Monday, October 6, 2008

Texas Ethics PAC

What shall we do with this PAC?

"Citizens to Keep the NHMCCD Trustees" Treasurer, Mary Tollett, Fined $500 by TEC

"Citizens to Keep the NHMCCD Trustees" Treasurer, Ms Mary Tollett, fined a $500 civil penalty by the Texas Ethics Commission for violations on campaign finance reports.
NHMCCD is now known as Lone Star College. Lone Star College has two campuses in The Woodlands, Lone Star College - University Center & Lone Star College - Montgomery, both On SH 242.

View The Texas Ethics Commission Notice of Final Resolution HERE.

Ike

Hurricane Ike Video

ONE SPEED TRAP DOWN, MANY MORE TO GO. . .

Those traveling Gosling Road no longer have to worry about the confusion whether it's posted 35 MPH or 45 MPH. As of last week, ALL of Gosling Road is posted at 45 MPH. Warning to speeders: The speed trap is still there, just won't be so expensive if you continue to speed. CATW is proud to add this to their list of community service accomplishments, but it's up to YOU to drive safely and drive the speed limit to eliminate the word speed trap in The Woodlands.
If you know of an area in The Woodlands that you believe is posted incorrectly, please contact the Commissioners office.

Hackers Gone Wild on 8-14-2008

CATW does not know if the following hacking attempts are related, but both need to be reported.
1) CATW's website was attacked and thanks to state of the art technology, the Hacker didn't have a chance. Suggestion to Hacker: Get your own site if you don't like CATW's message.
2) Most Important. It appears the water system in The Woodlands was almost compromised by a very tiny farmer. CATW is still waiting to hear from the officials, but our hearts go out to the tiny farmer family.
CATW can only assume the tiny farmer and the Hacker were working together.

Hey Bulletin: Here's an Example of Plagiarism: "Dude, You Stole My Article"

WWW.SLATE.COM ran this article regarding the left wing rag, the Bulletin.
Jody Rosen from Slate says: "I recalled writing the Buffett piece, laboring on deadline into the wee hours, hunched over a laptop at the kitchen table in my Brooklyn home. How could I have known that I was previewing a concert to take place some 15 months later at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in Spring, Texas?"
A Harris County Activist had this to say about Montgomery County: "What is it with Montgomery County?... DA, Constables, County Commissioner, Dist. Judges, Fire Departments, College Trustees, School Trustees, Superintendents ........ seems if there a place for a lapse in integrity, ethics, corruption, this place is a smorgasbord of all of it!"
Add plagiarism to the list! The Bulletin is no longer with us online and we hope this cancer of a newspaper stays out of commission.
How will Rosemary Roe get her message out now? This was on the cover of a Bulletin after 911 -Very Classy.

Golf Anyone?

Senior Citizens gone wild in The Woodlands???? One could only assume that an elderly couple got drunk and then got lost on their way to the golf course before ditching their ride, right? Okay, Maybe The Woodlands youth strike again!
PICTURES HERE

Hospital Director Sends Hateful Emails

Montgomery County Hospital District Board of Director John Hennigan sends what some consider threatening emails to CATW. CATW will not post the emails since they have been sent to the FBI for public record purposes.

Is MC a Sanctuary County for Illegals?

Is Montgomery County a Sanctuary County for Illegals? Seems to always be about $ when it's a hard task.
CATW asked Sheriff Tommy Gage the following:
Mr. Gage:Please provide the number of illegal immigrants that were arrested between 1-1-2008 to 7-1-2008. Do your departments currently participate in ICE 287(g)? If not, why?
Mr Gage's office refused to advise how many illegals have been arrested, but after some pushing I received an answer to ICE 287(g).
The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office does not participate in the ICE 287(g) program. The current requirements to participate in the program include not only training but the cost to connect the local database to the federal database.
Currently we do not have the time to or adequate staffing to permit our personnel to attend such training nor do we have extra funding to cover the costs of software/hardware.
Our personnel are extremely busy with their regular patrol functions and I believe it necessary to address our response times and availability for calls for service at this time. The same is true in terms of finding "additional" dollars to spend towards a computer connection. Finally, I believe the agency budget is insufficient to justify any additional dollars towards this effort.
On a final note, I can report that in reviewing the literature on a number of success stories, it is important to know "most" of the cases involving a 287(g) incident have occurred at the time of commitment to a jail facility. We are very fortunate here in Montgomery County to have an ICE agent assigned to our jail. He is able to review ALL arrests and, if needed, conduct further investigation and the handling of additional charges or commence formal deportation should the situation warrant.
If the future ever provides for sufficient staffing and funding, MCSO will certainly evaluate the potential of having 287(g) certified deputies.
Sheriff Tommy Gage

Is Cook a Crook?

