It is a serious matter to take away the voting rights of citizens.
Showing no intention of immediately complying with the decision of the Attorney General, Dallas ISD has now posted the following item on the Agenda for a special called board meeting set for Tuesday, May 5 at 3:30 P.M.:
"5. Consideration of motion to instruct board counsel to seek court approval for special election and to secure Department of Justice approval on election issued for the District."
Agendas are prepared by the Board President and Superintendent.
This means Dallas ISD intends to go to Court and the intention has already been determined by the Board President and Superintendent and others before the Board has even met to discuss the matter.
This is simply an effort to undermine the Opinion of the Attorney General (GA-0712) stating that Dallas ISD has violated Section 11.059 (e) of the Texas Education Code.
The same Board and lawyers refused to get official written approval of the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and the Secretary of State Elections Division before taking away the voting rights of thousands of Dallas taxpayers and citizens.
Now that the Attorney General has ruled against the Board action, it is being proposed to spend more money on lawyers seeking "court approval" to restore the voting rights the same Board took away from thousands of citizens who would have been electing their Trustees on next Saturday, May 9th.
Seeking "court approval" is not required in order to call a "special election," but it serves the purpose of providing a new reason to fight the decision of the Attorney General in court.
The Department of Justice always has to clear election matters but that has nothing to do with going to court.
What is really intended is to find a court that will approve the term extension from three to four years that was found by the Attorney General to be a clear violation of the "plain meaning" of Section 11.059 (e) -Texas Education Code requiring any changes to be made "Not later than December 31, 2007."
Instead of setting the special election, the Board is being asked to go to court.
It appears to be another self-serving agenda of political deceit, defiance and delay.
