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Agenda Analysis  | Meeting Review  | Meeting Documents | Commentary  | Last Meeting Aerial of the Community Center and City Park, looking northeast. Duncan Street is the street in the lower right corner. OK Wolfenbarger field is in the background. Agenda for this meeting A. Agenda Analysis 1. Community Center Area Walk Through on Duncan Street, item 7: This meeting item merits attention for two reasons. First, as covered before, any new Community Center construction is going to impact City Park significantly, not the least of which is as a possible source for more stormwater runoff and another flood source for the IC ISD football stadium. Second, the agenda is a good example of a "roaming" meeting that has to be posted under the Open Meetings Act. That is, when a meeting changes location (here starting at the Courthouse and going to Duncan Street) and a quorum of Commissioners are present and official business is being discussed, then the change in location has to be posted on the agenda. This means that the public can also attend this part of the meeting because it too is an "open" meeting. You can tag along and listen in if you wish. 2. The time of the walk through: When the Court will be at the Park isn't listed, and if I am able to find out about when they will be there I will post it here. 3. Other examples of posted roaming meetings: The IC ISD Board did one some months back when they were evaluating what campus renovations were needed. And, years ago when I represented the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, I was involved in two. One was a tour of the Harris County Jail, which was posted as an executive session because of security reasons. The second was in Laredo when the Commission met for a meeting, then crossed over the border into Neuvo Laredo to eat at a restaurant. On occasion you'll see a governmental body posting a meal, and the reason is because of the Open Meetings Act requires it. To be clear, the Act turns on whether official business is being conducted, regardless of the location, and whether a quorum is present. Sometimes a governmental body will post social gatherings like meals just to be safe in the event the members discuss public business while they eat. 4. Contrast a roaming meeting with a roaming quorum: Technically, members who meet in less than a quorum and then meet with other members deliberately to avoid a quorum violate the Act because they are conducting what is called a roaming (or walking) quorum. That is different than having a meeting that changes location. There is nothing problematic about a quorum changing locations, so long as the location is posted, in advance, as it is here. For more on the prohibition against roaming quorums, see Texas Government Code 551.143 . The Community Center is the building on the right. B. Meeting Review Below is the map the Commissioners' Court considered during their roaming meeting. Map of City Park and nearby area in Mertzon The Court met in the caliche parking lot immediately south of the current Community Center. Commissioner Nanny was absent. In brief, they held a frank and thoughtful discussion about where to locate a new Community Center. The consensus was to locate it it in the caliche parking area south of the Community Center. See the green and gray rectangle in the map below. Consensus location of new Community Center. This is my revision to the Court's map. Nothing was voted on at this point, so this is merely my guess, nothing more. Their thinking appears to be to make the western part of the current Community Center pad an outdoor pavilion, and turn an eastern part into parking. Some of my additional observations: - The County's architect is considering a size even larger than recommended by the Community Committee proposed a few weeks ago. While attending that meeting, I recall that the current building is about 6,000 sf, and the proposal from the Committee was 12 to 15,000 sf. From what I heard at this meeting, the architects are at 20-24,000 sf. This raises the question: How much does the Community really need? The Court at this meeting was rightfully trying to grasp the size of the building. My experience now with two bond issues at Irion County ISD is that the design team will definitely start with "this is more than how much you can afford" instead of "this is what you have told us that you need". - Arena : Again, heads up to those wanting to protect the arena, if you want to save the arena you are going to have to use the arena. Judge Criner favors keeping it as a cultural standard for the community, and I agree. But, here is the reality: while there was no mention of this use for it at this meeting, in time I think the arena will be used for parking . There is not enough parking in City Park as it is now during big events, so a larger events center is going to place more demand upon the local neighborhood streets. When those citizens start complaining I predict it will be pavement time for the arena. - Stormwater - I learned something during the walk - the space between the current community center and show barn is itself acting as a drainage ditch, yet another sign of drainage problems in the area. Kudos to Judge Criner for her sweat equity; she's put in the hours herself to shovel out the oak leaves in between the two buildings. This raises the question whether an outdoor pavilion with cement pad is even feasible. Adding another larger impervious structure, without taking away the current center, is already going to add even more stormwater runoff. Note - the Lions Club is already donating an outdoor pavilion at the river, so one has to wonder about how many are needed. - Water catchment - the Court seems united it conserving and using stormwater from roof runoff, but I think only Commissioner McManus understands at this point how limited that system will be. My rule of though, math aside, is that 1 inch of rainfall on 1 square foot of metal roof amounts to .60 gallons of water. (I collect rain water at the ranch to water dove and quail, and, unfortunately too many skunks and raccoons.) So, whatever the dimensions of the roof, it is going to be a LOT of water. By law the architect is required to plan the roof drainage for a 100 year flood. Here is my post for what the architect calculated for the new gym and why I am so persistent