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| Who is T.W. Shannon? |
| Bad links were updated May 3rd, 2014 |
| New Content added April 26th, 2014 |
| The following is a link to a pdf containing all of the information I have been able to obtain regarding Shannon's UNILATERAL authorization to spend over $2.6 million refurbishing the offices on the 2nd floor of the state capitol. Since browsers operate differently, be sure to look for the Bookmarks and notes which may not open by default on your browser. |
| House Repair Bills |
| It has been widely reported that Shannon is the First Black Republican Speaker of a State House in the United States and in fact he has flown around the nation attending events proclaiming this. It has also been reported that he is the first Native American Speaker. How is this possible. What percentage of a particular ethnicity should you be in order to claim you are that ethnic group? |
| Why is this significant if we want to promote a color blind society? |
| Went to law school(did not pass or stand for the bar exam). |
| Sixth generation Oklahoman? Few people know where there grandparents lived, much less their great,great,great grandparents. |
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| Shannon as a Candidate |
| Candidate for State Representative 2006(Statement of Organization) |
| Filed for office January 3rd, 2006. Residence on 7903 NW Folkstone Way, Lawton, Ok. |
| Same Address 2008 , New Address 2010 , New Address 2012 |
| The Oklahoma Ethics Commission website also lists all campaign contributions(examine C1r reports by pressing search button) |
| 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014 |
| There also appear to be 2 illegal $5000.00 corporate contributions, Jan 13, 2006 (4th contribution received, click on the link, click on schedule A) from Chickasaw Enterprises (Secretary of State Registration) and Jun 2, 2006 (about 60 lines down, click on the link, click on schedule A) from RT3 Cattle Co (Secretary of State Registration, Real Tire originally RT3) |
| Shannon has been one of the top fundraisers from 2006 to 2014 despite lack of any leadership position. |
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| Shannon in the Legislature |
| Introduced 34 bills when he became Speaker, but only 35 in the previous 6 years. |
| Introduced 86 bills in 2014, but none currently active after resigning as Speaker. |
| Only 1 of his 86 bills had a hearing in committee. It was apparently going to be used to merge the Department of Tourism, Historical Society and Indian Cultural Center into one agency so that the funding for the Cultural Center could be hidden in the other agencies budgets. |
| Bills thur 2013 introduced in the House. (Including Bonds for Cultural Center, Tax Credits) |
| Many would consider this an abuse of authority. Previous Speakers generally only ran significant legislation that was part of the Republican Caucus Agenda. |
| What impact has Shannon had on Legislation? During his first 6 years Shannon had only filed 4 amendments to the 12,225 bills considered by the House, never attempting to amend another members bill. HJR1069(2010) amend his own bill by striking title, effectively killing the bill HB 2918(2010) amend his own bill adding special car tags HB 3068(2008) amend his own bill on 100% tax credit for buses SB 1891(2008) amend Senate bill Shannon was house author |
| On the floor(Debates/Questions) |
| **The Current House Speaker has removed the links to the audio. |
| During Shannon's first six years as a legislator he presented bills on the Floor of the House of Representatives 27 times. 14 of those bills were acted on without any debate or discussion. Of the remaining 13 bills, 12 had questions asked and 3 bills were debated. This means that Shannon stood on the floor of the House slightly less than 4 minutes in debate and 11 minutes answering questions over a 6 year period. |
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| Civil/Criminal Background check (Outstanding warrant for arrest 2006 thru 2012) |
| Received speeding ticket ($107) in Nov 16,2002. Failed to pay ticket and did not appear in court. License suspended Jan 31, 2003. |
| Another speeding ticket ($147) March 10th 2003. Pled Guilty, paid fine 4-2-2003 |
| Additional
citation
for driving under suspension($290) at time of 2nd Speeding violation. Made several phone calls vowing to pay, but did not.
