Chinn and Billings Bash Senator Bob Hall
Fate, TX – The political firestorm over secret recordings inside Fate City Hall just took a sharp and deeply ironic turn. Pipkins Reports has obtained an audio recording that appears to show former Fate City Councilwoman Codi Chinn secretly recording a private telephone conversation with former Mayor David Billings, despite her later public criticism of the practice.
The recording, verified through multiple sources familiar with the matter, predates the recent controversy involving Mayor Andrew Greenberg‘s recorded conversation with Chinn and Councilman Mark Hatley‘s recording of a discussion with City Manager Michael Kovacs. The discovery raises uncomfortable questions about consistency, credibility, and whether Chinn’s outrage over recorded conversations has been driven more by politics, than principle.
Pipkins Reports received a copy of a 32-minute audio recording from an anonymous source who said it originated from a recording obtained through an Open Records Request submitted to the City of Fate.
Pipkins Reports has reviewed documentation related to that request and separately confirmed the recording’s authenticity through sources with knowledge of the file maintained by the city.
Much of the conversation centers around mundane talk about MUD districts. Pipkins Reports has edited the recording to a 2-minute, 47-second excerpt focusing on the discussion involving Texas Sen. Bob Hall because it is directly relevant to matters of public interest.
During the conversation, Chinn expresses frustration with Hall’s reluctance to support legislation to strengthen child protection in schools. Stating that he is, “not interested in having that conversation.” She continues, “He is interested in getting people all riled up, but when it comes time to actually do the work, and his job, he’s nowhere to be found.“
Billings echoes that frustration, and opines how he says Bob Hall, “fights dirty“, and how he has voted against cities 9 times. The conversation paints a picture of two local political figures who believe the longtime senator was not sufficiently responsive to their legislative priorities.
The policy disagreements themselves are not especially unusual. Elected officials often criticize one another behind closed doors. What makes this recording different is the hypocrisy of Chinn, stirring up outrage about “secret recordings” when she herself has been a proponent.
The Hall recording is not the only documented instance in which Chinn appears to have secretly recorded a conversation. Through a separate Open Records Request submitted by Pipkins Reports, this publication obtained a city copy of a recorded interview between Michael Pipkins and Chinn concerning her involvement in the dismissal of former Fate Department of Public Safety Chief Lyle Lombard.
That recording also predates the controversy that would inevitably follow.
According to the records produced by the City of Fate, Chinn recorded that interview without disclosing it during the conversation. The existence of multiple recordings attributed to Chinn adds additional context to the current debate over undisclosed recordings by public officials and further raises questions about the consistency between her past actions and her more recent public criticism of the practice.
But according to the evidence reviewed by Pipkins Reports, Chinn appears to have engaged, multiple times, in the very conduct she later condemned.
Texas is a one-party consent state under state law, meaning only one participant in a conversation generally must consent to its recording. If Chinn initiated or participated in the call, recording it would not necessarily violate Texas law. The issue presented here is not primarily a legal one.
It is political.
Opinion
Politics has a funny way of exposing selective outrage.
For months, Fate residents have heard lectures from Codi Chinn about how secret recordings destroy trust, poison relationships, and undermine good government. Fair enough. Those are arguments reasonable people can debate.
But what legitimate purpose would have been gained by Chinn recording a conversation with the Former Mayor?
Given this revelation, it’s possible that the recordings by others that followed Chinn, may have been a defense mechanism (even unconsciously), over a situation that they could feel was off. Couple that with the deceptions that we now know were taking place by Chinn, and other council members, as well as the city manager, and it appears that there might have been a valid justification for both Greenberg and Hatley to take the actions that they did.
There’s another layer here which is important to understand as to why Pipkins Reports chose to clip this section of the audio. Chinn and Billings were not merely venting about Sen. Hall. They were criticizing an elected state senator over legislation affecting Fate, as well as Rockwall County in general, and discussing his approach to measures involving child safety in schools. Voters deserve to hear how public officials truly feel about those issues, and how they discuss those issues when they believe no one else is listening.
This recording doesn’t settle every argument currently consuming City Hall. It does, however, remove any illusion that only one side has participated in private recordings.
Sometimes the loudest critics leave behind the clearest evidence.