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Last week, Somervell County Commissioners Court went into executive session and then came out and the majority voted to fire Dwayne Johnson. Commissioner Richard Talavera made the motion, Jeff Harris seconded. When it came time to vote Danny Chambers voted with those two and Tammy Ray and Wade Busch voted against. No secret that I have had reservations about Dwayne Johnson for a long time, including when he was Precinct 2 commissioner. I was surprised that after he lost his commissioner election to Talavera that he was then hired in some position of authority over the Somervell County Expo Center in Glen Rose. Some items previously I found concerning. 1. He paid no rendering tax on his personal property 2. He showed disrespect for the Texas Open Meetings Act and used a commissioner meeting as an opportunity to brag on himself 3. Shifty about the process to build out the Rooster Bar and Grill at Squaw Valley Golf Course 4. Voted to okay Hidden Valley Ranch Subdivision without much pushback on potential problems (until later when the commissioners held another meeting about this due to community ire) 5. Part of voting to approve a Somervell County assistance district -sloppy and possible illegality of election 6. Somervell County now in the booze business 7. Sloppiness in following the law re: the 2022 budget All that I knew. What I did not know is that there were two criminal investigations into him this last year. 2023_06_05_13_43_23[1766].pdfIn the first one, from February 2023, Johnson was accused of Theft of Property >=$750<$2500. The complainant said she had evidence of mishandled funds within the county. Notice that the Show Barn was apparently built without any plans. Wade Busch didn't know of any and Danny Chambers said "county maintenance workers built the show barn so there most likely were not any permanent building plans (which would of course, IF they existed, would presumably show where the lighting would go instead of a fly by night seat of the pants install A few comments on this. Ooopsie, Johnson said he did not realize he had been overpaid by over $1400 (Really inspires confidence that Johnson was being a good steward and careful with taxpayer money, doesn't it -/s) Also, more generally, how is it that there are elected people that are just running out to do things without any kind of plan, using their buddies for a service (and maybe getting a kickback, who knows?) and aren't trying to be fair with competing services in the county. The commissioners decided, because the case was punted to Hill County DA which refused to look at the case, to just make Johnson pay back the money. As a side note on checks and balances, going to pull out again the fact that we have a felon who is the head of payroll. If this somehow missed through at least 3 levels of checks and balances, what confidence is there that a person doing payroll can't also escape notice should that person decide to commit theft. Also, because the commissioners kept it quiet, no one really knew about this double overpayment of funds. So, this first investigation was kept quiet. I don't know if this was discussed in an executive session after April 24th, but probably on the 5/8/2023 regular session. On to the second one and this one is very recent. EXPO 2301104.pdf EXPO 2301104 (2).pdf Somebody named MaKayla D'nell decided to go post about selling pallets, that Somervell County owns, on Facebook, taking cash. This isn't like you or me or a private business selling pallets, heck, I've gotten pallets for various projects. No, these are government property and not there to be taken for some unaccounted cash. Somebody must have tipped off the Sheriff who asked Trey Brown, the County Attorney to begin a live investigation, which then included Investigator Green. This was in June 2023. The investigator gave $250 cash (marked bills) to some guy named "Randy" with exchange of pallets. This last part of this was the reason why this case was not charged, because there was a difference between the money in the drawer and the money the investigator had given Makayla, since it went through a third person. That brings us to the 7th of November when the commissioners went into a special session and then came out and voted-Note who voted for and against. How many times did Johnson apparently lie?

Somervell County has had at least three instances, that I know of, where an employee working for a public governmental entity, either embezzled money from the entity or worked with money while convicted of a felony. One, back in 2015, was Melanie Reese, former City Secretary of Glen Rose who plea bargained theft of government funds. A second was Janice Nickell who embezzled from Glen Rose Medical Center in 2013. And then there was Liz Morgan, who embezzled church money and spent at least part of it to take her child on a $20,000 Florida vacation. She worked for Glen Rose Medical Center in charge of patient records and HIPAA privacy officer, presumably taking off an hour or so every week to attend her probation officer hearing. Very recently a friend of mine told me that there is a felon working in payroll at Somervell County Courthouse, where Danny Chambers is judge. Although Treasurer is an elected position, payroll is not, and the felony this person plead guilty to was Theft of Property $20k>$100k. A couple of people did a background check on this person and found that the offense she was arrested for was a felony classification, offense code 23990010, with probation begin date of 20130617, sentence CommunitySupervisionCountySomervell. I have a few questions. When was she hired to work in payroll, ie, dealing with money, for Somervell County? Did anyone flag her activity when she was hired? Have heard that the former treasurer, Susie Graves, hired her, apparently without the benefit of doing a background check on her first. What are this payroll person's probation terms? If her probation terms were 10 years, then was she on probation for this felony when she was hired? Second, she was not hired for a Human Resourced job initially. When did that happen and why? Who is the person that oversees what she does? Is it the treasurer (Valerie Williams) ? The auditor (Nikky Weeden) ? Surely she's not a person, with a felony record, in a department with no oversight. Mentioning that I will be updating this post after the open records request I have done asking for her criminal record, including probation disposition. My personal opinion remains the same as it has been with the 3 previous incidents where someone stole money and had a job that dealt with money. Are there not plenty of other job either now or in the future that a person can apply for when one is a felon other than dealing with money and sensitive data? I think so. And apparently, at this moment, Danny Chambers and the commissioners know that this woman was convicted of being a felon. Why is she still there? Is there absolutely no one in the area who knows how to do payroll and is not a felon for the job? The taxpaying public deserves to have confidence that the people in charge of their money in ANY position do not have a theft felony and confidence that others in charge will not close their eyes and ignore that background. And it's not only money but other personal information dealing with payrolls. Even if one argues that this felon's work is being overseen by the auditor, Nikki Weeden, is that really the way that business should be conducted, having to scrupulously being on guard against theft from someone who is already convicted of same? (Maybe you would do this with family members, but this is dealing with public taxpayer money) Mentioning also that this is a Right To Work state, which is a deceptive misnomer for being able to fire someone at any time for any reason. From the Somervell County Personnel Policies Below is the audio of the County Commissioners coming out of executive session and voting on a new HR department. Apparently the person doing payroll also was given the job of human resources, without any salary bump. The new position for HR apparently cuts out the current payroll employee who "wears many hats". She was clearly not happy, even though she was NOT getting a salary change but is apparently being paid the same without having the duty of being *the* HR person, and carried on about it (listen below and you can hear). Why does someone care this much about a position for which she was not even being paid? Anyone know what this woman is referring to? Were there payroll problems already under her watch? What were those problems and how were they resolved? I'd also like to know why this week, her job of HR was cut off. What happened? Did the court finally realize this was a colossally bad idea or did something happen that made it imperative? Chambers makes the comment that back in 2019, the departments were changed. Some more timeline. Compare the 2023 budget and the 2022 budget First, I can find no entry for HR or Human Resources. Maybe sharper eyes can locate that but if this means, as the audio above shows, that they basically just tacked on that duty to the payroll person but now plan to create an HR department, that would explain why it's not there (and again, according to the audio, the commissioners were not paying the felon any extra money for this position). The Treasury job in 2022's budget showed 2022 010-405-101 TREASURER SALARY $56,055.00 $56,055.00 56,055.00 44,374.50 79.16 56,054.64 56,054.76 2022 010-405-103 TREASURER CHIEF DEPUTY $46,471.00 $46,471.00 38,700.28 13,096.86 33.84 53,907.90 43,752.06 2022 010-405-104 TREASURER PERSONNEL $42,500.00 $42,500.00 54,110.24 55,881.07 103.27 34,005.90 0 but in 2023, the Treasury Salary is $59,000 but the Chief Deputy, Personnel and Part time are 0 compare auditor 2022 010-404-101 AUDITOR SALARY $75,480.00 $75,480.00 75,480.00 59,755.00 79.17 75,480.00 75,480.00 2022 010-404-103 AUDITOR ASSISTANTS SALARIES $81,844.00 $81,844.00 81,683.49 50,604.88 61.95 79,324.40 72,791.52 for 2023 budget Auditor Salary is $79,254,00 with assistant auditor 89,118.75 Cannot find a payroll administrator in 2022 Payroll in 2023 Payroll Administrative $55,650.00 with Payroll Clerk 0 So the way this looks is that the Treasurer had additional staff cut for 2023, auditor still has salary and assistants both years and Payroll administrator was added for 2023. HR as a budget account does not appear in either 2022 or 2023.