Bench warrant issued 9/10/2003, Additional notification mailed on 7/10/2006. Publicly stated on Dec 18th, 2012 that he had already paid this and the Dept of Public Safety had misplaced the payment. However the same day he drove to the Grady County Courthouse and paid the fine! DPS doesn't accept payments for failure to appear in Court. Only the court does. Any lawmaker ought to know this! |
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| Shannon's Income/Assets/Work History |
| The original financial disclosure statement, Ethics Commission F1r, June 2006 indicates outside income for 2005 was from Shannon Strategies on "Folkstone Way". The Ethics Commission records show all subsequent financial disclosure statements(F3r) are "Same as year before". Folkstone Way was Shannon's previous home address, indicating the company is still operated from that address even though he sold the House in 2008. Shannon Strategies was not incorporated until Jan 9th, 2006. It is difficult to understand how Shannon had outside income in 2005 from a company that did not exist until 2006. Another interesting observation is the timing of the creation of Shannon Strategies. When most people decide to run for office they are ridding themselves of other obligations. Shannon, however was able to file for his first elected position and start a new company the same week! According to Oklahoma Tax Commission Records Shannon did not file personal tax returns in 2002 or 2003. Publicly available tax commission records indicate Shannon had reportable income in 2004 and 2005, but it is not possible that it was from Shannon Strategies since they did not begin operation until Jan 2006. It is commonly know that Shannon worked as a congressional field rep and has stated that he also worked for the Chickasaw Tribal Development Authority |
| Added Aug 12th, 2013 |
| From 2002 thru 2004 Shannon worked as a congressional field rep. According to congressional payroll records his salary was around $34,000 each year. While the knowledge gained in this endeavor might be beneficial, it is difficult to understand how he was able perform his work while attending lawschool! |
| Home ownership |
| On Dec 5th, 2005, one month before filing his candidacy for the Oklahoma House of Representatives, Shannon
purchased a home for $175,000 at 7903 Folkstone Way. (after linking to the web-site click the "tabular search" tab, enter '160012997' in the account number, click 'search', when it returns the account under search results click the account number click the 'sale data' tab on the right, click the transaction '2005-12-02' under list of sales) Shannon received 100% financing from two loans, one mortgage for $140,000 and the other mortgage for $35,000 |
| Oddly, on Oct 29th, 2007 Shannon begins using 503 SW 83rd as his address
(see SO1 Oct 29, 2007) although, according to the Warranty Deed, 2008 he did not purchase the empty lot until Nov 21st, 2008, a building permit was not issued by the city of Lawton until Dec 1st, 2008, and an occupancy permit was not issued until July 13th, 2009, almost 2 years later. *This information is not online but you can call City of Lawton Permits department to verify at 580-581-3360. To add to the confusion a mortgage for $267,000 was filed Nov 21st, 2008 (apparently a construction loan) by The Chickasaw Tribal Development Authority which is according the web-site is restricted from providing loans in Comanche County. An examination of the online records provided by every county in Oklahoma appears to show that only 120 mortgages (from Jan 1998 thru Dec 2012) have been recorded by the Chickasaw Tribal Authority. Additional information which is not online but may be obtained by calling each county clerk who can provide the amount of the each loan. |
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| Conclusion |
| Why does this matter? |
| Should we promote someone as a leader in the GOP because of their race/ethnicity/gender? |
| Do you believe an individual can represent the people properly when their largest source of campaign contributions are from special interest groups(Tribes and the State Chamber of Commerce)? |
| Call Shannon and ask him to explain how he received a home loan for more than the value of his home and more than it was listed on the property tax files. Ask him to explain what he does to earn a living outside of the Legislature. Specifically ask him to name individuals that he has done work for and what he did. |
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*additional content will be added, latest update thru 4/25/14 *underlined phrases are links to source documents |
In order to allow the public to be fully informed, the information on this web-site is provided by Mike Reynolds, Term Limited klahoma State Representative House District 91. |