Shoreacres Interim Police Chief resigns

Just when you think things can’t get stranger in our little City of Shoreacres, they do. I started to title this post “Shoreacres police follies” but the police aren’t the problem. The governance of the city is the problem, including the city administrator.

After Monday’s council meeting, I received a tip that the interim police chief, Michael R. Massey, had let his peace officer license lapse and was not eligible to serve as a police officer, much less chief. I get these “tips” all the time and most of them turn out not to be true, so I really didn’t put much stock into this one. I mean, seriously?

So I called Massey at City Hall Tuesday morning and left him a voice mail explaining that I needed to ask him a question about it. When I didn’t receive a call back after a few hours, I filed a Texas Public Information Act (TXPIA) request with City Administrator David Stall for a copy of Massey’s employment application and license. I figured that would be a simple task and Stall would scan it in and forward it to me in a matter of minutes. I filed that request 12/10 at 1:49 pm.

Yesterday morning, I knew there must be a problem because I had not received a response from either Massey or Stall. So, I filed a TXPIA with the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE) in Austin. I received a very quick response and it turns out that this time, the “tip” was true. Here is the relevant part of the TCOLE response:

Mr. Massey’s TCOLE license is not currently active.

Late yesterday afternoon, I got word that Massey had resigned. I can’t wait to hear the spin from City Hall.

The witch hunt to force former Chief David Newman out started by hiring a guy that was not licensed to be a police officer to “assess” the department and serve as police chief until a permanent replacement was hired. Unbelievable.

Talk about a nightmare. If you attended the city council meetings since Massey has been “chief”, you know that he presented himself as a working officer. If you didn’t attend, you can go back and listen to the recordings. Even at this week’s meeting, he talked about how the city is not unprotected between the hours of 3 pm and 11 pm because he was on duty. He was even interviewed by ABC13 after the debacle where La Porte fire refused to respond to a drowning. Now the city is going to have to go back and review every piece of paperwork that he generated in his “official” capacity. What a mess.

Don’t expect any charges to be filed against him by the Public Integrity Unit of the Harris County District Attorney’s office. Current DA Devon Anderson is a good friend of Massey’s – remember, Massey spoke at the funeral of her husband Mike. Mike Anderson was elected only after running a corrupt campaign involving a corrupt grand jury. That’s just who these people are.

I don’t even blame Massey – heck, he saw an opportunity to make some easy money ($15,000 to start, then monthly pay) and took it. The buck in this case stops with Mayor Matthew Webber and to a lesser extent, city council. Council passed a resolution on August 22nd giving Webber the authority to hire an interim chief. The minutes of that meeting show that Alderman Bo Bunker made the motion to pass it and Alderman Rick Moses seconded it before it was passed unanimously.

Did Webber not perform a routine background check? Who recommended Massey to Webber? Why would anyone hire a guy that got booted out of Pasadena in 2008 and hadn’t worked as an officer since? Why did no one on council object?

At Monday’s council meeting, Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia made a proposal to outsource our police department. Massey stood in front of Sheriff Garcia and Council and said he didn’t agree with it and council sucked in his every word. Now that we know he doesn’t have a license, perhaps council will take this proposal seriously – a minimum savings of $125k per year is something to take seriously.

But wait!

Mayor Webber don’t need no stinking council to take anything seriously. He’s already decided and this matter is closed. Don’t believe me? Here is his response to a citizen about the proposal:

I appreciate your interest as well as your passion for the finaicial situation of our city. Our Police Department is dearly loved by me and many other citizens. They are at the heart of what makes this city great and I can’t place a price tag on that. I will be performing a Top to Bottom assesment of all city services to determine necessity, priority, importance and cost. From this assessment, I will propose to counciil my plan for living within our means. Be looking for my announcement in the next newsletter and thank you for your efforts in making us a community of choice.

With that being said,I have reviewed your proposal and determined that the City of Shoreacres is not interested in outsourcing our police department.

Matt Webber
Mayor, City of Shoreacres

Who needs a council? Heck, why bother to have meetings? Just let Webber handle it. Note that he will be using the city’s water bills to put out more propaganda to help himself in the May election. Too bad he didn’t “assess” the city’s needs before submitting a budget proposal to spend almost a million dollars more per year than we bring in. Where was his “living within our means” attitude during the budget process? For all practical purposes we are now 25{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} through this fiscal year and no further cost cutting has taken place.

Anyone care to apologize to Chief David Newman? At least he has a license to serve.