Ethics hearing against parks board member set for Thursday

The City of San Marcos Ethics Review Commission will be hearing an ethics complaint filed against Parks and Recreation Board member Jordan Buckley by Park Ranger Loy Locke  on Thursday.

Locke alleges that Buckley violated Article 5 of the Ethics Code Section 2.424 by making a false statement of material fact at a public meeting, referencing the Sept. 17, 2020 Parks Advisory Board meeting in his Ethics Violation Complaint form. 

“In the meeting Board Member Jordan Buckley stated he filed for a public records request and found three complaints against me concerning racism,” Locke wrote in the complaint. “Board member Jordan Buckley then accused me of being a racist. Later in the meeting Board Member Jordan Buckley accused me of being a racist several more times.”

The Ethics Violation Complaint form also states that of the three complaints Buckley received via an open records request from the city, only one of them was about Locke.

Although Locke’s name has been censored in the video of the public meeting, Buckley read three complaints alleged against Locke in the Sept. 17 meeting, and spoke of two other residents coming to him with concerns about, “the racism of a park ranger.”

At the September meeting, Chief Park Ranger Jade Huffman objected to Buckley’s claim stating that none of what was alleged occurred.

City correspondence showed that investigations into two of the complaints were determined to be “unfounded.”

Buckley then filed an open records request to see the body camera footage for the incidents, but it was denied due to a code stipulation that requires he get consent of the subject of the video. Although he has received consent from the resident in the video who filed the complaint, he has not yet received consent from the other individuals in the video. 

Buckley requested the hearing be delayed a month to allow him time to gather evidence and witnesses after a deadline to submit passed that he was not made aware of. 

The commission decided in a meeting earlier this week to accept the evidence after the deadline but would not delay the meeting. 

The video of the Sept. 17, 2020 Parks and Recreation Board meeting is publicly available at https://san-marcos-tx.granicus.com/player/clip/1582?view_id=19&redirect=....

Thursday's hearing begins at 5:30 p.m.