I haven't followed local government for at least a year. And I'm not likely to go back to video recording meetings at Somervell County Commissioners Court, although I think somebody should (maybe I'll change my mind). Covid pretty much broke me of that; I didn't want, at the height of covid, to go into a courtroom full of people who could spread covid in the room. The State of Texas under Republican *leadership* also showed me that safety and health were not only not high priorities for the people in charge, but they would actively spread lies and penalize people from caring about their health. I also was a little burned out after seeing what utter irresponsible people some of those who were elected officials were. But lately when I do care about something, it is a major pain to go hunt up agenda items and follow what actually happened (witness my questions regarding the water wells in the Hidden Valley Ranch subdivision going in on CR 2008 near Hwy 144 south. So I am going to post the agendas including the agenda items to make them searchable on the internet. Doing this for ME and will put tags for agenda and somervell County Commissioners Court.

I had a question the other day about when and under what circumstances, someone who wants to subdivide acreage 10 acres of less needs to get approval from the county commissioners court. First, with the help of Michelle Reynolds, was directed to where on the Somervell County website under County Clerk, the Rules and Regulations for Subdivisions are: Acreage of 10 acres or less require an approval plat with Somervell County, with some exceptions. A number of plats in the Hidden Valley subdivision which is off CR 2008 near Hwy 144 South have been sold. Here's where I posted about that in 2002. Was told by a Somervell County commissioner that the Hidden Valley subdivision is required, when the homeowners take this on, to drill wells to the lower Trinity level. I called up the Prairie Conservation District to ask about that, and got some good information. Basically, govt entities can get a GAC, although they are not required to, and the conservation district assesses the water situation caused by, for example, subdivisions having wells dug for each individual property (alternatively, the subdivision might decide to do one large water repository that all share, but in either case, it would definitely potentially impact, depending on what the water source is, other existing properties). Somervell County did that and came back to say that it would be a requirement that the subdivision drill in the lower Trinity and not the Paluxy. Here are the agenda items in question. Goint to update this with audio when I get a chance. 14 Mar 2022 - March 22 2022 April 22, 2022

Had heard there was a huge subdivision with smaller lots going in off 144 and CR 2008. It was first discussed in a December 2021 County Commissioner meeting and then approved in February 2022. I called up my commissioner Dwayne Johnson to ask some questions, like how many houses (ie, how many people to expect will live there), will there be a road from the subdivision that goes directly to 144 or will everyone be trying to get onto 144 from 2008 (or going the other way past Fossil Rim to 67), would there be a stoplight put in if the traffic was bad, or would CR 2008 be expanded to 4 lanes?) The plat is below, as well as what appears to be terms of an HOA, with a board. Mr Johnson also told me that the county would look into asking people on the road to sell part of their land if the road becomes crowded, there is no road that goes directly from the subdivision to 144, and it would be up to Texas State Highways to put in a light (of course, this would no doubt be after a lengthy survey to determine if it is needed, anyone else remember how long it took to get a stoplight on 67 by 144, despite some bad automobile accidents? As a side note, apparently none of the houses there will be able to have the Water District provide the pipes but instead will be using the lower part of the Trinity River for wells. Incidentally, and shoutout to Michelle Reynolds, Somervell County Clerk, who alerted me to a link to Online Real Estate and other public records which can be accessed via link rather than having to come in and sit down in the Clerk's office in the back at a computer to view. Look on her page for Online Real Records - Public Access. The papers below show who owns the property, and terms of the HOA, as well as the plats showing the lots. Audio of Dec 13 2021 meeting where this is discussed First, here is a picture from Google Earth of where this is .

I happened to be looking out about half an hour ago to the east and the yard looked like it was orange. A cloud overhead looked sort of orange and I couldn't figure out why. Got a call a bit ago from a friend of mine who told me there is a wildfire off 67 near Stewarts. I asked more precisely whether that was before or after, going west, the road that goes to Fossil Rim, and she said it was after towards Stephenville. Incidentally, I greatly appreciate the concern of reaching out to make sure I knew about the fire. One thing for sure. When I listen to the scanner, it is clear we have a great fire department. The department sets up a command center, and send people around to various locations when a fire is spotted or reported on. On the pic below, you can see not only the main fire which was around 51, but another one that started off to the left. Pictures taken south of Hwy 67 and the wind was blowing from the south to north so the fire was blowing north From Texas A&M Forestry Service on Twitter You could not even see the sun through the smoke in the sky. Like an oven outside, but, surprisingly, seems that not having the sun beating down on the yard and having a *cover* helped the plants Listening to the scanner They are around FM 205 and 1009 5:52 pm North side of 51, lost 2 structures, evacuating people Brush truck on CR 1008 6:55 pm 51 and CR 1005 - 7:44 pm Aerial planes dropping water every 20 minutes, fire at 4500 block of CR 1008 7:47 pm Tuesday, July 18 - Seems there are still fire around 205. 1004 hay bales on fire (8:47 am) Texas A&M Forest Service shows this as called Chalk Mountain and 10% contained as of 11:59 am Update from around 8:00 am Wednesday July 20 10:26 am from where I can see it looks a whole lot better. Still appears to have hotspots on 205. A bit ago SomcoFire said on the scanner that air drops about to be made (presumably Forest Service). Also getting in some more dozers. Hico FD helping near Cottonwood Baptist Church (51) Thursday July 21 2022 Update for July 27 2022 07/27/2022 Chalk Mountain Fire Morning Update Chalk Mountain Fire Wildfire News – 55 min. ago Chalk Mountain Fire Update July 27, 2022 10:00 a.m. Chalk Mountain Fire Stats: Size: 6,746 Acres Containment: 40% Location: 4.6 miles SW of Glen Rose, TX Start Date: July 18, 2022 Cause: Under Investigation Resources Assigned Total personnel: 309 Engines: 22 Dozers: 10 Handcrews: 5 The Southern Area Blue, Type-I Incident Management Team assumed command of the Chalk Mountain Fire at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, July 20, 2022. Current Status: Firefighters continued making progress on the Chalk Mountain Fire yesterday as the total containment increased to 40 percent yesterday while the acreage remained the same. The primary area of emphasis is the northern perimeter near the intersection of FM 205 and the northwestern edge of the fire. Visible smoke was observed in this area throughout the day as hotspots interspersed with unburned fuel are causing flareups. Aerial resources spent the day cooling this area, allowing ground crews the chance to work these hotspots. The fire continues to smolder and creep through this area. Throughout the remainder of the fire, crews spent the day gridding for and extinguishing hotspots on the interior of the fire and focused much of this gridding in and around homes. The eastern and western edges of the fire are being monitored for remaining hotspots, and fire officials are pleased with the progress in these areas. Fire conditions across the region remain at a critical level. Soil moisture remains completely depleted to a depth of at least eight inches. This means the moisture normally present in the ground is not available to slow the spread of fires. This lack of moisture is facilitating the smoldering and the burning of roots across the Chalk Mountain Fire. Fire Weather: Hot and dry conditions will persist throughout the week. An upperlevel ridge remains in place across much of Texas that is holding this heat in place. Temperatures will climb to as high as 104 degrees today with south winds expected at 8-12 mph gusting to 20 mph. Relative humidity will drop to nearly 20 percent. The current rain free streak at DFW is at 54 days (5th driest ever) with no rain expected.        Evacuations and Closures: There are no current evacuations or closures impacting the Chalk Mountain Fire. Contact the Somervell County Sheriff’s Office for the most current information on evacuations and closures: Phone: 254-897-2242 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Somervellsheriff Safety and Notifications: Personal responsibility and prevention of the next ignition is of utmost importance in preventing the next wildfire. Refrain from parking vehicles on dry grass and make sure all power equipment is in good working condition. Do your part to help our firefighters. Wildfires are a NO DRONE ZONE. If you fly, we can’t. Flying a drone near a wildfire can shut down all air operations. Fire Information: Fire Information Line: 817-381-5914 Email: 2022.chalkmountain@firenet.gov Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lssimt Inciweb: https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/8255/

