Richard Morrison, Trust Buster

Wikipedia defines “Trust Busting” as any government activity that results in the break up of trusts or monopolies.

Newly-elected County Commissioner Richard Morrison now qualifies as a trust buster extraordinaire.

Trust busting the Economic Development Council, a cronies-only “public-private partnership established in 1986 to promote economic vitality and to ensure quality development in Fort Bend County.” Something special to this area. Something that duplicates the duties and responsibilities of your average run-of-the-mill Chamber of Commerce.

People who want to promote the county, to encourage other businesses to move to the county can easily become a member of either of these organizations. But since membership in the Fort Bend Chamber of Commerce costs between $225 and $625 depending on the number of employees working at your business, and trustee membership in the EDC will run a cool 6 large, you would think that smart businessmen would opt for the cheaper of the two.

And up until yesterday, you would be wrong.

This is because the county guidelines on granting tax abatements to businesses who are establishing a place of business in the county included, up until yesterday, the following:

“The following factors, among others, shall be considered in determining whether to grant tax abatement.”

… (whether the business) “has agreed to participate in the continuing economic development process…by becoming a trustee member of the Greater Fort Bend Economic Development Council”

Get it? It’s nothing less than a government-sponsored form of tribute. Want a break in your property taxes? Pony up 6 grand a year for as long as you have the abatement in place.

With the request by Morrison, that the “shall” be changed to “may,” and the subsequent 5-0 vote to make it so, the Commissioners Court ended by fiat what was once a pay to play requirement for businesses to get a tax break in this county.

Isn’t it funny how electing just one more Democrat to the Commissioners Court can so radically alter the ethical compass of same court?

All I can hope for is that there is more to come.

Legality of “Baby Commissioners Court” Questioned by Morrison

It’s all here at FortBendNow, and in a related older article at The Chron.

Newly-seated Fort Bend County Commissioner Richard Morrison has instructed his staffers, all formerly serving under Morrison’s predecessor, Republican Tom Stavinoha, not to attend so-called “Baby Commissioners Court” regular Thursday meetings.

These meetings, Morrison says, may be in violation of the Texas’ Open Meetings Act, a law adopted in 1967 and revised in 1973 promotes transparency in state and local government by requiring prior public notice and allowing public attendance of any government meeting with a few notable exceptions.

Chron reporter Zen Zheng, new to the Fort Bend County beat in 2004, reported his amazement when he attended his first Commissioners Court meeting, amazement that the meeting took place so quickly and with little or no discussion of agenda items.

"In my many years of coverage of government meetings in different municipalities and counties for the Chronicle, I had rarely come across one that would be over before the ink in my notepad dried up. Bureaucratic discourses sometimes dragged for hours that they brought me to the verge of dozing off.” (But) “when I went to my first Commissioners Court meeting after I took over the Fort Bend beat 2 1/2 years ago, I was ill-prepared for what I was about to experience. There was little to none discussion on most of the items on the multiple-page meeting agenda …”

This, Morrison reports, is because agenda items for the Tuesday Commissioners Court meeting are combed through by the Commissioners’ staffers the Thursday before, as explained by County Attorney Cordes “to provide county staff members with an opportunity to go over the usually lengthy agenda for each Commissioners Court session with an eye toward ‘administrative completeness.’”

This is not what Democratic County Commissioner Grady Prestage recalls.

“Prestage said the meetings began in the mid 1990s, when new state law had been created involving the legal concept of “taking,” or reducing the value of a business through some type of action. Then chaired by the county attorney, the meetings were meant to comb through the Commissioners Court agenda to make sure no action was forthcoming that could be construed to run afoul of the new legislative regulations.”

Continuing, Prestage disclosed that “’it morphed into a meeting to insure that all the information is available so we can make decisions’ efficiently during Tuesday Commissioners Court sessions.”

But now there is a question whether these meetings violate the Open Meetings Act, and whether conducting these meetings opens up the county government to being sued by someone who suffers a loss because of actions that take place behind closed doors at the Thursday meetings.

“…after some controversial decision by the Commissioners Court - such as changing the tax rate - some person or business with significant money at stake could institute legal action and elicit testimony from staff members who attend the Thursday sessions, which might suggest to a court that the Open Meetings Act had been breached. Under such circumstances, action taken in a subsequent open Commissioners Court session conceivably could be voided.”

