MySA.com: Metro | State

A state district judge on Friday granted a request by two Helotes City Council members for a restraining order against Mayor Tom Schoolcraft, stopping him from altering agenda items.

MySA.com: Metro | State

The complaints from the 2006 campaign were filed in August, and those regarding the 2007 campaign were delivered to the TEC on Friday.

Helotes-area resident John Eakin filed the complaints with the TEC against Ardie Garner, Ken Dempsey, Jim Caruso, Vicki Graham, Mayor Tom Schoolcraft, and City Councilmen Rich Whitehead and Jeff Ellis.

had any thing to do with this?

MySA.com: Metro | State

Mayor Tom Schoolcraft’s report at Thursday’s City Council meeting included an unusual slide at the end of his PowerPoint presentation.

It was a copy of an e-mail sent to dozens of people by Myfe Moore that criticized Schoolcraft and Councilmen Rich Whitehead and Jeff Ellis. Three of the e-mail’s recipients are members of the council: Alina Matutes-Eckhardt, J.B. Richeson and Guillerma Contreras.

Apparently Schoolcraft had the email since July so when did he give it to the Bexar County District Attorney? They have either had the email for over a month and haven’t found any reason to act upon it or Schoolcraft just turned over in attempt to deflect public attention away from his illegal actions, which, by the way, state officials are willing to comment about.

MySA.com: Metro | State

Nobody in the district attorney’s office who was familiar with the e-mail could be reached for comment.

I just can’t wait to hear from the Bexar County District’s Attorney office on this one.

Technorati Tags: Helotes, Tom Schoolcraft, campaign finance

MySA.com: Metro | State

Whitehead, who was elected in May, approached Laughlin in early July on the property and told him that he and Moore were violating the ordinance.

“When I first came into office, someone made me aware that (Moore) is using temporary lighting on a consistent basis, and that is a violation,” Whitehead said.

Why on earth is a council member dealing with this? I’m just trying to imagine Diane Cibrian coming by businesses in her district and telling them that they are in violation of a city ordinance.

I can understand council members acting on constituent concerns and making sure that the proper city department addresses the issue. But I don’t get why a council member would think it’s okay to just go around and notify businesses himself as he sees fit.

Does anyone elected to the Helotes city council in the last election have any common sense?

Technorati Tags: Myfe Moore, John T. Floore County Store, Rich Whitehead, Helotes

The Legislature approved $1,125,000 to establish the Frank L. Madla Memorial Park on 33 acres of land near Scenic Loop Road in Helotes. The Helotes Park Foundation has secured $118,000 in contributions to pay for the purchase of the land. In addition, Pulte Homes Inc. has made a donation of $225,000 toward development of the park.

So the money is all ready to buy park land for the City of Helotes and none of it comes from the city’s budget. So what does the new mayor, Tom Schoolcraft do?

MySA.com: Politics

So, when two council members formerly aligned with Allan tried to put an item on a recent council agenda to discuss appointing someone to negotiate an extension of the expired land deal, Schoolcraft blocked them against the advice of the city attorney and common sense.

Schoolcraft said he did it because the two council members didn’t provide enough necessary documentation.

When asked what documentation, Schoolcraft graciously told an Express-News reporter, “I don’t need to explain it to you.”

So who does he have to explain it to? The 331 registered voters who in 2006 who participated in the Citizen Park Survey? The survey found that over 80% believed it was important for Helotes to have parks and recreation facilities. Or maybe he has to explain it to the voters that he promised:

Vote for Common Sense

I intend to work directly with the members of our boards, committees, and council to make sure we are all working toward the same goals. I will be open for constructive, positive suggestions from any of our citizens to make and keep Helotes the city we can all be proud to call home.

I’m sorry, ignoring the advise of the city attorney doesn’t sound like a “Vote for Common Sense.” If the phrase sounds familiar it’s because it was Schoolcraft’s campaign theme. Maybe he thinks he’s George Bush.

To sum up:

• The city attorney advised Schoolcraft to put the park on the agenda.
• The governor has signed a bill that would pay for over a million dollars to establish the park.
• Pulte Homes, I think they count as developers, has contributed $225,000 for the park’s development.
• Schoolcraft won the election by a grand total of 21 votes.

So is this about what’s best for Helotes or is this about Tom Schoolcraft showing who’s in charge?

Technorati Tags: Tom Schoolcraft, Helotes, Frank L. Madla Memorial Park, Helotes Park Foundation, Pulte Homes, Leticia Van de Putte, David Leibowitz, Helotes Mayor

HELOTES — Against the advice of the city attorney and in apparent violation of city policy and procedure, Mayor Tom Schoolcraft did not allow some items to be placed on the agenda for Thursday’s City Council meeting.

