JUST IN TO MCC: Greyling Poats Announces His Intention To Run As A Reform Candidate For Mayor Of Missouri City!
This just in to MissouriCityChatter.blogspot.com. Local businessman Greyling Poats announces:
Greyling Poats Announces His Intention
To Run Against Developer-backed Mayor Allen Owen of Missouri City
----------------
After a dozen or so years with no opponents in Missouri City to run against Allen Owen, and even having several election cycles cancelled, this year’s race will be different. Area businessman and homeowner, Greyling Poats, has decided to throw his hat into the ring. Greyling is a longtime insurance salesman for State Farm here in the Missouri City-Arcola areas and has been involved with local community activism for many years now. He said he decided to get involved because the level of apathy in local government has reached a critical mass. With Mr. Owen accepting most of his campaign support dollars from outside this community and low voter turn-outs “it became apparent to me that we needed true local representation on some of the more controversial growth issues ongoing in our community.”
Greyling is a homeowner and resident of Oakwick Forest subdivision here in Missouri City and has made numerous appearances before city council on issues ranging from disparity in development along the 2234 corridor to the controversial apartments scheduled to be built this year. He supports value added growth that enhances the quality of life and community over the long-term and will work with the communities most impacted by these growth issues that often get ignored by the current administration under Owen.
Poats met with a community group a few months back and further outlined some of the shared concerns that they agreed should be addressed during a new administration as communicated to him. They are:
-Restore honesty and integrity to our local council and especially with regard to the administration.
-Retaking local control from the special interests now operating and profiting in our community.
-Acting as a representative of the people who live in this community.
-Pledging not to accept out-of-area special interest contributions and to represent this communities wants and needs.
-Real tax relief that keeps quality of life as its core principle.
-Reduce disparity in development in some areas of Missouri
City. The focus of a new administration
would be on protecting homeowner’s value throughout Missouri City, and not just newer areas.
-A greater concern for the natural environment and
development concerns (a more eco friendly strategy
through incentives).
-Review of Fast Track Privileges for corporations instituting negative PR models here locally.
-Long term planning with real citizen input
from area neighborhoods prior to final council decisions/votes.--Question--Has the
current administration taken us in this direction?
-And a committee to review the possibility of term limits for all council members.
-Support for state level property tax limits (as opposed by the current mayor).
-Allow for bids from competing banks with regard to city accounts. This is not the case currently with these accounts being handled by Owen’s bank.
Greyling looks forward to meeting all his Missouri City neighbors over the next few months of the campaign and listening to the real needs of area residents. He knows much work needs to be done to improve the long-term plan for our area!
VOTE POATS IN ‘06
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Comment- It is good to see that there will finally be an election in Missouri City after many years. The last election cycle was cancelled just last year by Mr. Owen. Stay tuned here for more as this campaign progresses!
posted by responsible_dvlpmnt at Friday, March 10, 2006
8 Comments:
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From earlier post:
NOTICE: MAYORAL COMMITTEE MAKES PROGRESS in recent meeting!
Hello Everyone!
We just wanted to take a moment to keep you all informed about how the candidate's committee is doing with plans for the '06 council races coming to a location near you! As you know, IMO, the visiting team (SJD/JDC) has been engaged in a legal action (SLAPP suit) against some of their own resident/homeowners (fairly recent customers). This has garnered much local media attention, but the committee's work went on uninterrupted as usual. We are currently canvassing the Mo-City neighborhoods--keep an eye out for us!
If you recall the committee was formed earlier in the year to search for candidates and establish local election themes (a platform) in order to run a candidate against the developer backed mayor Allen Owen of Missouri City (SJD/JDC is a major backer of Owen). A short list of candidates has emerged and will be released when the final selection has taken place. We appreciate these individuals commitment to local control and not taking Houston corporate monies in the upcoming election (see brazosriver.com for Owens financial backing--his bank also handles the Missouri City accounts).
The home team, local homeowners and residents supporting the new mayoral candidate, met and discussed many local issues that have gone unaddressed here over the years. These themes are evolving into the platform for the home team challenger in '06.
Major Themes:
-A major theme which continued to come up at the
session was restoring honesty and integrity to local
city government (recent events over the past year
supporting this were discussed).
-Real tax relief that keeps quality of life as its core principle.
