09/07/2020 – Trophy Club, TX
It was a beautiful 71 degrees with a slight breeze on the night of March 26, 2019 when the Town Council went into executive session. But the climate inside the conference room was getting hot as Councilman Jensen got into a heated conversation with Councilman Greg Lamont.
In his complaint of “harassment and request for whistle-blower protection”, a copy of which was received by the Trophy Club Journal as part of an extensive Open Records Request, former Town Manager Tom Class recalled the alleged events of the evening in a written statement. In the following account, we have filled in the blanks for context but have kept the quotes as stated in his complaint.
It started as a discussion about a potential conflict of interest with Councilman Eric Jensen’s wife, Rene’, who at the time was working at Performant Fitness. The town has a contract with Performant Fitness, and therefore it is reasonable to question whether such employment would be restricted due to Texas nepotism laws. Jensen began attacking Councilman Greg Lamont for bringing up the question.
But the law was on Lamont’s side. According to an opinion by the Texas Attorney General,
“When a governing member of an entity, or a “local government officer” (“officer”) has a specified relationship with a person to whom chapter 176 applies, the officer must file a conflicts disclosure statement.” Further, “The statement is required when the person has “an employment or other business relationship with the officer or a family member of the officer that results in the officer or family member receiving taxable income.”
Meaning, whether Rene’ Jensen was a direct employee or an independent contractor of Performant Fitness, Eric Jensen was required by law to disclose it … he didn’t.
But the conversation turned.
At some point in the conversation Jensen turns to Councilman Philip Shoffner and says, “Philip, ask the question.” Thus, indicating that Jensen & Shoffner had colluded together to prepare questions before the meeting.
Floating in the air over Trophy Club at that point in time were rumors of a potential conflict of interest between Councilman Tim Kurtz and Old Town Development, the developers of Breadwinners and HG Sply. But at this point not much of it had been confirmed publicly.
Shoffner turns to his computer and reads their prepared question, first directed at town attorney David Dodd. “Have you been part of or do you know of an investigation of the Town, any staff or elected official for conflict of interest in the last year?” Dodd replies, “No.”
Shoffner then turns to Town Manager Tom Class and reads the same question. Class replies, “Yes,” and “offered additional information that I [Class] had been contacted by the Texas Rangers and had met with them.”
In the report, Class alleges that Jensen then pointed his finger at him and yelled, “You need to resign!” [emphasis added]. To which Class replies, “I’m not resigning, I’m not going anywhere; you are going to have to fire me.” Jensen then accused Class of being a liar and leaking information.
Since that time, the Trophy Club Journal has submitted Open Records Request and done an extensive review of hundreds of documents. We now know that the conflict of interest in question consisted of an email that was accidently discovered on the town email server between Councilman Kurtz and Chris Gordon, one of the two owners of Old Town Development. (The other being Jensen’s good friend, Justin Springfield.)
Apparently, Kurtz was unaware that his phone was sending email through the towns email server … making them all subject to open records requests.
In an email that we believe started the investigation, Kurtz is seeking advice from Chris Gordon about how to answer a conflict of interest form that he was required to fill out for the town. Kurtz wrote, “As Joli [Kurtz wife] is an investor in Turnberry Cap which is an investor in HG building. I am wondering if I need to state yes to a couple of these questions. Thoughts?”
It turns out that “Turnberry Cap” (ie: Turnberry Capital) is a company owned by Kurtz.
Kurtz later admitted that through that company his wife gave $100,000 to Old Town Development. His lawyer would lay claim that the money part of an investment for one of their kids and that Kurtz never profited from the investment… as if any of that matters. Not only did Kurtz fail to disclose the relationship, but according to the town attorney, Kurtz never recused himself from voting on OTD projects. (There have been other alleged conflicts which are not germane to this story.)
Much of this came out in open session of a council meeting on April 9, 2019. The attorney for Kurtz’s stated that at the time Kurtz had intended to divest his shares from the company but that the attorney forgot to file the paperwork … for over a year.
There is question from Jensen supporters about whether this investigation is still ongoing.
The Trophy Club Journal has made several FOIA requests with the FBI and has received no acknowledgement of an ongoing investigation. The FBI does not comment on criminal investigations … they cannot even acknowledge IF an investigation exists, naturally.
However, our sources have confirmed that past and present town employees have been interviewed by the FBI regarding a case other than the “merchant fraud” that Jensen supporters are using to deflect attention.
This means that there was an investigation … whether it is still ongoing or not is anybody’s guess. Nobody can know for sure and anyone who says otherwise is lying. It takes the FBI years to investigate such complicated matters. Until or unless the FBI finally decides to press charges, we may never know how long the investigation lasted.
It is easy to see why Mr. Class would seek whistle-blower protection in light of the abhorrent behavior of Eric Jensen in the executive session that night
The documents would suggest that Mr. Class was simply following the law by answering questions directed at him from law enforcement. Why was Eric Jensen with his friends on the Council leading a rebellion against him? A man they had publicly praised in the past.
Because of the damage caused by Mr. Jensen, it quickly became clear to most of the Town Council that a prolonged legal battle [with Mr. Class] could likely cost the town millions of dollars in damages plus hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees and would likely end with a payout, regardless. Generally, it was felt that it would be better to deal with it now and move on.
An offer was made to settle with Class for $400k and allow him to resign with honor, dignity, and grace. On May 13, 2019, in a public forum the council accepted his voluntary separation agreement. (Link to Video) Councilman Jensen voted against the agreement. Jensen felt that Class should have been outright fired and he wanted to let the legal process proceed.
In summary, it was Eric Jensen that created the hostile work environment which gave rise to the $400k settlement but even more than that, it was Eric Jensen, when head of the EDC, who wrote and approved the Agreement with Old Town Development in the first place. An agreement that was universally agreed by all parties to be so poorly written that it gave cause to all the conflicts that would follow … and yet Mr. Jensen admitted on April 9, 2019 to having never read the Agreement.
But it doesn’t stop there. On top of all that, Jensen cost the town another $25k when he “accidentally” resigned from the council and caused a special election. But that is another story.
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