A Jeffersonian In East Texas

Whatpartofno.com had a short piece on the Tyler paper poll this morning, I have been wondering how it would come out, and the results show that 65% of the people who took the poll believe that the jail proposal will fail! The poll in the Tyler paper will be wrong for some obvious reasons. My guess is that we will see something more along the line of 75% opposition when the voting is done.

It is my personal belief, that when this happens, our County Judge and commissioners court should withdraw all opposition to the Attorney generals ruling, and save the taxpayers any further cost in supporting this “windmill tilting” exercise,  and then, offer their resignations immediately! They are obviously out of touch with what the public wants and needs, and should clear the way for new officials with more clear headed thinking and transparency!

County and city government in Tyler and Smith county Texas needs to be put back into the hands of the people. It is no place for secret, clandestine meetings designed to prevent the public from having input in the system. We need to remember this, after the last vote is counted. There will still be desperate attempts to resurect this issue, and we should continue to fight it until more reasonable methods have had a chance to work, and until transparency in county government has been sufficiently demonstrated to insure that no further “behind closed door” dealings poison the democratic process!

In a thinly veiled attempt to push the Smith county jail bond, the Tyler paper has once again presented us with a course on how not to be balanced in reporting! If it was an attempt to be balanced, it failed miserably! Just more of the same mainstream media madness, that we have come to expect on this issue.

The title is of interest however: “Smith County Jail Bond: What Are We Paying For?” It is a good question! Well, here is the real answer:

• We are paying for a lawyer to fight against us while representing the interests of a small group of political elitists in our county.

• We are paying the salaries of a small group of political elitists in our county who want to keep information from us on an issue that we are expected to cast ballots on in a few days.
• We paid their salaries while they held secret meetings in violation of the states open meeting act.
• We are paying for jail overcrowding which they themselves could have prevented if they had really wanted to.
• We are paying the costs of the Attorney General spending time fighting them against us.

After browsing around some forums, and looking at comments on news stories, as well as speaking with a few folks around the area, I have come to conclude that the counties hiring of Smith county lawyer Robert Davis may have been the best thing that they could have possibly done…for the opposition! This move has pushed many people who were on the fence off the fence, and onto the side of the no vote! The most common reason stated, is that if officials consider this man to be the best attorney for doing the job, they must be either incompetent, or desperate! Either way, it is enough to nudge a lot of fence sitters off.

Is this guy for real? He seems to be the very caricature of a District Attorney “wanabe”, with bad manners to boot! He is turning voters against the county jail bond proposal faster than truth and logic have been able to do so far! Thank you Mr. Davis!

Recent developments in the Smith county jail, “Jailzilla” saga and the “Commissioners Gone Wild” comic drama give rise to numerous questions.

Some of these questions are legal, and I do not know the answers, but I will raise them anyway in the hope that someone will.

• The admission that the plans for the latest Smith county jail proposal were prepared in secret, as I understand, is equivalent to an admission of guilt. This law allows for both civil and criminal penalties for violation. In a county bent on maximum penalties, in a state bent on maximum penalties, can we expect maximum penalties for those involved in this crime and cover up?
• Can we expect resignations to occur soon?
• What will become of this jail proposal, or any jail that might be built as a result of this proposal, now that we know that the plans were formulated in violation of state law?
• Will there be an investigation to see what other open meeting and open records laws were violated?
• What other issues, projects, proposals, contracts, or other matters could have been done under cover of darkness, and behind closed doors, and will there be an investigation including an audit?

This situation is the worst sort of behaviour in public officials, secret meetings and cover ups strike at the very heart of why the open records and open meeting laws are in place.

Let’s be clear on one thing:

There is no risk to the deputies of Smith county, or to the people if the floor plans to the new jail are released as the Texas attorney General has said they must. I am certain that Mr. Good will not turn the plans over to the mafia, or for that matter to anyone else. This is a legal matter, to prove a legal point, and the ridiculous demagoguery should stop!

I have become even more ashamed of the county commissioners (I didn’t think it possible to be more ashamed) for attempting to use such fear tactics.

The real reason for standing in the way of this order, is that it will prove without a doubt that the county officials who participated in the clandestine meetings to plan the new jail project, did so in willful violation of the law! It is my understanding that if they did indeed file finished plans with the State Jail Commission (what good would unfinished plans do) on the date in question, that having the floor plan is just a legal formality. The law has been broken, and further legal actions should be taken!

Any reluctance on the part of our public officials to be completely transparent and forthright causes the public to question. After all these are “public” officials! How any secrecy on the part of the commissioners court, or other public officials could be seen as advancing the causes they espouse is beyond comprehension. Surely they must know this.

With that in mind, what other reasons could be set forth for such questionable activities? (Yes, they are questionable, and the participants knew this at the time, or they would not have sought counsel on the question of open meetings. It comes across  like “How far can we go, and what can we get away with and still be beyond prosecution?”) The issue seems to be a reasonably simple one, with a very easy and simple face saving mechanism like: “Yes, we did this in secret, but we thought that we were within the boundaries of the law at the time. We now see that we were wrong, and would like to make it straight and avoid this in the future.” That would be the simple, humble, easy, and dare I say(?), endearing solution. The fact that it has not been done leads people to believe that something else is going on.

Either the participants don’t understand the law, and the lack of trust and the level of opposition to such opaque proceedings, or there is another skeleton or two in the closet. Those are about the only options. One is based on ignorance of the law, and arrogance toward it and of the peoples opposition to being kept in the dark. The other is based arrogance toward the law and the people, and fear of having those skeletons jump out.

In case you didn’t notice, the common factor is arrogance!

In a move that strikes everyone as being bizarre, Smith county commissioners are filing suit against the State Attorney Generals office in an attempt to keep the Smith county jail plans a secret.

Their reasons? Ostensibly, to keep the jail details from falling into the hands of criminals who might be planning some future jail break! The facts are a little more complicated.

If, as attorney Ken Good believes,  “A fully completed and detailed architectural drawing submitted to the Texas Commission on Jail Standards before the plan was even made public would demonstrate that Judge Baker and Commissioner Fleming violated the law.” , it would mean that the county commissioners involved had in fact, violated the open meetings act, and would be subject to civil and criminal penalties. This would seem to be the real reason for filling suit against the AG.