Email From Bartlett Mayor James Grant

Below is an email I received from the Mayor.

 James M. Grant

Attachment Fri, Jan 27, 2012 at 4:20 PM
Reply-To: jmgrant@texsys.net
To: public.information@oag.state.tx.us

To Whom It May Concern:

My name is James M.Grant, and in May of 2010, I was elected by the
good Citizens of the City of Bartlett to be their mayor. As
background, the City of Bartlett is a Type A General law city, with a
mayoral and council form of government. After several aggressive
moves by the Council to overthrow the Mayor's office, the Council
passed a resolution in June of 2011 requiring the Mayor, and ONLY the
Mayor, to comply with The Great State of Texas' Public Information Act
in order to obtain ANY information from the City. By Council
resolution, the Mayor was twice ejected, under threat of arrest, from
City Hall and denied access to City records.

The Mayor, believing that the Council is acting in contradiction to
the Laws of the Great State of Texas, as outlined in Attorney General
Opinion JC-0544, contacted the County and District Attorney, offering
written, photographed, and audio evidence of their activities, got
only a brush-off statement that it is "small town politics," forcing
the Mayor to forward the information to the Attorney General - no
response.

Attached, you will find a copy of the letter affirming the Council's
resolution, and a copy of all the requests the Mayor has submitted in
an effort to perform his statutory duties as the Chief Executive and
Budget Officer for the City of Bartlett. You should find a request,
dated September 12, 2011, asking for a copy of an email wherein the
City's attorney allegedly advises that the Council is in conflict with
the laws of The Great State of Texas, in requiring the Mayor to comply
with the Public Information Act in order to obtain information. This
is further mirrored in a request dated December 28, 2011, wherein it
is evident that the City Council is denying the Mayor of even his
official communications.

Of particular note, is the first request. If you read the hand
written note, by Councilman Jamie Crathers, it is clear that she
intends to enforce the resolution and that ALL requests must be
cleared by the then City Administrator, Randall Holly. You may note
that she did not sign the second request from July 19, 2011, but that
is because it was not presented to her because the account is related
to her.

You should also note that on August 5, 2011, the Mayor had to
resubmit a sequence of requests after the first ones were "misplaced."
Although it is evident that the Mayor submitted requests, as he had
his copies, which are initialed by the City's Secretary, Diane Evans,
the Mayor submitted "clean" copies to ensure the City had "originals"
with colored date stamps.

It should be pointed out, that the Mayor has the City employee date
stamp the original, but the procedures do not require anyone to sign
for the documents, the Mayor then asks for a copy as a receipt, and
the original is then placed with the City Administrator. The Mayor
makes the City Secretary aware of the request, but as she recently
reaffirmed, the City Administrator, now Chris Hill, who has
independently changed his title to that of City Manager, demands that
all the Mayor's requests flow through him, and none have been returned
to Ms. Evans.

In regards to the request dated August 8, 2011, regarding
information necessary to prepare the City's budget, this is the ONLY
request that was even remotely responded to. A review of the
Council's "CITY OF BARTLETT REQUEST FOR INFORMATION" signature sheet,
will show that the Mayor signed for that response, but annotated that
it appeared much of the information was missing. Ironically, in Mr.
Holly's response, he states he was not given a copy of the of the
requested information nor instructions for its use, but then provides
not only a copy of an odd couple of the pages he denies he received,
but also the instructions given him by the Mayor.

It should be clear, to even the most casual observer, that the
Council intended to deny the legally elected mayor access to the
City's information, and to interfere with the Mayor's statutory
authority. It should also be blatantly obvious that most of the
requests are related to budget and fraud issues. What is not so
apparent, is that Mr. Hill is related to most of the Council as well
as several of the City's employees, and as Mr. Hill's lifelong friend,
Councilman Wally Capetillo stated, 'we ignored many laws and City
policies' to hire Mr.Hill. I still recommend that the Attorney
General listen to the Council's recorded April 2011 executive session,
also attended by the City's attorney, in which they allegedly
discussed their strategies to overthrow the Mayor's office and still
ensure their re-election, and when it is was agreed that Mr. Holly
would be given "all the power" over the City - effectively changing
the City's form of government. It should also be known that both Mr.
Holly and Mr.Hill have stated they have no intention of cooperating
with the Mayor's office.

Regardless of what other actions the Attorney General may take,
perhaps the investigation involving the City of Bartlett and CM
Energies, which exemplifies the Mayor's many concerns, should be
factored into this complaint. Nonetheless, the City's violations
regarding Texas Government Code, Chapter 552, must be addressed.

Respectfully,
James M. Grant, Mayor, City of Bartlett