In four separate charges, the group is accusing Environmental Commission Chair Kathryn Bazan, Vice Chair Esther Villarreal and Temeckia Derrough, commissioner for council District 7, of politically motivated harassment and violating the city’s code of conduct for officials during encounters with Downwinders in West Dallas and the southern Dallas neighborhood Joppa.
More specifically, the group’s director, Jim Schermbeck, said Bazan pursued a baseless criminal complaint against him for exercising his right to free speech during a community meeting about the GAF shingle factory in West Dallas. Evelyn Mayo, co-chair of the Downwinders board, claims Bazan threatened to sue her and the board over a social media post critical of Bazan’s comments about GAF-related particulate matter emissions data.
Lastly, Misti O’Quinn, a Downwinders board member, and staff organizer Alicia Kendrick say Derrough was rude and harassing toward them. They say the behavior recently spilled over to Derrough telling a Spanish-speaking Joppa resident to speak English.
Bazan, Villarreal and Derrough declined to comment. Christine Hopkins, an attorney for Downwinders at Risk, sent over the ethics complaints, along with Dallas Police Department body camera footage and a cease-and-desist letter from Bazan to Mayo. The DPD body cam footage shows Bazan filing a disorderly conduct report with the police against Schermbeck.
In the video, Bazan says she attended a community meeting the night before in West Dallas, where Schermbeck was present. The meeting was over a zoning case in the area. “A gentleman that’s very well known in the environmental activism community came over after the meeting, got right in my face,” Bazan told the officers. “I mean, he was like spitting in my face, screaming at me ‘Fuck you’ and just being very aggressive.”
She says she asked Schermbeck to back up and he wouldn’t. Villarreal also gave a statement to police about the incident.
Bazan also sent a cease-and-desist letter to Mayo on Jan. 30 alleging defamation. “I have learned that you are engaged in making false, harmful and defamatory statements about me,” the letter said.
Bazan wrote in the letter that the defamatory statements included claims that she lied about her ethnicity and was appropriating Latino culture. “I am proudly Latina, which I have plainly stated to you both verbally and in writing,” Bazan wrote “Your statements about my ethnicity, my physical appearance and ethnicity of my children are vile.”"We were left with no other option to address what has become a systematic problem.” – Caleb Roberts, Downwinders at Risk
tweet this
She also details a Downwinders post on X criticizing her statements about GAF particulate matter emissions. This gets a little complicated, but the post is a retweet of a screen grab of someone else’s post. The original post came from a guy named Steve Milloy, a lawyer, lobbyist, author and former Fox News commentator. He was also part of former President Donald Trump’s transition team.
Milloy's original post shared an opinion article from The New York Times titled “Is the era of gas stoves burning out?” Milloy added to the article with: “There is nothing that comes out of a gas stove that can possibly cause or trigger asthma. But the fake news media doesn’t care and will repeat the lies long after everyone else is bored with them and until they take hold.”
Someone named John Walke shared a screen grab of Milloy’s post. Walke’s caption said (referring to Milloy), “Former tobacco lobbyist-securities attorney-coal exec-non-scientist-Trump EPA advisor wants you to know tiny, deadly soot particles are harmless.”
And then Downwinders at Risk shared the post, writing, “As of last night this may also be the opinion of the Dallas Environmental Commission's chair regarding GAF's 30 tons of annual PM pollution....disgusting”
As of last night this may also be the opinion of the Dallas Environmental Commission's Chair regarding GAF's 30 tons of annual PM pollution....disgusting https://t.co/KJo9rIR4Xp
— Downwinders at Risk (@cleanerair) January 26, 2023
Environmental Commission Chair Bazan took issue with that.
“At no time did I state that particulate matter emissions were harmless or that I believed them to be harmless, and nothing I stated could be construed that way,” Bazan wrote in her letter about the post. “You also incorrectly stated GAF materials’ particulate emissions, which are nearly 60 tons per year.”
Bazan gave Mayo 10 days to retract the statements or face civil action. The post on X is still up.
Now, on to the actual ethics complaints. Kendrick wrote in her complaint that on Feb. 28 she was at home with her 2-year-old daughter when she heard a knock at the door. She wasn’t expecting anyone so she didn’t answer the door. A few hours later, there was another knock. This time Kendrick went to the door to find Derrough.
