Lessons from True Ranch

Opinion

By Charles O'Dell, PhD

Last Thursday, April 17, 300-plus citizens met in the Wimberley Civic Center and for three intense hours vented their anger over secret True Ranch Development Agreement negotiations that alert citizens exposed. Pct. 3 Commissioner Will Conley reacted with a mixture of pugnacity and conciliatory responses, even lapsing into a campaign speech. The next day developer Russell Hinds (Rincon Group) of Austin pulled the plug on negotiations with county officials.

There are many lessons to take away from the True Ranch experience, but the two most important are these:

Citizens united can derail back room deals by elected officials.

Public officials who work in secrecy are up to no good.

As far as I can tell, Hays County Commissioners’ Court has a long history of some court members catering to special interests and operating in conjunction with the good old boy network. Special interests are easy to spot through their county contracts and their election campaign contributions. Secret negotiations should be a red flag for responsible developers.

The True Ranch developer was wise to withdraw from the county agreement negotiations after hearing the community express its concerns, opposition and offering sensible suggestions for his proposed project. The developer, Hinds, seemed to clearly recognize the community anger directed primarily toward their elected official who has a history of mucking up projects. Better to return to the drawing board and involve the community up front the next time. And, there will be a next time.

Commissioner Conley’s political style fits well with our Hays County good old boy partnership with elected officials. We’ve seen that partnership style before in Conley’s effort to make RR 12 into a super highway last year, and in the $1.6 million giveaway of our parks bond money for a Precinct 1 special interest road planned to be in the city limits of San Marcos. This time secrecy got a developer into trouble with the community.

Another Conley special interest project is the Precinct 1 FM 110 road that will benefit special interests who are Conley campaign contributors. Voters turned down the $172 million road bond last year featuring RR 12 in Pct. 3 and FM 110, but Conley and Pct. 2 Commissioner Jeff Barton won’t take “no” from the voters for their special interest road projects.

True Ranch is just one more example of the Conley’s development strategy for Pct. 3 and beyond. Build big roads and development will come, or approve dense development to justify big roads.

An ample dose of citizen Roundup (tm) sprayed on those elected officials who pander to special interests will remove the facilitators for the good old boys. This is the root cause of our problems in Hays County.

Counties need more authority to achieve responsible growth, but first the limited authority we have must be used responsibly by our elected officials. Until that happens citizens throughout Hays County must do what they did for True Ranch: come together and say “no” when our community interests are threatened by back room deals and secret negotiations.

Active citizens are the heart and soul of a functioning democracy that keeps elected officials working solely in the public interests.

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.