Month: July 2025

As previously noted, the Con Man relies on the gullibility and ignorance of an audience so beguiled by his emphatic style that they suspend critical thinking and follow his lead, aka drink his Kool-Aid.

For new readers: this Con Man has held the Windermere Oaks Water Supply Corporation hostage to a non-stop, unhinged false-light narrative of unreality for at least the decade I’ve lived here . It’s truly something to behold and I tip my hat to him — not only for his energy and dedication, but for offering a vivid glimpse into sustained delusion. It’s a living field study on the Art of the Con!

I’ve shared plenty of examples before, but I recently ran across another gem that illustrates the con.

Back in April 2025, the neighborhood Con Man posted on NextDoor that:

“Let’s rewind to June 2022: [Jim] Madigan cut a deal with then-president Joe Gimenez to ask the PUC to amend our CCN [service area], attempting to give his development access to our already overburdened water system.”

Okay, so, none of that unfolded as he claims.

In June 2022, the WOWSC Board of Directors approved of the company entering into a Non-Standard Service Agreement with Madigan. This contract states the applicant must cover all development costs required for the WOWSC to extend service outside the existing service area. Madigan would pay, as needed, for piping, engineering study, legal issues, CCN application, pumps — everything. Watch the video the Con Man has posted on his own site, here, if you are skeptical.

So fact check number one: the Con Man is wrong.

Madigan did not “cut a deal” with me personally, or the WOWSC, at least not anything out of the ordinary for a situation previously contemplated. He submitted a formal application to the water company. If needed, that might inlcude expansion of the CCN. If so, Madigan would pay for that as well.

Now notice the Con Man’s phrasing: “cut a deal.” That language is intentional. It’s meant to inflame the outrage. To keep his con alive, he has to continuously inject drama and conspiracy into every conversation. There’s zero proof of secret deals being cut left and right, just his ongoing stream of speculative fiction, frequently enflamed by his Con Spouse, no less. Stay tuned for a future post on that one!

Another correction to his claim, WOWSC did not need to apply to the Public Utility Commission to amend its Certificate of Convenience and Necessity (CCN). The proposed service area was less than 1/4-mile beyond the existing CCN boundary. Technically no CCN amendment was required. In June 2022, the moment he references, the topic was just the service agreement.

Now for the kicker. He writes:

“And yet…the CCN application wasn’t even filed with the PUC until November 2023 — a full year and a half later (Why the wait?)”

Well, I was no longer on the Board at that point. The Membership had elected Jeff Walker to replace me in April 2023, a development I am now sincerely grateful for. (Rene Ffrench also defeated former Secretary-Treasurer Mike Nelson.)

By November 2023, the month cited by the ConMan as the date of filing for the CCN, the Board consisted of Rich Schaefer (President), Jeff Walker (Vice President), Rene Ffrench (Secretary-Treasurer), Dorothy Taylor and Jeff Anderson. I had zero involvement with that submission. (Please see a correction about the Board officers, below.*)

And yes, the Con Man’s question, “Why the wait?,”is a fair one. Unfortunately, by late 2023 the Board had become mired in dysfunction folllowing Walker and Ffrench’s election. Transparency went out the window. Secretary-Treasurer Ffrench failed in maintaining basic governance principles with regard to developing minutes or complying with Public Information Act requests. Look at the records from the time. The Board would not even list “Approval of Minutes” on agendas — there were none to review or approve. Visit wowsc.org yourself.

(At the time of writing this post, there were no minutes. Now, on November 19, 2025, there are minutes available for 2023, but note that they are Draft. They were never approved by a majority of the Board in 2023. And at least some, if not all, the referencing video links are not functioning, so no one would be able to verify the minutes against actual Board events.)

It’s worth noting that Ffrench and the Con Man were longtime pals. They previously partnered on hangar ownership deals at the airport and even co-founded TOMA Integrity LLC, the shell company they used to sue WOWSC in 2018. Thus, you’ll find no Con Man criticism of Ffrench on NextDoor—not a whisper about his neglect. If I’m wrong on that, show me the receipts and I’ll happily set the record straight.

But I digress.

The Con Man’s narratives on NextDoor are a tangled mess of half-truths, finger-pointing, and false-light make-believe. Why anyone in Windermere Oaks still buys the con is beyond me. It like watching a cult in action. Enjoy the Kool-Aid.

There’s more.

in the NextDoor post the Con Man cult leader claims we were

“attempting to give his development access to our already overburdened water system.”

Two things you should know.

First, there was no “‘giving.” Madigan was contractually bound to pay for everything needed to extend service across the county road to his 4-house development. We informed members in a July 6 letter about that (and other matters). I have the letter, but good luck finding that communication on the current website, which was revised after the current 2025 Board took over. Showing such great maturity, the current Board has put all member communications prior to May 2023 down the Memory Hole. I have them in my records though. I anticipated their behavior.

