The Collin County Observer

It was the day after Christmas in 2007 when police were called to a house just south of downtown Frisco.

A woman who had been shot had run to a neighbor's house and called for help. Upstairs in the house next door, the police found the body of 36 year old Craig Nail. He died of gunshot wounds before the police arrived. The woman who was shot was his girlfriend, Therisa Hofman. She was Care Flighted to a hospital, and later recovered.

Mark Lyle Bell

Vera Elizabeth Guthrie-Nail

Thomas Edward Grace

Two weeks later, the Frisco police announced they had made an arrest in the murder/shooting case. Arrested was Craig Nail's ex-wife, Vera Elizabeth Guthrie-Nail.

Later a Collin County Grand Jury indicted Guthrie-Nail, Thomas Edward Grace, and Mark Lyle Bell -- all on charges of capital murder. Guthrie-Nail was accused of using Thomas Grace as an intermediary to contract a murder for hire with Mark Bell, the triggerman.

During the grand jury investigation, prosecutors learned that Mark Bell's wife had given his attorney, Keith Gore, some letters and a sealed shoe box, which she told Gore contained evidence crucial to his defense, but which prosecutors allege contained evidence that would tie Bell to the murder.

The District Attorney's office then went to Judge Robert Dry, who was supervising the Grand Jury and asked for a subpoena for the box, letters and a pair of boots they believed were also given to Gore by Mrs. Bell. Dry scheduled a hearing on the request for 5 days later.

However later that same day, the DA and a Frisco police detective also filed a request for a search warrant on Keith Gore's office with a different judge. Judge Mark Rusch issued the warrant, and detectives seized some letters, a multi-page, stapled document, and a sealed shoe box. No boots were found.

The seized items were taken by police to Judge Rusch, who was at home at the time, and later to the Frisco police evidence room.

What happened next is in dispute.

The Collin County District Attorney's office and the Frisco police allege that Judge Rusch used a knife to open the seals of the shoe box and inspect its contents. Judge Rusch denies this and says he gave the box back to the prosecution team still sealed.

According to a motion filed with the appeals court by the defense, at a later court hearing officers involved in the search stated that the contents of the box had been switched out. They said the box originally contained a Wal Mart receipt, but later the receipt was missing and a business card from a Wal Mart security officer was substituted. The defense claims that the receipt was exculpatory evidence - that it would prove that the boots sought by police were purchased after the murder.

But the receipt is gone. Who done it?

Claiming that by inspecting the seized evidence, Judge Mark Rusch became a material witness, the defense team sought to have Judge Rusch recused. A hearing was held before an assigned judge who ordered that Rusch recuse himself from the case -- to be replaced by Judge Chris Oldner.

The defense also accused the Collin County District Attorney's office of prosecutorial misconduct and sought to question the First Assistant District Attorney, Greg Davis. Judge Oldner denied the request.

Oldner also denied a defense motion to disqualify the District Attorney's Office from the case.

Bell's attorneys appealed Oldner's decisions to the 5th Court of Appeals in Dallas, which also refused to force the DA off the case. Bell has now appealed again, this time to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which earlier this month agreed to hear the case and has ordered that arguments be submitted.

So who is lying - The judge? The DA? The police?

Perhaps we'll never know who opened the shoe box, and what happened to the evidence. It does seem possible that misconduct and mishandling of evidence could make prosecution of Mr. Bell difficult if not impossible.

This 2 year old case is starting to look like something from a television detective story plot. Unfortunately it's unlikely that a super detective is going to come on the scene with his scientific tool kit and tell us who done it.

CSI:Frisco? Not hardly.

Bill

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Notes:

IN RE MARK LYLE BELL, Order holding in abeyance, Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, February 5, 2010

Appeals Court refuses to recuse DA in Bell case, CCO, December 9, 2009

Mark Bell's attorneys ask appeals court to force DA off the case, CCO - November 23, 2009

Application for Writs of Mandamus and/or Prohibition with Incorporated Brief in Support and Motion for Stay of Proceedings Below, by Steven Miears and Keith Gore before the Texas 5th Court of Appeals, November 20, 2009

Case 401-80353-08 Texas vs. Mark Bell, case history -- Collin County 401st District Court

Judge Rusch recused from Bell murder trial, McKinney Courier-Gazette, August 27, 2008

Hearing on "raid" of attorney office rescheduled CCO - August 7, 2008

Amicus Curiae brief of the TCDA, August 5, 2008

Defense attorney search warrant motion hearing moved - McKinney Courier-Gazette, Aug. 6, 2008

One of these days these boots are going to walk all over your attorney-client privilege - Grits for Breakfast, Aug. 3, 2008

Where are the boots?: Details from the Gore warrant, affidavit and return - CCO, July 31, 2008

The Warrant, affidavit and return and more

The Defense motion in Response to the State's Motion to Disqualify Defense Counsel

MCG - AG opposes subpoenas of Rusch and Dry - CCO, July 23, 2008

Not Judge Rusch's first controversial warrant - CCO, July 21, 2008

NBC5 - Detectives Seize Documents From Murder-For-Hire Suspect's Attorney - CCO, July 18, 2008

There's a new Wylie City Hall going up on FM 1378.

More properly, it is the new Municipal Complex and it will contain not only City Hall, but a new library and recreation center. The $41.5 million complex is due to be completed later this year, and it will include at least 2 pieces of original art commissioned by the city. To help in the selection of the new artwork, the city council appointed a Public Arts Advisory Board made up of members of the community. The board spent some moths interviewing artists, finally picking 3 for each of the two locations, who were asked to make presentations of their ideas to the board.

Last week, after the presentations, the Advisory Board recommended 2 artist's concepts for final approval by the city council.

For the main entrance, the board picked a piece that consists of a series of 7 granite stones 12 to 14 feet tall - each bearing a descriptive inscription. The artist is Steve Gillman.

Also submitted was "Pearl for Wylie" by Cliff Garten:

And an arch, reminiscent of a covered wagon by Brower Hatcher:

For the library entrance, the board chose a piece titled "Community Symphony" by Living Lenses (Louise Bertelsen and Po shu Wang). The spheres contain speakers which connect to a synthesizer and two keyboards - one in the library and one in the recreation center. Words and phrases typed on the keyboards are converted into braille and then converted to music.

The other two proposals for the library entrance were:

A 1 1/4 times larger than life cast bronze and fabricated steel sculpture representing two figures in a canoe. The figures are cast bronze and the canoe is fabricated steel. The piece measures 25 feet long 42 inches tall and 40 inches wide, by David Phelps. (my favorite)

And "The Story of Wylie" by artist Madeline Wiener.

The City Council will make the final awards at its meeting on March 9.

Bill

Editorial: Three capital cases illustrate how tactics trump truth

Friday, February 26, 2010
The Dallas Morning News Editorial Board

Convicted killer Charles Dean Hood is getting a new day in court, but not for all the right reasons. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has granted him a new sentencing hearing, but that's beside the point.

The point is that Hood was convicted of murder in a scenario right out of Desperate Housewives. The Collin County judge who gazed out over the courtroom during the trial in 1990 would see a district attorney who had been in her bed. Their secret tryst – even though they had broken it off by trial time – represents such an obvious possibility of bias that any reasonable mind would tell the court to try the whole case again and keep it clean.

Appellate attorneys for Hood outed the affair in 2008, putting former District Attorney Tom O'Connell and former Judge Verla Sue Holland under oath. The Court of Criminal Appeals, however, refused on procedural grounds to grant a new trial based on complaints of corrupted justice.

The court did halt Hood's execution to take another look at the fairness of sentencing, and last week, judges ordered prosecutors back in court to re-do those proceedings.

Where does that leave the question of whether former lovers should have tried a case with a man's life at stake? The U.S. Supreme Court now is considering that, and fortunately so. Texans who care about justice can hope that a court well insulated from the political stickiness of the Hood case will finally take a clear-eyed view of what was going on in that courtroom.

No one is suggesting that the Hood jury got the question of guilt wrong; the evidence against him was overwhelming. But the courtroom is no place to tolerate little secrets when a life-and-death question hangs in the balance.

That position is supported in a petition to the Supreme Court by 21 former judges, prosecutors and other officials, including former FBI Director William Sessions and former Texas Gov. Mark White.

The Hood trial is one of three Texas capital murder cases lined up before the Supreme Court – all revealing how legal jousting has become more important than pure justice. All increasing our resolve that the death penalty should be abolished.

Earlier this month, a judge held up the execution of Hank Skinner in a 1993 triple murder out of the Panhandle. Again, procedure was at issue, this time the death warrant. The Supreme Court is being asked to take on the far more important issue of whether testing should be ordered on evidence that hasn't undergone DNA analysis. Facts in the case indicate that the answer is yes.

Finally, there's the case of Delma Banks, convicted in a 30-year-old murder near Texarkana. He awaits word from the Supreme Court on complaints that authorities hid the fact they used testimony from a paid police snitch and a shaky witness who was intensively coached.

The chess game continues, more a matter of tactics than truth-finding. That's no way for Texas to determine who lives and who dies.

link to this editorial at The Dallas Morning News....

Heard museum prepares for court fight

February 26, 2010
The Dallas Morning News McKinney Blog
Ed Housewright/Reporter

The Heard and the North Texas Municipal Water District are still battling over the district's plans to install a sewer line under the museum property.

The Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary offered an alternate route across its 289-acre site. But the water district rejected it.

"Efforts to resolve the dispute ... have failed," the museum says in a news release. "The lawsuit will be set for trial."

The museum and wildlife sanctuary, which opened in 1967, draws more than 100,000 visitors a year.

It fears the sewer line will damage native prairie grassland and wetlands.

The water district says the line poses no environmental damage.

link to the post on The Dallas Morning News McKinney Blog....

======

The Observer Comments:

Good grief...

"The water district says the line poses no environmental damage"

Wow! So the Water District is telling the Wildlife Sanctuary how to protect its habitat.

I assume that now The Heard's environmentalists will feel free to tell the NTMWD how to maintain water pressure.

For more coverage on this issue, see:

Eco-terrorism: Collin County style, CCO, December, 2009

Heard museum worried about sewer line planned on property, The Dallas Morning News, December 20, 2009

Panel sides with water district on plans to run sewer line under McKinney's Heard museum, The Dallas Morning News, December 16, 2009

Heard museum in McKinney battles water district over sewer line, The Dallas Morning News, October 29, 2009

Bill

This guy ought to get elected to something, he's got all the qualifications. His company, Pogue Construction ("A Name, you can Trust", according to its web site) in McKinney, has built many local city and county buildings.

Bill

=========

McKinney man guilty of federal tax income violations
By U.S. Department of Justice as reported in North Texas E-News
February 24, 2010

PLANO, Texas - U.S. Attorney John M. Bales announced today that a McKinney, Texas man has pleaded guilty to federal income tax violations in the Eastern District of Texas.

Paul Pogue pleaded guilty to making false statements on his federal income tax returns today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Don D. Bush.

According to information presented in court, Pogue, who stated he was employed as a consultant for a construction company, acknowledged in court that he stated on his 2003 tax return that he only had taxable income of $4,594,052 for that year, when he knew he had taxable income of $5,588,249.70.

Pogue admitted in court documents that he also knowingly understated his taxable income on his 2004 and 2005 individual tax returns. Pogue admitted reporting only $3,111,715 in taxable income for 2004, when he knew his taxable income was $3,686,784.40, and reporting only $2,908,235 in taxable income for 2005, when he knew he actually had $3,030,684.70 in taxable income that year.

Pogue acknowledged that the total tax loss resulting from his additional, unreported income was $473,680.53.

Pogue faces up to 3 years in federal prison. A sentencing date has not been set.

This case is being investigated by the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigations Division, and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Andy Williams.

link to article at North Texas E-News....

The Collin County Observer is committed to providing voters the information they need to make informed choices in the 2010 Primary Election. We believe an informed voter will make better choices -- and to be informed, the voter should know who is contributing money to their candidates.

While Federal and State campaign finance reports are online, a voter had to drive to the county's election office to see the local reports. In order to make these local reports available online, the Observer made Open Records requests to the county elections office.

The Collin County Observer has now posted online the "8 Day" or "Telegraph" campaign finance report required of all local candidates who face an opposed primary race.

This report details contributions and expenditures from February 1, 2010 to February 22, 2010, and is the last of 3 reports filed before the primary.

The reports, along with the "January Semi-Annual" report (details from July 1, 2009 - December 31, 2009), and the "30 Day Report" (January 1, 2010 to January 27) are linked here.

The Collin County Observer is only publishing the reports from "local, county filers".

There are four kind of campaign finance filers. Only "County" filers form C/OH are posted by the Observer:

1. Federal - Officeholders and candidates for Congress and the Presidency file with the Federal Elections Commission. The reports are publicly available through an on-line database here.

2. State - Texas state filers include candidates for Governor, Texas State offices, Legislator, State Senate, all Appeals Courts, District Judge, and County Party Chair. These office holders and candidates file with the Texas Ethics Commission. The reports are publicly available through an on-line database here.

3. County - County officials and candidates file with the Collin County Elections Department. County filers include: County Judge, County Commissioner, District Clerk, District Attorney, County Court at Law justices, Justices of the Peace and constables.

   The Collin County Elections Department has told the Observer that it is their goal to post all campaign finance reports on-line, but they do not have a real time frame (budget) approved to do so. It is these local county reports that the Collin County Observer has posted.

4. Local - Office holders and candidates for local offices file with their respective local authority. School Board candidates file with their ISD, City Council candidates file with their city, etc. Most local filings, except in large cities, are not on-line and can only be obtained by request from the filing authority.

Personal Financial Statements for State filers are kept at the Texas Ethics Commission, but are not on-line. They can only be accessed by requesting them with an Open Records request. A copy fee is assessed for each request.

County PFS reports are kept by the Collin County Clerk, and are available by request in a personal appearance. The Observer will be requesting all local form PFS and will make them available on-line.

While campaign finance reports are kept for several years, Personal Financial Statements are destroyed annually.

The Observer tips its hat to and thanks Sharon Rowe, the Collin County Elections Administrator, and Elections Department staffer Sandy Braswell for their cooperation and assistance in helping gather all the reports as electronic files.

Bill

Charles Dean Hood

Judge Verla Sue Holland

Tom O'Connell

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in a sharply split decision remanded the death sentence of convicted Collin County murderer Charles Dean Hood for a new punishment hearing.

The remand is based on a 2005 motion by the defense complaining of "Penry" instructions given to the jury. The defense argued that the jury was not given the proper instruction on how to consider mitigating circumstances of childhood injury and mental incapacity.

The court noted that since Hood's conviction in 1990, the US Supreme Court has substantially changed and enhanced the requirements of what death penalty juries must consider before giving the death sentence.

Scott at the Grits for Breakfast blog offers his perspective on the opinion, writing:

"Though it doesn't mention at all the now-admitted affair between the trial judge and prosecutor in Hood's case, this is a major decision which basically amounts to a mea culpa by the CCA majority about its past rulings in an array of similar cases. From Judge Cochran's majority opinion:

'This is all very awkward. To grant a Texas death-row inmate relief on his subsequent Penry I and Penry II claim under the recently decided Tennard, Smith, et al. cases, we must find that those decisions announced new law, but the federal courts cannot grant relief on those very same claims unless they find that Texas courts misapplied clearly established law at the time of the relevant state-court decision. Hence, a death-row inmate must argue in this Court that Tennard, Smith, et al. announced new law, but, once he arrives in federal court, he must argue that those same cases simply reiterated clearly established law. There is no logical way in which Tennard, Smith, et al. can simultaneously be both "newly available law" for state-court purposes and "clearly established law" for federal-court purposes.'

'This conundrum has produced starkly different descriptions and versions of the historical development of Penry law. In each of the five most recent cases, the United States Supreme Court majority has been at pains to emphasize that "well before our decision in Penry I, our cases had firmly established that sentencing juries must be able to give meaningful consideration and effect to all mitigating evidence that might provide a basis for refusing to impose the death penalty[.]" Thus, Penry itself did not announce new law, nor did the five most recent cases, Tennard, Smith I, Abdul-Kabir, Brewer, and Smith II. Under the majority's reasoning, this Court (along with the Fifth Circuit) completely misunderstood the scope and applicability of Penry for almost twenty years and reached "'decision[s] that [were] contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States'" in virtually all of our Penry cases. Had the Supreme Court concluded otherwise, it could not have granted relief to any of the habeas corpus applicants in Tennard, Smith I, Abdul-Kabir, Brewer, or Smith II.'

"Judge Keasler's dissent sounded downright furious at this 180 degree reversal in course."

