Below is the agenda for the August 5, 2024 meeting, and underneath that is my agenda analysis and my meeting analysis.
Agenda Analysis: a. Executive session, item 5: Another "how to read" tip: compare how different governmental bodies draft their executive session, that part of the meeting in which they can meet privately without the presence of the public. Here, the City refers to the specific sections in the Government Code Open Meetings Act that allow them to enter into the executive session: real property and personnel. Contrast this with ICISD on this page where they mention only "closed session" and no section number. I much prefer the method used by the City because it identifies the authority they are using. Why does it matter? Well, it keeps everyone honest. The Open Meetings Act is crystal clear - the body can't go into executive session unless a specific exception exists that permit it. It is illegal to meet privately unless that exception exists. A specific reference to the law is a necessary reminder to everyone - the public and the governmental leaders - that the closed meeting is permitted and has its own limits. I think reasonable notice includes the specific sections of the exceptions and general topics, like "personnel" and "real estate". Ideally the specific real property would be identified so that citizens know what property the governmental body is considering. (If our tax dollars are going to buy real property then we need to know specifically what real property that will be before the property is purchased.)
2024 Tax rate, item 6: This is the annual setting of the tax rate. Joyce Gray, Tax Assessor Collector, will be present to explain the current state of ad valorem taxation law as it relates to the City. I don't think any citizen really has standing to complain about high taxation until they have listened to her speak. I always learn something valuable from her presentations, and I go away with a more nuanced view of how funding of local government actually works. I believe she will be speaking to the County Commissioners the following day, August 6, and to the ICISD Board on August 13.
Parade ordinance, second reading, item 7: See my comments below after the meeting.
Frontier, Bringing Opportunity online to Texas, item 8: This is a competitive grant program for broadband internet.
2. Meeting analysis:
Here are the meeting documents for this meeting.
a. Executive session. Turns out there was none and it was put on the agenda as a placeholder in case the Council wanted to go into one. This is an appropriate time to point out that just because a matter is on an agenda doesn’t mean that it will be heard. Closed sessions are not required, and they are allowed only under specific situations.
b. 2024 Tax Rate: The City of Mertzon ad valorem taxes are proposed to go up about 6.5 cents per $100.00 in valuation in 2024. Here are the documents Tax Assessor Joyce Gray handed out to the Council at the meeting, and below is the public notice in the Big Lake Wildcat newspaper:
I am going to keep my powder dry on the local ad valorem tax increases underway, at least until I attend the ICISD board meeting. If you are into these things, I attended Ms. Gray's presentation to the Irion County Commissioner's meeting on August 6, and here is her handout to them. The proposed increases for both City and County are an eye opener, folks. And the rub is that these increases aren’t really adding much revenue into their budgets. ICISD will have its meeting to consider their proposal likely at their next meeting on Aug 13
Note: you can take issue with or support this tax rate at the Council's meeting on August 19 at 6:15 pm.
c. Parade ordinance, item 7: The Council clarified that because a potential fine was involved this proposed ordinance needed a second reading and vote. Certain proposed ordinances have to go through extra steps before they can become law, and this is one. There were no changes to the ordinance, and the Council again voted to approve it.
d. Bringing Online Opportunities to Texas (BOOT), Frontier, item 8: A Frontier representative was present to seek the Council's signature for support of funding effort that will bring fiber internet service to Mertzon and Irion County. For more information, including a map of the county where fiber installation is proposed, see pages 2-11 of the handouts. There are potentially 656 locations in the county that could be eligible for fiber through this grant process. Look to see if your location is marked with a yellow dot on the map on page 9 of the handouts.
Mr. Tony Bednarczyk attended on behalf of Frontier. His contact info can be found on page 11 of the handout. Reach out to him if you have any questions. His presentation was informative and the Council voted to sign the proposed letter of support for the funds. There is little doubt that much of the county is underserved with awful internet service, so the Council's support of the funding is obviously a win for everyone.
As an aside, growing up riding horseback along the fence line at my family's University lease in the south of the county I recall finding the insulators that were used for the wires for the first phone lines in the county. In high school, I helped maintain the phone line along Country Road 134 when Ma Bell was around but would not service the lines to ranches because they were privately owned lines back then. The ranching families owned and managed the lines, then on small telephone poles, even into the 1970's. Can you imagine a high schooler today up on a ranch ladder leaning up against a telephone pole (or propped in the bed of a pickup against a feeder!) trying to splice a copper wire? A fiber optic line?
d. Administrative reports:
-Other announcements - the City has coordinated with Critter Shack to trap feral cats to have them fixed to help reduce the feral cat population in the city. A similar program exists in nearby cities. The cats will be live trapped, taken to Wall for surgery, then returned to where they were trapped in Mertzon. Cats that receive the surgery will have their ears notched. The cost to the City is $25.00 per cat.
Cat owners need to bring their domesticated cats indoors on August 21, the day of the trapping, so that domesticated cats are not inadvertently trapped and fixed. Watch for additional information from the City.
Certain Council members during the discussion of this issue were, to be generous here, less than sensitive with their opinions on various methods of population reduction that would not require this surgery. Sensitivity to animal welfare is a good value for elected officials, particularly in rural Texas communities where past ways of acceptable wild animal control are not current with the times and voicing such methods continues a negative stereotype of rural life. There are some, I am not among them, that believe that animals have actual legal rights. I still nonetheless believe that humane animal welfare has a very important place among the responsibilities of citizenship and good government. I thus would urge the Council naysayers to show some sensitivity on this issue.
e. More - pending.
Copyright 2024 G Noelke