Water Wars
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The Mayor of Conroe, Duke Coon, needs free media advice, and the folks who live there need some straight answers about the huge raises some city officials are getting! What will the cost be for this retaliation and secrecy that is defining the new administration in Conroe, and their special allies in the WATER WARS!
“Wayne, we’re not doing an interview with you tonight. I appreciate you coming to Conroe wish you would go back to Houston where you belong,” said Conroe mayor Duke Coon.
Public officials will never learn… Telling a guy like me to leave town makes me want to stay around for a long time…
And I thought the mayor of Conroe… Duke Coon… really liked me.
“I’m not giving you an interview, I love you to death, but I appreciate what you do Wayne”, continued Coon.
So mayor Coon should appreciate that across Conroe… Folks are outraged on social media.
A ridiculous debacle they call it… Because of this… Unprecedented raises being doled out to certain city officials.
The public works director Norman McGuire now makes 300,000 dollars a year.
And city administrator Gary Scott now makes 365,000 dollars.
Assistant city administrator Nancy Mikeska is now paid 330 thousand dollars.
Who do you know that got a 100 thousand dollar raise this year?
In a town where the average taxpayer makes about 70,000 a year… A town deeply in debt. And to make it worse… The city fought us for weeks trying to keep it all a secret.
Wayne: “Mayor, why don’t you think the people of Conroe deserve a couple of seconds to explain why these people deserve all this money?”
Mayor: “Wayne, I want you to have a good night… I’m not giving you an interview. We released a press release”.
The press release from Duke justified it all by saying they’re lawyers. Who cares?
“Wtf is going on with Conroe?” this taxpayer wrote…
And that was before we learned Conroe taxpayers have another 1.5-million-dollar debacle on their hands.
Because that’s how much it cost to pay off the long-time city employees who unceremoniously got the boot.
City council threw a nice send off… But this was forced retirement…
The Police Chief and the Fire Chief… Both at the same time…
The parks director and the head of the Conroe industrial development corporation…
“You’re firing some of the most incredible people that have been with the city for over 30 years and have done great jobs,” said former Conroe councilman Jim Gentry.
The mayor told citizens it was done without his knowledge…
“I sat here and told you I would be open and transparent and I’m going to be just that. Your mayor didn’t know this was happening,” stated Mayor Coon during the Conroe city council meeting on July 25th.
Raising the specter of possible illegal meetings by councilmembers to plan the city hall slaughter.
Wayne: “You don’t believe him.”
Gentry: “I do not believe that, and I’ve told him so personally. He and I used to be best friends… but we are no more.”
And Conroe taxpayers have been kept in the dark about something else… The cost of this forced exodus… Until now.
“You’re a hired gun for someone and listen, you do the work you have to do,” Coon told Wayne.
Ok I will… After threatening legal action to force city hall to come clean… We learned CIDC boss Danielle Scheiner, who officially resigned, was paid ($251,704) a quarter of a million dollars to do it.
The parks director paid another $287,000.
But it was the long-time serving protectors of Conroe that received the biggest taxpayer pay outs.
The Fire Chief 355,000. Police Chief Jeff Christy, $412,000 dollars…
After ignoring my calls, I went to Conroe’s election night watch party because the mayor was the host.
But you can see this guy trying to block our camera. He’s a former radio reporter who proceeded to lecture me for picking on the mayor.
John Sellars: “He’s the mayor and he’s at a political function.”
Wayne: “I never shoved a microphone in his face…”
John Sellars: “I just felt like…”
Wayne: “Did you see me shove a microphone in his face?”
Jonh Sellars: “I saw the microphone approach his face.”
I learned later his name was John Sellars… One of the new appointees to the powerful Conroe industrial development corporation.
They are the ones who are being asked to pay for two new desperately needed water wells.
You see water… Or the lack of it may be Conroe’s biggest problem.
It’s the lack of water that caused the city last august to issue a 120-day moratorium on development in parts of town.
Conroe residents have water restrictions too.
The city was warned publicly about the water problems early this year from city engineer Chris Bogert… Conroe was using 96 percent of its water supply… Very dangerous.
“I have some pretty serious concerns about our water quantity. We have pressure issues,” said Chris Bogert during the Conroe workshop.
What did the city do… fire him.
“You know, they terminated me. I really don’t want to be involved with them,” Bogert told us in a phone call.
The water pressure problem isn’t just inconvenient… It’s dangerous.
