Residents in Waterwood started receiving postcards in mid March from Jim Clement, who claims to be the president of the Waterwood Park Property Owner’s Association (WPPOA). The postcard has a paragraph on the front that Clement wrote explaining that he is the president of the WPPOA and also the Mayor of the City of Sandy […]
On March 7, 2015, Alderman Micki Ball met with citizens at the WPPOA clubhouse in a City Council sponsored meeting. Alderman Ball was directly asked what the City Attorney, Art Martinez de Vara, was being paid. Her reply was That was discussed in executive session and by law I can’t reveal that. According to Section […]
At the City Council meeting on February 12, 2015, the City Council was handed an Open Records Request from Don Hormachea. He handed the Request to each of the 5 Alderman, the Mayor, the City Clerk, and the City Attorney. The Public Information Act gives people the ability to access information that the government has. […]
The Sandy Oaks City Council held a special meeting on February 26, 2015 to discuss the illegal amount of sales taxes they created last fall. In their first official meeting, the Council created an election for 3 new sales taxes that, if approved, would equal more than the amount allowed by Texas law. The voters […]
At the City Council meeting on February 12, 2015, Mayor Jim Clement wanted to discuss and consider placing the removal of the VIA sales tax up for election on the May 2015 ballot. The City Council had placed the 1/2% VIA sales tax on the November 2014 ballot last year and voters decided to keep […]
By Texas state law, the maximum sales tax that can be imposed is 8.25%. Of that, the state collects 6.25% which means that local municipalities and transit authorities can only impose an extra 2% of sales tax. The Sandy Oaks City Council, however, went beyond the legal limit. The Council Wanted The Maximum Above is […]
The City of Sandy Oaks, Texas, is less than a year old and has only had a city government for less than half a year, but the city is already in debt and won’t say how much. Before the election in August 2014 for the first City Council, many of the candidates stated they wanted […]
On January 15, 2015, the Waterwood Park Property Owner’s Association (WPPOA) held a vote to amend its bylaws. The vote drew 87 people to the WPPOA clubhouse for a meeting that lasted an hour before ending in angry shouting. Towards the end of the meeting, paramedics and Bexar County Sheriffs were both called in. The […]
Starting January 1, 2015, a new San Antonio cell phone law will go into effect. It will be illegal to drive while trying to operate a cell phone. This includes holding the cell phone while talking, but it also includes using the phone to text or use the phone for apps that require operation while […]
Inside Waterwood, Dennis Schryver’s side yard serves as the common meeting place for the guys on his block. Everyone seems welcome, especially if they can offer any news, or even better, an excellent joke. Imagine the TV show Cheers, except the setting is in the woods, the jokes are cruder (and better), there are always […]
On December 11, 2014, the Sandy Oaks City Council discussed hiring someone to be City Marshal. By the law created by the City Council, in order for an item to be placed on a meeting agenda it must be submitted by no less than 2 aldermen. However, the item to “Review and consider credentials of […]
On December 11, 2014, a citizen (J.G.) told the city council that he had received a letter from the Waterwood Development Company telling him he could no longer access the park or the clubhouse where the city council meets. The reason for the letter was because J.G. was behind on his payment of the assessment fee […]
The audio below is the 4rth part of a 4 part conversation with Sandy Oaks Mayor Jim Clement outside of Freedom Elementary on November 4, 2014. The school served as the only polling location for citizens of the City of Sandy Oaks for the November election. Clement met voters to convince them to vote in […]
Sandy Oaks Mayor Jim Clement stood outside Freedom Elementary School on election day November 4, 2014. The school served as the only polling location for citizens of the newly formed City of Sandy Oaks. The only items on the ballot specifically pertaining to the city were 4 propositions that dealt with sales taxes. The first […]
Sandy Oaks Mayor Jim Clement stood outside Freedom Elementary School on election day November 4, 2014, greeting soon to be voters. Bellow is the 2nd part of a 4 part conversation with the mayor. Mayor Clement admitted that he was in favor of a retroactive property tax on the City of Sandy Oaks. It would […]
