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Agenda Analysis  | Meeting Review  | Meeting Documents  | Commentary  | Last Meeting 4th Street between W Fleming and Juanita is under construction to redirect the flow of stormwater off of the street into the new detention area. A. Agenda Analysis Animal control ordinance, item 5. Animal control is a constant. See below. That’s City Gym in the background, right, and Estes Gym background, left. Both were designed to dump the stormwater from their roofs into 4th Street. Those leading IC ISD at the time City Gym was built (from 2019 bonds) took advantage of the City of Mertzon’s lack of stormwater ordinances. B. Meeting Review Here are the meeting documents . Animal control, item 5. The Council took no formal action, but is considering the ordinance attached in the meeting documents. Administrative report, item 6: The BOD level at the wastewater treatment plant is seriously out of whack, in large part because of aerator failure, which in turn has been worsened by the delays from the engineers leaving Hibbs and Todd. C. Commentary I had a brief discussion before this meeting with Councilman Crutchfield about the prior IC ISD superintendent, current superintendent and what a future superintendent might be like. I pointed out that the difference between past and present is that Supt. Moore came to me at the beginning of her tenure and said, "I understand you have a disagreement with the District, tell me your side". She was able to do that because new board leadership at the time she came in directed her to start mending the relationship. The prior superintendent, Ray DeSpain, was effectively told by that board to build a gym and let me swim in the flood waters for all they cared. That board simply did not care that I pointed out before, during and after construction that they were violating the law. I've never seen such callousness in government, frankly. The skill set that Supt. Moore has that Supt. DeSpain did not have involves transparency. The ability to be transparent is a skill necessary for good government leadership, and it seems to me it comes natural to her. She is also better at managing conflict than he was. And, finally, I think she has more courage than he did. She didn't just come to me at the beginning of her tenure trying to better understand my complaint, she kept coming back trying to get things corrected. That takes a lot of courage to address, face to face, a community member who has been as upset as I have been (legitimately so) for going on 10 years. So, here's an advocacy tip for council members, board members and superintendents: you are molding the type of community you are leading by the skills and personal traits, or lack thereof, that you bring to the job. Someone reached out to me today and they were unaware of how available the 765kV dispute was online. So, I am posting again: The Oncor / LCRA 765 kV transmission line dispute is very much unfolding in public documents online. I have intervened in the PUC case because one of the proposals is to put the line across my property at Cowboy Hill on Hwy 67. To do a deep dive, go here  and put in 59182 in the Control Number box. Look for a local neighbor in the party column, and click on the hyperlinked number on the left to access the document. The “Direct Testimony” documents will be the most easy to understand. Copyright 2026 G. Noelke

Agenda Analysis  | Meeting Review  | Meeting Documents | Commentary  | Last Meeting Dr. Moore's letter announcing her departure. A. Agenda Analysis Approve Supt. search firm, item 3 . These searches are intensive and require more resources than a typical board can dedicate on its own. Options for outside assistance are typically either Region 15 or TASB . In terms of track record of those two, TASB brought in former Supt. Ray DeSpain, and Region 15 brought in Supt. Moore. My bet, then, will be on Region 15. Closed session, personnel, item 4 : The Board gets a lot of latitude in closed sessions to discuss the transition and hiring. So, the vast majority of the deliberative process on all this will be done behind closed doors. Read my Commentary below for my impressions on her leaving and what the future looks like. B. Meeting Review (Pending) The state of construction: cement for the new elementary started pouring the week of Supt. Moore’s announcement. C. Commentary The "Why" part of "She is leaving?!": I didn't see Supt. Moore's departure coming, though I should have. Go here, at C 1 , whereI recently heaped praise on her and expressed my relief that she would be present beyond the expenditure of the 2024 bonds. Supt. Moore reached out to me within hours of posting the letter at the top of this page, and she invited me to meet with her to discuss. We met the following morning, Feb. 26, in her office and had a frank discussion. (I do a monthly open records requests, and our practice has been to meet in person for me to deliver that and to address bond construction. We have a functioning cooperative relationship, which was most definitely not the type of relationship I had with the prior superintendent.) Several things came out of our meeting. The opportunity for her at Merkel and the decision to go there came up quickly, even faster than she had planned. She is not leaving as a result of Board displeasure in her. (I think the Board is quite sorry she is leaving.) Rather, she is leaving to be closer to her new husband who works in the area. I did not discuss with her the perks of going to a larger school and whether a better financial package was part of her decision. I assumed it was, and left all of that out of our discussion. The financial reality for all public employees is that they have to maximize earnings to get the best retirement package down the road. The economic reality of this is that, as a wealthy district under the school finance system, IC ISD is a nice stepping stone for a superintendent to a more lucrative retirement. The larger part of our discussion was about how not to waste our mutual efforts at improved community relations. She and I have accomplished a lot, and neither of us want to dismiss that upon her leaving. (A blog like Government in the Sun in a county with a population of less than 2,000 makes its own gravy, or sweet and sour sauce or even vinegar, depending on one's perspective and taste buds. It suits me well, because I'm not particularly interested in reviews, and Supt. Moore knows this.) The immediate future: Based on my discussions with her, I am hopeful that the search effort and new hire process moves fast. Apparently all of the ordering and design work is done on the bond construction, so now the reality is execution. But, I don't care who the contractor is, a contractor that knows the principal is distracted will tend toward cutting corners to maximize profits. The District cannot allow Gallagher for one moment to think it has more important things than the construction to tend to. Long term future: I'm hopeful for long term stability given this particular board, even with the board election coming up. President Maegin Carlile has done a great job managing Supt. Moore and the Board as well. The Board has weathered some disagreement in the past year, and that's a sign of a healthy board. I'm more worried about the kooky things coming down from the Governor, Texas legislature, TEA, the Dept. of Education and the U.S. Supreme Court than I am about the functioning capacity of this particular board. "Local control" is a misnomer, and managing outside forces is really challenging. Another challenge: financing all this and staying calm when the tax base expands yet again . The Eiger pipeline , the pipeline following the already existing Matterhorn pipeline, will be completed in 2028. That pipeline will add a tax base of an additional 3.7 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas per day traveling through Irion County. (The Matterhorn is 2.5 billion cubic feet per day .) That's yet another shot in the arm for the District. It will make it very attractive, once again, for a new superintendent to promote another bond package for capital improvements. Beware what you dream for, folks. "Rolling" bonds are dangerous things, particularly during this AI revolution. We are as close as one AI mega donor to a sycophantic governor's campaign account away from replacing living, breathing teachers with AI robots managed by TEA. This is about the almighty dollar, not about party affiliation or the children of Texas. The Board is going to need to be disciplined with the next superintendent to not allow that person to propose yet more debt just because the tax base is flush with new revenue. Now is the time to pay down debt as rapidly as possible, and the current Board and Supt. Moore appear to understand that. New Readers: I'll fill in my "Meeting Review" above a day or two after the meeting. Candidates for superintendent: I caution against using this blog as a bellwether for anything. At times I am the District's harshest critic, while simultaneously being an unabashed proponent of public education. I am, however, the only community member that regularly attends board meetings, so I suppose that counts for something. Copyright 2026 G. Noelke

Agenda Analysis  | Meeting Review  | Meeting Documents  | Commentary  | Last Meeting The IC ISD detention pond at 4th and W. Fleming is nearing completion. In the next week or so the pavement on 4th Street will be redesigned so that water flows into the detention area. A. Agenda Analysis City Engineers, item 5: Hibbs and Todd will be present to discuss the waste water treatment plant. The project is way behind schedule, so its appropriate the engineers will coming to hopefully move this forward. PACE interlocal agreement, item 6: Best I can tell with a quick search that PACE stands for Purchasing Association of Cooperative Entities. Right of way, item 7: There appears to be an encroachment issue here... Caliche pit, item 8: Have a concern about something you think the City needs to address? You have 2 options. You can speak about it during the public comments part of the meeting...or...you can do what apparently Mr. Oglesby has done. You can ask that it be placed on the agenda. The benefit of putting it on the agenda like it is here is that the Council can actually talk with you about it. In open forum discussion is prohibited under the Open Meetings Act. Canceling the Council election, item 9: If there are no seats being contested, then there is no need to have an election. Council pay, item 11: I missed a special meeting last week. Typically if a meeting lasts for only a few minutes there will be agenda like this one where the Council votes to waive their pay. I point these out because some of what I try to do on this site is to build up government when the facts call for it. Yes, I have my gripes, and I air those. But, I also point out when