{"id":1478,"date":"2017-02-27T14:38:29","date_gmt":"2017-02-27T20:38:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/truthinaddison.com\/?page_id=1478"},"modified":"2017-02-27T14:38:29","modified_gmt":"2017-02-27T20:38:29","slug":"meiers-latest-efforts-at-agenda-by-ambush","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/truthinaddison.com\/?page_id=1478","title":{"rendered":"Meier\u2019s Latest Efforts at \u201cAgenda By Ambush\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Meier\u2019s Latest Efforts at \u201cAgenda By Ambush\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Need To Be Forcefully Rejected<\/strong><\/h3>\n

By: Susan M. Halpern<\/strong><\/h3>\n

(Addison councilmember 1992 \u2013 99)<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Todd Meier is again trying to push his misguided agenda by ambushing the Council. The Agenda published last week included items, referencing Decorum, Ethics and Transparency. These Agenda items were included at Meier\u2019s request.\u00a0 The Agenda contained no proposals and no detail regarding what the discussion would even be about.\u00a0 Start here: If these items were legitimate, the public and the other members of Council would have been provided with specifics.\u00a0 The absence of specifics tells us that Meier is once again up to no good.\u00a0 This is, after all, an individual who spends his days plotting and scheming to cause harm to his political foes, most often by misrepresenting and mischaracterizing issues and then bullying those who dare to correct his many misstatements.\u00a0 All to the significant harm of Addison, about which Meier has no concern.<\/p>\n

So, expect Meier to try to use these three items to mischaracterize events as a springboard for attacking and defaming those with whom he disagrees. As well, expect Meier to try to needlessly lengthen the meeting and keep the staff and other councilmembers at Town Hall into the wee hours of the night.\u00a0 In other words, my prediction is that Meier will use these items to try to hijack yet another meeting in his year-long effort to disrupt the business of a Council he no longer OWNS, precisely because he no longer OWNS it.\u00a0 My hope is that the other councilmembers reject these efforts and send Meier a message that his favored tactic of \u201cAgenda by Ambush\u201d will no longer be tolerated.<\/p>\n

This Agenda comes on the heels of one of the most shameful, inappropriate and disgraceful meetings many of us have ever witnessed. If you haven\u2019t watched the meeting, you owe it to yourself to do so.\u00a0 By way of background, Meier opposed the AMLI development that was considered on February 14, 2017, but he sensed that his position was in the minority.\u00a0 So, Meier did what Meier does when the Council declines to bend to his imperialistic will.\u00a0 Meier obstructed.\u00a0 Meier filibustered.\u00a0 Meier tried to table the item.\u00a0 Meier claimed that further study was needed.\u00a0 Meier invented obstacles not because it aided the deliberative process or because doing so was in Addison\u2019s best interests, but to derail the deliberative process because it was in Meier\u2019s interest to delay a vote.\u00a0 Meier interrogated AMLI\u2019s representatives using excruciatingly inflammatory, argumentative and accusatory questions, interrupting their efforts to provide explanations.\u00a0 Meier\u2019s conduct was unprofessional and entirely inappropriate.\u00a0 In the end, Meier kept everyone at the meeting until almost 1:00 a.m.\u00a0 It was an inexcusable spectacle, another blight in a long series of blights on Addison\u2019s reputation that Meier has caused.<\/p>\n

And now Meier wants to talk about Decorum, Ethics and Transparency? The truth is that Meier is the least qualified individual in our Town to opine about any of these issues.<\/p>\n

These matters should be tabled. They are too important to be decided with proposals shown to other councilmembers for the first time at a meeting.\u00a0 And, that reality is exacerbated by the woefully inadequate performance of Addison\u2019s attorney, who has repeatedly aided and supported Meier\u2019s nefarious conduct with inexplicable advice.<\/p>\n

But, if the Council does decide to proceed, I think there are some serious issues that need to be addressed. Meier should start by asking the other councilmembers for their views on whether Meier has exhibited appropriate decorum, including with respect to the AMLI meeting and his treatment of the applicant\u2019s representatives.\u00a0 Other councilmembers should be asked whether Meier has encouraged discussion amongst the council and presided fairly at meetings, or whether they are of the view that he has dominated the meetings, ambushing the Council and then attacking other councilmembers who disagree with Meier\u2019s opinions.\u00a0 The other councilmembers should be asked about what it\u2019s like to serve on a supposedly deliberative body, when they are regularly attacked by Meier after the meetings via Meier\u2019s one-sided mischaracterizations, and without an equal opportunity to present their views.\u00a0 Maybe the Council could review Meier\u2019s disparagement of prior staff and management, exposing the many misrepresentations on which Meier has premised his absurd and incorrect claims that he saved Addison from certain doom.<\/p>\n

To move forward on ethics, I think the Council must discuss the question of whether Meier violated the Open Records Act in orchestrating the improper withholding of Lea Dunn\u2019s (non-privileged) memo.\u00a0 Or, whether Secret Addendum 1 to the Kanter contract evidenced a conspiracy to improperly circumvent the Open Records Act.\u00a0 Or, whether Secret Addendum 1 could possibly be enforceable when it was concealed from the Council, the public and even the staff, and therefore was never authorized via a valid motion at a meeting where it was accurately described on the Agenda. Or whether that failure violated the Open Meetings Act.\u00a0 Or whether Addison\u2019s submission to the Texas Attorney General regarding the Lea Dunn memo that cited the Audit Exception but excluded the Kanter contract that expressly stated that his work was not an audit, constituted the type of candor expected of lawyers.\u00a0 And whether that submission stands as a clear indication that Addison\u2019s current lawyer cannot adequately advise this Council on the issues of Decorum, Transparency and Ethics.<\/p>\n

