07/24/2023
CCD anonymously publishes all submissions after editing for grammar and readability.
https://clearcreekdredges.com/henry-drummond-outed-by-reader/
Dear Clear Creek Dredge Report,
The following are my thoughts.
I received a copy of your most recent article, which discussed a number of topics that people are simply afraid to discuss. Please use every resource at your disposal to spread the word about these articles via email and social media. I’ve decided to contribute to the topic.
Let’s take a look at what is happening in Mark Henry’s Galveston County:
1) Galveston County Judge Mark Henry, Commissioners Joe Giusti, Darrell Apffel, and the late Ken Clark voted to redistrict the county commissioners’ precincts by dividing the highest concentration of minority voters into three different precincts in order to effectively remove Commissioner Stephen Holmes, the lone Democrat who opposed their policies. Tyler Drummond, the Chief of Staff for Judge Henry, planned everything behind the scenes.
After Commissioner Clark died, Judge Henry appointed Dr. Robin Armstrong to take his place. Dr. Armstrong was chosen for two reasons: first, to try to use the excuse that they couldn’t be racist since they appointed a black Commissioner even though they divided the minority vote among three different precincts. Armstrong doubtlessly understands that he was appointed by the judge’s goodwill and is therefore required to support Henry’s decisions.
2) As Chief of Staff to Judge Mark Henry, Tyler Drummond asked a number of candidates to run for County Treasurer under the specious platform that they would “shut down the office to save the taxpayers over $500k.” The County Treasurer lacks the power under the constitution to close his own office. The only legislative body with that constitutional authority is the Texas State Legislature. Even Terri Leo Wilson, the state representative for Galveston County, opposed the legislation that would have allowed voters to decide whether to abolish the position. Many potential candidates rejected Drummond because they would not run a campaign based on a lie. Hank Dugie was the lone candidate to attach himself to Drummond’s nonsense because Dugie knew the endorsements would be forthcoming. The County Judge wants to abolish the position so that the duties will be brought under the authority of the county commisioners. This will allow him to outsource services. Henry has been a prolific outsourcer which has brought his campaign chest massive sums from the private entities that benefit from the contracts. It is also plain that Henry’s administration is the least transparent in the county if not the state. It is a certainty that the county’s finances will become even less transparent now that Henry got rid of Walsh. Henry will effectively be in charge of a small hedge fund with hundreds of millions of dollars available for distribution. Contractors, outside law firms hired by the county, engineering firms, etc., will be happy to entice and reward the man holding the purse strings. Additionally, millions of dollars could be lost without any accountability to the county taxpayers if the Judge’s appointment makes a poor investment. The action is entirely focused on consolidating power and has nothing to do with good governance.
3) The Judge will embrace Dugie as he claims that after the County Treasurer position was eliminated, Galveston County voters asked him to continue serving them, which is why he is running for County Commissioner of Precinct 3. This is Dugie’s reward for playing the role of useful idiot. It is easy to forecast that lucrative landscaping contracts for his father Kiki Dugie’s business will be additional rewards. How is it possible to believe that a 30-year-old man who has never held a job can manage hundreds of millions of dollars in the best interests of thousands of people?
Why was this engineered by Tyler Drummond? The consolidation of power for the benefit of Henry and Drummond – his chief of staff. Henry now has a super majority on a Commissioners Court where two of the members are bound to Judge Henry through appointments of Commissioner Armstrong and the hand selection of the useful idiot Hank Dugie. As a result, none of his self-promoting policies will be rejected by the court.
Let’s refresh our memory with a Letter to the Editor of the Galveston Daily News from former League City Mayor Pat Hallisey:
To the Citizens of Galveston County,
As Mayor of League City, I dispute the facts disseminated by League City Councilman Nick Long in his guest column. Let me tell you the truth about what is going on in Galveston County. Rearing its ugly head is the power-hungry County Judge who, along with his political cronies, are trying to take control of the finances of Galveston County and influence your League City Council. If they succeed it will silence your voice. Is this what You, the citizens of League City and Galveston County, voted for?
Why would members of League City Council attack the sitting Galveston County Treasurer and work to eliminate a State of Texas Constitutional office, an office that operates to protect and disburse your tax dollars? The State of Texas established the need for checks and balances in County government and the Treasurer’s Office is a necessary part of that protection. 245 of the 254 counties in Texas have independently elected County Treasurers who perform the duties established in the Texas Constitution.