Hood was convicted in a Collin County court in 1990 of the double homicide of Ronald Williamson and Tracie Lynn Wallace. Hood was working as a bouncer at a topless club in 1989 where Tracie Lynn Wallace was a dancer. He met Ronald Williamson at the club and began doing odd jobs for Williamson, who owned a computer software firm and he was living at Williamson's Plano home.

Hood's defense attorneys have tried to gain a new trial for him based on allegations that the judge, Verla Sue Holland had kept secret from defense attorneys her sexual relationship to the county's District Attorney, Tom O'Connell. O'Connell personally tried part of the case and appeared in court against Hood.

The Court of Criminal Appeals did not address the Holland/O'Connell issue in its opinion.

Recently, 21 jurists and legal experts petitioned The United States Supreme Court to take up the issue of the fairness of the 1990 trial given the relationship between the prosecutor and judge.

Hood has faced at least 7 execution dates. Twice in 2008 he came within hours of being executed.

Bill

UPDATE 3PM 2/24/10

John Roach, the Collin County Criminal District Attorney released the following statement:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Feb. 24, 2010

(McKINNEY, Texas) -- Today the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted a new punishment trial to death row inmate Charles Dean Hood.

Hood was convicted of the 1990 capital murder of Ronald Williamson and Traci Wallace. Today’s ruling does not raise any issue as to Hood’s guilt of this heinous crime, and the courts have previously described the evidence of his guilt as “conclusive.”

Today’s ruling is based on a defect in the Texas capital punishment statute identified by the Supreme Court in 1989 and corrected by the Texas Legislature in 1991. Hood’s trial was between these two events, and the trial judge, as was common practice at that time, tried to remedy the defect with an instruction to the jury. In 2001, the Supreme Court cast doubt on the jury instruction practice used in Hood’s case. In 2005, Hood challenged the instruction used in his case just prior to a scheduled execution. The Court of Criminal Appeals dismissed his challenge in early 2007, ruling that he was required to raise the claim in an earlier challenge to his conviction and sentence. Today, the Court reconsidered its 2007 decision, determined that Hood was not required to raise the claim in an earlier challenge, and awarded him a new punishment trial.

Our office will continue to evaluate today’s opinion. We will also begin evaluating the case to determine what punishment to seek in a new punishment trial. As we currently understand the case, however, it is likely we will again seek the death penalty.

A separate claim challenging Hood’s conviction is currently pending in the Supreme Court. The State’s response in that litigation is due next month, and we have no comment on that litigation at this time.

###

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NOTES:

EX PARTE CHARLES DEAN HOOD, Majority Opinion of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Judge Cathy Cochran, February 24, 2010

EX PARTE CHARLES DEAN HOOD, Dissenting Opinion of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Judge Michael E. Keasler, February 24, 2010

Charles Hood death sentence thrown out: Texas CCA admits it
'completely misunderstood' SCOTUS for past 20 years, Grits for Breakfast, February 24, 2010

New punishment hearing ordered for Texas death row inmate Charles Dean Hood, The Dallas Morning News, February 24, 2010

Questions Of an Affair Tainting A Trial, The New York Times, February 19, 2010

BRIEF OF FORMER JUDGES, STATE OFFICIALS, AND PROSECUTORS AS AMICI CURIAE IN SUPPORT OF PETITIONER

NLJ - When procedure trumps justice, CCO, Nov. 3, 2009

Sex, lies and lethal injections, CCO, Sept. 18, 2009

Hood gets his appeal (maybe), CCO, May 5, 2009

Charles Dean Hood gets another 60 days to live, CCO, Jan. 28, 2009

AG questions 1/3 of Collin death sentences, CCO, Sept. 22, 2008

Collin County needs to review capital cases, CCO, Sept. 18, 2008

Crossing the line: Sex and justice, Collin County style, CCO, Sept. 8, 2008

Atlantic Monthly - Travesty in Texas, CCO, Sept. 8, 2008

Attorney General files for possible stay in Hood case, CCO, Sept. 4, 2008

From an Arts of Collin County press release -

GROUNDBREAKING IN SIGHT FOR ARTS OF COLLIN COUNTY WITH CITY OF ALLEN SUPPORT

COLLIN COUNTY, TEXAS – (FEBRUARY 24, 2010) – The Arts of Collin County and its Owner cities are working diligently to toward the ground breaking of Phase I. During the City of Allen City Council meeting on February 23, 2010, the Council voted to proceed as the guarantor of a line of credit from a financial institution to support the gap in fundraising related to pledges not to exceed $5M. In any 501(c-3) organization’s capital campaign project, like building a new church, pledges are a large part of individual and corporate donations. Pledges allow donors to pay out their gifts over a period of years or utilize planned giving vehicles such as life insurance policies, estate trusts and other resources. The Arts of Collin County has received a total of $10.4M in private donations. Of the $10.4M in private donations, pledges yet to be received are $8.1M. Of the pledges, 82% is in pledges from businesses which we are confident will be paid out over the construction period.

“All three owner cities in the Arts for Collin County - Allen, Frisco and Plano, have worked together during the past several years to craft a project that will have a significant economic impact to our region and serve as a cultural icon that will benefit generations to come. With the Allen City Council’s approval to guarantee a bridge loan, we are closer than ever to getting the shovels in the ground,” states Mayor Stephen Terrell, City of Allen. “The City of Allen is making this step forward because ACC will have an Allen address. Land donation and infrastructure development for the project have occurred and fundraising efforts to date have been successful. It’s time to make the project a reality,” continues Terrell.

“The guarantee by the City of Allen, allows the Arts of Collin County to move forward with the process of awarding the guaranteed maximum price contract to the Hunt Construction Group,” states Mike Simpson, executive director of the Arts of Collin County. “The next step is to finalize the contribution agreements between the Owner cities of Allen, Frisco and Plano; gain approval of each Owner cities council along with our Board of Directors and then the award the guaranteed maximum price contract which will allow us to announce a date for groundbreaking in early 2010,” continues Simpson.

The initial guaranteed maximum price for construction of Phase I has been estimated at $69.9M by Hunt Construction Group which is a cost reduction of $16M from the estimated costs of $86M in March 2009. The final maximum price will be presented by Hunt on February 26th which may result in additional savings.

As a public/private partnership, it is required that 100% of funds are committed in order to move forward on construction.

To date the following funds can be applied towards Phase I construction: $19M from each Owner city: Allen, Frisco and Plano; $850K from Collin County and $2.3M in private donations which have been received. (The remainder of private funding is in the form of pledges which will be paid out over time.). The land which has been donated by Briar Ridge Investments was not included in the original cost estimates and at the time of the donation in 2005 had a market value of $22M, which is the largest donation ever received in Collin County.

“The Allen City Council’s directive has been very clear to proceed with a funding mechanism that would facilitate construction for the Arts of Collin County. In order to take advantage of lower construction costs which represent a cost savings of about $16 million, the time to act was immediate,” states Peter Vargas, Allen City Manager.

The Arts of Collin County will continue to fundraise to complete the gap and plan for the future phases of development and operations. The Phase I construction process will span across two and a half years, and fundraising and programming events will continue as the performance arts hall and arts park are brought to life. The most prominent opportunities to meet these goals is a naming rights partner for the 100+ acre arts park, performance arts hall which and the theater itself, plus many other valuable sponsorship components.

Pervasiveness, prosecution of white-collar crime rising
State securities board sees activity increase fivefold since 2005

Dallas Business Journal - by Chad Eric Watt Staff writer
Friday, February 19, 2010

The retired couple living in Murphy really didn’t have any need for a credit card terminal.

But after a salesman explained how they could buy the machine and lease it back to merchants in exchange for interest payments, they signed up.

Bruce and Barbara Ellsworth invested $125,000 in order to get back $1,000 a month for five years in addition to the return of their original investment.

The payments came for a year, maybe 13 months, and stopped.

“For a while, we got interest, and then it just quit,” Barbara Ellsworth said. “We called the man that sold it to us, and he told us they were having trouble. He was as surprised as we were.”

The Ellsworths were some of the 140 Texans who bought into what prosecutors describe as a $15 million Ponzi scheme run by Edward S. Digges Jr., a disbarred lawyer and convicted felon from Maryland who had been sanctioned by securities boards in several Atlantic states.

Digges was convicted by a Collin County jury on Feb. 10 and in sentencing hearings at presstime. Prosecutors were seeking a life sentence for Digges, 63. Attempts to reach Digges were unsuccessful.

Securities fraud has been perpetrated more and uncovered more frequently since the start of the financial crisis for a confluence of reasons, said Joe Rotunda, enforcement director at the Texas State Securities Board. The state securities board counted five times more criminal, civil and administrative actions tied to securities misdoings in 2009 as it did in 2005, up to 2,318 from 449.

‘A horrible, ripe environment’

As the economy soured, operating schemes suddenly couldn’t find new investors to pay off older investors. This is why headline-grabbing swindles, including Bernard Madoff’s bogus hedge fund and the Stanford Financial Group’s too-good-to-be-true Antiguan CDs, fell apart in the wake of the September 2008 financial crisis.

Economist John Kenneth Galbraith, writing about the 1929 stock market crash, described such schemes that grew in good economic times as “the bezzle,” which only come to light in the wake of a crash or downturn. As investors sought better and safer returns than they could find in bank deposits, stocks and bonds, they also became easy marks for new “guaranteed return” schemes.

The credit card terminal scheme for which Digges was convicted preys upon investors’ desire for safety and big returns.

“This created a fertile environment for people to steal things — a horrible, ripe environment,” Rotunda said.

Digges lived in Cambridge, Md., but more than a third of all the money taken from investors came from Texas, Rotunda said. That’s because Digges used a network of insurance agents to market the program to senior citizens in Texas.

Did the agents know they were selling a bogus investment pitched by a felon?

“Depends on who you ask,” Rotunda said. “You attract people with really high commissions. When the price is high, they don’t ask questions they should.”

One San Antonio salesman has been convicted, and others have entered guilty pleas, Rotunda said.

Collin County prosecutions

In response to a rich environment for fraud, the Texas State Securities Board has crafted a partnership with the Collin County District Attorney’s Office to investigate and prosecute large fraud cases, including Digges’ case.

In spite of an initial Securities and Exchange Commission complaint filed in Florida in February 2006 and a receivership for the alleged Ponzi scheme, Digges hadn’t been brought up on federal criminal charges, so the securities board and Collin County DA stepped in.

“Witnesses started to die. There was a big question whether these investors would see justice,” Rotunda said.

Of the $15 million placed with the Digges’ scheme, the receivership returned just more than $1 million to all its investors.

The Digges conviction comes six months after the securities board and Collin County won a big fraud conviction tied to oil and gas investments.

Last May, a Collin County jury convicted William Lester Seelye of McKinney? and sentenced him to 99 years in prison for stealing from oil and gas investment projects, laundering money and committing securities fraud. Seelye allegedly took more than $400,000 from investors.

link to this story at The Dallas Business Journal....

Editorial: Transit innovation


The Dallas Morning News Editorial Board
Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Expanding the reach of rail transit in North Texas will take progress big and small on multiple fronts. Here are a couple of areas where things are quietly heading the right way:

In Austin – House Speaker Joe Straus officially invited ideas on new ways of paying for transportation projects. The speaker announced special committees last week to study needs and report to him on, among other things, "using alternative funding options at the state and local levels."

That was the right move. A bill to permit local-option elections on transportation funding crashed and burned spectacularly in the House last year. Straus' leadership team now must sort through possibilities for solving the inarguable problem of urban traffic congestion.

Traffic planners maintain that expanded rail transit is a must, and this newspaper agrees. Last year's local-option bill would have given voters a say on paying for new transit projects as well as badly needed urban roadways.

Lawmakers in both parties are also making a strong case for raising the motor-fuels tax for the first time since 1991, but any such revenue could go only to roads, not rail, under current law.

That's where the special House committees come in. The speaker's proclamation last week also used the words "innovative approaches," and it couldn't have been said better. Innovation in solving traffic congestion is what transportation leaders in North Texas have been pushing for. It's good to see Straus expressing interest in more of that.

In North Texas – A coalition of cities and transportation agencies has stepped up efforts to develop the long-proposed east-west Cotton Belt rail link to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. It would connect northern suburbs and North Dallas to the airport and run through downtown Fort Worth. DART owns the Cotton Belt right of way but doesn't have the money to put the project together.

Again, innovation is called for. The North Central Texas Council of Governments is finishing a report on ways the six cities on the east side of the airport can team up with property owners and DART to start the new line.

For example, developers might be interested in sharing construction costs if passenger stations were located on their land. The University of Texas at Dallas might want to hire a developer to build a station and amenities on campus.

One audacious idea under discussion is encouraging a manufacturer to locate along the Cotton Belt and produce the next generation of diesel rail cars, which are in demand nationwide for new transit lines.

Ultimately, voter-approved money may be needed to put this project over the top. But since nothing is guaranteed out of Austin, North Texas leaders are smart to look for creative ways to achieve the goal of a seamless regional rail network.

link to this editorial at The Dallas Morning News....

Keith Self attacks the tactics of ... Keith Self

Tuesday, Feb 23, 2010
Michael Landauer/Editor
The Dallas Morning News Opinion blog

Embattled Collin County Judge Keith Self issued an e-mail to supporters in response to allegations from the John Muns campaign. Here's what he said:

"Are these gutter attacks the "Collin County values" that my opponent says that he will bring to the county? No thank you. These are the same attacks that the same consulting firm made against Commissioner Joe Jaynes two years ago. I want to hear from John Muns - are you hiding behind an out-of-control consulting company or are these gutter attacks your values? I want to know."

They don't call this the political funny season for nothing. Keith Self endorsed the campaign against Jaynes in 2008. He never spoke out against the tactics in that campaign. He is now throwing an old friend, Corbett Howard, under the bus to score political points.

And here's the best part. "Are these gutter attacks your values?" According to the consulting firm in question, they are Keith Self's values. As a campaign adviser, he directed and suggested the very attacks he is now attacking. This from Brian Mayes at Allyn Media:

We talked to Mr. Self on a regular basis during the 2008 campaign, and of all Corbett's supporters and advisors, his strategic direction was by far the most aggressive.

I asked Mr. Self if he'd like to respond, and here's what he said:

"No, I have no intention of engaging in a public debate through the media that endorsed my opponent. It is no secret that I supported my friend Corb Howard."

We did recommend John Muns. I stand by these words more than ever:

It's not what first-term Self is for that causes concern about his time in office. Rather, it's what he's been against and how he pursues his agenda. Self doesn't shy away from butting heads with people he disagrees with and, at times, seems to go out of his way for a collision. ... With GOP voters choosing between two fiscally conservative Republicans, they should go with Muns, a leader with experience building coalitions.

Read this article at The Dallas Morning News Opinion blog....

Texas House race starting to get ugly in Plano

Tuesday, February 23, 2010
By THEODORE KIM / The Dallas Morning News

Politically genteel Plano is witnessing a testier brand of politics this year.

The GOP campaign to represent West Plano in the Texas House of Representatives is emerging as one of the city's most cantankerous races in years. Candidates are trading barbs over everything from resume discrepancies to charges of tax evasion.

The first volley came Friday, when Mabrie Jackson sent out a mailer and put up a Web site entitled "Plano Resume Fraud." The mailer and site accused opponents Wayne Richard and Van Taylor of misrepresenting their records and other transgressions.

"Don't be tricked by resume fraud in the Plano State Representative Race," Jackson's Web site reads. The mailer blames Richard and Taylor for having "falsified their backgrounds to win votes" for the March 2 primary.

Richard and Taylor have fired back, accusing Jackson of spreading falsehoods and poisoning the political atmosphere.

Taylor charged Jackson, a former City Council member, of publishing "one of the most negative mail pieces in Collin County history." Richard characterized Jackson's allegations as "malicious and hateful."

Unusual

Such heated rhetoric is unusual in Plano, which has long revolved around a stable of powerful incumbents and has rarely played host to knockdown campaigns.

But the stakes are high. The prize is the Texas House seat representing District 66, which has not been open since 1991. Incumbent Republican Brian McCall? is not seeking re-election.

The turbulent campaign also reflects a deepening battle to court conservative primary voters as all three candidates tilt to the right.

On her Web site and mailings, Jackson accuses Richard of "cheating on his business taxes," hosting a "voyeurism video" Web site and receiving campaign help from "extremists."

She also charged Taylor with being a "political carpetbagger" who is "searching for a political office to run for" (Taylor ran unsuccessfully for Congress in the Waco area in 2006) and of bankrolling his entire campaign.

Jackson declined to comment about the Web site or mailing, which feature her photo and campaign logo. Her spokesman Judd Pritchard called the materials a "comparison between candidates."

"All this stuff is legitimate candidate resume material," he said.

Richard said the accusations are "inaccurate, untruthful, hateful and inappropriate."

