So, what's the rest of the story?

  I have heard the story of the Johnson family of Fulton over the years and their ordeal with the Navigation District, but never much of the details - until now.    I will try to do their story justice, but there has been so much injustice I doubt I will be very successful.   The Johnson family roots in the South Texas area have been established since 1845.   John’s Great Grandmother was Katherine Simpson, daughter of John Simpson.   She first married Frank Casterline and had five children.   Her second husband was William Bourke Johnson.   Kate and WB had a son named John William (Bill) Johnson, John Johnson’s Grandfather.   Bill Johnson inherited the property upon WB’s death.   Bill and his wife Alice Elizabeth Carleton Johnson had 3 children, one of which was William Edward (Eddie) Johnson, John’s father.     Eddie married Bobbie Jean Townsend and together they had 2 children, John and Deborah.   In March of 197...

      Today’s post will delve into an historical event with some important significance.     I have heard about this story for some time and until yesterday it was just a story.   A friend of mine sent me 7 attachments in an email that painted a picture of potential conflict of interest and impropriety.   But that is for the Texas Ethics Commission to decide.   January 2015, Everett Michael Skipper aka Mike Edwards and his company Lydia Ann Channel Group, aka Lydia Ann Channel Moorings, aka Lydia Ann Channel Moorings, LLC (LACM).   Secured a lease from the GLO for roughly a mile of the west side of Saint Jose Island at the intersection of the Lydia Ann Channel, the Shrimp Boat Channel and the Corpus Christi Ship Channel.   Mired in controversy almost from the start over accusations of fast tracking by the Army Corp of Engineers, the GLO and a handful of other state agencies with regulatory authority; it was shortly discovered tha...

  Welcome to the 4 th posting of So, What’s the Rest of the Story   There is a European folk tale entitled Henny Penny, known in the U.S. as Chicken Little.   It is about a chicken who believes the sky is falling.   Most of us knew it as children.   Today I am going to discuss the local version of Chicken Little played by Navigation District Chairman Malcolm Dieckow.     Chairman Dieckow has been trumpeting “Little Bay is dying” for months now.   He reached fever pitch in June when he hired an Austin Public Relations firm who put on a seriously flawed, one might say intentionally flawed story line, regarding Little Bay last month at the Salt Water Pavilion.   Publicly Malcolm has said that was his sponsored meeting and not that of the Navigation District proper.   But it was the Navigation District who paid for it.   Malcolm and the PR firm represented among other things, that 2.5 million gallons of treated sewage is being ...

  Welcome to the 3 rd posting of So, What’s the Rest of the Story dedicated to all things Nav District.   This is a continuation of the last posting where we take an in-depth look at what they provided in response to my Open Records Request.   Request 3:   Copies of the approved Budgets from 2020, 2021 and 2022 and the minutes where the Budgets were formally approved.   Printed copies of the last 2 years (2020 and 2021) and the first 2 months of this year’s monthly Financial Statements of the District to include Balance Sheets, Income Statements, Sources and uses of funds and Comparison of Actual to Approved Budget.   Copies of Treasurers Reports for each month in the last 2 years and the first 2 months of this year. Answer:   The District provided me with the 2020, 2021 and 2022 budgets, but all 3 were marked as Proposed.   They did NOT provide any minutes where the budgets were subsequently discussed.   They did not provide any evi...

  Thank you for your interest in SO, WHAT’S THE REST OF THE STORY , dedicated to all things Navigation District.   Please tell others about this blog to spread the word.  And please accept my apologies as I didn't even mention my name in the first publishing.  I am learning.  My name is Jack Wright.  I moved my family to Rockport in 1996.  I have been on a variety of Boards and Community endeavors over the years including 19 years as a School Board Trustee.  I have many reasons for showing the shortcomings of the Nav District.  One of the historically significant reasons was knowing Doug Norrell as a friend and customer.  Doug was a Nav District Commissioner when his counterparts on the Board decided to sue him over the property he owned known as Little Bay Marine.  The District spent over three quarters of a million dollars in legal fees suing Doug and they lost.  They continued losing until they ran out of insurance money tha...

 I became interested in the Aransas County Navigation District in late 2021 and their lack of proper procedures regarding Open Meetings.  From the evidence I found, any meeting they held on a Monday has not been properly posted at the County Courthouse since that building became the Courthouse following Hurricane Harvey.  Notices of meetings must be posted at least 72 hours in advance of a meeting in 2 places.  The first is at the outside front of the Navigation District Office and it is compliant.  The second notice is placed outside the County Clerk's office on a bulletin board.  Those notices are routinely posted Thursday or Friday for the District's Monday meeting.  But the front door to the Courthouse is locked at the close of the business day Friday for the weekend and the postings are not available for public viewing for the required 72 hours in that circumstance. I attended the January 3rd meeting of the District and addressed the Commissioners...