selfless service to our community occurs. This is a good example of that. What's not on the agenda: A few weeks back there was an agenda item about the Council's input on the water detention project at 2nd and Fayette . They (wisely) punted, and it appears to have dropped off the agenda... Model T’s weren’t available until 1909, coincidentally the same year the 1909 IC ISD legacy building in Mertzon was built. And, my home in Mertzon was built in 1910 . So, back then there would have been more horses in Mertzon than cars. Most of the property within the city limits then would have been undeveloped pasture land. Enough of it was undeveloped that no one was likely concerned with rainwater runoff from impervious cover. Today, of course, there are a few horses here and there, and there are way more cars and paved parking spots than horses. B. Meeting Review Here are the meeting documents . Hibbs and Todd , item 5: Mr. Rich gave an informative update on both the sewer and water bond projects. Bottom line -breaking ground should be early summer, though there are some significant unknowns (like the Texas Water Development Board). I am monitoring for two reasons. First, staff transitions at H&T have significantly slowed the completion of these projects. Second, when one looks at the various public works projects around town their stamp is on the design pages. They are repeatedly getting a portion of our public dollars, and we need to expect a lot from them. Delays = higher costs. PACE, item 6: Yes, that is a purchasing cooperative. They approved. Right of way, item 7: This was an appropriately lengthy discussion about how to address a number of newly constructed driveways placed in the City's right of way, without contacting the City, on top of City water lines. The Council's longstanding hesitation to regulate by ordinance was evident in their discussions. See my commentary below . Caliche pit, item 8: There's a lot of meat on this bone, and I'm not sure just yet of whether to jump in the fracas. But the Mayor said, and he’s right, it is the people’s caliche. Cancellation of election, item 9: No one filed against members Councilman and Crutchfield, so they skate in for another term. Council pay, item 11. Selfless service to one's government is a worthwhile ideal to promote. One should not come to serve the people to make a profit. The Council rightfully denied themselves pay for attending a short meeting last week. Thank them for their service. Administrative report: Ms. Rabenaldt confirmed the upcoming closure of 4th Street between W. Fleming and Juanita in order for IC ISD to redirect the flow of stormwater into the stormwater detention field. See the photo below. The alterations to 4th St. should direct the flow of water in the direction of the arrow. C. Commentary Right of ways: Regulating encroachments on City right of ways is a good thing because it creates certainty for future owners of the property who will be going out to a bank for for a loan to purchase. Regulations are especially appropriate when they help citizens build and transfer their most valuable asset - their home. See also the situation faced by the Tillman's back in 2025 . My drum beat for the last almost 10 years of trying to protect my property in Mertzon is essentially this: municipal regulation creates certainty, and certainty protects property value and preserves wealth. And, thus, preserving property values also preserves the tax base the City relies upon. Regulation is a mutual wealth building necessity for both property owners and the City. Allow me (this part of my analysis being published on the morning of the State of the Union, February 24, 2026), to restate the following for emphasis: Selfless service to one's government is a worthwhile ideal to promote. It is impossible to thank an office holder for their selfless service when they are busy thanking themself. The Oncor / LCRA 765 kV transmission line dispute is very much unfolding in public documents online. I have intervened in the PUC case because one of the proposals is to put the line across my property at Cowboy Hill on Hwy 67. To do a deep dive, go here  and put in 59182 in the Control Number box. Copyright 2026 G. Noelke

Agenda Analysis  | Meeting Review  | Meeting Documents | Commentary  | Last Meeting The design for the IC ISD flood detention walls includes a cement foundation, cement blocks, vertical rebar to stabilize the blocks and, not shown here, additional bricking and riprap. Back in 2023 I criticized the District for pretending a cement wall put up to hold a safety fence was adequate flood protection for the stadium. That wall wasn't built even close to these specs. The question of whether these walls will be robust enough is going to depend a lot on the future growth of the campus and how much more impervious cover is added. A. Agenda Analysis TAPR, Texas Academic Performance Report, item 7: Go here at the TEA site and search for "Irion" in the district box. Prioritizing loans to pay down, item 11: Debt free districts will do better when the time comes that the Texas legislature puts a stop to wealthy districts being able to use local funds on bonds. I’m betting that time will come. Election season, item 9 : Three seats are up for re-election. Where they fall on the ballot perhaps isn't as important in Mertzon as in other cities where campaigns are financed and races are highly competitive. Pending construction projects, bond purchasing, item 5 : This language is the safe harbor language regularly used when spending bond money comes up. Administrative reports, item 6 : Always relevant. Closed session, guardian update, supt. evaluation and action on closed session, action on Supt. contract, items 15, 17 and 18 : What's not to be curious about here - guns possessed by a secret police force and the superintendent's job performance? The recent deaths of American citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti by the Border Patrol I think fairly raise the question of whether law enforcement is receiving proper training on when to shoot to kill. I don't envy anyone serving as a guardian. As to Supt. Moore's job performance, in my experience in the past year she has been quite responsive and always professional. I am well aware of the freedoms I have under the 1st Amendment to turn GovernmentintheSun into an edgy, muckraker style journal, but her disarming approach has made that style of advocacy unnecessary. A portion of the foundation for new elementary school is nearing the pouring stage. Photo taken February 12. B. Meeting Review Closed session, guardian update, Superintendent evaluation and appraisal, action on closed, action on Supt. contract, items 15, 17 and 18: One reason I recommend sticking meetings out to the very end is sometimes really important matters come up at the close. That's the case here where the Board after about a 2.5 hour closed session voted at around 10:30 pm to extend Supt. Moore's contract 1 year and approve a stipend for the guardians. There is more on each of these down in my Commentary below. Discuss over collection and pay down on loans, item 11: No action was taken, but the discussion was essential. Because of additional tax revenue, the District is in a terrific position to pay off its 2019 bonds and save a ton on interest. The motivation is more than financial savings, though. It is also to build back capacity so that additional bonds can be sought later if there is a growth spurt in folks moving in to the district with a passel of kids. Remember, the 2019 bonds built no classrooms, one of my key criticisms of all that effort. And, while the 2024 bonds are rebuilding the elementary and more, the District is not seeing substantive growth. It would be over a barrel if it didn't have the financial capacity to go out for more bonds if a growth spurt were to occur. No action was taken on this item, but the discussion showed that Supt. Moore and the Board are thankfully on the same page for getting 2019 bonds rapidly paid off. Expect to see a follow up board meeting agenda item where they formally vote to pay off the bonds. Drawing of place on ballot, board election, item 9: Here's how the drawing (and it was a drawing) played out, in this order: Tony Martinez Taylor Douglas Jayton Lindley Anthony Baumann There are 3 seats open, as member Ashley Hill opted not to run for re-election. I'm not making any endorsements. 4. Admin Reports, Coach Morrow, item 6b: Coach Morrow gave an update on the District's ongoing dispute with Hellas regarding the quality of the new track around the football field at OK Wolfenbarger stadium. While the District is pleased with the installation of the field (there were hiccups though), the track has itself has become a major point of contention. Coach Morrow reported that a patch has been put in with mismatched colors and the lanes aren't level in places. Quite a number of issues have come up regarding the quality of Hellas' installation of the track. (Search "Hellas" in the search bar to get more on my coverage of Hellas' performance.) Also, timing is now an issue because track season is starting on a project that was planned to be complete late last summer. I continue to cover the Hellas' dispute for a couple reasons. Mainly, its a good example of the terrific leverage the District has during construction to demand quality performance; they can, as they are doing here, refuse the final payment to them. (One reason I believe the audit of how WBK Construction spent the 2019 bond funds fizzled out (intentionally?) is that WBK was paid in full by the previous IC ISD superintendent before the audit began. Once they were fully paid they had no incentive to cooperate with an audit.) I also cover Hellas as perhaps an example (warning?) to other contractor that, even though there isn't traditional media coverage of their performance in this remote neck of the desert, all it takes is a blogger like myself to get perturbed about where his tax dollars are being spent to start writing about it on the web. (To think harder about the impact of blogging, consider the 4th Estate and the 5th Estate . To put this in perspective, in my youth in Mertzon the San Angelo Standard Times was delivered by bicycle every morning and afternoon by Brent Evans, teacher Janet Rathmell and Superintendent Stew Evans' son. I subbed on occasion for Brent when he couldn't ride.) The flood detention walls at 4th and W. Fleming, as of February 12. C. Commentary Superintendent contract: The Board added a 1 year extension to Supt. Moore's contract at this meeting. This means that the term of her contract remains at 5 years. That was a good decision. She's doing a great job, and from my personal experience I can say she is excelling on the myriad of construction projects. Importantly, this 5 year term is going to invest her beyond the completion of the bonds so that this isn't a wham, bam, thank you