Regarding the charge that he has cheated on his business taxes, Richard, who owns a small Web company, said the accusation is false and proof of what he called Jackson's "lack of expertise in business and how she would address legislative issues as a representative."

Richard also responded to questions about his political ties. One of his top campaign aides, Peter Morrison of Lumberton, Texas, keeps a Facebook page on which Morrison has blamed the "Third World" for the Fort Hood shootings and criticized Texas schools for advocating diversity.

"I'm happy to have their support," Richard said of his aides.

More response

Taylor, meantime, said Jackson's "attacks are negative and false." He did not dispute any of her claims when asked specifically about each of them. But he said he had been up front about his record.

"She is attempting to mislead voters that I'm trying to hide something," Taylor said.

Fundraising, like the rhetoric, has picked up in recent weeks.

Taylor, who works in real estate, has loaned his campaign $420,000, including nearly $200,000 since late January. He raised $41,000 from other sources during that period.

He gave more than $1 million in contributions and loans to his 2006 bid for Congress, federal records show.

Jackson has raised $64,000 in recent weeks, according to records. That includes more than $20,000 in cash from political action committees representing interests ranging from natural gas and liquor to finance.

She has more than $110,000 on hand.

Richard reported $47,000 in contributions, though that figure includes more than $37,000 in noncash campaign services.

He has spent $12,000 since late January and reported having no money left in his campaign account.

No Democrats are running for the seat.

read article at The Dallas Morning News....

Some early voters report problems in Collin County

by STEVE STOLER / WFAA-TV

Posted on February 23, 2010 at 9:11 PM
Updated today at 10:31 PM

Several Collin County voters are complaining about their early voting experiences. They say election workers just couldn't believe they wanted to vote Republican.

All of them are minorities, and they believe race is the reason they were questioned.

Three of the voters who had problems at a McKinney polling place have something in common: All are women; all are black; and all say they were questioned when they wanted to vote Republican.

Connie Evans explained what happened when she went to her polling place. “Before she gave me the card, she said, 'Now you're voting what?' 'I'm voting Republican.' And then after she gave me the card, she asked me again what I was voting, and I said, 'I'm voting Republican.'"

Tiffany Loera and Brittany Evans say they were asked the same question several times.

“It’s very offensive, because it's almost like we don't know what we're talking about," Loera said. "Why ask more than once?"

Four African-American candidates are running on the Republican ballot, the most ever in Collin County. Historically, African-Americans vote Democratic in the county.

The women believe that's why they were questioned.

“Most black people were supposed to vote Democrat, but we can change our mind just like anybody else," Evans said.

In response, Collin County Elections Administrator Sharon Rowe sent a message to all county poll workers, telling them to ask every single voter if they are voting in the Democratic or Republican primary, or allow the voter to declare their party affiliation. She warned them to never assume a party affiliation for any voter.

Connie Evans says reaction she received has upset her. “If I’m coming in and I say I'm voting Republican, that's what I'm voting; I don't need to be asked three times," she said.

The problem isn't’ limited to African-American voters at just one polling place.

Long-time Republican voter Fred Nasseri's had difficulty inside the voting booth.

“As soon as I put the card in, it says 'Democratic.' I was really upset, and I let them know this is a concern," Nasseri said.

The elections administrator wants to talk with all the voters who had problems at the polls, so she can address each issue to make sure it won't happen again.

read article and watch vidoe report at WFAA.com....

Questions Of an Affair Tainting A Trial


By ADAM LIPTAK / Columnist, The New York Times Sidebar
The New York Times / Published: February 22, 2010

WASHINGTON - Charles Dean Hood was sentenced to death in 1990 by a Texas judge who had been sleeping with the prosecutor in his case. It took Mr. Hood almost 20 years to establish that fact.

But he finally managed to force the two officials to testify about their rumored affair in the fall of 2008. They admitted it.

Texas’s highest court for criminal matters, its Court of Criminal Appeals, considered all of this and concluded that Mr. Hood should be executed anyway. In a 6-to-3 decision in September, the court told Mr. Hood that he had taken too long to raise the issue of whether a love affair between a judge and a prosecutor amounted to a conflict of interest.

Mr. Hood has asked the United States Supreme Court to hear his case. On Thursday, 21 former judges and prosecutors filed a brief supporting him. So did 30 experts in legal ethics.

“A judge who has engaged in an intimate, extramarital, sexual relationship with the prosecutor trying a capital murder case before her has a conflict of interest and must recuse herself,” the brief from the ethics experts said. “Of all the courts to have considered the issue, only the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in this case failed to recognize this imperative.”

The affair itself, as described in the depositions of the two former lovers, sounded tawdry and sad.

Judge Verla Sue Holland, who presided over Mr. Hood’s case in a district court in Collin County, Tex., testified that she and the prosecutor, Thomas S. O’Connell Jr., had had sex at each other's homes when their spouses were away. This happened, she said, seven or eight times.

Mr. O’Connell did not seem especially romantic. Judge Holland testified that he once gave her a picture of a polar bear with a matching cup. Another time he gave her a chafing dish.

He never stayed the night. “I had a truck that everybody recognized,” Mr. O’Connell explained.

And he might have been more sympathetic when Judge Holland’s mother died.

“Tom didn’t send a card,” the judge testified. “He didn’t send flowers. He didn’t come by. He didn’t call. You know, I think that’s pretty callous.”

Asked if they had professed their love to each other, Judge Holland sounded wistful. “Yeah,” she said. “Yes. I loved him.”

Judge Holland was elected to the Court of Criminal Appeals in 1996, served for five years and sat with eight of the nine judges who considered her conduct last September. The exception was Judge Cathy Cochran, one of four women on the court and the author of the dissenting opinion.

Judge Cochran took a stab at characterizing the relationship in a footnote. It was misleading, Judge Cochran wrote, to say that Judge Holland and Mr. O’Connell had “an intimate sexual relationship,” though she conceded that the phrase was “literally true.”

“Theirs was hardly the torrid relationship of romance novels,” Judge Cochran clarified. It was, rather, “a close personal relationship that, on a few rare occasions, dipped into intimacy.”

Whatever the precise contours and intensity of the affair, Judge Holland did testify that she would have disqualified herself from Mr. Hood’s case had his lawyers asked. But she also said she and Mr. O’Connell had kept their extramarital affair secret. She said it ended in 1987, three years before Mr. Hood’s trial.

In her deposition, Judge Holland said she had lately become angry with Mr. Hood’s lawyers for “annihilating my reputation.” She said she had asked the attorney general’s office to represent her in Mr. Hood’s challenge to her conduct because she thought she needed to fight back. She was “tired of laying over,” she said, and “getting licked without any input.”

Mr. Hood was convicted of murdering a couple he had been living with, Ronald Williamson and Tracie Lynn Wallace, in Plano, Tex., in 1989.

The district attorney in Collin County, John R. Roach, has said that the case should not be reopened in light of the gravity of those crimes and Mr. Hood’s delay in pursuing rumors of the affair. Mr. Roach added that there was no need for a categorical rule against a little romance.

“The existence of a prior sexual relationship between a judge and a prosecutor is not cause to absolutely disqualify a judge,” Mr. Roach told the appeals court last year. “At some point, the past romantic relationships, of even public figures, become a matter that is entitled to some privacy.”

John R. Rolater Jr., a lawyer in Mr. Roach’s office, declined to elaborate. “We have no comment at this time because of the pending litigation,” Mr. Rolater said Friday in an e-mail message.

The Supreme Court has lately taken some interest in the integrity of the judicial system.

Last year, it ruled that millions of dollars in campaign spending on behalf of a West Virginia judge was reason enough to require his disqualification from a case involving his supporter.

“The probability of actual bias on the part of the judge,” Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for the majority, was “too high to be constitutionally tolerable.”

And last month, the Supreme Court ordered the federal appeals court in Atlanta to have another look at a case in which jurors in a capital trial gave a trial judge an odd gift — a penis made of chocolate.

“From beginning to end,” the unsigned majority decision said, “judicial proceedings conducted for the purpose of deciding whether a defendant shall be put to death must be conducted with dignity and respect.”

To review the bidding: Campaign spending may undermine the integrity of the judicial system. The same goes for a gag gift of confectionary genitalia. But a love affair between the judge and prosecutor in a death penalty case is, in Texas, at least, another matter.

link to this column in The New York Times....

======================================

Also see commentary from Grits for Breakfast.

And BRIEF OF FORMER JUDGES, STATE OFFICIALS, AND PROSECUTORS AS AMICI CURIAE IN SUPPORT OF PETITIONER filed before the US Supreme Court. (Bill notes, this is worth reading. Look at who signed it.)

Today is George Washington's 278th birthday.

With the extreme discord that seems to have totally taken over national politics and which threatens even local political institutions, it seems fitting to this author to let our first President weigh in on the matter.

From President Washington's 1796 "Farewell Address":

"...To the efficacy and permanency of your Union, a Government for the whole is indispensable. No alliances, however strict, between the parts can be an adequate substitute; they must inevitably experience the infractions and interruptions, which all alliances in all times have experienced. Sensible of this momentous truth, you have improved upon your first essay, by the adoption of a Constitution of Government better calculated than your former for an intimate Union, and for the efficacious management of your common concerns. This Government, the offspring of our own choice, uninfluenced and unawed, adopted upon full investigation and mature deliberation, completely free in its principles, in the distribution of its powers, uniting security with energy, and containing within itself a provision for its own amendment, has a just claim to your confidence and your support. Respect for its authority, compliance with its laws, acquiescence in its measures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of true Liberty. The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their Constitutions of Government. But the Constitution which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish Government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established Government.

"All obstructions to the execution of the Laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation, the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels, and modified by mutual interests.

"However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people, and to usurp for themselves the reins of government; destroying afterwards the very engines, which have lifted them to unjust dominion.

"Towards the preservation of your government, and the permanency of your present happy state, it is requisite, not only that you steadily discountenance irregular oppositions to its acknowledged authority, but also that you resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles, however specious the pretexts. One method of assault may be to effect, in the forms of the constitution, alterations, which will impair the energy of the system, and thus to undermine what cannot be directly overthrown. In all the changes to which you may be invited, remember that time and habit are at least as necessary to fix the true character of governments, as of other human institutions; that experience is the surest standard, by which to test the real tendency of the existing constitution of a country; that facility in changes, upon the credit of mere hypothesis and opinion, exposes to perpetual change, from the endless variety of hypothesis and opinion; and remember, especially, that, for the efficient management of our common interests, in a country so extensive as ours, a government of as much vigor as is consistent with the perfect security of liberty is indispensable. Liberty itself will find in such a government, with powers properly distributed and adjusted, its surest guardian. It is, indeed, little else than a name, where the government is too feeble to withstand the enterprises of faction, to confine each member of the society within the limits prescribed by the laws, and to maintain all in the secure and tranquil enjoyment of the rights of person and property.

"I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the state, with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party, generally.

"This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but, in those of the popular form, it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy.

"The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries, which result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of Public Liberty.

"Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind, (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight,) the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.

"It serves always to distract the Public Councils, and enfeeble the Public Administration. It agitates the Community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms; kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which find a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.

"There is an opinion, that parties in free countries are useful checks upon the administration of the Government, and serve to keep alive the spirit of Liberty. This within certain limits is probably true; and in Governments of a Monarchical cast, Patriotism may look with indulgence, if not with favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those of the popular character, in Governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged. From their natural tendency, it is certain there will always be enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose. And, there being constant danger of excess, the effort ought to be, by force of public opinion, to mitigate and assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume..."

George Washington
United States - September 17, 1796

Picture this -- a man is arrested for let's say burglary and is brought before a judge who asks him if he understands the charges. "Yes, your honor and I want to plead guilty", replies the accused.

But then the District Attorney jumps up with, "We object. The people demand a jury trial".

"But I'm guilty. I did it and I'll accept my sentence.", replies the accused. "No matter, the State demands a jury trial, and we will have one", the prosecutor declares.

In Texas and especially in Collin County this actually happens. The judge is then forced to send out jury summons to 100 or more citizens, who take time off of work to come to court. A jury is chosen, sworn in and seated. The man is brought back into court and once again says, "your honor, I plead guilty, and I ask that you, the judge, set punishment." The Jury is sent home, and the man sentenced.

Not a very efficient way to run a court, is it?

Last week, in a Collin County case, the Texas 5th Court of Appeals overturned a visiting judge who refused to allow the DA to force a jury trial, when the defendant asked to plead guilty.

Visiting Judge John McCraw had accepted 4 guilty pleas from a defendant, when the prosecution objected and demanded jury trials.

Judge McCraw replied, "I'm accepting his constitutional right to enter a plea before the Court. I would submit the United States Constitution allows a defendant the right to enter a plea based on the Court's request and to avoid needless four jury trials and have at least a couple of hundred county citizens come forward [as potential jurors] and waive their right to make any type of living that day and costing the county some $5,000 per trial. I don't understand why the State is refusing to allow the defendant... to enter a plea of guilty."

In its opinion, Judge Douglas Lang, writing for the majority of the 5th Court of Appeals noted, "the Court of Criminal Appeals long ago concluded that defendants accused of felony offenses have a constitutional right to trial by jury, but do not have a constitutional protected right to waive trial by jury." Citing an earlier case opinion that said, "“As a matter of Texas constitutional law, an accused has an absolute right to trial by jury...but neither a historical nor express right to have a felony accusation tried by the court, sitting without a jury can be found.”.

The appeals court then found that, "The trial court abused its discretion when it allowed Blackburn to enter guilty pleas and waive jury trial without the prosecuting attorney's consent."

The court then issued its order, "The Court ORDERS the Honorable John McCraw, Presiding Judge by Assignment of the 429th District Court, Collin County, to set aside the guilty pleas entered for Cause Numbers 199- 80283-08, 199-80284-08, 199-80285-08, and 199-80286-08, set aside the jury trial waiver form not consented to by the State, and schedule these cases for further proceedings consistent with this opinion."

Bill

Notes:

Judge accuses DA of "forum shopping" and "needless expense": DA appeals (updated), CCO, December 21, 2009

The opinion of the Texas 5th Court of Appeals, IN RE JOHN ROACH, No. 05-09-01451-CV, February 17, 2010

The Observer's notes from the campaign trail --

Visual and air pollution

Even to a political junkie like me, the mess of political signs on virtually every street corner has become tiresome. While most empty lots are not scenic Meccas, the ranks of yard signs, 4 X 4's and 4 X 8's constitute little more than visual pollution.

Now I really do sympathize with any judicial candidate running in this year's GOP primary. Good grief, how does a candidate get name recognition?

There are upwards 30 candidates vying for what appears to be a myriad of courts few have ever heard of, much less understand. Stuck down at the bottom of an endless ballot, these talented attorneys need to find any way they can to draw a voter's attention to their name.

Case in point, District Court Judge candidate Scott Becker sought to find a novel way to gain name recognition by hiring a mobile billboard to carry his ad on a route across Plano, McKinney and Frisco.

I hope this isn't the start of a trend. To this writer, there is something a little offensive in wasting energy and spewing smoke driving a truck around in great big circles in order to get votes.

Novel and non-polluting.

One way the candidates try to gain the voters' attention is by campaigning at the polling places. Depending on the location, voters may have to run a gauntlet of signs, candidates and their supporters.

One supporter of District Judge candidate Keith Gore is getting his candidate's name in front of the voters in a more novel way. Local lawyer Tony Vitz has been spotted riding his unicycle around at a McKinney polling place while exhorting citizens to "Vote for Gore".

On a related note, Court at Law #3 candidate Lance Baxter noted on his questionnaire that he was a juggler. If they teamed up, Vitz and Baxter could probably draw some real crowds to the polls.

Where is the shame?

The Observer was dismayed to see that Court at Law #4 Candidate Linda Wynn Drain sent out a mailer with an endorsement by former DA Tom O'Connell. A campaign press release carries a similar endorsement from him.

O'Connell was the former DA who engaged in a sexual affair with then District Judge Verla Sue Holland. Their affair only came to the public's attention last year after both were forced to testify under oath in an ongoing attempt by attorneys for Charles Dean Hood. Hood is on death row, convicted in a trial where Holland and O'Connell hid their extra-marital relationship from the defense.

Their tryst may now prompt a review of the Hood case by the United States Supreme Court.

Extracting confessions from these two secret lovers has already cost the citizens of Collin County tens of thousands of dollars. Both O'Connell and Holland violated their oath as officers of the law. Both destroyed their marriages. Both thought their dirty little secret more important than allowing a capital defendant a fair trial.

Instead of being contrite or ashamed, O'Connell is endorsing a new generation of judges. Where is the outrage? Where is the shame?

