MISSOURI CITY – Justice of the Peace Roderick Garner granted two requests for peace bonds Monday against former Arcola Mayor Fred Burton. The requests were submitted by current Mayor Veeda Williams and Mayor Pro-Tem Ebony Sanco, who both cited threatening behavior from Burton.
Burton, however, believes these peace bonds are an attempt to deter him from voicing his concerns to city council.
A peace bond is a court order designed to “keep the peace” between two parties – particularly when someone is threatened but not harmed. If the bond is granted, the accused will have to deposit an amount of money determined by the judge to a court. If the bond is violated, the accused could lose the money or face consequences, such as fines or confinement.
Garner granted both peace bonds for a total of $300, $150 for each bond. These bonds do not prevent Burton from attending public meetings such as city council and workshops, Garner said.
Sanco said she hoped the peace bond would stop Burton from mentioning her on Facebook and to stop bothering her outside of official meetings. While she thought Garner was fair to grant the bonds, she doesn’t think it’ll stop Burton’s behavior.
“He won’t keep the peace,” she said.
After the hearing, Burton was visibly frustrated, shaking his head and muttering to himself.
“There is no justice in Fort Bend County,” Burton said.
According to Williams, she received a call from Police Chief Arika Carr on July 18 about a “frantic” phone call she received from Burton.
During the phone call, Carr said Burton said he was concerned about children being at Arcola City Hall while court was taking place and said that he was going to come up and “take everybody down.”
Arcola runs a summer youth program at City Hall. Williams said that in all the years the youth program has been in session, it has never run the same time as court.
Burton denies saying he was going to “take down” anyone, but said he did tell Carr that he was going to come to City Hall to see what was going on, he told Houston Landing.
Regardless, Carr took these comments as a threat and alerted Williams. In response, Williams – who was out of town at a training session at the time – said she alerted City Hall security to prevent Burton from roaming freely in the building.
Williams said the former mayor has gotten “progressively more aggressive” since the election season.
When Burton arrived at City Hall, Williams said he told staff he was there to “focus” and proceeded to sit in the lobby for four hours. Burton denies sitting in the building that long.
“I don’t care if he is the former mayor. I don’t care who he is,” Williams said after the complaint was filed in July. “I don’t care who it is if they make those types of comments toward the staff and toward people in general, we have to be on alert.”
Burton said the reason behind his concern is because people who usually are at court are upset or angry because they’re dealing with legal matters.
“If I go pay a ticket, I’m mad. I’m pissed off,” he said. “And then you’re in a restroom with kids…. You don’t need to commingle that together.”
Sanco’s request for a peace bond stemmed from a series of escalating incidents with the mayor since January, including his hiring of a private investigator to follow her and her children for five days in an attempt to prove she didn’t reside in the city.
According to her court testimony, Sanco claims Burton followed her outside a Mexican restaurant in July and started arguing with her. Sanco couldn’t exactly recall what the argument was about, but believes Burton sought her out.
Burton denies this claim.
Burton said he believes the peace bonds are an attempt to silence him on issues taking place at city council.
Most recently, Burton has been coming to city council meetings and workshops to oppose an agenda item where the city considered paying the fees of Stephen Dockery – the lawyer who represented three council members in a months-long legal battle with the city.
Council members Sanco, Rosemary Bigby and Evelyn Jones sued the city earlier this year and claimed that Burton and other Arcola officials were preventing them from carrying out their official duties. Burton and other city officials were found guilty.
At the conclusion of the case, District Judge Surendran Pattel ruled that each party would be responsible for their own legal fees. Despite all the parties in the case being employees of the city, Burton said Arcola shouldn’t use taxpayers dollars to pay Dockery.
“As long as I’m coming to council meetings reiterating what the judge said that the city wasn’t responsible for paying that bill, they’re trying to get me out the way. Because they know if they pay it, I’m gonna sing to the highest mountain about what they are doing up there,” Burton said.
Williams said this complaint and seeking a peace bond has nothing to do with Burton’s concerns about the payment and said she welcomes residents using their voice to hold council accountable.
She said the reason council members had to get outside legal counsel at all is because the former city attorneys – Grandle Randle and Debra Mergel of Grandy Randle and Associates – made it clear that their loyalty was to the mayor in the debacle.
At the July 9 council meeting, City Council unanimously voted to pay $62,781 in legal fees to Dockery, Williams said. But Williams said this pales in comparison to the $114,894 paid to the former city attorneys – one of which was found guilty of acting outside of her legal authority.
“I think it was only fitting if the city had to pay for the mayor and city officials who were acting outside of their capacity,” Williams said. “Certainly, they paid much less for council members who were rectifying the situation and having the city operate in the fashion that it is supposed to operate.”
Despite losing the election this May, Burton said he’s still committed to speaking up about the city he led for the past six years.
“I’m not going nowhere,” Burton said. “I pay tax dollars. (I) pay a lot of tax dollars. I did a lot of work in that city, and I’m not gonna sit back and ride off in the sunset and just let whoever tear it down.”
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