COMPADRES AND CITY OFFICIALS KEEP BLOCKING CANDIDATES

By Craig Grove

The City of Brownsville and our political officials continue to block the peoples' right to a fair election through unethical power moves and ill-informed decisions. First, they certify Zeke Silva as an eligible candidate for District 2 City Commissioner, then they disqualify Zeke, then they re-certify him and then...you guessed it....they disqualify him again. Had Zeke been told he didn't in fact qualify weeks before the filing deadline when he turned in all his paperwork, the city, Zeke, city staff and the citizens would not have been put through all this drama. Instead, City Attorney Mark Sossi waits until 15 minutes before the filing deadline to provide his opinion on Zeke's ineligibility. Does anyone actually have doubts that this was not a strategic power move to block other candidates from running, so his buddy, Charlie Atkinson could coast to re-election without an opponent? So, as we now know, Zeke is off the ballot (again) but still fighting and exploring his legal options.

In the meantime, Jessica Tetreau, another well- meaning individual who strongly believes the citizens of District 2 should have the right to choose their elected leader, steps up and guess what - she is blocked by the city as well!

The City Secretary, apparently not wanting to spend her valuable time "dealing" with a write-in candidate, tells Jessica to "go figure it out." So Jessica interprets the city and state laws to the best of her ability with zero guidance from OUR city employees and goes about getting her signatures in order to be considered an eligible write-in candidate. In two days, she turns-in 135 signatures in an effort to meet the City Charter's requirement of 100 signatures. She turns in all necessary paperwork and 135 signatures on time according to the verbal instructions provided by the City Secretary.

So, the City staff reviews the signatures and declare that only 89 are valid! But, there is no reason to worry because according to the Brownsville City Charter only 100 verified signatures are needed to be on the ballot (or be an eligible write-in) AND it's also not a problem because the City Charter states she has until 30 days before the election to get all 100 signatures needed to be a write-in candidate.

See Brownsville City Charter Section 4A Nominations Pages 32-33 in the following link

https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cob.us%2Fdocs%2Fcitysec%2FCityCharter.pdf&pli=1

Below is from City Charter

Section 4 Nominations - "Subsection 3. Filing and verification of nomination papers. All nomination papers comprising a petition shall be assembled and filed with the city secretary as one instrument, not earlier than ninety (90) days nor later than thirty (30) days before the election. Within five (5) days after the filing of a nomination petition the city secretary shall notify the person who filed such petition whether or not it is found to be signed by the required number of qualified voters. If a petition be found insufficient, the city secretary shall return it immediately to the person who filed it, with the statement certifying wherein the petition is found insufficient. Within the regular time allowed for the filing of petitions, such petition may be amended and filed again as a new petition, or a different petition may be filed for the same candidate. Any eligible person placed in nomination as hereinbefore provided shall have his name printed on the ballots if within five (5) days after notification to him by the city secretary he shall have filed with such secretary a written acceptance of the nomination."

So she should be good to go, right? Nope, that's not how the City of Brownsville rolls! So, what's the problem now? Well, they declare that the City Charter filing deadline does not apply and she must use the State of Texas codes for the deadline.

See the following link:

http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/EL/htm/EL.143.htm

"Sec. 143.007. FILING PERIOD. (a) Except as otherwise provided by this code, an application for a place on the ballot must be filed not later than 5 p.m. of the 62nd day before election day. An application may not be filed earlier than the 30th day before the date of the filing deadline." This date was this past Monday 3/21/2011.

So, now they want to apply the State of Texas rules for the filing deadline - I get it. That's interesting because the City of Brownsville has claimed to be a "Home Rule" city and that is more important then State of Texas Laws... but I guess it depends on what they are trying to manipulate...excuse me, I mean apply. So, in case you lost track, let's recap: when it's convenient for certain issues, the City applies State of Texas rules...but in other cases when it doesn't work in their favor, they apply City Charter rules. Believe it or not, we are still cool with all this. Why you ask? Well, the requirement for the quantity of "qualified" signatures is actually lower if you apply the State of Texas rules that match the deadline rules they want to apply! Wait, no you didn't just say that... oh yes I did.

ELECTION CODE TITLE 9. CANDIDATES CHAPTER 143. CANDIDATE FOR CITY OFFICE

http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/EL/htm/EL.143.htm

143.005(d)(2) - "one-half of one percent of the total vote received in the territory from which the office is elected by all candidates for mayor in the most recent mayoral general election."

Total votes cast in District 2 for ALL Mayoral Candidates in the 2007 Mayoral election was 1,478. So 0.5% of that is...drumroll please... a whopping 8 signatures!

Data Acquired as follows - Go to:

http://www.ci.brownsville.tx.us/government/agendas/07/Binder05_22_2007-Special.pdf

Click on the left hand side there are several tabs. Go to the one that says POST ELECTION BUSINESS and under that is Resolution Number 2007-027 canvassing etc click the little + icon to break down the sections and click on the bottom one Totals

So, she must be eligible now, right? Nope, she's not. How can that be? Well, the City declared that the rule for the quantity of valid signatures comes from... drumroll please....the City Charter. That's right, the City is going to apply State of Texas rules when it works for them for the filing deadline. But then, will turn around and apply the City Charter when it works for the quantity of signatures - which coincidentally work together to block Jessica from being an eligible write-in candidate.

So that's how it works, they don't pick one standard, they pick the parts that work for what they want and ignore the parts that don't. Oh, now I understand! Thanks for the clarifications City of Brownsville! Yet again the City Government and Officials do not fail to disappoint. (EDITOR'S NOTE: Craig Grove is a local Realtor who runs the popular Facebook page Brownsville Living, algo asi).