-Reduce disparity in development in some areas of Missouri
City. The committee placed an emphasis on this theme
because of the differences in home values in different
locations of MC. The focus of a new administration
would be on protecting homeowners value throughout MC, not just newer areas.
-A greater concern for the natural environment and
development concerns (a more eco friendly strategy
through incentives).
-Review of Fast Track Privileges for corporations instituting negative PR models.
-Long term planning with real citizen input
(neighborhoods discussed with regard to this were Lake
Olympia, Quail Valley, Colony Lakes, others and the impact aging
communities will have on property/home values if we
aren't better prepared and involved).--Question--Has the
current administration taken us in this direction?
-Term limits were the final topic discussed. The group
wished to examine this further with possible adoption
into the platform coming soon.
Thank you for your support and continued e-mails. If you wish to get more involved then you can contact the committee at candidate_search_committee@yahoo.com.
****FINAL NOTE: We would like to welcome Matthew Feinberg back to "free speech alley". He recently launched his new blog at http://www.thewebbie.com. As most of you remember he is the web administator for the old SiennaTalk.com site and MissouriCityTalk.com site (closed IMO because of the SJD/JDC pressure of recent court actions). As you remember Matthew, with his attorneys, fought very bravely to defend the privacy and free speech rights (and the right to petition) through several Texas courts---all in pre-trial for the members of his neighborhood website. WE WANT TO THANK YOU FOR YOUR EFFORTS (AND MAYBE MORE TO COME--HUH?).****
Remember this article from FortBendNow.com:
Just in from http://www.fortbendnow.com on the SLAPP suit filed by SJD/JDC:
Spat Over Apartments Could Impact Free Speech On The Web
by Bob Dunn, Oct 24, 06:29 pm
It seemed an unlikely hinge upon which Texans’ constitutional right to anonymous free speech might swing:
How many apartment units should the developers of Sienna Plantation be allowed to build, and where should they be located?
A disagreement over the answers to that question began boiling over in public a few months ago. Missouri City Council meetings regularly featured speakers railing over the building of apartments in Missouri City and nearby communities.
Mayor Allen Owen took heat after a deal was reached to relocate a planned group of apartments, to the dissatisfaction of a group of area residents.
In July, for instance, Sienna resident Chris Calvin spoke at a council meeting and said he’d obtained Mayor Owen’s list of campaign contributions, and that more than half of them came from developers. Among the largest contributors, Calvin said, was Larry Johnson, President of Johnson Development Corp. and Sienna Plantation’s developer.
Owen took issue, telling the Fort Bend Star after the meeting that “my vote has never been for sale, nor have I catered to anybody who made contributions to me.”
Thorn in the side
A self-described thorn in the side of the Sienna Plantation’s developers, Calvin heads what he says has become a consumer watchdog group – the Committee for Responsible Development – which he said once had 37 members but whose numbers have since dwindled.
Calvin said his motivation came in part from disenfranchisement. Sienna Plantation is outside Missouri City limits, so residents have no vote in city affairs. And, he said, the only voting members of the Sienna Plantation property owners association are appointed by the developer.
“We are not trying to hurt home sales,” he said. “We just want representation in what’s going on.”
Calvin didn’t limit his discourse to council meetings. He and other area residents discussed the apartments and various Sienna Plantation issues on Internet web site forums. One of those, run by Sienna resident Matthew Feinberg, operated on the domain siennatalk.com.
Officials at Sienna/Johnson Development, L.P., which holds a trademark for “Sienna” and “Sienna Plantation,” took notice.
To Calvin, it marked an attempt by Sienna/Johnson “to shut us up.”
In a July 19 missive to the Missouri City Council, Johnson Development Corp. Senior Vice President Douglas Goff said that assertion was incorrect. “Sienna/Johnson did not ask Mr. Feinberg to shut down his discussion forum, but only to stop using the Sienna and Sienna Plantation marks,” he said.
Substantial misunderstanding
Goff sent his message to the council in response to an anonymous email, also sent to members of council and to Larry Johnson of Johnson Development. The email, signed CRD, “reflects a substantial misunderstanding of the facts and makes several erroneous statements,” Goff said.
The email in question contended that Johnson Development Co. was trying to shut down mocitytalk.com, the new web home of Feinberg’s forums, opened after Sienna/Johnson informed him of the trademark issue involving siennatalk.com.