The Council should also explore whether Meier and Blake Clemens violated Addison\u2019s Charter when they directed Eric Cannon as to who he could and couldn\u2019t hire, using the secretive Finance Committee. Or, what legitimate purpose that committee had, when Addison\u2019s Chief Financial Officer and City Manager were regularly excluded from its meetings.\u00a0 The Council should discuss the formation of a \u201cFinance Committee\u201d with no rules, no transparency and no accountability, at a meeting when this important issue wasn\u2019t described with specificity in the Agenda.<\/p>\n

And, of course, no discussion of ethics would be complete without exploring the 2014 election. It is important not only for what happened, but for how it was handled.\u00a0 Recall that then-Addison Attorney John Hill concluded that Meier had used his \u201cofficial position\u201d in connection with the 2014 election, in violation of Addison\u2019s Ethics Ordinance.\u00a0 Meier\u2019s tactics worked, and he gained control of the Council.<\/p>\n

Meier\u2019s new Council met on June 16, 2014, a month or so after the election, to discuss the Ethics Ordinance. During the meeting, Meier claimed that he and the council had previously reached an agreement that they didn\u2019t have to comply with the Ethics Ordinance as it was written.\u00a0 Rather, they only had to observe a lesser standard (don\u2019t use \u201ctitle\u201d) that wasn\u2019t what the ordinance said (don\u2019t use \u201cofficial position,\u201d broader than \u201ctitle\u201d).\u00a0 Think about that for a moment.\u00a0 Realize that this was Meier claiming that the Council could excuse itself from complying with the law.\u00a0 It\u2019s straight from Orwell\u2019s Animal Farm<\/u> (\u201cAll animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.\u201d).<\/p>\n

Anyway, the meeting quickly evolved (seemingly on cue) into Meier\u2019s demand that the Council absolve him. Two things here; (1) the Agenda contained no indication that the allegations against Meier would be discussed, and (2) when it came up, Meier continued to preside over the discussion.\u00a0 Think about the ethics of those matters as you watch the work session.\u00a0 Here is the link: http:\/\/addisontx.swagit.com\/play\/06162014-802\/#5<\/u><\/a>.\u00a0 If you go to Minute 63, you\u2019ll get a real sense for what was going on.<\/p>\n

At 67:28, Meier says: \u201cI really want it clear that I did not violate this provision.\u00a0 Is there anybody that feels differently from that?\u201d As it wasn\u2019t on the Agenda, neither the public nor the Council was prepared for the question.\u00a0 But it got even more interesting, as Meier led the Council to hatch a plan to provide him with supposed absolution, no doubt to be waved around during the election that would follow in 2015.\u00a0 At about 7:30 of part 2 of the item, Meier states: \u201cI really don\u2019t want some cloud\u2026\u00a0 ethics cloud\u2026 hanging over me.\u201d\u00a0 He advocates for passage of a \u201cquick\u201d motion by the Council: \u201cThe way that that could happen is that it could be very brief conversation, brief motion.\u00a0 Somebody makes a motion that the mayor did not violate the ethics code during the past election, there\u2019s a second, passed, and we\u2019re done.\u201d At 9:34: \u201cAre we OK with that process to resolve the past, at least as to me?\u201d\u00a0 Again, Meier is PRESIDING at this discussion. And his new captive councilmembers were only too eager to agree.\u00a0 Consider the comments of Mary Carpenter at 11:15: \u201cThis would just be a brief motion that we vote pro or con that you did that you did or did not violate this.\u00a0 So it wouldn\u2019t be in the form of a resolution or anything that formal<\/strong>?\u201d\u00a0 So, a vote of the Council isn\u2019t \u201cformal?\u201d\u00a0 You can\u2019t make it up.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to the Council\u2019s July 8, 2014 agenda.\u00a0 The video is here (item R14): http:\/\/addisontx.swagit.com\/play\/07082014-999\/#25<\/u><\/a>.\u00a0 You\u2019ll first note that the item is buried deep in the agenda.\u00a0 It is only 17 minutes long, and clearly worth watching.\u00a0 Again, Meier is advocating for himself \u2013 AGAIN FROM THE POSITION OF THE PRESIDING OFFICER OF THE MEETING.\u00a0 Thank goodness for Bruce Arfsten and Chris DeFrancisco, despite being banished to the ends of the dais.\u00a0 Based on DeFrancisco\u2019s comments, Meier finally admitted at about 16:00 that \u201cclearly he could benefit from the vote\u201d and so he recuses himself from the vote<\/u><\/em>, but CONTINUES TO PRESIDE OVER THE MEETING.\u00a0 And if you have any doubt about why that shouldn\u2019t happen, watch what happens next.\u00a0 Bruce Arfsten begins to discuss his concerns.\u00a0 Meier and his captive supporters disagree and you hear Carpenter laugh on the record.\u00a0 Then, at 16:50, you will see Meier literally turning his back on Bruce WHILE BRUCE IS TALKING.\u00a0 Meier talks over Bruce in an effort to force a vote: \u201calright, there\u2019s a motion and a second\u2026,\u201d clearly using his position as presiding officer to influence the outcome. \u00a0Thank goodness for DeFrancisco and Arfsten, who ultimately derailed Meier\u2019s inappropriate efforts.<\/p>\n

But Meier TRIED, and that\u2019s the important point.<\/p>\n

So, as we approach the February 28, 2017 meeting, recognize that nothing legitimate can happen on the questions of Decorum, Ethics and Transparency without considering the issues I have repeatedly raised regarding Meier\u2019s conduct. I doubt that\u2019s what Meier has in mind, but it ought to be what this Council has in mind if they choose to proceed in the face of yet another Agenda by Ambush.<\/p>\n

Addison deserves better, and 2017 provides us with an important opportunity to reach that goal.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n