Andrea Palacio: “Is water pressure so bad in some areas where firefighters would have a hard time getting fire to put out a house fire?”
Chris Bogert: “Yeah, the water pressure is so bad in some areas, it doesn’t meet the new regulations.”
We looked at water pressure readings… Take the one at 1009 Thomas Avenue… A residential neighborhood right behind Candy Cane Park… A fire hydrant there had three times below the state required minimum water pressure.
“You should never be receiving those kinds of pressure. Never,” said Garland Kubeka.
“So, we do have other partners out here in the community, you know, that are that provide water sources. So, behind the scenes, we’re working with them,” explained Norman McGuire.
And that’s why John Sellars day job is so important.
“I’ve got a very lengthy contract with my current employer, and he does not allow me to do such things. He is very gracious to allow me to volunteer time though and so that’s the capacity where I feel like I would be most useful to the city,” he claimed on October 3rd city meeting.
Sellars is the chief financial officer of the Stoecker corporation… His boss Michael Stoecker is a big developer… And is in the water business…
“There’s always two questions and y’all know this. What is the problem and how do you solve it?” asks Michael Stoecker in a video.
Stoecker also a guy who’s helped bankroll the political campaigns of these folks… The mayor and city council.
So, lets follow the money shall we… And make a splash.
In the last two city elections Stoecker had doled out $34,000. All his chosen candidates now sit here. He was mayor Coon’s biggest single contributor. But we’re not done.
In 2022, a political action committee called Conroe Freedom PAC was formed…
And they said why in black and white… To support Hardman… Wood and Porter for Conroe city council. Guess who bankrolled that.
Michael Stoecker, another $25,000. Most of the rest of that PAC’s money came from Quadvest…
Another 25,000 grand. Guess what they do. They run a water company… The owner is the Sequeira family… But they don’t care about profit. They care about you.
“As a private water company, it’s not necessarily about what’s good for us, it’s about what’s good for the community. It really makes no difference to us,” declares Sequeira in a video.
The money tap opened up in this year’s Conroe election…
This time a different political action committee… Moco influence PAC… At least their name is honest.
“Faith, leadership and conservative values and sense of community start right here in Conroe,” claims Coon in a campaign ad.
Moco PAC spent $21,215 dollars on digital ads for mayor Duke’s campaign.
And who bankrolls Moco influence PAC… A developer named Tom Martin…. And Michael Stoecker… The Sequeira family and there’s Quadvest again…
Wonder why they are so invested in city hall. Maybe it’s just good government.
Quadvest joined the city of Conroe both sued the San Jacinto River authority over how much water costs. The lawsuit has dragged on for eight years…
The legal bills are 1 million dollars so far… That may be money down the drain.
Who else complained about water rates? Woodland Oaks Utility…
Michael Stocker’s company.
Coon was lucky to get his ads paid for by the water company PAC… Because along with Shanna Arthur, he was busy spending money in a lawsuit.
Against Conroe’s long time city secretary… They claimed she wrongly notarized ballot applications that allowed Yancey and city council candidate Curt Maddux on the ballot.
They lost… Once Coon and Arthur got in… Guess what happened to the city secretary… She got fired. She is now suing.
“I believe the new administration realized she wasn’t going to do what they told her to do, and they got rid of her,” said Soco Gorjon’s attorney Nathan Steadman.
And Conroe taxpayers may end up paying a hefty price for Coon axe
“They destroyed my reputation, they destroyed my life for doing my job,” added Soco.
Todd Yancey may have lost the mayor’s race to Coon. But he’s speaking after watching the debacle in Conroe.
“Look what’s happening there, it’s not working in little Conroe… The team is falling apart, and it has from the first week”.
“I want them to know that I didn’t do anything wrong. And I would love for the people who did this to me I would like a public apology,” added Soco.
“I think it was handled as bad as it can be. I mean there cannot be a better loyal person for the city of Conroe…” added Todd Yancey. “They’re hurting a lot of people, and it has to stop.”
“The solution is what they promised. They promised transparency and honesty and truthfulness…. And I don’t see it happening at the city right now,” said Gentry.
Jim Gentry has sent letters to mayor Coon that are no longer answered… We’ve read them. He quotes the Bible.
“The Bible says the truth will set you free… But lies will imprison you.”
Coon: “Cease and desist…”
Wayne: “Why did you run off these employees? Mayor… Well I’m going you wait to you finish and I’m going to ask more questions… I’m not going to cease and desist.”
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