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VOL 6 No. 25
FORT BEND FAIR. BALANCED. INFORMATIVE. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19 , 2013
P. O.BOX 623, SUGAR LAND, TX 77487-0623
Official newspaper of Fort Bend County, Missouri City & Sugar Land
First round of semifinalists named in 2013 Sugar Land Superstar competition Semifinalist Brittany Villamil won over the crowd recently during the first round of Sugar Land Town Square’s 2013 Superstar competition. Villamil, right, will advance to the finale on Aug. 10. Below, Semifinalist Carman Hammond won over the crowd during the first round of Sugar Land Town Square’s 2013 Superstar competition. Hammond will advance to the finale on Aug. 10. For more information, visit www. SugarLandTownSquare.com. CELEBRATE JULY 4th WITH THE FORT BEND SYMPHONY. The Fort Bend Symphony Orchestra invites area residents to celebrate Independence Day during a free, indoor concert at the Stafford Centre on Thursday, July 4 beginning at 7 p.m. Freedom Rings is sponsored by the City of Stafford and the Fort Bend Symphony Orchestra. The concert features patriotic favorites like Stars and Stripes Forever and other Sousa marches, God Bless the USA and America the Beautiful, as well as Americana and Broadway tunes. Also featured are American Frontier selections like Shenandoah and Hoe-Down from Rodeo. Following the concert at 9 p.m., the City of Stafford will light up the sky with a festive fireworks display behind the Stafford Centre. The Stafford Centre is located at 10505 Cash Road at Murphy Road in Stafford. For more information, visit www.fbso.org or www.staffordcentre.org
Missouri City Councilman “tags” motion approving apartments By BARBARA FULENWIDER Adults of a certain age all played tag when they were kids. Missouri City Councilman Robin Elackatt may or may not have but when he tagged an item regarding apartments on council’s June 17 agenda he wasn’t playing. What his tag did was stop all action including discussion, and sent City Attorney Caroline Kelley back to her office to get her copy of “Robert’s Rules of Order.” A tag is a special procedural rule adopted by council, Kelley told councilmen and then urged them to follow it. Since Councilman Don Smith called for a vote on the apartment issue right after Elackatt said, “I would like to tag this item,” Mayor Allen Owen asked Kelley what the policy was on voting after a tag. Kelley told that mayor that “given that there was a tag, there should be no further discussion and this (item) should be moved to the next available agenda.” Then the mayor asked, “even though there was a motion?” and Kelley answered, “right.” The lawyer said, “Council has a specially adopted ordinance that affords them the opportunity to deviate in a substantial way from Robert’s Rules of Order, which allows the process to be stopped by one individual council member.” Then Councilman Jerry Wyatt asked Elackatt if he wanted to tell council “why you tagged it,“ and Elackatt shook his head no. Smith then called for a vote but the mayor said he did not think that was in order and Elackatt said, “No, you can’t do that.” “Tagging,” Kelley said, “is different from the normal proceeding of Robert’s Rules of Order. This is a special,
Elackatt procedural rule adopted by council. It does afford a somewhat unusual circumstance for one council member to tag an item provided that it does not render that particular item moot. “I recommend that council comport with their adopted ordinance that establishes the ability for one individual council member to postpone consideration of an item,” she said. They did and Owen then moved on to the next agenda item. Council will take up the tagged agenda item allowing apartments for senior citizens to be built in their town at their July 1 meeting. They voted 5-2 in favor on first reading at their June 3 meeting. Wyatt and Elackatt voted against the motion. The motion to approve was for rezoning some 30 acres from retail to multifamily residential on a site that is north of state Hwy. 6, south of Trammel Fresno Road, east of the Fort Bend Parkway and west of Hightower High School. The rezoning conforms with the city’s goals established by the 2009 Comprehensive Plan but is not consistent with Missouri City’s Future Land Use and Character map, which designated the site as appropriate for a business park. The developer of the land told
council that without housing built first, nearby businesses would not survive. After extensive debate, the council majority voted for the change in favor of apartments. At the next council meeting new council member Yolanda Ford will be seated in the place of Bobby Marshall. Marshall supported the change in zoning. Will Ford support it or oppose remains to be seen. If Elackatt plans to kill the proposed apartments, he needs one more vote, provided Jerry Wyatt maintain his no vote. Elackatt on his Facebook page has also posted the question whether Missouri City needs more apartments. (Apartments for seniors, Page 3)
Sugar Land Town Square recently hosted the first round of its eighth annual Sugar Land Superstar competition, spotlighting local talent in Fort Bend County. Eleven contestants competed, and the judges named Darcy Campbell, Sant DeLeon, Carman Hammond and Brittany Villamil the first four semifinalists in this year’s competition. These semifinalists will join the next group of semifinalists
to be named in July to compete at the 2013 Sugar Land Superstar finale on Saturday, August 10 from 7-9:30 p.m. The winner will receive a prize package with items from Sugar Land Town Square retailers and restaurants, and will have the opportunity to sing at future Town Square events. The contestants were voted on by a panel of local, celebrity judges, including Tony Bracy, record representative at Capital
Records; Sarah Golden, folk singer/songwriter and former contestant on NBC’s The Voice; and Micahl Wyckoff, music photographer. The judges’ criteria included vocal talent, stage presence and crowd response. Local radio personality Michele Fisher was the evening’s emcee. Sugar Land Superstar is presented by David Taylor Cadillac. For more information, visit www. sugarlandtownsquare.com.
Former Clements High senior convicted The only person who went to trial in the 2011 senior prank case at Clements High School has been convicted. A jury convicted Benjamin Yu of Criminal Trespass on June 19 after a one-day trial. The 19-year old Sugar Land man was charged with the crime as a result of a senior prank gone awry at Clements High School in 2011. According to Assistant District Attorney Tonika Davis, Sugar Land police officers were dispatched to Clements High School the night of May 13, 2011 when the security alarm activated. They arrived to find over a dozen young men running from the area, dressed in all black and wearing masks. While some escaped, police caught some of the men and began to piece together what had happened. Sixteen students had planned a “senior prank” where they would enter the high school at night and move desks and chairs from the gym to the roof of the building. The desks and chairs were set up in the gym to be used for ad-
vanced placement testing the following day. Students who pass the rigorous AP tests earn college credits while in high school. One of the students hid in the school until late at night when he opened an outer door to allow his accomplices access. Although no desks were moved, several of the defendants entered the school while several were posted as lookouts around the property. Benjamin Yu, one of the defendants who entered the building, managed to flee officers that night, but turned himself in the following day. Yu admitted to officers that he was involved and had entered the building. At trial, the State presented testimony from school officials that even though the defendant considered this a prank, it was indeed a crime. “We are sending a message to the young citizens of Fort Bend County that end of the year celebrations still need to conform with the law. And when a good
kid makes a bad decision, he has to take responsibility for his actions,” said Assistant District Attorneys Tonika Davis and Richa Kumar. Of the 16 men who committed this crime, Yu was the last to be resolved and the only one to go to trial. Fourteen of the others accepted responsibility and received leniency for doing so. Yu was tried in County Court at Law No. 2 before Visiting Judge Larry Wagenbach. Yu was sentenced to 6 months probation
and 24 hours of community service among other conditions. Assistant District Attorneys Tonika Davis and Richa Kumar prosecuted the case. Attorneys Rocket Rosen and Armen Merjanian represented the defendant.Rosen was critical of the plea bargain reached by other students and termed it humiliating. Those students were asked to carry a placard saying , ‘This was not a prank, this was a crime’ and parade in public in front of the school.
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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