Everyone who lives in Somervell County knows that the heat this summer has been extraordinary. There have been excessive heat warnings for a lot of days that tell people to stay inside. I concur but there are still things that have to be done outside if, as I do, you have agriculture or have to feed cattle, etc. I have a section of the yard where I have been attempting for the last year to create a privacy buffer between me and the neighbor. One way I decided to do it is by planting Texas Sage near the fence line. Texas Sage is supposed to grow up to 6 feet tall and 5 feet wide, and does well in heat and drought conditions. Hah, BUT I feel that even Texas Sage has found itself challenged by the unrelenting sun and heat every day. So I got an idea to get some shade cloth to put along the fence that would, at least in the morning since the sun comes from the east then, give some shade to the plants. It is not a permanent solution, and will probably take it down over the winter, but if it could give a leg up to those plants, all the better. (Also got a whole lot of free mulch from the dump). Several days ago I was out after about 6:30 at night when it was (pretend with me) cooler, and was attaching the cloth. In order to do this, I had to be crouching down part of the time to secure the cloth through a grommet to the bottom of the wire fence with some ties. I came up and there were two Somervell County cops on the other side of the fence. One asked me if I had been on that side of the fence on that (the neighbor's property). Maybe it was the heat, but this annoyed me a little and I said, emphatically, "No. I am on MY side of MY property". Then one of them asked if I had seen anybody over on that side. Now, when the neighbors had come home up their driveway, I thought I had heard a little bit of chatter but wasn't really paying attention. Occurred to me when the cops asked that maybe they saw me putting up the shade cloth and mistakenly thought I was on their side. Then the cop asked if I had seen a man in a white t-shirt. I hadn't actually seen anyone but apparently when the neighbors got home, they saw a guy standing in between their house and an area on the other side of my fence which they use to drive 4 wheelers. When they saw him, he ran off into the woods towards MY yard. At that point the cops had not seen him themselves but they did after a bit and the guy ran again into the woods. I had gone into the house by then, we have cameras all over it, and, of course, being Texans, guns, so I figured if he had actually come here, I would be able to see him and possibly identify him. They never found him, that I know of, but here's what I wonder. That day there was another one of those heat advisories and no one in their right mind would be out running around anybody's neighborhood on their own, without a vehicle. There was no car or visible means to show how the heck that guy ended up next door so I doubt he was out looking to rob people. How would he even do a getaway and why would he purposely be trying to rob a house at a time when most people either would be home or coming home AND THEN HAVE NO WAY TO LEAVE except on foot. For that reason, I think he knew someone in the house and maybe wasn't supposed to be there and ran out when he heard the adults coming home. But who knows? I will say as a coda to this that the shade cloth seems to be helping those plants.

SO HOT here now, under a heat advisory through Friday evening, and it will be over 100 degrees every day for at least a week. And that only brings us to the middle of July. Time to bring up one of my favorite things about living in this county and that is the Somervell County Transfer Station where I can get a free truckload of mulch. I have done this twice already this summer (really should have started in March) and it has done wonders for the trees and bushes in the yard. Whereas before I would water, the water would quickly evaporate due to the hot dry winds blowing through the yard, now the trees are actually green and some of the crepe myrtles are blooming. Hub set up the lawnmower with a cart so that I can drive to exactly where I want to put mulch, so I get a bunch from the back of the pickup, put it in the cart, and then place it around the trees I'm trying to save. The first time I did this, in the last 3 weeks, I waited till a day it would not get to 100 degrees to do it. Really, the trees needed a second layer of mulch, so waited again for another day of below 90 and actually where it would be below 100 for a few days, and did it again. I read some years back from a prominent DFW gardener that said the secret of gardens in Texas is Mulch Mulch Mulch and I heartily agree. I feel very lucky that we have such a great dump here, and appreciate the lady who is always there at the window checking in residents, with a cheerful smile. And the people who help get the pickup loaded via front end loader. All good!

I wrote about why I'm an atheist on my old blog, Salon, in 3 parts, going to copy the information to put it all here. I wrote this in 2010 so that was 12 years ago. Why I Am Now An Atheist Part 1- Religious Background Why I'm Now an Atheist- Part 2- Feminism and Women in Religion Um. Thanks. :) I also do not believe that being a woman physically is a curse, that being able to have children, or feel pain during childbearing, is a curse, or that women should be blamed, like Pandora opening the box, for all the world's evils. I've read a number of stories where women have been in abusive relationships and have been told by religious *authorities* to basically put up with it, and wait on god. That's absurd. If a woman genuinely feels that she is being abused, she can make her own decision about whether to get out or not. Again, her OWN decision, because she is an adult, not a child that needs to be told what to do. And I don't want to hear "If people would actually follow the example of God's love...". Belief that one should treat each other kindly and with love is an ethical position that anyone can have; conversely there are plenty who profess to be moral that don't follow loving precepts. From Alternet I've wondered before it was all simply a desire for power. That is, one who wants power must have others to be powerful over. If you can convince half the world that you have a right, simply because of your sex, to have the power and they cannot, because god says so, why wouldn't you do it? But why does any woman buy into this? When I started really considering whether a book had the right to dictate how I should be perceived, only because I happen to have been born female, I decided it could not. That goes for any so-called holy book or any religion or philosophy. To me, a book only has power over you to change how you perceive yourself if you allow it to. If there are women that want to be submissive to the men in their lives, they can be. But because America is a nation of laws, others that do not want to live this way do not have to and can, in good stead, reject that choice of life. I prefer relationships that are based on love, respect and equality. That gets me to the heart of my philosophical argument I had with myself regarding a just god. I don't believe that if god exists, he or she would make a distinction based on a flawed book between male and female, that he would punish a woman just for eating an apple that represented knowledge, or create physical problems and pain. If that were 1, then god would be no better than an abusive husband. I do not see any evidence among religions that claim to speak for god that women are treated consistently better. Is there any reason to have male dominance over women aside from claims for it, or justification based on a book? No. If god existed, and god were good, he or she or it would have made sure that everyone, male or female, was treated fairly and that if there were those that sought to lord it over others were stepping out of bounds, they would be snapped back. Instead there are a host of evils that are done to woman in the name of religion. Therefore, I reject religion as an artifice of humans designed for various earthly ends. Why I'm Now An Atheist- Part 3- Why Even Say Anything Publicly? I'm the same person I was before, didn't suddenly grow hooves, or change my basic moral and ethical beliefs. The only thing that changed is that I no longer believe in god. This is not a bad thing. In fact, there's a real mental freedom that comes with this. I don't believe in a vindictive god that would condemn me to an eternity of torment because of jealousy. I do believe in treating people well during their lives and having the best, happiest, most appreciative, and ethical life one can, because this is when it counts to show love to others. Not later. Now. I don't believe that a god would want me to lie about worshipping him or her IN CASE I'm wrong. As Bertrand Russell said "But sir, you didn't give us enough evidence." People will then often say, "But surely it's better to remain an Agnostic just in case?" This, to me, suggests such a level of silliness and muddle that I usually edge out of the conversation rather than get sucked into it. (If it turns out that I've been wrong all along, and there is in fact a god, and if it further turned out that this kind of legalistic, cross-your-fingers-behind-your-back, Clintonian hair-splitting impressed him, then I think I would choose not to worship him anyway.) Douglas Adams Everyone is an atheist in his or her own way. If one doesn't believe in the god/gods of another religion, that one is atheist in that regard. I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours. ~ Stephen Roberts I really didn't talk directly much on this site about what I was thinking, but instead about other issues that illustrated issues I was grappling with. Like, why, since the pledge of allegiance was altered in only 1954, should anyone stand and say it in its new religious guise? It's a marriage of obeisance to a piece of cloth and god (graven idol anyone?) It also doesn't seem fair that since we are a country that has freedom of religion, which includes freedom from religion, that secular government should include a marriage of church and state. (I may feel extra strongly that way because I was raised as a baptist, which STILL has in its belief statements that church and state should be separate.) I don't see anyone being forbidden to do private religious activities in taxpayer spheres as long as they aren't imposed on the public. (Like children praying in school-who stops them unless they try to stand up and lead the class?) If there are those that want to be religious and worship one god over another, I am not trying to stop them. Again, we have freedom of religion in this country and that includes, for example, Islam. I began recently, though, to feel that I wanted to express myself on this. I"m not ashamed of calling myself an atheist. I am a moral, ethical person. I starting feeling like anyone that thought maybe I was would consider that I was trying to hide it. In this country, though, why would anyone with a difference in beliefs or opinion feel compelled to not treat beliefs as normal and part of life? I know a lot of people who start their meals with a prayer, don't have any problem with telling me how they feel about their god, and, in fact, as in the case of evangelists, consider it their mission in life to do so. I want to express my opinion as well. I'm an American and proud to live in this country where I can speak up, even when I am not sure that my views are popular.