Grand Theft Auto

Most elections are marred by reports of folks stealing campaign signs. Sadly this is a common occurrence in Collin County.

But this year tops all. It's not only yard signs that are being stolen, but the candidates' cars and trucks.

A few weeks ago, a local blog reported that Democratic Party District Attorney candidate Raphael de la Garza had a truck sporting his campaign signs stolen from a Garland lot. The large panel truck had de la Garza's pitch for District Attorney prominently displayed.

And then last week, Court at Law #6 Candidate Don High had his wife's car stolen from their Plano driveway. The car was, according to High, emblazoned with his campaign message and loaded with yard signs.

Grand theft auto, another campaign trend I hope never takes hold.

Bill

As part of our effort to reduce pollution, The Collin County Observer has posted for each judicial candidate:

• Videos of their 'stump speech'
• Campaign finance reports
• Questionnaires on judicial philosophy and temperament

Typing any candidates name or any court into the Observer's "SEARCH" box will yield, I hope, enough information for an interested voter to make an informed decision.

For example entering "Scott Becker" into the search box gets you his questionnaire, a video speech, a video interview, his campaign finance reports, a listing of major donors, and a bio.

Early voting for the March 2 Primary is underway with a week to go. Early voting ends on Friday.

After the first five days (through Saturday) 9,150 have voted in the Republican, and 926 in the Democratic Party Primary.

The heaviest turnout has been at the Collin County Elections Office in McKinney, at the Allen Municipal Courts Building and at Plano's Carpenter Park Recreation Center.

The total vote turnout by polling place from Feb. 16th - Feb. 20th is here.

Turnout is at historic highs for a Republican gubernatorial primary - over 3 times the number of voters in 2006. In 2006, after 5 days of early voting, about 2,800 Republicans and 300 Democrats had voted. In fact, the number of Republican voters is only slightly less than the 9,100 in the 2008 Presidential Primary. Democrats are not voting at anything like the level they did in 2008, when 13,800 had voted by the 5th day of early voting.

Early voting locations are:

• Collin County Elections office (Main Early Voting Location) 2010 Redbud Blvd, Suite 102, McKinney
• Allen Municipal Courts Facility 301 Century Pkwy, Allen
• Carpenter Park Recreation Ctr 6701 Coit Road, Plano
• CCCC-Central Park Campus 2200 W University Dr., McKinney
• CCCC-Preston Ridge Campus 9700 Wade Blvd., Frisco
• CCCC-Spring Creek Campus 2800 East Spring Creek, Plano
• Celina ISD Administration Building 205 S. Colorado, Celina
• Christopher A. Parr Library 6200 Windhaven Pkwy., Plano
• Farmersville City Hall 205 South Main, Farmersville
• Haggard Library 2501 Coit Rd., Plano
• Harrington Library 1501 18th Street, Plano
• Lucas City Hall 665 Country Club Road, Lucas
• McKinney Fire Station #7 861 S. Independence Pkwy, McKinney
• Murphy Municipal Complex 206 N Murphy Rd., Murphy
• Old Settlers Recreation Center 1201 E. Louisiana St., McKinney
• Plano ISD Administration Center 2700 West 15th Street, Plano
• Renner-Frankford Library 6400 Frankford Rd., Dallas
• Texas Star Bank 402 W. White, Anna
• Wylie Municipal Complex 2000 N. Hwy 78, Wylie

All polling locations will be open from 7 AM - 7 PM all week. Maps and sample ballots are available at the Collin County Elections website.

Election day is Tuesday, March 2.

Bill

House 66 race gets testy; Jackson attacks foes

February 19, 2010
The Dallas Morning News' Plano Blog
Theodore Kim / Reporter / The Dallas Morning News

....Candidate Mabrie Jackson has gone on the offensive today, publishing a website paid for by her campaign that attacks her foes, Wayne Richard and Van Taylor, on various fronts. The website is called PlanoResumeFraud.com.

It accuses Richard of a number of shortcomings ranging from cheating on his business property taxes and running fringe web businesses to cultivating ties with political extremists. The site also mentions how Richard voted for Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2008. (He has portrayed himself as an arch conservative.)

Meantime, Jackson's website attacks Taylor for being a "political carpetbagger" who abandoned the Waco area shortly after a failed bid for Congress there in 2006. Jackson also mentions how few of Taylor's campaign contributions come from Plano.

The publishing of the website coincided with a mailer that reiterates many of the same factoids. The headline on the mailer: "Stop Voter Fraud and Candidate Fraud."

Richard published a lengthy response in which he calls Jackson's criticisms "malicious and hateful" and "the work of a desperate opponent." Richard said he voted for Clinton in 2008 as part of "Operation Chaos" in which conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh encouraged his listeners to vote in the Democratic primary.

He also defended his business practices as legitimate. For his full statement, click here.

....UPDATE | 7:31 p.m. Candidate Van Taylor responded Friday to Mabrie Jackson's website, calling it "one of the most negative mail pieces in Collin County history."

"In a last-minute attempt to resurrect her failing campaign, Mabrie Jackson has subjected Plano residents to negative attacks, false charges and offensive mailers," Taylor said in a news release. To read his full statement, click here.

read the entire article at The Dallas Morning News' Plano blog....

-----------------------

The Observer comments:

After the DMN blog posting, there is a long comment conversation that is quite amusing. My favorite comment had to be,"I'm amused that somebody would use 'I did it because Rush Limbaugh told me to' as a defense".

Bill

Sex Parte Redux: SCOTUS should "remedy appalling acts by a judge and officer of the court" in Charles Hood case, since Texas CCA won't

Grits for Breakfast
February 19, 2010

Bully for the Constitution Project and the former federal judges and other officials who signed an amicus brief requesting the Supreme Court of the United States hear the Charles Dean Hood case, in which the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied a habeas petition without giving a reason after the trial judge and the prosecutor admitted an affair before and possibly during his trial, then lied about or concealed their misconduct. Reports the Dallas News Crime Blog:

A former governor, a former district attorney, a former U.S. attorney from North Texas, and the former director of the FBI are among a group of 21 lawyers who have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a controversial Texas death penalty case.

The group, which was organized by the Constitution Project, is asking the court to hear the case of Charles Dean Hood, who was sentenced to death for killing two people in Collin County in 1989. Hood's case has garnered national attention not for the horrific crime, but because the prosecutor in the case had an intimate relationship with the judge.

See the Constitution Project's press release. According to the petition, "Amici are deeply concerned that, if the judgment [by the Texas CCA] is allowed to stand, the Due Process Clause’s guarantee of fundamental fairness—especially in death penalty cases— will be imperiled, and public confidence in the courts will suffer."

The brief asserts that "the Due Process Clause forbids a trial judge from presiding over a criminal proceeding in the circumstances presented here." SCOTUS should intervene, they said, because it "has an extraordinarily strong interest in preserving the reputation of the judiciary—in particular affirming the courts’ willingness to recognize and remedy appalling acts by a judge and officer of the court that violate fundamental fairness."

It's worth mentioning that all but one of the sitting members of the Texas CCA served on Texas' high criminal court with the judge in question - Verla Sue Holland - so there's an appearance that they declined to correct this obvious error out of an excess of collegial deference (read: cronyism). Only three CCA judges - Cochran, Price, and Holcomb - dissented to that embarrassing ruling. (Good for them, btw - I'm sure there was pressure to do otherwise.) So whether or not SCOTUS reviews the case, the majority of judges on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals have already affirmed their un-willingness to "recognize and remedy appalling acts by a judge and officer of the court that violate fundamental fairness."

This is perhaps an even more embarrassing, despicable spectacle than Presiding Judge Sharon Keller's defiant insistence that she'd repeat her behavior from the "We close at 5" imbroglio. Keller, at least, is just one vote on the court. But here, five others joined her in shirking their responsibilities to protect their ex-colleague, and not on the spur of the moment, as in Keller's infamous decision that got her into trouble, but in a deliberative setting when they had full power to right the wrong.

One bad apple could perhaps be overlooked, but in this case the barrel's spoiled. Hopefully SCOTUS will take the case and clean up the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals' mess, again.

See related Grits coverage:

Disgrace! CCA lets stand egregious misconduct in capital murder case

Sex Parte: Coverup of judicial tryst tests CCA's ethical mettle

CCA Follies: They who have put out the people's eyes reproach them of their blindness

link to entire article on Grits for Breakfast....

Observer coverage of Charles Dean Hood case:

NLJ - When procedure trumps justice, Nov. 3, 2009

Sex, lies and lethal injections, Sept. 18, 2009

Hood gets his appeal (maybe), May 5, 2009

Charles Dean Hood gets another 60 days to live, Jan. 28, 2009

AG questions 1/3 of Collin death sentences, Sept. 22, 2008

Collin County needs to review capital cases, Sept. 18, 2008

Crossing the line: Sex and justice, Collin County style, Sept. 8, 2008

Atlantic - Travesty in Texas, Sept. 8, 2008

Attorney General files for possible stay in Hood case, Sept. 4, 2008

In yesterday's Dallas Morning News' Plano Blog, reporter Theodore Kim posted a portion of the federal finance reports from Van Taylor's unsuccessful 2006 run against Democratic Congressman Chet Edwards in Waco.

According to the 2006 records, Taylor pumped almost $1 million of his own money into his 2006 Waco campaign.

This year, according to Kim, Taylor is once again self-financing - bankrolling his campaign with over $280,000 in personal loans, while only raising about $6,400 from Plano constituents.

One difference between 2006 and 2010 is that now Mr. Taylor describes himself as a real estate investor.

In 2006, according to a Fox News op-ed written by former Congressman Martin Frost, Nicholas Van Campen Taylor (aka Exxon Taylor) was a heir to an oil company fortune, living large on dividends from over $11 million in inherited Exxon Corp. stock and least $1 million in big pharma stock.

Bill

Collin County - County Court Q&A Answers

Posted on February 17, 2010 by Hunter Biederman
Frisco DWI Lawyer and Attorney Blog

Recently, a questionnaire was sent out to the candidates for Collin County Court at Law Judges along with the Justice of the Peace candidates. The questions were put together by myself, the Collin County Observer, and McKinneynews.net. Most candidates answered and below is their responses which all came in within the deadline we gave (one week). If others return their answers, I will update this post to add them at that time. I already know of one candidate, Shawn Ismail who we got mixed up with through email (sorry Shawn), and is planning on completing the questionnaire soon.

Collin County Courts at Law hear criminal and civil cases. A County Court at Law is court of general jurisdiction, hearing both civil and criminal law cases with a heavy emphasis on criminal cases. The criminal cases filed in a county court at law are misdemeanors -- those criminal offenses that carry a maximum punishment, upon conviction, of not more than 1 year confinement in jail.

Civil jurisdiction in a County Court at Law is generally invoked in lawsuits that involve controversies up to $100,000. A County Court at Law also has appellate jurisdiction over cases appealed from justice of the peace and municipal courts.

Justice of the Peace courts hear Class C Misdemeanors (traffic citations, toll violations, truancy cases, public intox, bad checks, etc),and civil cases with a maximum of $10,000 in controversy.

The questions posed are below:

1. What current or past judge do you most want to inspire your approach to judicial excellence, and why?

2. What has been the greatest accomplishment in your legal career? In your personal life?
3. What, if anything, would you change to improve the procedures and efficiency of the court you are seeking?

4. Do you feel that ALL citizens have equal and adequate access to justice in our county? How would you improve that access?

5. Collin County tracks indigent defense dollars ordered by each judge. What effect would that reporting have on your decisions to order that the county pay for a defendant’s defense?

6. What do you perceive as the greatest obstacles to justice in Collin County?

7. Incarceration is the most expensive criminal sanction available. How would that fact affect your sentencing decisions?

8. Without commenting on a specific case or type of cases, should Collin County explore more or different types of alternative sentencing? What do you think works? What would you like to try?

9. Recently a Dallas judge made the news when he replaced a white juror with a minority one in a capital trial where the jury was all white and the defendant was not. Do you believe it is important for a minority defendant to have a jury that contains minority members?

10. When a judge’s sense of justice appears to be at variance to the strict application of the law, what approach should an ethical judge take to resolve the conflict?

11. Do you believe that our system of partisan election of trial judges should be continued? How can it be improved?

12. Tell the voters one thing about yourself that isn’t on any website, nor discussed at any forum.

Below are the candidates answers:

County Court at Law #2
Jerry Lewis
Sharon Ramage

County Court at Law #3
Lance Baxter
Shajeel Khaleel
Stewart Matthews
Barnett Walker

County Court at Law #4
Chrysti Bryant
Linda Drain
Matthew Goeller
David Rippel

County Court at Law #6
Jay Bender
Terri Green
Don High
Shawn Ismail

Justice of the Peace, Prec. 3
Rey Flores
John Payton [did not respond]

Justice of the Peace, Prec. 4
Kelley Adley
Doug Reeves [did not respond]
Mike Yarbrough

-----------------

The Collin County Observer can't help but note that while a sitting District Court Judge and an incumbent Court at Law Judge answered the questions put to them, neither sitting Justice of the Peace found it worth their while to respond on time.

I guess they have their own priorities; one of them is not responding to voters questions.

Bill

The Collin County Observer, in a collaboration with the Frisco DWI Lawyer's Blog and McKinneyNews.net recently sent all 27 judicial candidates a 12 question form designed to give the voters an insight both into the plans each candidate has for operating his/her court and their approach to criminal justice.

We will first present the candidates for District Judge.

Collin County has 9 District Courts. Two of them will have contested races in the 2010 Republican Primary. (No Democrats have filed for a District Judge Bench this year.)

District Courts are created by the Legislature as "courts of general jurisdiction". They handle all family law cases, felony criminal cases (including death penalty cases), and civil lawsuits above $100,000. District Court Judges serve 4 year elected terms.

In addition, the 9 District Court Judges collectively comprise the Board of District Judges which is the "supervisory" and appeal authority for the Commissioners Court. The Board of District Judges hires the County Auditor and Purchasing Agent and therefore plays an important role in the system of checks and balances in county government.

We asked each candidate 12 questions. These questions probe the candidates' ideas and attitudes of their role as a trial court judge.

We asked questions about role models, efficiency, temperament, activism, access to justice and alternative sentencing.

The questions are:

1. What current or past judge do you most want to inspire your approach to judicial excellence, and why?

2. What has been the greatest accomplishment in your legal career? In your personal life?

3. What, if anything, would you change to improve the procedures and efficiency of the court you are seeking?

4 Do you feel that ALL citizens have equal and adequate access to justice in our county? How would you improve that access?

5 Collin County tracks indigent defense dollars ordered by each judge. What effect would that reporting have on your decisions to order that the county pay for a defendant’s defense?
6 What do you perceive as the greatest obstacles to justice in Collin County?

7 Incarceration is the most expensive criminal sanction available. How would that fact affect your sentencing decisions?

8. Without commenting on a specific case or type of cases, should Collin County explore more or different types of alternative sentencing? What do you think works? What would you like to try?

9. Recently a Dallas judge made the news when he replaced a white juror with a minority one in a capital trial where the jury was all white and the defendant was not. Do you believe it is important for a minority defendant to have a jury that contains minority members?

10. When a judge’s sense of justice appears to be at variance to the strict application of the law, what approach should an ethical judge take to resolve the conflict?

11. Do you believe that our system of partisan election of trial judges should be continued? How can it be improved?

12. Tell the voters one thing about yourself that isn’t on any website, nor discussed at any forum.

219th District Court
Judge Curt Henderson is retiring at the end of the year from the 219th District Court after what will be 22 years on the bench.

Three Republican candidates have filed to fill the open seat.

Scott Becker's responses are here

Wendy McMillon's responses are here

Angela Tucker responses are here

296th District Court
Incumbent Judge John Roach, Jr. was first elected to the 296th in 2008. He is challenged by Keith Gore in the Republican Primary.

Keith Gore's responses are here

John Roach's responses are here

Links to all received judicial candidate questionnaires are here.

We thank all the candidates for their thoughtful answers. With 27 judicial candidates on the GOP ballot, it is extraordinarily difficult for a conscientious voter to make informed choices.

We hope the questions and answers are enlightening. It is our hope that these questionnaires will assist the careful and discerning voter in understanding the character and motivation of those who would stand up for us in judgment of their fellow man.

Readers can look forward to further analysis and commentary on these questionnaires in The Collin County Observer, the Frisco DWI Lawyer's Blog and in McKinneyNews.net

Bill

Frisco council votes to support reduced-rent apartments

Wednesday, February 17, 2010
By VALERIE WIGGLESWORTH / The Dallas Morning News

More than 100 people turned out Tuesday to voice opposition to two proposed apartment complexes in Frisco.

