Death, taxes, and Bruce Hotze filing a lawsuit every time he loses an election.
A local anti-tax activist filed a lawsuit Thursday to block the city of Houston from borrowing $410 million to add, expand and repair parks, libraries, police and fire stations and other government buildings.
Bruce Hotze’s suit says the bond measures, which voters overwhelmingly approved last month, should be nullified because the city failed to follow its own rules when placing them on the ballot.
Specifically, the city failed to hold public hearings or publish the financial details of the bond package before the election, according to the suit, which was filed in Harris County District Court.
Hotze also accused the city of improperly including multiple items within two propositions that promised to remove “obsolete” language from its charter in a separate suit filed Thursday. The law, he said, requires each item to be listed separately.
City Attorney Dave Feldman described the suit as frivolous, saying Hotze is “wrong on the facts and wrong on the law.”
The good news is that Hotze has an equally impressive record of losing these lawsuits, and it would seem likely he is destined to lose this one again. Dude needs a more constructive hobby, that’s what I think. The case number is 201274327-7 and it’s in the 11th District Civil Court, if anyone of a more lawyerly bent than I wants to offer a critique of it. Stace has more.
I rather suspect the City attorneys are reasonably competent and ensured that the laws were followed. Here’s notice of the last two public hearings http://www.houstontx.gov/citizensnet/enewsletter092412.html, I can’t find the first one.
As for the charter amendments, the City will claim the subject of the first one is “obsolete and superseded” language, while Hotze will claim that each item changed requires a separate proposition. That’s for a judge to decide.
Hotze seems to think that the City should not spend any money, ever. I’m not sure who he thinks pays for the roads we drive on, and all the other infrastructure we use. if he thinks his taxes are too high, he should move to a smaller house.