As we all know by now Butler Longhorn Museum curator Ms. Jennifer Wycoff-Van der Wal submitted her resignation April 30th . It appears there are many differing opinions as to what should happen next. It was stated in today’s Galveston County Daily news that she has been accused of shredding four records from her personnel file.
The City ( I guess they mean Chris Reed) said Ms. Wycoff-Van-der Wal was not forced to resign.
Ms. Wycoff-Van der Wal, has denied destroying the records and has declined to comment on her resignation.
On the agenda for tonight’s city council meeting the council will meet in executive session on what to do. Word around City Hall is her replacement has already been chosen.
What do you make of this situation and what do you think should be done?
53 comments:
Chris, League City is a proper name it should be capitalized.
Someone from HR claims she did an Enron. She says she didn't.
Somebody's lying. The question is who and why? I believe tampering with employee records should be investigated by the DA, not LCPD.
Chris, on a different note I have an idea for a topic on BLD. I'll try to call you tomorrow.
Why Thank you Mr. Edelman I guess I am the only one who can change that now.
BHL,
Please call me 281-332-5870 (home)281-682-8873 (cell) or I can make you a contributor so you can post a thread if you would like.
Chris,
Thanks for bringing this up. I'd really like to know what is going on with the museum. I appreciate the preservation of history and have spent literally thousands of volunteer hours supporting another local museum, so my inclination is to eagerly support this museum. However, I am perplexed why the museum is still not open so many years and so many dollars past the promised opening. I have to think if they would just open the doors whatever the state of readiness, there would be more support.
Jeff Hagen
I don't trust anyone with three hyphens in their name.
Next...
Mayor has the last laugh as tc goes down like the a** he is.
Mayor defends forwarding e-mail
By Rhiannon Meyers
The Daily News
Published May 13, 2009
LEAGUE CITY — Mayor Toni Randall did nothing illegal when she forwarded an e-mail to planning and zoning commission members from League City residents who are suing the city, City Attorney Dick Gregg Jr. said Tuesday.
Two city council members — Jim Nelson and Tommy Cones — complained to the city attorney that Randall used her authority to improperly sway planning and zoning commission members in a controversy about who owns the right of way to a demolished neighborhood bridge at the center of a lawsuit against the city.
The e-mail Randall forwarded to commission members contained comments from two Glen Cove Park subdivision residents who are among 17 people suing the city for giving the bridge to a developer who demolished it. It also contained a note directing City Administrator Chris Reed to forward the e-mail to city council members.
“The danger of that kind of communication is that you risk waiving the attorney-client privilege,” Gregg said. “There’s nothing wrong with the mayor or the city council talking about whatever they want, but they should not be divulging confidential data, which I don’t think the mayor was intending to do… Anybody has a right to talk to anybody they want to, but sometimes there’s consequences to that.”
Randall, who lives in Glen Cove Park, was unapologetic Tuesday about forwarding the e-mail.
“I just want to get it on the record, I will continue to support the citizens and continue to notify the citizens when they need to be notified,” she said. “I was elected for a reason … I will always be there to support the citizens.”
A day after Randall forwarded the e-mail, planning and zoning commission members tabled action May 4 on developer Nick Scotto’s plat for the final section of Cypress Bay subdivision, which abuts Glen Cove Park. The Glen Cove residents did not want the plat approved.
At the center of the debate is who owns a right of way to the now-demolished Seminole bridge, which connected the two sides of Glen Cove Park. Commission members said they wanted more information about Scotto’s plans for the bridge property.
Glen Cove Park residents say Scotto does not own the bridge right of way; Scotto claims it’s his.
Judge Susan Criss tossed out the residents’ lawsuit against the city in April. They have since filed notice they plan to appeal Criss’ decision in the 14th Court of Appeals.
So we see that Chris Reed got a 3% raise for 6 months and will receive another raise of 3% after that.
Amazing ……
On the question regarding Ms. Jennifer Wycoff- Van- der- Wal there was no action taken. (As stated earlier, word around city hall is that her replacement had already been selected)So I guess the next question is will the museum continue without her or will the donors back up their trucks and haul away their donations?