Now while County Attorney Cordes claims that “that the meetings are conducted in such a way that they don’t violate the Open Meeting Act,” without really giving explanation of what this “way” is I have to wonder it the County Attorney is looking out for the best interests of county taxpayers, or just defending a procedure that allows County Commissioners to spend less time in Court and more time on the Course.

First of all, a meeting of these staffers can be considered as a government body in the strict definition of the Open Meeting Act. From Section 5:

“’Governmental body’ means:
(A) a board, commission, department, committee, or agency within the executive or legislative branch of state government that is directed by one or more elected or appointed members;”

Emphasis is mine.

Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, the actions, or perhaps more to the point, the lack of discussion that takes place at the Tuesday Commissioners Court meetings contradict Attorney Cordes’ claims.

From Section 5 E on “Advisory Bodies”:

“However, if a governmental body that has established an advisory committee routinely adopts, or “rubber stamps,” the advisory committee’s recommendations, the committee probably will be considered to be a governmental body subject to the Act.”

The very fact that a Commissioners Court meeting fairly flies through the lengthy weekly agenda is credible evidence that rubber stamps are in full use by the Commissioners.

As the Court Turns

Now how often does it happen that a government office holder starts to write a blog about the office he holds, and the goings on in the government entity he is a part of? Really, more often than you think.

Texas State Rep. Aaron Peña has maintained a blog on Blogger since 2005. North Carolina’s new governor, Beverly Perdue has started a blog on the state’s website. Former California governor Jerry Brown, now its Attorney General, also has a blog.

One reason, they say, that politicians maintain blogs is that it is a way to circumvent the mainstream media. It’s a clean, direct way to communicate to the voters without going through a media filter with all of their agendas.

And it’s a way for the public to be able to get an idea of what is going on inside government – again, without a filter.

One government entity that has maintained an element of opacity is Fort Bend County government. Unless you are a member of the media, it is almost impossible to know what is going on in county government: the public meetings are infrequent and always held when people are at work. Compare that to, let’s say, a school board. School board meetings take place in the evening, allowing anyone an opportunity to attend.

Where am I going with this?

Well, we just had a window open in Fort Bend County. Richard Morrison, newly elected Fort Bend County Commissioner for Precinct 1 has begun a blog. He has done this, he says, to write “about the "going ons" in Precinct 1, the Commissioner's Court and Fort Bend County as a whole.” Look on the sidebar. I have it on my blog roll now, right there next to Rep. Peña’s.

You should bookmark it, too.

As you can see, it’s an aptly named blog: “As the Court Turns,” alluding, I would guess, to the daily soap opera of long running (52 seasons!), “As the World Turns.”

But somehow I am reluctant to believe that this new blog by our new Democratic Commissioner will contain the same kind of lurid details that we see on the soap opera for which he has named his blog. I doubt, for instance whether Richard is going to be reporting on things on the order of the truth about whether Brian should tell Lucinda the truth about his sexuality. And whether Lucinda, having finally found happiness would be able to deal with that news.

But I wish he would.

Candidates Forum In Richmond, Texas: A Whole Lot Of Agreein’ Goin’ On

Despite the crummy weather we had last night, I kept my promise to myself to go to the S.T.O.P. candidates’ forum at the River Pointe Church in Richmond. I got there early because all of the problems that I anticipated getting there, with the weather and road conditions. They failed to materialize, affording me a most pleasant surprise. But then I had to suffer through a 45 minute wait, a half-hour past the reported 6:30 start time, before things began in earnest.

Yes, there was plenty of visiting going on in the atrium, but I never go to these things to schmooze.

The sponsors, S.T.O.P. a recently-formed citizens grassroots organization whose single purpose is to Stop Tolls on [the Grand] Parkway, put the forum together to give local, countywide and state legislature candidates a chance for public exhibition and to let them hold forth on their opinions on TxDOT’s plans to build Section C of the Grand Parkway (aka Texas 99) as a toll road extending south from Highway 59 in Sugar Land to Brazoria County. See the map at S.T.O.P.’s website.

