Some of these posts are ridiculous. The government cannot ruin a private's citizen's land without paying for it. We all have a Constitutional right against unlawful takings without just compensation. Either the City has an easement on this man's land to run drainage through his property, or they don't. If they don't, he can sue them for the damage and block off the drainage. It's cut and dry (no pun intended). Either the City is dumping illegally, or the land owner is violating a contract or deed restriction.
Given that this citizen has legal representation, I'm guessing the City does not have a legal right to dump the water. This is the same crap with the City ordinance forcing people to maintain city property. You can't pass an ordinance to get around the Constitution!
Wait, how is replacing UH-V with TAMU-V economic development? Because I think the LAW requires spending economic development tax proceeds on ACTUAL economic development. Economic development creates jobs that export goods from our community to the rest of the world. The term is defined right in the Economic Development Act, plain as day for our dimwitted City Attorney to read.
Education is not economic development! Marketing not related to bringing BUSINESSES to Victoria is not economic development! Lobbying the legislature is certainly not economic development!
If this is what they're doing, the money should have come out of the General Budget, and it should have been approved in an open meeting, period. I don't care if they cured cancer, you still can't have an ILLEGAL meeting to hide the fact that you're using special tax dollars ILLEGALLY.
I'm sure the Legislature is going to love to be associated with this mess after someone slaps the City with an injunction suit for violating the Texas Constitution through this misappropriation of funds. What a great way to get our City's names in the Austin American Statesman, the Dallas Morning News, and the Houston Chronicle for all of our state reps and senators to read. At least those papers will cover the STORY instead of playing rah-rah cheerleader for the mayor and the small group of more-money-than-brains punks who run this town.
el69runner: Don't forget that he's up for re-election against a candidate who has never tried a murder case and never tried a serious gang case. In contrast, Steve Tyler has never lost a murder case and he sent 15 HPL members to the pen in the last year and just indicted 20 more! Quite an accomplishment for a man who so-called "law enforcement" cannot work with.
For those complaining about the timing of these indictments, remember that these cases would have never been solved if PD hadn't stumbled upon a shipment of marijuana last year. Tyler explains it in the video. These were all unsolved cold cases. They didn't have the evidence until the first round of HPL convictions (the video says 15 gang members convicted) when all the gang members started to spill the beans on each other and turn state's evidence in order to save their own butts.
Great job VPD and all the other agencies involved in this one. There's no bigger threat to Victoria than gang violence.
For those complaining about the timing of these indictments, remember that these cases would have never been solved if PD hadn't stumbled upon a shipment of marijuana last year. Tyler explains it in the video. These were all unsolved cold cases. They didn't have the evidence until the first round of HPL convictions (the video says 15 gang members convicted) when all the gang members started to spill the beans on each other and turn state's evidence in order to save their own butts.
Great job VPD and all the other agencies involved in this one. There's no bigger threat to Victoria than gang violence.
There's are two types of law enforcement officers in Victoria, those who work hard and love their jobs and love making and filing cases with the DA, and those who want to coast, either to retirement or up the ranks. Like most government jobs, the latter group outnumbers the former merely by running the hard workers off for "ruining" it for the rest of them.
When Dexter Eaves beat George Filley, it wasn't because he was a better lawyer. It was because George Filley ticked off the lazy cop gestapo and they backed Dexter. Steve Tyler beat Dexter Eaves, who in his 8 years let the lazy cop gestapo run the show. The lazy cop gestapo is tired of working hard, is tired of having to go to trial, and is tired of having their "work" criticized. So they back Deborah Branch, honorary member of the lazy cop gestapo, lazy career assistant prosecutor division.
If Deborah Branch is such a good prosecutor, how come she's never been trusted with taking a MURDER case to trial in her career? How come she's been a career assistant, and never started her own practice? Is it because she cares too much about prosecution to leave a safe government job? I hope she wasn't afraid to take career into her own hands and feed herself as a trial attorney instead of depending on the goodwill of three different elected district attorneys. Because fear has little place in the office of the trial attorney representing the State of Texas in Victoria County.
Lucky for her, she won't be making any decisions for herself if elected. That duty will be back in the hands of the lazy cop gestapo.
Wow, the man takes a pay cut and works on getting the county a grant, and yet Steve Tyler still can't get his name in the headline of a positive story from the Victoria Advocate. But I guess that would be giving a man credit and drawing attention to him, which doesn't sell papers or swing an election. Not that it's the writer's fault, as the editors control the headline.
mikeberman,
Actually, I'm not confused at all. Right before Chief Ure's case was supposed to go to a jury, Judge Cheshire allowed Mr. Cagle to put Steve Tyler on the stand in open court for TWO DAYS to try to prove whether or not Mr. Tyler was a witness to this case. There is a court record of Mr. Tyler being examined for hours, outlining all the evidence he has against Chief Ure. Judge Cheshire ruled Tyler was not an essential witness and that Tyler could prosecute the case. It wasn't until after Cheshire recused himself that Judge Williams reversed that decision and granted Chief Ure's motions to dismiss the case and SEAL THE RECORD.
If Chief Ure wants the world to see what evidence Mr. Tyler has, there's a sealed public record of it sitting at the courthouse filled with two days of his attorney interrogating Steve Tyler about every detail of the case. So, Chief Ure, why don't YOU release the record???
Wow. Bold comments from the chief, seeing as HIS attorneys were the ones that sealed the records from the trial.
I agree with Writein! They might even want to consider disclosing which campaigns their owners have invested heavily in. Unless you don't consider co-signing a loan by a candidate "contributing".
