The Port Lavaca Wave (Port Lavaca, Tex.), Vol. 124, No. 96, Ed. 1 Saturday, September 12, 2015 Page: 4 of 14
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A4 ►► FORUM
THE PORT LAVACA WAVE
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2015
THE FORUM
Texas schools fight for money;
Abbott orders
honor°slain officer ^erry PrOSpeCtS pretty poor
the
DAVE McNEELY
for
the
Department
that
in
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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Transparency is
expensive
Transparency n
Port O’Connor
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social
include
and
brand
in
invoice. Myself and Marshall
Bradford voted “no.”
Sorry, the story does not
end. Allen Junek, Joe Newsome
and Bryan Redding also voted
to hire a new attorney to handle
the TPIA for a cost up to $595
a hour. Myself and Marshall
Bradford voted “no.”
Leon S. Brown, Jr.
several
of
argue
about
governors
education
duties
USPS-438-780
TANIA FRENCH
Editor and Publisher, ext. 103
SHERRY FICKLEN
Coming Ups/Youth, ext. 117
KAYLA HARVEY
Classified Dept., ext. 104
KAYLA MEYER
Newsroom., ext. 114
MELONY OVERTON
Newsroom., ext. 115
JAY WORKMAN
Newsroom., ext. 197
DD TURNER
Director of Creative Services., ext. 107
ROSA GONZALES
Pre-Press, ext. 110
TRACY HOREJSI
Press Mgr., ext. 120
ED STERLING
State Capital Highlights
TPA MEMBER 2015
TEXAS PRESS ASSOCIAT I O N
rankings
and the
repeatedly
THE PORT® LAVACA WAVE
www.portlavacawave.com
Serving Port Lavaca and Calhoun County since 1890
107 E. Austin, P.O. Box 88, Port Lavaca, Texas 77979-0088
Telephone (361) 552-9788 FAX (361) 552-3108
present firm Walker Keeling
L.L.P. was not experienced
enough and did not specialize
in public information, but at
the Aug. 13, 2015 meeting of
the board Walker Keeling LLP
presented the board with a bill
in the amount of $20,117.42 for
public records requests.
I made a motion that
we not pay this bill and the
motion passed. But guess
what, it was on the agenda
for consideration again at the
Sept. 1, 2015 board meeting at
noon. At this meeting I made
a motion not to pay this bill,
Leon Brown made a second...
but Allen Junek, Joe Newsome
and Albert Redding voted to
pay the bill, so it passed and
we will give $20,117.42 to a
law firm that should not be
handling this type requests in
the first place.
People, this is your money.
This is your money that our
three new appointed directors
Allen Junek, Joe Newsome and
Albert Redding are willing to
spend to continue and keep us
in the dark. When asked for
my emails, I sat at my iPad
for over two and a half hours
forwarding every email I had,
there were no charges involved,
and I did not try to bill someone
for the time I spent doing so. I
have made a request for emails
from Walker Keeling LLP and
it seems that for me to receive
these emails on a flash drive
the cost is going to be over $900.
Just remember November
2016 is not that far away.
Marshall Bradford
Director POCID
At the Aug. 25, 2015
meeting of the Port O’Connor
Improvement District, the
Public Information requests
were again in question.
We received bids from two
law firms to handle our public
information because our
council was unable to act on
these types of requests.
The firms in question
were, Randle Law Office LTD.,
L.L.P. that submitted a bid for
$195.00 an hour. The other was
Gardere Wynne Sewell L.L.P.
that submitted a bid of $595
an hour. What firm would you
have chosen? Wrong. Our three
new appointed directors Allen
Junek, Joe Newsome, and
Albert Redding chose the $595
law firm to help make it harder
for us to figure out what is
going on in this district.
There is an old saying (if
it don’t stink, why cover it up?)
I made a motion not to accept
the proposals from either firm
and Leon Brown seconded the
motion, but it failed.
Allen Junek said that our
Bell
in the
Texas high school graduation
rates have been rising steadily,
and rank among the nation’s
highest.
But
are misleading,
Legislature has
ducked fulfilling its financial
duties enough to keep deprived
school districts from asking
the courts to put some steel in
lawmakers’ spines.
This is the seventh school
finance lawsuit since 1984. This
one began after the Legislature
and then-Gov. Rick Perry,
facing an anticipated budget
shortfall, chose to cut $5.4
billion from school spending
rather than raise taxes.
It turned out the budget
shortfall estimate, by former
Comptroller Susan Combs,
was overstated. While the
Legislature in 2013 made up
some of the school budget cuts,
it still left the schools short,
ruled Austin District Judge
John Dietz. (He has since
retired.)
Gov. Greg Abbott, with
more than a decade of school
finance law under his belt as
attorney general, had filed
the appeal while still attorney
general, and filed a friend-of-
the-court brief continuing the
appeal to throw the case out.
