Political Games and Public Trust

OPINION


By Charles O'Dell

When House Speaker Tip O’Neill observed that, “All politics is local,” he knew about extreme, and sometimes questionable, tactics that are used in local elections.

While most eyes were focused on the Obama/Hillary high-energy Democratic primary race, incumbent Hays County Precinct 1 Commissioner Debbie Ingalsbe handily beat her 77-year-old Democratic challenger, Celestino Mendez, Jr.

Mendez’s financial supporters included prominent Democrat and Hays Free Press newspaper owner Bob Barton, local developer and Republican Terry P. Gilmore and other local insiders. There was a central reason for this insider support of Mendez.

Mendez was a “throwaway candidate.” He wasn’t expected to win. His role was to be “encouragement” for Precinct 1 Commissioner Ingalsbe to vote with Precinct 2 Commissioner Jeff Barton on certain issues at commissioners’ court. Jeff Barton is the son of Bob Barton, president of the Hays Free Press. Jeff is vice president.

If by chance Mendez had won, he was in lock step with the Bartons’ effort to revive pass-through financing road bonds that voters turned down in 2007, and Mendez supported Nick Ramus in his suit against Hays County.

Ingalsbe now will face Republican Nick Ramus in the November general election.

The Ramus candidacy is another Barton/Conley effort to embarrass County Judge Liz Sumter because she led the 3 – 2 commissioners’ court vote to nullify a septic system permit that the county’s Environmental Health Department issued despite the system failing to comply with county and state requirements. That action is now the subject of the Ramus suit. This is the same Environmental Health Department that Commissioner Jeff Barton helped to staff in the 1990s before he was voted out of office. Controlling the permitting process is an important element of power.

The Barton/Conley plan was to settle the Ramus suit out of court. For their plan to succeed, Barton and Conley needed a precedent setting septic variance, and they needed to make Ramus appear credible.

At the January 29th commissioners’ court Jeff Barton attempted to sneak through a variance for the Martinez family’s septic system to set a precedent that Barton could argue for settling the Ramus suit. Barton’s scheme was exposed and that set off a series of face saving articles in his Hays Free Press that were not only misleading, but also inaccurate.

The Bartons frequently use their Hays Free Press reporting and opinion page to frame public debate and to achieve their political goals. They used the Hays Free Press to get Jeff reelected in 2006. Jeff considered running for county judge in 2006, but Republican County Judge Jim Powers was working well with the good old boys so ranking Republicans and Democrats joined forces to replace Republican Precinct 2 Commissioner Susie Carter who consistently spoke out against bad behavior on the commissioners’ court.

Making Ramus the Republican candidate for Precinct 1 commissioner was supposed to make him credible and put some additional pressure on Ingalsbe. Local Republican officials are so bent on embarrassing County Judge Sumter and supporting the Bartons that they selected a candidate who is suing the county, and who has been convicted by a Hays County jury of being a public nuisance for having derelict trucks, trash and mobile homes on his two acre residential lot.

Time is running out for the Barton/Conley plan. Ramus has his hearing next Thursday at the Justice Center in San Marcos. Commissioners’ court will get a legal briefing on the suit in executive session on Tuesday. It would be unconscionable for commissioners’ court to take any action prior to the District Court hearing on Thursday.

Accurate and objective journalism is at the foundation of our democracy. Those who would misuse a newspaper for political purposes do us all a disservice. Tip O’Neill was right about all politics being local.

That’s my opinion.