March 22, 2004

Now that Mayor Joe Hocutt "owns the decency issue" will he take the lead on the Mark Jones matter?  a column by Nelson Thibodeaux Click Here for Mark Jones article, referenced in this column.

At the Colleyville City Council meeting of February 18, 2004, Mayor Joe Hocutt introduced a resolution condemning the antics of Janet Jackson at the Super Bowl half time show. 

At the time, LNO reported: Councilman Hendler asked who was responsible for putting this item on the agenda and Mayor Hocutt said he put the item on the agenda because he wanted to be a "role model" from council. Further, Hocutt said that the resolution represented the view of the citizens of Colleyville.  Hocutt was adamant that the performance of Jackson was offensive to the good people of Colleyville and he was compelled to offer the resolution.

Thereafter, Star-Telegram Columnist Dave Lieber offered, in his column, an explanation about his ongoing favorable bias for Joe Hocutt: "I like the way he put his political future on the line with his constant vetoing of the council's appointments of political veterans for several city boards."

Lieber continued his unrestrained admiration for Colleyville's Mayor Joe Hocutt by writing,  "Some people are laughing at the mayor's resolution, but I would advise against it. Hocutt's bold political masterstroke came one day after the official start of the candidates' filing period for the elections on May 15. Yeah, Hocutt owns the decency issue now, and I bet nobody can take it away from him."

Well Dave, it appears there may be plenty of Colleyville citizens ready to take that bet.  In fact, Hocutt is now called upon to be a real role model and drop his obstructionist efforts via his ongoing veto of appointments to the Colleyville P&Z.  It is not a laughing matter.

Only the misinformed or political misfits can laugh at today's report by LNO covering Mark Jones' criminal past.

I requested staff review public records on a substantial number of candidates for city council both in Colleyville and surrounding cities. There was no attempt to single out any particular candidate.  The staff looked at school board trustees as well. After the March 15th deadline, I once again asked staff to review all candidates in Colleyville, Grapevine, Keller and Southlake for a second time. 

The results were 43 candidates' filings and only 1 with a criminal record, Mark Jones. No other council or trustee candidate showed any criminal past.  LNO can not absolutely guarantee some other candidate may not have had a brush with the law.  Information was obtained by simply reviewing available public records.

When the Mark Jones information surfaced, it was verified through multiple sources. 

In the case of Mark Jones, he did not make the necessary disclosures on his P&Z or City Council applications when he swore that he was telling the truth. City Council has no option but to immediately remove Mark Jones from Colleyville's P&Z.  The council voted 4 to 1 (with Tigue dissenting) to remove Bud Sellers and Bob Culley because of their lack of attendance.   Mark Jones is guilty of not disclosing personal criminal convictions that citizens will consider much more egregious.  

Hocutt has continued to veto Jones' replacement.  Hocutt's veto has put this city council in violation of the City Charter.  Now there is clearly an issue of decency that impacts the city, will Hocutt step up?
Jones ongoing position on the P&Z is due to the singular fact that Hocutt continues to veto his replacement.  The P&Z is now down to only five members (although the Charter calls for seven) and two of those are burdened with ethics complaint hearings. 

Lame duck council member Ginny Tigue was attempting to pass the torch to Mark Jones as former Mayor Donna Arp did to Joe Hocutt.  The Tigue plan to hand her seat to Jones would ensure the two votes, (along with Mark Skinner), necessary to keep city council from getting the necessary 4 votes to overturn future Hocutt vetoes. 

To maintain any semblance of integrity, Hocutt, Skinner or Tigue should not attempt to block the removal of Mark Jones from P&Z.  This will leave only 4 members on the commission.  The P&Z will clearly be in jeopardy of not being able to perform its intended role in city government.

After removing Jones, the majority of city council should once again appoint the three replacements.  Hocutt can then make a decision if he wants to again veto the appointments, resulting in only four seats out of seven filled on the P&Z, while three other qualified candidates are sidelined. 

Hocutt can claim he knew nothing about Jones' background, however he should have known.  He continued to block three appointments without factual justification but based on some ambiguous stated philosophy that he promised "new faces."  Hocutt thought nothing of casting aspersions on the character of the three appointees, while failing to recognize the obvious shortcomings of his actions.  Even when two of the three seats Hocutt's veto protected were declared vacant because they didn't bother to attend the required amount of meetings, Hocutt vetoed all three appointments again.

The last two vetoes by Hocutt resulted in the simple equation of keeping three qualified people from serving Colleyville on the P&Z, but allowing Mark Jones to remain.  Now that the facts about Jones' failure to properly disclose his criminal past are public, will Hocutt continue to veto appointments?  This can be viewed as nothing but political obstruction at all costs.  Colleyville is then faced with the mayor who would be king!

