Update: On Wednesday, August 10, it became known that a supposedly corrected petition filing by recallers was made. That's all we know about it at this time. Stay tuned!
Mayor Nelson recently held a community meeting with Bill Aleshire. It was an open meeting, of course. Four recallers even attended and whatever questions they asked -- other than the salacious ones about the Mayor's affair -- were answered.
Enjoy and learn. The video is up on Lyle Nelson's home page: KeepMayorNelson.org
"This was the best community meeting I'd been to in 40 years. Aleshire made plain how a small town can be disrupted by transparency transgressors* who get elected when there's little competition. Watch the audience, chock full of community leaders who erupt with passion for fairness and open government" said Linda Curtis, one of the founders of the League of Independent Voters of Texas.
Last week, Bastrop City Manager, Sylvia Carrillo's handpicked interim city secretary, Irma Parker, submitted a written staff report for the meeting on August 13 that contained the following statement, but at the meeting Parker was verbally inconsistent, stating she didn't know whether to certify or de-certify the petition and wanted more time:
"While the petition contains a sufficient number of valid signatures, it is insufficient because it does not include the required affidavits. An attestation of truth from a signer of each page of the petition is required for each page."
At the August 27th City Council meeting, Irma Parker contended that the city charter's provision that gives the petitioners 10 days to correct the petition was invoked. But petitioners (Carrillo and Parker's bosses) knew they had a problem on August 13. If Parker's sleight-of-hand prevailed, she gave petitioners until September 3 (today) to correct their problem by getting 91 petition signers to now swear that the petition is "true." Aleshire lays out the problems they might face trying to alter a petition that was already filed.
In 30 years of advocacy for the right to petition in Texas, Curtis has yet to see a petition filed by members of the body that was being petitioned -- the City Council. Aleshire laid out his evidence that the recallers caused the expenditure of $137,070 in taxpayer dollars in the small city of Bastrop. The word about this was getting around in the community, despite the failure of local media to cover it...yet.
The irony of the Bastrop politician's recall was also laid out by Aleshire. If the petition was "cured" and certified by Parker, it must go to the City Council. Might there be a slight "conflict of interest" for petitioners sitting on the dais to accept their own petition?
The greatest irony may turn out to be this one. Kirkland is up for reelection -- IF he chooses to run -- in May of 2025, the next possible date for a recall reelection. Lyle Nelson's term ends in May 2026. Oops!
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Additional Notes:
Local media, especially Community Impact News, continues to report significant errors that appear to support recaller's claims of "misuse of public funds" by Visit Bastrop. We highly recommend Council Member Cheryl Lee's report made at the August 27th Council meeting captured here on the Mayor's site: https://keepmayornelson.org/blog/
We previously reported that 96% percent of the 1600 signatures were collected by City Council Members, John Kirkland and Kevin Plunkett, and a few family members. City Council Member Cynthia Meyer also pitched in a page of signatures. That's three voting members out of five members of the City Council.
Be sure to visit BastropBOG.com for how the Bastrop community can close the door on ongoing violations of the spirit and intent of the Texas Open Meetings Act.
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