The two lame ducks, Cones and Samuleson, flapped together to move up Item 11 A, a zoning change in favor of a developer (of course) because Jim Nelson wanted to leave and could not wait for it to come up in the normal course of business. Once he voted he immediately left the council chambers for the night. The vote was 4-3 but fear not it was only the second reading. The new council will have a chance to stop this zoning change if there is a need to stop such a request. So the CaSH boys get their parting shots in.
Around midnight last night or this morning the council took no action (allowing the TCB study to continue) regarding the proposed extension of Palomino Road until completion of a Master Mobility Plan.
Until all questions about missing or cooked records for the cow museum are satisfied, there should be NO appointment or reappointment, and NO further expenditures.
To play it safe, before any further moves forward on the Palomino bridge, a model bridge should be constructed over the lake, at the disjointed ends of Seminole, just to make sure it's a viable plan. There have just been too many screw-ups with city projects for us not to exercise good caution.
*Bridge between Lakeside and Kirby*
A dear old friend of mine that lives
on the lake at the end of Lakeside
Drive told me many years ago
there was a plat map with idea
of building a bridge across Clear
Lake between Lakeside and Kirby.
So,if you have lunch at the Italian
Cafe at NASA Road 1 and Kirby
on Thursday,you should drive to
the south end of Kirby and note
that is a straight shot across the
lake to Lakeside Dr. and the ramp
is ready.Also note that the north
end of Lakeside Dr. is prepared
for a ramp too.
Oh pshaw,why do I digress,
this idea did not originate in
Glen Cove,I have wasted time
that I could have used to cut
fresh fragrant red roses.
That's about the widest part of the lake that anybody could pick. Such a bridge would be longer than the Galveston causeway.
Thanks for the interesting tidbit of history Ida Mae. I used to live in the apartments next to that little tail end of Kirby road and I always wondered why it ran right up to the edge of the lake. Nice to finally know. That bridge would have some interesting effects on local traffic.
Jeff
jeff, we now have councilmembers who will listen to citizens and not developers. There are a lot of people who disgusted at the actions of scotto, cones and j. nelson. I was at meeting last night and was alarmed at what scotto's ten foot fence. it appears your group has enough troops, so is there anything we can do to further your cause?
LCPD,
Thank you sir! You and roughly 2600 of your closest friends just did the most important thing you could to help yourselves, help the city, and help our cause. I agree with you that I too am saddened by the plight of these people afflicted with this ridiculous 10 foot fence that serves no purpose other than to attempt to squeeze money out of them. I applaud their courage in fighting this outrage and I think we should all join together in helping them.
(Please call or write anytime you'd like to meet. You can find me on my personal blog.)
thanks again,
Jeff
Does anyone know if or when the City intends to turn over the museum to the museum board? Is there anything else the city is obligated to do to the physical facility? It's time for for us to eliminate the financial and legal liability that the museum and its employee(s) pose to the City. If it's never open, it's not really a museum, is it? Until the Friends of the museum have to actually be responsible for the day to day operations, the City is on the hook for the expenses.
LCPD, Jeff and Morgan:
Yes to all. Let's unite with the people of Marina del Sol, latest victims of the Scotto Menace. We are of common cause on these issues.
I went to Leaguecityxfiles.com to read in more detail about the Cypress Bay fence abutting Marina Del Sol and then drove by to see for myself. Frankly, I think Mr. Scotto's property looks mighty institutional with a fence like that around it. Jim Nelson and Mr. Scotto are out of their minds if they think that multi-million dollar homes are going to be built on that property. I take that back - they might be built but they will have a helluva time selling homes in that price range in that location. Within Marina Del Sol there is a sub-section on a canal (and with clear title I might add) called Casa Marina Del Sol. Those houses are priced in $750,000 range and guess what - they aren't selling! Some have sat for over two years and there are still many lots remaining to be built out.
On paper Mr. Scotto may need to sell homes for $1,000,000+ to recoup what he has invested in dirt work, but the reality is that for $1,000,000 buyers will want an unobstructed water view (with clear title).
am I confused or did I see Mr. Scotts lots were free of any obstructed views. Just the Twin Oaks houses had obstructed views. I have a friend who lives there on the canal. He paid for canal access and boat slip, and he is quite happy. He does not have the 8 ft fence in front of his house.