The planned complexes are dependent on acceptance into the state's Housing Tax Credit program, which provides federal tax incentives to developments with rents at below-market rates.

The complexes also would set aside a certain number of units for Section 8 voucher-holders from the Dallas Housing Authority.

Late into Tuesday night, the City Council discussed the projects and spent more than an hour in executive session consulting with the city’s attorney. Just before midnight, the council voted 4-to-1 to write letters supporting the projects to the state, which will decide in July which projects get funded. City support is key in the developers’ applications to the state for funding.

“This is about providing low-income housing and a plan to get us there,” Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Bob Allen.

Several council members said that residents had some valid concerns about impacts to traffic, utilities and schools. They also noted that the projects were too early in the process to have answers but that the developers would be held to Frisco’s high standards.

Council member Bart Crowder said he believed that some of the fears from residents about the projects were greatly overstated and he believed the agreement with Inclusive Communities Project was appropriate.

Council member Scott Johnson, who cast the sole vote against the letters of support, said he heard lots of reasons why the projects weren’t a good fit for the city. “I have yet to hear why they’re good for the community,” he said. “On this day and this issue, I choose principle over pragmatism. This is not something I support.”

The proposed projects are part of a three-year agreement with the nonprofit Inclusive Communities Project that the City Council approved in October 2008.

In return for making the units available to Dallas clients first, the nonprofit is giving the city $2 million that will be passed on to the developers as low-interest loans to build their projects.

The agreement with Inclusive Communities Project is the first of its kind in North Texas. The nonprofit made similar offers to other cities. Frisco was the only one to accept. The responses from Flower Mound and McKinney prompted lawsuits by Inclusive Communities Project. Flower Mound's suit is pending. McKinney is working out a settlement.

In response to residents' concerns, the city of Frisco posted background about the agreement on its Web site in recent days. As part of the written explanation, City Manager George Purefoy states:

"If Frisco had not negotiated the agreement with ICP, then the likely outcome would have been a federal lawsuit. After 14 months of litigation, the McKinney? Housing Authority is negotiating a settlement agreement with ICP which establishes the same general parameters as the Frisco agreement, except it includes a longer-term agreement (5 years vs. 3 years) and it pays some of ICP's attorneys' fees."

Several residents at Tuesday's meeting said they were willing to pay for the legal fight.

"We are letting the threat of a lawsuit determine what will happen in the city of Frisco," resident Sotirios "Chris" Tsongas said.

Some of the council members said late in the meeting that the threat of a lawsuit did not factor into their decision to contract with the Inclusive Communities Project.

“This is about what’s in the best interest of the city,” Mayor Maher Maso said.

"If Dallas can't handle its own problem, it shouldn't become Frisco's," Frisco resident Dody Brigadier said. "I've never known any Texan to back down from a fight, and here you are."

Betsy Julian, president of Inclusive Communities Project, declined to comment about Tuesday's proceedings.

Residents' concerns about the projects ranged from possible increases in crime to decreases in property values. They were concerned about the ability of nearby roads to handle the traffic from such large complexes. And they were concerned about what the projects would mean to the school system.

The projects are competing for funding through the state's Housing Tax Credit program. It's a competitive process. Developers in the Dallas region have applied for more than $92 million in tax credits for 60 projects. The state has about $10 million available for the region this year.

Developers for the two Frisco projects both admitted Tuesday that they weren't high on the state's project rankings.

"We don't think the odds are great, but we do love Frisco and would love to build in Frisco," said Chris Applequist with San Antonio-based Versa Development Co., which proposes building 200 units on more than 12 acres near Bicentennial Park.

The other project, by Songhai Development Co., proposes building 150 units on 10 acres on the south side of Stonebrook Parkway east of Woodstream.

Julian said last week that she believed there would be plenty of interest from Dallas Housing Authority clients wanting to live in Frisco. They are part of the so-called Walker Settlement, which stems from a 1985 lawsuit over black residents' being forced to live for decades in segregated slums in Dallas.

That settlement has allowed thousands of black families to move into predominantly white neighborhoods. It also created the Walker Project to promote fair housing and support the class members. In 2004, the Walker Project became the Inclusive Communities Project.

read the rest of the article at The Dallas Morning News....

Editorial: We recommend Hall in 4th Congressional District

Tuesday, February 16, 2010
The Dallas Morning News Editorial Board

The 4th Congressional District needs a new voice in Washington, but the five GOP challengers to incumbent Ralph Hall do not provide credible alternatives to the 15-term congressman. So, despite our substantial reservations about Hall's leadership in recent years, we recommend him in this GOP primary.

The 86-year-old Hall, who was first elected in 1980, served constituents well for many years. But more recently his stands have seemed ill-suited to this rapidly changing district's needs; this newspaper has not recommended him since 2004.

While we respect his experience, we disagree with Hall on several important issues, including his opposition to an immigration pathway to citizenship and to cap-and-trade energy legislation. We also were dismayed by his intemperate suggestion in 2004 that the U.S. military should have leveled Baghdad to show the Iraqis they were whipped.

Unfortunately, Hall's opponents – all of them essentially protest candidates – don't inspire confidence. They are John Cooper, 70, a Baptist minister; Steve Clark, 56, a retired telecom executive; Lou Gigliotti, 60, a race car owner; Jerry Ray Hall, 58, a mediator; and Joshua Kowert, a 28-year-old economics professor.

In interviews and campaign materials, they spouted party platitudes that revealed a stunningly superficial knowledge of key issues, such as taxes, energy and immigration.

Hall isn't the leader this district deserves, but his challengers simply aren't ready for Washington. The GOP winner will face Democratic and Libertarian opposition in the fall.

link to this editorial at The Dallas Morning News....

--------------------

Bill Comments:

This is the, I believe, the fourth time in a row the Dallas Morning News has held its nose and either recommended Ralph Hall or refused to recommend anyone. Ralph needs to retire. Unfortunately, the GOP can't seem to recruit anyone who's not a total kook, and the Democrats haven't fielded a candidate who could raise the kind of money it takes to defeat a long term incumbent.

The 4th Congressional District has in the past been served by such political heavy weights such as "Mr. Sam" Sam Rayburn, and Ray Roberts. Now it's simply the fiefdom of an old man who has served long past his usefulness.

That's a shame.

Bill

From a City of Frisco

City Creates Informational Web Page About Proposed Affordable Housing
in Frisco

********************************************

The following information is distributed from the City of Frisco's News and Information service.

********************************************

Tonight, February 16, 2010, the Frisco City Council will consider an agenda item related to proposed low income housing developments in Frisco.

The City of Frisco has created a web page that shares a brief history outlining some significant events and/or programs related to affordable housing in Frisco.

To find out more, go to www.friscotexas.gov Click on ‘Communication’ and
then ‘Proposed Low Income/Sect. 8’

###

Also see - DMN - Frisco affordable housing plan gains board's support but meets resistance

Bill

HCCC Healthcare Candidate Forum
February 16, 2010
7:00 - 9:00 pm
Collin College Spring Creek Campus, Rm. C104

The Healthcare Committee of Collin County (HCCC) will hold its Healthcare Candidate Forum for the Collin County Commissioners Court at the Spring Creek Campus of Collin College Convention Center Room C104. The Candidate Forum will start at 7:00pm.

We encourage all members and friends to attend and get to know the perspective on Healthcare/Mental Healthcare issues of those that may be in leadership for the next four years. The County Commissioners are responsible for Indigent Healthcare and Mental Healthcare in Collin County.

The public is invited. Please invite your friends and associates. Questions will be healthcare related.

Invited Candidates:

Candidates for Collin County Judge
Keith Self (I) Republican
John Muns Republican
David M. Smith Democrat

Candidates for Collin County Commissioner, Precinct 2
Jerry Hoagland (I) Republican
Karl Voigtsberger Republican
Rick Koster Democrat
Cheryl Williams Republican

Candidates for Collin County Commissioner, Precinct 4
Kathy Ward (I) Republican
Duncan Webb Republican

About the Healthcare Committee of Collin County
Healthcare Committee of Collin County (HCCC) is a voluntary, non-profit, unincorporated committee of residents and healthcare service providers of Collin County, Texas and others, and is not affiliated with any political party.

The Committee is an independent, autonomous organization, and is not a branch or subsidiary of any national or other political action committee. It is focused on ensuring adequate, quality healthcare for all residents in Collin County.
www.collinhealthcare.org • E-mail: collinhealthcare@earthlink.net

Disclaimer: I am proud to serve on the Leadership Team of the HCCC.
Bill

Hunter Biederman at the Frisco DWI Lawyer's Blog recently collaborated with The Collin County Observer to offer an in-depth questionnaire to the 4 candidates for Collin County Criminal District Attorney.

At the FDWIL blog, Hunter looks at the candidates' responses and offers his opinion of their "best answers". I think you'll find his take thought provoking, I did.

Please be aware that Hunter offers the disclosure that, "I have been a supporter of Greg Willis' campaign. Although I haven't "campaigned" for him, I have sent in a donation to his campaign."

----------------

District Attorney Candidate "Best Answers", Hunter Biederman - The Frisco DWI Lawyer's blog

Candidate responses:

James Angelino's responses are here

Jeff Bray's responses are here

Raphael de la Garza's responses are here

Greg Willis' responses are here

Bill

From Collin County's website:

Early voting for the March 2 party primary elections begins on Tuesday, Feb. 16 and runs through Friday, Feb. 26 – and our Elections Office is ready to help you find a place to cast your ballot.

In Collin County, about 70 percent of those who cast ballots do so during the early voting stage, so we’ve set up some easy ways for you to find your way to the polls early, or on March 2.

Here’s a quick rundown of links and services available:

For starters, you can find a polling center in Collin County by simply plugging in a street address and zip code into our Early Voting Location Search, which will also give you driving directions to the nearest polling center. We also have an alphabetized listing on the same page if you’d like to scroll through the 19 locations. Voting traffic status on this list will also show how long a wait you might have at one location. Since in early voting you can cast your ballot at any location, if one spot is crowded you can locate another where the wait is shorter.

Also, be sure to check the times and dates for early voting. These vary slightly throughout the two-week stretch.

Of course, you’re also going to want to check the ballots for your precinct (plus, voting locations for March 2). In case you don’t know your voting precinct, you can perform a Voter Registration Card Search.

Finally, remember you can also view – or sign up to receive email versions of – elections results for Collin County.

The Collin County Observer, in a collaboration with the Frisco DWI Lawyer's Blog recently sent all four District Attorney candidates a 10 question form designed to give the voters an insight both into the plans each candidate has for operating the DAs office and their approach to criminal justice.

The Collin County District Attorney is responsible for prosecution of all criminal cases in the county. The DA runs a large operation, divided into ten divisions. These divisions are: Intake/Grand Jury, Misdemeanor Trial, Felony Trial, Family Justice (crimes against children section, domestic violence section), Special Crimes, Appellate, Hot Checks, Investigations, Operations and Victim/Witness Assistance. The DA also may represent the County in civil cases.

The DA's office has 116 employees and its 2010 budget is $10,775,827.

The questionnaire contained 10 questions. The first 5 involved the organization and operation of the department:

1. What do you think about the current structure/staffing of the ADAs? Would you shift attorneys around?

2. What do you think about the criminal special crimes section? Would you make changes in that section, and if so, specifically how?

3. Will you get in the courtroom and actually try cases? Why or Why Not?

4. In general, what changes would you be making if you became District Attorney?

5. Right now, only three people in the District Attorney’s office have authority to dismiss a case. The misdemeanor division chief for misdemeanor cases, the first assistant for felony cases, and of course, the elected District Attorney. What do you think of this policy? Would you allow misdemeanor court chiefs and or felony court chiefs to dismiss cases they feel should be dismissed?

The next question addressed the recent attempt by DA John Roach to arm a "Rapid Response Team" with automatic weapons and riot gear:

6. Current DA John Roach recently proposed using funds to purchase weapons and body armor for the Investigators in the office. What do you plan on doing with these weapons, and will your investigators continue to train to be a emergency security staff for the court?

And the last 4 questions with policies affecting the administration of justice:

7. Do you have any plans to expand or develop alternative/deferred sentencing programs? What programs have you seen or heard of that you would implement?

8. What lessons should the Collin County District Attorney learn (if any) from Dallas County’s experience with their Innocence Commission?

9. Do you believe our indigents are well served and fairly treated in our “Indigent Defense Plans”? What changes to the plans might you recommend to the Board of Judges?

10. Would you bar defendants from open pleas before a judge if a plea agreement can not be reached, or would you reserve the right to object if you thought the judge might be more lenient than your plea offer was? Which level of prosecutors in the office would be allowed to make this decision?

As of the deadline at midnight on Sunday 3 of the candidates had returned their completed questionnaires:

James Angelino's responses are here

Jeff Bray's responses are here

Raphael de la Garza's responses are here

Greg Willis' responses are here

The questions are specific and so the responses are long. The Observer offers this in-depth look at each of these candidates in the hope that the discerning voter will gain valuable insight into the plans and philosophy of each of these well qualified candidates.

The Observer thanks each of these gentlemen for taking the time to submit thoughtful answers to our questions. Our readers can look forward to further analysis and discussion of these issues in both The Collin County Observer and the Frisco DWI Lawyer's Blog.

Bill

UPDATE (2/15/10) I received Mr. De La Garza's response and posted it.

David Melton, who has written often in The Dallas Morning News Voices columns, has authored an interesting piece on the ongoing City of McKinney review of the McKinney Performing Arts Center.

The McKinney Performing Arts Center (MPAC) is housed in the old Collin County Courthouse on the downtown square in McKinney. It is an imposing and historically valuable asset, but and expensive one to keep up, and always seeming to be in need of renovations.

I have been to several productions and one banquet at MPAC. I love the building, and it seems to be a wonderful venue for small productions. But it is underutilized and the size limitations of any artistic productions limit its ability to generate enough revenue to sustain it.

I hope this article spurs a vigorous debate, and The Collin County Observer is willing to publish a responsible reply from an opposing point of view.

Bill

Link to city of McKinney public input form on the future use of The McKinney Performing Arts Center

-------------------------------------------------

David Melton of McKinney: Solutions needed for McKinney arts center

Sunday, February 14, 2010
The Dallas Morning News Local Voices / Opinions

In recent months, there has been a lot of serious debate within the McKinney City Council about what to do with the McKinney Performing Arts Center, the old courthouse in the middle of downtown.

Several years ago, there was a major push for the McKinney Community Development Corp. to spend $9 million rehabbing this structure. The money was spent, and what the city ended up with was a structure that probably needed another $10 million to be spent.

Windows need to be replaced, and it would help to replace the roof. All of this money spent was projected to make the place presentable so it would be a major tourist attraction and arts center.

Years went by, and the arts center never lived up to potential. The MCDC was told that it would have to pay for the deficit each year to the tune of over $500,000 per year.

For the first couple of years, I sat on the MCDC board, and we were not even consulted about the cost. It was just added to our budget by the city, with the result being over $41,000 per month allocated to MPAC to keep it going.

Today, with the city running short on operating funds – struggling with cutting jobs and overhead, and delaying major projects – I often pause for thought about the millions of dollars that have been spent on MPAC.

I raised the ire of a good number of people when I suggested that the city hire four bulldozers and put one on each side of this building and let them go to work and meet in the middle of the rubble. The arts people went wild over the idea and suggested that I was out to destroy downtown McKinney.

I still believe that a large pavilion could be erected where MPAC now stands and it would enhance the overall image of our town and be a much better way to spend our tax dollars.

I am happy that the City Council is looking at MPAC seriously and trying to come with some solution that will work better for all concerned. I realize that the building has been registered as a historical site and that their options are limited.

But it's time the city do something to stop throwing good money after bad.

David Melton is a semi-retired insurance executive who lives in McKinney.

link to Mr. Melton's article at The Dallas Morning News....

Candidates for West Plano seat in Texas House digging deep into their own pockets for campaign funds

Sunday, February 14, 2010
By THEODORE KIM / The Dallas Morning News

Contenders for West Plano's seat in the Texas House of Representatives are pouring lots of their own money into the fight.

With several weeks to go before the March 2 Republican primary, Mabrie Jackson and Van Taylor have between them invested more than $300,000 in the race, campaign finance reports show.

Fundraising records also have raised questions about the political ties of the third candidate, Wayne Richard, who has gained momentum among Tea Party activists.

The House District 66 seat opened in November when incumbent Brian McCall? said he would not seek re-election. No Democrats filed to run.

Money, of course, has always played a central role in politics. But with few differences separating the three candidates on the biggest issues – all have portrayed themselves as conservatives and said they support low tax rates and fewer state regulations – fundraising has emerged as perhaps the biggest point of contention.