Certainly if Hocutt does veto the appointments again, it would be too much to expect Tigue, who voted NOT to remove Sellers and Culley even after it was pointed out they were in violation of the City Charter, to step up and vote to override Hocutt's veto.  Should Hocutt once again veto the majority's appointments, perhaps Councilman Mark Skinner will realize the result will be to keep a convicted criminal on Colleyville's P&Z, versus three others that Skinner has referred to as "all qualified."

Citizens may recall the veto fiasco was started by Hocutt when he said that "new faces" should be appointed and "those that lost previous elections should not be appointed."  When the council could not reach a compromise about Hocutt's veto actions, in particular because Ginny Tigue insisted Mark Jones remain on P&Z over all other matters, Tigue said she was "happy just the way it is."  Joe Tigue later spoke to council urging particularly Skinner and his wife Ginny to stay the course and vote with Hocutt.  Let the veto stand, support Mayor Hocutt,  Tigue said, "the voters can decide in May what they want."  Now the voters will have to decide.

                                           The transformation make over of Mark Jones

Concerning Mark Jones, he should withdraw from the city council race to spare he and his family any further embarrassment. On the surface he has undergone a transformation in appearance. However, he probably should seek treatment rather than an election to city council.   Typically a sure sign of successful treatment is the admittance one has or had a problem; Jones did not disclose his DWI arrest or admit to his arrest on his applications. While the "extreme makeover"  was meant to appeal to Colleyville's conservative voters, the traits of honesty and sincerity would be a more worthy characteristic of a candidate for public service.

Jones is trying to look and sound like what he thinks Colleyville voters want to hear.

Should Mr. Jones withdraw, the voters of Colleyville will have the opportunity to focus on the two incumbent races to be decided on May 15th.  Should Councilman Rich Hendler be booted off council after years of public service and replaced by the former Colleyville Chamber Chairman Shirley Schollmeyer (probably would help if she attended a few council meetings to understand the system)? Hendler remains the largest vote getter on the current city council.

Or should Councilman Jon Ayers, who had the support of Hocutt, et. al, until he opposed the ongoing obstruction by the mayor's veto, be unseated in favor of Dana Feldman who lost two years ago to Rich Hendler by a large margin?

There is certainly nothing "new" about the Dana Feldman face, she was part of the Donna Arp "scorched earth philosophy" that resulted in replacing all boards and commissions with individuals considered friendly to their camp. That approach has resulted in problems caused by inexperienced members facing ethics complaints like Earl Swift of the P&Z.  The rush to eliminate anyone that might take a different view  resulted in the failure to care about or properly review the background of appointees.  The overriding qualification seemed to be appoint only those considered political "friendly."  

There is certainly nothing "new" about Shirley Schollmeyer in this race.  She follows a routine line of politicos that amazingly get recognition awards from the Colleyville Chamber (Citizen of the Year, following Donna Arp, Ginny Tigue and now Shirley Schollmeyer) then show up as candidates for city council.  Schollmeyer was last year's Chairman of the Colleyville Chamber.  While Schollmeyer is known as a tireless, respected volunteer with charity organizations, she is obviously VERY friendly to the Colleyville Chamber. Schollmeyer's election will protect the Arp-Tigue pipeline for Chamber influence over city government.

After the Jones veto fiasco, voters will decide if they want to elect Feldman or Schollmeyer. The election of even one of the threesome Jones, Feldman and Schollmeyer would result in a single vote to go with Skinner's commitment to sustain the mayor's veto powers over appointees.  Therefore,  the 3 to 2 impasse will remain in vogue for the rest of Hocutt's term in office. 

Hocutt's rejection of qualified appointees for the P&Z ended up keeping Bud Sellers, Bob Culley and Mark Jones on the commission while Hocutt, Tigue and Skinner held the seats hostage via veto.

The fact that  two have now been removed for not even bothering to show up and Mr. Jones has been  confirmed to have a criminal background is not even all the facts of this sad tale.

Hopefully, all the city council members will join in repairing this ugly situation and allow the three appointed members to take their rightful place on P&Z.  

Hocutt has made this year's election an all or nothing proposition for Colleyville voters. Voters must decide if they prefer and endorse the choices and actions taken by Mayor Hocutt and his supporters. 

If they have a problem with Hocutt holding hostage P&Z seats and his choices for P&Z, then they must return the incumbents Hendler and Ayers, along with Tom Hart's election for Place 5.