And what a surprise, almost to a man, and woman, the candidates all came out firmly opposed to construction of the Grand Parkway. Some qualified their stance with an “at this time”, but for the most part they all stood shoulder to shoulder against TxDOT’s plans to plop a ribbon of elevated concrete through several master planned communities in Fort Bend County.

What a surprise.

First to speak yesterday evening were the county sheriff candidates. Billy Frank Teague is challenging Sheriff Milton Wright on the Republican ballot. Neither of them said that they favored a toll road, Neither claimed that the sheriff would have any voice or sway with TxDOT, and both pointed out that increased traffic on these roads due to growth, and growth in the county itself (something that the toll road will enhance) will impact the department’s ability to respond to service calls. Wright then embarked on the grand tour of his domain and all of his good news. Teague then spent his time acquainting the audience with his experience and his impressive grasp of several local issues.

Focus was then shifted to the Precinct 1 Fort Bend County Commissioner’s race. County Commissioner Tom Stavinoha, and the 7 people standing to oppose him either in March (two other candidates on the Republican ballot) or later on (should he win the primary) in November by one of five candidates on the Democratic primary ballot was asked his opinion on the toll road. Stavinoha, while allowing that “growth will happen”, and that there is “nothing to stop it”, made the observation that the Segment C extension of the Grand Parkway is “not needed right now”. He observed that since Brazoria County, is “not doing anything” with their proposed Sections A and B of the parkway, he is opposed to its construction “at this time”.

Dittos could be heard up and down the table on the stage. The lone holdouts were Richmond City Commissioner Bill Dostal, and former Treasurer of the Fort Bend Toll Road Authority Greg Ordineaux. Dostal said that he simply opposed making existing free portions of the Grand Parkway a toll road. He then embarked on an opinion that gasoline tax revenues ought to be restored to TxDOT so it could repair existing roadways. Ordineaux, while pledging that candidates must listen to the voters, then said that if Fort Bend County wanted a Section C limited access highway, it should be built with bonds and those bonds paid for with county taxes, or it would be a toll road. Period.

Democratic candidates Anderson, Carreon, Morrison, Rocha and Wallingford were all in solid opposition to the tollroad.

I liked Gerald Anderson. He looks young but says he has been married for 31 years. His opposition to the toll road was matched by his citizen advocacy of neighborhoods in the Arcola area that still have no running water. Rodrigo Carreon was his usual fighting self, opposed to the toll road, to the Blueridge Landfill expansion, and promoted the notion that citizens need to attend more public meetings and voice their concerns. Marty Rocha came fully dressed in his sheriff’s deputy’s uniform, the only fully armed candidate in the room (that you could easily observe, at least), Rocha was against the toll road, preferring that the county address a less expensive rail system. He stressed his years of public service and his strong ties to the community. Sharon Wallingford always impresses me with her grasp of facts and details. She has an anecdote for umpteen meetings she has attended, and quotes TxDOT officials verbatim from memory. Wallingford stressed her experience with the proposed road going back to the years before it was ever proposed as a toll road. Wallingford stressed her belief in mobility, but that mobility should be all about safety, and not about tolling.

I saved Richard Morrison for last because he stood out, and stood up. Morrison is well-known in Fort Bend County, and will have no problem with name recognition on the primary ballot. Morrison stood up, handled the microphone like a pro, and then lit into Commissioner Stavinoha. Morrison stood out as the scrapper – everyone else was fairly sedate and courteous – Morrison said in several verbal assaults, pretty much the same thing: “If you want a Grand Parkway Toll Road,” said Morrison, pointing, “vote for him” [Stavinoha].

Last but not least, candidates for state legislature, most of whom were seated on the stage, were asked to say a few words. District 27 State Rep. Dora Olivo, asked to speak first, voiced her support of the original 4 lane highway, and parted with the words “I’m here with you to fight for you”.

Steve Host, the Richmond coffee shop owner, commiserated with the business owners who stood to lose their businesses if Section C of the Grand Parkway is built. As an owner of a business along Highway 90A in Richmond, he explained how TxDOT wanted to eliminate his business as they widened 90A in Richmond. Apparently the lesson to be learned here is if you don’t want your business bulldozed by TxDOT, have it in a Texas Historic District. Host opposes the toll road, and says that TxDOT has too much power.

