Attacking Our Democracy

Opinion

By Charles O'Dell, PhD

News media in Hays County damage our democracy when they deliberately publish false information or fail to check for accuracy.

Case in point is the April 9, 2008 editorial by Bill Peterson, publisher of The Hays Highway.com, and former editor of the Hays Free Press. In his Nick Ramus vs. Hays County editorial, Peterson could have easily discovered the truth with a little research, as we did. Instead, he simply spouted political propaganda from the Hays Free Press.

Nick Ramus never owned or operated a restaurant as Peterson claims. Ramus was a cook at Southwest Texas State until he was fired in 2000. His only stable job since moving to Texas in 1981 was as a cook at Southwest Texas State, and he sued his employer for racial and age bias after claiming disability and being fired.

The two acres where Ramus lives in a mobile home with a 1,500 gallon residential septic tank was purchased from Robert Bowden in 1989. On March 14, 2002 Hays County Environmental Health Department issued a violation citation: “Septic system is surfacing. It has been altered or it has failed.”

The citation also noted: “There is no building permit or septic permit issued for the site.”

It was Ramus’ residential septic system and a structure he had built that the Appraisal District taxed as a shed. Ramus was given seven days to repair the system and obtain the required septic and building permits.

Septic system permit applications filed after 1997, must comply with all state health and safety rules adopted by Hays County in 1997. In 2002, Ramus applied for a permit to install a commercial septic system on his two acres to serve a proposed eating establishment (the shed). There is only enough room on two acres for a functional residential septic system, but not a commercial septic system.

Peterson claims that Ramus fought the county for years over his commercial septic permit. When Ramus applied to install a large commercial septic system he should have been denied but he wasn’t. His proposed food establishment and commercial septic system require 24 acres under the 1997 rules. Peterson could have discovered this had he read the Hays County On-Site Septic Facility (OSSF) Rules as we did.

Despite numerous violations of our state health and safety code, Tom Pope permitted the Ramus commercial system on September 1, 2006 (not in 2005 as Peterson asserts), and then revoked the permit January 18, 2007 when some of the major septic system violations were made public. Commissioners’ court affirmed that action by revoking the Ramus permit on April 17, 2007.

San Marcos-based Pct. 1 Commissioner Debbie Ingalsbe had been dealing with the Ramus property as a pubic nuisance for years (Ramus was convicted as a public nuisance in 2005), and Judge Sumter and Commissioner Ford voted with Ingalsbe because the additional commercial septic system is a major health and safety threat to the environment and water quality.

Ramus argued his 2005 commercial septic system was grandfathered under the 1984 rules, but there is no legal basis for grandfathering a new septic system, only one that existed prior to a change in the rules. Bowden’s 1978 residential septic system (now used by Ramus) is allowed so long as it is kept in good order. Ramus still doesn’t have a valid residential septic permit and many believe his residence is connected to the commercial septic system in violation of law and a district court agreement.

Peterson is wrong again when he reports that Florinda Martinez is a constituent of Pct 2 Commissioner Jeff Barton. Martinez lives on property located in Pct. 1 and was denied a septic permit years ago because her one acre lot is not platted, just as the Ramus two acre lot is not platted. As with the Ramus residential septic system, a neighbor of Martinez complained about raw sewage running on the ground creating a health and safety problem and a public nuisance (odor). Barton’s political mischief has backfired on him, yet Peterson reports myth as fact.

As for the 2008 election, why should voters punish Commissioner Ingalsbe for voting to prohibit a public health and safety threat that violates state health and safety laws, or for voting to appeal a district judge’s absurd recent ruling (in Ramus’ lawsuit against the county) that tells all Texas counties they cannot enforce state laws to protect the public health and safety?

A convicted public nuisance may be running for public office to achieve warped political purposes (Ramus is Ingalsbe’s Republican challenger for the Precinct 1 commissioner seat), but voters are not likely to confuse that with real public health and safety issues the majority court members are addressing. Peterson does our democracy no favor by spouting political propaganda and misinformation.

As co-founder of Hays Community Action Network (HaysCAN) in 2003, Mr. O’Dell strives to carry out the mission of ensuring open, accessible and accountable government. He is a long time and close observer of the workings of the Hays County Commissioners Court. He earned a degree in Agricultural Education and a Masters in Ag Economics at Texas Tech, and, later, a Ph.D. at The University of Maryland while employed as a Research Economist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in Washington, D.C. Texas born and raised on a family farm, O’Dell is a Hays County Master Naturalist and a board member of the Ethical Society of Austin.