We said "No" to the outsiders and their ugly digital signs, and the Mayor suggested to the outsiders "Sue the Hollywood Park HOA"!

BOB vs HPHOA

In the spirit of the First Amendment !

Mayor Bob Sartor wrote the following email to Lamar Advertising, 

Send me an email tmccallum@hollywoodpark-tx.gov and I will forward the original email that was forwarded to me to you.

KSAT Channel 12 Story - Watch how the Mayor responds!

http://www.ksat.com/news/26405203/detail.html

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Hollywood Park Mayor Bob Sartor E-Mail
As reported by KSAT TV News

http://www.ksat.com/news/26405580/detail.html

From: Mayor Bob Sartor
Date: December 29, 2010 3:38:25 PM CST
To: Chris Stokes
Cc: Alan Reeder
Subject: Re: Fwd: Hollywood Park Sparks
Chris,

I would remind them that they in fact run paid adds for political candidates before every election cycle. That fact in itself would disprove their bogus argument here.
The HOA has allowed columnists to write political pieces which do advocate positions, some contrary to current city law. I pointed this out to them and they said they can not take sides. Made no sense then.
Also, they allow Council Members (and other guest columnists to take positions. I have not read the last issue, but hear Councilman McCallum may have addressed the bulletin board issue.
So, this is a very inconsistent statement by the paper folks. I have never heard of any paid article being refused.
What the "Sparks folks" do not know (and should not really need to
consider,) is that one or more councilmen have been fighting not to allow Lamar to speak at all at the Council meetings and Public Hearings. I have had other dealings with the Sparks folks on these types of issues and they continue to act like a small PTA newspaper group in that they are so inconsistent, yet complain when they get shut out of info because of their actions.
I would have your lawyers give you an opinion. Simply looking at last month's Sparks and the previous issue (3 or 4 months ago) where Ms Trueman as head of the HP Humane Society advocated changing the feeding ban. That is the third rail of HP politics and is sure "political." I confronted the HOA leadership specifically and they said they could not get involved and it did not represent their opinion. That was for a non paid regular column! In my opinion, if you find a basis, I would not disagree with threatening litigation simply because they are being very inconsistent in their inclusion of material, especially paid. I believe you have a 1st amendment argument and would love for the Neighborhood News organization and Sparks to get a lesson in the 1st amendment.
You can also look at printing your add in the North Central News. That publication is our official newspaper and is circulated each week (Thursdays). SA Express-News sometimes picks up there material, etc. Edmond Ortiz is their managing editor and can be reached at 210-250-3386.
BS