Dateline
Colleyville ..Friday, December 7, 2001
During
the Colleyville City Council meeting of November 27, 2001, newly elected
council member Richard Newton requested clarification on the appointment
of applicants to the city boards and committees. The council was in the
process of appointing members to the McPherson Park Master
Park Committee. Councilman Newton expressed a concern about procedural
aspects of appointments, especially in matters of advertising adequately
for open positions and the questionable practice of accepting applications
after the advertised deadline.
Mayor Arp responded by saying she also had a concern about accepting
applications after the deadline.
LNO obtained copies of applications, under the Texas Open Records Act, for
the most recent appointments, prior to the November 6, 2001 Special
Election. The appointments made, in October 2001, were for five
members of the Ethics Committee. The posted deadline for receiving
applications was September 21, 2001. However, all five of the
appointed members of the committee had filed applications after the
council mandated deadline.
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Donna Arp and Raman
Chandler
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The
evolvement of the ethics committee had a controversial beginning
when on April 17, 2001 the Colleyville City Council approved
Resolution R-01-1789, requiring each elected official or candidate
for City office to file certain financial disclosure statements
and/or business conflicts. With her re-election bid
only three weeks away, a number of citizens questioned why Mayor
Donna Arp was insistent the Resolution be passed immediately. The
Mayor referred to a previous resolution passed by the 2000 City
Council that was fueled by comments of developer Raman Chandler at a
homeowners association meeting, during his campaign for City
Council. Chandler stated that Mayor Arp, while a council
member, had "warned" him about the city's pending lawsuit
against Chandler. |
| Mayor
Arp stated that the previous resolution required council members to
get "permission" from all other members before revealing
information from Executive Session and this had been a
"violation of her First Amendment Rights." A review
of the resolution finds only the following reference; "council
members that participate in closed Executive Session should refrain
from revealing details to 'selective' individuals."
The Mayor pointed out at that time she had called |
Dana Feldman, Dennis
Marlin, Ginny Tigue,
elected May 2000, created a new
majority Marlin's resignation resulted
in a Special Election
|
| for an
"Ethics Committee" however no resolution was presented by
any council member or the mayor during the remainder of the existing
council's terms 1999 - 2000.
The
May 2000 election saw the election of Dana Feldman replacing a
retiring Frank Carroll, Dennis Marlin, who defeated Nelson
Thibodeaux and Ginny Tigue was re-elected. Although this group was
supported by and had strong ties to the Mayor, 11 months had elapsed
without the introduction of an Ethics Resolution. Questions
were made that why, after almost a full year of the present
council, an Ethics Resolution was suddenly necessary days
before the city's election. Arp was opposed by Councilman Mike
Taylor in that election.
|
While
the rush to an ethics resolution concerned some, others were specifically
interested in the Ethic Resolution wording. In addition, Former Councilman
Jim Moore poised questions that the Resolution may not be adequately
written and that, in fact, the current City Charter Ethic's Guidelines
were sufficient and potentially even more stringent in certain
areas. He further pointed out the resolution proposed was not an
"ethics" resolution per se, but a resolution requiring
additional reporting.
Mayor Pro Tem Ginny Tigue raised questions about the limit of $250 value
of gifts that required full disclosure. She pointed out that the
amount was arbitrary, small, and the wording should be reconsidered.
Joe Hocutt |
Brad Rice |
In
addition to the reporting requirements the Resolution called for the
establishment of an Ethics Committee, consisting of five members.
The resolution passed on a 5-0 vote on April 17, 2001. The next
month's city council election in May 2001 resulted in Joe Hocutt
defeating Jody Short and Brad Rice prevailing over Rich Hendler, in
a controversial 1 vote victory out of 3250 votes. Once again no
action was taken concerning an "Ethics Committee" for 5
months or until October 2, 2001. While the appointments had been
announced and posted at City Hall, the advertised openings appeared
in the Star-Telegram on September 21, 2001, the same day as the
deadline had been set to receive the applications. |
The
handling of the appointment process had one Colleyville resident, Craig
Lemmon crying foul. Mr. Lemmon told LNO that he saw the advertisement and
called City Hall to request an application, which did not arrive via fax
as promised that day. He said when he did receive an application
from a third party the following week, he was told that the application
process was closed. However, when the council decided to
"extend" the deadline, Mr. Lemmon says no one called him with
that information.
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