DIRTY JUDGE, DIRTY DEVELOPER, DIRTY EVERYBODY
In 2013, those words cost a decent man his job as an Election Law Specialist for Texas Secretary of State.
Attorney and Election Code Expert Joe Kulhavy was referring to the decision in the 2010 Woodlands Road Utility District election contest that decided against the 10 voters who forced Mike Page to hold a rare election. Since 1991 the RUD had skipped 15 election cycles.
The RUD voters believed they were acting lawfully when they established residence for voting purposes at one Residence Inn within the boundaries of the RUD. Local business leaders and elected officials, many who had alleigiance to the developer that founded and controlled the RUD cried foul and cried for blood.
Now, with the RENT-A-VOTER phenomenon partially exposed, who can criticize Mr. Kulhavy for what he said? It kind of looks like he hit the nail on the head.
Kulhavy’s words in part ~
The ( 2010 Election contest )decision was contrary to decades of court decisions about residency issues and was really an outlier. The way I read it was, Developer is mad that their nose has been tweaked by some people who were protesting the profoundly undemocratic way that taxes are imposed in Texas, and their embarrassment is such that they call up their best buddy, someone who has close political ties to them and say, hey Judge, we need you to make an example of these people. Utterly politically motivated, intellectually bankrupt decision that could not be reconciled with the way we generally view residence. Most prosecutors won’t touch a residency dispute with a ten foot pole because they are going to lose. Isn’t there a presumption in favor of a valid election and upholding the election results? Just set aside an election? Say no more. Your election was tainted by the wrong kind of people. The election was just a sham; a fiction created by the way the State fails to process land development. They (Developers) became complacent because for years and years Houston area real estate attorneys gave their clients bad advice. Don’t worry about how you will finance that sewer line because all you will have to do is have a – “election”. ( The developer controlled RUD) ~carefully excising any voters. Voters are presumptively not eligible unless they have been vetted by the developer, given the OK, the secret handshake. Snotty arrogance of the decision that bothered me so much. Dirty Judge, dirty developer, dirty everybody. If your that scared, if you create such a powerful incentive to run a dirty election, then you should ask why are you developing that land that way in the first place?
You can here the audio on this link http://therud.com/our-district-attorneys-office-comments/
Kulhavy should have been promoted and granted one of the fat bonuses the State hands out rather than lose his job.
They may be more truth to Kulhavy’s words that he or any off us can expect based on a 2013 story about single voter MUDs from Dallas Morning News . We read this ~ In two elections, our reporting raised doubts about whether the lone voters had ever stayed in their temporary quarters. One, for example, told us that he never lived in the district he helped form and was told to sign paperwork to make the election seem legitimate.
Worth investigating?
Or this ~ The Texas attorney general’s office had once scrutinized these conflict-ripe elections, checking voters’ residency claims and questioning them in person. But the agency quit doing that in 1995 because the policy was “resource-intensive.” Just a few years later, the wave of new taxing districts began.
Funny, they seem to find plenty of resources when the developers call them to heel.
That’s why we need a federal investigation rather than a dubious local or state investigation.
Thank you to Mr. Kulhavy. Who paid a price he did not owe.
