Mertzon City Council May 19 2025
- G. Noelke
- May 20
- 6 min read
Updated: May 29
A. Agenda Analysis
Repeal of ordinances, item 6: An "ordinance" is simply a municipal made law. Cities are authorized to make their own laws, with certain limits. I can't find any of these provisions posted at the City's page for ordinances, so one could assume that these are dusty provisions no longer being used. I recommend paying attention to public meeting agendas when laws are being repealed. Sometimes that's a good thing, sometimes a bad thing. The agenda itself, by the way, doesn't have to state the motive for the repeal. It's enough for it to state that the particular provisions are being repealed. Coincidentally, I recall the days when not only did Mertzon have a city wide curfew but it was enforced by a Nightwatchman. I don't recall whether the curfew was 9:00 pm, 9:30 pm or 10:00 pm. Maybe it was, God forbid, midnight! Whatever the time, the lesson to all was that nothing good happens in a small town after the curfew. The Nightwatchman must have looked away during that year when kids were getting paid top dollar for varmint hides.
B. Meeting Review
Repeal of ordinances, item 6: The Council made quick work here and repealed all three ordinances. For the specifics on what was deleted, see pages 3-17 of the meeting documents. Notably, this process was undertaken as an internal review of the City's ordinances. According to the presentation by City Manager Rabenaldt, the two ordinances providing for rewards came under review because using taxpayer dollars in this manner is no longer viewed as a favorable use of taxpayer dollars, according to the Texas Municipal League.
As to the repeal of the curfew , the reason for this repeal is that the law changed last session so that juvenile curfews are now prohibited by state law. See Local Gov't Code 370.007. I would like to delve into this, but simply don't have the time. I suspect that such curfews have been found to be unconstitutional. (Even if only bad things happen after curfews in small towns, our young folks have the Constitutional right to go partake in it!)
Miscellaneous: the broken clarifier at the wastewater plant has been repaired and relief from the terrible smells should be forthcoming in the next week or two.
C. Commentary
Something important happened at this meeting that shouldn't be overlooked. The Council repealed law, and they did so with an intent to be more efficient and to operate within the bounds of higher law. Put another way, the Council is operating by the rule of law.
You might have heard phrases as "We are a nation of laws, not of men". That gets at part of what our Founders intended for us. I consider the phrase, "We are a nation of laws, not of kings" more easily understood and more important.
Consider what did not happen at this meeting: Mayor Stewart didn't put his six shooter down on the table in front him and say, "Ok, here's how we are going to change these laws!" Mayor Stewart is neither a king or a sheriff, but a representative of we the people and is operating under a set of laws as guidelines.
This is a signal to us all that our representative form of government is functioning. It's functioning, in part, because there were some well thought out and just concepts put into place by our Founders. See my More about the Magna Carta page for a deeper dive.
Careful study will show, however, that what the Council did at this meeting, though extremely important, was not extraordinary. What they did was good governing, and it is regularly taking place at all levels of our government. How it is done, though, is at varying degrees of efficiency.
I am most familiar with the state level, where state law specifically requires that agencies review their administrative rules every few years. See Texas Government Code 2001.039, which requires a review to make sure the reasons for initially adopting the rules continue to exist. Importantly, citizens get an opportunity to comment on that review process, as well as the adoption of any new state agency rule. Each week the Texas Register is published, and there you can read, for free, how agency law is being made and repealed. (Click on the "Current Issue" link of the Texas Register any Friday and you can go all in on how our administrative laws are being made and repealed. It is an amazingly civil, orderly and regular effort, and not a bit of it requires a six shooter to accomplish.)
There's also a regular review of whether state agencies should continue to exist. You can learn more about that at Texas Sunset Advisory Commission. I have represented state agencies while they have gone though sunset, and it is a very rigorous process. Again, six shooters are not used in the review. And, citizens can participate.
I'm less familiar with the federal side, only because I didn't practice there. But, there is a similar federal administrative process. Here is the Federal Register, where the federal rules are constantly being adopted and reviewed. Citizen participation is also allowed at this level.
There's also a federal statute, 5 United States Code 610, that calls for periodic review of federal rules that is similar to 2001.039 on the state side. It's purpose, though, is to protect small businesses from over regulation. (We hear all the time how small businesses are over regulated. Well, the law is already in place to protect them, so throwing the baby out with the bathwater by eliminating all rules is an over reaction. In time, history may judge DOGE as a failure because the law to make government efficient was already in place! DOGE is more in the nature of a regulatory capture than a true effort at reform with citizen mandate.)
There's also the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs and the Office of the Law Revision Counsel that are both intended to mandate government efficiency as to our laws.
Presidential executive orders are also used by U.S. presidents, I think improperly, to attempt to in some way regulate how rules and laws are interpreted, enforced or ignored. This is highly political, as any president can undo the executive order of any of the previous presidents. I think this method of reviewing our laws is the least efficient because it is so political and is done without any substantive citizen involvement. The more citizen involvement the better, in my opinion, and this process fails on this point.
The take away here is that what the Mertzon City Council did at this meeting is something that is taking place at various levels in our government. Best of all, it was apolitical, no six shooter was involved and, don't miss this point, they did it on their own initiative without the oversight of a higher authority mandating a scheduled review.
That's called good government.
I think it is important to publicly recognize when government is working, and working efficiently, so as to not fall prey to those whose goal is really to financially profit from government by constantly proclaiming how broken it is and then attempting to use that false narrative to reform it to their ends.
Sometimes this form of government our Founders left for us works well, and you need only look at your local government to see it. I'm using this platform to criticize local government when I think it deserves it, sure, but I'm also going to hold it up as an example that not all is broken.
Each of us have a civic duty to not allow the trashing of the system of government our Founders so wisely left behind to us. A democratic government operating under the rule of law is a very good thing, and I say we best not lose it by taking it for granted. Put party affiliation aside and do your part.
Copyright 2025 G. Noelke
