Here is the column I have submitted for publication in the Dec. 4, 2008 issue:
Ellis County’s Italian mafia
Little Italy, a town of about 2,000+ south of Waxahachie, has some big corruption.
With all due respect to the more professional, hard-working Italian mob bosses in Europe and New York City, our little Italy can’t go a week without some sort of allegation creeping up involving city officials, both former and current.The latest, a Texas Rangers investigation into municipal court clerk Susan Delaphimine, is just the tip of the iceberg (she was recently reinstated on the job.) An economic development corporation that spends taxpayer dollars to entice businesses and promote tourism doesn’t have state-mandated articles of incorporation to exist, let alone splash funds around town in hopes people will stay beyond the Monolithic Dome museum.
Sure, every little town has its own way of doing things, and Italy isn’t different. However, the thing that sticks out to me about Italy is the willingness of not just one person, but several people fighting to rid that town of the wrongs.
And it’s paying off. First the Texas Rangers investigation. Next a city council re-appointment. John Droll stepped down from his city council position this summer to focus on work-related things, but he’s back on after a 3-2 council decision made the vote to do so (that meeting of the re-appointment was held on a Saturday morning at 8 a.m. Someone tell me that wasn’t designed somehow to keep the public from knowing about certain city dealings?)
Droll is known as the questioner. He questions all sorts of things, according to Italy readers who are tired of the corruption. He’s what one would call, a thorn in the side of those who get by with alleged nepotism (it’s rampant in that town) or giving friends and select church members city contracts.
Italy’s city council has a Waxahachie police officer in Rodney Guthrie serving. He knows full well what’s going on, but has he tried stopping public corruption? No. I wonder what his job is like at the Waxahachie Police Department. If it’s anything like the mayor (MayorRonWilkinson.com) and city council there, not very good either.
It’s beginning to get old griping against our county/district attorney’s office for not prosecuting these people and throwing them behind bars. I’ve learned to temper my impatience for putting corrupt officials behind bars so as to allow our prosecutors to do their investigations thoroughly. But after 20+ years, Joe Grubbs should have put someone on trial or in jail for public corruption.
I save the last bit of heat for the city’s black mayor, Frank Jackson. He not only serves as the figurehead for the “organized crime family” (sarcastic humor, folks, relax) that is the Italy City Council, but he’s been in meetings in which certain actions were committed by the very people who are under investigation.
Jackson would serve the city well by resigning his position. Silence is an indictment as they say, and Jackson is at the forefront of all of this mess. He could have put a stop to people going into Italy City Hall late at night and deleting files from city computers, or having a municipal court clerk rummaging through a dead woman’s house and taking and selling items from that house. Delaphimine’s only response to reporter Megan Gray: “…allegations…sorry Megan I’m at work. Bye-Bye.”
Jackson – who had the audacity to bring this lady back to work – and others who know what’s going on and do nothing are just as bad as those who are committing the crimes.
Sure, Italy’s European mob bosses are a little more infamous and notorious, but I would trust 100 mob bosses before I would trust a corrupt little town in Ellis County.
Thankfully, the public is getting to know about all of this because their Gladiators high school football team is in a rebuilding phase. When towns aren’t swarming their football players and games, nobody pays attention to the important things, like 8 a.m. city council meetings, nepotism and corrupt city staff-controlled bank accounts.
Down in the “Littlest Big Town in Texas,” a group of angry residents are finally demanding that accountability and responsibility be returned and corrupt people will be driven away or jailed. One can only hope.
