Fighting for Transparency & Fiscal Responsibility in Local Government

BREAKING NEWS – Upcoming Plea Hearing for Judge Russ Casey

Posted by | April 21, 2018

In January Direct Action Texas broke the story of Tarrant County Justice of the Peace Russ Casey having forged signatures on his ballot access petition pages. Today we learn that the Tarrant County District Attorney’s office has called for a plea hearing in it’s case against Judge Russ Casey.

According to the records on the Tarrant County District Clerk’s website, Mr. Casey has a hearing this Monday morning in which he will enter a plea. The circumstances suggest he will enter a guilty plea in lieu of a trial. A notable detail is this case is being handled by Matthew Smid, the lead prosecutor for the public integrity unit.

Stay tuned for further updates.

 

DAT Files Judicial Complaint Against Kimberly Fitzpatrick

Posted by | April 19, 2018

Today Direct Action Texas filed a complaint with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct against Kimberly Fitzpatrick. This is the body which oversees both judges as well as judicial candidates.

Judicial candidates and judges are to abide by Canons of judicial conduct. They can be found HERE. Canon 5(2) reads: “A judge or judicial candidate shall not authorize the public use of his or her name endorsing another candidate for any public office”. Fitzpatrick has endorsed a candidate in a congressional race (whom I support as well) appearing on the same ballot with her in the primary and again in the runoff election.  Let’s be clear, Ron Wright, as a congressional candidate, has not committed a violation and has no reason to know the law for judicial candidates, rather it is Fitzpatrick who cannot give out her endorsement to others. Fitzpatrick touts her 8 years as an attorney and her legal prowess yet doesn’t seem to understand basic judicial ethics Canons. Read More

New Election Called for Kaufman County Court at Law #1

Posted by | April 17, 2018

Visiting Judge Marty Lowy has called for a new election for the Kaufman County Court at Law #1 Republican nomination. He ruled that 9 provisional ballots should have been counted and that at least 5 mail-in ballots should not have been counted, leading to results that just cannot be determined for one side or the other. The margin was just one vote to begin with, in favor of incumbent Judge Dennis Jones. His challenger, Tracy Gray, had won the in-person vote for Early Voting and on Election Day and yet lost the mail-in vote by a wide margin.

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McKinney – The Face of Government Creep

Posted by | April 16, 2018

One of the biggest lies elected officials believe is that their number one job is to represent their constituents, whomever they believe those constituents to be. This is a fallacy. The most overly represented crowd these days are the “easily triggered”. Enter the City of McKinney and it’s city council.

In October of 2017 the city passed an ordinance banning electioneering in the city except in their “Designated Area for Electioneering”. Electioneering is the simple act of talking to someone about the upcoming or current election. The council said they had to pass this ordinance in order to allow people to go vote without having to engage campaigns on their way in. The mayor actually stated he believes people have this right – although he never sourced where that right came from. The right to seek political redress of our government is a fundamentally ‘all American’ value, but McKinney city council members believe it is their job to respond to the easily triggered over protecting the right to engage in political speech.

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Bring Back the “Independent” in Grapevine Colleyville INDEPENDENT School District

Posted by | April 13, 2018

An Open Letter to Those Who Supported Me in Last Year’s GCISD School Board Election.

When I ran for GCISD school board one year ago, I witnessed a groundswell of stakeholders dissatisfied with changes in the district.

Halfway through LEAD 2021, with 3 students who experienced TAAS, TAKs and STAAR, who spent the last 6 years of their GCISD careers under the guise of “Personalized Learning,” I found nothing could be further from the truth.  The “personal” in LEAD 2021 is adaptive technology, not human guidance.  My youngest, who was exposed to LEAD 2021 in her more formidable years, did not have the academic legacy of my oldest.  Many know our family history and I will not discuss it here, but the district did not teach my girls to read. As a parent, I accepted responsibility and made sure they had appropriate reading instruction.  After that, I stood before the GCISD board (which is very different than today’s board) and with a group of other parents, made the board aware that GCISD is responsible for providing appropriate reading instruction for ALL students, not just the easy ones.  Today that is truer than ever in all subjects.  Every child in GCISD needs to learn to read well, write well, solve math efficiently and effectively, learn history and learn proven science laws and principles.  The district vision, created by the board, should include definitive measures of academic proficiency.  SAT and ACT are the only national measures of college readiness the majority of students in GCISD will take.  Despite great GCISD expense in test preparation and LEAD 2021 vision, the scores on these 2 nationalized tests are statistically flat.  What are GCISD tax payers getting for the investment in redefined education? Read More

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