Alderman Earnest Gay Lies In Speech to Texas Public Policy Foundation
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 […]
City Council Created Illegal Sales Tax
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 […]
Alderman Micki Ball Drops The Ball
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 […]
City of Sandy Oaks Defines Conflict of Interest
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 […]
City of Sandy Oaks Already In Debt
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 […]
WPPOA Meeting Ends Without Vote
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 […]
New San Antonio Cell Phone Law
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 […]
Craftsman Horsing Around In Waterwood
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 […]
New Marshal Applicant Defends Mayor Clement
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 […]
Citizens Banned From Location of City Council Meetings
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 […]
Jess Fields Strikes Blow Against Sandy Oaks
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 […]
Mayor Clement Says “Your money is OUR money”
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 […]
Mayor Jim Clement Lied to Voters Outside Polling Location
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 Wants To Spend $36,000 On Art
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 […]
Mayor Clement Admits He Wanted A Retroactive Property Tax
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 […]
Results of Sales Tax Vote
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 […]
Plant Your Wildflower Seeds Now
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 […]
Jim Clement Lies to WOAI News Radio
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 […]
Tax Vote On November 4
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 […]
Emmanuel Delfin Continues To Mislead City Of Sandy Oaks
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” […]
Request For Your Help With Committee
The following was written by Alderman Micki Ball and sent out October 12,2014. During the special meeting held on Monday, October 6, a committee was established charged with working to develop a comprehensive plan to present to Bexar County for clarification of services required by the City of Sandy Oaks. I was nominated to […]
Second Largest Contributor to SOPAC Hands City Council New Ordinance
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 […]
Pedro Orduno: Official Town Fool of Sandy Oaks
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 […]
Art Martinez de Vara’s Budget: High Taxes For The Status Quo
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 […]
City Council Accidentally Passes Retroactive Property Tax
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 […]
City Council Thanks Committee to Incorporate Sandy Oaks
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 […]
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 […]
Sandy Oaks Vs Sandy Oaks: Explaining The Confusion
At the second town meeting for the residents of the City of Sandy Oaks to meet the candidates running for office, KSAT 12’s Myra Arthur interviewed people on the topic of whether or not the Committee to Incorporate Sandy Oaks (CISO) did a good enough job announcing the vote to incorporate. Arthur first interviewed Catherine […]
Hired Von Ormy Marshal Silences Residents
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 […]
City Council Wants Maximum Sales Tax, Minimum VIA
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 […]