taxpayers scenario of her leaving upon the completion of the construction. (The last superintendent, and I no longer need to mention names every time this comes up, wished us "Godspeed" when he bolted for the door, just as the budget literally blew up and construction was barely complete. And, from what I can see the problems with the construction build are ongoing.) So, a 5 year term is good for everyone in this situation. Thank God for another horse born in Texas. Guardian stipends - In any other time, I might not pay much attention to law enforcement on a school campus. This is not any ordinary law enforcement, though, and these are extraordinary times. The Guardians are allowed, indeed required, to operate anonymously and their identity is shielded from disclosure under the Texas Public Information Act. The deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti at the hands of masked Border Patrol officers have me evaluating the assumptions I make on a regular basis around law enforcement. Are those assumptions appropriate around a publicly financed but private police force? What assumptions do you make, and is it time to re-evaluate them? Oncor/LCRA 765 kV transmission line : I have intervened in this PUC case because one of the proposals is to put the line across my property at Cowboy Hill on Hwy 67. To do a deep dive, go here and put in 59182 in the Control Number box. On occasion, I will post matters about the case here in the commentary. The documents filed in the case are all public. (Here's a question to ask yourself: why are the oil and gas companies intervening when the issue is a high voltage transmission line?) One reason to pay attention is that once a high transmission lines come in, more will follow. The primary (though misplaced) issue for the electric companies (Oncor and LCRA) is the number of habitable structures within 500 feet of the wires. The fewer the number, the less the outcry, the easier to get lines approved. Counties like Irion, thus, will become popular to cross because the population is so sparce. (Less than 2,000) I am strenuously opposing the placement of high voltage lines on my property and anywhere in Irion County . Implied easements : Carla Lindley forwarded me this article about implied easements . See page 8. The article doesn't identify the landowner, but…she’s local. Here's the thing about private land ownership and the government: there's always a tension, and a landowner who sits on their hands will absolutely lose their use and enjoyment of their land to the government/private companies who have been given the right of eminent domain. Whether it is from stormwater runoff like I've been dealing with my neighbor IC ISD for almost 10 years now, or Oncor and LCRA deciding it is time to put a 765 kV (5,000+ amp!) transmission line, or Matterhorn and Eiger claiming their right to put a combined total of 90" of compressed natural gas pipelines through my property, our government and its agents will take my property with abandon unless I protest. Our Texas and U.S. Constitutions prohibit the taking of private property without just compensation, but those provisions don't automatically stop anything, even transparent injustice at the hands of the government. To be sure, there's no plea for a pity party on my behalf here, but Texas government leaders should not forget that their source of funding is largely through taxation of private property. There's a mutual reliance here, without one the other doesn't exist, and vice versa. Contouring the flood detention area is underway. 4th Street between W Fleming and Juanita will be closed in a week or so from this meeting date in order rework its shape so that it directs water into the basin of the detention area. Copyright 2026 G. Noelke

Agenda Analysis  | Meeting Review  | Meeting Documents  | Commentary  | Last Meeting The cement foundation for the stormwater detention project at 4th and W. Fleming, as of January 19, 2026. A. Agenda Analysis Meeting date : Note that this falls on the last Monday of the month. The Council's regular schedule is on the 1st and 3rd Monday of the month, unless it falls on a holiday. Last Monday was MLK. Appointment of City Council Member, item 5 : Former Mayor Pro Tem Lindley resigned at the last meeting so he could run for school board. This leaves two seats open on the Council. City right of ways, item 6 : Here's the posted wording, "Discuss and approve any action necessary for city right of ways". What does that mean? It says "any action necessary", which could be anything . This piques my curiosity in the same way the posting last meeting by IC ISD that read "Discuss next projects". See A 4 here . I don't understand this agenda item, so I'm interested in it . This matter could be about anything, and when a governmental body so generally describes an agenda item citizens should take note. For the sake of considering whether this agenda item is too vague under the Texas Open Meetings Act, I'll intuit here that this matter is about campaign election signs being placed in the City's right of ways by candidates for public office. Then the question is: Does this agenda item have to give specific notice to identified candidates that the City Council is about to take action concerning them? No. " The intended beneficiaries of the Act are not individual citizens, but members of the interested public. City of San Antonio v. Fourth Ct. of Appeals, 820 S.W.2d 762, 765 (Tex. 1991) . If a reader is given adequate notice of the proposed governmental action, the requirement of the Act is satisfied." City of Houston v. 4 Families of Hobby, 702 SW3d 698. Administrative Report, other announcements, and Daily operations update, items 8b and 9: I highlight these items because they are typically where City staff report about operations during weather events. At initial posting of this page on January 25, Mertzon has had about 1/4 inch of snow and the temp is 14 degrees. How do cities with real snow issues manage? Check out this page for the City of Ames Iowa . B. Meeting Review Public Comments, City right of way, items 4 and 7: My intuition was correct - this was about political signs in the right of way. See these meeting documents. It is against state law to place signs in a public right of way. A candidate for Justice of the Peace and her supporters came out to protest the removal of the signs and ended up receiving a warning from the City Attorney, Jeff Betty. The Council took no action. See my commentary below about this brouhaha. New City Council Member, item 5: David Olivan, a resident of the city for 20 years, was sworn in to fill a vacancy. And, an apparent nuance in the resign to run statute has allowed Council Member Lindley to return to his seat, at least until such time as he wins his school board race. Administrative report, item 8 b, and Daily Operations Report, item 9: If you don't attend the meetings it is easy to overlook the importance of this part of the meeting. A few things worth noting; a. City water during major freeze: Operations staff is literally restarting a faulty valve every two and half hours, around the clock, so that the water tower level stays up. Folks, these guys are working really hard . Temps have gone at least down to 9 degrees and the City continues to have water. Truly amazing dedication to their jobs. Thank you. b. The City passed its 3 year water inspection by TCEQ without any deficiencies. This is really significant because successfully staying out of TCEQ's sights in any enforcement matter counts as a win. It is time consuming and costly to deal with TCEQ when things get off track. c. The Mayor reported favorably on the joint operations efforts among the City, Irion County, Irion County ISD and the Irion County Sheriff's Office to address weather related issues and emergencies. This is significant because local government in the area tends to operate in silos and personal conflicts get in the way of serving the community. (I've been saying this since my efforts in 2019 to get the City, County and IC ISD to coordinate with one another about stormwater.) Their cooperation is all the more critical now that Washington has so hamstrung FEMA. C. Commentary I don't want to dwell on the death of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis on January 24, but I also don't intend to fail to recognize the horrific nature of the event. I think there are times when events involving our government are so impossible to understand that, at least for a moment, silence is appropriate. In this age of constant distraction, perhaps we have lost sight of acknowledging stunned silence. I'm not going to get bogged down in the politics of campaign sign issue raised in the open forum and item 7. The candidate, her supporters and even the City's attorney said some unfortunate things that, if published here, would only elevate tensions. (I am publishing the meeting documents , but I do that for each meeting.) I started Government In the Sun by posting audio of the public meetings I was attending. When someone said something controversial I often elevated it. While stirring the pot was fun at first, in time I realized I was missing an opportunity to teach the community about the law, ethics and civics. Those things are more intellectually challenging to me than being a muckraker. So, here's the lesson on civics and the law for this meeting: Do not ever forget that the open forum and the meeting itself is public . That means if you are a candidate for public office anything you say about anything can and will be used against you. Since I'm not posting the audio, all the opposing candidate has to do is appear at City Hall and ask to listen to the audio tape. The audio is available to anyone. Perhaps a better approach to the sign wars is this simple: The candidate should appear before the Council and say something to the effect of: "If there is a valid complaint against my campaign for public office, I certainly regret that it has taken up your time. It has not been my intent to violate the law. I look forward to talking to your staff about it after the meeting to resolve any misunderstandings." A bit more on the vagueness of item 7 on right of ways: After this meeting City Manager Ms. Rabenaldt visited with me and said, "You know, George, just call me up if you don't know what something is about." And, of course, that is what everyone should do when confused about a public meeting. Call the governmental body up. I blog about vagueness to hopefully get my readers out of neutral gear when they read about public meetings. One should not accept agendas for face value, especially when a conflict is brewing. Agenda drafters choose their wording very carefully. Where it really matters is where the governmental body is taking a property right (a professional license) away. But, that's not the case here. This all falls in my "how to read an agenda" bucket. Word choice on agendas matter. Call the government body who posted the agenda if you don't understand it. A bit more on Alex Pretti: Now is a good time to revisit the old saw "The way to get rid of bad guys with guns is to have more good guys with guns." Suddenly open/concealed carry laws have a troubling wrinkle. What if a lawful citizen's weapon is used as a pretext for state sanctioned murder because their exercise of 1st Amendment speech is opposed by the government? Exactly who is the good guy with the gun and who is the bad guy with the gun? Being in a situation where everyone is armed may not be the solution some think it to be, particularly when the government is claiming it has absolute immunity. Copyright 2025 G. Noelke

