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VOL 4 No 16
FORT BEND FAIR. BALANCED. INFORMATIVE. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20, 2011
P. O.BOX 623, SUGAR LAND, TX 77487-0623
Official newspaper of Fort Bend County, Missouri City & Sugar Land
Has Sharia law a place in local elections?
Local Tea Party rally
June Gingrich of Sugar Land sums up the spirit of the Tea Party with her eye-catching placard.
Two-year-old Katie Fritzer charmed the audience with her impeccable recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance on the steps of Sugar Land City Hall.
The Fort Bend County Tea Party Society held a rally on April 15 at the Sugar Land Town Center to celebrate “American Freedom and the Spirit of The Alamo.” KSEV 700AM radio host Sam Malone kicked-off the event. The speakers included President and CEO of Empower Texans Michael Quinn Sullivan, Director of Legislative Affairs and attorney with The Liberty Institute Jonathan Saenz, local resident and member of the Spirit of Freedom Women’s Club, Debbie Fancher, Advisory Board Chairman with Americans For Prosperity & KSEV radio talk show host Ben Streusand, Fort Bend County Tea Party President James Ives. Fancher set the tone with her patriotic rendering of the national anthem and later, followed with a stirring speech, comparing her birth country’s (Venezuela) Hugo Chavez and American President Barack Obama. Both the leaders worked on the youth to achieve their political agenda, namely socialist ideology. She had three quotes on display, one from Obama, one from Chavez and one from Adolf Hitler, (see picture above) all hailing the virtues of the youth and channeling their energy. She also alluded to the government campaign against obesity and promotion of breast-feeding as an unnecessary intrusion on personal liberty. As President Obama is doing the same thing as Chavez, it is frightening, said Fancher, whose father still lives in Venezuela. —Photos SESHADRI KUMAR
Furor over fences on levee By SESHADRI KUMAR After Fort Bend County District Judge Brady Elliott denied a motion of injunction filed on behalf of owners of seven properties in Oyster Point, Sugar Land, against Fort Bend County Levee Improvement District No.2 and its chairman Andre McDonald, LID officials removed the encroaching fences on April 15. In a couple of houses, the owners were not present when the fence was being removed. As the operation was in progress, one of the aggrieved residents approached LID consultant Mike Stone and questioned his action. The resident was visibly upset and used foul language against Stone. Then he asked for the dismantled fence, but Stone said that had been hauled away to the dump. Two property owners did not join the lawsuit and one of them was ready to remove the fence. The LID contractors removed the fence and left them with the owner in that particular case. Stone said the residents had been given enough notice. After agreeing to negotiate, the residents filed a lawsuit, he said.
A March 17th letter from the LID attorney to the opposing attorney clearly indicates a final deadline of April 4th for the residents to remove the encroachments themselves. The LID did not begin removing them until April 15. The original notifications started well over 7 months ago. This shows the LID was way beyond reasonable in its actions, a LID spokesman said. In trying to work with the residents, the maintenance project has been delayed by several months, the work had to be rebid which meant significant increased expenses were incurred. The LID has also incurred substantial legal costs, and the project will not be finished before hurricane season starts. The property owners had placed fences over the flood control easement belonging to the LID and the district could not access the area on the banks of Oyster Creek to maintain the levee. After the LID threatened to remove the encroachments, including fences and landscaping, the Oyster Point plaintiffs obtained a temporary restraining order against the LID last
month and a hearing on the motion for injunction was heard on April 8. Since 1990, the Oyster Point plaintiffs claimed ownership of the disputed property and they claimed ownership of the disputed easement because of what is known as “adverse possession” for over 10 years. An affected resident sent the following email in response to an articled published last week in this paper: “Parts of this story are correct, parts of them are not correct. First, the LID did not own the property as of 1979. Sugar Land Properties transferred the land (which didn’t belong to them at the time) to the LID in January of this year. The LID has been very offensive about the entire situation. Judge Brady Elliott did not rule that the LID owns the land. Judge Elliott denied the injunction claiming that the LID must be able to maintain the levee. That still doesn’t mean they own the land. This is not an issue of safety. It’s an issue of huge waste of taxpayers dollars. See FENCE, Page 10