Experts also say the campaign reports provide the latest evidence of how spending in Texas politics continues to escalate, driven largely by the growing role and cost of technology in campaigns.

"Certainly television matters and still has the most significant impact," said Brian Roberts, a professor of American politics at the University of Texas at Austin. "But look what else is going on: You have social media, Web ads. This is opening up a whole new avenue of expense."

The total money raised for state legislative races alone has almost doubled to $95 million since 2004, according to Texans for Public Justice, a nonprofit group that tracks money in state politics.

"The cost of elections continues to trend up, up, up," said Andrew Wheat, the group's research director.

That, in turn, has put even more pressure on candidates to dip into their own wallets.

Van Taylor

Taylor, who works in real estate, has bankrolled his campaign with $230,000 in personal loans, putting most of that money toward television ads and mailings.

He has collected far less, $21,700, from campaign supporters. A $10,000 check from Taylor's father constitutes nearly half that total, records show.

Of the rest, $6,450 represents contributions from Plano addresses.

Taylor has spent large sums on campaigns before. He put more than $300,000 of his own money into an unsuccessful 2006 bid for Congress in the Waco area.

Taylor said he has local donations "coming in every day" and has a Plano fundraiser scheduled this week.

"I'm getting a great response and running a hard-hitting, grass-roots campaign," he said.

Mabrie Jackson

Jackson, a former Plano City Council member and Microsoft account manager, has invested $80,000 in her campaign. She has supplemented that with help from supporters and from interests ranging from real estate to liquor, records show.

Including her cash, Jackson had raised more than $148,000 through late January.

That total takes into account more than $16,000 from at least 20 political action committees that, in the past, had supported McCall?. Among them: the Texas Association of Realtors ($2,500), the Texas Energy Association ($2,500) and the Licensed Beverage Distributors ($1,000).

Jackson made no apologies for receiving PAC money.

"These associations represent industries that create jobs," she said. "They have confidence in my abilities to represent House District 66."

The biggest individual donors so far in the race include construction materials magnate John V. Lattimore, Jr., who donated $5,000 each to Taylor and Jackson; and Fehmi Karahan, the developer behind The Shops at Legacy, who gave $2,500 to Jackson.

Wayne Richard

Financial reports reveal that Richard, who runs a small Web company, had raised less than $10,000 in cash through January.

More significantly, the records raise questions about his political ties.

Richard has leaned heavily on campaign help from Peter Morrison, a local school board member in Lumberton, Texas.

Records show that Morrison has donated tens of thousands of dollars' worth of signs, mailers, supplies and time to Richard's campaign.

In posts on Facebook, Morrison argues that Texas schools teach a "radical left-wing agenda" and that Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor is a "radical racist."

Another lengthy post blames "immigration from Third World countries" for the mass shootings at Fort Hood in November.

"The Fort Hood massacre was the predictable result of decades of massive immigration from third world countries, affirmative action, enforcement of political correctness and 'celebration' of diversity and multiculturalism," Morrison wrote Nov. 17.

When asked about his aide's Fort Hood essay, Richard said, "Commanders would agree it was a political correctness situation that allowed the mass shooting to take place."

Asked whether he thinks schools should encourage diversity, Richard said, "I don't believe there's enough American history and positive representations of democracy and liberty that our country provides our citizens in our schools."

link to article at The Dallas Morning News, including candidate profile data....

The Collin County Observer, in collaboration with McKinneyNews.net and the Frisco DWI Lawyer's blog has sent all Collin County local judicial candidates, from District Court to Justice of the Peace, a questionnaire designed to give the voters a real opportunity to understand the character, motivation and philosophy of all those who ask us to elect them as our judges.

The questionnaires will be completed by Tuesday night, and we hope to start publishing them very shortly thereafter.

Bill

Valerie Wigglesworth at The Dallas Morning News has written a top-flight article and then followed up with a blog post full of resources for anyone wanting to follow the debate on the need to build affordable (including Section 8) housing in Frisco.

Bill

------------------------

DMN - Frisco affordable housing plan gains board's support but meets resistance

Friday, February 12, 2010
By VALERIE WIGGLESWORTH / The Dallas Morning News

In a first of its kind effort, Frisco is helping developers build affordable housing with money from a nonprofit in Dallas.

The catch: The partnership with Inclusive Communities Project Inc. requires some of the low-income apartments be available first to certain Dallas Housing Authority clients with Section 8 vouchers.

That has some people in this affluent suburb concerned.

"How does this help residents of Frisco?" asked Mark Walsh, who raised concerns in an e-mail to his neighbors. "It's helping Dallas Housing Authority people to move to Frisco."

Betsy Julian, president of the nonprofit, said Dallas residents want what everyone wants: attractive communities with amenities, good schools and low crime rates. Frisco fits that bill.

"Our mission is to promote healthy inclusive communities, and if there's no affordable housing, it's not an inclusive community," she said.

The two apartment complexes proposed on vacant lots in Frisco are dependent on acceptance into the state's Housing Tax Credit program. The competitive program provides federal tax incentives for developments with rents at below-market rates. Developers in the Dallas region have applied for more than $92 million in tax credits for 60 projects. The state has about $10 million available for the region this year.

On Wednesday, the Frisco Housing Trust Fund Board voted 3-1 to recommend that the City Council send letters in support of the projects to the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs. Its board will vote in July which projects to fund.

Frisco housing board member Shannon Kackley voted against.

"I want to make sure we do what's best for our citizens," Kackley said. "This is mainly for Dallas residents."

He said after the meeting he was concerned about the potential influx of people who may or may not have jobs and who may need extra services that the city can't provide.

City Manager George Purefoy said the City Council approved the agreement with Inclusive Communities Project in 2008 after two years of negotiations.

"The council thought this was in the best interests of the city," he told the housing board, adding that the two developers meet all the criteria. "I urge you to approve them."

Julian told the board it was unlikely that people with jobs in Dallas would commute from Frisco. She said it's more likely that people who find lower-paying jobs in Frisco would want to live there.

"I'm very confident there will be interest," she said.

Civil suits

Julian's group approached several cities in 2007 about creating affordable housing for low-income families.

"Frisco stepped up in a proactive way and acknowledged the need for workforce housing," Julian said.

The responses from Flower Mound and McKinney prompted civil suits from the group. The McKinney case is in the process of being settled. The Flower Mound case is pending.

Last fall, the nonprofit sued Sunnyvale over what it said were the city's discriminatory practices in affordable housing. The group also has a suit pending against the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which administers the Section 8 program that provides rent subsidies to low-income families.

The agreement with Frisco calls for the Inclusive Communities Project to give $2 million to the city, which in turn would loan it to developers at low interest rates to build projects approved through the state's tax-credit program.

In return, 50 units or 25 percent of the development – whichever is greater – would be offered first to Dallas Housing Authority clients who are part of the so-called Walker Settlement. It stems from a 1985 lawsuit over black residents being forced to live for decades in segregated slums in Dallas.

That settlement has allowed thousands of black families to move into predominantly white neighborhoods. It also created The Walker Project to promote fair housing and support the class members. In 2004, The Walker Project became the Inclusive Communities Project.

Incentive to build

The low-interest loans are an incentive to build in Frisco, said Dru Childre, whose Songhai Development Co. put in an application.

The Austin-based company is proposing to build the 150-unit North Court Villas on 10 acres on the south side of Stonebrook Parkway east of Woodstream Drive.

"These deals are very expensive," Childre said. The loan "shows that the city realizes they have a need for affordable housing, and it shows they support good reputable developers coming to the city."

The second project, proposed by San Antonio-based Versa Development, is the 200-unit Residences at Frisco on 13 acres near Bicentennial Park.

Both projects would have income restrictions for tenants. They would also offer tenant services ranging from financial planning to tutoring. Amenities would include a swimming pool, fitness center and computer learning center.

Julian said the ultimate goal is to help families get into decent housing.

"We just keep trying to remove barriers as we find them," she said. "We're cautiously optimistic that one or both of these developments could get done in Frisco this year

link to article at The Dallas Morning News.....

Thursday, Feb 11, 2010
Valerie Wigglesworth/Reporter / The Dallas Morning News Frisco Blog

In a first of its kind effort, Frisco is helping developers build affordable housing with money from a nonprofit in Dallas. The catch: The partnership with Inclusive Communities Project Inc. requires some of the low-income apartments be available first to certain Dallas Housing Authority clients with Section 8 vouchers. That has some people in Frisco concerned. Click here to read the rest of my story in today's newspaper.

The Frisco City Council approved the agreement with the Inclusive Communities Project at its Oct. 8, 2008, meeting. Click here for video of the meeting and documents related to the agreement (agenda item #41).

The two apartment complexes being proposed are on vacant lots in Frisco (see map above). One is on the south side of Stonebrook Parkway just east of Woodstream Drive; the second is near McKinney Road and Sunset just north of Bicentennial Park. Both projects are dependent on acceptance into the state's Housing Tax Credit program. The competitive program provides federal tax incentives for developments with rents at below-market rates.

Read the developers' pre-applications:
Click here for the North Court Villas on Stonebrook Parkway
Click here for the Residences at Frisco at McKinney and Sunset

What's next: The City Council will consider whether to send letters of support for the projects to the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, which oversees the Housing Tax Credit program.

Public hearings will be held around the state in April on the Housing Tax Credit program applicants. The Dallas hearing is scheduled for 6 p.m. April 14. Written comments will also be accepted. Click here for details.

The board for the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs will decide in July which projects will receive tax credits. Click here to see a list of pre-applications. Applications are due March 1.

Worth noting: There was some concern that these apartment complexes would rent units to clients with the Texas Offenders Reentry Initiative, which works with the Dallas Housing Authority to find homes for ex-offenders. The TORI program uses only project-based Section 8 housing, which means the rental subsidy is tied to the apartment. The apartments in Frisco are not set up that way and would not be an option for TORI clients.

link to post on The Dallas Morning News Frisco Blog....

Keith Self, who is never at a loss for words when it comes to branding his opponents as commissars, socialists or liberals has moved even further right, now invoking the specter of Nazism against his primary opponent John Muns. From Keith Self's Facebook page:

Let's try Some Truth

"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. ...truth is the mortal enemy of the lie."
Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Germany Propaganda Minister

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
Edmund Burke

Friends,
Our opponent is using the Goebbels method of telling big lies often. Let's do something, let's try some truth.

I will not spend much time refuting lies because I want to stay on positive message, but I do want to give you a sentence or two on each of the big lies by my opponent.

Auditor lawsuit: The auditor requested an AG’s opinion that basically asked that he be given control, not audit ability, but control over all computer systems in the county by way of access to the deepest programming codes. We sued to stop him from even having the chance to acquire that control - we defended state law and the authorities of all elected officials. If he had prevailed, he would have overturned state law for the entire state and usurped elected officials authorities. The status quo prevailed and we stopped a very dangerous possibility. We welcomed his independent auditing function, we fought his control over all computer systems. He resigned soon after.

SH121 Toll road: Please read my blogs from March 16, 22, and 30, 2007. You will see that I did not advocate for foreign companies, I advocated first of all for the state to build the road with gas tax funds, then to make a decision and get it built.

March 16, 2007 “My position has not changed since before I was elected - I do not believe that we should establish additional taxes in the form of tolls, but for years the legislature has abdicated its responsibility to build the state transportation network and we in Collin County need SH121 built in order to continue our growth.”
March 30, 2007 “I ask that our legislature fund transportation as a top priority of the state.”

Transportation Bond: My opposition was no secret. The program did not address the congestion on our major roads and it contained improvements on roads that will carry little traffic in 2030. Once the citizens voted, I committed to carrying out their vote. My vision for highway funding is now in place with the $1.1 Billion in the bank. US75 has some $500 Million committed to it, and our congestion on major roads across the county will be relieved.

We have already dealt with the personal slander of the Florida trip lie.

By the way, my other old blogs provide some original writings that may continue to protect against this type of slander.

Sincerely,
Keith

Keith Self sent the identical message as an email to his list today.

Now Self's quixotic opposition to all things transportation (with the exception of the creation of the Collin County Toll Road Authority, which he voted for) is well known enough not be repeated here.

However, the Observer does wish to set the matter straight about the Auditor. Point by point:

Self - "The auditor requested an AG’s opinion that basically asked that he be given control, not audit ability, but control over all computer systems in the county by way of access to the deepest programming codes."
Observer - Big Lie. The Auditor's request is here. What he asked for was 'read only access'. He also wanted to examine the permissions and structure of the data tables in order to detect fraud.

Self - "We sued to stop him from even having the chance to acquire that control - we defended state law and the authorities of all elected officials."
Observer - Big Lie. Judge Self and the Commissioners Court first sued to stop the Auditor from simply ASKING the Texas Attorney General to rule on the question. The auditor's request to the Attorney General, had it been answered, would have been the simple, cost effective way to resolve any dispute between Self, the Commissioners Court and the Auditor. Instead the County Commissioners court began $300,000 of legal battles just to stop their Auditor from asking the questions. Judge Self and the Commissioners Court then filed a second suit asking for a jury to answer the questions posed to the Attorney General by their Auditor. Their intent was to protect their investment in multi-million dollar software packages that did not contain the minimum necessary auditing portals required by accepted auditing standards and current law.

Self - "If he had prevailed, he would have overturned state law for the entire state and usurped elected officials authorities."
Observer - Big Lie. The Auditor merely wanted the current law to be enforced. The Self and the Commissioners Court were refusing him access granted to him by the law... and granted to every other Auditor in the State of Texas. This is demonstrated by the fact that BOTH times the court ruled, it ruled in Summary Judgments against the Commissioners. In other words, the court granted a full and complete victory to the Auditor stating that the Commissioners suit was totally without basis in law. The court then ordered the County Commissioners Court to pay the Auditor's legal bills.

Self - "The status quo prevailed and we stopped a very dangerous possibility. We welcomed his independent auditing function, we fought his control over all computer systems."
Observer - Big Lie. The Auditor won on all points. It's that simple.

Self - "He resigned soon after."
Observer - Big Lie. Donald Cozad did not resign, he retired. And Judge Self and the Commissioners should be ashamed that they threatened a dedicated public servant with personal financial ruin over a power struggle. After winning his fight and forcing the county to pay his expenses for their suit, Mr. Cozad retired from the field victorious.

And finally -

Self - "protect against this type of slander."
Observer - "And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?"

The Collin County Observer would like to ask why Judge Self feels the need to rant about candy canes, bibles, socialism and Nazism when there are real issues begging to be debated in this election?

The Observer does not support or endorse Mr. Muns. However, The Collin County Observer deplores and will protest the use of campaign tactics that even Judge Self has described as, "the politics of personal destruction."

Bill

Editorial: We recommend Muns for Collin County judge

Wednesday, February 10, 2010
The Dallas Morning News Editorial Board

Collin County Judge Keith Self is strong on open government and has delivered on promises for improvement. Some commissioners meetings are now held at places and times more convenient to the public. The county's checkbook has gone online for anyone to inspect. All good moves.

It's not what first-term Self is for that causes concern about his time in office. Rather, it's what he's been against and how he pursues his agenda.

Self doesn't shy away from butting heads with people he disagrees with and, at times, seems to go out of his way for a collision. The most spectacular example was his opposition to a countywide bond package for roads in 2007. The projects were vetted by a citizen review panel based on community input, yet Self squared off against supporters, called the package "pork" and unsuccessfully campaigned against it.

Then there was his work to unseat two fellow GOP members of the commissioners court, one of whom voters tossed out of office. And there was his combativeness while testifying in Austin before Dallas Sen. John Carona's transportation committee.

While there's something to be said for a public official who sticks to principles, there's a time when it goes overboard. Self reaches that point too often.

That's partly why we recommend his opponent, John Muns, in the March 2 GOP primary for county judge. Muns' background of civic involvement and public service, including 15 years on the Plano school board, gives him the grounding needed to preside effectively over the commissioners court.

Muns, 50, a developer, would concentrate on ensuring that infrastructure keeps pace with the county's torrid growth. He supports the concept of a local-option proposal that lawmakers in Austin have proposed to give local voters the right to raise money for transportation. Self opposes it.

Like Self, 56, a retired Army officer and McKinney resident, Muns says he would hold the line on taxes and spending.

The winner will face Democrat David M. Smith in November. With GOP voters choosing between two fiscally conservative Republicans, they should go with Muns, a leader with experience building coalitions.

link to this editorial at The Dallas Morning News....

Primary Color: HD-66

February 10, 2010
by Reeve Hamilton / The Texas Tribune

If you're not tuned into the three-way GOP primary to replace retiring 10-term state Rep. Brian McCall of Plano, you'll be sorry. The race has it all: the high price of political ambition, reruns of a classic campaign ad and a bikini-clad beauty — plus a fight over ideological bonafides that's very much of the moment. Affluent and highly educated, Plano is one of the state's most reliably Republican areas; there isn't even a Democrat running for the seat in November. Yet the district and surrounding Collin County are "ground zero" for the battle between "real conservatives and the philosophically pliable," says Michael Openshaw, the North Texas Tea Party's self-styled Blog Warrior.

