We live in a democratic republic, a special form of government that allows citizens to democratically elect representatives to represent. When these representatives make decisions in government, they do so not just for themselves, but for the people who placed them into office.
Secretly changing a decision that a democratically elected group changes i the equivalent to trampling on democracy. It is an act of taking power away from citizens and giving it to a select few who believe that they, and they alone, know what is best.
In the United States of America, the people in government who participate in the act of secretly changing documents are not just unpatriotic, they are actually anti-patriotic. They are anti-democracy.
There is no point of having a democratically elected government if 1 person (or group of persons) can secretly change something they do not like.
1/2 To 1/4
Last fall, someone secretly changed a document the Sandy Oaks City Council voted on.
At its very first meeting, the City Council created an election for 3 new sales taxes that totaled 2%, the maximum allowed by Texas law. The problem, however, is that a 1/2% tax for VIA already existed.
After the meeting, but before the election, someone changed what the Council had voted on so that the number of taxes would add up correctly. The tax for street maintenance was originally meant to be a 1/2%, but someone changed it to a 1/4%.
See the full article discussing the illegal sales tax issue here.
3 People Who Knew of The Change
At a minimum, there are at least 3 people who knew of the illegal change.
City Attorney Art Martinez de Vara
As City Attorney, Art Martinez de Vara knew about the change because he filled out the paperwork and submitted it to the Bexar County Elections Department. He was present for the City Council meeting when the election for the sales taxes was created. He also signed off on the minutes of that meeting that also stated what the taxes were supposed to be. But when Martinez de Vara submitted the document to the County Elections Department, the numbers had been changed.
Mayor Jim Clement
Mayor Jim Clement knew about the change before the vote as well. On the day of the election, Clement was standing outside the only polling location in an attempt to meet with voters to convince them to vote in favor of the sales taxes. He stated that one of the taxes was only a 1/4%.
Clement knew that the original sales tax for street maintenance was a 1/2% because he was the one who put it on the agenda for the City Council to approve. He was the one who pushed the idea of having it be 1/2%. But on election day, Clement already knew the tax had been changed to a 1/4%.
Mayor Pro Tempore Earnest Gay
Alderman Earnest Gay also knew of the change. He said as much at the City Council meeting on February 12, 2015. The council was discussing having another vote on the VIA tax because Clement didn’t like the outcome of the election last November. The Council learned earlier in the meeting that they had created an illegal amount of sales taxes. When someone brought up the illegal amount of taxes and the current VIA tax, Gay said
I thought [VIA] was a quarter percent, that’s what I was told. That I got from one of the, ah, the people that work for the city of San Antonio.
San Antonio does in fact have a 1/4% tax for VIA, but it’s on top of the county wide 1/2% tax that also exists for VIA. Gay’s “source” (which he refused to name) was correct, just not about the same topic.
If Earnest Gay knew that VIA was 1/4%, then why would he have approved the creation of 2% and not 1.75%? And if he knew, then why didn’t he say so at the first City Council meeting or any meeting since?
The fact is that Gay found out about the VIA tax after the Council created the vote, but before the paperwork was submitted to the County. He knew that the paperwork had to be changed in order for the math to “add up.”
At the February 26, 2015 special meeting the City Council addressed the sales tax issue. At the meeting, Earnest Gay said
Theoretically, if you approved a 1/2 you approved a 1/4
Gay attempted to justify the fact that someone secretly changed the tax.
He’s wrong. State law is very specific about the fact that numbers cannot change when they are decided on by voters, including City Council members. A spokesman for the State Comptroller’s office called it an “understood contract.”
3 Least Trustworthy People In The City
Art Martinez de Vara
In August of 2014, right before the election of the first City Council, Martinez de Vara created a newspaper called the “Sandy Oaks Chronicle.” In it was a 2 page spread listing the candidates running for office. The problem however, is that it only listed SOPAC candidates and lied about contacting the other 3 candidates running for office.
Martinez de Vara was willing to lie to an entire city in order to help SOPAC members get elected. It paid off; Martinez de Vara was chosen as City Attorney before the first City Council ever met.
The Texas Ethics Division is currently doing an investigation on the newspaper issue.
Mayor Jim Clement
When Jim Clement was meeting voters outside the polling location he was telling them false information. Clement told soon to be voters that voting in favor of the new taxes would simply “switch” them from being county taxes and into city taxes.
Clement tried creating a retroactive property tax back to the year 2013, before the city was ever created. After he couldn’t get it he then lied to news WOAI that he never wanted a new tax.
The Committee to Incorporate Sandy Oaks, which Clement was co-chair of, told the community that it would announce the deadline to run for City Council so that everyone had an opportunity. Instead, CISO formed SOPAC, told no one else, and Clement was able to run for mayor unopposed.
Mayor Pro Tempore Earnest Gay
On January 8, 2015, Earnest Gay was a speaker at a presentation given by the Texas Public Policy Foundation. The TPPF is a lobbying group that promotes the idea of small cities and limited government. So in his speech, Gay made sure to say things that helped promote the ideals of the TPPF.
Gay lied about the City Council not wanting a new property tax. He also made it sound as if the city might not need a property tax at all, something that the TPPF is strongly in favor of.
Most importantly, Earnest Gay lied about being what he calls “a pay as you go city.” While at a conference where people champion limited government and ballanced budgets, Gay said in his speech
We are very adamant about trying to remain a ‘pay as you go’ government, is what we call it. We want to set our budget according to what our income is, and not try to set our income according to what we want. It hasn’t worked anywhere from the local level all the way up to the national level.
At the time of the speech the City of Sandy Oaks was already in debt. Most of the debt was (and still is) owed to City Attorney Art Martinez de Vara. As an Alderman, Earnest Gay voted to have debt at the very first City Council meeting.
The Leaders
The 3 least trustworthy people in the city are also the 3 men who knew the sales tax had been secretly changed.
As City Attorney, Mayor, and Mayor Pro Tem, they’re also the 3 primary leaders of the City Council.
The rest of the City Council has chosen to do nothing about this issue.
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