Letters sent to attorneys over former ‘Jesus’ sign in Hawkins

Published 2:22 pm Friday, February 7, 2020

HAWKINS — Letters related to the still-unresolved saga involving the “Jesus Welcomes You to Hawkins” sign taken down last summer have been sent to municipal and state attorneys.

Meanwhile, several of the town’s residents continue to protest the removal of the sign by the city, which subsequently built a street where the sign once stood.

The street — named Ash Street — is 30 feet wide and 75 feet long, or one-fourth the length of a football field.

Tyler attorney Alvin Flynn, who has represented Hawkins for 38 years, said the legal filings and efforts made by supporters of the Jesus Christ Open Altar Church LLC have been a strain on the city for the past five years.

“I personally don’t think that there’s anything criminal that any city official … has done anything that is of a criminal nature,” Flynn said Thursday. “Now, if it’s out there, I’m not aware of it.”

$650,000 for a 75-foot street?

Real estate agent Charlene Peoples, Jesus Christ Open Altar Church leader Mark McDonald and others say Ash Street wasn’t needed, cost the city more than $50,000 in design, construction and attorney costs — plus another $600,000 that is unaccounted for — and poses a danger to drivers.

Peoples and McDonald called it a hate crime.

“It is very dangerous,” Peoples said, “… because if you try to cross it to get on (U.S. Highway) 80 (and) there’s another car up there (and) you’re trying to decide who’s going to go first, here comes an 18-wheeler over that hill. Somebody is going to get killed there.”

When asked about McDonald’s claim that Ash Street resulted in about $20,000 in attorney fees and more than $600,000 in unaccounted-for costs, Flynn responded with a laugh.

“I wish. … Mr. McDonald comes up with numbers and dollars that nobody knows where they came from. There’s always five zeroes in there. That’s not the truth. He has a propensity to stretch the truth,” Flynn said.

In a letter to Attorney General Ken Paxton, Emory attorney William R. Power — who represents McDonald — claimed that the city of Hawkins violated the Texas Public Information Act and the Open Meetings Act.

According to McDonald, the city refused to hold public hearings on the matter and hasn’t released public information and documents he has requested.

“Briefly, I am informed that Wood County Sheriff Tom Castloo is aware of a few of many violations, but he cannot begin an investigation without authorization from your office,” Power wrote in the Jan. 16 letter to Paxton. “I also understand that Wood County District Attorney Angela Albers wrote you some three months ago to inform you that her office will pursue any violations. I spoke with Texas Ranger John Vance, and he is prepared to begin whatever investigation you believe is warranted.”

The Attorney General’s Office confirmed Wednesday that its Open Records Division has received Power’s letter and that a ruling is pending on the matter.

Religious expression

Also, the Center for Religious Expression of Memphis, Tennessee, has written Flynn, asking that the Jesus Christ Open Altar Church be allowed to place Christian-themed signs in an unimproved easement near U.S. 80.

That letter to Flynn states that, “Banning the church from having noncommercial signs on its own property within unimproved easement violates the church’s rights.”

Flynn spoke by phone Wednesday with a representative from the Center for Religious Expression, he said. It’s the second conversation the two have had in the past year.

“We’re trying to get that resolved right now,” Flynn said.

Last June, work crews with the city took down a sign that read “Jesus Welcomes You to Hawkins.” At that time, City Secretary Dona Jordan said the sign’s removal was in preparation for building a street between Blackbourn Street and U.S. 80.

The sign was created several years ago by shop students at Hawkins High School, McDonald said, and he hasn’t been told of its whereabouts.

The city and the church have been roiled in litigation since 2015, Flynn said, adding that a trial court and a state appellate court have ruled in the city’s favor on the easement matter.

McDonald disagrees, saying that the courts have ruled in his favor.

As for Power’s letter to Paxton, “Most of the things that McDonald has requested, he’s not entitled to by law,” Flynn said. “He keeps requesting the same things.

“We only provide documents that are on file. We don’t have to develop documents,” Flynn said. “Mr. McDonald has complained to the AG’s office two, maybe three times in the last three years, and the AG’s office has ruled in our favor every time. … It’s not like he’s not getting documents. He’s not getting documents he’s not entitled to.”

TxDOT documents

On multiple occasions in 2018, Flynn and a project assistant for the city’s engineering firm, KSA Engineers of Longview, emailed Texas Department of Transportation-Tyler District Engineer Vernon Webb about the city of Hawkins’ desire to close Blackbourn Street and construct Ash Street on an easement at the Jesus Christ Open Altar Church, according to documents obtained from TxDOT.

In one email on Sept. 17, 2018, Flynn wrote, “The use by Mark McDonald’s church of the city’s Ash Street dedicated easement was and is subject to the city’s overriding governmental and police powers to construct a street for public use.”

Webb wrote to KSA Project Assistant Siglinda West on Jan. 14 that TxDOT was waiting to hear from its general counsel before permitting the city to open Ash Street to U.S. 80.

“I want to be clear that TxDOT’s position is that we are removing the existing connection to U.S. 80 and permitting a legal drive to improve safety. We do not want to get drug into the political issues that surround this matter,” Webb wrote in the Jan. 14 email.

Fifty minutes later, Webb told West, “I believe we are OK to proceed with the permit.”

The city then refused to hold an open hearing on abandoning the easement, despite multiple requests from the church and from Mark Mangini with the Center for Religious Expression, McDonald said.

“They never informed us of this closed meeting. They had a closed meeting where they voted, which is illegal, where they voted to build a road and remove the sign,” McDonald said. “They voted that with full knowledge that (TxDOT) had sent them three emails denying access at that location because it was an extremely dangerous blind-hill road intersection.”

An email request to TxDOT by the News-Journal yielded no letters in which the agency denied access for Ash Street at U.S. 80. A subsequent information request was sent to TxDOT on Wednesday.

“What a stupid thing to do,” Peoples said of Ash Street’s construction. “They wanted to take down that sign. This is truly a hate crime. … They wanted that sign down because they just didn’t like the sign there.”

Flynn said the city exercised its governmental rights in constructing Ash Street and that the “Jesus Welcomes You to Hawkins” sign sat right in the city’s easement.

“There’s been an ongoing dilemma with people from the city trying to do their job and Mr. McDonald objecting strenuously and coming out to the site,” Flynn said. “This guy has taken a personal vendetta against the city secretary and anybody else that challenges what he’s doing.”