Care of sect could top $5 million (YFZ/fLDS Daily Thread - 4/26/08)

MySA.com ^ | 04/25/2008 11:37 PM CDT | Nancy Martinez and Janet Elliott

[MizSterious]

Care of sect could top $5 million

Web Posted: 04/25/2008 11:37 PM CDT

Nancy Martinez and Janet Elliott
Hearst

Bus convoys carrying 265 children bound for foster homes around the state pulled out of San Angelo at midday Friday, ending a three-week emergency shelter operation launched in the wake of a raid on a West Texas polygamist sect.

The cost of the massive effort, which cared for 462 children and, at one point, more than 100 mothers, could top $5 million, a source familiar with the operation there said. The governor's office said Friday it did not have final cost figures.

The job was unprecedented for Texas: 900 people from state agencies and contracting organizations created and staffed a community for the children and mothers.

"It was an unbelievable effort. To watch all the moving parts from the get-go was an amazing experience. There hasn't been a point when anyone could stop and take a breath," said Patrick Crimmins, spokesman for Texas Child Protective Services.

The costs for San Angelo alone were $60,000 a day for police and other personnel, said Rep. Drew Darby, R-San Angelo. He said he could not guess what the state's cost was but said he "would not be shocked" if the figure was $5 million.

"There were very wide-ranging expenses," including hundreds of state workers who traveled to San Angelo, he said.

[TheDon]

Actually, unlike yourself, my interest in the FLDS plight is from my libertarian leanings on domestic issues. As for common roots, you are right. The bigotry against the FLDS today is almost exactly the same as that targeting the LDS church over 100 years ago. It is difficult for some to separate their feelings against polygamy among consenting adults, and statutory rape. It ain't for me. I think the perps of statutory rape among the FLDS should be prosecuted just like anyone else. However, I think the remaining FLDS folks should be left alone.

"In the nineteenth century, Mormon men married multiple wives with official endorsement by the LDS church. Besides passing laws specifically aimed at Mormon marriage and then arresting thousands of polygamists, the U.S. government also punished the LDS church by disincorporating it and confiscating its financial assets. Congress also disfranchised Utah's women and prepared to deprive all LDS church members of the right to vote, hold public office, serve on juries, immigrate to the U.S., or become naturalized citizens. From the 1860s to the early 1900s, government leaders and Protestant ministers argued that they were protecting the family and "the institution of marriage" by legally preventing Mormons from marrying as they might choose. For example, a Massachusetts minister said that Mormon polygamy must be prevented because "the whole question of the family is wrapped up in it." Federal officials claimed that this non-traditional form of marriage was a direct attack on the family. As the San Francisco Chronicle recently noted, "The most notorious sexual outlaws in American history are not today's gay rights crusaders, but the founding fathers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or the Mormon church.""

[SouthTexas]

Yes and no in regards to the good faith issue I think, there is more pertaining to what the sheriff knew and when he knew it that might weigh into that.

I said originally I thought the state had no choice in how they responded to the first calls of abuse (as it was presented by the media). Now I am having second thoughts on even that.

[SouthTexas]

More of the "may be", but as noted, it's not even alleged by the state.

Newsflash to all, moving the kids from fLDS to CPS will NOT save welfare money.

[Choose Ye This Day]

Of course, you mean FLDS, not fLDS.

There is no reason for the lower-case.

[SouthTexas]

LOL, ain't that a fact?

Debatable on the thought issue too.

As I said, I have no issue with anyone's opinion, just don't present it as fact. ;)

[Alice in Wonderland]

I was thinking more on a county level. Get control of the school board like they did in Colorado City, etc.

Until the year 2000, all of the children in Colorado City AZ attended public schools. But then the FLDS Prophet, Rulon Jeffs, ordered the faithful to stop all contact with heathen and apostates — which meant anybody who is not FLDS. So about 650 children left the 950 student system. Imagine the chaos that resulted from this religious edict. Even though all the church¹s children left, the School Board has remained 100 percent FLDS. Remember this as you read.

Most of the remaining students were from polygamist families also, but they belonged to a smaller, dissenting group called the 2nd Warders — apostates, doomed to hellfire — who live three miles away.

This is a very poor school district, and the board never tried to build its own schools. Instead, they leased space in buildings owned by the FLDS church. After the edict in 2000, the district did not need as much space, so even though some leases were paid up for several years in advance, the board relinquished most of it. Now the church has that space for its own schools.

Every negotiation was a sweetheart deal which favored the church at the expense of the taxpayers.

Next, the school board pleaded poverty to the newly created Arizona School Facilities Board. The facilities in Colorado City were indeed bad, so in 2001 the state built them a new $6 million K-12 school, and we taxpayers paid for it. At about the same time, Arizona launched a program to provide a financial cushion for schools in the event of a rapid decline in enrollment —something usually caused by a major employer shutting down. After the FLDS suddenly removed two-thirds of the students, the Colorado City district qualified. They have received about $1.5 million per year for the past three years under this ‘rapid decline’ program, and will for three more years — about $9 million total. So we paid again.

