LubbockLights.com will try to find out if the city plans to appeal to the Texas Supreme Court. We reached out to the city to invite comment. Look for updates the invitation is accepted.<\/p>\n
Mayor Mark McBrayer disagreed with the stand taken by the city staff. <\/p>\n
After the ruling, McBrayer said, \u201cClearly, the right decision and the one I have advocated since the very beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Timeline:<\/p>\n
March 10: Brayden Rose announced his resignation from the City Council but under state law he remains the councilman until his successor takes office.<\/p>\n
March 16: Gary Boren announced his intent to run.<\/p>\n
March 26: Boren submits his application in writing \u2013 saying he lived in the District for two months.<\/p>\n
March 31: City Secretary Courtney Paz rejects Boren\u2019s application to be on the ballot \u2013 saying he\u2019s not qualified unless he lived there six months or more.<\/p>\n
April 7: Boren resubmits his application to fix an error. The substance of the second application was the same.<\/p>\n
April 7: Boren filed a request for \u201cmandamus\u201d to the Seventh Court of Appeals in Amarillo.<\/p>\n
April 13: The city rejected Boren\u2019s updated application for the same reason \u2013 not having lived in the District for six months or more.<\/p>\n
April 13: Paz files a response in the Seventh Court.<\/p>\n
April 16: Local political activist Mikel Ward emails the justices of the Seventh Court via their personal emails instead of using the court\u2019s official electronic filing system. Her filing is rejected for using private email addresses.<\/p>\n
April 24: The Seventh Court ruled.<\/p>\n
More from the ruling<\/p>\n
The city\u2019s legal argument on behalf of Paz was the Charter had nothing to say about a duration of residency \u2013 instead calling for a point-in-time test. Those are not the same. Because the Charter was silent on duration, so Boren had to fall back on the state law\u2019s default duration of six months.<\/p>\n
Boren argued otherwise. The Charter did in fact speak to duration, and the duration was zero. And so, state law gives Lubbock\u2019s charter the right to set the residency requirement.<\/p>\n
The Seventh Court took Boren\u2019s view, saying, \u201cThe charter\u2019s \u2018at the time of filing\u2019 standard is not silence. It is an express, point-in-time residency requirement authorized by \u2026 [the Texas Election Code] and enabled by \u2026 the Local Government Code. We conclude Paz misapplied the law on Boren\u2019s length of residency.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ballot is the people\u2019s instrument. Access to it, both the right to vote and the right to seek office, sits at the foundation of self-governance,\u201d the opinion said.<\/p>\n
The court concluded by ruling, \u201cWe trust Courtney Paz, Lubbock City Secretary, will withdraw her administrative declaration of Gary Boren\u2019s ineligibility to run for Lubbock City Council District 4, accept his ballot application, and place his name on the ballot for the \u2026 Special Election for District 4.\u201d<\/p>\n
Click here to read the ruling<\/a>. <\/p>\n Mikel Ward filing explained<\/p>\n Before the Seventh Court ruled, political activist Mikel Ward asked justices to side with Boren. But she sent her request to the justice\u2019s personal email addresses rather than filing anything officially in court. The court rejected her writing for that reason.<\/p>\n The court publicly acknowledged the situation a little more than a week ago.<\/p>\n \u201cPlease be advised that this correspondence constitutes an improper ex parte or other private communication under the Code of Judicial Conduct and will not be considered by the Court in the resolution of this original proceeding,\u201d the clerk of the court wrote.<\/p>\n Ward told LubbockLights.com, \u201cI wasn\u2019t trying to bypass. I called them before I sent something and said, \u2018Is there an e-mail for the court?\u2019 \u2018No, we don\u2019t have an e-mail. We don\u2019t do anything like that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey told me I could e-file something and I said, \u2018By the time I do that, I can send them individually,\u2019\u201d Ward said.<\/p>\n E-filing sounded complicated. Because of her political activism over the years, she had email addresses for Chief Justice Judy Parker and Justice Larry Doss. She did not have an address for Justice Alex Yarbrough.<\/p>\n Ward said, \u201cGary [Boren] had nothing to do with my actions. I\u2019ve always fought for transparency, integrity & consistency based on facts not favoritism.\u201d<\/p>\n The full text of Ward\u2019s email to the justices<\/p>\n Seventh Court of Appeals Justices,<\/p>\n Since your court is dealing with the contested residency qualifications for a City Council candidate in Lubbock case # 07-26-00168, I need to comment on past City actions opposite their current position.<\/p>\n As a political observer & local grassroots activist for many years, the City has often claimed their home rule city status to prevail when challenged. An example was a several year lawsuit concerning several City violations of the stormwater statute in Tx. Local Government Code 552 subchapter C. From the first denial ruling in Jan. 2018 until final appeal, the detailed facts were never dealt with, just always ruling for the City citing the home rule city immunity excuse.<\/p>\n Our original 1917 City Charter was amended when Article IX Sec. 4 outlining qualifications including residency was adopted in 1988 & has NEVER changed since. Even the Tx. Election Code 141 stating a 6 month residency requirement adds in the next paragraph that home rule cities are allowed to set different rules in their charters. With a quick reading of both, I can\u2019t imagine any need for the City Attorney & City Secretary to spend tax dollars hiring an outside law firm to answer your information request. Please share my concerns with Justice Alex Yarbrough as I don\u2019t have a current e-mail for him.<\/p>\n Respectfully I thank all of you for your consideration, Mikel Ward<\/p>\n
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