Evidently, Long does not understand how counties function. It is irrelevant that League City has a larger budget than the County. And, Galveston County has been awarded Certificates of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting every year for over a decade. Obviously, Councilman Long doesn’t know these facts either.
As Mayor of League City, I know that Cities and Counties are not comparable. Counties are established, regulated and can only do what is allowed by the Texas Constitution, whereas Cities establish their own rules and regulations. Mayor Pro-Tem Long and Councilman Dugie should know this. They don’t care to know how County Governments operate. Running to eliminate the County Treasurer’s office you would think that candidate Dugie would have done research, especially given his limited experience. The policies, regulations and operations require qualified opinions to consider its elimination. Why do they continue to lie claiming that the elimination of the Treasurer’s office will save money? There is no evidence that this will save money! Is it their intention to fire the 6 hard-working women in the Treasurer’s Office? If what Dugie says is true, that there are other departments able to absorb these duties. Then, what are these individuals, who will be assigned the new duties, doing now? Will they be sitting around for the next year waiting for their new assignments? If these departments have so much free time, why are they not being eliminated immediately in order to save taxpayer’s dollars?
Nick Long repeated another lie that Dugie keeps spreading, that the Treasurer’s Office lost $525,000. This is a lie! An independent forensic audit found the Treasurer’s Office was not at fault. Both know the truth, yet continue spreading lies. If you don’t want the County Judge and his cabal controlling your City and finances of Galveston County, then you need to let them know and vote for the Incumbent County Treasurer, Kevin Walsh. Let’s keep the County Judge out of our Business.
– Mayor Pat Hallisey
4) The newly drawn Galveston County Commissioner Precinct 3, which includes the majority of League City and a small portion of Friendswood, is actually the most conservative precinct in the county. Stephen Holmes will almost certainly be replaced by a Republican as the next commissioner. Michelle Hatmaker and Seth Alford are the two officially declared candidates at this time. But no doubt Dugie is salivating to collect his dues from Henry and Drummond. After all, Dugie had to forgoe the Treasurer salary to shut it down. The six figure salary from the commissioner’s office will easily compensate when you consider all the business that will get thrown his family’s way.
In 2014, Hatmaker ran for county judge but lost to Mark Henry in a race that was, in a word, dirty. In 2018, she attempted to run for county commissioner but was unsuccessful. Most recently, she unsuccessfully ran for the position of Senate District 11 State Republican Executive Committee (the SREC is the leadership of the Texas Republican Party).
Politically, Seth Alford appears to be unknown. He was raised nearby, left to join the Marine Corps as an officer, returned to raise his family, and now owns a stake in an oil and gas construction business. What is known is that Alford’s political consultant, Jordan Berry, successfully ran the campaigns against previous candidates hand selected by Judge Henry and Tyler Drummond.
The amount of deceit and pain they (Henry and Drumond) have been able to quietly execute is impressive. Some die-hard Republicans try to speak out, but when they do, they’re ostracized by Henry and Drummond’s political machine or in the case of politicians, the machine sources and finances a challenger against them. Former County Treasurer, Kevin Walsh, didn’t want to take all of the blame from Judge Henry for the fraud incident that cost the county $525,000, so the Judge ran Hank Dugie against him. In the case of County Treasurer Cheryl Johnson, they ran a challenger against her not to win, but just to force her to spend money on her campaign.
The “cabal” as former Mayor Pat Hallisey describes it has now found its way into influencing the League City Council and the Sheriff’s Office. The word is that unless you pay Tyler Drummond to be your political consultant, he won’t put you on the slate and use back channels to negatively campaign against you. Negative campaigning is seemingly his tried and true method of campaigning. It’s a pretty dirty world within the Galveston County GOP. Most folks would seemingly rather do the bidding of the cabal than fight them. It will take fresh candidates to change this trend that started with Judge Mark Henry coming into office of using his Chief of Staff to do his dirty work.
The following are my thoughts.I received a copy of your most recent article, which discussed a number of topics that people are simply afraid to discuss. Please use every resource at your disposal to spread the word about these articles via email and social media. I’ve decided to contribute to the...