“They are now trying to force the site administrator into turning the domain names over to them,” the email states. “This obviously is not allowing free speech or open communications between residents here in Sienna.”
But it was another anonymous communication, posted under the pseudonym NextDoor on mocitytalk.com, also on July 19, that really drew Sienna/Johnson’s attention.
“You do not have the rights to Sienna Plantation – it is the name of a place. You would be shutting down all the other small businesses that use that name not just this site,” the post said. “So what, we changed the name now get off and leave us alone. So Matt doesn’t want to hand over the domain names – pay him for them at the price he wants just like you did the mayor and council that you are addressing in your post.”
Anticipation of a lawsuit
That post became part of the court records in a case Sienna/Johnson filed 15 days later in Fort Bend County District Court, in which it sought to depose Chris Calvin and Matthew Feinberg in anticipation of a defamation and business disparagement lawsuit “in which the Petitioner may be a party.”
In its petition to take depositions from Calvin and Feinberg, Sienna/Johnson said it and its employees “have been the subjects of false and disparaging statements, including malicious accusations of criminal conduct,” made anonymously on Feinberg’s web sites.
As its sole example of such disparagement, the petition seems to refer to the July 19 post by NextDoor: “For example, recently under the name “nextdoorneighbor” a message was posted that indicated Petitioner has made “pay-offs” to the mayor of Missouri City and Missouri City council members. Petitioner is informed that deponent Chris Calvin makes posting under the screen name “nextdoorneighbor.”
The petition also said Sienna/Johnson believed Calvin repeatedly posted on Feinberg’s web sites using multiple pseudonyms “to create the impression that large numbers of residents of Sienna Plantation and Missouri City oppose further development by Petitioner, and thereby affect Petitioner’s economic interest.”
Identification of users
Among other things, the petition asked that Feinberg produce “all documents concerning the identities and IP addresses for the registered users” of Feinberg’s web sites, including “CRD,” “responsible_dvlpmnt,” “BuddyJ,” “Mike,” “JaneL,” “starbuck,” “Jim_Calhoun,” “Bill_Crane,” “twinstuff2,” “nextdoor,” “nextdoorneighbor,” “sundaysiennasurfer,” “sss,” and “donny12.”
Eventually, the notion of a Texas court helping a private business learn the identities of anonymous web forum members attracted significant legal attention, including the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Texas.
Feinberg’s attorneys sought to have Sienna/Johnson’s petition quashed, but their motion was denied by Fort Bend County District Court Associate Judge Pedro Ruiz.
Ruiz did, however, grant a protective order stating, among other things, that identities of users of siennatalk.com and mocitytalk.com be considered confidential and would be disclosed only to attorneys in the case “as well as secretaries, paralegals, law clerks and support staff of those attorneys” and also the parties in the case and their partners and employees.
Ruiz’s ruling set off a flurry of activity by Feinberg’s attorneys in an attempt to head off the depositions, including a Notice of Appeal and Request For Hearing and Emergency Request for Stay of Orders, brought to court Oct. 17 just before the depositions were scheduled to take place.
Right to anonymous speech
“This matter raises an important issue of first impression to Texas jurisprudence,” Feinberg attorney Laura Hermer said in the 35-page notice. “To what extent does Texas protect its citizens’ First Amendment right to anonymous speech on the Internet…?”
As if in answer to that question, Ruiz denied Feinberg’s attorneys an extension of time to file the notice of appeal. And in an early-morning, Ruiz denied a stay of the depositions.
They took place as scheduled, and their full transcripts have not been made part of the public record, in keeping with the court’s protective order.
However, anyone who posted comments critical of Sienna Plantation on Feinberg’s web sites with the expectation of doing so anonymously has had his or her expectations dashed.
Douglas Goff and Chad Johnson of Johnson Development Corp. were present at the depositions, said Sienna/Johnson attorney John Keville, of Howrey LLP.
Among other things, the depositions clarified the issue of whether there really were a large number of people writing anonymous posts on Feinberg’s web sites about Sienna Plantation, Keville said.
“I think it’s fair to say that a lot of the identities were Mr. Calvin,” he added.
Calvin said the legal action by Sienna/Johnson is consistent with what have become known as SLAPPs – strategic lawsuits against public participation.