FLDS teachers were forbidden to teach the heathen and apostate kids, so most of them moved to the new church schools. Most other employees stayed, and the public school district remains the largest employer in the area. It still has 100 employees, for only 300 students now — an outrageously high 3 to 1 ratio.

Every student is now bussed to the new school from outlying areas. And guess what — all the school bus drivers are FLDS who kept their jobs and earn an average salary of $30,000. (The new teachers earn $20,000.)

This amazes me! Starting with the Prophet¹s edict in 2000, the FLDS have crafted a scheme that defrauds Arizona taxpayers on several levels, and it seems that nobody even realizes it. Or nobody cares.

District School Supt. Alvin Barlow has been in his job longer than any other superintendent in the state, so he¹s knowledgeable. (Incidentally, he also has four secretaries and four administrative aides.)

Barlow goes to state surplus property sales and gets school equipment and supplies on the cheap, then shares them with the church schools.

One of the perks of being a public school official in Colorado City is free transportation. The district owns 15 vehicles (mostly big SUVs, vans, and pickups) which are assigned to various administrators and principals who happen to be FLDS. They¹re supposedly for official business, but they get a lot of personal use with the district paying for fuel, maintenance, and insurance. Free use of a large vehicle is a great benefit for a polygamist family.

This little 300 student district also bought an airplane last year — a used Cessna 210, for $220,000 — so the officials can get to meetings easier. Then they contracted with the son of the school board president to fly it for them.

http://helpthechildbrides.com/articles/prescottcourier.htm

[deport]

BREAKING NEWS: Appeals court cancels Tuesday hearing on request to keep sect mothers with children

The Associated Press

Saturday, April 26, 2008

SAN ANGELO - An appeals court has officially rejected an effort by the mothers of a polygamist sect in West Texas to keep the children in San Angelo.

The Third Court of Appeals on Friday denied a request by dozens of mothers with the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to stop an order allowing the children to be sent to foster facilities around the state.

The children were all moved from San Angelo by early Friday, and the court found insufficient grounds to force them to stay in San Angelo. A hearing planned for Tuesday on the mothers' request was canceled.

More than 460 children have been taken by the state because they were abused or at risk of abuse because of alleged underage marriages in the sect.

[Politicalmom]

I can’t believe that people think that after being patient for YEARS, the Sheriff would do anything to jeopardize his case.

[CindyDawg]

This is either the biggest cover up of the century or LE has them “red” handed. My “theory” is the latter.

[CindyDawg]

The numbers don't add up. There were over 100 mothers, right? Only 7 chose to go back? How many are dozens? How many mothers have actually been separated?

[deport]

I was thinking more on a county level. Get control of the school board like they did in Colorado City, etc.

---

Possible I guess as Schleicher County is very rural with something like 2500 residents I think. The schools are located in Eldorado as I understand it. Keep importing enough adults, get them registered may be a possibility.

[ansel12]

Here is a funny piece I came across, I have no knowledge of the legal issues involved, but I like the tone.

“Drillers may laugh last

The community may have the last laugh, said pilot J.D. Doyle.

West Texas is oil country. Allred and Jeffs may have missed one detail about the YFZ Ranch - other people own most of the mineral rights, the warranty deed shows.

If the majority of mineral rights owners want to drill on the land, the property owner can’t say no, said John Griffin, an attorney for the Texas Railroad Commission, which manages oil and gas operations in the state.

“From the air, there’s a line of oil wells leading right up to the temple,” said J.D. Doyle.

In the first week in June, a drilling exploration rig went up on a neighboring ranch, about 200 yards from the YFZ Ranch fenceline.

“There are enough rich oilmen out there who’d put a drilling rig next to the temple just to see the look on their faces,” J.D. Doyle said.”

[deport]

I don’t know the numbers but I think only a few based upon the childs age were allowed to stay with the child. Someone with more info will have to respond with better data.

[deport]

Mineral rights are very hard to come by in TX. You’ll find owership still within old line families for land they haven’t owned surface rights to for many years....

[SouthTexas]

My grandmother was the last one in our family to own mineral rights. Rarely these days are they transferred with property titles.

[metmom]

No private citizen should have to directly pay for the idiotic actions of moronic government bureaucracies that take action against them.

They can just join the long list of people who have already done so. Why should they be the exception?

[metmom]

LOL!

[Froufrou]

This is a long thread so I haven’t read yet if you’ve been answered. As a former welfare worker, I can tell you that forged docs are nothing new. People would buy social security cards and come in and apply for benefits.

[Let's Roll]

Well, now we know why they had to be “coerced”.

[Enosh]

Thanks.

The best I've done so far is Texas penal code ch. 32. -> Link