How the Committee to Incorporate Sandy Oaks Misled the Community

Even though the election of the new City Council is over and there have been a few council meetings, people are still talking about the process of incorporation and the vote that took place last May.  No conversation about the change can be complete without discussing the actions (and lack of actions) of the Committee to Incorporate Sandy Oaks (CISO).

Throughout the campaign process leading to the election in August, much of the conversation concerning CISO dealt with how the Committee misled the Waterwood community on topics that were either not addressed, bent the truth, or were exaggerated.  In short, the Committee to Incorporate Sandy Oaks misled the community leading into incorporation.

CISO’s Website Shows Businesses Not Inside Proposed City

The quickest example of CISO misleading the community can be experienced by visiting their website CityOfSandyOaks.info.  The website was on all flyers and postcards that CISO handed out and was used as their central place for people to go to gain more information about incorporation.  On the front page of the website is a slideshow of pictures that are presented as being related to the proposed City of Sandy Oaks.  Here is a list of the pictures:

• A modern fire truck with “Sandy Oaks Fire Rescue” on the side of the door
• A picture of the Alamo Fireworks and McDonald’s Tire Company at the SW corner of 1604 and 37
• Coyote Crossing Saloon on the SW corner of Mathis and 37
• Valero at the entrance to the Waterwood subdivision
• Super Express attached to the Valero
• Jack’s Corner store just south of the Super Express
• EZ Mart and Shell gas station at the SW corner of 1604 and 37
• A picture of the intersection of 1604 and 37 showing the sign pointing towards San Antonio
• A picture at the intersection of 1604 and 37 showing signs for 1604
• A picture of the offramp from 37 South leading to Mathis and Priest

Of the 8 businesses included in the Committee to Incorporate Sandy Oaks slideshow, only 3 are actually in the city limits of Sandy Oaks.  They include the Super Express, Valero, and Jack’s Corner.  If the new city decides to have a sales tax then these businesses will be the means to that revenue.

The lack of commerce is why Art Martinez de Vara, the adviser to CISO, told Texas Public Radio that residential property taxes would be “astronomically high.”  It’s also why Pedro Orduno, Chairman of CISO, told the Express News that “the committee wouldn’t seek to incorporate at 2.4 square miles because, without a commercial tax base, the city wouldn’t be economically viable.”

But both men made these comments back in November of 2013, not in April 2014 when both Orduno and Martinez de Vara gave a presentation for CISO pushing for incorporation votes.

Website Shows Major Intersection Not Inside Proposed City

Not including the picture of a hypothetical (and expensive) fire engine, of the 9 pictures in CISO’s slideshow, only 3 of them were taken in the proposed 2.4 square miles that is now the City of Sandy Oaks.  If someone were to look at only CISO’s slideshow of pictures, they would think that the proposed City of Sandy Oaks included the area from Waterwood to 1604.  There are still people today who do not know that the intersection of 1604 and 37 is not included in the new city limits.

Website Only Showed Candidates CISO Chose To Run

The Committee’s website has more problems than just the slideshow. During the time leading up to the election of the city council, CISO presented the names of candidates who were running for alderman positions.  The problem is that it only listed 5 of the 8 candidates, showing only the members of the Sandy Oaks Political Action Committee (SOPAC).

The website is owned and maintained by Pedro Orduno, a private citizen.  But Orduno is also the Chair to CISO and the website was presented to the community as the go-to place for information regarding everything involving the new city, not just what Orduno wanted.

CISO Lied To Community

Possibly one of the most damaging ways in which CISO misled the community is when they gave their presentation about incorporation on April 24, 2014.  It was stated at that meeting that the Committee would announce the deadline for people to apply to be on the ballot to run for city office.  But the deadline passed without any notification, including anything posted on CISO’s website.

However, between the vote to incorporate and the deadline, CISO did find people that they personally wanted to run for office.  CISO held what was supposed to be a private meeting on May 27, almost a full month before the deadline to apply to be placed on the ballot.  At this meeting were Joel Ortega, Earnest Gay, Doug Tomasini, and Dale Burmaster; new members that Jim Clement and Pedro Orduno invited into the Sandy Oaks Political Action Committee (SOPAC).

CISO is largely responsible for the reason why Jim Clement (Vice-Chair of CISO) ran unopposed for mayor.

CISO Excluded Minorities

CISO is also largely responsible for the reason why the new City Council doesn’t correctly reflect the demographics of the city.  The population of Sandy Oaks is about 80% Hispanic, and yet the new Council is only 20% Hispanic.

If CISO had been open and honest about the deadline and truly wanted the entire community to participate, then statistically speaking, the number of Hispanic involvement would have been greater.  Of the 9 candidates who ran, only 2 were non Caucasian and those were Pedro Orduno and his personal friend Joel Ortega.

CISO Petitioned Less Than 1.3%

Whenever someone questions a member of CISO about the actions leading to incorporation, CISO is quick to point out that they took up a petition in the community.  But the petition only included 50 signatures, less than 1.3% of the community.  One woman said the petition paperwork she saw spoke more about keeping San Antonio out than it did about the area becoming its own city.

CISO Chose The Name of A Location That Already Existed

The most obvious way in which CISO misled the public is in the selection of the name “Sandy Oaks.”  The majority of the community within the new City of Sandy Oaks is called Waterwood and the area has been known as Waterwood for the last 25 years.  2.5 miles away at the corner of Hardy and Campbellton Road is a community named Sandy Oaks that has had the name for over 50 years.  So imagine people’s shock when they realized that the “Vote to Incorporate Sandy Oaks” signs involved Waterwood, not Sandy Oaks.

CISO Already Failed At Governing

Much of what the Committee to Incorporate Sandy Oaks wanted from becoming a city could have been achieved by a fully functional Property Owner’s Association.  The 3 people on CISO, Pedro Orduno, Jim Clement, and Charlotte Rabe, are all board members of the Waterwood Park Property Owner’s Association.  If they couldn’t make things work as a POA then creating a larger governing body like a city is questionable.  This is especially true when their method of gaining votes in favor of incorporation was to mislead the community.