“It’s going to be very close to get into a runoff,” says candidate Mabrie Jackson, a former Microsoft account manager and member of the Plano City Council. “I think we’re all evenly split right now.” ­

In November, when McCall decided to step down, he called Jackson, who'd told him six years earlier that she'd be interested in succeeding him. But the news couldn’t have come at a more inconvenient time — Jackson was just a year and a half into her first term on the Council. “Can you wait two years?” she asked.

Wayne Richard, who had been running against McCall since August, was even more surprised to hear about his retirement. Richard never intended to vie for elective office — until recently, he didn't even pay much attention to state or local politics. But in 2008, his politically charged e-mails to friends morphed into a newsletter under the auspices of a group Richard christened "The National Coalition for Defense of American Sovereignty." He enjoyed his newfound notoriety; one thing led to another, and suddenly he found himself involved with the area’s first-ever tax day Tea Party protest. Collin County Tea Party leader Diane Nusbaum saw in Richard the candidate she had been looking for to retaliate against McCall for helping to oust conservative House Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, at the start of the 2009 legislative session. She temporarily left the Tea Party to run Richard’s campaign.

Rounding out the primary field is businessman and Iraq War veteran Van Taylor, who bought a house in Plano in 2007, just a mile away from his great grandfather’s farm, after a failed campaign to unseat U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco. With a battle shaping up between Jackson and Richard, Taylor says, “So many conservatives reached out to me and said, 'Van, we have to have a conservative representing Plano in the Texas House. You have to run.'” He threw his hat in on Dec. 7.

Jackson, the granddaughter of a former Port Arthur mayor, caught the political bug early in life. She's the only of the three who has served in public office and is intimately familiar with the issues Plano faces: She cites, for example, the need for more roads and a viable water plan. “She is the only candidate who has been involved in the community at all levels,” says McCall, who endorsed Jackson after she resigned her Council seat on Nov. 16. Jackson has also been endorsed by the Greater Dallas Restaurant Association, the Texas Hospital Association, the Texas State Teachers Association and The Dallas Morning News.

Of the Tea Party movement that has been less enthusiastic about her establishment-friendly candidacy, Jackson says, “For the most part, they’re great people who are just concerned about what’s going on at the national level. I share that concern, and I lose sleep over it, too. But this race is about representing Plano in Austin. It’s not about Plano in Washington."

Richard’s approach is the epitome of grassroots. Running with very little money, his campaign is almost entirely manned by energized volunteers — many of them Tea Partiers — and fueled by in-kind donations, some of the biggest coming from outside the district. “I’ve never seen so many yard signs in my whole life,” Richard says. “Nothing like this has ever happened in Collin County before.”

Richard announced his candidacy in August and began block-walking. By early February, he or someone from his campaign had knocked on the door of every registered area voter at least twice. “Opponents have come and gone,” he says, “but I think a lot of people recognize the political courage it took to get into it from the very beginning to take McCall? on like that. Now we have people trying to jump in at the last minute. For us it’s been like a marathon, but for them it’s been like a sprint.”

Taylor, meanwhile, has a resume. The self-described “lifelong committed Republican” started a GOP club as an undergraduate at Harvard University. As a Marine, he gained experience with illegal immigration issues while serving on the Texas-Mexico border. He serves as state chairman of the National Defense Committee and is the North Texas vice captain of Vets for Freedom, and he touts endorsements from Young Conservatives of Texas, the Texans for Fiscal Responsibility PAC and Republican U.S. Rep. Jeb Hensarling. Like Richard, he has been “Tea Approved” by the North Texas Tea Party.

The candidates all have hurdles to overcome. Richard's is his bio, which doesn’t read like he grew up with a political career in his sights. For starters, there’s FUBIOV — “Forget U Buddy I’m On Vacation” — which he says was the name of a boat he owned decades ago, a name he tried to turn into a brand with “FUBIOV!” t-shirts and www.fubiov.com, a now-defunct travel website. A web video advertising the site features a girl in a bikini walking near a pool, unaware that she’s being filmed.

"If that’s the best thing they think they can come after me with," Richard says, "then to heck with 'em. I’m trying to stay above board." He claims to be an innocent bystander. “Somebody put a bikini video out there?” he asks. “I can’t control what’s out there.” But YouTube seems to think otherwise. The video was posted on the site in Jan. 2007 by “fubiov,” who claims to be a 55-year-old named Wayne. The user who posted the same video on dailymotion.com, once again using the “fubiov” moniker, also posted a video parodying Hillary Clinton. That video was produced by ICglobal.net, Richard's advertising technology firm.

“If you elect someone who has that,” critiques Jackson, “you don’t want that to come to light later and embarrass your city. And that will be an embarrassment to our city.”

Jackson’s finding out that it might be possible to love her city so much it hurts. When she vacated her seat on the City Council, she believed it could be filled by a 10-day appointment per the city charter. It turned out that state law called for a special election, an event that set Plano back $80,000 — and that was before it ended up being pushed into a runoff. “That’s the price of democracy. We are blessed to live in a democracy where anybody can run,” she says. “I believe that my serving Plano will save the city a whole lot more money in the long run than whatever a special election costs.”

Mention the independently wealthy Taylor in Plano and the conversation will likely turn to the money he’s spent on television advertisements. The ads highlight his conservative bonafides and the military service that took him to Iraq and the Texas Border. But one of them is just a minimally tweaked rehash of an ad he ran in Waco, when he was gunning for a totally different seat. “Pictures of me in Iraq are still pictures of me in Iraq,” Taylor says. “I have the same values and the same beliefs that I’ve held for decades.”

Taylor’s latest ad, called “Only One,” points out the Taxpayer Protection Pledge he signed committing to fighting all tax increases. It claims that Taylor, the "only true conservative” in the race, is the “only one” to sign such a document. Jackson says she signed one on Dec. 17 — but votes count more than pledges do. On the morning after primary day, all that will matter is who's the "only one" left out of the runoff.

link to this article at The Texas Tribune....

------------------------

Bill asks:

FU = "forget you"? Yea right!

also

The D Magazine's Front Burner blog notes that the fubiov videos have been pulled off of YouTube and Daily Motion.

Bill

We recommend Jackson in House District 66

Tuesday, February 9, 2010
The Dallas Morning News Editorial Board

Plano voters will see something in the voting booth March 2 that they haven't seen in 19 years: a Republican ballot without Brian McCall's name as a candidate for state representative. With McCall not seeking re-election, the three-person GOP race in House District 66 is being closely watched to see who will replace his lawmaking and leadership abilities.

Mabrie Jackson, 45, former Plano City Council member, is the best choice of the three, based on her experience in decision-making, involvement in civic affairs and deep roots in the community. Moreover, Jackson appears best positioned to continue the brand of coalition-building McCall practiced to get things done in Austin.

Jackson has a clearly enunciated list of priorities, which includes economic development, public education, health care and transportation and water improvements. Formerly in marketing for EDS and a manager for Microsoft, she now concentrates on her family.

There are many similarities between Jackson and her opponents, Wayne Richard, 55, a technology company owner, and Van Taylor, 37, an investment manager. All would hold the line on taxes and stress efficiencies to deal with the coming state budget gap.

Taylor would go further and scrap the business tax, and Richard would scrap or reduce it. But neither offered a workable solution to fill that revenue void.

In his first run for office, Richard says he wants to offer fresh ideas, and he points out he was the only candidate to enter the race before McCall's announcement on re-election. Richard says that McCall has been in Austin too long and that his voting record is not business-friendly. Richard says he is relying on grass-roots support, in contrast to his well-financed adversaries.

Taylor lost a race for Congress from Waco in 2006 and since moved to Plano. A Marine Corps veteran who would "starve state government," he says he offers more conservative views than McCall's.

The winner of the race will face no Democratic opponent in the fall.

link to this editorial at The Dallas Morning News....

A few weeks ago, I noticed that the commissioners court agenda included notification of quite a few new hires in the County Auditor's office.

Then last month I received an anonymous note from a former(?) county employee telling me that the Auditor, Jeff May, had fired 7 employees after giving an "all day test to all members of the department."

I contacted the Auditor who confirmed that 8 people had recently left the department or were terminated of his 31 employee office.

Mr. May responded to my questions with the following email:

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to respond.

As you know I became County Auditor on September 1st, 2009. One of the first tasks I felt I needed to accomplish was to evaluate the employees. I believe I should have my office in order before I go audit other departments. Before I took over as County Auditor I met with each employee individually and informed them that I would be placing the staff through a three month evaluation process. The evaluation consisted of checking employees backgrounds, analyzing skill set requirements to perform tasks, and testing job knowledge.

The knowledge test was given in two parts, a Microsoft Excel test and a written test. Three versions of the written test were given to employees based on their functions in the Auditor’s Office. Employees in the Auditor’s Office perform a variety of tasks, so in many cases questions on a test may pertain to one employee but not another. When grading the tests I only considered questions that pertained directly to one’s normal duties. As a result of the evaluation I learned that I have many outstanding employees; however, I felt the need to dismiss three employees because I felt they did not have the knowledge or background to complete their daily required functions. Four other employees were dismissed due to misconduct or refusal to take all or most of one of two tests.

The accusation of favoritism on the part of my First Assistant is inaccurate. Before the test employees were understandably apprehensive about taking the test resulting in many questions directed at my First Assistant and me. All employees were allowed to ask questions and no information was given to any employee that would give them an advantage over another employee. Great measures were taken before and after the tests to ensure that all employees were treated fairly.

In order to ensure that I hire the best employees in the future job applicants are now given a test when they are interviewed. Even though this evaluation process was difficult for everyone involved including myself, I know that the Office of County Auditor, Collin County, and the citizens of Collin County are better off as a result. I am very proud of my staff that stuck with me through this process.

Jeff May
County Auditor

According to sources at the county courthouse, of the 8 employees who left, 1 retired, 1 was fired for cheating on the test, 1 was fired related to the cheating incident, 2 quit before completing the test, and 2 were terminated for poor performance on the test.

Who would of thought an auditor would cheat?

Mr. May told the Observer that while the upheaval will result in short term difficulties while new employees are trained, he believes that the actions taken will result in a more professional and skilled Auditor's Office.

The County Auditor is appointed by a board consisting of all the county's 9 district judges. The auditor's office operates independently from the commissioners court. According to the Texas Association of Counties, "The county auditor's primary duty is to over see financial record-keeping for the county and to assure that all expenditures comply with the county budget. The county auditor, by law, has continuous access to all books and financial records and conducts detailed reviews of all county financial operations."

"...both the county auditor and commissioners court are required, by law, to approve or reject claims for disbursement of county funds. The integrity of county financial administration is entrusted to a dual control system of 'checks and balances.'"

"The county auditor has general oversight of all the books and records of all county officials and is charged with strictly enforcing laws governing county finances."

Bill

The County Observer and The Frisco DWI Lawyer blogs have teamed up to prepare a 10 question Q & A with the 4 candidates for Collin County District Attorney.

The questions have been sent to each of the candidates. We have promised to post their unedited responses (or lack of) and we hope their answers will give voters a better understanding of the approach each one of these gentlemen plan to bring to the DAs office.

Bill

[Note: This completes the series of articles introducing each of the primary candidates, posting their campaign finance information as well as a video of each when possible]

Complete copies of these and other January, 2010 Semi-annual form C/OH campaign finance reports are available on-line here.

JERRY HOAGLAND

www.jerryhoagland.com

Contributions July - Dec. $20,354
Expenditures July - Dec. $14,346
Campaign account balance Dec. 31 - $26,908
Loans - $9,019

Major contributors (+- $1,000):
John Aughinbaugh - $1,000
Texas Association of Realtors PAC - $1,000
Carter & Burgess PAC - $1,000
Bill Carmickle - $2,000
Rich Family Partners, LTD - $1,000
C.P. & Y. Inc. PAC - $1,000
CH2M Hill PAC - $1,000
Rodney J. Vilhauer - $1,000
Anthony Jeffrey - $1,000
David Andrews - $1,000
Halff Assoc. PAC - $1,000

RICK KOSTER

www.rickkoster.org

Contributions July - Dec. $0
Expenditures July - Dec. $0
Campaign account balance Dec. 31 - $0
Loans - $0

Major contributors (+- $1,000):
none

KARL VOIGTSBERGER

www.electkarl.org/

Contributions July - Dec. $2,889
Expenditures July - Dec. $2,794
Campaign account balance Dec. 31 - $1,309
Loans - $10,000

Major contributors (+- $1,000):
none

CHERYL WILLIAMS

www.votecherylwilliams.com

Contributions July - Dec. $14,465
Expenditures July - Dec. $8,445
Campaign account balance Dec. 31 - $6,020
Loans - $0

Major contributors (+- $1,000):
C.W. Kendall - $2,000
Carla McPeters - $1,000
William Grant - $1,000
Jerry McPeters - $1,000

Bill

Complete copies of these and other January, 2010 Semi-annual form C/OH campaign finance reports are available on-line here.

KATHY WARD

www.kathyward.org

Contributions July - Dec. $10,250
Expenditures July - Dec. $3,903
Campaign account balance Dec. 31 - $10,296
Loans - $0

Major contributors (+- $1,000):
HNTB Holdings LTD. PAC - $1,000
James D. Dannenbaum - $1,000
LAN-PAC - $1,000
CH2M Hill Texas PAC - $1,000
TREPAC/Texas Association of Realtors PAC - $1,000

DUNCAN WEBB

www.duncanwebb.org

Contributions July - Dec. $17,804
Expenditures July - Dec. $6,372
Campaign account balance Dec. 31 - $11,276
Loans - $0

Major contributors (+- $1,000):
Case, Jordan - $1,000
Joyner, Richard - $1,000
Smith, Joan - $1,000
Wohlers, Craig - $1,000

Bill

After watching the Collin County District Attorney use his Drug Forfeiture Fund for new furniture and then for automatic weapons and ammo, it is refreshing to see a notice that he intends to use $11,115 of the fund to fight crime.

The DA has notified the Commissioners Court of his intent to use the funds to pay an invoice for lab work for "additional evidence analysis needed in a Cold Case".

This type of expenditure is what the Drug Forfeiture Fund should have been used for all along.

Bill

The Collin County Observer has posted the "30 Day" campaign finance report required of all local candidates who face an opposed primary race.

This report details contributions and expenditures from January 1, 2010 to January 27. It is the second of three reports due during the primary season.

The reports, along with the "January Semi-Annual" report (details from July 1, 2009 - December 31, 2009) are linked here.

The Collin County Observer is only publishing the reports from "local, county filers". For a detailed explanation of who files where and how you can see the reports of state and national filers, see out previous post, Observer posts all county campaign finance reports on-line

The County Judge candidates appear to be building large war chests for the final 3 weeks of the campaign. Judge Self has amassed $51,869, while Mr. Muns has $64,155 in his campaign account. Keith self entered the season with over $50,000 in his campaign fund - since July, Self has recieved over $48,000 in contributions and Mr. Muns has recieved over $60,000. John Muns has also loaned his campaign $30,000 of his own money.

However, Keith Self has far outspent Mr. Muns. Self has so far spent almost $45,000 to Muns' $27,000. The winner of the the primary will then face Democrat and former Plano city councilman David Smith in the November election.

For the 3 weeks or so covered by the reports, the top fund raisers were Keith Self ($16,535), Greg Willis ($16,055) and John Muns ($15,550).

By far the worst campaign finance report was filed by Doug Reeves, a candidate for the GOP nomination to the Justice of the Peace Court #4 in Frisco. His report was late, is missing critical and required information and like his first "Semi-Annual" report covers a period of time at variance to what the law requires.

The report is basically incomprehensible and shows either indifference to the law or a gross ignorance of it. And this from a guy who wants to be a judge and mentor kids! During my campaign for commissioner, I accidentally left a few boxes "reason for expenditure" blank and was fined $100 for it. I hope Mr. Reeves has saved lots of nickles - he'll need then if a complaint is filed with the TEC.

A pair of Democratic clubs, while not having any candidates in contested primary races that require a 30 day report, have nevertheless run afoul of campaign finance laws. Conservative blogger Curtis Rath, writing in the McKinneyNews.net discovered that two local Democratic PACs had their treasurers fined recently by the Texas Ethics Commission.