On June 5, councilwomen Alina Matutes-Eckhardt and Guillerma Contreras submitted the requisite request forms for three items to be placed on Thursday’s agenda.

:snip:Schoolcraft declined to elaborate.

I don’t know what it means or why he didn’t put it on the agenda but it certainly doesn’t show a happy Helotes administration. Hopefully they will work this out.

Technorati Tags: helotes, Tom Schoolcraft,

A recount Thursday of the nearly 1,700 ballots cast in the May 12 mayoral election in Helotes yielded no change in the number of votes, officials said, confirming that incumbent Jon Allan lost to Tom Schoolcraft by 21 votes.Allan picked up one more vote from a provisional ballot that was verified after Election Day.

Allan said that he requested the recount—filed with the Bexar County Elections Department—because the city had just started using electronic voting machines and he was leery of the potential problems the machines might have.

City Secretary Grace Tamez said there was no change in either early voting or Election Day totals.

Schoolcraft, along with two newly elected councilmen, was sworn in as mayor at Thursday night’s City Council meeting.

I understand Allan asking for a recount, the problem is that you can’t really do a true recount with electronic voting machines. There is no way to know once the vote is cast whether it was recorded correctly and if a vote wasn’t recorded correctly a recount will do nothing to bring that to light.

In the 2004 general election, I voted early, I would have voted often but they frown on that. We stood in line forever and then when I went to vote I certainly didn’t choose Bush but when I was reviewing my choices pretty as you please Bush’s name was there as the person I voted for. Now, I am not a electronically challenged person, I understand how a computer works, they don’t intimidate me and I know which name I checked when I was voting. Of course I went back and changed the vote and the second time during the review it showed Kerry’s name but I have no proof that my vote was counted for Kerry. I can’t stress to you enough that the initial mistake was not user error, I watched the check mark next to Kerry’s name appear the first time and was not running my fingers over the screen so that it could have accidentally changed. If I hadn’t caught the change on the review or if the machine changed my vote again without my knowledge a recount would only show the mistaken vote not a reflection of my vote. Electronic voting machines aren’t sound. We all seem to know that but our counties continue to invest in them.

Technorati Tags: electronic voting, helotes, texas,

HELOTES — The amount of money contributed this year to municipal election campaigns here is markedly higher than in previous years, due in part to $10,000 in contributions made by an area developer.

On March 19, Alfred “Tom” Rohde gave a total of $10,000 to three candidates who are running against three City Council incumbents. Tom Schoolcraft is challenging Mayor Jon Allan, Jeff Ellis is running against Place 3 Councilwoman Linda Boyer-Owens and Rich Whitehead is seeking to unseat Place 5 Councilman Stuart Birnbaum.

Rohde contributed $4,000 to Schoolcraft’s campaign and gave $3,000 each to Ellis and Whitehead. Their most recent contribution reports indicate Schoolcraft received a total of $5,460.28, while Ellis and Whitehead each received a total of $3,355.14.

“I felt it was time for a change,” Rohde said when asked about his contributions. He added he won’t contribute any more money to the races.

If you live out in Helotes, this is information you need before you go to the polls. Given that Helotes candidates usually don’t receive more than $1,000 total per election season these are huge contributions. Do you want your public servants beholden to a developer?

Technorati Tags: Heltotes, Alfred “Tom” Rohde, Tom Schoolcraft, Jeff Ellis, Rich Whitehead

Helotes can breathe again.The monster debris fire that confounded county leaders, mocked the state’s environmental agency and grabbed national attention for three months has officially gone poof!

Finally!! Three months of this fire burning and it is finally out. We have certainly come a long way since those first few weeks when no one was doing anything but watching it burn. We watched it all and I still can’t fathom a fire that takes three months to put out.

MySA.com: Columnists

Still to be determined is who will pay the estimated $5.5 million in cleanup costs. Also: Where will they put the dismantled debris?

Welcome to Part II of The Longest Fire in Bexar County History. The blaze began in December 2006. The legal battle could drag into 2008.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality says it will send the cleanup bill to landowner Henry Zumwalt. The fire, after all, erupted on his property.

Zumwalt lawyer David Barton says his client does not intend to pay. TCEQ, after all, botched firefighting operations. Not only that, the state agency gave Zumwalt tacit approval for the eight-story pile that ignited on Dec. 26.

Mark it down. You’ll see these guys in court.

That story line could be entertaining. But another could be challenging, if not a bit frightening. Thousands of cubic yards of brush remain scattered across Zumwalt’s property.

“The Zumwalts are responsible for hauling all the materials off the site,” Allan says. “I don’t know how many truckloads it’s going to take. But he’s not going to get that stuff off in a month.”

What worries the mayor is a cruel possibility. The mother of all Texas brush fires could give birth to an offspring.