Newsletter
Some of these posts are ridiculous. The government cannot ruin a private's citizen's land without paying for it. We all have a Constitutional right against unlawful takings without just compensation. Either the City has an easement on this man's land to run drainage through his property, or they don't. If they don't, he can sue them for the damage and block off the drainage. It's cut and dry (no pun intended). Either the City is dumping illegally, or the land owner is violating a contract or deed restriction.
Given that this citizen has legal representation, I'm guessing the City does not have a legal right to dump the water. This is the same crap with the City ordinance forcing people to maintain city property. You can't pass an ordinance to get around the Constitution!
Wait, how is replacing UH-V with TAMU-V economic development? Because I think the LAW requires spending economic development tax proceeds on ACTUAL economic development. Economic development creates jobs that export goods from our community to the rest of the world. The term is defined right in the Economic Development Act, plain as day for our dimwitted City Attorney to read.
Education is not economic development! Marketing not related to bringing BUSINESSES to Victoria is not economic development! Lobbying the legislature is certainly not economic development!
If this is what they're doing, the money should have come out of the General Budget, and it should have been approved in an open meeting, period. I don't care if they cured cancer, you still can't have an ILLEGAL meeting to hide the fact that you're using special tax dollars ILLEGALLY.
I'm sure the Legislature is going to love to be associated with this mess after someone slaps the City with an injunction suit for violating the Texas Constitution through this misappropriation of funds. What a great way to get our City's names in the Austin American Statesman, the Dallas Morning News, and the Houston Chronicle for all of our state reps and senators to read. At least those papers will cover the STORY instead of playing rah-rah cheerleader for the mayor and the small group of more-money-than-brains punks who run this town.
el69runner: Don't forget that he's up for re-election against a candidate who has never tried a murder case and never tried a serious gang case. In contrast, Steve Tyler has never lost a murder case and he sent 15 HPL members to the pen in the last year and just indicted 20 more! Quite an accomplishment for a man who so-called "law enforcement" cannot work with.
For those complaining about the timing of these indictments, remember that these cases would have never been solved if PD hadn't stumbled upon a shipment of marijuana last year. Tyler explains it in the video. These were all unsolved cold cases. They didn't have the evidence until the first round of HPL convictions (the video says 15 gang members convicted) when all the gang members started to spill the beans on each other and turn state's evidence in order to save their own butts.
Great job VPD and all the other agencies involved in this one. There's no bigger threat to Victoria than gang violence.
For those complaining about the timing of these indictments, remember that these cases would have never been solved if PD hadn't stumbled upon a shipment of marijuana last year. Tyler explains it in the video. These were all unsolved cold cases. They didn't have the evidence until the first round of HPL convictions (the video says 15 gang members convicted) when all the gang members started to spill the beans on each other and turn state's evidence in order to save their own butts.
Great job VPD and all the other agencies involved in this one. There's no bigger threat to Victoria than gang violence.
There's are two types of law enforcement officers in Victoria, those who work hard and love their jobs and love making and filing cases with the DA, and those who want to coast, either to retirement or up the ranks. Like most government jobs, the latter group outnumbers the former merely by running the hard workers off for "ruining" it for the rest of them.
When Dexter Eaves beat George Filley, it wasn't because he was a better lawyer. It was because George Filley ticked off the lazy cop gestapo and they backed Dexter. Steve Tyler beat Dexter Eaves, who in his 8 years let the lazy cop gestapo run the show. The lazy cop gestapo is tired of working hard, is tired of having to go to trial, and is tired of having their "work" criticized. So they back Deborah Branch, honorary member of the lazy cop gestapo, lazy career assistant prosecutor division.
If Deborah Branch is such a good prosecutor, how come she's never been trusted with taking a MURDER case to trial in her career? How come she's been a career assistant, and never started her own practice? Is it because she cares too much about prosecution to leave a safe government job? I hope she wasn't afraid to take career into her own hands and feed herself as a trial attorney instead of depending on the goodwill of three different elected district attorneys. Because fear has little place in the office of the trial attorney representing the State of Texas in Victoria County.
Lucky for her, she won't be making any decisions for herself if elected. That duty will be back in the hands of the lazy cop gestapo.
Wow, the man takes a pay cut and works on getting the county a grant, and yet Steve Tyler still can't get his name in the headline of a positive story from the Victoria Advocate. But I guess that would be giving a man credit and drawing attention to him, which doesn't sell papers or swing an election. Not that it's the writer's fault, as the editors control the headline.
mikeberman,
Actually, I'm not confused at all. Right before Chief Ure's case was supposed to go to a jury, Judge Cheshire allowed Mr. Cagle to put Steve Tyler on the stand in open court for TWO DAYS to try to prove whether or not Mr. Tyler was a witness to this case. There is a court record of Mr. Tyler being examined for hours, outlining all the evidence he has against Chief Ure. Judge Cheshire ruled Tyler was not an essential witness and that Tyler could prosecute the case. It wasn't until after Cheshire recused himself that Judge Williams reversed that decision and granted Chief Ure's motions to dismiss the case and SEAL THE RECORD.
If Chief Ure wants the world to see what evidence Mr. Tyler has, there's a sealed public record of it sitting at the courthouse filled with two days of his attorney interrogating Steve Tyler about every detail of the case. So, Chief Ure, why don't YOU release the record???
Wow. Bold comments from the chief, seeing as HIS attorneys were the ones that sealed the records from the trial.
I agree with Writein! They might even want to consider disclosing which campaigns their owners have invested heavily in. Unless you don't consider co-signing a loan by a candidate "contributing".