TALK OF THE WOODLANDS
http://www.talkofthewoodlands.com/vbulletin_forums/showthread.php?t=7003
Cook I take to heart all that you are saying and then I sigh with relief that I moved out. Yes, the people who are running things are not ONLY crooks as MDonn keeps reporting but they are STUPID crooks who have made very poor decisions on behalf of the residents.You ask "are you going to continue to put up with this?" and the residents reading your post should be giving a resounding "NO"...but please, you appear to have always checked things out and know the facts, can you also be a leader here and tell them what they can do to really get something done and be heard? Is it simply a matter of storming the meetings with hundreds of residents? Is it a matter of banding together and suing them? Or getting legal on your side and proving they are stupid crooks?Tell this band of residents/listeners the next course of action. I'm sure many are sitting back and saying "but what can I do - I'm only 1 person, 1 vote".Past Conflict
JUST FOR FUN!

Woodlands Chamber IS a Gov Body

South Montgomery County Woodlands Chamber of Commerce (Chamber) IS a Governmental Body
A Woodlands resident noticed that the Chamber was receiving public funds from surrounding governmental bodies. View the letter to the Texas Attorney Generals office HERE.
The Texas Attorney Generals Office determined that the Chamber IS a governmental body. View letter HERE.
Trust.... But Verify.

CA Walker Ignores Facts Against DA McDougal

To:Judge Alan Sadler
Commissioner Mike Meador
Commissioner Craig Doyal
Commissioner Ed Chance
Commissioner Ed Rinehart
Gentleman:What has this county come to if you accept David Walker's claim that: "I also take note of the resources available in my office to pursue a lawsuit which may or may not result in any recovery" in regards to THIS letter? I was brought up that the law was the law no matter what or who was involved. Mr McDougal has possibly broken the law and Mr Walker has a duty to uphold the law and investigate and prosecute if necessary no matter if he gets a return on his investment or not. THIS letter clearly outlines the reasons why Mr Walker needs to do his job.If each one of you do not encourage Mr Walker to do his job then the integrity of YOUR office has been compromised.Community Activists of The Woodlands

Flag Banner Season is Quickly Approaching.

Soon every light standard in The Woodlands will have a flag banner attached to it. You probably won't notice the flags since there will be so many of them gracing The Woodlands. CATW has reached out to the other CATW once again to reduce the number of flags this year. Time will tell what happens. I hope the other CATW presents the flag banner issue to the VFW in a bipartisan way. It's not like the other CATW to let concerned residents be part of the process.
Bellow is the email correspondence regarding the banners.
Mr Norrell:Flag banner season is quickly approaching. Please consider one flag per intersection and sporadic flags along the roads. It's my belief that The Woodlands is doing a disservice to the U.S. flag by putting so many at intersections and along the roads. Please pass this info to the people who hire the WCSC to install the flags. I would also appreciate if you would bring this up at all the board meetings for discussion.Have a blessed day,Joe Merrill
Mr Merrill,Thank you for your email. I appreciate you expressing your concerns and your concerns will be taken into consideration before we place the 4th of July
Banners. I have asked staff to follow up with the local VFW Post to get their feedback on this issue / we plan to share the feedback we receive with the decision makers on this matter.
Don Norrell
LAST YEARS BANNER BLOG

Prosecution of Mike McDougal

McDougal - Officer Entrusted With Public Funds.
Just because DA Mike McDougal lost his job in the last election doesn't mean he can break the law and get away with it.
PLEASE VIEW THIS DOCUMENT.
Contact County Attorney, David Walker, at telephone number 281-364-4200 or email address gstanley@co.montgomery.tx.us and request the following: THE COUNTY ATTORNEY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY IS TO INITIATE THE NECESSARY PROCEEDINGS AND/OR INVESTIGATION IN REGARDS TO DISTRICT ATTORNEY MIKE MCDOUGAL IN ORDER TO RESTORE THE PUBLIC TRUST AND TO PRESERVE AND PROTECT THE PUBLIC INTEREST, AS REQUIRED UNDER SECTION 41.009 OF THE GOVERNMENT CODE.

DA, McDougal, issued a $500 civil fine.