Keville insists otherwise.
“That’s absolutely not true,” Keville said. “Feinberg was never forced to shut down the web site. This was never about suppressing free speech.”
What to do next
However, he added, “when you cross the line into defamation, that’s another thing.”
As for the court case, Keville said he and his client are discussing what, if anything, to do next.
“We always said we never intended to file suit against Matthew Feinberg, and that still holds true,” Keville said. He would not extend that statement to Calvin.
“I know I’m the target,” Calvin said. “I think they’re trying to divert our political campaign. “We’re trying to get a candidate to run against the mayor.”
David Broiles, meanwhile, a cooperative attorney with the Texas ACLU who assisted in Feinberg’s case, said he and Feinberg’s other lawyers also are discussing what to do next. One possibility would be to seek an order that the depositions be sealed.
Gathering anonymously to talk on a web site forum “is a way of assembling” and a form of free speech protected under the Constitution, Broiles said. And if a court is being asked to compel people to divulge identities of people who have been accused of no wrong-doing, “we want to stop it.”
In Feinberg’s case, however, Broiles acknowledges that didn’t happen.
“It’s certainly a loss to this point,” he said. “We have certainly not prevailed.”
Check this denial quite out from the article:
"Mayor Allen Owen took heat after a deal was reached to relocate a planned group of apartments, to the dissatisfaction of a group of area residents.
In July, for instance, Sienna resident Chris Calvin spoke at a council meeting and said he’d obtained Mayor Owen’s list of campaign contributions, and that more than half of them came from developers. Among the largest contributors, Calvin said, was Larry Johnson, President of Johnson Development Corp. and Sienna Plantation’s developer.
Owen took issue, telling the Fort Bend Star after the meeting that “my vote has never been for sale, nor have I catered to anybody who made contributions to me.”
______________
Isn't this the developer who backs the mayor and benefitted from the land sale for the apartments that the mayor pushed so hard for?
Too bad Sienna Residents can't vote for the public officials that control our land issues. If I lived in MoCity Mr. Poats would have my vote.
Matthew Feinberg
You blog sure gets quite a few comments. I'm going to read thru your posts and see why you are generating so much interest. Bye. Ms. California employment law
Good luck Mr. Poats!
Here's an interesting political piece of analysis on the larger race:
(from brazosriver.com)
March 9 - The Congressional Quarterly moves the DeLay / Lampson race from "Leans Republican" to "a toss up" after reviewing the GOP primary election returns from Tuesday.
Tom DeLay and his partisans are hailing his primary victory Tuesday as a landslide and vindication from his constituents that the Texas Republican’s legal and ethical problems are behind him.
But the primary result in Texas’ 22nd District — 62 percent for DeLay, 38 percent combined for his three little-known GOP challengers — should give him and his supporters pause. DeLay, who has been very popular in his home base in and near Houston through most of his 12-term career, lost nearly two-fifths of the partisan Republican vote: Tom Campbell, a lawyer who had never run for office before, pulled down 30 percent alone. (County-by-county results)
There's also another interesting number to come out of the GOP primary voting. DeLay won Brazoria County with 67% of the vote, Galveston County by 69%, Harris County by 73%, but Fort Bend by only 56%. This proves what I've always said, "Those who know Tom best like him least." Here's a little Ross Perot chart thingy.
Brazoria 67%
Galveston 69%
Harris 73%
Fort Bend 56%
Honey, if these numbers don't highly suggest Tom-fatigue, I don't know what does.
However, a few of my friends suggest it was the robo-calls from County Judge Bob Hebert saying what a perfectly wonderful example of the human species Tom DeLay is that was like roping an anchor on Tom and dropping him off the Brazos River Bridge. It was fun to see that the lobbyist-owned cronies stick together flies and roadkill when the votes are down, Honey.
And before the members of the Republican 101st Fighting Keyboard Brigade, who majored in political science in college rather than real science, get their typing fingers going faster than their brains and say, "Yeah, but a whole bunch more people voted in the GOP primary than the Democratic primary, stop. No, I'm serious. Stop. You are embarrassing yourself. In my 25 years in this county, I have never seen so many crossover votes. Never.
And then I know some Democrats who sat at home so they could sign Strayhorn's petition. Tee hee hee.
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