Did the Helotes City Council Deny Police Chief Ault His Basic Rights?
(David Galvan is running for the position of the Mayor of Helotes in the upcoming May election. Editor)
Of all the concerns expressed to me by the citizens of Helotes, one of the most repeated topics involves the circumstances surrounding the recent firing of Helotes Police Chief Mort Ault.
Ault was fired by the Helotes City Council, lead by current Mayor Tom Schoolcraft, without a clear charge of some specific misconduct or illegality. It has been 6 months, and still Ault has been charged with nothing; no charge, no indictment, NOTHING. Now the City Council has decided to replace Ault with Rob Hunley, who served under him as his Assistant Chief.
These decisions made by the Helotes City Council have had an unbelievably negative and damaging impact on Ault’s life, but how can he defend himself when he has not been charged with anything? Charging him with some illegal act would, of course, allow him an opportunity to answer his accusers. This, clearly, has not happened.
You have to ask yourself, how must Chief Hunley and the officers who served under Ault feel when they see a man not being given his basic rights, rights they are required to afford people they encounter on a daily basis. Surely, they must feel that what has happened to Ault could also easily happen to them.
It is my opinion, and the opinion of many I have talked to here in Helotes, that this is un-American, because, in America, we all believe that an individual is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Many Helotians feel that there was a better way to handle this situation, some way to avoid ruining a man’s reputation, at least until he had been found guilty of SOMETHING.
No matter how you slice it, Mort Ault was declared guilty behind the closed doors of the Helotes City Council, away from the eyes and ears of Helotes taxpayers, and now we’re all wondering why.
Many Helotians have expressed to me that, to them, this appears to be an abuse of power, not on ex-Chief Ault’s part, but on the part of the Mayor and his City Council. I think they owe us some answers.