LC Confused:
Would your friend happen to work for the city?
Isn't the area zoned open space? How does one purchase open space?
lcpd - I don't think there is any way all of the lots in Cypress Bay can have a water view.
Brenda - oh you mean the one that likes to tinker with cars?
"...they will have a helluva time selling homes in that price range in that location."
-- M. Campbell
If you build high enough, and have a fence tall enough to isolate you from your neighbors, you can elbow your way in anywhere and always look down on "them" (aka "those" people). You can raise your martini with pinky extended and quip, "I wonder what the little people are doing right now."
My theory is if a multi-million buyer has a choice between an unobstructed water view in Waterford Harbor or wedged between two subdivisions of little people on a former drainage canal in Cypress Bay, the choice is simple.
IF it were that simple.
just thinking the other day about the Lighthouse property (Beacon Island). It's been stuck going nowhere for some length of time. LC needs to exercise an emminent domain for such tracts and convert it to park space. Wouldn't a Lighthouse Park be nice, and think of all the people who'd come into LC and pick up lunch at the South Shore eateries for their Lighthouse picnic.
BHL,
You make an interesting point. With open space disappearing so rapidly in League City over the past few years, now might be a good time for the city to take advantage of the collapsed real estate market to acquire land that could be made into parks in the future. The light house property and the empty property between Lakeside and South Shore Harbor are the last lake front properties left undeveloped and would make excellent future parks.
Jeff
The Blue Book on Marc's car is coming down too. At the same time, tricked-out American cars are bringing big yen in Japan.
All of this new found power
and what do we have?
Small People
Small Ideas
Small Expectations
This is your Memaw speaking to you.
Dickinson Historic Railroad Depot
Did you know that our old
RXR depot is in Dickinson,TX?
The center is the site of the old
League City railroad depot,which
is being restored to house the
North Galveston County Chamber
of Commerce,the society,a
visitors center and a meeting facility.
Another depot,which once served
Dickinson,is on the site and will
be used as a museum.
How did that happen?
Miss Jennifer is a nice person.
I know how to milk a cow.
I do believe that there are two
cow pastures in Dickinson,Texas
that have live Butler Longhorn
cattle.I made a visit to one of
those pastures today,live Butler
Longhorns are unforgettable.
Miss Jennifer is a nice person.
The ?museum? that she was
strapped with is very forgettable.
I have been there twice to visit
and chit-chat.We should let it die.
Please go look at the live longhorns.
The Dickinson Historic Railroad Center
is owned by the City of Dickinson,Texas.
It is comprised of the Dickinson Railroad
Depot,the League City Railroad Depot,
and the grounds surrounding those depots.
The Garden Club ladies raised the money
necessary to move and restore the
Dickinson depot.Only a short time into
the fund raising and restoration work,
the Garden Club members were offered
the League City Depot.Knowing its
importance to the area; as well as the
state,the ladies decided to add to their
fund raising burden and save the
League City Depot,as well.
Nice work ladies.
Spent one hour in the museum today,
it is very nice and bright.It is full of
Italian information for the time being.
I was a little surprised,I knew of one
half of the families.My young friend
Miss Dixie helped with the visual
presentations.
Please visit the Railroad Depot on
517 in Dickinson,it is much better
than our ?museum?
BHL "eminent domain"
Shouldn't Paul and Jeff's bridge property
be renamed?
"All of League City's Bridge Property" could
be a proper sovereign name.
Would any of the old council members or
new council members dare to claim the
property for all of League City?
Funny Ida Mae.... Not.
And what would you propose LC do with the bridge property?
Time to have a serious discussion.
I think that because we live
in this beautiful city our thoughts
should be universal.
I think as citizens,we have to
engage all ideas at all levels in a
very thoughtful and constructive way,
which is what we're doing by placing
our thoughts on this blog.
The pink Angel's Trumpets are
especially beautiful this morning.
May you have a blessed day.
