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Austin County Republican Party officials allege election wrongdoing within the GOP; DA takes no action

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.”

Hunt With Heart fulfills dreams of children with heart problems

When most people think about terminally ill children having their wishes fulfilled, they think about the Make A Wish Foundation and trips to Disneyland.

Here in Texas, those wishes turn to guns and hunting.

“Make A Wish won’t do hunts,” noted Toby Kroeger, founder of Hunt With Heart, a nonprofit organization he started with his wife to help pediatric heart patients fulfill their dreams of hunting big game.

Although he is a believer in the Make A Wish mission, he has discovered an unmet need of helping older children with life-altering health issues fulfill their desire to go hunting.

The idea for Hunt With Heart began unexpectedly several years ago when Kroeger’s wife Crystal asked him to help out at a camp sponsored by her employer, Texas Children’s Hospital. Crystal works with cardiac patients at the hospital and Toby is a lieutenant with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.

Each year the hospital and the It’s My Heart Foundation hold a weekend camp for heart patients between the ages of 8 and 12 called Camp Pump It Up. The camp was in need of male volunteers and when Crystal asked, Toby didn’t have the heart to say no.

That first year Toby was a counselor in a cabin with a bunch of boys, including a special youngster named Nick. The two of them formed a special bond.

“Each year after that the hospital made sure they put him in my cabin,” Toby said.

Then came that fateful day in 2011 when Toby was visiting Nick in the hospital after a surgery. Nick asked him what he was going to do that weekend and Toby told him he was going hunting.

“When I said it was hunting season, the inside of the room got quiet and still,” he said.

Nick’s mother explained that it was his lifelong dream to go hunting. He played hunting video games and talked about it a lot. Living with a life-threatening heart condition, however, made the idea of going on a hunt little more than a dream.

The Kroegers felt the need to make Nick’s dream come true. Crystal began searching for a place for Nick to go hunting and made a cold call to Beaver Creek Ranch, located northwest of Bryan/College Station. When Crystal explained what they wanted to owners Jim and JoAnne Elzner, “they were equally as excited about the opportunity to introduce Nick to hunting as we were.”

A month later the arrangements were made and Nick was able to get his trophy. After that experience the Kroegers knew they couldn’t stop, so they incorporated Hunt With Heart as a nonprofit organization and set up a board of directors.

With coordination between Texas Children’s Hospital and Camp Beaver Creek, Hunt With Heart held its first camp with six children and their parents, mostly fathers. Initially the camp was for children 13-18 with serious heart disease, but it was later expanded to include children with any life-threatening or life-altering health issues.

The first outing was life-changing for everyone involved, especially the Kroegers.

“What can we do to make it more than a one-weekend experience?” Toby asked Crystal.

They decided to make the participants lifetime members in the organization. They hold annual Christmas parties, clay shoots and other activities. Beyond that, they discovered that the camps bonded the families in special ways.

“The dads are getting to be there to do something special with their kids and they’re getting to meet other dads in the same boat,” Toby said.

Outside of camp, they have become a huge support network and are often there for the children when they wind up back in the hospital.

“This isn’t just an organization they’re joining; it’s a family,” Toby said. “When they become part of our organization they become part of our family.”

Toby said the count is up to 33 camper families in their larger family, but it extends beyond that. Other hunters volunteer as guides and doctors at Children’s have extended their services, making them vital members of the organization. Other businesses and organizations have become members of the extended family, including John Guidry, a Sealy taxidermist.

The Kroegers met Guidry three years ago at the Texas Trophy Hunters Extravaganza at what was then Reliant (now NRG) Center in Houston.

“They needed a taxidermist to help with some of their stuff,” Guidry said.

The more he learned about the organization, the more his heart went out to the kids. He now does all of their mounts, primarily skull mounts.

“I don’t do it to receive anything back for it. It’s a 100 percent donation on my part,” he said.

His only request is to be present when the trophies are presented to the young hunters. He usually presents the mounts to the children at the Christmas party.