www.governorgregabbott.com

Back in 2011 when Rick Perry had aspirations to be president, Texas had a major drought. At one point, Rick Perry told people that "Only God Can Help" and told them to pray for rain. Well, looks like god was busy when Perry was asking so finally Perry had to give up and ask then-President Obama for federal help in August. We had another drought year a few years back and it was one main factor on why I decided not to keep yard birds anymore. That brings us to this year, 2022. I got a lot of wild flower seed, as well as bluebonnet seed which I started planting last year in anticipation that we would have a glorious display all spring and summer like we did last year (maybe part of that was because of the Texas freeze in the winter) But nope, it has been extremely dry and I have been working hard to keep the trees and bushes alive. Got a load of mulch from the dump and plan to get another one this week to get more of the trees surrounded, as well as add a layer to ones there. It's funny how much, when it's dry all the time, any clue that some rain might come by and bring even a little relief is pored over, at least by me. And so it is today. If it does not rain late this afternoon, I need to go out again and water the yard. And it's still only June. The other day, on a day when the weather service told us there was a Heat Advisory until 7:00 and also Somervell County is under a burn ban, the phone rang a couple of times. Didn't recognize the number, we get a lot of spam calls, but the person calling didn't leave a message. Hub and I decided to go to town about then, and as we drove down the county road, we saw a huge amount of smoke from the adjoining property. As we got closer, we saw there were two large fires going, but even more horrific, as we watched, the fire jumped the road onto the property of the neighbor's across the street, who have a log home. Hub immediately called 911 for the fire department and we decided not to drive through the fire and smoke but return home. The people whose property had the fire are not living there yet, with a home, so I texted the neighbor to let her know in case she didn't realize it, that the fire was now coming her direction, following a strong wind. She was not home at the time. Over the next hour, from my own property, I listened and watched a bunch of different fire vehicles, most from Somervell County, one from Bosque (Walnut Springs) and was happy to see how quickly they were on the scene and worked to put all the fires out. The Walnut Springs fireman told us the adjoining property owner had been spot welding, started a fire which got out of control. I thank the speed and professionalism of all involved as it could easily have been a very bad situation, due to the dry brush and grass from this drought and the wind speed. There have been a few fires over the years on this road. One, towards the end, burned down a mobile home. The second happened at a lovely home across the street the other way, also a case of a very stiff wind, small fire which got out of control and burned a significant part of the house, making it unlivable. That family ended up razing it to the ground, selling the property and moving to another state. Some kids living in one of the properties on a nearby county road burned down their whole front yard field over fireworks. One time I was talking with a former Somervell County Commissioner who told me he had started a fire which fortunately did not get out of control when doing spot welding to repair a fence. I also found out at one county meeting I attended that you can't burn stuff in a barrel. Anyway, my point is that the whole thing was terrifying and exhausting, the wind shifted at one point towards our direction. The good news there was that there were so many fire personnel that they had the fire under control at that point at the two places they were. Suggesting that until we have a really good rain, it is a better idea for people to refrain from doing anything that can start a fire, OR if there is something necessary to be done, have a hose or other running water available to put it out quickly. Again, Somervell County has a burn ban going on, and when there is also an extended drought and a heat advisory, what a great idea to be inside somewhere sipping a cold drink and watching a movie.

Frivolous lawsuit of State of Texas ex rel Darrell Best v Paul Harper OVER: Somervell County and Darrell Best PAID Somervell County County Commissioners (Glen Rose, Texas) voted 5/0 on August 31, 2020 to pay Harper $165,000 in settlement. Darrell Best has separate settlement agreement to pay Harper $45,000. Why? Darrell Best, local Glen Rose resident, with Ronald D Hankins (former Somervell County Attorney and current Somervell County Hospital District board member) writing the legal petition behind the scenes, attempted to remove duly elected official Paul Harper from the Somervell County Hospital District board via a civil removal petition. Note Hankins expression when he is caught red-handed. Darrell Best could have done nothing, however, were it not for Andy Lucas, Somervell County Attorney, taking on the petition for all purposes as the State of Texas. (A citizen can petition to remove an elected official but the State of Texas must decide, at its discretion, to bring it forward) Andrew Lucas failed to remove Harper at the District Court level, Harper took the defensive action of an anti-slapp motion (Texas Citizens Participation Act -TCPA) and won at the 10th court of appeals. Rather than that ending the suit, Andy Lucas chose to pursue appealing the 10th court of appeals decision all the way to the Texas Supreme Court. Note who paid for the attorney bills for Andy Lucas as the representative of the State of Texas - Somervell County taxpayers did, via Somervell County Commissioners Court The judgment of the Texas Supreme Court went against the State of Texas. Coming back down to District Court level, the money judgment was against the State of Texas and Darrell Best. Somervell County, or rather Somervell County taxpayers had been paying the attorney bills for Andrew Lucas who was acting as the State of Texas, and the Texas AG's office told Somervell County they were responsible to pay the judgment since what Andy Lucas did as the State of Texas was discretionary and the State of Texas AG''s office was not involved. Some 6 years later, Somervell County has now paid $165,000 to settle and Darrell Best has a settlement agreement to pay $45,000. Here, from the August 31,2020 meeting of Somervell County Commissioners Court are the commissioners voting to take money from the contingency fund for their part in settlement aug302020paul.m4a Some additional video Why did Ron Hankins keep the fact he wrote the petition a secret? Because "I was on the board". That, in turn, would have led to him having to recuse himself in any votes that dealt with the case; Ron Hankins sicc''d the police on a letter to the editor writer. Humorously, he took umbrage to the letter signatory being anonymous even though he hid his involvement with the petition '

In previous Somervell County Commissioners Court administrations, a citizen attending the Commissioners Court meeting was given a handout that included the budget transfers. That is, when money is used from one account to pay for another, it generated a line item, like 00001 X Dept Training Seminar to 00003 General Fund. In other words, although sometimes it was a heck of a lot of moves, you could easily follow what moneys were being moved around between different accounts. The overhead system to display the agenda was put in sometime during Mike Ford's court time, and all the items were displayed for the attendees to read. At some point after Danny Chambers became judge, that practice stopped. I asked several different commissioners about it and was told that the auditor, who at that time was Brian Watts, had not finished preparing the transfers in time for them to go out with the agenda, the list was emailed to the commissioners and judge before the meeting. I further heard that Chambers was the one in charge of displaying the agenda on the overhead, and requested that this be done. To my knowledge, it has not been done so since at least 2016. Here is a post on my archive site which contains a discussion between Brian Watts and myself. He said that he sent out the transfers via email on a Friday afternoon. I asked that the reports be made part of the agenda packet or that Mr Chambers include the budget transfers in the overhead. At the time, pre-covid, I attended a lot of meetings and this was never done. What is the procedure right now? Budget transfers are handed out to the commissioners at the time of the meeting, and later, sometime after the meeting, scanned in by Michelle Reynolds office to be posted on the Somervell County website as part of the minutes agenda. They are not made available via a handout to the citizen attendees, nor are they displayed on the overhead. According to Nikki Weeden, the information comes in after the agenda is posted and can be fluid during the weekend, so is only available at the time of the commissioners meeting, so not available through email. Why even care about this? Because the money is being transferred between multiple bank accounts now. Some years back the Enterprise Fund was created, most recently the new Assistance District account. Wouldn't you like to know, for example, what moneys from either are being transferred from any other account or even transferred within the same account? I would! (Side note that budget transfers were how I discovered during the frivolous lawsuit brought by Andy Lucas against my hub that Andy Lucas had hired a law firm to do his work since he apparently could not do so himself and Somervell County taxpayers paid for it. There was a mention of the transfers during the meeting, they were NOT shown, but I did an open records request looking for the receipts and contracts, etc.) So, you all know the adage "Follow the money". Budget transfers as well as bills to pay allow taxpayers to see how the money is being accounted for. Right now, the budget transfers can be, at the least, included in the agenda minutes packet that goes in after meetings. You can see what I mean by going to the Somervell County agenda site, where there are columns for the agenda, the agenda packet, minutes and the minutes packet. The Somervell County clerk, who is Michelle Reynolds currently, scans in the relevant information afterwards, so that the info might not be part of the agenda itself but can be found later in the agenda packet or the minutes packet. Upshot is that the transfers are manually handed out right before the meeting by the Auditor's department and are not displayed for the benefit of citizens attending the meeting as they were in previous administrations. Since there are no handouts available of the agendas at the meetings, if a person wants a copy, he or she would need to go before the meeting to the auditor's office and ask for a copy. Otherwise, the budget transfers, if done and voted upon during the meeting, will be in the Minutes Agenda sometime after the meeting.

