The Community Journal ran an article on Dec. 27th featuring Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly’s reflections on 2024 issues he faced. A copy of the article is provided in the previous blog.
There were several inaccurate statements made in the article and the judge mentioned me several times, so I felt compelled to submit the following rebuttal. Unfortunately, the Community Journal refused to publish my article, but here it is for all to read.
My Response to Community Journal Article “County Judge reflects on 2024 issues” Dec 27, 2024
First, I am surprised that Rob Kelly thought the biggest issue of 2024 was Ian Collum and the County Clerk position. I would have thought that the lithium battery energy storage system (BESS) issue has been a far greater issue, especially considering the ongoing severe drought. The county budget was also a much bigger issue. To enable the funding of the final 2024-25 deficit budget without raising taxes, we had to fund $14.5 million of non-recurring expenditures using the county’s reserve funds, which as a result will be reduced from $32.3 million to $17.8 million by year end. We have allowed recurring expenditures, approved at $52.5 million, to increase to the same level as our total estimated revenue, leaving no room for future capital improvements, projects or unexpected maintenance expenditures without raising debt or taxes – a serious concern either way.
Considering Ian Collum’s lack of response to all attempts made by Republican Party to ascertain his intent, it is interesting that Judge Kelly knows all about Collum’s motivation for not withdrawing from the general election after he resigned from the position in May. Kelly mentioned that Collum faced a major issue related to hand-counting the primary ballots in March 2024. However, this was never an issue that Ian had to worry about as the decision was taken out of the hands of the Kerr County Republican Party Executive Committee (the majority of whom supported hand counting), which has the authority to adopt the voting system for their primary election (Texas Election Code Sec. 123.001) when Paul Zohlen, then Kerr County Republican Party Chair, without any discussion with the Executive Committee, unilaterally signed an agreement with the Democrat Party Chair to conduct joint elections in the 2024 primary elections. This agreement was brought before the Commissioners’ Court on Dec. 27th ’23 for approval and passed by a vote of 3-2. This was the first time that Kerr County had a written agreement between the Republican and Democrat Parties to conduct joint elections, although it didn’t change anything about the way we run elections. The only reason to have this agreement between the Republican and Democrat Party Chairs was to control the adoption of the voting system (i.e., the use of machines vs. hand counting paper ballots) and sure enough, within the agreement they selected the Hart Verity 2.4 voting system for use in the primary elections.
Judge Kelly seems to appreciate Collum’s “gift to the residents of Kerr County” and his “sacrifice”. I saw it as election interference. Collum intentionally took away the Republican Party Executive Committee’s (all elected officials representing their voting precincts) ability to go through a selection process and appoint a candidate who actually wanted to run for the office. As a result, we now find ourselves without an elected County Clerk since October 2023 and until the next general election in 2026. While I was suspicious that Judge Kelly may have been involved, after reading Kelly’s comments and now knowing that Collum had no intent to hold the office, one could easily conclude that Kelly coached Collum to stay in the race, stay silent, and resign right after the election, so that Kelly could move quickly to appoint Nadene Alford without any selection process and before the two new commissioners could take office; all before there was even a vacancy. I’m only wondering what was promised (quid pro quo) to Collum.
Interesting that Kelly blames the We the People – Liberty in Action group for many things such as FOIA requests regarding the primaries, “taking the Republican Party by storm” and lobbying to hand count. To be clear, the 2023 election integrity efforts were spearheaded by myself, not LIA, although it was something that they clearly support. I assume that the “would be election expert with a fast-food background” that Kelly referred to was Mark Cook, who I invited to present at a March ’23 commissioners court workshop on election integrity and again for a larger election integrity town hall meeting I hosted in August ’23 along with several other highly credentialled election and cybersecurity experts. I have no idea where Kelly got the idea that Mark Cook had anything to do with “fast food”. Mr. Cook is an election cybersecurity and forensics expert, IT specialist and software developer. He has testified before several legislative bodies and judicial courts on election irregularities and cyber fraud. He started programming at 10 years of age and is now a sought-after private IT consultant. He has an engineering background, he attended the Colorado School of Mines and had over 30 years of experience in IT before being asked to investigate election systems.
