The City of Sandy Oaks has finally accepted the offer of the park land from Jim Clement, who claims to be the Waterwood Park Property Owner’s Association president. But everything about the deal reeks of illegalities. Jim Clement Accepted the Land Illegally The park originally belonged to the Waterwood Development Company. The company wanted out […]
At the March 10, 2016 City Council meeting the Council went into a closed session and forced audience members out of the cafeteria room where the meeting was being held. While outside the building, people chatted about various topics to pass the time. Included among them was Pedro Orduno, the Chairman of the Committee to […]
The City of Sandy Oaks has a new Mayor, but Micki Ball seems just like the previous Mayor Jim Clement. The similarities between the two are striking. Both Clement and Ball Work In Secrecy Both of them kept the salary of Art Martinez de Vara, the City Attorney, private for half a year. As a […]
The Sandy Oaks City Council is now in its second year. The idea of being a city and having a city government was that city government could offer more than what the county government was doing and could do a better job addressing basic governmental services like road repair, law enforcement, fire protection, and animal. […]
The people claiming to be in charge in the City of Sandy Oaks have established a habit of wanting things to work “both ways.” They want all the credit of success and all the power of position, but don’t want the responsibility and work that comes with it. For example, Jim Clement is upset that […]
There has been a growing trend with politicians in the community that are trying to guilt trip people into doing more work in the community. Volunteering is great, but using peer pressure to force people into volunteering is a nasty thing to do. Part of the guilt trip comes from certain Council members whenever they […]
History repeated itself in the 2015 general election when 4 City Council positions were filled without there ever being an election and without there ever being a campaign for office. Candidates didn’t even need to produce political platforms or state what they were running for. Alderman Places 1, 3, and 5 were up for reelection, […]
The following transcript is taken from the October 8, 2015 meeting. That meeting included an opportunity for citizens to tell the City Council what they thought about contracting with a single trash collection service that would not allow any other trash companies offer services within the City of Sandy Oaks. The transcript is of the […]
On October 8, 2015, the City Council discussed how to address properties within the city that have overgrown weeds, disabled vehicles, and “other unsightly or dangerous properties.” Alderman Earnest Gay, who had placed the item on the meeting agenda, said I’m sure everybody out there has somebody that you, within a stone’s throw, that you, […]
BJ Gillespie, who recently submitted an application to run for a City Council position, has developed the habit of attacking people verbally on social media and news websites. She usually doesn’t go out of her way to attack people first, but piles on if someone she likes is already attacking someone or being defensive to […]
For the first time since September of 2014, the City Council is going to look at a budget for the city. The only reason they’re doing so is because they are legally required to and because they plan on creating a new property tax that is going to nearly double what Sandy Oaks residents are […]
A dramatic episode has erupted on social media regarding an invitation to the Sandy Oaks City Marshal, Jesse Gutierrez. The invitation was sent by Catherine Rendahl, who helped organize the Good Neighbors group, and invited Gutierrez to come speak to the group. The people upset about the invitation include Gutierrez’ wife Heather Leal, Alderman Micki […]
The current state of the Waterwood community is worse than it was a little over a year ago when the area incorporated into a city. Before incorporation, Bexar County and Waterwood Development Company were taking care of the roads. It’s true they weren’t doing the best job in the world, and that the roads often […]
The Sandy Oaks City Council has developed a habit of acting as if it has the authority to approve or disapprove what businesses do. The problem is that the City Council has never bothered to addresses zoning for residential and commercial entities and has never set up laws or approval processes for businesses to go […]
Alderman Micki Ball stated on July 9, 2015 that city wide trash collection should be paid for with property taxes. She said trash collection would be one of the “services provided through property tax.” The idea didn’t sit well with Aldermen and audience members alike. One woman in the audience loudly responded “I don’t think […]
The success of the City of Sandy Oaks is going to ride on the success of the city government. That government will need to be diligent in many things to accomplish what it needs to and one of those is paper work. Sometimes there will be typos with a document that aren’t going to be […]
When it comes to politics and government in Sandy Oaks, look at who benefits the most to learn who the king is. On the chess board, the king lines up behind the pawns. A smart player makes sure the first few moves of the game ensures that the king remains behind the scenes as much […]
A trifecta is a series of 3 ultimate achievements that are related to one another. For example, if a horse wins 3 different championships then that would constitute a trifecta because each singular event was difficult and nearly impossible. The fact the horse could win just 1 event is impressive, but a trifecta takes the […]
Mayor Jim Clement has been ignoring the issue of fireworks now for 4 months. In November of 2014, Aldermen David Tremblay and Micki Ball had an agenda item about adopting a required permit for the sell of fireworks. City Attorney Art Martinez de Vara told them the permit wouldn’t be enforceable because the city didn’t […]
Sandy Oaks News began taking detailed records and recordings for the community directly after incorporation and before there was even a city government. The desire to keep solid records came after the Committee to Incorporate promised the community that it would announce the deadline for people to apply for office, but instead kept the deadline […]
On February 26, 2014 the City Council met to fix the tax debacle they created when they created an illegal amount of sales taxes. The issue was that the city could only create up to 1.5% in sales taxes and instead created 1.75%. The only reason it was 1.75% and not 2% is because someone […]
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 […]
People should at least consider the keeping of the $180 POA maintenance fee/assessment fee. I know this is an unpopular point of view, but please consider some reasons why: The Fee Now Goes to The WPPOA The primary argument people use against the Fee is that it has never gone into the community and has […]
Alderman Earnest Gay was the honorary speaker at a presentation in Austin for the Texas Public Policy Foundation on January 8, 2015. He contributed about 8 minutes to a 2 hour long presentation organized by Jess Fields on the topic of Liberty Cities. Also present, and speaking for a large portion of the presentation, was […]
Alderman Micki Ball has been one of the more proactive members of the Sandy Oaks City Council. She is the only one of the 6 who pushed for the creation of, and took charge of, the only committee to address problems. She’s also one of the few who shows up to meetings prepared and is […]
The term “Conflict of Interest” is heard often when describing what has been happening in the City of Sandy Oaks since incorporation. A conflict of interest is a situation in which a person (or organization) is involved with more than one set of interests and where one of those interests can negatively affect the person’s […]
There’s quite a lot of lame reporting when it comes to the creation and running of the new City of Sandy Oaks. Some reporters from San Antonio are just too lazy to take 1 hour to drive down to Sandy Oaks and walk around and get some actual facts or actual stories. But when I […]
This opinion piece must be prefaced with the fact that it is not about an arbitrary person for the sake of cruelty. This article is about a man who tampered with the lives of 4,000 people, lied to them, marginalized them, and mislead them. As the Chairman of the Committee to Incorporate Sandy Oaks, Pedro […]
On September 18, the City Council met for a Budget Hearing to discuss the first proposed budget for the City of Sandy Oaks. The Committee to Incorporate Sandy Oaks (CISO), the group responsible for the incorporation of the city, never presented a possible budget to the public leading up to the vote for incorporation, so […]
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 […]