Time to open the oyster
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Some folks just don’t want to play by the rules.
When the Chambers Liberty County Navigation District cut a smelly deal to give a local politician a virtual monopoly of the oyster crop in Galveston Bay, audio tapes proved they violated state transparency laws.
So the Navigation District voted again a few months ago, and this time they refused to let the public hear a tape of the public meeting where they did it.
On August 5th, 2014 the Texas Attorney General ruled the navigation district should cough the tape up. The Attorney General cited the law that seems pretty easy to translate, even for those appointed navigation commissioners who appear to need a refresher course on the Texas Open Meetings Act.
“The minutes and recordings of an open meeting are public records and shall be available for public inspection and copying on request to the governmental body.”
As of August 11, 2015 Dolcefino Consulting is still waiting.
“The failure of the Chambers County Attorney and District Attorney to force the navigation district to follow the law should be an eye opener for voters in Chambers County”, says Wayne Dolcefino, President of Dolcefino Consulting. “I know they are big on home cooking down there in Anahuac, but perhaps they should put down the cookbooks and pick up the law books.”
The State of Texas sued the navigation district last week alleging the oyster deal was illegal. The head of the company that worked out the deal with CLCND is Judge Tracy Woody, who gets a salary from taxpayers even though he rarely goes to the courthouse.
Some folks just don’t like to play by the rules.
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