This meeting (attended by only 6-7 of the 20-odd steering committee members, not even a quorum!) proceeded rather routinely until I rose to speak.

Knowing from past experience how "restrictive" the public input period can be at the SeRBiA, I tried to keep my "statement" on topic, as it were. My point was that the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission (TNRCC) should be leery of giving any public money to such an illegitimate organization as the SRBA. Thus, Burke was mistaken when he thought that my statement was of no relevance. He let me begin, but he stopped me as soon as I mentioned the June 25 meeting in Mount Pleasant, probably because he feared that I was going to bring up the fact that he and Muddlestonvic left their presentations behind.

That's when I said, "You are afraid to hear what I have to say, Mr. Burke."

"Huh?" he mumbled. And I repeated myself.

I thought, to hell with it. I'll get him next time. Every time he acts like this, he is doing it on the record, and blowing it all out of proportion, and pissing me off time and again. Just look at the chain of events.

He refused to take questions on May 21, and I made a scene, yelling at him. Then on June 25, I went to all the trouble, to do just as he said, and presented him with 30 pages of documents, including a series of written questions. He left them behind in the Civic Center. Many of us saw this. If he had just had the courtesy and foresight to take them back to Texarkana before he tossed them in the wastebasket, probably the following series of events would never have unfolded.

I would not have had any reason to call Patricia Wise a second time that same afternoon. She would not have told me that she was coming to Texarkana on July 23. I would not have discovered the deceptive dates at the Civic Center appointment desk. I would not have checked their website. I would not have seen the telephone number of Ms. Jensen-Case. I would not have written to the Governor. But ... all of that happened, and here we are today.

Burke just threw out one more shovelful of dirt from his own grave.

After the meeting, Patricia Wise came over to chat because we hadn't had time before the meeting. She has read all the previous material, including my letter to the Governor, so she knew exactly what was happening. She said she thought that I made my point beautifully even though I didn't get to speak. I gave her my only copy of the prepared statement, which is appended below for all of you to read.

The SRBA is in violation of several provisions of Senate Bill 5. I just singled out Section 12 because, in this case, it had a good little story to it, in the character of the mysterious Ms. N. Jensen-Case. That guy Paul Price acted like he didn't want me to speak. He had obviously heard about me before, probably from Burke in regard to the errant presentation. AND HE DESIGNS THEIR WEBSITE, SO HE IS THE ONE WHO HAD TO CHANGE THAT TELEPHONE NUMBER ON THE FOURTH OF JULY HOLIDAY! I almost jumped in prematurely when I realized that, because I had been assuming that Nancy Rose designed their website. That is why later I shouted the question about Ms. Jensen-Case, for that bastard's benefit. He is from Austin, and Ms. Jensen-Case might be his sister, for all anybody knows.

Burke saw me talking to Patricia, and then he saw how she continued to talk with Libby and Jane. I am sure that quite a bit of additional information got passed along to Patricia. At one point I ran into Libby and Mike Buttram (the chemistry guy) in the hallway. Libby and I were commenting upon Burke's asininity. This new Mike, this third Mike!, too many Mikes!, said he would have just let me go on and read the thing and hope that it all were just forgotten later, or something to that effect. Yes. Burke himself blew it all out of proportion again, just like he did with the presentation. They are authorized by Senate Bill 5 "to sue and be sued" in all the districts -- "be recognized by all the district courts" or something like that, it reads. We should sue them in the Bowie County District Court.

Here is the text of today's aborted statement. The three ... do not mean an omission, but a signal to myself to pause a moment to see if they would let me proceed. As you can tell, I squeezed a lot of text onto that single sheet of paper!

Yes, Chester, my man: "What a racket!" Roberto

*****

Good afternoon to everyone, particularly Ms. Patricia Wise. I am Robert Russell of Mt. Pleasant. I am a local historian, author and photographer. If I may, I would like to read for the benefit of the TNRCC a brief, 1-page statement, closing with some questions for Mr. Michael Burke. ...

