The Case of the Mystery Voice Mail

County Judge Bill Aleshire has often been accused of being vituperative. His decision this week to spread copies of his personal voice mail messages shows just how nasty he can be.

On Wednesday morning, on KVET-FM, Sammy Allred and Bob Cole played a recorded voice mail message from County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir to Aleshire. DeBeauvoir was plenty mad, and she let Aleshire know it. At issue was an imaging system that the clerk wants to use to track records in the probate courts. DeBeauvoir has been pushing for funding for a new system that would allow her office to be more efficient in processing wills. The voice mail message, which DeBeauvoir left on Aleshire's machine about five weeks ago, refers to a Commissioners Court meeting at which the imaging system was discussed. DeBeauvoir was nearly screaming over the phone, telling him he had "unbelievable ignorance about imaging. You should be embarrassed about how stupid you sound." She ended her message saying, "I'll be happy to talk with you about this later."

Shortly after that, DeBeauvoir left Aleshire another voice mail, saying sarcastically, "I forgot to tell you another thing. I wasn't invited to your goddamn meeting [about the imaging system]. Thanks for including me and giving me an opportunity to correct your boneheaded comments about imaging."

How did KVET get the tape? After all, voice mail is difficult - if not impossible - to track by anyone outside of the county and Aleshire was the only one who had control of the messages on his own voice mail system. Bob Cole told me that he got the message from Bud Schauerte - a Republican who is running against DeBeauvoir in November - and that Schauerte got the voice mail through the Texas Open Records Act. But how did Schauerte know about it? Schauerte says that Aleshire forwarded DeBeauvoir's message to a number of other people. "Apparently Bill Aleshire has a voice mail list that he sends messages to," said Schauerte. "I had a fellow call me and he asked me if I had a copy." Schauerte then requested a copy of the message from county officials. They gave him one and charged him $1.40. (Schauerte faxed over the receipt, which is dated July 15).

Asked what he thought of Aleshire's actions, Schauerte said, "I couldn't hardly believe it when I first heard it. I was astonished." He then added, "Unless it's a game they play. Maybe it's a `gotcha' game."

DeBeauvoir told the Chronicle she was angry at Aleshire because the Commissioner's Court wasn't listening to her ideas regarding the imaging system, and the commissioners had hired an outside firm to design an imaging system that, in her opinion, was badly designed and overpriced. "They didn't invite me to this meeting where they talked about this imaging system. And then they blamed me for designing this piece of junk," she said.

Aleshire's actions here are all the more puzzling, considering that he and DeBeauvoir are longtime friends. She was a division chief for Aleshire for three years during Aleshire's tenure at the assessor-collector's office in the early Eighties. "I think Bill got mad at me for yelling at him. He distributed the voice mail as pay-back. I think he intended to do me damage," she said. "I don't think he intended for it to go this far."

But the big question is, why? Why would Aleshire do something to hurt a fellow Democrat, a friend with whom he has worked for 16 years? "I have admired him and we have been good friends for so long," said DeBeauvoir. "I don't even have words for it. I'm devastated."

For his part, Aleshire said that he forwarded DeBeauvoir's voice mail to six people - the four members of the Commissioners Court and two people working on the county's computer system. "Those were the only six people that should have received it," said Aleshire. "I did not distribute that." Aleshire added that he objected to KVET's decision to broadcast the voice mail, and in an August 25 letter to the station, he said, "I believe Dana DeBeauvoir is an excellent County Clerk."

Maybe. But he certainly hasn't done her any favors lately. - R.B.