Agenda Analysis  | Meeting Review  | Meeting Documents  | Commentary  | Last Meeting The intersection at the lower left is 2nd and Juanita, and the one above that is 2nd and Fayette. See item 6 and the photo below. A. Agenda Analysis Executive session, item 5: This is the same language used at several of the Council's recent meetings. Detention pond, item 6: The 2024 IC ISD bond package included money for 2 flood control projects. One is currently under construction at 4th and W. Fleming. The second is this one along 2nd Street between Juanita and Fayette. The walls of the one at 4th and W. Fleming will range from 3 to 5 feet. Detention vs Retention ponds: IC ISD has known about the flooding problem in this area for some while now. Then Supt. Brian Grey, the architect of the 2019 bond package, asserted that the District could solve the flooding problem by putting in a pond where the water would be stored. (He said it could even be used by the kids as a place to fish.) Well, storing water creates a "retention" pond and brings with it all sorts of regulatory and safety issues. This won't be a place for the children to fish. This will be a detention pond that is intended for stormwater to be slowed down as it passes on to lower elevations. If constructed properly, it will remain dry most of the year. If the Council is addressing the depth of the walls, I suppose this raises the question of where the walls will be placed - on IC ISD property or on the City's right of way? This is an essential question because flood barriers and berms and the like are not maintenance free . This isn't a one and done public works project. As the District continues to grow its capital plant, and all indications are that a larger tax base is on the way with the new Eiger pipeline , the District is likely going to direct even more stormwater into this area. The District is going to be once again tempted to go out for another bond in just a few short years because it’s tax base is going to balloon from the pipeline. (The pipeline will track the existing Matterhorn pipeline and will be even larger in diameter.) The City and the District should both assume in time that additional water will flow into this detention project. They should avoid the Grand Mistake by planning ahead for additional costs down the road for maintenance, upkeep and, yes, more stormwater. The intersection in the lower left is 2nd and Fayette. The blue arrow shows the flow of stormwater. A few blocks away it reaches City Park, which is where the IC ISD stadium and the Community Center are located. The entire city block where the blue arrow is placed is owned by IC ISD. I estimate as recently as 10 to 20 years ago it looked like the lot to the left - completely undeveloped. Again, as the District gobbles up space for its impervious cover, less stormwater is absorbed into the soil and more of it is sent down to City Park. B. Meeting Review Here are the meeting documents . Public comments, item 4: The incumbent candidate for the Justice of the Peace position spoke briefly and apologized for putting his campaign signs in the right of way. He also thanked the Council for not destroying the signs and for not prosecuting him. He did not mention his opponent's name, nor did he make any accusations in her direction. See my commentary below for a bit more on this issue. Detention pond, item 6: The Council is playing it straight and narrow on this issue. They don't want to advise IC ISD on anything flood project related because, one, they don't have any particular expertise in these types of public works projects and, two, they don't want to risk legal liability down the road. The issue and a request to IC ISD to attend may be placed on the next meeting agenda to answer their questions about the impact of the project on the adjacent streets. Executive session: none. Admin report, item 7: A complaint has been made to the City regarding the dilapidated state of the historic 2 story hotel downtown across from Mertzon Meat. City staff is evaluating the City’s abandoned buildings ordinance, or, really, the lack thereof. Misc: Mayor Pro Tem Lindley lead the meeting as Mayor Stewart was out. The bricks have arrived for the detention pond at W Fleming and 4th. Stormwater from this location also reaches City Park. C. Commentary The Oncor 765 kV transmission line deadline to intervene is February 16. Go here for information from the Edward’s Plateau Alliance . There is also a box of information at the MB Noelke Jr Library in Mertzon. The Livestock Weekly is also doing a a good job at keeping folks informed. And you can go to this LCRA page to search for the route. Here are the potential routes through Irion County. This line will devastate local ranch land and the scenic beauty of our area. Please get involved and oppose this project. You do not have to be a landowner to file an objection with the PUC. More on the sign battles: Stand up, take your lump and get off the stage. That's the approach that was taken at this meeting by the opponent to the events at last week's public comments . I am weary of candidates and office holders constantly blaming someone else. Owning up to mistakes is a forgotten art among our elected leaders and candidates for public office. Why is that? Note: Election Day is March 3. I am not making any endorsements. There, I said it: A&M University's announcement last week that it was getting rid of it's women studies program because it doesn’t comply with their DEI policies is about as misogynist as it gets. Good grief! This is the project at 4th and W. Fleming on January 30. The outflow was under construction on February 2, 2026. Copyright 2025 G. Noelke

Agenda Analysis  | Meeting Review  | Meeting Documents | Commentary  | Last Meeting This circa 1948 artist/architect rendition of the auditorium, gym and elementary school suggests that these buildings lasted around 75 years. They were razed in 2025 as part of the 2024 IC ISD school bonds. A. Agenda Analysis Location change : Note the meeting is at the cafeteria. Pending construction and bond purchasing, item 6 : This item has become a placeholder/catch all for any bond matters that are timely. Administrative reports, item 7 : I went back and reviewed a handful of previous meeting minutes to see the detail for this part of the meeting. I've not paid much attention to the minutes for this part in the past, but it confirms my belief that attending - or listening if posted - to a meeting is the best way to get at what is going on. The minutes on administrative reports are sparse... Anyway, this is a vital part of every meeting. Discuss next projects, item 8 : My reading standard for each and every agenda I read is this simple: If I don’t understand it, I am interested. I am interested in this item. Joint election with City of Mertzon, item 9: School board and city council elections land on the same day. There is a probability that candidates for both will run unopposed. If so, there will be a decoupling of the joint election approved here because no election is required when only one candidate runs. All that is known publicly to date is that now former City Council Member / Mayor Pro Tem Jayton Lindley is running for a school board position. Here is a bit more info . Special Ed compliance audit, item 10 : Keep a light on special ed. Supt. evaluation tool, item 11 : My understanding is that superintendents must be evaluated yearly, though this might not be the evaluation meeting. This item is about the "tool" or standards document by which she will be measured. Closed session and action, items 15 and 17 : "Personnel" is a constant for closed session. It is unclear from the agenda whether this could also include the Superintendent's eval since it is covered in item 11. The money, item 13 b : The monthly outgo happens in the consent agenda with little, if any, discussion. Though total bond expenditures haven't come up during a meeting, I am looking at that in the background using the PIA. This January 1, 2026 aerial shows the old gym, auditorium and classrooms all razed. B. Meeting Review Discuss next projects, item 8: This item gives me yet another opportunity to puzzle about the historical lack of community engagement with the IC ISD Board. This item was an open ended discussion about additional projects that bond monies might be spent on. Part of the discussion, for example, was about the need for storage space and whether to build additional storage. No vote was taken, though there was an some indication that specific project items might be on next month's agenda. The community gets a say in how any unused bond money, if any, gets spent. The tenor of this part of the meeting wasn't a shut out of the community, but it is an area of great import to the community, in my opinion. See my commentary below. Pending construction projects/purchasing, item 6: there were no votes on the award of any bond money here. Administrative reports, item 7 : Supt. Moore gave several bond updates, notably including that cement foundation of the flood detention wall would be poured this week (see photo at bottom of page), and the elementary would be poured at the end of this month. The new transportation building has been inspected and new equipment is being ordered. Joint election, item 9 : The Board approved the joint election with the City of Mertzon. I had hoped that any of the 3 holders of the open seats might make a public announcement of their intentions, but none did. Special Ed Compliance Audit, item 10: The District has successfully completed the corrective actions required as part of this audit. If I understood correctly, the next audit is not until 2029. A lot of water can flow under the bridge in that time frame, particularly with the Dept. of Education being in a state of intentional disrepair. Supt. evaluation tool, item 12 : The Board approved the document she submitted. As noted above, this wasn't a public review. Closed session, item 15: There was a closed session, but I was informed that it was a "no action" closed session. (Note that the agenda also lacks their typical "action on closed agenda" item at the end.) W. Fleming Ave. between 3rd and 4th streets has become a barometer for IC ISD’s understanding of its environmental impact upon the community. The street stayed closed for safety reasons for all of 2025. By December the District began trenching for flood prevention walls, shown here behind the black erosion fence. January 1, 2026 photo. C. Commentary It is articles like this, Nearly $100 million gone. How Austin ISD spent bond money on schools it will soon close , that cause me to be concerned about IC ISD’s rolling bond approach to funding capital, technology and transportation improvements. There’s no indication that IC ISD is about to close a school. But, the Texas legislature loves to hate on Austin, and this will cross their radar screens as bond misappropriation…potentially putting a spotlight on bonds statewide. No one should assume that the loophole allowing wealthy school districts like IC ISD to retain local tax revenue for bonds is going to last forever. Yet another reasons for community engagement with the school board is this: how the money is spent does not end with the bond election. Bond project parameters change with the wind and the availability of funds. The issue of unspent funds is regulated by the Texas Education Code: Sec. 45.1105. USE OF UNSPENT GENERAL OBLIGATION BOND PROCEEDS.   (a) A school district may use the unspent proceeds of issued general obligation bonds only:(1) for the specific purposes for which the bonds were authorized;(2) to retire the bonds; or(3) for a purpose other than the specific purposes for which the bonds were authorized if:(A) the specific purposes are accomplished or abandoned; and(B) the board of trustees at a public meeting held only for the purpose of considering the use of the unspent bond proceeds approves in separate votes the use of the proceeds for:(i) a purpose other than to retire the bonds; and(ii) the purpose specified at the time the vote is taken.(b) In addition to other requirements of law, notice of a public meeting held under this section must include a statement that the board of trustees will consider the use of unspent bond proceeds for a purpose other than the specific purposes for which the bonds were authorized.(c) A public meeting held under this section must provide the public an opportunity to address the board of trustees on the question of using the unspent bond proceeds for a purpose other than the specific purposes for which the bonds were authorized. Notably here, there has to be a public hearing so the public can have their say. It's too early to say definitively that the agenda item "discuss next projects" is about unspent funds. The community, however, should be alert and forever vigilant and present. Why? First, a present community helps keep board members honest about spending the bond money for the projects the voters approved. Second, the community is a spending stopgap. We are a reminder that the Board is spending our tax dollars. And, third, the community needs to be present for accountability at the end before all the money is spent. One goal of course is to not overspend, as was done with the previous administration and the 2019 bond funds. I am in particular interested in avoiding the Grand Mistake - failing to proactively maintain budgeted funds to correct for environmental mistakes made during development. (Just because, for example, the District's engineers have designed a plan to alter the roadway on 4th street so that runoff flows into the flood detention area instead of onto my property does not necessarily mean their plan will work. " The Grand Mistake is particularly pernicious with flood control because forecasting the force and direction of floodwaters is often random," I wrote back in 2023. Such is the case with these floodwaters because the flow will be coming from two different directions.) While sharing a table at this meeting with former Mayor Pro Tem and current school board candidate Jayton Lindley, he confided with me that he, too, played with mercury, Hg, during his science lab at IC ISD. See the last photo on this page about my experience with Hg at IC ISD. Go figure. Hg spans the generations at IC ISD. This is a bit much: Texas A&M abruptly cancels ethics course over race, gender policy . The course is a graduate level course called “Ethics and Public Policy”. Why not instead outlaw the words “race” and “gender” altogether and have a government rewrite of history as if everyone is / was a white male?! (I reread Orwell’s 1984 last year…) Or, perhaps the next step is a government approved dictionary like the New Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Federation . These governmental efforts at attempting to control how race and gender are discussed will fail in time. Here is the scene along 4th and W. Fleming the day after this meeting: As I told the Gallagher rep at the location, in April I will have been working 10 years to get to this point where the street and my property were not being flooded by IC ISD. Copyright 2025 G. Noelke

Agenda Analysis  | Meeting Review  | Meeting Documents  | Commentary  | Last Meeting The Oak trees at the IC ISD OK Wolfenbarger field highlighted in yellow are at issue in this agenda. The highlighted roof is the new storage extension to the fieldhouse. The field and track are also new. Imagine it as a grass field about 20 yard further east (to the right) and closely bordered with a caliche track. That was the footprint until about 1979. The trees highlighted on the left up to then were where the discus and shot put rings were located. The City is involved in this issue because it owns the land and leases the property to IC ISD. A. Agenda Analysis Executive session, item 5: This is the third meeting for this particular executive session. It might be a "placeholder", as was the case during the last meeting. Memorandum of Understanding with the Texas Division of Emergency Management, item 6: As covered before, an "MOU" is typically an unenforceable agreement between two governmental entities. Here is the link for the Texas Division of Emergency Management . Professional arborist hire and input, item 7 : This is either about acorns or low limbs, or both. I know from attending IC ISD board meetings that the acorns from the overhanging Oaks are threatening to damage the new track around the field. The Board recently approved some blower equipment to blow the acorns away. There would have to be huge cuts made to the trees to completely eliminate the problem. (But, I assume that, without citizen involvement , trees will be removed. That said, both Supt. Moore and Mayor Stewart have a history of tree friendly approaches, so excessive pruning or tree removal is not likely being considered here.) I also recollect that some of the limbs are getting too low over the track, so this may also be a pruning to raise the canopy. Coincidentally, the District hired Hellas Construction for $1.03 million for the new field and track. You can do a search for "Hellas" in the search bar for more; I have taken issue with some of their work. Recent discussions at Board meetings suggest that, while Hellas was great to work with with the field construction, the track construction has been a problem. The rest, items 8-10: These are standards for all Council meetings. B. Meeting Review Here are the meeting docs for this meeting. MOU with TDEM, item 6: The Council approved the MOU, provided here at page 3 of the meeting docs , without much discussion. The same evening of the meeting, within just a few hours of the meeting in fact, national press announced more critical layoffs at FEMA. See my commentary below. Professional arborist, item 7 : Supt. Moore was present and advised the Council that if it would approve, IC ISD would hire a professional arborist to make formal recommendations about the oaks inside the District's leased boundaries. The Council approved. No particular company was mentioned, but in time the chosen arborist will make formal recommendations that IC ISD will present to the Council. Administrative reports, other announcements, item 8b : One of the large Tankersley water wells (60 gallons per minute) is blowing air. Pay attention to municipal water supplies, folks. If you lose water, you lose sewer. The City doesn’t provide any other utilities, so that pretty much relegates it to being a provider of streets if there isn’t water around. Other announcements, items from the Council, item 10b : Mayor Pro-Tem Jayton Lindley announced that this would be his last meeting on the Council. He is running for a school board seat and has to resign to run. See my Commentary below. We had a surprise visitor on Cowboy Hill on Christmas Eve. I hope all of you had a great holiday season. (I uploaded one of my game camera photos here to Google’s Gemini app and merely asked it to put a Rudolf like nose on this deer. It is frightening how easy it is to distort reality with AI.) C. Commentary How to Tell What is Real Online by Neil deGrasse Tyson is worthwhile watching on YouTube. Emergency management: Within hours of the Council approving the MOU with TDEM, national press released news about more cuts at FEMA . I've addressed this before: Washington is trying to download responsibility of emergency management - without any transfer of funds - to the states. Don't fool yourself that this MOU is evidence of government becoming more efficient and responsive in an emergency. Buried on page 7 of this document at VII A 2 is the following: All financial commitments made herein are subject to the availability of funds from the State of Texas . The City should be mindful that these types of MOU's will be used as "gotcha" documents to deflect blame of state officials in an emergency onto city officials. Lindley resignation: Council Member Lindley's resignation leaves open two seats at the Council. Achieving a quorum to conduct business will become more difficult, though not impossible. Apparently, the slot opening at the school board is the result of terms expiring for its board this Spring. According to Supt. Moore at this meeting, the expiring seats of board members Martinez, Douglas and Hill. Supt. Moore was discreet on which one/ones were not re-upping. If memory serves, Mr. Lindley's grandfather, Jay Lindley, served on the IC ISD board at the same time with my father back in the 70's. (Another example of the past is never past, but is the present.) I regret seeing Council Member Lindley leave the city council, but welcome his presence at the school board if he wins. He voted "for" the closure of 4th Street that allowed for the new gym, but later also voted "for" the closure of W. Fleming Ave. because of its flooding. (I continue to view the votes to keep W. Fleming closed as votes that finally came to grips with the legal reality of localized flooding. The City faces its own liabilities for knowingly allowing streets to be unsafe.) Arborist: The decision to hire a professional was a good one. I’ve had to do it on occasion and they make a difference. Copyright 2025 G. Noelke