Got to thinking about this the other day because Dwayne Johnson, who is in a runoff for Precinct 2 County Commissioner, came by the house bragging about how the golf course and other businesses are essentially self-paying without using any county money. The idea is that all profits and expenses come, not from line items in the general Somervell County budget, but from the Enterprise fund. In the past, the golf club did not make enough money to run without additional moneys from the general budget. The way the County Commissioners have proposed to fix it is by selling booze and pushing through grills and restaurants run as businesses by Somervell County, pushed through with minimal public involvement and costing lots of money. But does that include spending tons of money on projects such as the pavilion/grill? I mean, if you're going to brag about money coming in, shouldn't all money going out be factored in? That includes what is now a restaurant at Squaw Valley Golf Club called Rooster Bar & Grill. How exactly did it come about and what was the process for building it:? Setting the stage that anything the commissioners court does is with YOUR (and MY) tax money. The agendas for the commissioners court need to be specific enough so that any citizen can look at them, see what is going on and make at least somewhat of an informed decision whether they would like to attend. The problem with this Pavilion Remodel, to me, is not that the initial Hey, Fix the Roof and add a wall around it, plus let's fix the bathrooms, was not a good move to make, but that actions after that were made without a clear, voted on-plan, on the basis of commissioners talking about changes, vaguely, in meetings, and without an RFP for additional changes, including restaurant equipment, television sets, etc, but instead *change orders". Imagine that you were having something remodeled in your property and the contractors just up and decided they would add some stuff, didn't let you know explicitly what was going to happen, had no drawing of the changes where you could confirm (or were difficult to find) and okay them, and then you got the bill. It is not enough to say that Somervell County residents voted these people in, so anything they do after that requires them not to inform the public or make decisions without real transparency. The taxpaying public gets to KNOW that our money is being spent on and how much, etc. Maybe everyone would want to have a restaurant, maybe citizens would like to weigh in about what kind of windows or other facets of the construction, but until this was basically a done deal, NOTHING apparently used the word restaurant in any public agenda or minutes until into 2020. Keep in mind that the county is deciding to be in business on property that is tax exempt and if, say, a business or restaurant was built across the street from the golf course, that business (suppose a restaurant) would be in competition with the grill, and would have to pay property taxes. (Much the same situation that Oakdale was in when the City of Glen Rose decided to buy it and run it as a business. There were a number of businesses that were unhappy with Oakdale's plans to add additional RV spots to adjoining property, particularly since they operated the park at a lower rate than other businesses. For example, Danny Chambers at that point had an RV site business on Hwy 67 that was put in competition with Oakdale and also spoke out at the Somervell Commissioners meeting about the RV spaces being put in at the Expo Center in 2010) Feb 2010 April 2010 First time I could find any reference to a grill/restaurant was with regard, not to a restaurant, but to an open air pavilion and bathroom. The open air pavilion, as I understand it, was falling into disrepair, plus there was a desire on the previous manager's part to add some sort of semi-walls around it to help keep the wind off since it was outside. Saying that the original bid to fix the pavilion was to add some walls to the pavilion and some restrooms. Starting out with a definition of what a pavilion is: The idea of fixing up the pavilion seems to have been first put on the Somervell County agenda on May 14, 2018. Item #6 was "Discussion on RFP's related to the Pavillion at the Golf Course. Renovations will include metal removed and new metal added on the north wall; five double pane windows and two roll up doors will be added. No action taken". So no vote to actually start the RFP at this time, but had they done so, it would NOT have been to make a restaurant but fix the roof, put some metal, presumably for a roof on one side, add some windows and a couple of doors. There is no audio available for meetings in the year 2018. Following is walking through the agendas and RFPs to try to find where the restaurant was explicitly discussed (not a vague Golf Course Projects) on the agenda, what the plans looked like, how the public could see them and weigh in, etc. May 14, 2018 11/8/2018 Summit Construction Group submits scope of work for pavillion "Looking forward to doing business with you" Nov 19, 2018 Item 3 was "Discuss take action on construction of new rest room facilities at the golf course". Clearly this took priority over the pavilion, but again, no mention of any restaurant. Dec 3, 2018 #2 "Discuss/Take Action on Selection and Engagement of Construction Manager for Project at Golf Course". Stopping for a moment to say that this is a terrible description for the public. It possibly violates the Texas Open Meetings Act by not being explicit about *what* project at the golf course. Since there was also something involving a pump station at one point, no one who might want to attend a meeting based on the description would know exactly what was being referred to. Which project was this construction manager being engaged for? All of them? Only one or two? Which ones:? Dec 3 2018 #1 - "Discuss/Take Action on Authorizing RFP for Project at Golf Course". Again, what project? Dec 3 2018 -Notice on the page where the commissioners signed the motion to get RFPs that the motion explicitly says "Solicit RFPs for Pavillion and the restrooms;. The Pavillion Project". Note again, nothing about a restaurant According to this page within the Dec 31 2018 meeting, a copy of the specifications for this were available from Lesley Jameson of the County Auditor's office. So I have done an open records request to the Auditor's office asking for that. Bid in the newspaper for the Golf Course Pavillion Remodel and Renovation 11/8/2018-here is the bid from Summit Construction Group-does not include anything about a grill Dec 17, 2018-Last day for bids to come in, which would be opened at Commissioners Court Dec 31, 2018 - "Award Bid for Pavillion Remodel and Renovation" Don Gill recommended accepting the bid from Two Brother's Construction for -Vote was 5-0. Also doing an open records request to see this winning bid and what it entailed. So.. at this point in 2018, the Pavillon remodel has been awarded to a company with a specific price of over $93k. 1/21/2019 Item 17 Fence for Golf Course, #18 Equipment Rental, #19 Rates and Fees for the Golf Course, #20 Expo Rates and Fees. Mentioning this here because this is a project for the Golf Course, right? Fixing or replacing the fence? So if there is something on the agenda that vaguely says Golf Course projects without specification, it might include the fence. 1/28/2019- a project pertaining to a fence at the golf course contract on the agenda. This is actually good because it is clear reading this that this particular project isn't about, say, the restrooms or the pavilion, but about the fence. 11 Feb 2019 #5 Discuss and Receive Updates on Golf Course Projects. C'mon. If you're looking at this, do you know WHICH projects these are? Would it have been too much effort for whoever drew up this agenda (was it Danny Chambers?) to add a short description of the projects, like Fence, Pavilion, Pump Station, Buying more land for the golf course, etc. Maybe you would only be interested in attending if it was about the pump station. Rough Transcript: 19 Feb 2019 #8 Discuss/Take Action on Future Improvements at Golf Course . Dwayne brought this up. Apparently he went out and conferred with Jeff and Duff to get them for buy in with making part of the pavilion into a grill. Note again that there is NOTHING about a restaurant or grill or making changes to the original RFP to add a food area. Apparently Johnson brought in a scribbled doc where he sort of laid out what he would do, on a piece of paper. Also, looks like Hulsey is concerned that Johnson is running ahead on his own to make plans that might possibly confuse the contractor (Don). So, Johnson was running around talking to the contractor, to Jeff and to Duff and did not make sure even that the agenda had what he was doing disclosed to the public ahead of time. Rough transcript: 3/6/2019. Here, as apparently done by Don Gill is a printed plan for the grill area, including seating and restaurants. Keep in mind no one had voted for this BEFORE this document. (Summit Construction Group)This was before the March 11 2029 meeting in which Johnson broached the idea of adding a grill area. Who asked Summmit Construction for this and were taxpayers charged for this BEFORE it was voted on? Mar 11 2019 - #21 Discussion take action on Demo of Bell Tower and Canopy at Golf Course #22 Discuss/Take Action on Approving Bid for Pavillion Remodel at Golf Course Rough transcript: That was bizarre. They did not do an RFP or RFQ FIRST after deciding and voting on exactly what would happen in the future and instead were going to pay the contractor Don to receive *bids* on an action that had not been decided and voted upon, ie, wouldn't that actually be an RFP? This action certainly was not approving any bid because they dang well had not decided, besides Johnsons efforts to bully his own viewpoint through, on what should happen with the Pavilion. Can you imagine trying to get people to bid out a job you have with costs on your house where you have not yet decided what exactly you are going to do? Mar 14 2019 - #6 Discuss/Take Action on Approving Bid for Pavilion Remodel at Golf Course . From the minutes "Motion was made by Dwayne Johnson and seconded by Larry Hulsey to approve the change order on the contract on the pavilion remodel at the golf course. Motion carried. All voting aye". Rough transcript: Wait Wait Wait. Is this approving a bid for a pavilion remodel or a change order for contract? What specifically was in the change order? Not in the minutes packet and there was nothing on the agenda about a change order for presumably existing contract from 2018. I believe that this did not accurately reflect what was actually going to happen and should have been put on the agenda as a change order for the next meeting. Also, what exactly was in this proposal? Last meeting was a disagreement between Hulsey and Johnson but I heard nothing here that specified that the disagreement was solved and one view or the other was going to be used. Cost? Materials? Mar 28 2019- Item 6- Commissioners Precinct 2 (Dwayne Johnson). Discussion/Take Action on Approving Bid for Pavilion Remodel at Golf Course. Item #7 - Approve County invoices for Golf Course Pavilion Work. No audio for this., however, there is nothing that shows Approving Bid in the minutes. There is "Motion was made by Kenneth Wood and seconded by Wade Busch to approve payment of two invoices from Two Brother's Construction for $25,978.37 and Summit Construction for $5,437.50 for the golf course pavilion remodel. Motion carried. All voting Aye April 8 2019 - #10 - Discuss/Take Action on Kitchen Equipment for the Pavillon at the Golf Course #11 Discuss/Take Action on Approving Bids for Pavilion Remodel at Golf Course. #12 Moving money from contingency account to 010-429 for expenses? Minutes show that Motion was made by Wade Busch and seconded by dwayne Johnson to obtain prices for kitchen equipment for the Golf Course Pavilion Project. Discoveries will be brought back to court for review before purchase. Motion carried all voting aye. Motion was made by Dwayne Johnson and seconded by Larry Hulsey to accept bids from Comfort Pros in the amount of #31,212.00 for the air conditioning system and Howard's Electric in the amount of $22, 375.00 for the electrical work for the pavillion remodel at the golf course. Motion carried. All voting aye. April 29, 2019 #3 Discuss/Take action on budgetary items dealing with golf course- VAGUE May 6, 2019 #5 Discussion/Take Action on purchasing equipment for the Pavilion. Minutes show "Motion was made by Wade Busch and seconded by Dwayne Johnson to move forward with purchasing the pavilion kitchen equipment from Cowtown Restaurant Supply in the amount of $20,236.92. Motion carried. All voting aye. What was odd about this agenda item is not just that it was unnecssarily vague but that the commissioners and Chambers talked about other stuff THAN the restaurant equipment. If the purpose of the agenda item was to discuss restaurant equipment for the Pavilion, that should have said so, but instead other related topics were also discussed. Watts, former auditor, reminded Chambers that talking about TexPac was not on the agenda. Also, and I do not know much about the process of buying equipment, but this seemed odd to me, maybe someone that can refer to what the law says can cite a source. The original project for the pavilion, which did not include any type of grill, was put out for a bid, won and came in with a number somewhere around $90,000. There was even a contractor hired for this. In this particular instance, about restaurant equipment (see invoice below) which totaled around $20,000, Dwayne Johnson and Wade Busch drove around the metroplex to some suppliers to get quotes, and settled on Cowton Restaurant Supply. They decided between themselves, apparently that Cowtown had the best prices, and they brought that to the court, rather than, say, getting an RFP. Now, bids only have to go out for projects, etc above $50,000 BUT if this is considered part of the Pavilion project, did the new items that were changes to the original contract also have to go out for bids, since they were part of the overall price? Also, and maybe this is how it is done, but it seems strange to me to have commissioners go out and sort of decide on their own what equipment to buy without bringing it to ALL the commissioners. Also, in what world were either Johnson or Busch considered to be restaurant and cooking equipment experts? Since taxpayers were already paying for a contractor for the project, why was he not in charge of investigating additional restaurant equipment and then bring his suggestions to the court? 7/15/2019 Cowtown invoice for restaurant equipment Aug 26 2019 Item 8 "Discuss Take Action on repairs to rest rooms at the Golf Course 12 Nov 2019 Wild Hog issue at golf course #18 Discuss Take Action on Tables and Chairs for Golf Course Pavilion 1/9/2020/1/13/2020 #11 Discuss Take Action on purchasing equipment for Golf Course Pavilion Item #11 Motion was made by Wade Busch and seconded by Dwayne Johnson to approve purchasing television equipment for the Golf Court Pavilion from vendor SLG for $5,162.97. Motion carried, all voting Aye. May 11 2020- Discuss Take Action on Job Description for New Rooster Manager Position. Discuss Take Action on creating a cook position for the Rooster at the Golf Course. /********************Documents *******************************