Step away from the Angel's Trumpet, Ida Mae. It's causing you to hallucinate.
ms. jennifer is a real nice person it is just a real shame she got caught up in another developer get rich deal and the taxpayers got left holding the bag. we went to fort worth stockyards with our grand children probably 15 years ago and they have a cattle drive down main street with butler longhorns twice a day. the guy running the drive found out we were from league city and insisted on telling the kids about milby butler and his longhorns. if there is a museum thats where it should be and call BLM the heritage park to honor our city founders. dont you think if walter hall really his home to be BLM he would have donated the property to the city.
BHL
"Time to have a serious discussion."
A serious discussion would suggest
that we have facts.We do not have
facts unless,we request answers to
certain question,of the City Clerk.
Public Meetings,Public Information act.
1. How much has the litigation of
"The Glen Cove Bridge" debacle cost?
2. Is there a "DEED"?
3 Why doesn't League City have
sovereign power of this bridge property?
Answer from LC representative:
"Pending Litigation"
Miss Jennifer is a nice person.
Please let the BLM ?Museum? die.
Ida Mae
Public Information Act will not help. “It’s Pending Litigation”. Public meetings could be risky as could be the truth.
Attorney Bill Helfand and legal team (hired by Dick Gregg) have tried in every manner to stop ANY public knowledge of the facts of Glen Cove issues. Tommy Cones, Gregg and Helfand went as far to have a formal city resolution that council members and/or staff could talk to me or other plaintiffs.
Ida, the following may answer your questions.
1. Cost to date - City has spent over $100,000, which included $20,000 to Gregg and Gregg.
2. Is there a Deed? FACT: The City has no deed. Before and during the legal process it has been requested a number of times. THE CITY HAS NO DEED!!!
3. The City has rights and these rights are called “right of way”. Other than “right of way” the city has absolutely ZIP.
The city could have chosen a simple solution. Instead what happened was a convoluted web of untruths and misleading statements.
Now Bill Helfand’s co-counsel Barbara Roberts is seating with Planning and Zoning Commission and the Gregg’s Dream Team is giving legal advice regarding ownership issues with Cypress Bay and prescribing legal procedures to P & Z.
Question #1: Why are Gregg and Gregg NOT representing the city as per their contract?
Question #2: Under what authority are Attorneys Helfand and Roberts giving legal advice to planning and zoning? Ms. Roberts stated at P & Z at least three times this has nothing to do with the lawsuit. I wonder what the billing statement will read.
Question #3: Great question about City’s “Sovereign Power”. Instead of a direct answer I will pose another question. Are Helfand and Team qualified title attorneys and why would the City accept an opinion of title from ANYONE except a strongly qualified title attorney?
Another question regarding Cypress Bay Section 3. Why did it take FOUR (or was it only three) final plats submitted since April 26th to reach a last final plat?
The public and council members deserve a better answer than its “pending litigation”.
Good questions Paul. Here's another.
Why did Ms. Roberts state unequivocally in the P&Z meeting last night that her firm was hired by city council to represent the city in the bridge lawsuit when there is no record of any act of council authorizing such payments?
I've asked it before and I will keep asking until I get an answer; who authorized the hiring of her firm and under what authority?
Perhaps answers to these questions are a worthy issue for the new council to address...
Jeff
Paul,
The official answer last night to your question # 1 was that Dick Gregg recused himself from the meeting due to conflict of interest in the Cypress Bay matter. Given all that is known, that seems completely logical.
However, it does raise another question; why has Dick Gregg not previously recused himself from representing the city in matters involving Cypress Bay? For example, why has Gregg & Gregg billed the city for around $20,000 (at last report) for services representing the city in the bridge lawsuit if there is a conflict of interest that prevents him from acting as city attorney in matters related to Cypress Bay?
Kudos to Mr. Gregg for finally acknowledging this conflict, but why did it take so long and what do we do to clean up the past?
Looks like there is plenty for the new city council to dig into now that they are sworn in.
Jeff
Right of Way
"3. The City has rights and these
rights are called “right of way”.
Other than “right of way” the city
has absolutely ZIP."
Paul Smith
R509247 Abandoned ROW Seminole Dr.
R212199 Tim Gamble,451 Seminole
Please talk with Tim Gamble,
he is a rational young man that has
spoken to council in the past,maybe
he would like to purchase the ROW.
