Jim Clement and his family were some of the first people to move to the Waterwood community when the land was first being developed. He stated in a meeting on July 8, 2014 that he had lived in the area for 26 years and stated in a short bio in the Sandy Oaks Chronicle a few weeks later that he had lived in the area for 29 years. After 20 years in the Air Force, Jim Clement retired as an E6, Technical Sergeant.
Jim Clement has been president of the Waterwood Park Property Owner’s Association (WPPOA) many times. In February 2005 he was elected in District 5 to be on the Board of Trustees for the Bexarmet Water District. He later became the Vice President of the board for Bexarmet on November 27, 2007.
Incorporation
In 2011 Jim Clement, along with Pedro Orduno, created the Committee to Incorporate Sandy Oaks (CISO). Clement has been described in some areas as the Co-Chair of the Committee and in other areas as the Vice-Chair. CISO is responsible for the creation of the City of Sandy Oaks.
Originally, CISO requested San Antonio to release 9 square miles of its ETJ. When San Antonio declined, CISO requested 4 square miles and San Antonio eventually offered 2.4 square miles. Jim Clement told the Express News on August 28, 2013 that incorporating at 2.4 would not give enough commercial revenue for the City of Sandy Oaks to survive. On January 27, 2014, Jim Clement and CISO submitted paperwork with Bexar County to hold a vote for incorporation.
On April 24, 2014, Jim Clement and CISO held an information meeting regarding the vote for incorporation (early voting for incorporation started April 28th). At this meeting CISO was directly asked if they would be announcing the deadline for people to apply to run for City Council positions, to which the Committee confirmed that it would.
2014 Politics
On May 27, 2014, Jim Clement and Pedro Orduno held what was to be a secret meeting at the Waterwood clubhouse. The purpose of the meeting was for new members of the Sandy Oaks Political Action Committee (SOPAC) to meet one another. CISO had formed SOPAC on February 14, 2014. New members included Joel Ortega, Earnest Gay, Douglas Tomasini, and Dale Burmaster.
The deadline for people to run for the new City Council of Sandy Oaks passed June 26, without mention to the community. When asked why CISO did not announce the deadline as it had told the community it would, Jim Clement, then running unopposed for mayor, responded “Why should we have announced it? It’s people’s own responsibility to know.”
Jim Clement organized the first of 3 town meetings for people to meet and talk to the 9 candidates running for City Council in 2014. He did not attend the other 2.
Although he ran unopposed, only 63% of the voters actually voted for Jim Clement on August 9, 2014.
Last of 2014
August 16, 2014 – In the first city council meeting of the City of Sandy Oaks, Jim Clement made sure that there was an official place set up for Art Martinez de Vara as city attorney of Sandy Oaks. This was done before the city officially created the position of City Attorney and before the Council had approved the nomination. Martinez de Vara was the adviser to CISO as well as to SOPAC and the WPPOA. He was also currently the mayor of Von Ormy, Texas.
In the same meeting, Clement lead the City Council in the approval of an election in November 2014 for an illegal amount of sales taxes. The maximum amount of sales taxes that the city could create was 1.5%, but Clement had the council create a full 2%.
September 11, 2014 – Jim Clement creates an agenda item for the city council to thank the Committee to Incorporate Sandy Oaks, which he admits only included himself and 3 others.
September 18, 2014 – Jim Clement presented a budget to the City Council that included a 38 cent tax. When it was explained to him that the tax would be retroactive and would go back to the January before the area incorporated into a city (4 months), Jim Clement responded “It’s all or none.” When he was asked towards the end of the Budget Hearing who created the budget, Jim Clement admitted that Art Martinez de Vara did.
September 22, 2014 – After the city council rejected his retroactive 38 cent tax, WOAI News Radio reported that Jim Clement said he pushed for a “zero cent tax” to help the poor.
November 4, 2014 – Jim Clement stood outside the poling location at Freedom Elementary School telling voters that the proposed sales tax they were about to vote on would not be an increase in the sales tax that they were already paying. However, it was an increase of 3 times the amount of the current sales tax.
December 11, 2014 – When asked why he lied to WOAI that he pushed for a zero cent tax, Jim Clement claimed that he had presented 2 budgets, one for 38 cents and another for 0. Only 1 budget was ever presented.
Jim Clement was told during the City Council meeting on December 11, 2014 that members of the community received letters from the owner of the property in which the council met, stating that they were legally banned from accessing the property. Clement continued to hold meetings anyway, in violation of the Texas Open Meetings Act.
2015
January 2015 – In late December 2015/early January 2014, Jim Clement, as WPPOA president, mailed out letters to property owners in the Waterwood subdivision. The letters announced a vote for an amendment to the WPPOA By-Laws. The original and current By-Laws were 7 pages long and the “amendment” was 32 pages long. The letter included an illegal ballot that was missing a paragraph required by Texas law and also had the date for people’s signature listed as 2014 instead of 2015. If people did not participate in the vote, the letter stated that their absence would be counted as a “Yes” vote. Mail-in ballots were to be sent to Clement’s home.
January 15, 2015 – Jim Clement and the WPPOA held a meeting in the community clubhouse to vote on the new amended By-Laws. The meeting quickly dissolved as people expressed outrage at Clement, the WPPOA, and Waterwood Development. Clement eventually decided to postpone the vote to a later time. The issue of voting to amend the WPPOA bylaws never came up again.
February 12, 2015 – Jim Clement was informed during the “Citizens to be heard” segment of a City Council meeting that the council had created an illegal amount of sales taxes and that someone had illegally changed one of the taxes from a 1/2 to a 1/4. In response, Clement did nothing.
At the same meeting, Jim Clement received an official Open Records Request asking for details on how much the city owed, how far the city was in debt, and what expenses the city had. Clement ignored the request, in violation of the Public Information Act, a state law that promotes honest and open government.
March 4, 2015 – Jim Clement, as WPPOA president, receives by certified mail a request to view legal and financial documents of the WPPOA. Clement ignored the request in violation of state law.
May 14, 2015 – Jim Clement violated the Texas Open Meeting Act again by inviting a guest to speak to the City Council even though the guest and item of discussion was not on the required agenda.
To see all articles that involve Jim Clement, click here.
Last updated 5/25/2015
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