Dateline
Colleyville ..Friday, December 7, 2001
The
issue of the proper procedure for applications arose during the
discussions of appointments for committee members of the McPherson Master
Park Committee. The process began when Mayor Arp, prior to asking
for any council member nominations, said she was nominating local Commercial Realtor Mark Howe.
The process for nominations of committee members is set out in the
Colleyville Council procedures adopted in 1991. Click
Here to See Nomination Procedure Guidelines
The
procedures as set forth in the procedures and conduct of City Council
states in Section 7 B. "For
the first position, the Mayor should request a verbal nomination from each
Councilmember, individually and then make one verbal nomination
himself."
However,
the nomination of Mr. Howe was immediately voted on 5-0 by the city
council.
In addition Councilman Newton requested a clarification on the McPherson
Committee concerning the duties and length of term. Councilman
Newton also questioned the procedure used to advertise for positions. The City Council Procedures
Handbook also defines the proper procedures in matters of Council
Appointments.
Click
Here to See Procedures for Council Appointments as established by
Resolution R-90-612, approved January 22, 1991.
Colleyville
resident Craig Lemmon said in his opinion, the City
Council failed to follow procedures. Instead of advertising for
applications one full month before appointments, the deadline and
advertisement were literally the same day. Mr. Lemmon said, "If
the
application time was to be extended, first the council should have
advertised this to the public and secondarily they certainly should have
been sensitive to people who were told they could not apply because the
deadline had passed."
CLICK
HERE TO SEE CHART OF APPLICANTS AND THE REASONS LISTED FOR WANTED TO BE ON
THE ETHICS COMMITTEE
The
first meeting of the new Ethics Committee was held on November 6,
2001. At this meeting, Tom Miller was elected Chairman of the Ethics
Committee. Mr. Miller was nominated for the committee by Councilman
Joe Hocutt. Mr. Miller is also a business associate of
Richard Myers, the developer of the Village of Colleyville. During
the October announcement of the Monopoly Hotel Group, Mr. Myers made
reference to Mr. Miller. 
Click
Here to Hear Mr. Myers.
In
discussing the appointment process, Mr. Lemmon stated, citizens that have no financial interest with the City of Colleyville were passed over for an Ethics Committee, yet Councilman Hocutt
nominated the business partner of the only developer receiving millions of
taxpayer's funds. Now the Ethics Committee votes the same guy as
Chairman. Part of effective ethics is not to even give the
perception of a conflict of interest, what does this appear like to
you?
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On
November 30, 2001, LNO sent the following e-mail addressed to Mayor Donna
Arp and all members of city council:
Mayor Arp and Colleyville City Council
During the City Council meeting of
November 27, 2001 and in response to a question concerning application
procedures from Councilman Newton, Mayor Arp stated a concern about
applications received after the advertised date for city council
appointments.
A review of the Ethics Committee appears
to indicate that all of the appointed applicants filed after the
advertised deadline. LNO is requesting any comments about this
particular appointment process and any comments concerning the
application process in general.
As is our typical procedure, we would
request written response by e-mail. The cut-off date is 2:00 PM
Tuesday December 4, 2001.
If you are unable to respond by this date
please advise.
Thank you
Local News Only.com
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As of the
posting of this article, only Councilman Tigue and Councilman Newton
responded.
Councilman Tigue's
response received via e-mail on December 1, 2001:
It seems to me that all LNO ever does is try to find negative things
about
the city. I have a problem responding when everything is negative.
Ginny Tigue
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Councilman
Newton's response received on December 4, 2001:
I'm concerned about the effectiveness of our current notification
system. Citizens find it difficult to access the information
on the City's web site, and we are not consistent in how we deal
with deadlines. If deadlines are to be extended that
information should be advertised. All citizens should be given
equal opportunity to serve and each applicant should be afforded the
same treatment by the city.
Richard Newton
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LNO did not receive
responses from Councilmembers Hocutt, Rice, Feldman or Mayor Arp.
The Ethics Committee meets again on December 11, 2001 at 7:30 P.M. at
the Colleyville Community Center.
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