Jeff’s Post about my email on his Campaign’s Facebook Page
The day after I sent my email, Jeff posted it on his campaign’s Facebook page, along with a message about me.
His message was clearly a political attack against me, and I say that not only because it was on his campaign page, but also because at the end of it he had said: “I have no desire to see him serve on Council. You shouldn’t either.”
In his message, Jeff misled the public, once again, stating “The most recent CEO of the EDC resigned last year (even though Mr. Hauenstien [sic] states she was removed).” Jeff was fully aware that she had been asked to resign under pressure from him as Board Liaison. If she had just resigned, she would not have been entitled to any severance, and she would not have received any.
He also stated “At that time, I spoke to Mr. Hauenstien [sic] and let him know what my thoughts were and again emphasized to him that it would ultimately be up to the Board.” But if you listened to the recording of that phone call from February 1st of 2021, you know that Jeff hadn’t let me know what “his” thoughts were. He had told me repeatedly that the council wanted the CEO removed and the reasons that he purported to have heard from them. Again, Jeff was lying to the public about his role in the CEO's removal. Also, while he had said “it would ultimately be up to the Board”, Jeff knew that he was actively pursuing a path which would have put that decision in the hands of the City Manager if the BoD had not acquiesced to his request. It was a decision for the BoD to make only so long as it made the decision which he wanted.
Jeff was also dishonest in the timing of his idea of having the City Manager appointed over the EDC. He had stated:
"After the former CEO resigned and after some though and reflection of why over many years (even predating the former CEO) the City was not getting the results desired when it came to economic development, I recommended to the City Council that it would be a good time to modify the by-laws to transfer the authority of the EDC Board and CEO to the City Manager's office."
Yet Jeff had first proposed that change almost two months before the CEO's resignation, as I recounted in an earlier blog post. Jeff was again lying to the voters about how these events had played out. Jeff had driven off the former CEO explicitly so he could make this change, not the other way around as he was portraying it in his statement.
Regarding how Jeff had wanted to have the by-laws modified, Jeff stated:
“Mr. Hauenstien [sic] apparently disagrees. I would have zero problems if Mr. Hauenstien [sic] simply disagreed with the fact that the CEO position is no longer under the EDC Board and that the EDC is now under the City Manager’s office. However, to accuse me (and others) of misconduct, unethical actions, and dishonesty is plain and simply defamation.”
There are a few points here I need to make.
First, I initially had no concern about modifying the by-laws to name the City Manager or her designee as the CEO, in fact structurally I still have no concern about the arrangement. It was only after I learned that the council was being manipulated into that decision that I had any strong concern, and I am concerned about the BoD being treated as an “advisory board”, because that simply isn’t what Texas’ legislature intended when it vested all of the powers of the EDC in the BoD. (See end end of the earlier blog post about the emails I sent Frank Millsap and Chance Lindsey where I had no concerns with the change itself.)
Second, Jeff is guilty of misconduct, unethical actions, and dishonesty, as I hope any readers of this document understand by this point. Jeff accused me of defamation, but defamation requires the allegations to be false. He knew he was guilty of exactly what I was stating.
Jeff did make one point quite sarcastically which actually bothered me:
“Finally, since Mr. Hauenstien [sic] likes me, he has refrained from going public sooner. How nice of him.”
I learned through this process that Jeff doesn’t feel the same concern for me that I felt for him, but on top of that, his mockery of my concern did sting a bit. I had known and served with Jeff almost uninterrupted for over 15 years, and I honestly did want to spare him from public disparagement. I see he had no such compunction about disparaging me.
It was quite the contrast, that I had spent over a year trying to have his misconduct addressed discretely, and it took him less than 36 hours to publicly use my email in a personal political attack against me.