Ron Reynolds, challenging Dora Olivo in District 27, stated that he was proud to be a member of S.T.O.P. He agreed with Host and Olivo on the toll road, but in a gentle chide to Olivo, said that the legislature must not let lobbyists “run them”. Legislators have to be neutral when they are being asked to support a development project (more on that at a later date).

District 26 State Rep Charlie Howard weighed in on the toll road, first saying that TxDOT, as a government agency was “out of control” and will be reigned in, in a “sunset review” currently ongoing in Austin. Using his hand with emphasis, Howard proclaimed that “TxDOT doesn’t build roads unless we give them money”. I’m pretty sure everyone in the audience wondered if Howard knew that they were planning to build the road without taxpayer money.

Challenging Howard in the Republican primary, Paula Stansell got up from her seat in the audience and commented that “I sit with you in the audience”, and proclaimed that she was “not a politician”. In the second gentle chide of the evening, Stansell sent one across Howard’s bow, in reference to his inaction on these matters until citizens organized a grassroots protest movement. “We wait too long and wait for community uproar before we act”.

You go girl.

That brought the forum to a conclusion except for the question and answer period. I stayed for a bit of this, but frankly I was getting hungry and needed to leave. I did stay for one question addressed to Sheriff Wright and Richmond Police Lt. Billy Frank Teague. The question dealt with the Precinct 1 Constable’s contract with the Greatwood community: would that be continued?

Wright answered first, and simply said that was up to Constable Dorr. Teague took the microphone, stood up tall and solid, and expounded on the service of the constable, identified the patrolling deputy constables by name, and talked at length of the cooperation and purviews of both law enforcement agencies. A fine exposition. Then Sheriff Wright asked to hear the question again, as the audience did a fine job of suppressing their laughter.

I have to say this about Billy Frank Teague: he’s a lot smarter than he looks. This is no slouching doughnut-chomping beat cop. This guy is the real deal.

Billy Frank Teague and Paula Stansell are the only two reasons that I regret not voting in the Republican primary.

There, I said it.

They’re Number One!

Tonight in Richmond, Texas we had the candidate drawing for the order of appearance on the March 4th Democratic primary ballot. I was going to attend the drawing myself, but Mexican food called so I wasn’t there. Instead I got a call from Richard Morrison with the news.

Richard Morrison will appear 1st on the list of 5 candidates for Fort Bend County Commissioner for Precinct 1. This, most people tell me, is an advantage. I don’t pretend to understand how that is an advantage because I always vote carefully and well, but I would imagine that there are lots of strategies to voting, and maybe voting for the first one on the list is one.

But wait, there’s more.

Richard says that he also drew for Rick Noriega, this drawing for the race for the US Senate nomination, and his luck held for Rick: Rick Noriega will also appear first among the Democrats who have filed for the chance to chase John Cornyn out of the US Senate.

That’s all he told me.

So are we happy tonight?

So far so good . . .

Precinct 1 County Commissioner: A Horse Race In Fort Bend County

Politics in Texas is always interesting if not outré. And one would think that politics at the county level would just be a microcosm of what goes on at the state level, but one would be wrong in thinking that. Fort Bend County politics make state politics seem fair and balanced.

That’s mainly because in Fort Bend County, while there are no domino parlors, there ought to be. I am reminded of an ad run in the local press before the recent off-off year election to vote for or against Fort Bend ISD school bonds. Remember this picture? A bunch of old white guys sitting and standing over a game of dominoes, played on an old army blanket. These, and others, are the movers and shakers in Fort Bend County.

Good ol’ boys.

I like that misnomer because the only thing that is really true in the label is the word “ol’”, short for old.

They are that.

Missing from the photo is another Fort Bend County good ol’ boy, Fort Bend County Commissioner Tom Stavinoha. Stavinoha, who, with pictured James Patterson, and not in picture Andy Meyers and Bob Hebert form the "good ol’ boy majority" on Fort Bend County’s Commissioners Court.

Stavinoha, a two-term commissioner, has announced that he will run for re-election in 2008. This came two weeks after the announcement of his friend and colleague, Greg Ordineaux, head shot at right, who announced in late October that he would seek Tom’s seat on the commissioners’ court.

You always have to wonder why primary challenges are launched against a fellow party member who already holds the office. There are the usual reasons, such as the guy really isn’t of your party, just says he is, or the guy has become a political liability, as the Republicans had in Tom DeLay in 2006 when he had 4 primary opponents.