“It was an eye-opening experience for me because my family has never had to deal with this,” he said.

More recently, Hunt with Heart has partnered with Bellville Meat Market for the processing of the meat. Toby said they do it at a significantly reduced cost. Quite often a portion of the meet is donated by Hunt With Heart to other organizations.

Another supporter is GameGuard Outdoors, which provides camo clothing and gear to the hunters.

Toby said everywhere he turns he finds more people and businesses wanting to help out. Because of that generosity, the camp is provided at no cost to the hunters and their families.

The camping experience is much more than just a hunt. Before the campers fire their first shot, they are taught gun safety and test on a range with small caliber rifles, working up to the ones they will use on the hunt. Other activities include archery, fishing and taking ATV tours of the ranch.

When they hunt, they usually go after exotics stocked on the ranch, usually goats and deer, though some water buffalos have been taken. The hunts are held twice a year and other ranches are becoming involved. One of these is the Emerald T Ranch near Columbus.

At two camps, there were children on the national heart transplant list who could not be more than an hour away from the hospital. In order for them to be able to hunt and not be removed from the list, Burt’s Condstruction provided a helicopter for the weekend.

Though all of the hunts and all of the children are special to the Kroegers and their supporters, two youngsters on their hunt last spring really stand out. Rylan, 11, and 15-year-old Macy were awaiting hearts. Both enjoyed the weekend and Rylan had an exceptionally fun time hunting for Easter eggs while wearing bunny ears.

A week after the hunt, he wore the ears into surgery to receive his new heart. While he was recovering at Texas Children’s, Macy received hers and they recovered together.

Hunt With Heart has done more than just help children fulfill dreams of big game hunts. The foundation they started has helped send one member to college, met financial needs for some of the families, provided temporary housing assistance for a family from San Antonio needing to be near the hospital, helped provide Christmas gifts, and even helped cover some of the funeral costs for children who lost their battle with heart disease.

While Toby said the hunts mean everything to the young hunters, he can’t put a price on what it does for the families. He said the parent-child bonding that takes place is incredible, but more than that, the connection of families with similar interests and issues and the support network they have formed is a benefit he could never foresee and now can never do without.

“When they join our organization, they join our family,” he said.