From time to time, Somervell County Salon has published a list of the salaries of both Somervell County and Glen Rose Medical Center. Both, of course, are public entities so we get to know what our tax money is going for and to what jobs. The following information is from an open records request to Somervell County. Please keep in mind as you read that these numbers might not represent the full compensation for a given person. I have in process another open records request for the full amounts, which can include other sources of revenue, pensions, government money, etc, and will update this post OR put in a new one if too long after I receive.

Tony Riker from the Texas Municipal Police Association was asked by the Somervell County Sheriff's Office Association to come do a presentation to the Somervell County Commissioners Court on 5/9/2022 specifically about how there are salaries paid within the Sheriff's department that are markedly lower than what other counties pay, and that there is a danger of losing professional employees to areas that pay equitably. Astonishingly, Mr. Riker was treated with arguments from, primarily, Judge Danny Chambers, as well as insulted and *judge-splained* to. This is besides the fact that the discussions brought up by Chambers and Tammy Ray were about the budget process, which was NOT on the agenda. Who knew as a citizen they would be treated to a rude argument that included telling Mr. Riker that he needed to 1. Come do his presentation prepared to say what other departments should trim their budget 2. Be the expert on how the Sheriff's department is run 3. Be told he needed to get explanations from others. 4. Be asked, despite the fact he introduced himself as being from Frisco, whether he was a lobbyist OR if he was from Austin. 5. Be told he shouldn't be coming with his *hands out*. Ugh. As Mr Riker repeatedly told Chambers, his presentation was to inform and bring up the problem of some employees getting low pay for a job others in the state of Texas get paid significantly more for. Since it was a presentation and NOT a budget hearing, it was not Riker's job nor, clearly, his intention, to beg for money or tell other departments to cut back for these salary jumps. He did mention that because Somervell County has a huge surplus of money, other govt areas have used that to give their sheriff's departments raises. Chambers whole attitude made it sound like he was giving the back of the hand to the employees. Whose responsibility is it to decide to cut one department's budget versus another's? Is it the responsibility of the department who wants additional money for, say, equitable raises in line with other government entities across Texas, or is it the responsibility of the elected officials who represent the citizens? Certainly there is a budget process every year in which each department in Somervell County has already looked at their own expenses and presents their, hopefully carefully thought out and researched, budget during the budget meetings that typically occur in. It is NOT the job of a department who is not controlling the budget to oversee somebody else's and decide what should be cut. That is the JOB of the commissioners, as presided over by Judge Danny Chambers to do. Instead, Chambers shows that what he wants is for others to do work FOR him and the commissioners, bring solutions to them. As Riker said "So what you're saying is you want us to do y'all's work for you". Chambers even tries to draw Rikers into a discussion about what other departments should do to come up with this money!!!!! Chambers "So you do not have a recommendation at this point to help me find the money". The funny (?) part is that Chambers already knows that these people are underpaid. Riker" It's not our job to do your work for you". It is also, incidentally, Judge Chambers or whoever is preparing the agenda, to clearly set out WHAT the agenda item represents so that citizens can go if they want to hear the presentation and/or discussion, as it may impact them. The agenda item does NOT say that this is a presentation about some salaries in the sheriff's department nor does it have Mr. Tony Riker as the presenter. Do you think you would know from THIS what this item was about? Nope. Let's hope Chambers didn't do that on purpose, to keep it quiet from the public. Also, why the fool was all this stuff which properly belonged in an item on the agenda called Discuss the budget, or better, part of the Budget Hearing meetings coming up soon. In fact, Jeff Harris, county commissioner, Precinct 1, was the smartest one on the dais because he said "I agree with everything you're saying ... I feel like, at this point, we're going to have to have this conversation with the budget process". Now, the new county attorney, Trey Brown, (seen on photo at left in front of Mr Harris, attending this meeting) whose job it is to enforce the Texas Open Meetings Act, said nothing when all this was going on. Neither did the other commissioners speak up to say that this was not a hearing on the budget, and Tammy Ray went farther to argue about what Mr Riker would do about other departments that also want raises, etc. In other words, if it was going to be an agenda item that dealt not merely with a presentation but also involved discussion on the budget process with all departments and salaries in general, that should have said so. It did not, and it was rude of Chambers to interrupt and challenge Riker instead of just saying "Thank you, we will be taking this up at the budget hearing. Appreciate your input". The full video, sans Riker's introduction, was recorded by someone in the audience at the commissioners meeting (might have to turn the sound up a bit), I have made a chop of the video to take out some of the repetitiveness, as well as extraneous information spouted by Chambers which should rightly have been in a budget meeting. First minute or so is from audio, recorded by the Somervell County Commissioners Court, of Riker introducing himself and then goes into edited video. Note that Riker says he is from Frisco; when Chambers asked him if he was a lobbyist or from Austin, did he not hear where Riker was from or was he wanting to subtly make some kind of comment to make Riker feel like an outsider or challenge his information? Certainly Chambers used his argumentativeness to tell Riker that to get information from other people, and worst of all, insinuated that Riker was there with his *hand out*- I saw Riker gulp on the video. Go count how much Chambers wants to argue with Riker on this video, again, it's just astonishing how unprofessional Chambers is. One more example of hubris is when Chambers tells Ray "Let's don't argue, we got a court reporter here", pointing to whoever was recording this video. Do as I say, not as I do.