From Senate Bill 5, which became effective on 29 August 1985, establishing the Sulphur River Basin Authority, Section 12, I quote: Principal Office: The Authority shall maintain its principal office inside its boundaries. Unquote. The SRBA is required by this statute to maintain its office within its authority's boundaries. However, Mr. Mike Huddleston and Mr. Mike Burke have been managing this authority from their business-office at Communications Specialists, located at 401 Wood Street in Texarkana, Arkansas. This address is not within the authority's boundaries, nor even within the State of Texas, and apparently that was one of the motives for your passing a motion at the recent June 25 Mt. Pleasant meeting, when the board finally appropriated funds to rent a legitimate office on the Texas side of the border. Obviously, you realized that you were in violation of Senate Bill 5, Section 12, by operating out of this Arkansas business. Your Texas postoffice box must therefore be a clandestine attempt to make it merely seem that you have been operating legitimately within the State of Texas and the SRBA boundaries. I have called this matter to the attention of Governor Rick Perry in a letter that I sent to him on July 12, a copy of which, along with the 1985 statute, can be found at my website SulphurRiver.Net. This motion to relocate in Texas was obvious to all public visitors as a blatant attempt to legitimize what had been until then an illegitimate office because at that same meeting you signed your million-dollar contract with MT&G and F&N.

In my letter to Governor Perry, I wrote that since you have been operating illegitimately, if not illegally, out of an Arkansas office address, then all contracts and other actions which you have undertaken from there could themselves be considered to be null and void, including the aforementioned contract.

On or about July 1, you updated your sulphurr.org website to include notice of this Steering Committee meeting, to be attended by the TNRCC. I visited your website on July 1, and I noticed that your contact-us page included a telephone number within the 512 area code, rather than the Arkansas 870 number that you had previously publicized. I did an Internet reverse telephone number search and discovered that this number, 512-281-4572, belongs to Ms. N. Jensen-Case, County Road 87, Elgin, TX 78621. I called this number a couple of times and got a recorded message by a female that we are not available, leave your number, and we'll get back to you. This message did not say, SRBA, our office hours are, etc, etc. At 10:30PM on July 3, I called again, expecting the answering machine. This time Ms. Jensen-Case herself answered the phone, and we talked for 6 minutes. She seemed surprised that her telephone number was listed as the contact number for the SRBA, and she denied knowing either Mr. Huddleston or Mr. Burke. I advised her to contact them and have her telephone number removed from their website, because she certainly did not want her telephone number to be connected with any sort of possible illegal activity. On the morning of July 4, her number was still listed at the SRBA website. But by 4PM it had been changed back to the original Arkansas number, 870-774-2144. Someone had modified your website on the Fourth of July holiday, when, logically reasoning, Ms. Jensen-Case should not have even been able to contact you.

Please be advised that I have dated computer monitor-screen captures of your contact-us webpage from both July 3 and July 4, with both telephone numbers; and my long-distance telephone records show my three calls to Elgin, including my short conversation with Ms. Jensen-Case on the evening of July 3. She is listed in the white pages of the Elgin telephone directory, which I consulted at the MP public library on July 2. If Ms. Jensen-Case were ever required to testify under oath, I am sure that she would not deny that I had a telephone conversation with her on the evening of July 3 concerning your SRBA.

Neither the 870 Arkansas nor 512 Austin area code falls within the boundaries of the SRBA. It seems to all of us that the SRBA has been operating in violation of Section 12 for as long as its principal office has been located within the State of Arkansas. This might not technically be a criminal offense, but it certainly demonstrates to many of us a decidedly devious malfeasance and dereliction of statutory duty. If I were the TNRCC, I certainly would be quite scrupulous and wary before allocating additional public funding to such an illegitimate operation as the SRBA appears to be. Frankly, it might never have been entirely legal for this Arkansas office to receive any Texas public money from either the TNRCC or elsewhere!

My first question to Mr. Burke is this: who exactly is Ms. N. Jensen-Case and why did you upload her 512 telephone number to your website? And secondly, please explain to us who is Ms. Melodie Clemmons, the one who claimed my certified letter to you at the Texarkana postoffice on July 1? Is she the secretary to whom you gave the raise in salary on June 25, or does she work for Communications Specialists in Arkansas, and not for the SRBA? If she is not employed by the SRBA, then why is she signing for and receiving your certified mail at your subterfuge Texarkana, TX, postoffice box?

Before driving to Texarkana, this morning I checked your website, and your 870 Arkansas telephone number was still listed as your official telephone number. Even today, as we meet, you are still operating on the Arkansas side of the border in violation of Section 12 of Senate Bill 5.

Could you please explain all of this to us, Mr. Burke? Thank you.