Mertzon City Council December 1 2025

Agenda Analysis | Meeting Review | Meeting Documents | Commentary | Last Meeting

The trenching on the IC ISD campus for the flood control structure started in earnest the week of Thanksgiving.

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Mertzon City Council Agenda

A. Agenda Analysis

1. Executive session, item 5: This is a meaty one with 3 specific legal reasons listed. Yes, it is lawful for a governmental body to go into a closed session to discuss real estate, to speak to their attorney about pending litigation and to discuss personnel matters. The public may eventually hear what these matters concern, or the issues may be dealt with at the closed part without a vote. They can't vote on a matter in closed session. I am careful not to make guesses about what closed sessions cover; I am not interested in being a rumor mill.

2. Zoning ordinance discussion with attorney Jeff Betty, item 6: One way for elected folks to get cover for something new is to get their attorney to speak during the meeting to say, "Yep, you can do this" or "No, you shouldn't do this." I served in this role regularly when I represented state agencies on behalf of the Texas Attorney General's Office. Here's some inside baseball: The attorney client relationship here is quite like that of the attorney client relationship involving a private citizen. The governmental body, like a private citizen, is never compelled to accept the advice of the attorney. The client in both situations can disregard the advice of the attorney. The difference, of course, is that a lawyer providing advice to a governmental body, as in this case, does so publicly. This increases the stakes dramatically.

3. Zoning ordinance, item 7: I'm suspending judgment until the meeting...

4. The rest, items 8 - 10: These are stock agenda items and should not be disregarded.

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Stormwater coming down the alley from the new transportation building (not pictured on the right) is planned to meet up with the water coming down 4th Street, according to the engineering plans I’ve reviewed.

B. Meeting Review

Pending

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Another view of the planned flow of the storm water.

C. Commentary

1. Here’s a great podcast listen, Eating What You Kill This Thanksgiving, a NYT interview of Steven Rinella.

My contribution to my family’s Thanksgiving meal was this 6 point buck, taken with my crossbow at 20 yards. Rinella writes, “To abhor hunting is to hate the place from which you came, which is akin to hating yourself in some distant, abstract way.” I think “hate” might be too strong a word. Maybe “deny” is more accurate. One way or another, every living human today has an ancestor who was good at hunting as recently as 100-200 years ago. One denies that ancestral heritage and relationship to wildlife if one abhors hunting and hunters.

2. Pending.

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Copyright 2025 G. Noelke