By Joe Southern
With a new election season rapidly approaching one only needs to look back a year ago to see that there were a number of election related irregularities that are still festering and threatening the unity of the Austin County Republican Party.
Apparently, after 20 years as Austin County Judge, Carolyn
Bilski not only made a lot of friends but also a lot of enemies – especially
within the walls of the Austin County Courthouse. When she ran for the District
13 seat vacated by Lois Kolkhorst in the State House of Representatives last
winter, a firestorm of campaigning against her spewed forth from within the
courthouse.
That caught the attention of Republican Party officials who
felt that county employees using county computers and time on the clock for
political campaigns was not only unethical but also bordered on criminal
activity.
They took their complaints and ample evidence to District
Attorney Travis Koehn who dismissed them outright and closed the case. Several
attempts to seek action on the alleged wrongdoing has led to continued
stonewalls at Koehn’s desk and has ostracized Republican Party Chairman Michael
Skrivanek, Vice Chairman Marc Young and Precinct 102 Chairman Tommy Johnson, a
former candidate for county judge, from many within their own party.
A look back at what
happened
Last December, Kolkhorst won a special election to the
Senate and the remainder of her term in House District 13 came open for
election. Three Republicans and a Democrat filed for the seat and the election
was held in January. Bilski was the top vote getter but lacked a majority vote,
which sent her into a runoff against fellow Republican Leighton Schubert of
Caldwell.
Schubert beat Bilski during the runoff election in February
with 57 percent of the vote and even took the majority of the votes in Austin
County.
It was that runoff election that caught the attention of
Austin County Republican Party leaders, primarily Johnson who is an Internet
technology professional, a social media regular and a self-described
troublemaker. He began seeing pro-Schubert/anti-Bilski campaign posts on
Facebook from county officials and employees during times when they should have
been working on the clock.
Knowing that Facebook posts can disappear as fast as they
appear, he began doing screen captures to record and preserve the evidence. He
also did open records requests for timesheets of those he was watching and
determined that they were indeed on the clock while conducting their virtual
campaigns.
Johnson also collected anti-Bilski emails sent out by Pct. 1
Commissioner Reese Turner using an email account that Turner regularly uses for
county business. Johnson, Skrivanek and Young later probed into Turner’s
finance campaign reports and found irregularities that they reported to the
Texas Ethics Commission. That led the commission to reprimand Turner with a
$100 fine due to his errors.
It’s the social media campaigns, however, and the lack of
action from the district attorney that most concern the Republican trio.
Suspects and evidence
In addition to Turner, the three men targeted County Clerk
Carrie Gregor, some of her staff, and Tinson Rasbury, an assistant auditor who
ran unsuccessfully for county treasurer in 2014. Their primary focus was on
Turner and Gregor as elected officials. Most of the postings by the county
officials were on Facebook in a group called Austin County Politics.
Johnson provided The Sealy News with screen captures showing
that Turner, Gregor and Rasbury frequently posted to Facebook during weekday
hours when their respective offices were open for business. In the case with
Rasbury, Johnson even matched specific posts to times she recorded on her
timesheet that she was working.
Turner has by far been the biggest target of Skrivanek,
Young and Johnson. He is an unabashed and outspoken critic of Bilski and
clearly pulled out the stops to campaign against her, going as far as to email
officials in other counties within District 13 with anti-Bilski rhetoric.
Among the nearly inch-thick stack of documents provided by
the GOP representatives are screen captures of Facebook posts showing that
Turner was campaigning on Thursday, Feb. 5, at 10:05 a.m. and 4:41 p.m. and on
Wednesday, Jan. 14, at 2:15 p.m., among many other examples.
“(This was) during normal working hours. High probability it
was done on county equipment, utilizing the county network, and county Internet
provider,” Johnson alleged in his notes.
Turner denied violating any laws and made no apologies for
campaigning against Bilski.
“These
are very small, irrelevant men who are still mad that I and others were very
successful in promoting Schubert over Bilski,” Turner said in an email to The
Sealy News. “However, they give me and others way too much credit for her
defeat; she did so much to defeat herself that we who knew her well could have
sat quietly and watched her crash on her own.”
The trio provided similar documentation for Gregor. She was
posting election-related material to Facebook on Wednesday, Jan. 21 at multiple
times, on Friday, Feb. 6, at 9:56 a.m., on Tuesday, Feb. 17 at 10:33 a.m. and on
other days.
Johnson also documented posts that were done after hours and
during what are normal lunch break times, but questioned whether or not county
computers and/or Internet service providers were used.
When asked by The Sealy News, Gregor flatly denied any
wrongdoing.
“No, I was not using any county equipment,” she said.
She pointed out that Koehn, the district attorney, had
investigated the complaint and found no criminal violations.
The bucks stop with
Koehn
Although it was easy to see that there was rampant
campaigning on the clock coming from within the courthouse, proving that it was
done on county computers or using the county’s Internet service provider has
been difficult for Johnson, Skrivanek and Young.
Their initial complaint to Koehn on Feb. 18 was denied.
“In response to your complaint, my staff and I have reviewed
the documents you provided as well as the relevant statutes and caselaw. After
reviewing all the available information, I have found no violation of Texas
criminal law and will not be pursuing criminal charges at the time against the
persons listed in your complaint,” Koehn wrote to the three men.
He went on to point out legal opinions that say that
incidental use of state property for personal purposes is not a misuse. He said
that they have a First Amendment right to express political opinions or support
political candidates.
“Targeting county employees for investigation due to their
support for one political candidate over another may also violate Federal Equal
Employment and Non-Discrimination laws,” he added in his letter dated March 4.
