Mayor Hallisey claimed he was a uniter, and while campaigning posted messages such as "Bring Unity to Our Community". Mayor Hallisey complained about unfair treatment and nasty politics. The Green Team supporters complain that this campaign has turned nasty with things taken out of context. And then, the Mayor's Wife, the self-proclaimed 1st Lady of League City, hops on Facebook and starts liking comments that people should vote Greg Gripon because he will fight our City Manager. (But he supports our staff, supposedly). The Green Team hypocrisy was on full display this week following the Ethics Board meeting on Saturday. Here's a summary:
At a council meeting months ago, Mayor Hallisey referred to a female council-member with "the B-word". The council (excluding Hank Dugie) all sent a letter to the Mayor expressing their displeasure with such behavior. Instead of responding with a simple "sorry, heat of the moment", he brought in a line of his supporters to the next council meeting to profess that the Mayor would NEVER say such a thing. However, the statement was heard by more than one member of the city staff. These supporters are essentially saying that these people are liars, and complaining that the Mayor was being persecuted for what amounts to hearsay.
When the Ethics Board met, the ethics compliance officer hired to look into the complaint found that, "The mayor's actions were not because the employees were female". Now, the Green Team's most vocal supporters hopped on Facebook to celebrate with, "Mayor Exonerated". But here's the problem - the Green Team supporters seem to be incapable of actually reading the entire article and stopped on the headlines. See, the board and compliance officer found no ETHICS violation. They didn't find that the Mayor never did anything that he was accused of doing (in fact, as the editorial in the GDN pointed out, it "found the mayor probably did refer to Position 3 Councilwoman Heidi Hansing with a gender slur, which was neither professional nor productive"), just that the actions themselves weren't ethics violations. In other words, this wasn't the right place to complain about it. But the compliance officer went on (and was RIGHTLY praised by the Galveston Daily News in an editorial by Michael A. Smith) to point out that the Mayor HAS acted outside of his role as the Mayor. Pat Hallisey simply does not comprehend or accept what a council-manager form of government is. Pat Hallisey is mayor of a City and does not understand or follow the charter. The ethics officer stated, "His actions were, I believe, because of the conflict concerning his role as mayor in a city manager form of government. This is the elephant in the room." Pat Hallisey - your EGO is the elephant in the room, and it's gigantic.
Did the council waste time sending this to the Ethics Board? For sure. Is the Mayor a jerk, definitely. So do you want to vote to get the Mayor's cronies on the Council? I sure don't. The worst thing for a jerk on an ego trip is to surround them with yes-men. Here's a thought - vote down the Green Team, and let's talk about changing the charter again, to eliminate the position of Mayor. After all, and even number is never a good thing when taking votes (ties become no votes for all intents and purposes), and the Mayor is just a figurehead for ceremonial purposes in a Council-Manager form of government. We could simply have the rotating Mayor Pro Tem position (or even let the Council elect their "Head") handle any ceremonious duties. It'd be one less stipend we'd have to pay (hey, that'd save the city $12k/year), and it'd prevent these power struggles when elected members don't understand the charter.
And while we're on hypocrisy, here's a couple side notes that are amusing:
Byram Lass STILL likes to complain about people from neighboring Dickinson commenting on their precious little Facebook group; yet has NO problem whatsoever with people from Arizona, Louisiana, and La Grange commenting (since, you know, they're Green Team supporters).
The Green Team complains about dirty "gotcha" politics (as Ralph Parr mentions in his letter to the editor which GDN carried, and Pat Hallisey shared with his supporters) - yet then spreads hearsay about something not so nice that Debbie Drury allegedly was overheard saying. So which is it, is the Green Team taking the high road or not? And if it is, you should put a gag order on Mel Kelly and Jay Holley.
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