Here is an example of the process.
http://tinyurl.com/qbpd3a
Pat or Matt ??
I have been told a portion of old Seminole ROW has been abandoned next to Mr. Gamble's house.
Seminole Dr. along the existing roadway and across the bridge property has NEVER been abandoned.
Yes, a legally closed ROW can be abandoned by act of council. There is a process.
Ask Jack Murphy and Nick Scotto about the aborted "Application for Abandonment". The application for abandonment of a portion of the Seminole ROW was completed by engineering and delivered to Teresa Scotto in November 2006. It was NOT signed and NOT submitted back to the city. Instead, a few days later Reed signed the bridge deed that was declared "unauthorized and void".
I could explain much more but I am out of time.
Hope this was helpful.
SMITTY
By the way, please continue to pass ALL my comments to Attorney JF as they may help him better understand the situation.
Smitty sweety,can we talk?
I was very proud of the cotillion program
that I attended way back then.While
participating in the cotillion program
I learned to dance and improve my
social skills.I was also encouraged to
practice constructive thinking.
During social situations we were taught
to be positive,this attitude should foster
self-confidence,courtesy,sensitivity and
respect for others.Do not forget about
grace and poise.It was fun to be
a debutante.
God Bless Texas
Ida,
I guess you no longer want to talk about ROWs.
I did not know what ROW meant
before our conversation.Does it
bother you,that as a woman,I am
able to learn and process
information in an orderly manner
and then offer an alternative that
might obtain at least one
clean title?
That would be nice. But if a cloud ever hovered over a previous title, I've heard it always carries forward.
Historical chain is cited and never broken or erased.
Back on topic of this thread... More speeches, pleas and bandanas on last night's (Tuesday, May 26, 2009) council agenda, on behalf of the beleaguered and long suffering cow museum.
It's been a real albatross, a thorn in our side, for so, so long. For years and years, we have seen one cost overrun after another, matched by chronic failures to meet a deadline. Now it's all “this close” to being finished, and somebody suddenly wants to take it all away from us and semi-privatize it. Just when some money looks like it might start rolling IN for a change, somebody is already seeing dollar signs.
The people of this city finally had their fill of this unending expense, and now even the city is recognizing their sentiment. Council persons Barber and Sanborn both emphasized clearly to the museum's lawyer that the board has voted “no more money.” BLM's lawyer side-stepped that.
The museum is a multi-million dollar investment of the city's, and we the people who paid for it and made it all possible should be first in line when revenues finally start rolling in. Agreed, we want to push this burdensome step-child out of the nest, and make it self sufficient and financially independent.
Butler Longhorn has got to put together a solid business plan to show that fund raising, grants, accreditations, sustaining memberships, subleases, rent-outs and all its other grand revenue generating ideas are realistic. So far, they aren't talking to us about this, or about how any of it will benefit US though.
What they are talking about is how they hope to siphon very unspecific revenues from it off to their own “needs,” all tax-free, while throwing us a dollar a year for rent. It would cost our Accounts Receivable more to collect the dollar. First and foremost, this has to be adjusted to something that's realistic in today's world. We can give them a break during their first year of growing pains, and set the rent at $100. Thereafter, something closer to, say, a thousand or ten-thousand or twenty-five sounds more like it.
The city needs to establish requirements for concessions, paraphernalia vendors and other ways of generating a return -- for us, not for the museum -- on OUR enormous investment -- part of a comprehensive revenue generating plan for the city that will run separately alongside the museum's. Their lease must not preclude our reasonable pursuit of such cost recovery. We must turn this liability into an asset for the city at long last, and one dollar a year doesn't cut it. Besides that, in order to keep their new IRS 501(c) status, they should be required to turn over any and all net profits to the city. After all, they keep saying it's a non-profit.
The museum is already looking at many other viable means of generating revenues, and revenues must include a return on our investment, not just BLM's repairs, renovations, operating and other ongoing costs.
How “generous” of them to “offer” the city use of it's own property and investment for city events, at “no charge.“ Define ”no charge.“ Because of expected accreditations and possibly 501(c) requirements, we won't be allowed to stage or permit political events, so we also must make sure that museum grounds don't include those portions of Heritage Park that we may need for non-museum events.
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