“The Open Meetings Act permits the Commissioners to go into closed session under what’s known as the real estate exception, but the exception isn’t supposed to be used to cut a deal of some kind in secret and behind closed doors.”
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September 28, 2010
Press Release from HaysCAN
Contact: Dr. Charles O’Dell, 512-288-4817
HaysCAN, a local government watchdog organization, earlier in the week issued the following statement of information regarding recent actions on the part of Hays County Commissioners.
Charles O’Dell, spokesperson for HaysCAN, said, “we believe the Commissioners Court committed numerous violations of the Texas Open Meetings Act between late April and August 10, 2010. All the violations are tied to a decision by the Commissioners to spend $1.7 million dollars to purchase just over 50 acres near the Jacobs Well Natural Area near Wimberley."
“This case is a little complicated by the number of parties involved,” O’Dell said, “but I think the public can get the picture. The bottom line is a couple of behind closed doors sweetheart deals — one with The Nature Conservancy and the other with The Wimberley Valley Watershed Association.”
During a January meeting, the Hays County Commissioners Court hired The Nature Conservancy to act as a real estate consultant to identify conservation-appropriate land for purchase by the County. Then, according to HaysCAN findings, O'Dell said, “August 10th came around and we learned that The Nature Conservancy was going to act as a financier for Hays County.
“The Nature Conservancy is making a loan to Hays County for half of the $1.7 million purchase price, but it’s an above market rate loan. That may be good for the Nature Conservancy’s balance sheet, but it’s bad for the tax payers. Besides that, The Nature Conservancy took part in at least one closed session of the Commissioners Court.”
“What was going on was a violation of the Texas Open Meetings Act for more than one reason,” O’Dell said. “The Open Meetings Act permits the Commissioners to go into closed session under what’s known as the real estate exception, but the exception isn’t supposed to be used to cut a deal of some kind in secret and behind closed doors.”
O’Dell also pointed to another case of third-parties taking part in a closed session of the Hays County Commissioners’ Court in April. According to O’Dell, three Board members of the Wimberley Valley Watershed Association participated in a closed session of the Commissioners Court on April 27th — David Baker, Jack Hollon, and Malcolm Harris.
“What should concern the public is that there’s no record of this on the Court agenda and no record in the minutes of the meeting. The only way anyone would know about this violation is if they downloaded the four hour video tape of the April 27th Court session.” According to O’Dell, “that’s when the information comes out about the three Watershed Association Board Members going into the behind closed doors session with the Commissioners.”
“We still don’t know what the final figure will be in the annual management agreement between the County and the Watershed Association, but it could be as much as $250,000 a year for five years. That’s a pretty sweet management contract,” O’Dell said. “It’s a really sweet deal for the Watershed Association, but the taxpayer never had a say and is getting the short end of the stick.”
Joel White, an attorney with Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, said this in his discussions with HaysCAN:
"The Open Meetings Act permits the Commissioners Court to meet in private to discuss purchases of real estate, provided the private meeting is posted on a public agenda of a public meeting. The Court cannot simply decide to meet in private without notifying the public, nor can the Court invite third parties into the private meeting. The Court also cannot take votes or make any final decision in a private meeting. Doing any of those things would be violations of the Open Meetings Act and would subject the county to civil lawsuits, including payment of each sides' attorneys' fees, for which the taxpayers of Hays County would be responsible."
Hays Community Action Network (HaysCAN) is a 501(c) (3) tax exempt non-profit organization dedicated to open government and promoting citizen participation in public affairs. Established in 2003, HaysCAN has become a major source for investigative reporting on the major public issues in Hays County, Texas. Visit our website at www.hayscan.org.
3 comments:
The game is called co-opt the environmentalists and its played all over the country. All it takes is a little money and the environmental crowd will remain strangely quiet on all sorts of issues, like a road bond, for example.
Add to that the ridiculously high road bond package and Hays County taxpayers will be in a huge bind and mess for many years to come.
We need to clean the entire slate of commissioners and start over. Vote out all these incumbents and start fresh.
While the new candidates may not be the best choices, they most probably will be better than the ones we currently have, the ones who continue to cost taxpayers dearly.
Most importantly, we need fiscal conservatives, NOT radical spenders.
We need leaders who step-up to make the reality-based decisions we need to move forward, NOT backward, NOT increasing our debt.
Yes, we need to improve our roadways; however, let's do so in a more fiscally conservative way.
Long-term debt must NEVER be the method used in the name of progress.
The environmentalists also seem quiet about the failing septic tanks on the Square? I guess this is downstream of Jacobs Well and Blue Hole so it doesn't matter.
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