08/22/2020 – Trophy Club, TX
An investigation by the Trophy Club Journal into the Trophy Club 2016 Citizen of the Year award has turned up some concerning improprieties with regards to the selection of Tiffany Nimphius as the citizen of the year and along the way has discovered why it is that this award is no longer given out.
After an extensive investigation of documents received from an Open Records Request (ORR) as well as documents received from other confidential sources, these are our findings.
2016 CITIZEN OF THE YEAR
The Town began accepting 2016 Citizen of the Year (COY) nominations in March 2017 in two categories … one for adults and one for youth. This investigation centers on that of the adult category.
As stated on the town’s website,
“the Citizen of the Year is a person who will be recognized for their outstanding work with a non-profit organization (for example raising funds, coordinating philanthropic events for the organization, overseeing distribution of funds, etc), work in schools, local government, parent/teacher organizations, etc. Recognition should be for service performed during the year in question. Nominations may come from any Trophy Club Citizen on behalf of a recipient.”
As you would expect, elected officials and members of the town staff are not eligible but those who serve on Boards or Commissions are eligible.
Evaluation of the nominations is supposed to be conducted by a committee consisting of previous Citizen of the Year recipients. As we will explain, it appears that process may have been hijacked.
TIMELINE OF EVENTS
The very first nomination was received on March 29, 2017 for Tiffany Nimphius. It was submitted by her friend Irma Seal.
Two days later Sherri Lewis, town staff liaison for the Citizen of the Year (COY) committee, sent an email to Dena Boudreaux (2013 Recipient), Mindi Bone (Vice Chair, Parks & Rec. Board, 2014 Recipient) and Kelly Castonguay (2015 Recipient) that she wanted to “simplify the process” of the selection committee to include only winners from the last 3 years … rather than invite all past COY recipients as had been tradition and as stated in the rules for 2016 nominations.
Immediately, one should notice that this is already a violation of the published rules as well as a historic tradition.
Over the next few days more nominations begin to roll in.
April 2, 2017 – Nomination of Cameron Jolley by Velani Cannon
April 3, 2017 – Nomination of Chris Bailey by Ryan Chitwood
Then, on April 10, 2017 @ 10:11 am, (Former) Town Manager Tom Class sent an email to Sherri. He stated that he had been getting inquiries in to COY and wanted to discuss the details with her.
The details of that exact conversation are not mentioned in the record documents. However, at 11:24 am that same day Mrs. Lewis changes her direction and invites the previous winners to participate in the selection committee. Sherri also states that a meeting will be scheduled on Monday, April 17, 2017 for the committee to review nominations.
Immediately after sending that invite Sherri emails Tom Class and lets him know that all past COY recipients have been invited to participate. Clearly Mr. Class asked her to notify him when she sent the email to all the other recipients. Conveniently, she gave the other selection committee members only a week notice to make plans in their schedule.
It seems clear that the intent for proposing such a date/time (at the last minute) was to prevent the youth recipients and other working adults from being able to attend and cast their vote. It did not take long for the town to start receiving decline notices via email from many of the previous recipients.
No attempt or consideration was made to have the nominations reviewed independently and voted on remotely.
On April 12th another nomination was received for Margaret Anderson by Matt Tibbits.
Three days later, after all the other potential committee members have declined, Mrs. Lewis reschedules the selection committee meeting date.
The meeting is rescheduled to Wednesday, April 19, 2017 at 6:00 pm. There is no record that any of the previous Citizen of the Year recipients were notified of the new date with the exception of Dena Boudreaux, Mindi Bone & Kelly Castonguay (the same three people that Mrs. Lewis wanted to participate in the first place) as well as three of the youth recipients Megan Rodgers (2011), Peyton Arata (2012) & McKenzie Arata (2013). It appears that those who previously declined to participate due to a schedule conflict were conveniently not advised of the new meeting date.
At 2:14 pm on April 13, 2017 a nomination is submitted for Nicole Arata by Kelly Noonan.
Now things start to get interesting.
After 15 days with not a single additional nomination for Nimphius but just 7 hours after the nomination of Nicole Arata:
April 13, 2017 – 9:19 pm – Nomination of Tiffany Nimphius by Suzie Manning.
April 13, 2017 – 9:43 pm – Nomination of Tiffany Nimphius by Jared King (Board Member of Ethics Review Commission).
April 13, 2017 – 11:19 pm – Nomination of Tiffany Nimphius by Earl Bilbrey (Board Member of Parks & Rec. where Tiffany volunteers).
April 13, 2017 – 11:27 pm – Nomination of Tiffany Nimphius by Shina Bilbrey (Wife of Earl).
April 14, 2017 – 8:52 am – Nomination of Tiffany Nimphius by Alison Dipilla.
April 14, 2017 – 9:16 am – Nomination of Tiffany Nimphius by Kristen Ramsbottom.
April 14, 2017 – 10:08 am – Nomination of Tiffany Nimphius by Rene Jensen (her husband, Eric Jensen was Vice President of the EDC and running for Council. He would go on to win the election the following month. At the time of this publication he is currently running for Mayor).