The Courier catches up with all the TEC complaints in and around Montgomery County. David Walker says this regarding the TEC: "darn complicated"....
A complaint was sent to the Texas Ethics Commision (TEC) prior to allegations that McDougal used forfeiture funds for alcohal or however he wanted. Here is the TEC ruling originally posted on The Montgomery Monitor site.
CATW has asked McDougal for comments regarding the ruling and we have not heard back from him or his office.
McDougal has answered the below questions:
1. What are your thoughts of the Texas Ethics Commission? The Texas Ethics Commission is a necessary organization.
2. Do you believe they are "Promoting Public Confidence in Government"? Yes.
3. Do you believe the original allegations were fair? Yes.
4. You were ultimately imposed a civil fine of $500.00. Comments? I think the Commission saw that the allegations were not done intentionally or with any desire to circumvent the law, but did deserve a "punishment to fit the crime."

"IT IS WHAT IT IS" or is it? Speed Traps

Most everyone has heard about Shenandoah's "speed trap" on Research Forest Drive near I45 and for those who got tickets, well the speed limit "is what it is".... Or is it? Maybe the same thing happening in Shenandoah is also happening in The Woodlands on Gosling Road and Lake Woodlands?
Drive safe and always "Trust, But Verify"
Those who travel Gosling Road, oddly posted at 35MPH, may have noticed that there is often a Sheriff Officer killing the grass in the median between Lake Woodlands Drive and Shadowbend Place. Actually, I know at least 310 people noticed the car between 9-1-2007 and 6-1-2008. 310 is the number of speeding tickets issued on Gosling Road through the Texas Traffic Safety Program Grant Agreement (Program). The Program is an agreement between the State of Texas and County Judge Alan B. Sadler's Office. The purpose of the Program is to help fund safety in Montgomery County by refunding expenditures to write tickets for Speeding, Click It or Ticket, and DWI's. Is the Program working as designed? I bet the 1093 people who got speeding tickets on Lake Woodlands Drive (also 35MPH) don't think it's working. Most complaints of the Lake Woodlands "speed trap" state they got tickets around the Northshore Park area. The Sheriffs Office could very easily catch speeders on Research Forest in The Woodlands, but Research Forest is not part of the Program. In fact, it's so easy to catch speeders in the Program's boundaries on Lake Woodlands Drive and Gosling Road that the Sheriff's office only issued 119 tickets for the same time period on the entire stretch of Woodlands Parkway.
Why is this a problem? Simple. At times the Sheriff's office is looking for revenue rather than working greater areas of concern. We've all heard a million times how dangerous our intersections are so why aren't there Sheriff Officers sitting at The Woodlands intersections catching red light runners? They won't do that since Commissioner Ed Chance wouldn't be able to make the easy money with his red light cameras. The Program will reimburse up to a certain amount of money that it cost to patrol the 18 speed traps in Montgomery county. The enforcement time period for the 18 speed traps is 5AM to Midnight.... wink wink. Listen to the scanners on The Montgomery County Monitor site and you will hear talk of sending cars to Speed zones 1-18. CATW guesses they are never under the allowed budget.
So not only does Montgomery County get a free ride with some expenses (which is good if the Program wasn't a speed trap), but they got revenue from 5399 speeding tickets in the 18 speed zones from 9-1-2007 to 6-1-2008.
The stats for DWI and Click It or Ticket seem very low. We are hoping that is because people are not drinking and driving and people are also wearing their seat belts.

TW Township's Deep Pockets Strike Again!

How often do you review your personal contracts? When AT&T TV & Internet rolled into town did you think about getting rid of Comcast?
Don't most of us review our contracts with service providers on a regular basis? I imagine most of you answered yes. Well, it appears The Woodlands Township has been rolling with no legal contract from it's inception (Town Center Improvement District) in 1993. THIS is the only contract provided to CATW through an open records request.
Schwartz, Page & Harding has been paid very well with little to no billing accountability. You will notice that you get more detail in your phone bill. When the bottom line of any bill is $171,886.00 there should be line item details and not just a "story". All this with no contract?
B.T, Yeates = $200/HR
H.M. Cohen = $335/HR
J. Kime = $170/HR
M.G. Page = $395/HR
Schwartz, Page & Harding also represent the MUD's, WJPA, SJRA and who knows the others.

TEC & Constable Tim Holifield

Community Activists of The Woodlands (CATW) sent a sworn complaint to the Texas Ethics Commission (TEC) regarding Precinct 3 Constable, Tim Holifield.
View sworn complaint HERE. View TEC response HERE.