Agenda Analysis  | Meeting Review  | Meeting Documents  | Commentary  | Last Meeting The south end of the new IC ISD transportation facility as of December 10. The City's alley is immediately to the right of this facility and borders the IC ISD tennis courts, shown here by the light poles. A. Agenda Analysis Executive session, item 5: This is the same item posted last meeting - real estate, litigation and personnel. It's clearly significant, especially now that it has been repeated twice. Note that, unlike IC ISD agendas, there is no posted item for "actions items from closed session". In theory , since there is no voting in executive session and there isn't some form of the language "action items from closed session", then this is a "no action" executive session. In practice , however, "voting" in executive sessions can happen without the traditional voice or hand vote. Mere "discussion" during an executive session can resolve a whole lot in private. I treat every executive session as if significant matters are being resolved regardless of whether a traditional vote is taking place. Ordinances, repeal and replace, items 6 and 7 . Go here for the City's ordinance bank. Not all are online. Chapter 14 deals with Municipal Court, and nothing is online. Nothing can be said about the content of 14.05.04. My interest is high because of the City's last meeting . As to 15.02, it relates to game rooms under the offenses and nuisances chapter . The only game room in town shut down a few years back, best I can tell. Training helps: From discussion over several meetings I have gathered that one reason we are seeing these agenda items on updating ordinances is that City Administrative Assistant Nate Padilla attended some TML training on ordinances recently. Hopefully this continues; the updating is sorely needed. And, this is difficult work - it takes attention to detail just to read ordinances, but to learn to read them critically is above and beyond. So, here's to Nate for his diligent efforts! Thank you. The north bay of the new facility. Keep in mind that, well before this time in the construction, the design team knows how much stormwater runoff will occur from the impervious cover at this site. It's a math formula that depends on the porosity of the surface. The general rule of f thumb is that .60 of a gallon of water per 1 square foot of impermeable surface runs off with every 1 inch of rainfall. That’s a significant amount of water. B. Meeting Review Pending. I attended the meeting, but I’m tending to other matters at the moment. Here are the meeting documents for this meeting. Ordinance 14.05.04 repeal and replace, item 6 : Ordinance 14.05.04 wasn't online, but now it is - go to the meeting documents at page 4. It dealt with the disposal of excess property owned by the City, a subject of some controversy some 9 years ago when a brouhaha arose from alleged theft by a former City employee of City property . See this article as well. The new ordinance approved by the Council is 1.06, also in the meeting notes at page 2. I haven't done a side by side comparison between new and old, but the discussion during the meeting indicated the reason was to beef up who had authority to assess what was and wasn't excess property. The new law at Section 4 now provides that more than just the Operations Manager has authority. Now it must come from no less than 4 authorized officials: operations manager, city administrator, mayor, mayor pro tem or one city council member. Why the change? Read on... Repeal of Ordinance 15.02 with new Ordinance 10.01, item 7 : This is a great example of how to read an agenda and still get it wrong ! Ordinance 15.02 as posted on the City's site, as described above, in fact links to the game room ordinance. But, the ordinance repealed on its face is a) unnumbered and b) deals with the City's drought contingency plan . See pages 6 and 7 of the meeting documents. The stated reason during the meeting for the repeal was that the drought contingency plan was re-adopted as a resolution in 2022, and that resolution was intended to replace the ordinance related to the drought contingency plan at page 7 of the meeting documents. As I have addressed before, a "resolution" does not have the force of law that an ordinance does. The resolution cannot be enforced as a law against citizens. The 2022 resolution was not provided in the meeting notes, but I requested it and here is a copy . The civil penalty once provided by the ordinance (up to $2,000 a day, as provided by the Texas Local Gov't Code at 54.001) is no more . Even though the penalty is mentioned in the resolution (see Section X on page 14 of the resolution), a court would most likely toss out that charge since it is not in a properly passed ordinance . See my Commentary here at C for the last meeting to read how I took exactly the opposite position - that, above all, our drinking water was essential and should be regulated by the City. Let me emphasize: regulated by ordinance. Executive session, item 5 : There wasn't an executive session. The topics for executive session this week were identical to the last meeting . As mentioned above, mere "discussion" during an executive session can resolve a whole lot in private. I remember a day when you could see Javelinas within the city limits of Mertzon. You don’t see them around these days. My game camera took this photo recently. C. Commentary I've written a couple paragraphs of commentary for this meeting, but the holiday spirit won over and I've tossed them in the trash bin. I hope everyone is having/has had a wonderful holiday season. Don't forget about the Kickapoo Indian ceremony at City Park on January 8. Copyright 2025 G. Noelke

Agenda Analysis  | Meeting Review  | Meeting Documents | Commentary  | Last Meeting The trench for the west wall of the flood control project at 4th and W. Fleming in Mertzon, as of November 29, 2025. A. Agenda Analysis Financial integrity, item 5: State law requires that all school districts must meet certain standards for financial reporting. See here at the TEA website for this year's rankings . Note that when one digs deeper to find individual district performance that the TEA website doesn't allow for a search for a specific district. Pages and pages would have to be individually searched to locate "Irion County ISD" . Expect the district to pass and even attain the "Superior" rating. Supt. Moore has a degree in business if I recall correctly, and her financial officer, Ms. Lakey, seems to be doing well on the school board meeting side of things. Overall, some 98% of districts pass . I don't put a lot of stock in the rating. As I pointed out last year here at 1 e , none of this has anything to do with managing and reporting on bond funds . So, the Board under previous leadership went unscathed for having a six figure bond deficit with the 2019 bonds, and as I recently wrote here at C 3 , the Board never made public its audit of the construction manager. So, bringing this forward, if you toss in the 2024 bond funds with the 2024-25 revenue into one pot, roughly 60-70% of the funds are not evaluated as part of the Financial Integrity Rating System of Texas. The Texas Legislature needs to get back to addressing public school bond finance reform. It started to study the issue during an interim charge in 2022, but they were diverted by the Uvalde school shooting. Billions of state tax dollars are being transferred to companies like Parkhill and Gallgher , without any meaningful oversight of their effectiveness or the real need for the capital improvements. Pending construction projects, item 6 : This is the stock placeholder language to allow the Board to take up bond project spending. I don't know what is up next, but with the flood control structure under construction, in time the City and District are going to come to an agreement on how to use the alley joining 5th and 4th streets. The water from the new transportation facility is planned to go down that alley. The rest, items 7-12: These are standard items, which I've covered ad nauseum in many other posts. But, their repeated place on the agenda should not detract from their importance. I will cover them below in Meeting Review if anything rises to the top. The trench for the north wall of the structure, looking west. This is the wall that will do most of the work, and it hopefully will return W. Fleming Ave. to Mertzon citizens. The street shown here is currently closed to traffic by the City because of safety issues from flooding. B. Meeting Review Financial Integrity, item 5: Sure enough, yep, the District received an A, Superior. The larger picture is that the folks handling the money are honest. That's worth knowing and not taking for granted. Construction, item 6 : No new business here. Admin Reports, item 7: a. Hellas and the new track: The District is ramping up their efforts to get Hellas to correct problems with the new track around the new field. (Do a word search for Hellas in the search box above to get the larger Hellas coverage.) Apparently there are a number of issues with the proper install of the track, not the field, that have yet to be corrected and the District is quite disappointed...to the level of with holding final payment kind of disappointed. Apparently the Hellas sub who put in the track still hasn't gotten it right... b. Still no lost treasure or time capsule : A covered sheet of metal and large hole underneath was discovered by the construction team...and turned out to be...an abandoned...septic. The systems in Mertzon through the 70's until the City waste water plant was installed were just that... a hole in the ground covered by sheet metal. Folks just simply knew never, ever walk on that metal. Best keep this under wraps...TCEQ probably has regulations for re-fill of old systems. I mean, its 2025 after all. c. Enough already : Supt. Moore reported on the bathroom legislation part of SB 8. Look, if the Texas Legislature has the time and inclination to regulate bathroom and gender issues, they are missing the point. How about letting Superintendents, principals and teachers manage the bathrooms and leave it there? (When you attend these meetings as I do without a child in the district, it is more readily transparent that the legislature and state leadership are running this train off the tracks. I've argued elsewhere that they are doing it intentionally, and I think that is the case here. This is overkill.) Short meeting, etc: The meeting went under 50 minutes. There was no executive session. Mrs. Hill and Mr. Douglas were absent. January 8: The elementary will be attending the recognition of the 161th anniversary of the Dove Creek battle with the Kickapoo Indians. I'm on the history committee of 4 or 5 folks lead by Joyce Gray on this project. This is going to be worthwhile, folks. More later. The trench of the east wall of the project. If you know where to look on the grassy knoll beneath that window, you can see the rocks for the roof drains for the building shown. That stormwater will also flow into this structure. Thus, the District has by design used this entire area as a back door drain for decades, without ever taking any responsibility for the runoff. Until now. It is time. C. Commentary In keeping with my earlier commentaries on hunting, using an e-bike to hunt is a thing . See this month’s Parks and Wildlife article by Pamela LeBlanc, Texas Hunters Are Hopping on E-bikes to Stalk Deer, Turkeys and More . I spoke to Pam on background when she first started researching this topic, so I am glad to see it in final form. As an aside, one reason to bike daily after, say age 55, is that it works the balance muscle in the brain. My equilibrium seems to be better with regular movement. Being immobile as we age is not helpful. Let's not kill all the lawyers. In fact, let's hire them back. Here's an article about the Dept. of Education recalling fired attorneys amid civil rights complaint backlog . I'm so embarrassed for our educational system that we aren’t protecting the civil rights of young people. This was foreseeable and preventable. A bay of the new transportation facility takes shape the day of this meeting. Stormwater displaced from this site will gather inside the walls of the structure being built in the pictures above. Copyright 2025 G. Noelke

