More Bad Advice from Attorney George Staples?

by Ron West

Our hats are off to Dave Lieber of the Fort Worth Star Telegram for the excellent column in Sunday’s paper. Once more, Mr. Lieber has shown the light of publicity on the otherwise hidden actions of our local city government.

In his column Mr. Lieber quotes City Attorney George Staples as follows:

City Attorney George Staples said the city did nothing wrong and presented only factual information to voters before the election.

"I think we have a Chicken Little thing going on here," Staples said.

If you have been reading any of my prior columns, you know that if the city is challenged in court – or by the Texas Ethics Commission – for these “violations” – then Mr. Staples wins at the expense of the citizens – again! Inaccurate, lousy or self-serving advice to the Mayor and the Council seems to be the stock and trade of Mr. Staples since he gets paid – win, lose or draw. In this case, the City Officials wanted to defeat the tax freeze for the seniors and disabled in our community and did everything in their power to defeat it including using city funds for illegal electioneering.

It was Mr. Staples who apparently came up with the very confusing wording on the issue in the hope that it would confuse the voters – which it did.

Everyone owes a big thank you to Suzette Christopher for all the work she has done and is doing to bring our city into compliance with State laws. We all need to remember this next May when we have a real chance to really change things in NRH!

If you haven’t had a chance to read Dave Lieber’s Sunday Column – you can still read it – on line at:

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/columnists/dave_lieber/10238724.htm?1c