“Ms. Derrough began berating Ms. Kendrick about why Ms. Kendrick wasn't including her (Ms. Derrough) in the Joppa Environmental Health Project, and accused Ms. Kendrick of withholding information and not being transparent,” the complaint said. “Ms. Derrough said she had come by earlier in the evening as well. This unexpected and unwelcome visit by Ms. Derrough, a city-appointed Environmental Commission member, to Ms. Kendrick's home as well as the tone and substance of Ms. Derrough's statements made Ms. Kendrick feel threatened and as if Ms. Derrough was attempting to intimidate Ms. Kendrick.”
The complaint also details several outbursts by Derrough at community meetings in Joppa. It says that during one of these meetings, a Spanish-speaking resident started to make a comment in Spanish. Derrough interrupted the speaker, saying, “English, baby, cause I don’t understand Spanish.”
O’Quinn’s complaint describes similar incidents, including one where Derrough flipped the middle finger at her, Kendrick and Mayo at an Earth Day event in April.
Caleb Roberts, co-chair of Downwinders at Risk, said in a press release that the group hasn’t filed an ethics complaint against any public official in its 30-year history. “However, today members of our staff and board are filing ethics charges against three city of Dallas officials over a pattern of behavior that’s become intolerable and unacceptable,” he said.
The group says it has several witnesses to these alleged ethics violations.
Roberts said these environmental commissioners are abusing their power and weaponizing the government against the group and its allies.
“While these charges only cover the last year of abusive behavior from these commission members, this has been a problem since its formation over two years ago,” Roberts said. “Unfortunately, the City Council ignored requests from numerous neighborhood leaders to replace these members when they came up for reappointment earlier this year. We were left with no other option to address what has become a systematic problem.”
Mayo directed us to Hopkins for comments about the complaints. She said in an emailed statement that all of this has made it difficult for Downwinders to collaborate with the commission.“[Bazan] is passionate about environmental justice and works on those issues that move awareness and cleanup forward." – Paula Blackmon, Dallas City Council
tweet this
“Instead of focusing on the important issues at hand, these three environmental commissioners have decided to allow their personal issues and feelings to interfere with doing what is best for the city and the community at large,” Hopkins wrote. She said the city needs to hold the three commissioners accountable by requesting their resignations “upon any subsequent violation of the ethics ordinance.”
Hopkins added in her email, “Community members and non-profits in the city of Dallas need to be confident that they can advocate for justice for neighborhoods of color without being flipped off, harassed at home, harassed at private events, or threatened with criminal and civil legal action by city commission members.”
While the commissioners didn’t respond to requests for comment, they’ve made statements in the past that touch on some of this drama. The City Council members who appointed them also seem to have their backs. In September, the Joppa Environmental Health Project, Downwinders at Risk and the West Dallas neighborhood group Singleton United/Unidos opposed the reappointment of Bazan and Derrough, claiming they had political agendas and were blacklisting members of the public, according to KERA.
“If the City of Dallas truly believes in the effectiveness of the Environmental Commission, the city needs to appoint real leaders to hold these positions,” Kendrick told the City Council at the time.
"They are hostile and attacking me because they want me to push their narrative of environmental justice and racism," Derrough told KERA. Bazan told the station the allegations against her are false and that she works to benefit Dallas residents.
Dallas City Council member Adam Bazaldua, who appointed Derrough, told the station at the time, “I remain committed to stay above drama brought forth from agitators and stand behind my appointees, who are passionate and dedicated to serving our district.”
Bazan was defended by her council member, Paula Blackmon. “[Bazan] is passionate about environmental justice and works on those issues that move awareness and cleanup forward,” Blackmon told KERA. “She does great work of all our communities.”
Villareal was reappointed by her City Council member, Omar Narvaez, on Nov. 1. He too commended his appointees work and seemed to touch on some of the drama with Downwinders and other local groups. “Esther is a volunteer just like everybody else,” Narvaez said at the November meeting. “To be bullied and to be treated just not in the best of ways when things are not going the way that you want to is not the way we do business here at City Hall.”
“Yeah, we bicker. We don't’ always agree. That’s just politics and that’s creating good policy,” he said. “But at the end of the day we’re one big family and our families do the same thing. But we shouldn’t do it to a point where people feel they have to call and get police services, escorts, and things of that nature, especially for a volunteer position.”
This is one big family that doesn’t seem to be getting along very well.