Had to laugh when I saw this. Just wrote about the 5/9/2022 Somervell County Commissioners Court meeting in which Judge Danny Chambers argued with the presenter regarding somervell county sheriff's department salaries. Dwayne Johnson notably stayed pretty quiet during this and one might think that he also had respect for TOMA (Texas Open Meetings Act) and would have refrained from discussing non-agenda items. But oh, no, there's a run off election coming so Johnson needed to find a way to toot his own horn. He not only made mention of some meeting that he apparently attended the "other night" (???) but said he had ideas about a whole new way of looking at things. Okay. So if he had something he wanted to present himself, it should have been his own agenda item, instead of a vague reference to some meeting that had occurred with some magical new ways of looking at things OR, BETTER, saved up that stuff for the budget hearings.

As a citizen who is trying to keep up on what is going on, but covid and other factors getting in the way, I wondered about what the fool the Somervell County Special Assistance District is, when it was passed, what it is for, etc. Did some research the last couple of weeks. First, this special assistance district brings in additional taxes through extra sales taxes levied through businesses and the money is put into a separate county bank account. The sales tax cannot exceed the # set by the State of Texas comptroller, and it is not a tax like property taxes but on anyone who buys anything from a county business. The supposition is that tourist businesses such as Fossil Rim would provide additional revenue, but because it's sales, also means that if I, as a citizen, go to a county business and buy something, I am not exempted from paying the additional tax. The legal code for this is at Chapter 387 County Assistance District. This Somervell County Assistance District was placed on the ballot, approved on November 2, 2021 and results certified by Somervell County Commissioners Court, which members include Dwayne Johnson, Jeff Harris, Tammy Ray, and Wade Busch. Levying an additional tax required that this be on the ballot for Somervell County residents to vote on. Because the City of Glen Rose already has a sales tax that goes to the maximum and, although the City is contained within Somervell County, city residents could not vote on this because the tax would not affect them in any way. SAMPLE BALLOTS PCT 1, 2, 3, 3 GISD, 4.pdf The problem, as you see on the sample ballot at left, is that both Texas State props as well as the Somervell County Assistance District were both on the same ballott, so that if a city resident who of course lives in the county went to vote, there was nothing to indicate they could NOT vote on the Assistance District. VOTRING HISTORY FOR NOV 2, 2021 GENERAL ELECTION.pdf Notice on the list of people who voted in this election that there is no way to know how they voted, County vs City. But... City of Glen Rose residents did... which made the passing of this special assistance district illegal.. Also, not good is that Somervell County apparently made no effort to speak with and coordinate efforts with the City of Glen Rose, which left the city administrator *disappointed* when he found out about what Somervell County had done, and that, because city residents should not vote on any ballot item that does not affect them, it was essentially voting to lay a burden on other people that they would not experience. Gee, that's what the colonists went to war against in early America, taxation without representation. Adding to this, notifying the City of Glen Rose that Somervell County was considering a special assistance district wasn't simply a nice, polite idea but was part of the law regarding formation of same. Actually was merely a polite idea to notify the City of Glen Rose, since the proposed territory would be no part of the city territory. Really a shame, even so, that in the second smallest county in Texas, no one could be bothered to let the City know what was planned. As above, Michael Leamon said the City had heard nothing from the County, so I did an open records request to the City asking for a copy of the certified letter-they had no records responsive to this request. When Brian Watts, who was formerly the Somervell County auditor, saw what was going on, he wrote a letter, as a taxpayer, to County Judge Danny Chambers on Nov 22, 2021 Letter to Somervell County 11.22.2021.pdf So, that was on November 22, 2021 that Watts sent this latter to County Judge Danny Chambers. For reference, here is the agenda for July 12, 2021 #5 of commissioners court. on the resolution for a special election on creation of county assistance district. From Open Records, in image format -see screenshots of emails farther down below-bolding is mine. . This is from July 12, 2021 Commissioners Court meeting where the commissioners voted to commissioners voted on an order for a special election. Note that the order CLEARLY SAYS that this does not include the city. Dwayne Johnson made the motion for this, seconded by Tammy Ray The election was scheduled for November 2 2021. On November 11, Watts wrote Chambers about the issue. The Comptroller's office was aware there were problems with the election and yet Aubrey Mashburn of the Comptroller's office told Chambers to go ahead and then if there was a complaint filed, do something. On 12/16, Watts tells Chambers he is filing an official criminal complaint with SOS. On Jan 12, he writes Heger the Comptroller and mentions that the Commissioners actually sent a letter to city residents telling them to come vote in this election. It's not clear to me in looking at all of this whether the Comptroller's office did anything about what is clearly an illegal election. Or maybe, as Mr Leamon told me, there is a deadline under which if you want to complain about an election, you must do so. What is disturbing about this from my point of view is that Danny Chambers knew, every commissioner voted to say that the election was ONLY for the unincorporated parts of the county, and yet apparently sent out a letter to City residents telling them to come vote. Did they not understand what this means? And once it was known for sure that city residents voted on the assistance election, Chambers should have done the right thing and have REDONE THE ELECTION to make sure it was proper and legal. He did not because his haste, apparently to get this pushed through clouded his judgement. Since Dwayne Johnson was the one who made the motion, was he also the one that wanted the district? it is disheartening as well that, in the name of doing their job, the Comptrollers office completely glossed over the fact that this was illegal and instead hung their hat on whether someone would complain; So, the law is only to be obeyed as long as someone complains WHEN IT IS NOT FOLLOWED? But even then, as in this case, they came up with reasons to ignore valid issues. As a side note, notice again that we as county taxpayers not only paid Andy Lucas (now deceased) as county attorney['s salary but also a more expensive legal firm. From the hallway in City of Glen Rose, downtown, that shows the boundaries of the City of Glen Rose versus outside the city to the county Further, with regard to the city. The City of Glen Rose already has a sales tax within its limits and should the city decide they would like to annex land, they would not be able to extend that sales tax collection to what is now taken by an assistance district. A little disgusting that the county did not apparently make any attempt to talk to the city administrator about what they were doing so that the city would be informed. Seems that, at least so far as I can tell, the restitution for this illegal election is to plan to vote out people who do not care about following the law. Also, according to one of the commissioners I spoke with yesterday, the money would only be used for things such as police, fire, roads, etc. BUT Have to wonder if this would include maintenance of the expo, amphitheater and golf course. AND would this be an open ticket for the Somervell County Tourism/Promotions, EDC office that Kelly Harris is in charge of? Since the businesses that Somervell County runs now, which include liquor sales, are funded from the Enterprise account, and, further that this is supposed to be self-sustaining without taking money from other accounts, one hopes that the Assistance District account would not actually be earmarked FOR those businesses and tourism, etc instead of for what, at least in my opinion, is more important, roads, law enforcement, fires, etc. Why does this matter in this election? For one reason, and I think readers know I am not a fan of Dwayne Johnson, when anyone running for election wants to run around and brag how well the golf course is doing, when the Enterprise account was set up long before his term in office, and when there might even be the slightest possibility that actually these entities might not be self-sustaining (ie monies coming in versus monies going out ONLY from the expo, golf course, etc ) but with the backup AD account, it needs to be examined and challenged.

