Mayor, city councilman on defense in light of allegations

Lubbock Mayor David Miller denied allegations of excluding City Councilman John Leonard from council meetings and accused Leonard of trying to "sabotage our work" on the City Council Thursday at a press conference in Lubbock City Hall.

After Miller called the press conference to deny and explain the allegations made by Leonard during multiple media interviews in the past weeks, Leonard responded to the Miller's prepared statement, which claimed the timing of Leonard's allegations was planned to coincide with former mayoral candidate Tom Martin's announcement of his mayoral candidacy last week.

"I stand by my earlier statements I've made to a couple of you regarding these issues," Leonard said. "The comment that this was timed to coincide with Tom Martin's announcement is absolutely not true."

Miller said during a meeting with two other council members designed to bring himself up to speed on major water issues, Leonard, who was unintentionally invited to the meeting, was asked to excuse himself to prevent what would have constituted a quorum of the council, which would have put it in violation of the Open Meetings Act.

Though Leonard said he believes he was unfairly excluded from council meetings, including Water Advisory Committee meetings and an Audit Committee meeting, he insists he is not trying to sabotage the city council.

"These are my fellow councilmen; I work with them. It's essential that we work together to get things done, and I want to work with them - that's the problem," he said.

Leonard said he denies Miller's claim that his accusations were made to boost the candidacy of Martin, who ran against Miller for mayor in 2006, though Leonard admits he does support Martin.

"I don't know that I've officially endorsed," Leonard said. "I like Tom, I think he's accomplished a lot in the past and I may make a formal endorsement at some time. I think that Tom can bring some leadership to our council that's severely lacking."

Though Miller has not officially launched his re-election campaign, in an interview with KJTV-TV's FOX 34 News after Martin announced his candidacy for mayor, Miller said he would make the announcement at a time he deemed more appropriate.

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