On November 4, 2014, Mayor Jim Clement stood outside Freedom Elementary School, greeting voters who were about to vote on 4 new propositions. The following is an audio recording in which Mayor Clement can be heard attempting to dodge questions about a budget he presented to the city council in September 2014. Mayor Clement was […]
Proposition 1 1% sales tax for general purposes 165 votes for (56%) 132 votes against (44%) Proposition 2 1/2% additional sales tax for general purposes 151 votes for (51%) 145 votes against (49%) Proposition 3 1/2% sales tax for road maintenance 194 votes for (65%) 104 votes against (35%) Proposition 4 Vote to keep VIA […]
Every spring brings a clash of colors in South Texas as wildflowers pop up all over the place. If you you want your yard to be the envy of the neighborhood, then now’s the time to plant your seeds. Planting now ensures enough time for germination, the process in which a plant grows from a […]
On the 22nd of September, Jim Forsyth of WOAI published a short article about the new non-tax of Sandy Oaks. It couples the city with Von Ormy as being the second city within Bexar county to “abolish” property tax. Von Ormy recently announced that it would be getting rid of its .25 residential tax, one […]
The Sandy Oaks City Council has placed 4 items on the ballot in this Fall’s election. New Sales Taxes The first 3 are proposed sales taxes. When the City Council voted to have the election for sales taxes all Aldermen except for Micki Ball were in favor of the new tax. If approved, the sales […]
This week a new newspaper was presented to Sandy Oaks residents. This one calls itself the “Sandy Oaks Gazette.” In reality, the Gazette is just a new name for the Sandy Oaks Chronicle, which first came out in August. In its first issue, the newspaper had a 2 page spread calling itself a “voter’s guide” […]
At the city council meeting yesterday all council members had a manila envelope which Jim Clement had delivered to them. Inside was a packet organized for them by Linebager Goggan Blair & Sampson, LLP, a law firm that specializes in delinquent tax collection services, lien collection, and evictions. The packet included a small booklet titled “City […]
Last night the Sandy Oaks City Council met for a budget hearing to discuss revenue and expenses. The meeting was less formal than a usual City Council meeting and allowed questions and comments from the audience. Mayor Jim Clement, whose job it is to create a budget, presented a budget that included over $300,000 in […]
Last night the Sandy Oaks City Council voted in favor of of a resolution thanking the Committee to Incorporate Sandy Oaks (CISO), the group that pushed for the creation of the new city. On the issue of creating the city, Mayor Jim Clement stated “We worked hard to get this done. Its called perseverance!” But […]
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 […]
At its very first meeting, the Sandy Oaks City Council voted in favor of creating 3 propositions for a public vote on new sales taxes. Micki Ball was the only Alderman who voted against all of the proposed propositions. The first proposition is a 1/2% sales tax for street maintenance. The second proposition is for […]
At the very first City Council meeting of the City of Sandy Oaks, Art Martinez de Vara sat at the table of the City Council members with his own official paper nameplate that showed his position as City Attorney. The Council had never hired an attorney and the position of City Attorney had never been […]
Starting Monday, July 28th, a newspaper called “The Sandy Oaks Chronicle” was handed out to residents of Waterwood and the City of Sandy Oaks. On page 4 of the newspaper there is a section titled “OFFICE: BOARD OF ALDERMEN” and the second to last sentence reads: All candidates were invited to participate in this voter’s […]
The Committee to Incorporate Sandy Oaks (CISO) worked for 3+ years to get the community of Waterwood and the surrounding area to be released from San Antonio’s ETJ and to incorporate into its own city. But the process of incorporation hardly involved the community and even now people are realizing that the “City of Sandy […]
The very first City Council of Sandy Oaks, Texas was elected August 9, 2014. 2014 Candidates Political games started the same month that Sandy Oaks incorporated. The Committee to Incorporate Sandy Oaks had said at a public meeting before incorporation that they would announce the deadline for application for people to run for city office. […]