April 14, 2017 – 12:19 pm – Nomination of Margaret Anderson by Robert Murray.
April 14, 2017 – 1:06 pm – Nomination of Tiffany Nimphius by Cheryl Helms.
April 14, 2017 – 2:47 pm – Nomination of Nicole Arata by Nancy Miley.
The deadline passes on April 14, 2017 at 5:00 pm. But for good measure, one more nomination is received the following day (and was accepted).
April 15, 2017 – 1:03 pm – Nomination of Tiffany Nimphius by Lorelei Bautista. Lorelei is the spouse of Reece Bautista, Alt. Member of Ethics Review Commission.
As a side note, you may find it interesting that whereas Nicole Arata and Margaret Anderson had incredibly detailed explanations for their nominations, Tiffany Nimphius’ nominations were mostly one sentence. In fact, aside from “flag planting”, in which many town citizens participate, the most appropriate justification for Mrs. Nimphius was for her participation in the “It’s Time Texas” challenge. However, this event occurred in 2017 and not in 2016. Thus, a fair evaluation of her nomination should have disqualified her as nominations are supposed to be for the year of the actual award.
Was the outpouring of support for Mrs. Nimphius at the last minute, immediately following the nomination of Mrs. Aratta coincidental? We think not. Self-evident by the onslaught of last-minute support for Mrs. Nimphius is the fact that someone has tipped off the Jensen FriendZone with privileged information and that group is now worried that there is a possibility that Mrs. Nimphius’ nomination could be in jeopardy.
The likely suspect (with emphasis on “suspect”) is Sherri Lewis herself. A person who has known ties the FriendZone, and who oversaw the selection committee procedures.
In the end, the following persons were nominated for the 2016 Citizen of the Year award:
Margaret Anderson, Nicole Arata, Chris Bailey, Cameron Jolley & Tiffany Nimphius.
Casting ballots were former recipients: Megan Rodgers, Peyton Arata, McKenzie Arata, Mindi Bone, Kelly Castonguay & Dena Boudreaux.
As the votes were counted, a tie of 3 to 3 put Tiffany Nimphius against Nicole Arata for the nomination.
Email received as part of our Open Records Request state that prior to casting her vote, “Peyton Arata announced to the group that [she] had another commitment, quickly read through the nominations, placed her ballot in the box, and left before the votes were counted.” This meant that she would not be around for a runoff to break the tie.
The final tally of the 2nd tiebreaking vote in the Adult Category was:
- Nicole Arata: 1 vote
- Tiffany Nimphius: 3 votes
- Blank (No Vote): 1 vote
A predictable outcome considering at least 3 of the other committee members are personal friends of Tiffany Nimphius and that one person of the committee would not be permitted to vote for a family member. Perhaps if the other previous recipients were notified in a timely manner the outcome may have been different. We will never know. As this committee was designed, the outcome was predestined to favor Mrs. Nimphius.
After the controversy of the selection was completed, Mayor Nick Sanders sent an email to Town Manager Tom Class on April 24th, 2017. Mr. Sanders spoke about a complaint he had received and stated, “My concern [Sanders] is that we all know that Sherri had a great close relationship with not only past recipients of the award, but with current nominees.” He asked Class to investigate the matter.
Exactly who is the “we” that Mayor Sanders is referring to? All the town employees? The Council? Regardless, the selection process was permitted to continue unabated with a person who everyone knows is connected to the FriendZone. Why?
Class responded to the Mayor by providing a copy of an email he sent to Sherri Lewis on April 20, 2017 where he outlined the events of the meeting, and which we have summarized here on the Trophy Club Journal. Class asserts that he did not witness any impropriety. However, he stated that in his opinion “in the future the town staff should be removed from the process.”
Well it turns out that revising the system would become unnecessary as the consequences of this situation has resulted in the complete shutter of the entire “Citizen of the Year” award system.
Thanks to the corruption of Eric Jensen’s FriendZone, Tiffany Nimphius would become the last recipient to ever receive a Citizen of the Year award in Trophy Club.
Fortunately for the town, Alicia Fleury won her seat on the council in May of 2017. At her behest the Council started conducting its own recognition program using monthly “Proclamations”. Going forward, nominations and selections would be under the direction and control of the Town Council.
While this is generally a good thing, the downside to this system is that this makes it convenient for the founding FriendZone members as they have been able to maintain majority control of the Council and thus they get to approve or deny every nomination. FriendZone members work hard to ensure that only their “friends” are elected to Town Council and get Board & Commission appointments. They consistently demonize anyone who dare run against them and are militant detractors of The Trophy Club Journal.
“Friends” helping friends … and keeping those who are not “friends” out of the system.
So, to echo the words of the renowned Paul Harvey, “Now you know the rest of the story.”
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Resources: All nomination forms can be accessed below. We have elected not to upload all the emails as doing so may compromise some of our sources and methods.
As an adjunct to the story, Sherri Lewis is no longer employed by the Town of Trophy Club.
Corrections:
08/24/2020 – We corrected the story to indicate that Alicia Fleury was elected in 2017 (May), not 2016.
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