E-mail ties Tenorio to basketball team

A copy of an e-mail sent from council member Daphne Tenorio's address cancelling at Kyle Stallions basketball game.

Exactly two weeks before City Council member Daphne Tenorio’s attorney claimed in a letter to the City of Kyle that Tenorio had not purchased the Kyle Stallions semi pro basketball team, an e-mail sent from her personal e-mail account suggests she maintained some form of control over the team.

Tenorio’s possible ownership of the team has raised the question of whether she purchased it based on inside information provided to her solely because of her position on the Kyle City Council. It has been suggested in open City Council meetings that information she was privy to concerning the possible location of a sports complex on city leased land led her to purchasing the team.

Tenorio has asked the city’s Ethics Commission for "an advisory opinion" on the subject, similar, if not identical, to the opinion sought by council member Travis Mitchell from City Attorney Frank J. Garza when Tenorio claimed Mitchell’s company’s practice of doing business with the City constituted an ethics violation. Garza’s written opinion completely exonerated Mitchell.

At first, it was believed the Ethics Commission was going to conduct some form of investigation to determine whether Tenorio may have violated one or more sections of the City’s ethics ordinances by unethically, possibly even illegally, using information she obtained during closed, executive City Council sessions on the subject of this possible new economic development complex for Kyle that would include a venue for the Kyle Stallions for her own personal financial advantage. However, the wording of Thursday’s Ethics Commission agenda — "Discussion and possible action relating to request for an advisory opinion submitted by Council Member Daphne Tenorio on February 21, 2017" and "Discussion and possible action relating to a request for declaratory ruling submitted by Council Member Daphne Tenorio on February 21, 2017" — does not appear, on the surface, to be all that investigatory.

Be that as it may, her maneuver to have this heard by the Ethics Commission stopped, at least temporarily, possible criminal complaints being filed against her, complaints that were to be discussed during a Feb. 21 City Council meeting, but were quashed by Tenorio’s attorney’s filings with the Ethics Commission. City Attorney Frank Garza advised the council any such discussions could be seen as prejudicial to the Ethics Commission.

At that Feb. 21 meeting, Tenorio’s attorney provided a letter to Garza claiming Tenorio did not, at that time, own the team , a claim that seems to contradict Tenorio’s own claims of ownership on Facebook, a story in the Hays Free Press in which she talked about owning the team and, now, this e-mail obtained by The Kyle Report.

If the Ethics Committee is planning any sort of an investigation, it may find it difficult to get any information out of the Stallions organization — given the unlikely scenario that such an organization even functions today — since no one from the organization has responded in any way to my queries about Tenorio’s e-mail, its purpose and its background and, even more seriously, no one from the organization has responded to Lehman High School’s repeated requests to pay the school the money the basketball team owes the school for three past due invoices totaling $669, money that would have to be paid by the team’s owner, whoever that may be.

David L. Bowe, communications specialist for the Hays Consolidated School District, did, however, provide some background on the Tenorio e-mail.

"An e-mail was sent from Lehman High School to a contact for the Stallions asking if gyms were going to be used by the team on Feb. 11th, 18th, and 25^th," Bowe told me. The only response he received was an e-mail that said: "Japan cancelled. So we must cancel our game. :("

That e-mail was dated Tuesday, Feb. 7 at 8:37 a.m. and it indicated it was sent from the e-mail address daphne@tenoriofamily.org, council member Tenorio’s personal e-mail address. Tenorio has also refused my requests to shed additional light on this correspondence.

The e-mail was sent to Michelle Richardson, the athletic secretary at Lehman High School and the individual who appeared to represent the school in its dealings with the Stallions, dealings that turned very sour as the team’s first season in Kyle stumbled to its uncertain end. According to documents obtained by The Kyle Report, in addition to the Tenorio e-mail, the team not only is in hock to the school for $669, but even failed to appear on a couple of occasions when it had reserved Lehman’s gym for home games, leaving the school unguarded and vulnerable.

Things started going south for the Stallions before the end of last year. On Dec. 9, Ester Tavarez, the facility use coordinator and secretary to the director of custodial services at Lehman, received a notification from Evann Radabaugh, the poor sap who appears to be holding a lot of the Stallions’ baggage, especially for the unpaid invoices. Radabaugh, it turns out, is (assuming he still works for the Stallions — and, as I indicated earlier, it’s highly doubtful anyone still works for the Stallions) nothing more than an intern given the title as the organization’s "office administrator," according to the documents obtained by The Kyle Report. The Dec. 9 notification was basically a cancellation notice, which said the Stallions would not need the use of the Lehman gym for games originally scheduled for Dec. 11 and Jan.7.

Richardson tried to learn more about the cancellations by attempting to schedule a meeting with one Rachel Ates, who, at the beginning of the year, was identified as the owner of the Stallions. On Jan. 13, Ates sent Richardson an e-mail that said "Just an FYI, I will not be available on Wednesday, but any other day should be good. Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you." Richardson e-mailed back: "Hi! I will respond soon!"

Four days later, on Tuesday, Jan. 17, at 3:54 p.m. Richardson e-mailed Ates: "I hope this finds you doing well! Are you available to meet Thursday at 3 p.m." Eighteen hours later, Ates replied: "We are no longer going to continue our ownership of the team at this time. The previous owners are taking it back and will be the ones solely responsible. They are interesting people and good luck with that. Thank you for your time."

You are free to interpret that sentence "They are interesting people and good luck with that" however you want to.

By Sunday, Jan. 29, Richardson had seen and not heard enough.

"I have reached out to the Kyle Stallions several times in the past two weeks requesting an updated schedule," she wrote Tavarez on that date. "They have cancelled games and have ‘no shows’ which has resulted in our facilities being OPEN without personnel on campus. I was informed they have a new team owner and only have two games left for this season. I have yet to receive any schedules or other information. At this point, I feel it is in our best interest to protect our facility by cancelling all events previously scheduled."

The timing of this e-mail that contains the sentence "I was informed they have a new team owner" is fascinating because it is right around the time Tenorio began posting Facebook notifications holding herself out to be the new owner of the Kyle Stallions which led to an interview with Hays Free Press news editor Moses Leos III during which she confirmed she owned the team. "By fielding a call from friend Leticia Luna earlier this year, Tenorio was given, and ultimately accepted, the opportunity to buy ownership of the Kyle Stallions basketball team," Leos wrote in a story that appeared in the newspaper’s Feb. 15 edition.

The Kyle Report also has in its possession copies of the past due invoices, each of which were sent twice to Radabaugh’s attention. One, totaling $350, is for a five-hour rental of Lehman High’s Blue Gym and its concession stands as well as security for Nov,. 5. The second, totaling $225, is for a three-hour rental with a note that said this invoice also covered an "open entry door by the concession stand." According to Bowe, the Stallions have also refused to pay a third past-due invoice for $94, an invoice The Kyle Report has not seen,