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 […]
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 […]
On January 14, 2016, the Sandy Oaks City Council unanimously decided to take over the CPS energy bills of the Waterwood Park Property Owner’s Association (WPPOA). The city will take on the WPPOA’s CPS accounts and will also pay money currently owed to CPS. The City Council claimed that Jim Clement, as WPPOA president, could […]
On December 15, 2015, Jim Clement threatened sending out a maintenance fee to property owners within the Waterwood subdivision. Clement has claimed since as early as Spring 2014 that he is the president of the Waterwood Park Property Owner’s Association (WPPOA). Property owners have asked him to show proof of the record that he was […]
At its July 9, 2015 regular meeting the City Council accepted the resignation of Jim Clement as Mayor of Sandy Oaks. Clement was not present at the meeting, but had given his letter of resignation to Alderman Earnest Gay, who read the letter to the Council towards the end of the meeting. Before reading the […]
Mayor Jim Clement told a citizen of Sandy Oaks on July 1, 2015 that it wasn’t necessary for the City Council to have a Budget Hearing. The reason Clement gave for not needing a Budget Hearing was that the city’s revenue would be less than $500,000 Texas Tax Hearing Law With regards to a […]
The Sandy Oaks City Council violated the Texas Open Meetings Act again at its regularly scheduled meeting May 14, 2015. The Council discussed a topic that was not posted on the meeting’s agenda, a requirement by state law to give citizens the opportunity to know in advance what is to be discussed. The violation occurred […]
Mayor Jim Clement has scheduled a Tax Hearing for May 11, 2015. He announced the Tax Hearing on May 8th by posting the meeting agenda at the WPPOA park gate. Included on the agenda is the presence of Bexar County Tax Assessor Collector Albert Uresti as well as a Carlos Gutierrez. The agenda states they […]
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 […]
March 21, 2015 the City Council met for a special meeting after having cancelled the meeting it had planned for Thursday, March 19th. The 12th item on the agenda was to “Discuss and consider a proposal from the WPPOA on the transfer of assets of the WPPOA to the City Of Sandy Oaks, Texas.” The […]
A home owner in Waterwood sent the Waterwood Park Propert Owner’s Association an official request to view POA records on March 4, 2014. She sent the request individually to Pedro Orduno, Jim Clement, and Charlotte Rabe by certified mail. Each WPPOA board member had to sign to receive the letter, which provided a date in […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
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 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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]