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Its official: McCutcheon elected first woman mayor in Sugar Land Jones resigns from FBISD board By Ken Fountain
KFOUNTAIN@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
Embattled Fort Bend ISD Position 5 Trustee Sonya Jones, who immediately after the May 3 election announced she was resigning from the board – only to later to rescind that resignation – has now officially resigned after Monday’s agenda review workshop meeting. The board will discuss appointing a replacement on June 23. Jones, who had become controversial through numerous acrimonious social media postings since she was first elected in 2023, began Monday’s meeting as a sitting member. But after a public comment period in which three members of the public – including former Trustee Kristen Malone – criticized Jones’s behavior and called on the board to removed her, the board went into a closed session in which the only posted item of discussion was to “deliberate resignation of Trustee Sonya Jones.” One public speaker, Tammy Marino, read aloud a series of things Jones had posted on social media, including some where she said Jones had disparaged and even threatened her. She also read comments in which Jones said she was ready to “move on to better things” and that it was “time to serve better people.” When the board members emerged from the closed session after about an hour and a half, Jones was not among them, although some of her personal items remained at the table. Board president Kristin Tassin read aloud a brief statement: “As board president, I announce on behalf of the board Trustee Jones’s resignation. I will include for the board’s consideration a process for appointment to fill the position, Position 5, at the June 23 regular meeting.” When Jones announced minutes after the May 3 election results were revealed that she was resigning, she said it was because she had accepted a position with a “public policy research institute” that she did not name. SInce then however, Jones, the district administration and Tassin remained silent on when and whether Jones’s resignation would take effect. But a social media posting by the district, later removed, showed that Jones was going to be honored along with departing board members David Hamilton and Rick Garcia at a reception before the May 19 meeting. But Jones was not so honored at that reception and took her place on the dais during the meeting. While the key players in the situation remained silent, the Fort Bend County Republican Party in a Facebook posting said that Jones had rescinded her resignation on May 19, the day of the meeting. The party said Democrats were trying to force Jones off the board so that her seat could be filled without an election and urged the public to tell the board members not to do so. During regular business, the board heard an extensive presentation from the administration about its proposed budget
SEE FBISD PAGE 5
Carol McCutcheon on Saturday defeated her former Sugar Land City Council colleague William Ferguson in the runoff election for the mayor’s seat being vacated by longtime Mayor Joe Zimmerman. In still-unoff icial results, McCutcheon - who had held the District 4 seat on Council - earned 6,103 votes, or 53.05 percent, to narrowly beat Ferguson, the At-Large Position 1 member, who earned 5,402 votes, or 46.95 percent. The turnout for the runoff was 14.38 percent of the city’s 89,579 registered voters. McCutcheon and Ferguson were the two candidates to emerge from
a crowed five-person election on May 3, which also included then District 2 Council member Neshad Kermally. When she is sworn in on June 17, McCutcheon will be Sugar Land’s first mayor since the city was incorporated in 1957. In a phone interview with the Fort Bend Star, McCutcheon, who is chemical engineer by profession, said she has long been a “trailblazer,” often being the only woman in her engineering classes and later, while working in the energy sector, being the only woman on oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico where she was supervising projects. In the two other Sugar Land runoffs on Saturday, Jim Vonderhaar defeated Maggy Horgan for the At-Large Position 1 seat vacated
by Ferguson, 58.57 percent to 41.43 percent; and Sanjay Singhal beat Nasir Hussein for the District 2 seat vacated by Kermally. McCutcheon said that she was proud of the broad support she received in the election, particularly that she won the 29 of the city’s 38 voting precincts. During the runoff campaign, McCutcheon and Ferguson largely agreed on most of the issues raised, which most often dealt with the pace and kind of development the city should pursue. Ferguson, a peace officer, stressed public safety as his Carol McCutcheon defeated William top priority. Ferguson in the runoff election to become Sugar Land’s first woman SEE ELECTED PAGE 4 mayor. Photo via City of Sugar Land
NEWLY DEVELOPED FRUIT GARDEN
WELCOMES VISITORS
Community Reports One of the ways that Fort Bend County Master Gardeners share their knowledge is through the nine demonstration gardens they maintain in Rosenberg next to the County Fairgrounds.
Read more about this story on Page 2. Master Gardeners Mary Parkhouse of Rosenberg and Nancy Schoepf of Missouri City participate in a tree-planting demonstration in the Fruit Garden. Courtesy Fort Bend County Master Gardeners
Special court reverses admonishment of Fort Bend County judge By Ken Fountain KFOUNTAIN@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
A special review court recently ruled that the State Commission on Judicial Conduct erred last December when it issued a public admonishment of state district Judge Steve Rogers of the 268th District Court in Fort Bend County for actions he took in the course of a case in July 2023, including using profanity toward lawyers while on the bench. Rogers had initially publicly accepted the admonishment, but later
appealed the commission’s decision to a Special Court of Review in Austin because, as he said in a press release, “I always knew that I was right and the State Commission and the two attorneys were wrong on the law.” One of the two attorneys, Michael Elliot, told the Fort Bend Star on Thursday that Rogers was “lying” by saying in a press release that he had been “exonerated” by the ruling. The other attorney, Annie Scott, did not respond to a call for comment. While the review court found in its 28-page ruling issued May 28 that the
judicial commission was wrong in its findings about many of the core issues of the case, it did sanction Rogers for saying to the two defense lawyers in the 2023 case during a sidebar conference “Don’t f--- with me in my court!.” The review court said the commission should have issued a private reprimand, not a public admonishment, and ordered Rogers to take two additional hours of continuing judicial education with a mentor assigned through the Texas Center for the Judiciary. The additional education will focus on “maintaining a
judicial temperament and treating all parties and their attorneys with patience, dignity, and courtesy,” according to the ruling. In December, the judicial commission’s findings of fact said that Rogers was presiding over the jury trial of a woman who, according to court records, was charged with possession of methamphetamine. According to the commission’s findings, the woman’s lawyers, Scott and
SEE JUDGE PAGE 2