Hired Von Ormy Marshal Silences Residents

(Photo courtesy of Bexar County Constable Precinct 1)

The first two city council meetings of the City of Sandy Oaks were policed by a law enforcement officer from Von Ormy, Texas named Tiffany Aguillen.

In the first meeting on August 16, 2014, Aguillen made her authority known when she threatened to arrest Cathleen Recio, who recently lost the election for an alderman position.

At the start of the meeting Recio was upset that Art Martinez de Vara, adviser to SOPAC and CISO, was given the position of city attorney before the meeting was even officially started.  When the members of the council (including 4 members of SOPAC and the co-chair of CISO) took their seats Martinez de Vara sat at table with them even with his own official paper placard with his name on it.  Because the position of city attorney requires a decision from the elected city council, Recio demanded that Mayor Clement have Martinez de Vara join the audience until the city council made an official decision on the office of city attorney.  The lawyer obliged and joined the audience.

But Recio didn’t stop there as she voiced outrage that the agenda for the meeting was not made available to all residents.  By law, the agenda of a city council meeting must be posted in a public location where residents can read the agenda 72 hours in advance of the meeting.  According to the official agenda that Mayor Jim Clement created, it had only been posted on the door of the Waterwood Park Clubhouse, a location that residents outside the neighborhood of Waterwood cannot access because of a locked gate.

Von Ormy Marshal Tiffany Aguillen then intervened, telling Recio that she needed to be silent and let the Mayor explain the rules of the meeting.  Aguillen threatened that if Recio did not remain silent that she would be removed from the proceeding and may even be arrested.

In the next city council meeting on August 28, 2014, residents began openly questioning Art Martinez de Vara as being allowed to be city attorney.  Not only is there a conflict of interest that he is the Mayor of another city, but the newspaper he created called the Sandy Oaks Chronicle, had lied to the community.  The newspaper offered a 2 page “voter’s guide” that only included SOPAC candidates and lied about inviting other candidates to participate.  As her boss was being questioned, Marshal Tiffany Aguillen stepped forward again to interrupt and regain control of the room.  Although she couldn’t name them, she stated that Rules of Order had been established and that people in the meeting had to follow them.

As the mayor of Von Ormy, Art Martinez de Vara is the boss of Marshal Aguillen.  At no other time did Aguillen prevent people in the audience from speaking except for when her own boss was questioned.  At no other time did Aguillen enforce the Rules of Order.

Not much is known about Aguillen, an outsider to Sandy Oaks and the Waterwood community.  She has worked in law enforcement since 2000 and is currently a Von Ormy Marshal.  She was once a Bexar County Sheriff until she was fired in 2013.

The mother of 5 isn’t volunteering her time in Sandy Oaks.  At the end of the 2nd city council meeting Mayor Jim Clement and Alderman Earnest Gay were witnessed reaching into their own pockets to gather cash to pay Aguillen.

The important question is this: When it comes to taking sides, is Aguillen’s best interest to protect the community, or is it to protect the people who pay her?