The Pilot Point City Council again ran into concerns regarding wet events during voting days at its Jan. 23 meeting.
Council member Ray Dane, council member Elizabeth Jones and council member Everett Cummings led the conversation against the Cinco de Mayo event happening on voting day because of the impact drinking could have while council member Andrew Ambrosio presented a different concern.
“The city only has one voting location—it’s the senior center and the problem is the street closure,” Ambrosio said. “For people on the north side of town, the street is blocked off. If the event was at Groff Park or somewhere that wasn’t right next to the voting booth, I wouldn’t have a problem.”
Patty Wheeler and Aaron Rocha spoke for Wheeler Events LLC with Mayor Elisa Beasley weighing in in their favor.
“I can honor your objection because that’s valid,” Beasley said to Ambrosio. “But to say that because people are going to be drinking, they’ll be intoxicated at the polls, that would mean every city needs to shut down bars every time there is an election. That’s absurd.”
As the conversation shifted away from the issue of alcohol, Wheeler countered Ambrosio’s suggestion to move the event with a suggestion for the city to move the polling location which was later backed by William Harrison and further considered.
'Early voting times could be at the community center and actual voting day could be at the high school,” Harrison said. “It could be two different places. I’ve seen it in the past.” Council’s final motion from Beasley was to approve the events as proposed with the condition staff gather further information on the feasibility of adjusting the polling location.
“It would be proper to approve the calendar as proposed unless the polling location can be moved, in which case the May 3 date would be approved for Cinco de Mayo,” Brenda McDonald said.
The following two items stemmed from the council’s Dec. 13 special meeting regarding Beasley’s conduct starting with a letter of reprimand regarding administrative overreach from the mayor in an email from Dec. 10.
“The recent actions represent a pattern, … which we feel could put our city at risk,” council member Chad Major said. “Some actions represent potentially acting as a representative or agent of the city independent or separate from overall council approval or not in concert with the city manager or attorney.”
The email consisted of a timeline for how the mayor and city manager should construct the council’s agenda and further requested a weekly report to the dais in addition to the existing monthly reports the city manager sends the entire council.
“The mayor requested in her email that he send another report on a certain date and wanted it on that date every month,” Ambrosio said. “The problem with that is where does it stop. This letter of reprimand is basically ‘Listen, you can’t tell any staff what to do by yourself.’” After each council member gave their opening statement on the matter, Beasley began her rebuttal.
“I want to ask every member of this dais, ‘Have you ever called or sat in a meeting with Britt and asked him for any information, to see a report, to talk about a development?’” Beasley asked with each member answering yes without being allowed to expand before she continued.
The mayor rounded out her initial case against the letter, stating if what she’d done was administrative overreach, then each other member should be served a similar letter.
“You all have done exactly what I have done, which quite frankly is a silly thing,” Beasley said before presenting another option. “Or you revoke this letter, and I’d love an apology, but I’m not going to push for that. … If you choose to put your signature on this letter, that’s fine. I have no other political aspirations.”
Ambrosio met Beasley’s argument that her email was no different than the regular meetings each council member has with Lusk with the question of what constitutes an inquiry because the inciting email consisted exclusively of requests phrased as orders.
“The definition of inquiry is asking someone. In that email, … you give Britt a directive. You’re not asking for information; you’re asking him to do something by a specifi c date,” Ambrosio said before following the mayor’s previous framework and posing a question to each council member individually.
Each answered they had never independently given Lusk a directive.
As the council prepared to vote, council member Brian Heitzman mentioned a pair of transparency concerns regarding the mayor’s old LinkedIn profile that shows she’s still employed by Advantix, owned by local developer Nathan Brown, and that she maintains a nonprofit with his wife Shannon Brown.
“I don’t use LinkedIn, … [and] didn’t realize this was a disclosure session,” Beasley said. “Shannon Brown is my partner for a nonprofit. We’ve done a whole lot of work here in Pilot Point.”
Major made the motion to approve the letter, seconded by Dane who further asked that a statement be added saying the mayor refused to acknowledge the reprimand at the mayor’s request. Council approved the letter with a single dissenting vote from the mayor.
A collection of community members, including Nathan Brown, Brian Beasley, Steven Birkelbach, Kristina Rocha and Kimberly Lawson chastised the dais for its actions.
The council followed with a discussion regarding a collection of misstatements Beasley has made during her videos posted to Facebook.
“I am not going to stand here and defend anything,” Beasley said before opening the floor. “I am not going to sit here and argue with you.”
Ambrosio opened with a clarification. “You are allowed to post what you want to post on social media; that’s not the issue,” Ambrosio said. “Some of the stuff is not entirely correct, and … we felt like this forum was a way to discuss this on public record to get out to our constituents [that it] is not accurate information. It’s not to attack you; it’s to discuss some of the posts.”
Several council members addressed individual instances where Beasley selectively quoted the charter, quoted an ordinance as the charter, maligned the validity of the Governance Document and claimed the council has been hostile toward her from the onset of her term in office.
To see the complete conversation, the video recording of the meeting is available on the city’s website.
“In my opinion, your posts have spread misinformation and have promoted divisiveness in the community,” Dane said. “This is not only because of what you say in your posts, but it’s also because of your tone, the verbiage you use, and just as often, it’s because of what you don’t say. … The truth is, that social media can be a very destructive form of communication, and we all have a responsibility to use it professionally and constructively.”
Pilot Point Mayor Elisa Beasley looks past council member Elizabeth Jones to council member Chad Major as he takes his turn addressing the misstatements he’s discovered in Beasley’s social media posts. Basil Gist/The Post-Signal
