Abilene’s city manager tells whopper of which citizens should take note

Many in Abilene are upset with city officials in pulling Ryan Marrs off the ballot for city council Place 5 due to a small item being left off his filing forms. But the rules are the rules and Mr. Marrs said today he “owns” the mistake, misinterpreted the form instructions, and understands the situation. The political novice will no-doubt be ready next time with what he’s learned.

It’s not Marr’s application defect being noticed that Abilene voters should be upset about, it is the behavior of Abilene’s City Manager Robert Hanna who attempted to shield an incumbent councilman from public ill-will over the matter by telling KTXS reporter Will Jensen what they call in England, “a porky.”

Hanna involved himself in the political race by telling a reporter a flat-out untruth that “a private citizen not connected to any campaign noticed Marrs’ incomplete application online and emailed him.”

In fact, the person who found and alerted Hanna to the application defect was none other than the incumbent city councilman’s largest donor, by a wide margin, in the 30-day-out campaign finance report.

According re-election candidate Kyle McAlister’s “30th day before the election” report, on page six “Rusty and Jane Beard” of 1901 River Oaks Road in Abilene are listed has contributing $500 – by far the largest contribution in the report and representing about a quarter of his entire fundraising from January 11th through the end of March. [See the report here.]

Hanna was tipped off to the application by Jane Beard on April 7th in an email with the subject line “Mr. Ryan Marrs.” In that email which was sent directly to the city manager, not the city secretary who would be the customary official to notify regarding a city election filing, Beard points out that Marrs left blank the “territory elected from” portion of the form, writing that “He [Marrs] failed to swear to his residency in the City.”

Beard then proceeded to make unproven assertions as to the residency of Marrs among other things even referring to herself as “a suspicious lawyer.”

You can read Beard’s email here.

City Manager Hanna’s statement that a citizen not connected to any campaign being behind the filing defect disclosure is demonstrably untrue and begs the question: Why would a city manager who is being asked by a reporter to explain why the city had to disqualify Mr. Marrs from the ballot stray from his explanation of the rules to assure the public that someone not connected with either campaign was behind the issue coming to light?

Given that Hanna’s claim is clearly untrue, he either simply made it up or, we are to believe that he didn’t bother to read the published short list of campaign donors who gave to a city councilman upon whose favor his job depends. Oh, and also that he had no idea of the local political involvement of the “suspicious lawyer” Jane Beard.

Another politically involved citizen, one supporting Ryan Marrs, Conni Robinett, also noticed the untruthful and odd statement from Hanna to the press and wrote the city manager about such. His reply follows:

I respect your position on this. I have no intention of playing politics because this is not my role as the City Manager. I take the Code of Ethics from ICMA and TCMA very seriously.

I recognize the supporters of Mr. Marrs are upset. Believe me when I tell you the City tried everything within the law to keep Mr. Marrs on the ballot.

Frankly, I think the state law here is fairly stupid. A candidate should be able to amend or correct their application in an instance such as this. They can’t under current state law.

In this instance, the City Secretary is required to enforce the law as adopted, or potentially face criminal penalties herself (Class A Misdemeanor). Once notified, the City had no other option but to follow the law.

I regret the City didn’t catch the omission when he filed his application, but we didn’t. It isn’t a political statement. It is a mistake.

I was not aware of Jane’s contribution.  It doesn’t change the laws governing this regrettable event.

Respectfully,
Robert Hanna

Hanna chooses to generally ignore the Robinett’s point and instead talks about how people are “upset” and the law is “fairly stupid.” But, the email to which he was responding has a more direct and different focus:

Mr. Hanna,

Hi, I read the article from KTXS and saw your quote that the “private citizen” (Jane Beard) that submitted the error found on Ryan Marr’s application was not connected to Kyle McAlister’s campaign. While technically that may be true if she’s not the treasurer or campaign manager, etc… however it seems misleading since she is one of the largest donors to his campaign…

I was disappointed to see that quote from you in the story. It appears like an attempt to “keep Kyle’s hands clean” on this matter. However, if you were not aware of this fact, I hope you will now set the record straight with KTXS.

Sincerely,
Conni Robinett

There is nothing in this email about it being unfair for Marrs to be taken off the ballot or being upset or even the law being “stupid.” The email goes directly to the point: Why did the city manager take a specific action with the press which attempts shield an incumbent councilman up for re-election from public ill-will over the ballot issue of his opponent?

I don’t for a moment believe that Hanna didn’t know who councilman McAlister’s donors were. Especially given the very short list of 15 donors reported on McAlister’s 30-day-out report. His not noticing the largest of those donors is even less likely in my opinion.

Abilene City Manager Hanna should stick to explaining rules and facts and refrain from telling untruths that have the effect of shielding one of the people upon whose favor his job depends from political ill-will .

Doing so was bad enough.

That it was not truthful makes it that much worse.