Old Town, Georgetown Texas

By Ross Hunter

The Community Impact local newspaper has scooped everybody (after oldtowners.com of course) with the first media report of Tuesday’s council meeting.

The story appears on their website here:
http://impactnews.com/georgetown-hutto-taylor/257-recent-news/9081-georgetown-residents-call-for-greater-transparency-in-dealings-with-city-officials

We make no secret that we eagerly await the Williamson County Sun’s take on all this on Saturday, but credit where credit is due – the people with blogs and websites have scooped the newsprint people yet again. If only Mr. Sokolow would understand that being a blog doesn’t make it wrong if you’re telling the truth; and being a lawyer doesn’t make you right if you’re not.

By Ross Hunter

Well, friends, we went down to the council meeting, and we won a major success. We walked out of there with the greatest sense of triumph I’ve felt in several years.

It was a historic night, a grand watershed event. It was a decisive battle in the campaign to restore Georgetown to open government.

I could describe what happened but all the media were there: Ken Martin from the Austin Bulldog; the Austin-American Statesman; the editor and publishers of the Williamson County Sun – even the Community Impact newspaper was present. So you can read about it.

I am so enormously proud of everyone who spoke. This is why I love this town so much – for the decent people who come out of their homes just to speak a simple truth in favor of honesty and honor. The bright intelligence of the people speaking was a stunning contrast to the shame-faced body language and bowed heads of the six members of the council who last night sealed their own doom as public servants.

Council member Patty Eason stood alone, forceful and unrelenting, against the rest of the council as they tried to shut her down and silence the voices of public comment. And but for the passionate outrage at the decisive moment of former mayor Mary Ellen Kersch who sat behind me in the audience, they might have succeeded. There was a moment of holding breath, and then the will of the council collapsed under its own cowardice, and Councilwoman Eason’s agenda item was allowed to go forward, and we spoke.

If you weren’t there you wish you had been.

And if you weren’t there it may be time to ask yourselves why you weren’t there. As I told the council last night, INACTION in this matter will speak quite as loudly as action.

But now we move on with the hunt, and I believe the media is starting to smell blood. As I warned the council last night also, I truly don’t believe the people of this town will tolerate the loss of open government.

Watch the TV show, read the press reports, stay tuned to OldTowners.com and sign up for our email alert – and get ready for the victory battles yet to come.

By Ross Hunter

Council is tomorrow, about 24 hours away, and I’m inviting you to attend the session.

If you haven’t read the weekend Sun you should pick up a copy anywhere you can and get an exhaustive overview of the numerous allegations made lately against our city attorney, along with comments from most of the council members and the attorney himself, Mark Sokolow.

These allegations have been made principally by Ken Martin at the Austin Bulldog, and if you’re not on his alert list you won’t know that he published another story last night, with new allegations, along with a great summary of what’s been published so far and what we hope to happen at council tomorrow.

You can read his story here:
http://www.theaustinbulldog.org

I will be appearing before the council tomorrow, speaking quite soon after session opens at 6 pm. I’m on the agenda with my long-standing political fight-partner Rick Williamson to ask the council for an investigation into all the allegations that have appeared in the press.

The whole town is talking about all these allegations of incompetence and impropriety, yet not one word has come from the council about any of it in open session. Everything so far has happened in closed session, and it comes time now to drag this nonsense into the light of day.

But there’s way more than my little speech happening tomorrow. Later in the proceedings when we come to item Q of the Legislative Regular Agenda we get our chance to pay honor and respect to council member Patty Eason for forging ahead against much adversity and creating a formal invitation from the council for the public to speak.

This is what you should come down for. It’s okay to sit and watch – I’ve told you many times that the headcount is what these politicians are swayed by, nothing else. And people really value having supporters around them as they get up to speak. But if YOU are willing to speak, you can simply and briefly make the request for an official investigation into these allegations you’ve read about in the press. That will be completely sufficient.

Remember this is not really about the attorney, that fiasco is just a by-product of the council’s own incompetence and its fears of being found out. This is about the open government we used to have, and the good governance that this council destroyed. We’ll only get it back if we grab these scoundrels by their jaws and prise them open and make them speak to us.

So we start at 6 pm in Council Chambers, at Seventh and Main. Shortly into the proceedings I’ll get my chance to speak. Then we have to wait while the folks from Shady Oaks do their part for democracy regarding an annexation that’s earlier on the agenda. This may not take very long, but we won’t know until we’re there. Soon after that will come your chance to address the council if you so wish, or to lend the rest of us your silent support as we do. Rick and I believe we are allowed to speak again, and we’ll sign up for that one for sure.

