February 3, 2008...11:34 pm
$250,000 Worth of Red Rock - Useless
Former County Judge Al Cornelius used taxpayer funds - $250,000 of it - to purchase red sandstone rock from a shell corporation set up by some friends and relatives.
Cornelius served two terms (ending his term in 2001), helped facilitate the tax anticipation note-financed Justice Center (the building voters told the county not to build; they did it anyway), helped jack up tax rates 30% before a historic rollback election and virtually walked away from Ellis County without a scratch.
He was - along with ex-Commissioner Charles Waller - censured by the Republican Party for his antics. But he escaped punishment. I’m pretty sure there’s a law against setting up a shell corporation to purchase $250,000 worth of sandstone rock from politically connected friends and relatives…
Once again, another prime example of County Attorney Joe Grubbs not doing a thing about it.
Photos of the sandstone rock still rotting in a field near the Super Conducting SuperCollider, the project that brought Cornelius to town (he’s now retired in Cloudcroft, New Mexico) are linked below:
And let’s not forget the little maintenance shed that Cornelius had constructed without anyone’s budgetary knowledge - I won an award for a story about that during my first stint with The Ellis County Press (01-04).
Photos by Joey Dauben/The Ellis County Observer — Permission granted for publication, distribution, but please credit yours truly with them.
3 Comments
February 5, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Are they free then? They would be great for my landscaping.
February 5, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Yeah…are they? I need to start building my new wall since the new HS is going to be in my back yard. Start with rocks, then tall holly hedges, then Rose Hedges, then claymores…oopss…that won’t work will it? My dog is big enough to handle the job!
March 17, 2008 at 2:01 pm
I don’t see a reply to the questions about whether or not these rocks are free to the GP for the taking. Did I miss it?
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