Glenn Starnes Update

It seems that our old friend Glenn Scott Starnes is back at work trying to get his crooked fingers into the cookie jar that is our/your government.

Mr. Starnes apparently applied for a job as City Manger for the city of Taft, Texas, a city near Corpus Christi, Texas.

Not surprisingly, Glenny didn’t disclose to the City of Taft that he’d been arrested in Grantville, Georgia for attempting to purchase marijuana in. The Taft City Attorney said Starnes also gave the impression that he was “still working as Grantville City Manager,” according to the Newnan Times Herald.

Will this guy ever quit?

And get this – Starnes also applied for a job as City Administrator of the city of Mason, Texas!

Why this guy doesn’t find a different line of work is beyond me.

Here are all the news stories, for your reading pleasure.

Taft City Manager Hopeful Has Legal Problems
Applicant Faces Drug, Truth Issues
Jaime Powell (12/23/09)

TAFT — The man Taft City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to hire as its city manager quit his last job in Georgia after he was arrested on suspicion of buying marijuana and was fired from a prior city manager position for fabricating parts of his resume.

Before council voted to hire Glen Scott Starnes, he told them that he had past issues, but he left out some details, said Taft Councilman Ronnie Segovia, who is rethinking the decision.

During a closed session interview, Starnes told council that he is city manager in Grantville, Ga., a town of 2,600 about 50 miles southwest of Atlanta, Segovia said Wednesday.

But Starnes quit in October, days after he was arrested on suspicion of buying marijuana, according to The Times-Herald in Coweta County, Ga.

A felony charge is pending, said John Kennedy, a senior sergeant with the Coweta County Crime Suppression Unit Narcotics Task Force.

“The district attorney’s office has the case file,” Kennedy said.

Starnes is free on $5,050 bail, Kennedy said.

Attempts to reach Starnes were unsuccessful. The Caller-Times filed an open records request Wednesday with Taft seeking a copy of his resume and contact information.

“We voted to hire him. We still have to talk to him,” Segovia said. “There still are a lot of negotiations that we have to do. He did not mention any issue in Georgia. I didn’t hear anything about that. And it’s not set in stone. We haven’t signed anything yet.”

Grantville hired Starnes in 2008. Mayor Casey Houston and council members Rochelle Jabaley, Barham Lundy, Debi Rogers and Nick Sasso were unavailable Thursday.

Taft Mayor Bobby Vega said early Wednesday that the city hired Starnes, because he was the most qualified candidate who applied based on his resume.

“He has a lot of experience as an administrator and city manager,” Vega said. “He is coming from Georgia. (His salary) will be in the $60,000 range. We still need to negotiate.”

Vega was unavailable for comment after additional information on Starnes surfaced Wednesday afternoon.

Before working in Georgia, Starnes was interim city manager in Eagle Pass. The city council fired him Jan. 15, 2008, for embellishing his resume, and he was arrested following the meeting.

A San Antonio Express-News investigation found every item listed on Starnes’ resume was fictional, including a claimed doctorate and jobs as an assistant city manager in Converse and as an aide to a Houston congressman.

Starnes’ resume listed three degrees from the “University of Maryland — East Shore — Rockville,” including a doctorate in economics received in 2000, which the Express-News said it proved didn’t exist.

Starnes then said his degrees came from Rochville University, an online institution that sells various degrees, the Express-News reported. Online advertisements for the school promise “No studies, No Attendance, No Waiting, No Examinations, No Hefty Fee.”

Starnes was arrested on suspicion of fraudulently getting a government job. A month later he pleaded guilty to fraud, substandard or fictitious degree, according to Maverick County Clerk Sara Montemayor’s office. He was fined $1,500.

Starnes mentioned issues in Eagle Pass to Taft council, Segovia said.

“He told me had been in trouble in Eagle Pass,” Segovia said. “He (said he) had gotten exonerated. It was misdemeanor something about that he misspelled a word — an H instead of a K.”

The spelling of Rochville University is a one-letter difference from Rockville, the location of the institution from which he first claimed degrees.

Starnes told Taft council that he went to college at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, but did not get a degree there, Segovia said. Starnes also told council he got degrees over the Internet.