The Con Man’s use of ‘giving’ plays well with his Kool-Aid Club. You’ll hear them use that very word in their public comments. It’s a manipulation of enflamement. It works with his crew.

Second, for the Con Man to suggest that our system was “overburdened” by a single home (with maybe three (3) more to come) is simply absurd, bonkers, bat-you-know-what crazy. And totally misleading. If that were truly the case, now or then, none of the ongoing residential development we see daily in Windermere Oaks would be happening. And yet it is.

My point again is simply that all the Con Man ever does is try to transport you to his alternate universe. He spins narrative engineered to short-circuit your doubt about a bunch of details he never presents in a complete factual way, if he is even able to. Once you’ve suspended disbelief, his con is complete.

Enjoy that Kool-Aid… if you must!

• Correction: At the first meeting of the newly-elected Board on April 15, 2023, Jeff Walker was not elected by the Board to be the Vice President. He was nominated to be the President but by 3-2 vote he lost. Dorothy Taylor then was elected as Vice President. So it was Schaefer, President; Dorothy Taylor, VP; Rene Ffrench, Secretary-Treasurer. Walker and Anderson were simply Directors without officer responsibilities.

Nextdoor post April 2025

The Windermere Oaks Water Supply Corporation (WOWSC) alerted members to the “Safely Secured” pumping barge after the recent July 4-6 flooding event. We should again thank our former manager George Burriss for this feat of engineering for our neighborhood.

As a matter of WOWSC history, in October 2018 raging floodwaters broke the pumping barge off its mooring and carried it downstream. Then WOWSC President David Bertino worked hard with George to recover the barge and bring it back to Windermere, where they began a restoration project.

Part of the project involved improving the mooring lines that secures the barge to the shore. George used encased anchors used in the oil industry such that the barge would have an industrial grade answer to future tests of mother nature.

The first of mother natures’ tests to another example of George’s superb engineering occurred in February 2021, when winter storm Uri wreaked havoc on most of Texas. George had worked with WOWSC Boards in 2017-2019 to investigate and put aside the funding for the propane generator that was eventually purchased and installed in 2020.

Then, when the winter storm shut down electricity in most parts of Texas, Windermere Oaks was one of the only communities to have running water throughout the storm. The generator enabled the pumps and other processes to continue working despite widespread energy outages everywhere else, including in Windermere Oaks. Because other water systems did not have generators, neighbors in nearby communities reported they had melted snow in their bathtubs to use as their water supply. Not so in Windermere Oaks.

Now WOWSC has endured — successfully — another test of mother nature. And George’s skill and knowledge again pulled through for us. Thank you George!

Sadly, George was forced to leave Windermere Oaks in January 2024 due to the harassment of Board members Jeff Walker and Rene Ffrench, and a group of misguided members. At least that was my contention in a previous post, here.

Recently, Walker sent me an email refuting that notion, basically saying that George refused to supply an updated statement of work to Rene and Walker, and that (some) members were “calling for his head.”

However, at the time Walker mentions, in the fall of 2023, there were five board members (Schaefer, Taylor, and Anderson). Walker indicates that only he and Ffrench asked George for the statement of work. The other Board members did not.

Thus Walker and Ffrench were acting in a rogue manner outside their authority, harassing George.

Now if the matter of asking George for an updated statement of work did occur as a full board matter, meaning that it was noticed, discussed and voted on at a Board meeting, a person would be hard pressed to find record of such lawful proceeding.

Ffrench, despite being Secretary-Treasurer at the time, did not compose or submit minutes to the Board. Go to the current website and check. The consideration of minutes was not even on the agendas in late 2023 because there were none to consider.

Even now, July 11, 2025, the few minutes that are there are “Drafts” of special meetings that Walker and Ffrench held for themselves and a few members at Townhalls, with no legal validity. The Boards in 2023 and 2024 were incredibly inefficient at producing minutes, leaving it instead to video records of meetings. That is not a valid way to conduct transparent governance for a public matter (water and waste water mangement). It is good that the current Board seems more intent on producing minutes.

The point simply is that when Walker and Ffrench took over the Board by force in 2023, they bullied their way into de facto control, forcing George out by harassment and then producing nothing in the way of transparency for members to see that they had forced him out, unilaterally, without the consent of other Board members.

George’s departure from our community is a low-point in the history of Windermere Oaks. For those who don’t know about George, consider the resolution of the 2019 Board congratulating him for all his achievements to that point, below. The current Board should make another resolution to the same effect, recognizing the additional Uri and July 4 Flood feats.

For reference of the time when WOWSC had a functioning board, with minutes, and a president’s report, and the benefit of the engineering and management expertise of George Burriss, please review the 2022 President’s report here.

WOWSC Member Alert July 5

Walker Rebuttal

2019 Resolution Honoring George Burriss