Texas Solicitor General
Scott Keller (of the attorney
general’s office), told the
justices that school finance
decisions should be made by
lawmakers, not judges.
One thing the legislators
and the former and present
governors have accomplished
is that several different
categories of plaintiffs,
that used to argue among
themselves about state
of the
1998 to
schoolchildren.
school kids of Texas raised
the $190,000 for the statues by
sending in small change.
It’s just a stone’s throw east
of the building that houses the
Texas Supreme Court. That’s
where attorneys representing
well over half the state’s
schoolchildren argued on Sept.
1 against the state’s appeal of a
lower court decision that says
Texas’ school finance system
is, yet again, unconstitutional.
“Apparently, we honored
Texas schoolchildren by nickel
and diming them,” Watson
wrote.
And there’s a lot of Texas
schoolchildren: 5.2 million in
public schools, and another
227,827 in charter schools.
Former Supreme Court
Chief Justice Wallace
Jefferson, representing Texas
school districts, told the court
that the lawsuit essentially is
about liberty.
“We are not preparing
students for the 21st century,”
Wallace said.
Watson noted
JUDY MAREK
Business Office, ext. 102
CHRISTY AGUILAR
Advertising Dept., ext. 105
ASHLEY KONTNIER
Advertising Dept., ext. 106
ROSS STAPP
Sports., ext. 110
WE WANT YOUR OPINION
I made similar requests
through the TPIA regarding
district emails and district
documents. After my requests
were made, I was informed by
Donna Grafe-Tucker of the law
firm of Walker Keeling, LLP;
our district’s General Counsel,
that most of my requests were
being submitted to the Texas
Attorney General’s Office for
a written decision to withhold
information from me.
Before now, guess how
many AG requests for a decision
to withhold information have
been made in the past 22 years
from our general counsel?
None, zero.
In a recent meeting,
Allen Junek made a statement
that our general counsel is
not experienced enough to
handle public information
requests. Now, here is what
is troublesome. General
Counsel submitted an invoice
to the District in the amount
of $20,177.42 for the public
information requests. Allen
Junek, Bryan Redding and
Joe Newsome voted to pay the
AUSTIN — Gov. Greg
Abbott ordered Texas flags
across the state be lowered to
half-staff in honor of slain
Harris County Deputy Sheriff
Darren Goforth on Sept. 4.
Abbott also asked that law
enforcement officers turn on
their patrol vehicles’ red and
blue flashing lights for one
minute at 11 a.m. on Friday,
Sept. 4, the start time for Deputy
Goforth’s funeral.
Goforth, 47, reportedly was
targeted for wearing a uniform.
He was gunned down on Aug.
28 while refueling his vehicle
at a convenience store in the
Houston suburb of Cypress.
Surveillance video helped law
enforcement trace, capture
and arrest a suspect, Shannon
J. Miles, 30. Investigators
retrieved a .40 caliber handgun
at the suspect’s residence.
Ballistics testing matched the
handgun to ammunition used
in the shooting. The suspect
has been charged with capital
murder.
2 honored posthumously
Gov. Abbott in an Aug. 26
ceremony at the Governor’s
Mansion posthumously
awarded the Texas Legislative
Medal of Honor, the highest
military decoration that can
be awarded to a member of the
state or federal military forces
by the State of Texas, to two
Texans: U.S. Navy Chief Petty
Officer Chris Kyle and Lt. Col.
William Edwin Dyess.
Kyle’s medal was presented
to his wife, Taya Kyle. Dyess’s
medal was presented to his
sister, Elizabeth Denman.
Kyle, a U.S. Navy SEAL
from 1999 to 2009, served four
tours in Iraq and earned
many prestigious medals for
his service as an elite sniper.
After returning to civilian life,
Kyle wrote a best-selling book,
American Sniper, recounting
his service experiences. A
fellow military veteran shot
and killed Kyle and a friend,
Chad Littlefield, at a shooting
range in Erath County on Feb.
2, 2013. Kyle, 38, was buried
with honors and ceremonies
in the Texas State Cemetery in
Austin on Feb. 12, 2013.
Dyess was a fighter pilot
and later an infantry officer in
the Pacific Theater of World War
II. He was captured by Japanese
forces in the Philippines in 1942
and survived the Bataan Death
March. He and other prisoners
escaped a penal colony on the
island of Mindanao and aided
by Filipino guerrillas boarded
a U.S. submarine in mid-1943.
He was returned to the states.
He resumed flying and in
December 1943 died attempting
an emergency landing in a P-38
Lockheed Lightning fighter
plane in California. He was
27. Dyess Air Force Base near
Abilene is named in his honor.
DPS releases gang report
A Texas law requires
an annual report bringing
together information from
multiple law enforcement and
criminal justice agencies to be
submitted to the governor and
the state Legislature assessing
the threat posed by statewide
criminal gangs.
The Texas
of Public Safety on Aug. 31
announced the release of
its 2015 Texas Gang Threat
Assessment, an overview of
gang activity in this state.
