Kemah Kon Game?
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For a year and a half the dysfunctional Kemah City Council has fought to keep secret the public release of a $74,000 investigation into allegations of corruption in the remodeling of city hall.
The secrecy ends because we now have the records they don’t want Kemah taxpayers to see, and they expose a Kemah Kon Game!
“I’ve been accused of what? Abuse of official capacity,” said Matt Wiggins.
Not many public officials are smiling when they walk out of a jail cell, but when Matt Wiggins was busted two years ago for allegedly misusing Kemah water funds, he clearly thought it was bologna.
“You can indict a bologna sandwich, the D.A. can if they have a pulse. So, I got indicted and then they gave me a bologna sandwich,” states Wiggins.
Wiggins has since been found guilty of misconduct by the Texas Ethics Commission, and he awaits this month’s criminal trial in Galveston, which promises to unveil another nasty chapter in this tourist town, never ending political wars.
“Hey Wayne. How you doing man? Miss you,” said Wiggins.
But during that touching interview outside jail Matt Wiggins had a message to taxpayers, the real corruption he claimed involved his arch political nemesis Carl Joiner. The mayor when the remodeling project was approved.
“They’ll understand how much money we lost on the City Hall addition that Carl Joiner and Durotech stole from us during that process, they’ll understand that,” states Wiggins.
The mayor when the project was finished was Terri Gale, at the time a Wiggins ally. And she wanted a criminal investigation, alleging joiner had somehow secreted away incriminating documents as part of some kind of plot.
“His actions betray his own ‘Team Kemah’ platform. I can assure you that ‘Team Carl’ is all that matters to Carl,” states Robin Collins.
Wiggins’ friends on city council voted to hire a law firm to prove Joiner did something wrong.
The alleged City Hall scandal was used as just one of the excuses to strip power from Joiner once he became mayor.
“It is yet again an important insight into the total lack of character and lack of integrity on behalf of Carl Joiner, “states Collins.
And to silence him at council meetings.
“I’m going to make a motion to table the mayors’ comments until the first meeting in June,” states Meisinger.
That was in January of this year, City Council clearly didn’t like the results of the law firm’s first final report, they wanted it to be secret. The tab for Kemah taxpayers was about 7,200 bucks, but climbing.
Joiner protested his reputation was being wrongly ruined.
“That study was basically done because I was accused of stealing money and the contractor was accused of stealing money and I know that didn’t happen,” states Carl Joiner.
“Yeah I don’t think it’s final,” said Isaac Saldana. Doug Meisinger replies, “not even close to the final report.”
“This has been hanging on for a long time it’s ridiculous,” said Joiner. I absolutely agree that’s it’s been too long,” replied Saldana. “Ok, we are hurting people here,” expressed Joiner.
A second report was completed, and city councilwoman Teresa Vasquez Evans made claims about what it found.
“We can’t find money we’re missing money,” said Teresa Vasquez Evans.
So, we waged a fight to make the report public to see if money was truly missing, but Kemah City Council and their lawyer kept saying no.
Councilman, Doug Meisinger, wasn’t just throwing gavels during meetings, he demanded the lawyers keep looking and he wanted them to interview Matt Wiggins.
We’ve been detailing Meisinger’s cozy relationship with Wiggins for a long time. Remember Wiggins called him the sex doctor?
The councilman lives and works on Wiggins’ property, yet he reports no conflicts of interest.
Kemah City Council got yet another report from Lewis and Brisbois in March of this year, more than a year after the first one and the cost of the city hall investigation had ballooned between all the law firms to more than 74,000 thousand dollars. Yet, more secrecy.
Former mayor Joiner now has an ongoing lawsuit against his own city trying to get the records released, but now the secrecy is over, the reports have been delivered to us and the city council can’t stop us from showing you the truth.
That’s why we’re ordering up some eggs, because there are plenty of faces in Kemah that should be plastered with them.
For two years Mayor Joiner had faced a social media campaign in town suggesting he was some kind of thief.
“We are the first to call out real corruption when we see it… but no one, including Matt Wiggins ever gave us any facts that turned out to be true. And this final report from the investigating law firm proves the investigation. Was a colossal waste of money,” states Wayne Dolcefino.
“There is no information to verify any of the concerns or accusations raised by Terri Gale,” states the Lewis and Brisbois report.
Councilwoman Evans was among a number of folks who claimed Joiner did not disclose his previous business relationship with Durotech, the company who did the job. Joiner runs an architectural firm.
“This allegation is clearly false and immaterial” reads the report.
“I need to disclose as an architect, I’ve done numerous projects with Durotech,” states Joiner.
The audio tape of that council meeting in 2017 also shows the result of bids that some had falsely claimed never even happened. Councilwoman Evans and Matt Wiggins were both on city council back then.
“Durotech was lowest on fees, they had the most experience,” states Joiner.
Wiggins was in fact the council member who moved to hire Durotech as construction manager in the first place.
“I make a motion that we select Durotech,” states Wiggins.
But one of the biggest complaints was that Kemah overpaid Durotech for the work they did on City Hall, and the parking lot, and on restrooms. That they scammed the city.
“There is no factual or legal merit to the general concern that Durotech failed to gain approval for expenditures before or during construction,” states the report.
But did Kemah taxpayers pay more than they should have? Well, actually the answer is yes.
Wait till you hear how much more.
“If there is any indication of an overpayment, outside of council’s approval. The overpayment appears to be two cents,” states the report.
What about those complaints about the cost of the city parking lot improvements?
“A review of the documents provided to us showed the amount the city paid Durotech is exactly the budgeted cost,” reads the report.
The report also clears Joiner’s wife Colene. Who helped buy furniture for the renovated city hall as part of a design committee.
“In short there is no evidence to suggest Colleen Joiner submitted the furniture order much less purchased the furniture through a shell company as previously rumored. There is also no evidence to suggest the city paid colleen joiner for her services on either committee,” reads the report.
The Joiners even faced allegations they had swiped trees meant for Kemah parking lot renovation landscaping to put in their own yard.
That allegation the lawyers said had no factual or legal merit.
It kind of looks like Councilman Meisinger and others wanted to keep this report secret to use as a political weapon to dirty up with unanswered allegations if Joiner ran for mayor again this year.
He didn’t, and now Robin Collins is mayor. She ran unopposed.
The Texan reported Wiggins helped Collins get a mortgage on one of the properties she owns.
And she’s clearly not a fan of us, calling our camera that shows up at public meetings disgusting.
“I find that camera disgusting. I bet if you went and talked to anybody that a Wayne Dolcefino video was aimed at they would say the same thing,” expressed Collins.
“Get over it Mayor Collins. Reports like this should never have been kept secret from Kemah voters because they paid for the damn thing. How about some transparency for a change?” states Dolcefino.
“I agree with everything that’s just been said. This has been a very interesting day. This day did not go how I thought it would,” states Meisinger.
Thanks Doug.
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