The Texan
HOLLY HANSEN
November 10, 2023

A tranche of legal billing statements obtained by The Texan indicate that attorneys representing the City of Kemah through the Texas Municipal League (TML) coached witnesses and worked to conceal documents and hide allegations of perjurious testimony in relation to a federal lawsuit over unconstitutional takings and other actions.

In July 2021, former city building code enforcement officer Brandon Shoaf revoked certificates of occupancy and closed down a four-story building in Kemah’s Lighthouse District that housed part of the Palapa’s tiki bar as well as two residential units that had been operating for 20 years. 

Shoaf did not provide a pre-deprivation notice or cite any code violations, and in October of that year, he ordered the towing of a food truck stored on the private Palapa’s property.

After nearly nine months of negotiations and meetings with former Mayor Terri Gale, then-Mayor Carl Joiner, then-City Council Member Robin Collins, then-City Administrator Walter Gant, city attorneys, and other officials, the Palapa’s owner filed suit in federal court in January 2022. 

Funded by taxpayers through annual membership fees and insurance premiums, TML conducts seminars for city staff on policy issues and lobbies the Texas Legislature. As a private nonprofit organization, it is not subject to open records requests.

Like more than 2,800 municipalities across the state, the City of Kemah participates in the TML Intergovernmental Risk Pool (TMLIRP), a form of insurance that provides legal representation in many cases. Through TMLIRP, attorneys William “Bill” Helfand and Justin Pfeiffer of Lewis, Brisbois, Bisgaard & Smith represent the city in the Palapa’s and other cases. 

In depositions last year, Joiner, Gant, and Shoaf swore that they had not been coached prior to testimony, but billing from Lewis Brisbois indicates that Helfand and associates had phone conferences with all three in both April and May 2022, the latter specifically “to prepare for depositions.” 

Gant and Joiner were both deposed in July and Shoaf in October, and afterward billing indicates that Lewis Brisbois' attorneys advised them to change their sworn statements. 

Before that, in August city council members obtained the transcription of the mayor’s testimony for review. 

In early October 2022, City Council Member Doug Meisinger met with Gant and Police Chief Holland Jones at his business and secretly recorded the meeting. In a copy of the recording obtained by The Texan, the three discussed selective code enforcement, allegations that Joiner ordered Meisinger surveilled, and allegations that Joiner had committed perjury throughout his testimony. 

On a copy of the transcript leaked to The Texan, Jones, who is a licensed attorney, allegedly marked statements made by Joiner he claimed were false regarding the mayor’s knowledge of events and his involvement in code enforcement decisions. 

For example, Jones said that when Joiner was asked about what role the mayor played in the decision making for issuance or revocation of permits, Jones told Gant and Meisinger, “He says ‘none.’ Well, I know, per se, that that’s not true.” 

Jones also claimed Joiner lied about whether he met with city staffers alone and about the mayor’s opposition to short-term rentals.

Meisinger then worked with Gale to create a document listing reasons that Joiner should be censured by the city council. Meisinger proposed a censure at the October 18, 2022 council meeting partially based on perjurious testimony, and then again on the agenda for a January 4, 2023 council meeting. 

As backup material for the latter, Meisinger included portions of Joiner’s transcript along with email evidence that had not been provided although requested by the plaintiff’s counsel in discovery. Included was an email from Shoaf sent on October 10, 2021, stating that he had seized the food truck from the Palapa’s property due to a new, but retroactively applied, ordinance. The email contradicts under-oath testimony in a tow hearing, in depositions, and in affidavits from Shoaf and Gant that the truck was seized for being in the right-of-way. 

After Helfand and then-city attorney Dick Gregg III urged Meisinger to drop mention of the alleged perjurious statements in the fall of 2022, the city council considered removing Helfand and the Lewis Brisbois firm from all city business. Billing shows that Pfeiffer spent nearly two hours conferring with Gregg over the matter on November 21, and that both TML’s general counsel and case manager Mike Milvo were consulted. 

Sources familiar with the matter also say that Helfand traveled to Kemah to confer with the council in executive session and with Gregg, and the two urged the council to delay any action against Joiner until after a scheduled oral hearing in the Palapa’s case set for January 17, 2023, at which they hoped to have the case dismissed. Gregg’s billing showed that in January 2023 there were multiple emails and communications with Helfand, Meisinger, and Joiner “regarding the ramifications of approving the censure resolution” for the Palapa’s case.

