The Cost of Closed Local Government

by Ron West

If there is any doubt by the citizens of NRH that the current closed government of NRH is costly, such doubt should now be dispelled. In the lawsuit initiated by Mr. Hughes, formerly of the NRH fire department, a jury has shown its own displeasure with the leadership of NRH. Mr. Hughes filed suit when he was wrongfully discharged due to his age. He sued for $1 Million from the city but would have probably settled for much less had we had responsive considerate leaders or honest legal advice at the top levels of our city. The jury in this case, was incensed at the actions of city officials and at the deliberate destruction of records by the officials. To show their displeasure with these illegal actions, they awarded Mr. Hughes $1.8 Million, plus interest, plus legal fees. It was a loud slap in the face of our current officials.

There is another lawsuit pending against the City of NRH for the wrongful death of Troy Davis. There is massive evidence that the NRH Police corrupted the crime scene. There is massive evidence of the withholding of vital information by City Attorney George Staples. The mass of evidence points to the fact that Troy Davis was probably accidentally killed during a no-knock warrant execution when the warrant was obtained by “knowingly false information”.

The suit is currently for $4 Million plus the resignation of certain city officials that were complicit in the cover up of these wrongful actions. To this point, City Attorney George Staples has pocketed literally hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees in the fight against this suit and

there has been no attempt to try to settle it. I firmly believe that if this suit goes to a jury trial, which it eventually will unless the city leadership changes direction, a jury will probably slap the city with a huge judgment – perhaps in the $30 to $40 million range.

Who pays? You and I do. The current leadership of the city has exhibited a pattern of closed government to exclude you and I from scrutiny of their actions. Recently, Mr. Lieber of the Fort Worth Star Telegram documented four specific instances of the destruction of records by this leadership. Unfortunately, there have been countless other examples of this type of action by city officials destroying requested information before complying with a Freedom of Information request. Records – under Mr. Cunningham and Mr. Staples – are routinely denied to FOI requests or simply omitted when complying. As you would expect, a shredded record that is referenced by another document – is known to have existed but is no longer available. We know that this is happening but – enforcement of our law is both costly and difficult when the officials we have elected choose to endorse and support such illegal actions.

Our closed local government is entrenched with our City Attorney in the position to benefit personally from each and every lawsuit that he can encourage against the city. There is no personal cost to him if the city (taxpayers) lose and he stands to make significant fees from his

expertise at prolonging such suits. Even if the suit is being fought by another attorney, he makes money by “supervising” the suit and “advising” the City Council. It is long past time that this outrageous situation be rectified by our Mayor and City Council. If it is the desire of the current majority of the council that Mr. Staples be retained as City Attorney, it should be changed to an

advisory roll immediately. We need to protect the city from its own city attorney directly benefiting from his “advice” to the city. All suits against the city should be defended by outside council with the NRH City Attorney acting to protect the city and taxpayers to the best of his ability – without personal benefit.

Mayor Trevino and all members of the City Council are aware of these facts but – so far – have chosen to ignore them. Now with them having to justify approximately an additional $1 Million in expense to the taxpayers by the current situation – I hope it will now get their attention. If it doesn’t, the Davis suit will probably cost all of us a really big tax increase! I would encourage you to talk to any council member you know about this situation and put your own two cents worth in their ears. Destruction of records, personal gain and bad legal representation should not be characteristics of our city.