Copier-Gate: Incompetence or Malice?
A collection agency is threatening litigation against the local Republican Party to enforce the terms of Chairman Bryan Christ’s breached copier contract.
April 19, 2024
Despite announcing his retirement on December 4, 2020, Montgomery County Republican Party (MCRP) Chairman Walter D. Wilkerson executed a 63-month copier lease on January 3, 2020, which extended long after Wilkerson was to be out of office.
That leased copier remained at the MCRP headquarters until April 2, 2023, when Chairman Bryan Christ shut down the headquarters and disposed of all of the party assets including the leased copier.
Because Chairman Christ refused to raise money for the party’s Corporate Account, the County Executive Committee (CEC) had been utilizing funds obtained through various fundraising events to pay for the copier lease and for the rent on the headquarters. The party’s Corporate Account, which is controlled solely by the Party Chairman, by statute, can only be used for facilitating the operation of the party.
Obviously, when Chairman Christ closed the headquarters, there was no need to continue paying rent on that property, but the Steering Committee then inquired about the whereabouts of the copier since it was still under contract. Chairman Christ refused to disclose the location of the copier.
After multiple inquiries, one of Chairman Christ’s minority faction members, James Byers, who was at that time the Precinct 24 Chair, sent the following text message to Precinct 76 Chair Dennis Tibbs regarding the missing copier.
“BTW, remember that copier at MCRP HQ that we were paying something like $160/mo? I know you've been dying to know the real story.
I told the County Chairman to just take it back where Dr. Wally got it, and tell them, ‘Here's your copier. We're not paying on it anymore.’
The Chairman asked the attorney about it, who said that since the agreement was signed personally by Dr. Wally, and since Dr. Wally was deceased, no further payments were due. The attorney agreed with me, to take it back (I don't remember to whom). The Chairman called and explained all that to the copier owner and asked the owner to come retrieve his/her copier. The owner didn't argue.
So, no more payments are due on the copier.”
Lease Turned Over to Collection Agency
According to the copier company, they never agreed to a proposal from Chairman Christ to terminate the copier lease. Since Chairman Christ has chosen to default on the copier lease, the copier company turned the lease over to a collection agency that is now threatening litigation against the local Republican Party to enforce the terms of the breached contract.
It is unknown whether Chairman Christ and his wife have confiscated and converted the copier from the party for use in their “Republican Clubhouse” but in any case, they have not paid the lease on the copier.
Chairman Christ has been served notice at his place of residence that the copier company is seeking to collect the money for the lease, but according to the collection agency, Chairman Christ is not responding.
At a meeting of the CEC on April 2nd, it was decided that because the copier lease should be paid out of Chairman Christ’s Corporate Account and since Chairman Christ had taken the copier and would not reveal where it was, the CEC would speak to local law enforcement to determine how to proceed and to see if the copier could be considered as stolen.
Precinct 33 Chairman Scott Robbins gathered all of the information regarding the copier and then consulted with Montgomery County District Attorney Brett Ligon and Montgomery County Sheriff Rand Henderson. According to Robbins, he was told that the missing copier was considered to be a “civil matter” and could not be considered as stolen at that time.
Chairman Christ Claims He Has No Money After Receiving Thousands of Dollars
It should be mentioned that during his tenure as Chairman, Bryan Christ has refused to raise money for the Montgomery County Republican Party but has instead raised money for his and his wife’s Montgomery County Republican Club PAC, which is located at 921 W. Austin Street, Conroe, Texas, 77301.
If you search Google for the Montgomery County Republican Party headquarters, you will find that Chairman Christ and his wife have listed the location of their clubhouse at 921 W. Austin Street as the official headquarters of the Montgomery County Republican Party. They also continue to advertise this on their website as the official headquarters of the local party, and they even held a fundraising event in which they claimed that they were raising money for the Montgomery County Republican Party headquarters. However, after receiving several thousands of dollars in donations, they apparently then deposited those funds into their Montgomery County Republican Club PAC account.
An anonymous source stated that Chairman Christ is telling people that the reason he has not paid the copier lease is because he has no money. But, according to the last Texas Ethics Commission (TEC) Report for his splinter faction of the local party, as filed by his hand-picked Treasurer Michael Medved, he has $6,924.13 in the account. Chairman Christ and his wife also have an additional $8,931.26 in their Montgomery County Republican Club PAC account according to their TEC Report and Bryan Christ himself is the Treasurer listed for that account.
Chairman Christ Saddles the Party With Lawsuit and Debt
So, it is clear that this is not a matter of Chairman Christ not having the money to pay the copier lease on which he defaulted. The essence of this debacle seems to be that Chairman Christ is purposely and maliciously choosing to entangle the Montgomery County Republican Party in yet another legal battle and then hoping that he can just run out the clock on his term so that this matter gets dumped into the lap of the person who just defeated him in a landslide, Chair-Elect Gwen Withrow.