“We have hired city managers without a degree,” Segovia said. “We are not going to hold anybody to that. We had two (candidates) that did not have degrees. That doesn’t mean they can’t do the job.”

In October, Taft City Council voted 3-2 to fire City Manager Florencio Sauceda in the midst of a Texas Rangers and District Attorney’s Office investigation into city operations.

The investigation continues, according to District Attorney Patrick Flanigan.

Sauceda got a written reprimand from City Council in August for giving rappers permission to shoot a video in the city. The profanity-laden video drew complaints from some residents that it glorified gangs, prostitution and drugs and portrayed the city in a bad light.

Taft Council members Lucy Lopez, Martin Salcido and Roy Stegall were unavailable Wednesday.

Taft Lacks Quorum and Doesn’t Vote on City Manager Finalist
Jaime Powell (12/29/09)
TAFT — An emergency City Council meeting to reconsider its city manager finalist ended abruptly on Tuesday when the council didn’t have enough members to vote.

The council intended to look at its Dec. 22 hiring of Glen Scott Starnes, a candidate who faces a felony charge and who council members said had not been vetted when he was chosen as a finalist. The council also intended to consider other potential candidates.

Now the issue will wait until the council’s regular Jan. 12 meeting, Mayor Bobby Vega said.

Council members Lucy Lopez and Martin Salcido were absent Tuesday night after calling the city secretary to inform her they would not attend. The council needed a super majority of four members because it was a special called meeting. Vega and Councilmen Ronnie Segovia and Roy Stegall attended the meeting.

Vega, Segovia and Stegall called attention to Lopez’s and Salcido’s absence Tuesday, after the three voted recently to sanction Lopez and Salcido for missing several consecutive meetings called to pass a city budget.

“It was somewhat urgent,” Vega said Tuesday. “We were looking at finalizing the candidate for the position. We were actually going into executive session to deliberate over the other two candidates and look at Mr. Starnes’ background.”

The council didn’t know when it chose Starnes as the lone finalist for the job that he faces a felony marijuana charge. Other issues also have arisen from Starnes’ resume and his statements to city officials.

Vega said it always had been the city’s intention to check Starnes’ background after he was named the finalist, instead of before. Instead, the day after the council voted unanimously to hire Starnes, the Caller-Times reported several issues with his history.

Starnes faces a pending felony marijuana charge in Grantville, Ga., where he was city manager.

The council also did not know the extent of Starnes’ issues as city manager in Eagle Pass. They did not know he had pleaded guilty to a fraud charge related to false claims on the resume he submitted to Eagle Pass.

Starnes has described the Taft issues as misunderstandings that can be overcome, and has said that he doesn’t expect to be convicted in the marijuana incident.

City Continuing Search for New Administrator
Gary Gamel (12/30/09)
Finding goods and services can always be a bit of a challenge. In a small, rural town, that can be compounded by the remoteness of our location, and of the inability to get everything we need in a timely fashion. The Mason City Commission is also finding that it can be difficult to find qualified candidates for city administrator, for many of the same reasons.

During their December 14 meeting, the City Commission voted to extend an offer to Scooter Radcliffe, who until May of this year, had been the city manager of Bellmead. Mr. Radcliffe declined the City's offer, at almost the same time that the City learned that he had been let go from his prior position after 19 years, and that he had allegedly crashed a city vehicle, while under the influence of alcohol, just prior to his firing.

The Mason Commission held a special meeting on December 21 to take a vote on their second choice, Glen Scott Starnes. Starnes was the city manager of Eagle Pass before being dismissed for providing false information on application documents. He then moved on to Grantville, GA. He left there earlier this fall after allegedly being involved in the purchase of marijuana. Most recently, the city of Taft, TX voted to extend him an offer of employment; but, the Corpus Christi Caller-Times reports that that city is now reconsidering its decision.

During their December 21 meeting, the Mason City Commission discussed some of the other applicants they had for the position, and decided to wait until their January meeting to make their next move on filling the position. Mayor Brent Hinckley has been performing the duties of the city administrator since the departure of Brian Boudreaux earlier this year.