Previously in November 2022, Gale provided an affidavit to the federal court alleging Shoaf and other city officials had acted to target the Palapa’s property. In April this year, Gale sent a letter to U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew Edison noting that the city had concealed emails and text messages requested in discovery and attached the evidence Meisinger had provided.

Along with representing the city through TML, in April 2021 Kemah also hired Lewis Brisbois attorneys to investigate a city hall expansion and renovation project Joiner had overseen. 

The first reports, dated January 7, 2022 and May 31, 2022 and leaked to Wayne Dolcefino, cited missing documentation, and noted the city could not produce competing bids or scoring documents used to select a contractor. The reports also stated that neither the city nor general contractor Durotech, with which Joiner had a business relationship, could produce copies of the executed contracts. 

Nearly a year later on March 10, 2023, Helfand would present a third version of the investigative report to the city that acknowledged “poor record keeping,” but exonerated Joiner and discredited Gale. Joiner filed a lawsuit last year to force the city to release the investigative reports. Helfand represents the city in opposing Joiner’s request.

In July 2023, after the exonerating report, Joiner submitted a new affidavit to the federal court contradicting his previous deposition about meeting with the Palapa’s owner to discuss his permits. Lewis Brisbois’ legal billing shows Pfeiffer spent hours reviewing Joiner’s deposition the week before the new affidavit.

Lewis Brisbois’ billing statements indicate that in November 2022 Pfeiffer had concerns over emails Gale had provided to Palapa’s attorneys, and in April 2023 worked to address “materials improperly submitted to the Court ex parte by former Kemah Mayor Teresa L. Gale.” Pfeiffer also conferred with Shoaf over the materials. 

Additional billing statements from Gregg show that there were multiple calls and emails regarding Gale’s letter to Edison. 

Regarding Lewis Brisbois' attorneys' attempt to claw back some documents produced by both the city and Gale in November 2022, Edison ruled that the material was admissible, writing, “Kemah’s lawyers made a conscious decision to identify certain documents as those they may rely on in this case, and they cannot now run away from that decision claiming mistake or inadvertence.”

Shoaf was not deposed along with Joiner and Gant in July 2022, and in an August 23, 2022 email to Palapa’s attorney Brian Kilpatrick, Helfand wrote, “We have been trying everything we can think of to get in touch with Mr. Shoaf, all to no avail.”

Billing shows that Lewis Brisbois' attorneys had been in contact with Shoaf for months prior and in August 2022 sent a letter to Shoaf via Federal Express warning of the “consequences of failing to cooperate.”

After plaintiffs found Shoaf and sent a subpoena, Helfand emailed Kilpatrick on September 2, 2022, saying he was also Shoaf’s individual counsel and would schedule the deposition.

Other line items from the Lewis Brisbois bills show attorneys conferring with Shoaf about his text messages to be turned over in discovery. On July 18, 2022, Lewis Brisbois staff billed for “continued assistance with discovery responses and undisclosed texts, communications regarding the same.”

The city only provided a limited number of Shoaf’s text messages to the court, but excluded several that related to the Palapa’s property obtained by The Texan through a Texas Public Information Act request.

Last month, the city declined to provide state Sen. Mayes Middleton (R-Galveston) with Shoaf’s and Gant’s communications, including texts.  

During his deposition, Shoaf stated under oath that he had not entered the four-story building at the Palapa’s property and had relied on third-party inspector Brian Faulk of Bureau Veritas, but could not cite specific code violations. Lewis Brisbois' billing shows that Pfeiffer wanted changes to Shoaf’s deposition, but ultimately did not submit corrections.

Other billing details indicate Lewis Brisbois attorneys met or communicated with multiple witnesses and with employees of the Galveston County Health Department, and conferred with Bureau Veritas’ general counsel to quash a subpoena to Faulk.

Although Kemah’s legal bills for the Palapa’s case are currently covered by the TML risk pool, if the case is allowed to proceed as a “taking” of property, TMLIRP will not cover the expenses. TML has already declined to cover the city’s expenses in another takings case pending in state district court, and Lewis Brisbois attorneys have twice sent “reservation of rights” letters regarding the Palapa’s case indicating that insurance may not cover some or all the liabilities.

Local resident Darlene McAlexander requested the billing for the Palapa’s and other cases last month, resulting in the billing statements now available here. 

Thus far, Kemah’s legal bills for the Palapa’s case top $250,000, but the claims regarding the closure of profitable businesses for two years could amount to millions – possibly a heavy financial burden for the small tourist town. The city recently revealed that it has only about $500,000 in reserves.

TMLIRP did not respond to requests for comment.

Copies of the proposal for Joiner's censure and Joiner's deposition can be found below.