Ethicly Speaking

So there were 2 issues that I am having a bit of a problem with involving Chief Crow. I want to stress, I don't think any laws were broken. But there is an ethical point of things that I believe have been crossed in these 2 issues.

The first is the investigation of missing funds from JB Wells. Now I have several problems with our own police department investigating these missing funds.

1) JB Wells funds were at times dropped off at the police station for safe keeping until the next business day where they would be turned into the city office. This leads to a conflict of interest when you start investigating your own people. It's hard to be truly objective when it's your own family, or in this case your own department are involved.

2) Even if the funds had not ever landed at the police station, we live in a small town. And I am just going to say it, there are those that are, and those that aren't. And if you are, then justice has a tendency to look a little different when it comes to you. No matter what the final report sent to the DA there will forever be a whisper in Gonzales about the one that got special treatment, or got away, or was the scapegoat because of the local police departments investigation. Now I want to stress, I'm not saying it will be so, but in this town it will still be the talk of the town as soon as the DA announces their decisions.

3) I know that the Texas Rangers were given the information, and the city council was told this to appease them that the investigation was going outside of our PD. I know that at least a couple of the council members were shocked to hear that GPD filed the report with the DAs office instead of the Rangers. This whole thing, 100% of EVERYTHING, should of been handed off to the Texas Rangers, impartial outside agency that has no ties to Gonzales or it's people.

Second is the handling of the JB Wells concession. Shortly after Mr. Maeler was fired, all of the concessionaire personnel were also fired and Sarah Tenberg was put in place to run it.

So what are my complaints here? Several

1) Why didn't we put an RFP out FIRST then after the award was given then we relieve the employees. We put the cart before the horse here.

2) Second, it's taken the city almost 2 months to get an RFP out, and now another month before the deadline. I'm hoping that they don't try to push the awarding of the contract out another month because of the shortage of time between the deadline and the next city council meeting. But without any bidding process, a private business was given an inside line to a potentially lucrative contract out at JB Wells.

3) Third, and here comes the small town politics, Mrs Tenberg is friends of the Crow family. Read #2 about private business and inside line.

Any laws broken that way? Not that I'm aware of, but poor ethical judgement was used here.

I've been arguing that the concessions needed to be sourced out for over a year now, and am happy that it's happening, but we did this all wrong, and once again the whispering underlying the whole thing is just incredible.

When are those in public office going to learn they need to be ethnically above board, and transparent in their actions that affect those they serve? In both of these cases Chief Crow has not been.

Again, I want to stress, I don't believe anything illegal has occurred. I just don't believe that the best interest of the City of Gonzales were considered when these actions were taken. That's just my opinion.

God Bless
Dennis Nesser

PS - I wish everyone in Gonzales the Happiest of Thanksgiving.