The allegations against council member Daphne Tenorio could be worse than I ever imagined. Tuesday’s City Council meeting plans to include "discussion and possible action" over whether Tenorio committed a felony.
Tenorio’s defense appears to be along the lines of "Everybody here is just picking on me," because the following item, which she added to the agenda, involves "potential, perceived or real conflicts of interests as it relates to all council members." That agenda item is labeled "an open discussion." However, it’s more likely to be akin to a monologue, since I doubt many, if any, of the other council members will engage in a conversation about their "potential, perceived" conflicts of interests. It appears, on the surface, to be a re-enactment of the final scene of Captain Queeg’s court-martial in The Caine Mutiny, with Tenorio in the role of the Naval captain. Whatever, it does not come across as a sound legal defense and it looks like what she really needs right now is a sound legal defense.
The sequence of the items following the Consent Agenda as they appear on Tuesday’s docket makes for interesting speculation. First, council member Travis Mitchell has an item involving "a general discussion" related to a potential economic development project. Now before anyone jumps to the conclusion I have inside information on potential economic development projects that might be coming to Kyle, let me emphasize that I don’t. But I do pay attention to items listed as topics that will be discussed when the city council goes into one of its seemingly interminable executive sessions and all the economic development projects the council plans to discuss in executive session are given colorful names on the agenda, names like steel blue, shocking pink and the like. So when I see that the item Mitchell wants to discuss is "Just Peachy," I recall from past executive session agendas that is a potential economic development project.
The item immediately following that is also Mitchell’s: the discussion and possible action that could be taken against Tenorio for violating the Texas Penal Code and the Ethics Code. It’s not a stretch to link the two items and reach the conclusion that the council is going to accuse Tenorio of acting on items she learned about in executive session for her personal benefit. As I said yesterday, that section of the Penal Code referred to in that agenda item reads: "A public servant commits an offense if, in reliance on information to which the public servant has access by virtue of the person’s office or employment and that has not been made public, the person (1) acquires or aids another to acquire a pecuniary interest in any property, transaction, or enterprise that may be affected by the information." Acting on information she learned in executive session, presumably about a potential economic development project code-named "Just Peachy," would fall under the code.
Of course, it must be assumed that Tenorio is innocent of any charges lobbed in her direction until such time she is found guilty of those charges in a court of law. But depending on just how serious the allegations are against her, I don’t see how she has any other choice but to resign her council seat for both the good of the city and so that she can devote all her energies and resources to fighting the charges.
The key for her, however, is "fighting the charges." She gets nowhere fighting all the other members of the city council. Possibly her most devoted followers will buy her "I’m straight and the rest of the world is crooked" routine, but it’s not going to sell to an educated, objective listener. That is not a defense. That is a desperate attempt to change the subject.
The other items of note on Tuesday’s agenda involve taking actions on recommendations made last week from the Planning Commission, even a pair of illegal ones (it will be interesting to see how the Council deals with those), although the applicant for the one rezoning, the one on Beebee Road which the Planning Commission recommended both unanimously and legally, is aasking the council to postpone its action for two weeks.
All in all, it’s a comparatively sparse agenda. I can’t help but wonder if other possible agenda items were "evacuated" to get them out of the path of Hurricane Daphne.
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