For more information: www.huntwithheart.org

Skydiving company soars in Sealy

At more than 2 ½ miles above ground, the view is remarkably similar to what one sees on Google Maps.
Once one exits an airplane at that altitude, the ground zooms in seemingly as fast as a computer mouse can scroll in for a close-up. Rather than the silent glide on a computer monitor and the delayed focus, the world comes into rapid focus as the air whips noisily by at 120 miles an hour. A drogue chute eventually slows the speed to 60 mph, which is scantly noticeable in the thin, cold air.
After falling from 14,000 feet to 6,000 feet in the span a minute, a cord is pulled, releasing a parachute and instantly enveloping its occupants in blissful tranquility for a gentle six-minute descent to terra firma.
That scene plays itself out dozens of times a day just southeast of Sealy at the Gloster Aerodome, a small grass airstrip where Westside Skydivers Houston is based. One of two skydiving companies serving the Houston area, Westside has been steadily growing in the last 17 months it has been open for business here.
“It’s nothing like you see in the movies,” manager Austin Ely said while describing the skydiving experience.
Everyone experiences a tandem jump their first time, meaning they are strapped to an instructor. Anthony “Pinky” Gelleny, 24, is a certified tandem jump instructor for Westside.
“I’ve wanted to jump since I was 16,” he said.
On his 18^th birthday – the minimum legal age to jump – his friends found excuses to bail out on him, but he forged ahead.
“When I got the first time out of the way, I got addicted,” he said.
He is now the veteran of more than 1,500 jumps, which is a small number in the industry. Westside owner Joe Johnson has leaped out of a perfectly good airplane more than 12,000 times.
“In all honesty, it’s incredibly safe,” Gelleny said.
Safety is the top priority at Westside. The second is to have fun – lots of fun. In as much time as the instructors spend going over safety and procedures, they put an equal effort into making the event memorable with their enthusiasm and humor. Much of it is captured on video for those customers who desire the memento of the event.
Tandem jumps account for most of the business. Johnson said they did 4,400 tandem jumps their first year in Sealy. He hopes to bring that number of to 15,000. He said many try skydiving once just to say they did it. Others make it hobby.
“For 18-year-olds, it’s a rite of passage,” Johnson said. “For the 50- to 70-year-olds, it’s their bucket list. For the 25- to 40-year-olds, it’s something to do on a weekend.”
He said while most instructors are male, the majority of customers – about 60 percent – are female.
“Women trust people more easily than men do,” he said.
Ely said it is not uncommon for someone to use skydiving as a means to a wedding proposal. Westside even keeps a “will you marry me” banner on hand for such occasions.
“The girl jumps last so she can see the sign in the air around 1,000 feet,” he said.
There are many reasons people take the risk and the plunge. Chelsia Collins of Houston recently celebrated her 30^th birthday by taking a dive with her friend, Nicole Hayward.
“It was on my bucket list and it’s my birthday,” she said when asked why she took the tandem jump.
She said she wished she had done it earlier in life.
“It was a rush and scary too,” she said. “One we were in the air it was not scary anymore. It’s actually serene, peaceful.”
“The initial jump was scary,” Hayward said. “The parachute thing was the best part.”
Javier Ortiz, 38, of Odessa recently made his 18^th jump and is on his way to earning his A class license.
“I love it; you feel so free,” he said.
Ely said the build-up to the big moment adds to the adventure.
“That’s what it’s all about, the anticipation,” he said.
Once a person is in the air, they are committed to the moment.
“Once you jump there is no getting back into the airplane,” he said. “You just as well enjoy the ride.”
Those who get hooked on the adrenaline rush can take steps to earn a license and increase their skills and thrills. There are four classes of skydiving licenses – A, B, C and D. An A license requires a minimum of 25 jumps and is a certification to jump at any facility, called a drop zone, in the country. A D license is awarded to instructors.
Those interested in doing solo jumps and getting an A license must first do two tandem jumps and take a ground course. It’s all part of the Accelerated Freefall Program offered at Westside Skydivers.
“The first jump just gets your knees in the breeze,” Ely said.
With each jump, more skills are learned. The more advanced the skydiver, the wider variety of aircraft they can jump from and the more they can do in the air. Students can learn to use wing suits and sky boards, do formation dives and more.
Ely said the company currently has a Cessna Caravan that can carry 14 people and two Cessna 182s that carry four people each. The runway at the airport was recently extended and Westside Skydivers is constructing a new hangar on the west end of the main strip. It should be open in mid-summer.
In addition to Westside Skydivers Houston, Johnson owns Westside Skydivers Minneapolis in Minnesota. The Minnesota operation started four years ago and the Sealy site opened in 2012. Johnson said the Houston market was ripe for a new skydiving company.
He said the Minneapolis market of 3.5 million people is served by four companies. The Houston market of more than 6 million was served by two – one of which went out of business last year in Eagle Lake.
“Houston has an independently strong economy compared to the rest of the country,” Johnson said.
Johnson, 42, used to work for Qwest Communications, but found the lure of the skies too much to resist.
“I just quit one day and never looked back,” he said.
He holds the highest ratings and can jump into ballparks and stadiums and often does so carrying the American or Texas flags. He has jumped in 10 different countries and had the distinction of being the first civilian to jump into Rice Stadium.
“The sport’s been good to me,” he said.
Places where people can parachute are referred to in the industry as drop zones. Sealy has one and the other is in Rosharon for Skydive Spaceland. There are only about 10 currently operating in Texas according to the U.S. Parachute Association.
Learning to skydive can be expensive. The first tandem jump is about $200. The price can drop with successive jumps, depending on options taken by the student. Licensed skydivers with their own equipment can take a jump for about $20 to $25.
To learn more, visit www.westsideskydivers.com or call 888-758-JUMP.