LEAGUE CITY — League City police are investigating the disappearance of audiotapes of a raucous parks board meeting about a proposed dog park, a city councilman said Friday.
The city last week discovered two of the three audiotapes of the July 8 meeting were missing after a League City resident requested them July 13.
Only one tape remains; the city found a tape of the recording of the last minutes of the meeting still inside the tape recorder, according to Dianna Stapp, the city’s records supervisor, in her written response to the person who requested the information.
Councilman Neil Baron said he asked police to investigate the tapes’ disappearance. Police spokesman Sgt. John Jordan could not be reached for comment late Friday.
People who attended said the July 8 meeting was heated. Proponents have touted the park as a low-cost extra that enhances life for pet owners.
Opponents argued residents didn’t want the park and that the money would be better spent to fix the city’s drainage problems or on some other project.
After the two-hour meeting, parks board members voted 5-1 to recommend the council resume work on the $194,000 park.
City council members voted July 14 to kill the project, even though the city spent $15,000 clearing brush from the land on West Walker Street.
Four city council members — Mike Barber, Tim Paulissen, Mick Phalen and Mike Lee — voted to kill the project.
Baron and Phyllis Sanborn voted in support of the project.
Councilman Jim Nelson, who recently underwent heart surgery, was absent.
Phalen, Lee and Baron also attended the July 8 meeting.
Phalen said he can’t imagine a motive for someone stealing the tapes, but if the tapes were stolen, the perpetrator should be dealt with appropriately.
“If they were stolen, shame on that person for doing that,” he said. “It was petty and juvenile.”