So what is it about Ordineaux and Stavinoha?

Here is what Greg Ordineaux says about his candidacy:

“I am focused on ensuring Fort Bend County's continued success and protecting the rights of property owners and taxpayers. While mobility is a critical issue in Fort Bend County, we must exercise caution in defining our future and protect our existing neighborhoods. We should fight to ensure that Fort Bend County controls its own destiny.”

In his candidate’s statement Ordineaux had these words put together in a sentence:

“… the residents of Precinct 1 deserve a full-time commissioner who will listen to their concerns and act in the best interest of the citizens.”

OK, I’ll bite.

Ordineaux thinks that Tom Stavinoha isn’t doing a good job for the residents of Precinct 1 because he doesn’t work hard enough, and works counter to the interests of the residents. In short, Greg Ordineaux is running against the good ol’boy network.

But I don’t know. Some would say that Tom is doing the residents a favor by not working so hard, if he is truly working against the interests of Precinct 1 residents. This is much along the reasoning of those who think having a state legislature meet only 140 days every two years is a good thing.

But more than attacking the good ol’ boy network, it also looks like Ordineaux is capitalizing on Stavinoha’s tacit approval of the Section C corridor for expansion of the Grand Parkway (Highway 99) as a toll road. Why this is, because Ordineaux himself is, of late, Treasurer on the Fort Bend Toll Road Authority board, remains a mystery.

It could simply be the law of the jungle. Stavinoha, in his tacit approval of Section C, and in his non-opposition to expansion of the Blue Ridge Landfill to a proposed 17 story high trash heap, has incurred the wrath of Precinct 1 voters, and like a wounded gazelle, Stavinoha is easy pickings.

But I’ll bet there is more to the story than that.

I’ll bet it’s more of the DeLay scenario, where Republicans see Stavinoha as a weak spot in the down ballot, and would like to replace him with a stronger (that is, less well-known) candidate who is seemingly on the sidelines over the burning issues. Hence his waffling statement: “While mobility is a critical issue in Fort Bend County, we must exercise caution in defining our future. . .”. Meaning of course, that while he once held a post on the Fort Bend Toll Road Authority, that doesn’t mean he is for the Grand Parkway Tollroad.

If you believe that one, I have a gold mine in Alaska that I’d like to sell you.

And why is it important to put a stronger Republican candidate on the ballot in November? Up until recently, the only one who had expressed any interest in running for Precinct 1 Commissioner as a Democrat was Stavinoha’s previous opponent in ’04, Rodrigo Carreon. Stavinoha bested Rodrigo by 67 to 32 percent of the vote in ’04 (although I’d like to see a redo of that with the current demographics of Precinct 1).

But I have been hearing a rumbling on the far horizon for months now, and that rumbling climaxed last weekend at the regular monthly meeting of the Fort Bend Democrats. Richard Morrison, a local trial lawyer, has opted to run for the Democratic Party’s candidate for Precinct 1 Commissioner.

Yes, THAT Richard Morrison. The Richard Morrison who launched Netroots' Draft Rick Noriega movement. The Richard Morrison whose efforts have effectively challenged the expansion of the Blue Ridge Landfill, Tom Stavinoha’s cash cow. The Richard Morrison who showed the world that Tom “The Hammer” DeLay was vulnerable in his once-safe congressional district.

FortBendNow says that Morrison will bring “spice” to the commissioner’s race. That is an understatement. Not only does Richard Morrison’s candidacy bring spice to the race, it brings choice.

Precinct 1 homeowners and residents will have a clear choice in November: vote for the Section C Toll Road by voting for either Stavinoha or Ordineaux (whoever survives the primary) or vote against the Toll Road by voting for Richard Morrison.

Ordineaux and Stavinoha share one point of view. They agree that whatever happens, whoever wins, the Grand Parkway Toll Road is a done deal. No one can stop it. TXDOT has made up its mind.

What does Richard Morrison have to say on that? “That’s bullcrap”.

[Jeez, Richard, don’t mince your words, just tell us what you really think.]

So good ol’ boys or no, to Toll Road or not to Toll Road will be the burning local issue in November ’08, and the lines on this focus issue are clearly drawn.