Young appealed to Koehn the next day but was rebuffed by the
district attorney.
Undeterred, Johnson filed open records requests on March 18
seeking, among other things, the Internet browser history for Turner, Gregor
and Rasbury from Oct. 1, 2014, to March 1, 2015; copies of phone logs and text
messages; all email correspondence from Turner’s gmail account for two years;
and data usage to specific websites (Facebook, eBay, etc.) from the county
clerk’s office.
Koehn requested an opinion on the request from Attorney
General Ken Paxton on March 30. In doing so, he outlined his argument why some
of the information was not public record and also excused Rasbury from the
request because “Mrs. Rasbury is participating with the Texas Department of
Public Safety in (another) investigation and release of this and similar
information would interfere with law enforcement.”
In a seven-page reply from Assistant Attorney General Joseph
Behnke dated June 4, the attorney general’s office agreed that some of the
requested information could be withheld but said most of it had to be released.
In the interim, Johnson met with Koehn and agreed to narrow
the requests so they weren’t so broad and covering such a large timeframe. In a
letter to Johnson dated June 18, Koehn informed him that it was going to cost
$2,210 to retrieve the information and $75 to copy 750 pages of requested
information for a total of $2,285. Additionally, by government code, Johnson
had 10 days to pay or his request would be automatically withdrawn.
Lacking the funds to pay the charges, the request lapsed on
Koehn’s desk. The investigation of Turner, however, did not. Skrivanek, Young
and Johnson made open records requests of his required financial filings with
the state. On Aug. 31, they filed another complaint with Koehn alleging
violations of the Texas Election Code by Turner.
Koehn conducted another investigation and concluded that
there were no criminal violations and that he was closing the case. Young
appealed to the Texas Ethics Commission and the commission ruled in his favor,
fining Turner $100 for errors in this reports.
Why all of this
matters
As leaders of the Austin County Republican Party, the three
men say they have a duty to make sure everyone is playing by the rules and to
govern the organization. They said the actions by the county officials clearly
violates county ordinances and are likely criminal in nature, but they need the
requested Internet data to prove their case.
Under the county’s personnel policy manual regarding social
networking, anyone under the employ of the county may not use social media on
county time but may do so on their own time. At any time they are prohibited
from saying or doing things that disrupt work or defame the county or any of
its employees.
The second part states that “No employee may use county equipment
or facilities for furtherance of non-work-related activities or relationships.”
The sixth part says “Social media activities should never
interfere with work commitments.”
Under the part of the code governing the use of tools,
equipment, property and vehicles, “Access to the Internet through county
computers is to be used for county and departmental business only.”
The policy governing the use of county phones, email,
computers and the Internet further states “The County prohibits the use of its
computers, the E-mail system or the Internet in ways that are disruptive to
others.” It also says “The Internet is to be used for County business and is
not to be used for personal purposes.”
The seventh part of the section states: “Employees in
violation of any portion of this policy shall be subject to disciplinary
actions, up to and including termination.”
The county’s policy regarding political activity says a
county employee may not “use his or her office of authority or influence to
interfere with or affect the result of an election or nomination for office.”
It later states that, “County employees, except Elected
Officials, may not participate in political activities while on county duty.”
There is a gray area regarding Turner’s use of a gmail
account. He uses the same address for both personal and county business. His
personal emails are not subject to preservation and public disclosure as his
county-related ones are. After the investigation began, he created a county
email address but continues to use the gmail account for both purposes.
He told The Sealy News that he saves all county-related emails
as he is required to by law. When asked for copies of emails the newspaper sent
to him regarding this investigation, he said he deleted them. If so, that would
be in violation of the law because he was corresponding as a county official.
“The
state law reads that if the value of any county property used to break Texas
law by an official or an employee, exceeds $1,500 (which most computers do),
then it is a State Jail felony, therefore if found guilty, the above accused
individuals would be removed from office, and serve time in jail,” Johnson told
The Sealy News.
Johnson, Young and Skrivanek allege that there have been
multiple violations of county policy and state election laws during the
campaign. Every complaint made either to county officials or directly to Koehn
wind up with Koehn as the final authority.
Is Koehn playing
favorites?
When asked by The Sealy News about his investigations, Koehn
said he conducted thorough investigations into the allegations and stands by
his decisions.
Johnson, who
admits to having a longstanding adversarial relationship with Koehn after a
number of incidences, feels Koehn is playing favorites. In addition to a bias
against him, Johnson alleged that Koehn is protecting Gregor, who used to work
for him.
“I
don't know for sure that is why the stonewalling occurred by our DA, but I feel
like it is a ****-poor excuse not to hold the people that did this
accountable,” Johnson said.
A Republican rift
One thing that both sides can agree on is that the nearly yearlong
investigation has created a huge rift in the local Republican Party.
“Since
then, Young, Skrivanek, and myself, have been repeatedly bashed on social
media, and had our names and credibility dragged through the mud, all for
trying to do what was right,” Johnson said. “We still believe Carrie Gregor, a
couple employees in her office, Reese Turner, and Tinson Raspberry got away
with breaking county policy, violating the election code, and breaking Texas
Law. They were assisted by the District Attorney's delays and malfeasance, and
the end result is that they have split apart the Republican Party in Austin
County.”
“These
Doo-fusses have reduced the espirit-de-corps of the Austin County Republican
Party to the point that next year's meetings could be held in a phone booth,”
Turner said in an email. “Fortunately, Buddy Koenig will rescue us from both
Skrivanek and Marc-My-Many-Words Young, Austin County's most boring man. Tommy
Johnson is already well known by his record and of absolutely no influence with
anyone.”
