Clamp A Meter On Shelley's Mouth

I keep hearing from people that know her, that Shelley Sekula-Rodriguez-Gibbs, councilwoman Barbie, just does not get along with her fellow city council members. As in NEVER. Carol Alvarado, we know about, but it's just that she fell in Shelley's trap and got caught in a name-calling episode. And, a friend of mine, who knows her, says she is vicious and will stop at nothing to get what she wants. She said she is a stark, raving, lunatic . . . well you fill in the blank.

So, it was with great interest that I read a Houston Press article a friend sent me about Shelley's early days on the city council. There are a ton of juicy parts, but I'll cut and snip some of the good parts for you:

A wheelchair-bound woman rails to City Council about the local Multiple Sclerosis Society failing to provide financial services for patients like herself. It's a medical issue, so -- to the surprise of absolutely no one on council -- freshman member Dr. Shelley Sekula-Gibbs hones in like a buzz bomb with questions that go nowhere.
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"Sir, this is a situation some of us are not as familiar with as you are," she begins. A colleague later wisecracks that she could begin all of her comments that way.
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Sekula-Gibbs is back at it again, doing what she does best -- or worst -- by stretching out another lengthy public session like soft taffy on a sunbaked sidewalk. It's not that other councilmembers don't speak frequently or ask questions. They just don't do it all the time with everybody.

Veteran councilmembers no longer even bother to roll their eyes at the barrage of questions and comments flowing from the 49-year-old dermatologist from Clear Lake. For them, seven months of togetherness with her has become as predictable and depressing as the heat.
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Fellow councilmembers mutter that, no matter what her name, they'd like to clamp a meter on her mouth.
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Sekula-Gibbs seems oblivious to the snickers and snide comments generated by what some see as her grandstanding. She says it's all about pushing her agenda for public health, which she defines so broadly that it includes air quality, the environment and transportation.

Of course, it's also all about Shelley, the neophyte politician whose previous public exposure consisted mostly of being a regular on the gala circuit for medical groups. A health department source acidly describes her City Hall rampage as "democracy by Junior League.
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While some councilmembers describe her as earnest, they note that her remarks during meetings are uninformed and even "off the wall."
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She goes to great pains to make sure everyone knows she's the only doctor on the 15-member body. "As a physician" is one of her favorite introductory clauses.
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Her personnel choices were questioned when her first chief of staff, Raul Castillo, bowed out rather quickly in February. He was busted at a porn shop and charged with exposing himself to a male undercover officer.
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"Shelley is driving us all nuts," comments an exasperated colleague. "She's Miss Know-It-All. She has to say something about everything. If it has any remote connection to anything medical, she has to hold it up so she can examine it and put her two cents in. Not that there's not problems in the health department, but she wants to micromanage the place."

A lobbyist who has worked with the new councilmembers rates her at the bottom of the list.

"I think Shelley's pretty much out to lunch. She was smart enough to get out of medical school, but like a lot of doctors, she's developed an arrogance about thinking that her intelligence in one field automatically transfers over to another. She's made a lot of stupid statements and done a lot of stupid things."
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"She's very, very passionate about her causes, but I just don't know if she has the time to do her homework," says the councilmember. "A lot of times the answers to her questions are in her briefing materials. I don't know if she's just not being briefed correctly or doesn't have the time to read it. But if you don't know about it, why don't you read about it before you get to the meetings? Don't waste our time being educated here."
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OK, that's enough. There's tons more in the article, so be sure and click on the link. It's just interesting to me that I've had so many things told me lately by those who know, that are confirmed in this article from 2002. I wouldn't be surprised if her fellow council members end up campaigning for her in hopes she will go on to her next project and leave them alone.