the entire letter below.

Move over League City.

The City of La Marque has taken over the unfortunate side show of League City. I don’t believe any of the members of the city council are contributing to this show unlike what happened in League City with the book banning and other issues but they have to deal with it. The video of last nights meeting to address a censure of City Councilman Joseph Lowry wasn’t pretty. The segment starts at 1:51:48 and lasts for about an hour.

In public comments a couple of citizens made complaints concerning Lowry and his acceptance of $50,000 in COVID relief funds, his history of bullying citizens, and the recall petition filed last week. That segment starts at 21:43.

At the end of the meeting a censure resolution was discussed at 1:55:07 with Councilman James Ross taking the floor. This censure has something to do with an email sent by Lowry making accusations and disparaging remarks towards members of Council. The email was enough for Ross to file a complaint. At one point the legal advisor asked that the censure be tabled in order to address the legal implications of the email and the possible exposure of the city to legal action.

During his rebuttal Lowry made an accusation towards another member concerning his proposed Lego store. (I believe he is trying to open a legos store in an unused mall) He made a reference to children which prompted the member to stand from his chair and the Mayor to stop the discussion. You can watch that at 1:57:58.

In the end Lowry made a motion to censure himself for “exercising his first amendment rights”. It failed. The next censure item was tabled at the request of legal counsel. For the most part the council meeting was cordial and professional except for the discussion concerning Lowry.