Towards the end of this last year (2021) two things happened. First, Turn and Burn's concession contract was not renewed, and second, Somervell County applied for, first, a private club license with TABC and then Mixed Beverage. The ostensible reason for Somervell County to kick out a private contractor who by Dwayne Johnson's indirect admission below, was making money for the county through concessions, was to help the golf course and other businesses be self-sustaining by running everything out of the Enterprise Fund of the County. And apparently one major way for the County to do this was by getting their own liquor license for the Expo, while continuing to use the Squaw Valley Club license for the golf club. I am not religious, but I find it a little humorous that a county that is so imbued with The Promise, Methodist Church Camp, Riverbend, conferences for religious organizations, etc, decided to go for liquor. Pretty much everyone knows that, for example, Mary Simpson with Turn and Burn had the private club license for the expo, and was cut out of her contract by Somervell County not renewing it late last year (2021), at which time Somervell County applied for a liquor license so they can be in the booze business. Have to wonder how much of the break-even success of the Expo, etc, assuming that is true, is due to selling booze. Certainly there is no requirement that Somervell County use a private contractor rather than just running a business themselves She told me she is in process of doing an open records request for all her receipts and profits of the last year(s) in order to show that, in her view, she was doing a great job for the county. But the county wanted to be in the alcohol business directly. The process seems to be that Veronica Welch orders the booze for the restaurants at the Expo and Rooster Bar & Grill at the golf club. What account do the monies come from and who reconciles them? Are the receipts being examined to be sure there are no charge backs? Since the new restaurant at the golf course allows cash and not strictly checks and credit cards, seems like citizens who care about how the money is flowing should pay close attention. Shades of going back to the origins of Somervell County as the Moonshine Capital of Texas, except this time it is government openly selling booze in order to build up their coffers while running businesses. I plan to do an open records request in the near future to find out the breakdown of how much booze is being sold versus other food items. If I was a business owner, I would also like a level playing field running a business so that I was not competing with government businesses run by taxpayers. If I, for example, were a business owner that wanted to run a restaurant across the street from the golf course, would I appreciate, first, the competition, and second, the fact that my competition was an entity that paid no property tax and thus had a finger on the scale of equitableness? Here is Dwayne Johnson talking about this when he came by our house. recently while trolling for votes in the runoff. That is not me on the video but my hub Rough Transcript On that Pecan Plantation example, in case there are people in Somervell County who do not know. Pecan Plantation, being in Hood County, is NOT in our Somervell County Hospital District but rather in Hood County' s hospital district, for which residents of Hood County PAY NO TAX. And, because it is a gated community, Somervell County residents cannot simply go in, as they would into a public clinic, and use the clinic facilities. Essentially, we are paying taxes for our own hospital district AND paying additional monies for a clinic in a different hospital district when the property requires upgrades. Ray Reynolds on this in 2016. If we are saying that Somervell County MUST run businesses and that liquor apparently is a major piece of it, along with the possibility that taxpayers paid for the restaurant building as an offset to profits, then something has definitely gone wrong, in my view, with the idea of government being something that does fire, police and roads and leaves private enterprise to those citizens who want to make their own living from it.

In the last couple of months, I was interested to know about a subdivision going in off 144 near the Bosque County line. I called to speak to Tammy, who is not my commissioner, but, frankly, I had no desire to speak to Dwayne Johnson, who is. When I called, the admin for the commissioners told me Tammy was not in. After I hung up, after not asking to speak to Johnson, I was surprised to see him calling me within a few minutes of my call. (I have heard that Johnson's wife works as admin for the commissioners, so if that was true she must have told him right away even though my call was not for him. And, I do not know this but does Johnson's wife also work for the elections department? If so, then certainly she should recuse herself from any election that involves her husband, particularly if she assists in counting votes). I answered the phone, again was surprised to see it was Johnson since I had not called him, and one of the first things out of his mouth after noting that I had called in was to tell me he hoped he could count on my vote. I told him that I have never voted for a Republican, and that even if somehow I was going to, I wouldn't vote for him due to his negligence regarding the runaway, irresponsible lawsuit that Darrell Best and Andy Lucas lodged against my husband some 6 years ago, which said hub won, and then had to fight to get Somervell County, who was responsible for the judgement, to pay it. (You can read about that here if you like) I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy, but what aggravated me about his apologia is that he said, basically, that he wasn't in office when that whole thing started, as if he had no responsibility for it. I said in response that he had been personally asked, and been given, documentation for this whole thing, and he chose to ignore it AND was in office at that point. We continued the conversation about the subdivision and I was still disturbed after I got off the phone with how little due diligence Johnson did about the plans. For example, he had told me that there was only one way in and out of the subdivision, onto CR 2008, which, if every one of those lots is sold and there are a lot of people living there, will certainly backup the road, including onto 144, or to get out there will be a line of people passing Fossil Rim and backing up traffic there. He said, oh, that won't happen for a long time. Right, that's sure a good excuse not to make sure about the structure of the roads in the first place. He also said that the water district cannot put in pipes there due to the topography and all the water would be from drilling wells, without the assurance on paper that they would be drilling at the lower Trinity river level. Just seemed careless. I had forgotten that I wrote about Johnson about 9 months ago, during the time that Danny Chambers and the commissioners voted to approve a budget without taking due diligence to make sure they were, first following the law and rules for how to publicize and run hearings, and second, without identifying an over one million dollar slush fund. Someone told me at the time that the restaurant at the golf club had been done without open meetings and proper bidding, and that this money, unaccountable for, might have been part of what was used, without public scrutiny, for the construction and/or remodeling. At the time, I thought about looking into it, as any citizen can do, but the fact that less than half of the citizens in Somervell County were vaccinated for covid stopped me from wanting to go into the courthouse, as an enclosed space, to research. Sometime around there, before this, I saw that Brian Watts was no longer the county auditor and wondered what happened. When this illegal budget was passed, Brian Watts, no longer the county auditor, wrote a letter to Danny Chambers in which he made the following main points. That the budget was illegal because the county failed to follow the law regarding posting of hearings and also identifying all monies in the budget. Especially egregious when the county was asking for a large tax increase without apparent justification. That whole section of the budget, with additional tax revenues, were over a million dollars, at least $1,345.768, and unidentified, thus amounting to a slush fund. Also at the time, the county was sitting on 17,334,508.52 plus $886,579.71 of unreserved cash (that second number was for covid) According to Watts, that would have been "over 17 months of expense coverage without the county receiving a single penny of tax or fee revenue" Even worse, a required form for the taxpayers and required by the Texas Comptrollers office that would explain the tax increase was not even posted on the Somervell County website. As a side note, Watts made reference to Danny Chambers and Dwayne Johnson sitting together and ridiculing citizens who complained or challenged them about an issue. That really makes you feel good about Danny and Dwayne, eh? The respect (NOT) they have for taxpayers who want to express themselves AS IS THEIR RIGHT. There are a couple of other items that I think Dwayne Johnson has handled inappropriately but I'll leave those to another message. Those will include the lack of transparency regarding the building of the restaurant at Squaw Valley Golf Course, the sneaky,creation of an *Assistance District*, and the shenanigans around Mary Simpson who had the concession contract at the Expo Center, including an illegal liquor license.

Apparently one of the changes made by the Texas Lege this last session was to require a posted guard during counting of ballots But it appears that this was an unfunded mandate, ie, the county must pay for the guard (someone from sheriff's department) but how do they get paid and how much, etc. Interesting discussion.

Thought this was interesting. Allen West presented this to the Somervell County Commissioners Court at the regular meeting on Feb 14 2022. The report shows the racial makeup of all traffic stops, how many where from, say city streets,, or the highway, etc, was there a search, what type of stop was it, etc. Read for yourself, just going to put one stat here from the top of the report Street address or approximate location of the stop City Street 430 US Highway 570 County Road 94 State Highway 217 Private property or other 18

From the Feb 14 2022 Somervell County Commissioners Court meeting. Discussion is about plans for an upcoming street festival and dance. Arrangements are being made with a third party company "Watermark Marketing Boutique" run by Morgan Loper, who apparently lives in Somervell County. Would love to see the contract for this. In the audio, you will hear Danny Chambers asking about where the money comes from and Harris says CVB. Also, the people who do fundraising for non-profits will be voting for someone to be Somervell Stud (I suspect that that person will not be some beefy hunk who looks straight out of Magic Mike casting. "And of course we'll have the Little Miss Somervell County Sweetheart pageant" Have to say I am amused by this.

At the Feb 14, 2022 Somervell County Commissioners Court had item 12: County Judge: Commissioner, Precinct 4: Discuss/Take Action on First Look Vista Ridge Ranch Subdivision. Appears that Brazos Partners LLC sold land to Vista Ridge Ranch, LLC, specifically 282.026 acres of land on the southeast corner of FM 199 and Hwy 67. Wade Busch is commissioner of Precinct 4 Although these are unofficial documents, I am a little amused at how sloppy the filing is, hopefully they will correct it before final. Notice that Brazos Partners LLC has a mailing address in Plano, and Vista Ridge Ranch LLC (which, according to document above, is a Delaware limited liability company) has an address of 665 Simond Rd, Williamstown, MA (Zillow) -Could they have meant (plural) 665 SIMONDS (not SIMOND) Road? Also, guess what entity has this address as well, The Town of Williamstown, Transfer Station and Recycling Center (here in Somervell County, we call that the town dump). According to Bizapedia, there are 227 companies that have this address Now look at the second document, with local notary signature. The Vista Ridge Ranch LLC address has been crossed out and changed from 1209 Orange St, Wilmington DE to 665 Simonds Rd, Williamstown TX. (Not Williamstown MA but TEXAS??!!!) What is that address for 1209 Orange St in Delaware? Well, it's a hidden tax haven, for one. In fact, the below is sloppy. There is no such address in Texas. This page has the address for Williamstown, MA You can look in public records to see the full description of this property but note that it backs up on one side to Cheyenne Hills.