Join us.

Yes it’s a predictable headline, but it did feel sunny like the upbeat Beatles number on Saturday morning to pick up the weekend Williamson County Sun and read the start of 3 pages of coverage on our controversial city attorney. The Sun was back in the saddle, guns a’blazing!

Council beat reporter Jamaal E. O’Neal on page 3 wrote up the forthcoming session scheduled for Tuesday, July 13, in a piece announcing council member Patti Eason’s agenda item inviting public input on recent press reports about the city attorney and related improprieties.

But star performer starting on page 1 was editor Ben Trollinger, who led us through an exhaustive recap of allegations made largely by investigative reporter Ken Martin, whose work you have only to scroll down here to see. The Sun contributed a nice piece of live transcript from a phone conversation with the city attorney, Mark Sokolow, that showed him in a clearly evasive mode.

Then came the editorial, which I assume was written by publisher Clark Thurmond. The editorial called for citizen input and outcry before the dais on Tuesday. Or rather, it foreshadowed that such events might occur, and should occur.

They may.

People are hard at work, and it’s hard to get them to turn out from a belief that council can be UN-corrupted just from their voices.

I personally believe that council can be led back to a course of open government, and out of its recent bunker mentality, but of course it’ll take muscle, and time. As to all this, we shall see.

In any event, it was good to have the Sun back in the field of struggle, like the old days: bearing witness, rooting around, looking for improprieties. This alone makes the difference to our struggle, we the citizens.

This nation was founded in the close company of a strong free press. When the press is strong we have open government, and good governance can only come from open government.

Georgetown until recently was famous for its open government and the quality of its governance. I have the belief that the people of this town will not tolerate mediocrity in government for very much longer.

By Ross Hunter

The Fourth Estate is a name that some people are still proud to be identified by, and I suspect that Ken Martin and his team of investigative journalists at the Austin Bulldog are such people.

But I seriously doubt that Linda Scarbrough and Clark Thurmond, publishers of the Williamson County Sun, actually give a damn one way or another anymore.

And sadly the story published by the Sun on June 16th about our city attorney, asking if the council knew he’d been fired from League City some 13 years earlier, did little more than muddy the surface waters over the real story that the Austin Bulldog had published the day before.

But before we get into specifics let me throw a rumor into the stories that will follow. Read Full Story…

[Editor's note. This story is reproduced under a Creative Commons license granted by its author, Ken Martin, of The Austin Bulldog. The story here is stripped of its original formatting, graphics, and links to its many sources – and the source materials are especially useful. Original links are NOT indicated here – and there are many. PLEASE click through and read the story at source here: Georgetown City Attorney’s Competence Called Into Question

Georgetown City Attorney’s Competence Called Into Question

His Contract Never Legally Executed,
His Support Nearly Nonexistent

Investigative Report by Ken Martin

The municipal legal career of Mark Sokolow has seen its ups and downs:

Up: In 1991, Sokolow was hired by the City of League City, Texas.
Down: In February 1996 he was fired as city attorney of League City; he returned the favor by suing the city.
Up: Despite getting canned by League City, he was hired the very next month as city attorney for the City of Port Arthur; a council member in Port Arthur when Sokolow was hired said the council wasn’t aware of what had happened in League City.
Down: Sokolow’s lawsuit against League City was so flimsy it was dismissed without getting a trial.
Up: When Sokolow resigned last October to take the job of Georgetown’s city attorney, the Port Arthur city council handed him a hefty bonus.
Up: Sokolow was hired by the City of Georgetown and started work last October 19 for $125,000 a year.
Down: He is working for the City of Georgetown under a contract that was never legally executed.
Down: The Austin Bulldog reported on May 4 how Sokolow facilitated the illegal payment of $13,600 for Georgetown Council Member Pat Berryman last December.
Down: He screwed up a deal to buy property for city facilities, hacked off the school district and embarrassed the city he represents.
Up: After six months on the job the city council evaluated his performance and gave him a $5,000 raise.
Down: He has alienated numerous colleagues. Examples abound, as detailed below.
Down: City staff is rooting for his ouster, though they fear being fired if they speak up.
The defense rests: Sokolow declined to be interviewed for this story. Read Full Story…