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. Mertzon City Council Agenda A. Agenda Analysis 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. 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. Zoning ordinance, item 7: I'm suspending judgment until the meeting... The rest, items 8 - 10: These are stock agenda items and should not be disregarded. 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 Zoning ordinance, item 6: Based on advice of their counsel, Jeff Betty, the Council agreed to send a proposed zoning ordinance that I drafted back to the drawing board to be reconsidered as a "resolution". This is complicated enough to deserve several subparts. a. Did you know that any citizen can propose to their City Council that they adopt a specific ordinance? Yes, you can. They don't have to adopt it, as was the case here. b. My proposal was very specific, and it in essence created an obligation to provide documents to the City so that the City staff could conduct a desk audit . Any time a person or government applied for a local, state or federal permit involving water or land development or construction, they would have by required by the ordinance to provide a copy of that application to the City. c. Mr. Betty did not recommend adoption of the ordinance because it could not be enforced. Of course, I wrote it so that it so that it did not have an enforcement provision because the City does not currently have a municipal judge, enforcement officer or any desire from the Council to do enforcement. (Had I put in a provision that said, for example, failure to produce the application would be a $50 fine, Mr. Betty could have also said the City can't enforce it!) Mr. Betty instead recommended that the ordinance be converted to a "resolution" so that it wouldn't have an enforcement problem. That's what the Council ultimately asked him to do. But, what's the use now? A resolution will be ignored even more readily that an ordinance because a resolution doesn't care the weight of a law. Who cares at this point? d. Well, I care, and I'll explain below in my commentar y why the Citizens of Mertzon should, too. Other matters: The Council did accomplish some other matters at this meeting, but because of my personal investment in the proposed ordinance I am limiting my meeting review - and Commentary - to that issue. Another view of the planned flow of the storm water. C. Commentary More on ordinance enforcement, item 6: a. Knowledge is power, and knowledge about where one's next drink of water is going to come from is one of the most forgotten about survival decisions we make on a daily basis. We will get our next drink from the tap in the kitchen, right? Who in today's world thinks about that as power? Well, we should because it is the essential reason for living in a municipality. Collectively, it is easiest (in theory) when our community manages our water source. The municipality provides the water and relieves its citizens of carrying water on their backs. The simple fact of municipal water supply gives citizens the time to earn a living, raise a family, bathe, and expend what leisure time we have, among many other things. b. Water, potable water, is the future of Mertzon. The growth of the City is being managed by certain determinations of TCEQ, which importantly have no transparent enforcement mechanisms for challenge by citizens, that limit the number of water meters the City can allocate. Private water well development, however, is regulated by the Irion County Water Conservation District (IC WCD). And, the over development of private water wells means that the water table will fall and the wells used by the City to provide water to its citizens - and IC ISD - will also dry up and fail. To date, the City of Mertzon and the IC WCD operate independently of one another and share no information about water management. c. My proposed ordinance required, among other things, persons who were regulated by the IC WCD to provide documentation about that permit to the City. The ordinance would have required a simple desk audit of the documentation. The purpose of the desk audit was to provide the City with more information about how water was being used privately within the city limits so that it could potentially prospectively manage water for its citizens. d. And, based on a legal abstraction put forth by the City's lawyer that the ordinance would not be enforceable, the Council punted the idea to an early death by sending it to their attorney to be redrafted as a resolution and considered at another meeting. e. A Libertarian-like approach to water management by a municipality is a mistake, especially in Texas. Were Mr. Betty a property owner in the City I would like to think he would be much more concerned about the ramifications of dispensing with an ordinance that addresses water development because of enforcement issues. Taken to its logical end, the cynically minded could just as easily justify the repeal of each and every one of the City's municipal ordinances because they, too, are unenforceable. (The City has a history now of repealing its unenforceable ordinances. See B 3 of this meeting where I discuss the Council's repeal of speed limits and stop signs .) f. This longstanding refusal to regulate water by the City is an unforced error, and a serious one. I said as much back in 2019 when I encouraged the City, IC ISD and the County to collaborate on stormwater development because of the run off coming off IC ISD was so damaging to the community. Had our local government back then considered with foresight what more water runoff would mean, perhaps today we wouldn't be dealing with spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on flood control structures to protect our city streets, City Park and private property. (Mr. Betty, btw, was also counsel to the City back in 2019 as well, so he is professionally familiar with the problems our community faces with water regulation.) g. Under no circumstances can Texas municipalities ignore water. Above ground, without regulation, it becomes the great equalizer and destroys everything in its path. Below ground, without regulation, the potential for its disappearance because of scarcity means the municipality fails in one of its essential services to its citizens. The future in Mertzon is all about water. Another reason why I write this blog: While researching an unrelated legal matter last week, I came upon, again, the Preamble to the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct . These rules continue to regulate me even as I write these pages as a citizen lawyer, even without a particular client. It is refreshing to think that I am complying with a particular provision in the Preamble because of my legal training (and moral upbringing), yet without any real conscientious effort on my part. (I enjoyed writing the proposed ordinance for the City, though it took me about six hours of time. I was not paid for my effort, of course.) Here is the Preamble provision I am thinking of: 5. As a public citizen, a lawyer should seek improvement of the law, the administration of justice and the quality of service rendered by the legal profession. As a member of a learned profession, a lawyer should cultivate knowledge of the law beyond its use for clients, employ that knowledge in reform of the law and work to strengthen legal education. A lawyer should be mindful of deficiencies in the administration of justice and of the fact that the poor, and sometimes persons who are not poor, cannot afford adequate legal assistance, and should therefore devote professional time and civic influence in their behalf. A lawyer should aid the legal profession in pursuing these objectives and should help the bar regulate itself in the public interest. Go to the Texas Center for Legal Ethics for more on the professional responsibilities of lawyers. 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 rejects hunting and hunters. Copyright 2025 G. Noelke