By SESHADRI KUMAR Candidates in the local city and school board elections touted how well qualified each one of them was to be elected, at a candidates forum hosted by the Spirit of Freedom Republican Women Political Action Committee at the Sugar Creek Baptist Church last week. While the candidates talked about maintaining the quality of life, being good stewards of taxpayers’ money and being responsive to the needs of their constituents, the moderators and some members of the audience threw a couple curve balls at the candidates. The questions were about Sharia law and campaign contributions from developers. One may wonder what Sharia law has to do with Sugar Land and Missouri City City Councils or Fort Bend ISD. Recently, a Sugar Land Realtor had posted an advertisement claiming that she had sold a house according to the “Sharia law.” All the candidates were asked what they thought about including Sharia law in local political dealings, such as the city government. The candidates who attended the forum were Don Smithers for Dist. 1, Sugar Land City Council, Jim Hoelker, Amy Mitchell and Howard Paul for Dist. 3 and Harish Jajoo, Frank Yonish and Farah Ahmed for Dist. 4, Bobby Marshall, for
Missouri City Dist. A, Floyd Emery and Noel Pinnock for Missouri City Dist. D and school board candidates Bruce Albright, Kevin Daniels, Daniel Menendez and Jonita Reynolds. Diana Miller for Sugar Land Dist. 1, Rodney Griffin for Missouri City Dist. A, and School board candidates Susan Hohnbaum, Wade Watessek and Rodrigo Carreon did not attend. All the candidates said the Sharia law had no place in local governments. A member of the audience posed a specific question to Farah Ahmed, again citing the Sharia Law. An Islamic bank, under Sharia law, recently opened in Sugar Land and Ahmed was among those present. She was asked to explain about the bank and her presence there. Ahmed said it was a community event attended by several local members, including the mayor of Sugar Land. Ahmed said the bank was established by a group of people from a particular region of India. That community brought its culture and custom in banking from home and established the bank for its members, to help advance capital for projects without collateral. Asked about the difference between Sharia loan and conventional loan, Ahmed said “I don’t know.”
Another question was if the candidates would accept contributions from developers PAC who are at odds with local residents. This is in obvious reference to the Imperial development project where the number of proposed apartments has become a political issue. While Yonish and Hoelker said yes, Paul and Mitchell said no. Ahmed said she would not accept money from developers who do not live in her district. Smithers said no developer has contributed to his campaign. The Imperial project is in Smithers’ district. Smithers was also asked about the Imperial project and he maintained that he is not in support of high density apartments. He does not propose an arbitrary number either. One of the questions to the school board was about teaching less for TAKS tests and would the member support it. Albright and Daniels said yes and Menendez was hesitant to say a straight yes, but agreed with some caveats. Also, Menendez was asked about the potential savings the district could achieve if all the non-teaching administrative staff were asked to take a 5 percent pay cut, before firing teachers. Menendez said he had to check about the potential savings and he did not have a ready answer.
FBISD corrects layoff numbers “Nearly 500 teachers, special education instructors, specialists and librarians in the Fort Bend Independent School District are without a job overnight.” This statement would likely lead many people to believe that 500 FBISD employees were recently laid off, which is not true, the district said in a statement last week. Initially the District identified 483 professional jobs for elimination; however, after completing the final analysis, a total of 396 positions have been eliminated in FBISD
since April 1, 2011. Of those, 7.3 percent (303 teaching positions) of the 4,153 teaching positions were eliminated, and 7.8 percent (93 positions) of the 1,189 administration and professional support positions were eliminated. The breakdown of the 93 administrative and professional support positions reduced is: 0.5 percent campus administration positions (1 position); 20.7 percent (6 positions) central administration; and 8.9% (86 positions) professional support. • 365 employees have taken advantage of the early resigna-
tion incentive since it began March 8. • Of the 396 positions eliminated, 160 employees have actually lost their jobs due to the Reduction in Force (RIF). Almost all of the employees involved in the RIF are still employed with the district until the end of their contract which is the last day of June, 2011. Furthermore, staff members whose positions were eliminated by the RIF are encouraged to reapply for other positions in the district once they become available.
Contract workers rip-off the fences encroaching Fort Bend C o u n t y Levee Improvement District No. 2’s easement along the Oyster Creek in Oyster Point Estates in Sugar Land on April 15. The LID took steps to remove the encroachment after District Judge Brady Elliott lifted a temporary restraining order and refused a motion for injunction against the LID from proceeding with its clearance. The judge’s ruling was on April 8. The LID had previously given a deadline of April 4 for the encroachment to be cleared by the residents.
10701 Corporate Drive, #282, Stafford, TX 77477 Mailing Address: P.O. Box 623, Sugar Land, TX 77487 Seshadri Kumar Publisher & Editor
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Fort Bend Independent, (USPS 025-572) is published every Wednesday (for a subscription rate of $20 per year) by Fort Bend Independent, LLC., 10701 Corporate Dr., #282, Stafford, Texas 77477. Periodicals Postage Paid at Stafford, Texas. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Fort Bend Independent, P.O. Box 623, Sugar Land, Tx 77487.