The two attorneys named Bill -- Bill Aleshire, Bill Bunch of Save Our Springs Alliance, along with Joe Riddell, former staff attorney at the Attorney General's Office -- are to be congratulated for hitting the right target. That is the hyper-hypocritical majority on the Austin City Council and Austin Mayor (again) Kirk Watson. Their Texas Open Meetings Act (TOMA) violation was so bold that Judge Maya Guerra Gamble ruled on Thursday to pull all 13 Austin City charter amendments off the November ballot, stating:
"The Austin City Council violated the Texas Open Meetings Act when it placed 13 city charter amendments on the Nov. 5 general election ballot, District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble ruled on Thursday." From the Austin American-Statesman 8/29/24
For details on Thursday's TOMA court ruling read the Austin Monitor article "Judge's Order Halts Nov. 5 Charter Election." Please also note this is Bunch's second win on Austin City Council TOMA violations. The last one was in May.
The court's ruling is a relief to us here at LIV. We had planned to oppose one of the Watson Council's amendments that could delay citizen petitions from a public vote for up to 4 years!
Some history is in order.
Watson has long made the Texans' right to petition one of his favorite targets. It started when he first ran for Mayor in 1997.
Kirk Watson's political ally, then Austin Mayor Bruce Todd, sent an emissary over to the City Clerk's Office ordering the city clerk to decertify the petition filed by Austinites for a Little Less Corruption (ALLC). ALLC was a local citizen's petition for campaign finance reform. Aldridge ruled that 14,000 of the 28,000 signatures filed were "invalid," based on hyper-technical claims not allowed under Texas election law.
ALLC had to sue the city of Austin to overturn Aldridge's decertification. Thanks to the stellar pro-bono attorneys Fred Lewis and Hugh Lowe (ACLU) and non-nonsense federal judge Sam Sparks, the court overturned Aldridges' decertification. Sparks, known for his Scotts-Irish temper, had just broken his leg. He ordered the city of Austin to place the measure on the ballot and to "get out of my courtroom."
BUT Watson got what he needed to ensure his first electoral success. The measure passed by a 72% margin in August. It was delayed past the May Mayoral election when Watson was in a heated three-way race that included the popular City Councilman Max Nofziger. Max was running on the ALLC banner. This was the start of Watson's history of targeting the right to petition in Texas that he carried to his Senate seat but we'll stop here.
Open Government in Texas and Petition Rights Are Connected
By the way, the well-versed-on-TOMA Mayor Watson is on the ballot again in November. The Austin Bulldog reports he is facing three other contenders.
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Fun Historical Notes: The ALLC case is referred to on the Secretary of State's website here. The Austin City Clerk's Office cleaned up its act, handling petitions with fairness and transparency. The name, Austinites for a Little Less Corruption, made it into the news clips on Jay Leno's show five years after the case was closed,
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