DPS Director Steven
McCraw said the document,
57 pages in length and posted
online at txdps.state.tx.us,
“delivers valuable information
about the gangs operating in
our state and is a proven tool in
law enforcement’s fight against
these dangerous groups.”
According to the report,
current gang membership
across the state may exceed
100,000 individuals.
“These organizations were
involved in and profited from
the recent influx of illegal
aliens crossing the border in
the Rio Grande Valley in 2014.
Gang members involved in
human trafficking, including
commercial sex trafficking
and compelling prostitution of
adults and minors, exploit their
victims through force, fraud or
coercion, including recruiting
and grooming them with
false promises of affection,
employment, or a better life,”
according to McCraw’s news
release.
Energy agency goes social
Texas Railroad
Commission on Sept. 1
announced its launch of social
media accounts “to increase
transparency and more
effectively communicate with
the public and stakeholders
about the activities and
responsibilities” of the agency.
Those
accounts
(#TxRCC)
It’s sad that it has to be
this way, but it’s a good thing
we have courts in Texas - to
require the Legislature to do
its job.
For decades, Texas
courts have had to force the
lawmakers to follow through
on their constitutional
responsibility to pay for good
schools.
State Sen. Kirk Watson,
D-Austin, put a picture of
the life-sized bronze statues
of six children in his Sept. 3
newsletter.
The statues were erected
just north of the Texas
Capitol in 1998 to honor
Texas schoolchildren. The
the Texas Declaration of
Independence from Mexico in
1836, among the grievances
was the failure of the Mexican
government to provide public
schools:
“It has failed to establish
any public system of education
... unless a people are educated
and enlightened, it is idle to
expect the continuance of civil
liberty, or the capacity for self
government.”
“The Texas Constitution
states right there, right up
front that the whole point of
our public schools is to provide
the people with knowledge
to preserve their rights and
liberties,” Watson wrote. “And
it’s the Legislature’s duty to
support those schools.”
From Article 7 of
Texas Constitution:
Sec. 1. SUPPORT AND
MAINTENANCE OF SYSTEM
OF PUBLIC FREE SCHOOLS.
A general diffusion of
knowledge being essential
to the preservation of the
liberties and rights of the
people, it shall be the duty of
the Legislature of the State to
establish and make suitable
provision for the support and
maintenance of an efficient
system of public free schools.
The state argued that it
wants to improve.
“We want to do better, we
are not where we want to be, but
the system is constitutionally
adequate,” said Assistant
Solicitor General Rance Craft.
He and other state lawyers
argued repeatedly that “more
money doesn’t necessarily
guarantee better-educated
students.”
The state maintained
that federal data showed that
media
Facebook,
Instagram and Linkedln.
Blue Bell returns
to Capitol
Gov. Abbott on Aug. 31
announced the return of Blue
Bell ice cream at the state
Capitol, the day the popular,
Brenham-based brand was
made available in select
markets after a multi-month
shutdown. “On behalf of all
Texans, I want to welcome Blue
Bell back and wish them luck
as they continue to ramp up
production,” Abbott said.
Blue Bell stopped
operations in the spring,
after four deaths in Kansas
were attributed to listeria-
contaminated ice cream.
distribution of money
schools, are now allies.
That would be the
property-poor school districts,
the wealthier districts, the
charter schools, and various
groups of teachers, principals
and school administrators.
They all think the so-called
conservative attitude toward
funding education actually
amounts to shortsighted
stinginess that will cost Texas
- and Texans - for decades to
come.
Meanwhile, it seems that
the only people who really
profit from Texas legislators
and governors shirking
their education funding
constitutional duties are
lawyers who specialize in
school finance.
And the argument that
you can’t solve problems by
throwing money at them?
Former Texas Education
Commission William N. Kirby,
back in the 1980s, said in Texas,
“We don’t know in education,
because we’ve never tried it.”
Decades later, that’s still
true.
Transparency within the
Port O’Connor Improvement
District is expensive.
Joe Newsome, Bryan
Redding and Allen Junek were
appointed by TCEQ when Teddy
Hawes, Tom Ekstrom and Doyle
Adams resigned.
One of the first comments
to the directors and to the
public made by Allen Junek
was “being transparent”. Now,
here is the whole story.
Shortly after Teddy Hawes’
resignation, I was legally
informed that Teddy Hawes
requested all my personal
emails through the Texas Public
Information Act. I spent several
hours and forwarded hundreds
of emails to the attorney. I sent
so many emails the attorney
asked if I was sure I wanted
to submit all the emails. My
answer was yes; I did not have
anything to hide. I never heard
back from that attorney.
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French, Tania. The Port Lavaca Wave (Port Lavaca, Tex.), Vol. 124, No. 96, Ed. 1 Saturday, September 12, 2015, newspaper, September 12, 2015; Port Lavaca, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1301477/m1/4/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Calhoun County Public Library.