Agenda Analysis  | Meeting Review  | Meeting Documents | Commentary  | Last Meeting This part of the IC ISD campus - all the impervious cover you see here - did not start to be developed until 1976, some 65 years after the school was founded. Because there are no local development regulations, there’s also no community ethos for protecting the environment and property, public and private, from unregulated growth of the brick and mortar parts of IC ISD. A. Agenda Analysis Bond projects, item 5: This item is written consistent with the District's standard "place holder" language in case something needs to be approved. Grant/academic data update and review, item 6: The District is headlong into getting qualified for the Teacher Incentive Allotment dollars. This appears to be an update. Sonora MOU, item 7 : The District has an MOU with Sonora ISD for special education services. One issue that came up last meeting was the transportation costs for those students. My interests are many, but these days I point it out here because Washington has gutted the Department of Education offices that oversee the protection of civil rights for these students. Don't forget that all are entitled to a free appropriate public education, even children with disabilities , as provided by federal law, even when our elected leaders wished such wasn't true. Administrative reports, item 8: Leadership reports here, always worthwhile. TASB 124, 125, 126 plus bereavement and retirement pay out, item 11 : TASB policy changes...ugh, again. One governing purpose of a school board is for the the board itself to implement policy and to guide the superintendent on policy execution. This method of policy implementation where the policy rules come down from TASB waters down board membership into a cold weak broth. I'll do a PIA request after the meeting to hopefully figure out what is being changed. The remainder, items 13 - 17: These are standard items for this meeting, though don't let their routine nature get in the way of their importance. First, a consent agenda is a time saving device that minimizes board discussion, so the public is excluded from hearing about sometimes essential matters. Second, of course, closed sessions are private, so the public likewise is excluded from hearing about essential matters. Both items are lawful, though. Aerial of the campus about 2 weeks before this meeting. The old elementary and gym are now gone. B. Meeting Review Approval of pending construction projects, item 5 : The Board unanimously approved the recommended bid (by ABA) to construct the flood detention projects at 4th and Fleming and over the hill at 2nd and Juanita. Here is the ABA bid document that was approved by the Board . I have seen an early plan for those projects produced pursuant to one of my PIA requests a few months back. (Yes, such plans are open records, and I regularly ask for them.) I believe that there has updated plans, however. What changed and vaulted these projects to the front burner? Apparently the City put the brakes on the District’s request to connect to utilities for the new cafeteria until the District showed some commitment to flood diversion. (Refer to this MOU between the City and the District .) After a bit of awkward discussion about the City’s resistance, Board Member Ashley Hill thankfully said the quiet part out loud: They (the City) are concerned that we (the District) won’t keep our word. There remains a lot of distrust between the City and the District. (I hear that distrust at both meetings.) The bad blood from the construction of City Gym with the 2019 bonds no doubt still lingers. In any event, the District is moving forward toward a solution. At last, there’s reason to believe that these almost 10 years of advocacy haven’t been wasted! See my commentary below on a bit more on the bad blood between the City and the District. Sonora MOU, item 7 : It is very rare to come across a contented Special Ed student and parent , but a part of this item was just that. It takes a village, especially for those who are the most vulnerable, and sometimes the village has success stories. So, notwithstanding my own cynicism that public education will fail because the Office of Civil Rights at the Dept. of Education has been dismantled, sometimes good people are doing good things. And they do it not out of the fear of regulatory penalties but because they just want to do right and do good . We are a better community when we generously encourage diversity in all its forms, including those in special education. Retention stipend, item 9 : This is in effect a holiday bonus, once a year. The Board did a good job debating the pros and cons of it considering the staff of received a raise in September. They reached a fair compromise and had a thoughtful discussion. Policy updates, item 11 ; This is a massive update and is too much to cover here. Supt. Moore did get me some info before the meeting, and I do appreciate that. With the old elementary and gym gone, the only building present when I started school is the 1909 building in the upper left. The home I am trying to protect from the stormwater runoff from all this impervious cover was built in 1910 by a local rancher, John Sheen. C. Commentary Sometimes I cross post my commentary when it relates to both IC ISD and City issues. In case you missed it, see my post here at C 1 about how both knowingly failed to follow the law when they closed the street and alley for the new gym. I continue to beat this drum, regretfully, because even as of the last special board meeting, the Board failed to approve any bids for its flood detention projects. (All that is publicly known before this meeting was the Gallagher representative at that meeting said he didn't like the bids.) The localized flooding is largely a self inflicted wound, and perhaps a reminder is needed here and there of that. Yes, it is going to be expensive. (Read Commentary 2 and 3 together.) In a related note, after the presentation by Gallagher at the last Board meeting ( here at C 3 ) I walked outside with their superintendent to point out that large piles of caliche were in a location to migrate to my property in a flood. Whether or not my efforts made a difference, I'll never know. But, here's thanks to Gallagher (and their sub) for installing a sediment fence near my property to prevent that. It's not a total solution, but I'll take whatever I can get at this point. This approach has been far better for all involved than a complaint to TCEQ, no doubt about it. ( Migrating sediment can be a violation of a SWPPP, a document required by federal law. ) Lest you think I am over reacting see pages 17-23 of this EPA manual about best practices concerning sediment control and erosion at construction sites. Nothing I've been asking for is outside of a best management practice. The installation of a sediment fence at IC ISD. Using a new law for more effective advocacy: Government at all levels is prone to be reactive to citizens, rather than proactive with citizens. (See my post on The Grand Mistake .) One way I use the Public Information Act for advocacy is to probe areas in advance of a pending mistake, so hopefully I can get some documentation - or response - that incentivizes proactive thinking. For example, frustrated with Gallagher's response on the piles of waste caliche that is certain to migrate onto my property, I asked for the following from Supt. Moore in a PIA request: Copies of all documents evidencing Gallagher’s efforts to stop  the  stormwater wash of waste construction caliche onto 4th street between Juanita and Fleming. Now, this is exactly the type of request in the past the District and its lawyers would have simply not responded to. There would have been crickets, in part because silence is a legally neutral non answer . But now, effective September 2025, there is a new state law that requires a response to a PIA request if there are no documents. Silence is no longer a "response". See Texas Gov't Code 552.221(f) . And, in fact, Supt. Moore, to her credit, complied with this law by responding to my request above with "no documentation". So, here's the update on the caliche: The caliche piles were removed last week the same day the sediment fence was installed. Of course, I'll never know the motivations of Gallagher and their sub for removing the caliche. I am merely attempting, with the aid of 552.221, to get the District and its agents to think ahead before they make another Grand Mistake. Had the Board and its previous superintendent been more proactive with the 2019 bond funds before they spent them, our community would not today be dealing with correcting the flooding issues they knowingly created. I don’t know the exact number, but previous Supt. DeSpain was a master cricket farmer given his prolific use of silence as a “response” to my monthly PIA requests during those years of his tenure. He could not do that today because of 552.221. For example, he could not have remained silent, as he did, when I requested a copy of the board approved audit of WBK Construction, the construction manager for the 2019 bonds. That audit never saw the light of day… More on the bad blood between the City and IC ISD: There was some confusion during the discussion to approve the bid for flood control projects about why there was tension between the District and the City. The Gallagher rep mentioned he thought that perhaps the District had reneged on flood control structures at the time the new gym was built, but he fairly stated that was before his time. Board Member Koonce replied there were no projects, and I believe he is correct. The Board never intended to address flooding from District property. Rather, I think the dispute arises from former Supt. Ray DeSpain representing to the City Council in a public meeting that the District would redirect the down spouts of the new gym so that its storm water would not flow down the 4th Street basin but instead down Fayette street. In fact, the District did not do that, and today the water from the roof of that gym is a significant contributor to the flooding of the property. Indeed, as I wrote back in August of 2023, in a bad storm the architect, Jeff Potter, estimated that 1,574.7 gallons of storm water per minute would be repelled by the gym roof. So, the City has every reason to be distrustful because ALL of that water must enter a City street, and the District used none of the 2019 funds for stormwater diversion even as it knew that it was creating more impermeable structures on its campus. Even more on the bad blood between the City and the District : The bad relations between these two hasn't always been. Indeed, I detailed here the lack of community engagement for the 2019 bond package . And, here are the minutes from the board meeting for the bond call of the 2019 bonds . One thing that is not readily transparent is that many of these folks making the big decisions with the 2019 bond funds are related to one another , and their relations included executive level/administrator roles at the District and the City, as well as a private donor and major employer. So, going into the 2019 bond construction it was quite easy for leadership at the District and City to get along and run the board to build exactly the gym these families wanted. As William Faulkner wrote, "The past is never dead. It is not even past." The legacy of these families thus continue to visit us today each time it rains , even though they no longer frequent the board room or City Hall. Full disclosure : I carry some Tankersley blood, as many of us do in the community. My Great Grandmother Mamie Emerick was a Tankersley, and her Grandmother was Annie Tankersley , whom we would all be lucky to have in our family line. But, this honor allowed me no favors. Loye Tankersley publicly lobbied to close 4th Street for the new gym . Upon information and belief, he did so at the request of a former school board member. I don’t agree with him on the side he fought for, but that disagreement is transcended by my admiration of his courage. Our family story includes that he had 13 horses killed underneath him in the Civil War. And he survived them all. Veteran’s Day was this week, and my Great Great Grandfather is buried at the Mertzon Cemetery. Copyright 2025 G. Noelke