Zumwalt has made it clear he isn’t paying the bill for putting the fire out. What would make anyone believe that he will foot the bill for cleaning up the property? He is taking no responsibility for anything so far. Several months ago there was news that they had found it to be arson but that didn’t hold up. He of course still holds to that belief but I ask would it matter if it was? He created the hazard that burned for three months, why does it matter what started it? He created the pile, it was on his property and that would make it his responsibility. Let the lawsuits begin.

Technorati Tags: helotes fire, helotes, texas, mulch fire, Henry Zumwalt, TCEQ

Into this toxic haze steps an angry man, Helotes Mayor Jon Allan, perhaps the lone heroic figure in this 2 1/2-month disaster.

When Allan speaks everyone listens, and this is what he’s saying: Resume fighting the fire with water. The strategy of using a crane to pull the pile apart — but no water — is stupid and doomed to fail. By discouraging water use, the San Antonio Water System is fueling unreasonable fears and hurting everyone who breathes.

The state’s environmental agency agrees. On Saturday, it began dousing the pile with water.

“Our air,” Allan says in a message posted on the Helotes Web site, “is being held hostage by SAWS.”

SAWS takes another view. It won’t risk contamination of the Edwards Aquifer, which supplies water to 1.7 million people.

The most inept firefighting battle in memory, perhaps in Bexar County history, has evolved to this: clean air versus clean water.

We need both, of course, but the bumbling, ever-changing strategies of the state’s environmental agency — are we on Plan E now or Plan F? — have turned noble advocates against one another.

Allan: “You have a choice whether to drink the water in the aquifer. You don’t have a choice to breathe the air.”

Steve Clouse, SAWS vice president of production and treatment: “Is contamination of the aquifer worth one day or one week of air quality in Helotes?”

Clouse points to the contamination of nearby wells. Allan points to a mystery behind the contamination. No one knows if the fecal coliform is coming from the burning debris or another source.

Clouse reminds that firefighting residues have contaminated other wells. Allan says he opposes contamination, too. But if water became undrinkable, it could be treated. “This is a money issue,” he says.

Clouse: “I understand people getting very frustrated with what’s going on. They heard we’d be done with the fire (last) week. Now we have no idea when we’ll be done. I empathize with the mayor and the roller coaster he’s been on.”

I was particularly struck by Steve Clouse’s question “Is contamination of the aquifer worth one day or one week of air quality in Helotes?” I have to wonder if he meant to sound so very cavalier about air quality in Helotes. That question might even be relevant if it was one day or one week of air quality issues we are dealing with but it is not. It is two and a half months of air quality issues we are dealing with and for all we know there might be another two and a half months in front of us. I have to agree with Helotes Mayor Jon Allan that using a crane to pull the pile apart but not using water to put it out is stupid and doomed to fail. Zumwalt really put us between a rock and a hard place. Clean air or clean water should not be a question any of us should have to decide.

Technorati Tags: Zumwalt, Helotes, Steve Clouse, Jon Allan, mulch fire, Henry Zumwalt, Texas

Officials revealed Tuesday that wells apparently polluted by firefighting efforts at the Helotes debris pile also are showing bacterial contamination with high levels of fecal coliform.It’s unclear whether the fire and bacterial contamination are related. State and local officials are planning more talks today to determine the next step in dealing with the situation.

Five private Edwards Aquifer wells within a half-mile of the fire site have shown contamination since a Texas Commission on Environmental Quality contractor started battling the 10-week-old blaze in a mound of woody debris after two weeks of resident complaints about smoke.

The March 5th deadline for putting out the Helotes mulch fire has now come and gone. The fire isn’t out and at last update TCEQ didn’t have a new date they expected it to be out by. Lovely, just lovely. This fire has been going on since the day after Christmas and they just don’t know what to do about it. What a mess.

Technorati Tags: helotes, mulch fire, tceq

If everything goes as planned, the state’s environmental agency should be sending Henry Zumwalt a fire cleanup bill in a couple of weeks.

By then, we’re told, the fire that’s been burning on Zumwalt’s property since Dec. 26 should be extinguished.

What kind of bill can Zumwalt expect?

In mid-January, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality pegged the cost at $1.75 million.

Three fire-fighting plans and multiple delays later, the projected bill jumped to $3 million two weeks ago.

Today, TCEQ says the cost will be more than $3 million.

Whatever the final tally, Zumwalt does not intend to pay, which means he and the state are headed for court.

Why do I get the feeling that it’s me that is going to pay? Even if the courts decide Zumwalt is responsible how are they going to get the money? Maybe I am wrong and he has an amazing insurance policy that will pay the state back for this but I sure wouldn’t be counting on that money.

Technorati Tags: Zumwalt, TCEQ, helotes mulch fire, helotes, mulch fire