Council hopeful in legal fight points to work
City Council candidate Cynthia Bailey touted the work she has done in East Houston and told supporters at the region’s civic club Saturday to judge her “by my present, not by my past.”
“I have served my time, I’ve paid my debt to society and all I want to do is serve my community in District B,” Bailey said to applause. “Nothing else.”
Bailey finished second behind Tarsha Jackson in the Nov. 5 election and qualified for a runoff that has since been postponed. Her well-documented 2007 felony conviction for theft is the subject of litigation that led county officials to remove the race from the Dec. 14 ballot.
“I was convicted of a crime. They went back 12 years to say that’s what you did,” Bailey said. “Can’t they come up a little further? Now go 12 years forward.
Judge me by present, not by my past, because my past doesn’t solidify who I am today.”
Bailey was convicted for, along with three other people, stealing two checks worth more than $200,000 from the now-defunct North Forest Independent School District. She served 18 months of a 10-year sentence before getting out on probation.
“I’m trying to figure out at what point do I become a regular citizen again,” Bailey said. “It’s not fair.”
Bailey has operated nonprofits for neighborhood kids and led a “hot team” for incumbent Councilman Jerry Davis that was tasked with cleaning up illegal dumping sites in the area.
Community leaders including Davis, state Rep. Jarvis Johnson and former District B candidates hailed Bailey for her work in the community, where she is known to some as “the mayor of Settegast.”
Renee Jefferson-Smith, who finished 168 votes behind Bailey in the Nov. 5 election and missed the runoff, has filed two lawsuits seeking to declare Bailey ineligible and contesting the election results.
She is citing a state law that forbids people from running for office if they have been convicted of a felony from which they have not been pardoned or released from the “resulting disabilities.” The law doesn’t define what that means and has inspired different interpretations.
Jefferson-Smith has said she didn’t pursue the lawsuits out of any animus toward Bailey, but the law wouldn’t allow her to take the seat, which she thinks is a disservice to voters. Her lawyers have cited a case in Galveston from 2006, in which a candidate was elected to city council despite a wellknown felony conviction and then was removed from office.
“It makes no sense to have a candidate on the ballot (if) her votes do not count,” JeffersonSmith said at a neighborhood meeting last week. “If (Bailey) were to win in the runoff, she would not be able to take the seat. That’s what the law says. I didn’t write it, but that’s unfair.”
A judge denied JeffersonSmith’s request to declare Bailey ineligible. Her lawyers then filed the election contest, which county officials said triggered a part of state law that forced them to put off the runoff.
The race will now require a special election after the election contest is resolved.
Johnson, a former District B councilman himself, said he would file a bill in the next legislative session to clarify the state law at the center of the litigation.
“The fact is if you have the right to vote, then that means you should have the right to run for office,” Johnson said.
William “Willie D” Dennis, the former Geto Boys rapper whose own District B bid was cut short amid similar eligibility questions, said full rights should be restored when one finishes their sentence.
“She deserves being in the position that she’s in,” Dennis said of the runoff. “She should be rewarded for her work. This shouldn’t even be a question.”