Bay Area Houston

OMG is about right.

A very interesting document from an open records request to the Kemah Police Department has shed some revealing light on former Detective Brian Goetschius who is now running for Texas City Commission. This request concerned a grievance filed against the Kemah Police Chief Holland Jones by Officer Jeremy Blanchard back in 2022.

Within the document titled “Chief Jones Response to Officer Blanchard” provided by the Chief was a transcription of a conversation between Jones and the “world-renown” Detective Brian Goetschius concerning Jones property being taken by Goetschius, being caught on multiple videos, lying to Jones, and eventually leading to his resignation from the Kemah Police Force. This conversation was in Oct of 2021. The transcript can be found here starting on page 16 and running through page 30. It is pretty damning with Jones making a deal with Goetschius for an honorable discharge after he resigns. Goetschius was concerned about retaining his healthcare as many of us would be. I am assuming if he was fired he would have lost his healthcare and pension. He eventually resigned.

The 15 pages of the transcript is pretty bad. It is hard to read since Goetschius was caught, on video, taking property that did not belong to him. He also was given the opportunity to come clean and didn’t. It seems that Jones was very irritated about Goetschius lying to him. Again you can read the transcript here starting on page 15. Here are a few clips from that transcript.

An update from yesterday’s post Arrest Warrants Issued in Texas City Concerning Elections.

As stated, an arrest warrant has been issued for Bryan Adam Rivera, President of a campaign services company which was involved in a number of local campaigns. He has been charged with “Coercion Against Candidacy”. According to the Galveston Daily News the charge is concerning threats made to influence the Texas City Commissioner District 2 race. This charge could be a misdemeanor or a felony based upon a number of factors. There is another investigation ongoing concerning the failed recalled effort of Texas City Mayor Dedrick Johnson. Rivera was involved in that campaign and significant issues have been reported to the Texas City Police. Rivera is the President of Hometown Solutions, or Hometown Strategies, or Texas Hometown Strategies. It is difficult to determine who is funding THS on the local level since there is no central location for campaign finance reports.

On the State level THS received $452,187 since being created in 2022. This includes $37,761 from Senator Mayes Middleton for his run for Senate. Abel Longoria who ran for State Representative in the Galveston area gave $53,165 for campaign services. Senator Schwertner, known for sending dick pics to a student, gave $79,998. Those are the big expenditures for local elections. You can see all the expenditures below.

La Marque City Councilman Joesph Lowry seems to be involved. According to the Galveston Daily News:

Texas Hometown Strategies previously was paid by a political action committee linked to La Marque City Councilman Joseph Lowry. Lowry once disclosed an invoice showing a $45,000 payment to the firm for its work on one recall drive, but later said he had falsified the invoice and lied about it.

As always it’s seems like a game to Lowry. This $45,000 was in reference to the tax recall which Lowry spearheaded. This recall passed and shortly afterward he was elected to City Council and the circus show began. As I said before it is difficult to find information about expenditures on third party companies providing campaign services. This particular project is no exception.

If this investigation of Homeland Strategies deepens I am sure there will be light on exactly who has been buying their services.

UPDATE: According to I45now this warrant is NOT concerning the failed recall of the Texas City Mayor. That investigation is ongoing. From I45Now:

Bryan Rivera, a former City of Texas City emergency management employee turned political consultant, faces a criminal charge of attempting to influence the Texas City Commissioner District 2 race by making threats against candidate David Zacherl.

Bare with me…no wait…Bear with me. This is VERY interesting!

There is an arrest warrant issued by the Galveston County Sheriff’s office for a Bryan Adam Rivera. Who is Bryan Adam Rivera? Bryan is the President of Texas Hometown Solutions an Austin based company that provides services in support of recall petitions including the failed recall of Texas Ctiy’s Mayor, Dedrick Johnson. Dolph Tillotson had this to say about them in his op-ed titled “Texas City voters should be skeptical about recall effort” in the Galveston County News:

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.

I’ve written about this group before. According to the Sheriff’s Wanted website Bryan has been charged with “Coercion Against Candidacy”. As you might recall the recall petition against Texas City Mayor, which Texas Hometown Solutions was involved in, was being investigated by the Texas City Police Department for fraud as reported by the Galveston Daily News in Aug of 2025. The article, “Bid to recall Texas City mayor probed over fraud, forgery claims” can be found here. This charge is defined by Texas law as the following:

The investigation by the Texas City Police Department was eventually passed on to the Galveston County District Attorney’s Office with affidavits of forgery, signatures of deceased people and other improprieties. This must be serious since the DA’s office would not charge or issue an arrest warrant without cause.

Details about the charges will come later.

What is it with Galveston County?

The recall effort of the Mayor of Texas City has failed to garner the necessary signatures of registered voters but the controversy has just started. According to a press release from Texas City:

The Texas City Police Department is investigating multiple citizen complaints regarding potentially fraudulent activities related to the recent recall petition. TCPD has received sworn affidavits alleging forgery, including at least one confirmed instance where the name, address, and signature of a deceased person appeared among the submitted entries.

Uh-oh. After signatures of registered voters for a recall are collected they are provided to a verification team in Galveston County. Like the recall effort of La Marque City Council Member Joseph Lowry some of the entries are disqualified for not meeting the requirements for signing. A common mistake is the voter does not live in the district, or they are not a registered voter. These invalid entries are simply removed and not counted. These are considered simple mistakes and goes against the recall effort.

But whoever was on the verification team for the recall of the TC Mayor saw something bad enough to report the issues to the Police Department for further investigation. This recall effort was led by the Texas City Municipal Police Association and Mainland Tool & Supply company. Knowingly submitting false information on a recall petition is a serious issue and could result in a felony charge. Falsifying entries with dead people or with names of people who do not exist could end someone in jail.

Let’s see where this investigation goes. Meanwhile the recall effort has failed and the Mayor could face a challenger in the next election.