Tuesday, January 21, 2014

CCRs dwT #58: Illegal Legality

Dylan sez…
(a short and timely jotting for CCR twits Tweeters)

01-21-14

dwT #58:  Congratulations to councilman John Danish!  It appears that he is now mayor BVDs new council-member attorney to respond and be the spokesperson when an apparent illegal meeting might be conducted by the Irving council.

Backstory clue for the information impaired:   While readers of the CCR know that councilman Danish (and Webb) recently flip-flopped on the commitment to extend the interim city manager’s contract, we never realized that mayor BVD might put Danish in charge of being her council spokesperson for any irregularities when it comes to apparent illegal meetings.  And one such meeting, in the minds of many individuals...some that even have legal backgrounds, was held by the council on January 17, 2014.  Was this Danish’s reward for becoming one of the furless minions in mayor BVDs litter when he flip-flopped?

     Of course, if Danish is “replacing” the real and current city attorney (Charles Anderson), would this really be an improvement?  After all, wasn’t Anderson the city’s legal eagle for: the Billy Bob Entertainment Center contract reviews and for the Lubbock Mafia’s Heritage Crossing agreements with McDougal?  Remember how these ‘deals’ worked out and the millions upon millions of city tax bucks that were flushed down the porcelain latrine?

     How can Danish not recognize that the “interview” meeting on January 17, 2014 crossed the line into a decision making meeting -- that was not posted as such -- when he stated the following in a DMN article: “We arrived at a consensus of one [person] we’d like to pursue,” said council member John Danish,”*  And that person was Steve Sarkozy who also listed on his resume that he was a Member of the Innovation Group, Phoeniz, AZ.  (Wasn’t this the same Innovation Group that prepared the feasibility study for the numbers used by Bill Bob for his Entertainment Center projections?  Remember how those figures bent all belief in statistics?  Has the Innovation Group had any business ties with ARK?)

     Not only that, but the apparent (without a formal vote of the council) city manager designee also stated in the referenced article that: He added that he has been scouting possible homes and schools in Irving…”*

     Now let’s get serious here.  Does all this really sound like some members of the council just interviewed the three finalist?  Staff of the CCR believes that Danish, mayor BVD and her furless litter can spin, spout and shout all they want about not violating the Open Meetings Act.  And the louder they are, the weaker their case is for the meeting they conducted being anything but legitimate.

     As previously noted by the CCR, the city posting stated that the council gathering was to interview (not select or reach a consensus) on the three city manager finalist.  In order to reach a consensus and direct the city attorney to start preparing a contractual agreement, there had to be discussion.  And as the meeting was posted, there should not have been any discussion or consensus according to the Open Meetings Act: §551.041.  However, the council members in attendance took that extra step and crossed the line.  They actually decided on who they will be offering the job to and directed the city attorney to start preparing a contract. 

     While staff of the CCR doesn’t want to be accused of practicing law without a license, we do know how to read/interpret documents, apply common sense and recognize when politicos are attempting to throw the cloak of non-transparency over an illegal/questionable action item that did not witness the light of day!  A lesson councilman Ferris should also learn.

      Need we say more?  




A note from counsel: Some “Tweets” from Dylan Westie, Executive Editor and Part-time Wordsmith for the CCR, have been injected with fabricated nouns, verbs, adjectives, conjunctions, adverbs, modifiers and maybe a few dangling participles….Mark Holbrook