Thursday, April 25, 2024
Prec. 4 Commissioner Dave Eagle
A seven-page petition calling for an investigation by out-of-county authorities into whether Precinct 4 Commissioner Dave Eagle committed fraud was submitted to the county during a recent Hood County Commissioners Court meeting.
The allegation relates to whether Eagle resides at his claimed residence, 2615 Hillside Dr. in Oak Trail Shores.
Eagle owns the mobile home at that location and has a homestead exemption with the appraisal district. That address is also listed on his voter registration.
He also owns two businesses — a cheese company and a pizza restaurant — both of which are in Lipan. Lipan is in Precinct 1.
Changes to election laws pertaining to residency took effect on Sept. 1 of last year and were in effect when Eagle filed candidacy paperwork with the local Republican Party to seek a second term. His listing of the Hillside property on the blank labeled “PERMANENT RESIDENCE ADDRESS” could prove problematic if an investigation reveals that he has not been living there.
County Judge Ron Massingill told the Hood County News on Thursday, April 14 — two days after the Commissioners Court meeting — that he had been busy with other responsibilities and had not yet been able to consider next steps regarding the petition submitted by Doug Moore.
However, Precinct 2 Commissioner Ron Cotton said that he will make sure to place the matter on the agenda for the next regular meeting of the Commissioners Court, which is scheduled for Tuesday, April 26.
“I believe we have an obligation to do something with it,” Cotton said.
In an email to the HCN, Eagle stated that political opponents “make up negative stuff about me like this residency issue” and that the allegation “is nothing more than political theater.”
He did not respond to multiple requests for additional information, including when the HCN alerted him to the new law.
At the April 12 Commissioners Court meeting, Moore, speaking on behalf of the 120 people who signed the petition, asked that any investigation of Eagle include subpoenas for utility bills and that those bills be compared to homes of similar size.
Moore requested that an “alternate county attorney’s office” appoint an attorney pro tem to investigate whether Eagle meets the legal requirements to hold the Precinct 4 seat.
In addition to modifications stipulated in the new law, a candidate for commissioner must have lived in that precinct for at least six consecutive months.
Moore requested that, should an examination show that Eagle filed government documents with “fraudulent intentions,” a visiting district judge be enlisted to preside over “prosecution and removal proceedings” in the 355th District Court.
If final judgment shows that Eagle is not qualified to represent Precinct 4, that will mean removal from both the seat he currently occupies and the November ballot.
YEARS OF QUESTIONS
Questions as to whether Eagle actually lives at the Hillside address have persisted since he first campaigned for commissioner in 2018.
Longtime Precinct 4 Commissioner Steve Berry’s decision not to seek a fourth term led to competition for that seat, which currently carries a salary of about $77,000 per year. Four candidates including Eagle were on the Republican primary ballot.
Eagle netted 636 votes in that contest, or 30.93% of the ballots cast, and went on to narrowly win a runoff against Kevin Moore with no Democratic challenger on the November ballot. In the runoff, Eagle won the seat by just nine votes, 425 to Kevin Moore’s 416.
Eagle took office on Jan. 1, 2019.
Election cycles place two of the four commissioner seats on the ballot. When Eagle sought elected office, the only commissioner seats on the ballot were for Precincts 2 and 4.
In the March primary, Eagle was the victor in a challenge posed by Zach Maxwell, winning 61% of the vote. He is slated to face Democrat Grant Wood on the November ballot.
When the HCN sought comment from Eagle after Doug Moore submitted the petition, he provided a lengthy statement but much of it did not apply to the residency question. However, he indicated that at one time at least, he lived in the dwelling that serves as his homestead.
The HCN reached out multiple times to Eagle via phone and email messages over a period of several days in an attempt to obtain more information or to clarify details in his statement.
At the time this article was posted, he had not responded to the reporter’s inquiries or requests for an interview, nor had he responded to a message from the HCN’s publisher.
NOVEMBER ELECTION
The Texas Local Government Code states that if a commissioner’s seat is vacated, the county judge must appoint a replacement to serve the remainder of that term.
According to the Secretary of State’s Election Advisory No. 2021-19 issued Nov. 10, 2021, if a candidate who has won a primary is deemed ineligible, the party’s executive committee can name a replacement candidate for the November General Election ballot.
Executive committees are composed of county party chairs and precinct chairs.
Six precinct chair races will be on the May 24 runoff ballot, which will include the county judge runoff between Massingill and his challenger to a second term, Mark Shackelford. Competitions are for precincts 101 (Clint Head, Terry McNew), 103 (David C. Cook, Van Vernon), 211 (David Streiff, Ericka Grim), 216 (Jim Lilly, Kay Crain), 314 (James F. Hyde, Nate Criswell), and 317 (Cathy Hays, Courtney Gore).
The executive committee is not required to choose as a replacement one of the candidates who participated in the primary election. In the matter involving Eagle, that would be Maxwell. The committee could pick someone else.
Elected precinct chairs will be seated on June 13. So will Steve Biggers, who defeated David Fischer to lead the party.
If Eagle were to be deemed ineligible, the chair of the GOP’s executive committee must deliver the certificate of the replacement nominee’s name to the county clerk or elections administrator by Aug. 29, the 71st day before the election.