It is true that because of my focus on election integrity and my vote against adopting the Hart InterCivic election equipment in August ‘23, Bob Reeves decided that he could no longer serve as elections administrator “without the full support of the commissioners’ court”. I repeatedly stated that I fully supported Bob and his staff, but just opposed the use of electronic voting machines that can be manipulated and that do not have valid test lab accreditation. Hart InterCivic’s VP admitted that their machines can be hacked. In Jan. ’24, Prof. Alex Halderman proved how easily a Dominion election machine can be manipulated when he flipped results in less than a minute in a Federal Court in Georgia in front of the judge. Numerous other cybersecurity experts have testified how easily electronic voting machines can be manipulated. We know that the ’23 Texas constitutional election is under challenge via lawsuits in multiple counties due to improper voting system test lab accreditation. When even our US Department of Defense servers can be hacked, why do we continue to place trust in electronic voting machines, which have far weaker security? Over 60% of US citizens don’t trust our election systems. You can blame me for being one of them. So, the real question is why did Bob feel the need to have full support of the court for machines? Not a single commissioners court decision requires unanimous approval, and approvals are frequently made with one or two members opposed. As Judge Kelly pointed out, statutory responsibility for running elections in Texas lies with the County Clerk, but the commissioners’ court had shifted responsibility to the Tax Assessor-Collector long before Bob ran for the office. So perhaps Bob just saw an opportunity to get out from under a difficult and often contentious task, that should never have been under the Tax-Assessor Collector. Unfortunately, Jackie Dowdy was not happy with the way the responsibility for running elections was returned to her office and that led to her resignation in Oct. and the subsequent appointment of Ian Collum in Nov. 2023.
Corrections to statements made in the Dec. 27th article:
The 2024-25 capital improvements to the HCYEC indoor arena are specifically to replace the roof, which will require some minor structural modifications, and to upgrade the electrical system, taking into account eventual additional planned improvements (new lights, new ventilation fans, concrete flooring throughout, the addition of toilets & showers, and a large 50’ x 100’ classroom). Additional rainwater storage is not planned as the benefit does not justify the cost. The total cost of planned indoor arena improvements is now $2.5 million, substantially lower than the $8.1 million cost included in the failed 2022 Bond Proposition B. The recent court approved hotel occupancy tax, if passed in the upcoming legislative session, will bring in around $350,000 each year to fund the other above-mentioned indoor arena improvements. While the indoor arena roof replacement will utilize ARPA funds, the structural modifications, electrical upgrades and the modifications to the 550 Earl Garrett office building will not use ARPA funds.
In closing, I question why the judge felt the need to mention that both new commissioners, Jones and Holt, were endorsed in the March 2024 Republican Primary by We the People-Liberty in Action. As many times as Kelly mentioned LIA, one might think he has a bit of LIA derangement syndrome…
Rich Paces, Kerr County Commissioner, Precinct 2
It is beyond comprehension why, The Community Journal would not allow a rebuttal by Richard Paces. Anytime a person or an organization is mentioned by another writer (in this case, Judge Kelly), the person (in this case Richard Paces), or entity (We The People Liberty in Action) has an explicit right for rebuttal whether the paper (in this case the Community Joural) has the obligation to print such rebuttal. Shame on them fo refusing the same.
I agree with your analysis, Rich. The Judge seems to know a lot about Ian Collum’s motives. The new leadership of the Kerr County Republican Party has taken steps to more closely align the County Party with the State Republican Party and received a mandate of 2/3 of the voters of the county to do that. I will argue that the Judge resents that change and preferred leadership which could be manipulated by him.
Rich, words cannot express how much I value your knowledge, hard work, caring, responsibility, and leadership. Your honesty is awesome. May God continue to bless you and hold you in His perfect hands.
I lived in multiple midwestern states, and until moving here to the Texas Hill Country, have never had a local politician be as open and informative as you, Rich. Thank you.
Glad you’re there, Rich. So many issues! I couldn’t keep up. We’re behind you.
Thank you for keeping us informed