Chasing Away Cops
It’s time for the citizens of Texas City to recall their mayor. The illegal withholding of public records and silencing debate are two of the reasons why. We can’t stand by while the Mayor of Texas City risks the public safety of residents by Chasing Away Cops as crime rises.
Chasing Away Cops
“We’re having a debate here at Dolcefino Media corporate headquarters, and maybe you can help,” Wayne Dolcefino told the camera.
We’re trying to capture, in just a couple of words, the craziness of the guy running Texas City government.
Is there is a perfect nickname for the mayor?
“Mayor Dedrick Johnsonhere with the city of Texas City,” Mayor Dedrick Johnsonstated in a video.
We’ve accused Mayor Johnson and his police chief of waging a war on cops. Dozens have left threatening public safety.
Johnson is now costing the city thousands of potential jobs, millions in new tax dollars by single handedly blocking a new project for desperately needed housing.
He’s allowed the illegal withholding of public records.
He’s restricting the right of his own people to address public officials at City hall, and threatening to even file criminal charges to keep city commissioners silent.
“I’m the dick of Dickinson, right? As everybody heard on YouTube,” former Dickinson Mayor Sean Skipworth said.
It will be hard to top that nickname.
Our investigation helped get rid of Sean Skipworth.
How about Dedrick the Dancing Dictator?
Or the Tyrant of Texas City?
Or Dedrick the Disaster?
“Usually, the mayor’s office does not respond to trolls whose goal is to plant seeds of division and hate,” Johnson said.
This is where democracy is supposed to live.
In towns across our country, city council chambers are where the mayor and elected city leaders meet usually every other week.
“You can’t approach,” said Officer Haynes.
“I can’t approach what? Yes, I can,” Dolcefino responded.
Welcome to Texas City, where the mayor is killing democracy and the public’s right to know.
“Why did you lie to the voters when you ran for mayor and talked about transparency?” Dolcefino asked.
We are being blocked from approaching Mayor Dedrick Johnson.
Officer Haynes is a member of what the mayor calls a Dignitary Protection Unit.
More Texas City police are assigned to that squad than the number who patrol the streets of Texas City at night.
I guess that includes protecting the mayor from tough questions.
“What about transparency, mayor?” Dolcefino asked.
“I am approaching a public official in the city chambers. You can’t deny me the right to talk to them,” Dolcefino told the officer.
“Schedule an appointment to speak to them,” Officer Haynes responded.
“No, I don’t. Excuse me,” said Dolcefino.
At the same time, the city attorney tries to block our camera.
Yes, he’s the same guy who tried to keep me from entering a Texas City courtroom just a couple of years ago.
Neither guy will stop me from shouting my questions to the mayor.
“All right, Officer Haynes. Well, you’re going to get an ethics complaint,” Dolcefino said.
He did lie to voters.
Listen to Dedrick Johnson five years ago when he was running for mayor.
“Any entity that is there to serve the people but does not want to hear from the people is on their way to self-destruction,” Johnson said.
“Mayor, you said that five years ago. Did you lie to folks?” Dolcefino asked.
Just a few hours before this city Council meeting, the Galveston County District attorney had announced a criminal investigation into the withholding of public records that would expose the mayor and the police chief, deeply unpopular with the rank and file, giving Texas City just seven days to release communications about our request for public records.
The mayor said he had no reaction to the news.
“The fact that Jack Roady’s office, number one, is not only taking it seriously, but number two, very clearly taking steps to actually investigate it, is huge,” said Dolcefino Media Attorney, Kelsey Galbraith.
“Hey chief, what are you hiding in those records, chief?” Dolcefino asked.
“The D.A. is asking you guys to provide the communications and why you’re illegally withholding my records,” Dolcefino said.
“We’ll provide anything that we’re supposed to provide,” replied Johnson.
But that’s a lie, too. They haven’t. The mayor knows that.
“Rhomari, when are we getting our records?” Dolcefino asked.
The city secretary had ignored our demands for weeks. We had filed a criminal complaint.
“You’re going to get the city sued. It’s unfortunate,” Dolcefino said.
The response from Texas City in the days since? Total silence.
“You can’t say I didn’t warn her,” Dolcefino told the camera.
“Texas City has said, ‘we don’t care about the Texas Public Information Act. We don’t care what you want to know. We’re going to do whatever it takes to hide the information about the officers that we’ve retaliated against. And we don’t care if you sue us,’” Galbraith said.
It’s taxpayers who will now end up paying the bill for Johnson’s illegal secrecy.
Dolcefino media has filed a lawsuit against Texas City in a Galveston County district court, and we want any other rogue governments out there to hear our message loud and clear.
“The message is this: the day of reckoning is coming. Because if you withhold Public Information Act records, and records that you should be turning over, you’re going to get sued,” Galbraith said.
Five years ago, it was Dedrick Johnson who bragged about the open door he planned at city council meetings.
“We’ll have an open dialogue, an open platform to where your concerns can be directly heard,” Johnson said.
“That used to be true, but Mayor Johnson, he stopped it,” Dolcefino told the camera.
You can’t complain about a broken fire hydrant or a clogged sewer line in a city council meeting.
“You can only comment on something that’s on the city’s agenda. Who controls the agenda? Mayor Johnson,” Dolcefino told the camera.
Last January, the mayor suddenly moved the limited public comment he allows to the end of an agenda.
It silenced opponents of Johnson’s plan to add $95 million in debt to Texas city taxpayers. The vast majority of the money will be used for a brand spanking new city hall.
“In my mind, it was an intentional act by the mayor,” said former officer Brian Goetschius.
Brian Goetschius sued, and he won.
In the weeks that followed, the mayor announced they had overestimated the need for money by $20 million.
That’s some math mistake. How does that happen?
“Mayor Johnson in this city is the supreme commander, and people are in fear of him,” Goetschius said.
Mayor Johnson has proposed a city ordinance that would cement his power to control what other elected officials get to say here.
We have a copy of the draft.
Any four members of the city commission may request to have an item placed on a regular meeting agenda…
The mayor, it says, has the final authority to decide.
“That is not democracy. And it’s time for Texas City voters to stand up and say enough is enough,” Dolcefino told the camera.
But, I found a way to bring up some mayoral sore spots in the three paltry minutes I had before Texas City council.
“Thank you for all the work that you do with the police department, and all the men and women who serve,” Johnson said during a proclamation.
Since they were honoring and praising Texas City cops for national police week, it was a great chance to ask for an explanation from the mayor about the exodus of police officers from Texas City.
The mayor stopped me for violating decorum in a city council that routinely denies its voters the right to complain.
“You’ve been warned about this before, and so we want to make sure that you’re speaking on the item that’s up for consideration that you put on the form,” Johnson informed Dolcefino.
“And I appreciate the warning, mayor. And if you’d like to test it, I’m more than happy to do that in court,” Dolcefino responded.
“I strongly believe that people should be able to talk about anything they want in their three minutes before the politicians they elected,” Dolcefino told the camera.
But I am more than willing to confront a political dictator, and I clearly was there to bring up subjects the mayor is trying to make sure isn’t raised in city council chambers.
“I wanted to talk about how dozens of police officers are leaving, and if you praise them, you should explain why there’s so much retaliation against the officers. But if I can’t talk about that,” Dolcefino said.
What about the billion-dollar community Mayor Johnson wants to keep from his city?
Stay tuned.
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