The Texas Democratic Women of Collin County PAC's treasurer, June Perdue Jenkins filed two reports late and then appeared to ignore notices from both the TEC and the Texas Attorney General. She was fined $11,400. Barbara Walters, the President of the TDWCC told the Observer that the group has appointed a new treasurer. Ms. Walters also stressed that the violation and the fines were not against the Texas Democratic Women or their PAC, but against the treasurer, who under Texas law is personally culpable and liable.

The Stonewall Democrats of Collin County's PAC also filed a report lase. Its treasurer was fined $500. Mike Agan, the president of the group has noted that the Stonewall Democrats have appointed a new PAC treasurer.

Bill

County In Need Of Advocates For Abused Children

February 4, 2010
Stephanie Lucero -- CBS 11 / TXA 21


COLLIN COUNTY (CBS 11 / TXA 21) - Virginia Barrett says the intimate details of child abuse appalled her when she served on the Collin County Grand Jury. It was the gruesome details behind a number of cases that led Barrett to become a Court-Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) volunteer.

"People say, 'How can you do this?' and I think my response is 'How can you not?'" Barrett asked. "If you see a need, you just have to put aside all those heartbreaking things and think 'What can I do to make it better?"

There is a shortage of CASA volunteers across North Texas. CASA of Collin County is currently serving 250 children who have been removed from their parent's home. The agency serviced 460 children last year.

"CASA gets involved with a case once Child Protective Services (CPS) has done its initial investigation and determined the child cannot be safe at home," explained Susan Etheridge, the Executive Director of CASA Collin County.

David Shevlin adopted twin brothers, Alex and Andrew, when they were 14 years old. The twins were adopted after their parents lost custody of them in Florida. Shevlin says his entire family, of eight, has bonded with the teenagers and that experience led him to become a CASA volunteer.

"There was quite a bit of abuse in the past," Shevlin said of his adopted sons' experience. Alex and Andrew were severely malnourished and weighed only 38 and 40 pounds when they were adopted.

Shevlin was one of 28 men and women trained to be CASA volunteers last week. "It's a hard job to hear about the horrific abuse that these children have suffered," Etheridge said of those who step up to help.

Volunteers go through a week of training and report to a CASA Supervisor. The volunteers interview children, advocate for their best interests, and investigate each case. During their investigation they talk to the parents, family members, teachers, therapists and anyone who has knowledge of what is taking place in the home.

The CASA volunteer then recommends, to the judge overseeing the case, whether the child should be returned to the parents or be removed from the home permanently. Etheridge says, "The volunteer forms a strong relationship with the child", and visits with him or her at least twice a month.

There is a shortage of CASA volunteers in Collin County, with the more experienced advocates handle multiple cases.

Virginia Barrett says she stays in contact with many of the children she has advocated for over the past 11 years. "In some cases the parents, who have been drug abusers, they get their act together and the family gets back together and that's happily ever after too," she said.

Find out more about possibly becoming a CASA volunteer in Collin County.

Link to article and more on CBS-11....

I'm taking a much desired break from all the fun. The Observer will be back sometime over the weekend.

Bill

Plano's plan for Douglass Community Center draws concerns from neighbors

Wednesday, February 3, 2010
By THEODORE KIM / The Dallas Morning News

Plano's historically black neighborhood is raising concerns about a city plan to outsource a local community center.

Residents' reservations unfolded at an animated public forum Tuesday at Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church that drew about 60 people, including the city manager, mayor and several City Council members.

At issue is a plan to transfer operations of the city-run Douglass Community Center to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Collin County. The club has offices in the building.

Many aimed their concerns at City Manager Tom Muehlenbeck, who spoke well into the evening explaining what he believes are the plan's merits.

The city says it would save more than $400,000 annually with the move – an enticing prospect since Plano faces projected budget deficits. The Boys & Girls Clubs would assume those costs and has pledged to keep service levels the same, if not improve them.

"We are trying our very best to [make this work]," Muehlenbeck said at the forum.

Still, he and his staff were on the defensive for most of the evening. Many in the audience said the change would hasten the center's demise or closure. City officials said that is not in the plan.

"I can assure you there has never been a word said about closing the Douglass center," Mayor Phil Dyer said Wednesday.

More broadly, the forum revived longstanding frustrations among some Douglass residents that the city is unfairly singling out the neighborhood just south of downtown.

For instance, residents said, no plans have emerged to outsource any of Plano's other recreation centers. And they portrayed the Douglass center as a vital community nexus, particularly for children and teenagers who take advantage of its after-school programs. Some of the programs already are run by the Boys & Girls Clubs.

"We are satisfied to the extent that there is dialogue and that we're getting clarity as to what decisions are being made," said T.J. Johnson, a community activist and attorney involved in the Douglass center discussions.

"But there is still some sentiment, a feeling like Douglass is being targeted. We want to expand the pool of options and make sure this budget is not being balanced on the backs of the Douglass community. But the options seems to be singular, which is to hand [the center] off," she said.

Plano officials point out that Douglass is a community center, not a recreation center. As such, it has fewer amenities and programs. And it does not charge member fees, while the other centers do.

The City Council must sign off on any outsourcing agreement. City officials said negotiations are continuing.

Tanya Greene, chief executive officer of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Collin County, said she empathizes with the neighborhood's unease. But she said the concerns are unfounded.

"Unfortunately, any time you talk budget cuts, it's going to become personal for that neighborhood," she said. "Truthfully, I know what the Boys & Girls Clubs is capable of. I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that we can elevate the services and make it stronger than it's ever been."

Link to the article at The Dallas Morning News....

Alcohol all the buzz at Frisco council meeting

By Jan Bellamy, Staff Writer / Frisco Enterprise
Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Tuesday night’s [Frisco] city council meeting offered it all: alcohol, morality play, property rights, and pleas to be heard. It wasn’t a Texas shoot-out, but a gun was mentioned.

The hot topic: Did city council want to hold a public hearing on establishing a process for future alcohol-selling establishments to request waivers or variances from required distances from schools, churches, etc. Distances now vary from 350 to 800 feet, depending on specifics. Texas law allows a city to establish a variance process for future development.

“There are two considerations before you today. No alcohol sales near schools, which is, of course, a laudable goal,” Will Russell told council during the public hearing on whether to have a public hearing.

“But also property owners having a forum for hearing a variance or an exception to an ordinance,” Russell continued. “I think it’s important we have a forum for property owners to come to be heard.”

Ultimately, the council members voted 4-2 for staff to proceed with a public hearing to gauge interest and need for establishing a waiver-request process.

But not before the potential for a variance for alcohol sellers was compared to a five-day waiting period for a gun.

“You load the gun and put it in the drawer, and take it out after the five days,” Councilmember Bob Allen said.

“Now, that’s a cute political trick,” said Councilmember Scott Johnson, “comparing this to a loaded gun.”

Council members Allen and David Prince opposed using the public hearing process. Voting in favor were council members Bart Crowder, Jeff Cheney, Pat Fallon and Scott Johnson.

“The question is, while acknowledging it’s a good thing to have separation as a general rule, does common sense ever say, ‘well, in this case, all parties agree that it may be appropriate to consider a variance’,” Crowder said. “Right now, we don’t have the ability to consider a variance.”

Councilmember Prince said it’s wrong to presume restaurants won’t develop if they can’t or don’t want to sell alcohol.

“I’m not in favor of holding a public hearing on the situation,” Prince said. “I don’t think there should ever be a reason to compromise the distance between alcohol, children and schools.”

The public hearing will be included on a future council meeting agenda. More on the heated exchanges and Mayor Maher Maso's call for decorum can be seen on video at www.friscotexas.com/meetings.

read the rest of the article at The Frisco Enterprise....

Editorial: We recommend Ratliff for SBOE District 9

Tuesday, February 2, 2010
The Dallas Morning News Editorial Board

We recommend Thomas Ratliff over incumbent Don McLeroy in the Republican primary for the State Board of Education's District 9 for several reasons. Most important is the fact that the Mount Pleasant resident could move this board beyond its culture-war conflicts.

Unfortunately, since being appointed as chairman in 2007, the 63-year-old McLeroy has helped lead the board into skirmishes involving evolution, reading standards and social studies content. The panel even got bogged down debating hip-hop versus country music. The rancor grew so routine that the Texas Senate last year refused to confirm the Bryan dentist as chairman.

McLeroy, a board member since 1999, undoubtedly cares about education. But this panel could use Ratliff's more practical approach to keep its work focused on essential issues. He's not an ideological brawler and could develop consensus.

Ratliff has had experience doing just that while serving on boards at his children's public schools in East Texas. And he says he would listen to teachers and superintendents in determining what students should know. Setting standards is a key function of this board, and Ratliff, 42, would be more in touch with educators than McLeroy. While Ratliff shouldn't become their captive, Texans are better served by someone who takes teachers' points of view seriously in crafting curriculum.

We also prefer Ratliff's emphasis on depoliticizing appointments of outside advisers, including those who handle the state's sizable education funds. The board has run into problems in selecting investment advisers.

A lobbyist himself, Ratliff swears he will disassociate himself from decisions that could involve a client. He certainly kept his lobbying business at arm's length from his father, Bill Ratliff, when the Republican served as lieutenant governor in 2001.

The winner of this primary will be unopposed in the November election. Voters in this district, which runs through parts of East Texas and Collin County, would benefit from Ratliff's sensible style and approach.

link to this editorial at The Dallas Morning News.....

In the latest development over the equipping of District Attorney investigators as a "Rapid Response Team" complete with automatic weapons, the DA has notified the courts that until they "revise" their Mission, these "courthouse commandos" will not deploy.

In her memo addressed to the Courthouse Security Committee, DA Chief Investigator Novaline Varner wrote:

"The Collin County District Attorney's Office is in the process of revising our Mission concerning First Responders. Effective immediately the Collin County District Attorney's Office will not deploy a First Responders Team from our Office for any courthouse emergency or security matter. We will advise you when our mission study and any revisions have been completed.

"We will continue to support the Collin County Courthouse Security Committee and of course abide by Art. 2.13 Code of Criminal Procedure, Duties and Powers of a Peace Officer."

The lack of a clearly defined mission and agreements between the DA Team and Bailiffs and other Law enforcement agencies was highlighted by the Commissioners Court in their discussion of the purchase of SWAT Team equipment last month. When asked by commissioners about the apparent lack of procedures, Varner responded ",We are working on an SOP, so everybody will know what they're doing. but all of that takes time. While we're wasting time getting through the red tape, we're still training. I don't want us to come across that we're some kind of "Three Stooges" type [operation]."

It is not known if the District Attorney will proceed with the purchase of $25,306.46 in SWAT Team guns and equipment utilizing his Drug Forfeiture Fund.

Bill

Area cities spending millions on IT projects

Sunday, January 31, 2010
By IAN McCANN / The Dallas Morning News

Even as the ongoing recession squeezes municipal budgets, several cities in North Texas are spending millions on major technology projects.

Frisco, Irving, McKinney, Plano and Richardson are replacing police and fire radio systems, to the tune of $8 million to $25 million apiece.

For most, the technology spending is an absolute need. Mowing schedules can be cut, and staff hires can be frozen, but police officers, firefighters and dispatchers must be able to communicate.

"We can't lose dial tone. We can't lose data," said Steve Graves, Richardson's chief technology officer. "The radio system, that's a crucial part of doing business."

Cities usually try to space out major projects so large expenditures can be spread out over time. But Richardson and Irving are planning to install several new technology systems at once.

Graves said some of his city's project was delayed, including buying $376,000 in new hardware and software for a public safety dispatch and records management system.

"Last year, we were ready to pull the trigger on it," Graves said. "But with a new chief coming in, we wanted to give him input. We don't want to say, 'Here's the system we're giving you. Work your needs around it.' "

At the same time, during a change to the city's radio frequency, the city found that its 18-year-old communications system was in dire need of replacement. That work will cost up to $10 million. Replacing an 11-year-old phone and data network will cost about $1.7 million.

Irving's two-year, $25 million project involves replacing its 13-year-old radio system, retrofitting the city with a fiber optics network and adding a wireless network.

Shane Burton, who oversees Irving's IT infrastructure, said the wireless network will cover the entire city but will not be available to the public. Instead, it will be reserved for water meter reading and other city uses.

Like Irving and Richardson, cities that hit their growth stride years ago, Plano also needs to replace an aging radio system. Bruce Glasscock, a Plano deputy city manager, said Motorola no longer supports his city's 15-year-old system.

Plano's situation is compounded in that growing areas including Frisco, Wylie and Murphy also use its radio system. Frisco in coming months will start using its own system, further changing the area Plano's radios must cover. Plano and its partners will spend about $25 million on the new system.

"It's a major project," Glasscock said. "We've been working with council the last three to five budget years, so we've been ready for it."

On the other end of the spectrum from the landlocked inner-ring cities are Frisco and McKinney?.

"Our system was designed for a 1999 city of McKinney," McKinney Assistant Police Chief Rex Redden said. "In some areas, our officers can't get a signal. Our department has tripled in size, and our land mass has pretty much quadrupled."

McKinney's $8.3 million radio system purchase comes on the heels of a $2 million public safety software and hardware replacement last year.

Scale can magnify even seemingly small purchases. Garland is proposing to spend about $2 million to replace video units in each of its 200 patrol cars.

The department is moving from VHS systems to digital recorders, equipment that Officer Joe Harn, a police spokesman, said hadn't been perfected when Garland first installed recorders in 2005.

A key for all the cities is to use advanced equipment but not to get too far ahead of the curve, especially on critical infrastructure like police and fire radios. Buy equipment that's too advanced, and it may still have bugs to work out. Technology that's too old has a shorter life cycle. So IT directors make purchasing decisions carefully.

read the rest of the article at The Dallas Morning News....

Experian to expand Allen operation, add 300 people

Tuesday, February 2, 2010
By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News

International credit information firm Experian plans to increase the size of its Allen operation by almost a third.

Experian inked a deal with the city of Allen to expand its operations by 300 people in exchange for increased economic incentives, the Allen Economic Development Corp. said Monday.

Experian plans "additional business operations" at its 300,000-square-foot complex in Allen's Enterprise Business Park. About 600 Experian workers are housed in the facility, east of U.S. Highway 75.

Experian has had operations in Allen since 1993 and is the Collin County city's largest employer. The company has facilities in Allen for several business groups, including its National Consumer Assistance Center and its Decision Analytics, Information Technology and Public Education groups.

"In 2008, we reached an agreement for them to renew their lease for 10 years," said Robert R. Winningham, Allen Economic Development CEO. "Then last summer, they approached us and said they had done an analysis and liked Allen and wanted to sit down and talk with us again."

The new agreement calls for Allen to provide funds to remodel and build new offices in the Enterprise Business Park building that Experian will use.

"We like to put our funds toward infrastructure," Winningham said. "If they don't do anything, they don't get anything."

Winningham said the value of the incentive depends on how much growth the company has. It could be as much as $1.5 million paid over 10 years. But to receive all the incentive funds for the building renovation, Experian would have to invest $30 million.

read the rest of the article at The Dallas Morning News....

One of the oddest bits of the Texas Constitution requires the election of a District Clerk. The District Clerk serves as clerk to all the 9 District Courts in Collin County. It also runs a passport office on Park Ln. in Plano.

When veteran District clerk Hannah Kunkle announced that she would not seek re-election, three Republican ladies filed to secure the GOP nomination to replace her.

Why it is an elective office is beyond me. The District Clerk does not make policy or make decisions that affect taxes or the lives of ordinary citizens. The District Judges and attorney's who use the clerk's office daily are interested in the outcome of this race, they want a friendly, efficient clerk's office. Other than them and the candidates' family and friends ( and a few party stalwarts), I know of no one who really has an opinion. So here is your chance to listen to and decide who you think will lead an efficient clerk's office.

Bill

Here are their opening remarks before the Collin County Conservative Club:

Patricia Crigger

Terrye Evans

Alma Hays

When Judge Curt Henderson announced his retirement, a three person race to replace him on the 219th District Court was underway. The 219th is a court of general jurisdiction, meaning it handles felony criminal trials as well as family law and civil cases.

The three candidates or the Republican nomination appeared at a forum held last night and sponsored by the Collin County Conservative Club. Here are their opening statements.

Bill

Scott Becker

Wendy McMillon

Angela Tucker

The Collin County Observer believes that the District Attorney's race is one of the most important election contests in recent county history.

I have tried on several occasions to record speeches by the three Republican candidates, but unfortunately I have not been able to get a good recording because these guys wander all over the stage and auditorium - delivering their talks "on the hoof". It's impossible to film them with a hand-held camera.

I am grateful to the Collin County Conservative Republican Club who super glued these gentlemen's shoes to the floor long enough for me to record their opening remarks. I hope you find the effort worthwhile and are able to learn something about these contenders who want to be your next District Attorney.

Bill

Jimmy Angelino

Jeff Bray

Greg Willis