about IC ISD protecting our community from the stormwater coming from its campus . The new gym is roughly a 30,000 sf facility. So, while I can say the Court at this meeting thankfully showed some real appreciation that they are going to have to address stormwater, I don't think their design team has yet made the math clear to them. No water catchment system can be sized large enough to keep the lower elevations (football field) from being flooded in a serious storm. -Parking: another reason to continue to take this bull by the horns is the potential for folks to park in the shade in flood prone areas. The City and County need to coordinate on safe street parking for large events. Again, there are some lessons to be learned from the new gym given the stormwater flow design with parking at a lower elevation. I was the only person from the public present during the walk through. Take nothing I say above as the gospel truth. Verify for yourself by contacting a member of the Court. Be a citizen and engage. 2. Budget and salary workshop, item 6. I attended a portion of this part of the meeting. There are two things to note. a. Inmate housing. First, as I've mentioned elsewhere, one significant advantage Irion County has as compared to most other Texas counties is that its small population size has allowed it to transfer inmates to the Tom Green County jail, rather than managing and paying for its own jail. This inmate transfer is not without costs, and each year the Commissioner's Court sets the budget for the Sheriff's office, including the amount to house Irion County inmates in Tom Green County. Judge Criner stated in this meeting that Tom Green County was raising its daily fee for inmates from $8 a day to $50 dollars a day, a significant increase. During this meeting, after registering their initial shock at this increase, there was immediate consensus among the Court that even with this increase the fee was still cheaper than running their own jail . The Court is spot on correct on this point, and the community has them to thank for their fiscal prudence when it comes to inmate housing. b. Salaries. The discussion here was confusing enough that I can't provide a sentence or two on who is in line for a pay raise and for how much. In any event, nothing was finalized because this was a "workshop", and workshops are intended to air out the difficult issues. That said, I can say this much: this Court cares very much about how much to pay County employees and how to do so equitably. They also clearly understand the current cost of living pressures everyone is under. As I have said in other posts related to the City of Mertzon and IC ISD, citizens don't get good government if the leadership is too tightfisted with salaries. This workshop was a good sign that the Court cares about what folks are paid. Taxpayers should come to expect regular budget increases for salaries, with an understanding in the vast majority of situations government employees are seriously underpaid. Aerial of Community Center (tan roof), facing southwest. The caliche area is the consensus location for the new center, though no formal vote has been taken by the Court. C. Commentary Find another Location for the New Community Center Only 10 days before this meeting our state experienced the devastating Central Texas floods . That same weather disturbance visited nearby Tom Green County, only 30 miles away in San Angelo, where there was up to a foot of water overnight. What our community and all its elected leaders at Irion County, Irion County ISD and the City of Mertzon now know is that all stormwater dumps into City Park. Yet somehow we have determined that City Park is the community's "center". I think it is not financially prudent, and indeed dangerous, to continue to develop City Park for community purposes. There's every reason to believe the flooding problems are going to worsen through the years, and I don't think any of us have to be a trained hydrologist to understand this basic fact of nature: water always wins. That is a very expensive fact...if it is ignored. I recommended to the IC ISD board back in 2019 before those improvements to the football stadium were made - with taxpayer dollars - that they should find another location for the stadium. I regret that they did not take my advice then because had they done so at least half of today's problem relating to the Community Center expansion wouldn't exist. IC ISD has every reason to be concerned that a new Community Center will wipe out their improvements at the stadium. Similarly, my recommendation now is that Irion County should not build its new Community Center in City Park . The Commissioners' Court should search out higher grounds and go for where it is dry and more spacious. Our "center" should not be in a place that is known to flood, no matter how beautiful the oaks. Copyright 2025 G. Noelke

Agenda Analysis  | Meeting Review  | Meeting Documents | Commentary  | Last Meeting There is a reason the City of Mertzon has closed Fleming Ave. between 3rd and 4th streets. It floods! Here is what it looked like on the week before this meeting with only ~1" of rain. Agenda for Irion County ISD board meeting A. Agenda Analysis Meeting location: note the new location - Hornet Gym. (I sometimes refer to it as "City Gym" because I contend some of the land the gym was built on is still owned by the citizens of Mertzon because the land was unlawfully transferred to IC ISD.) Administrative reports, item 3 a- d: This is what the full house looks like when all department heads are reporting. Bond projects, item 4 : this is the stock language used each meeting. ADA football stand modifications, item 5: I always question ADA modifications, and not because I'm against inclusion. Seems to me they sometimes serve as a pretext to accomplish some discretionary renovation, without a finding of actual noncompliance from the state. I don't know whether that is the case here. Special Education MOU with Sonora, item 6: This appears to be the District's decision on choosing a Sped provider. As covered elsewhere, an "MOU" is a memorandum of understanding, meaning a written non binding agreement between government entities. Staff raises, item 7: So, this needs to be called out for the shameful hostage taking that it really was. I have railed against this in previous posts. This appears to be the end part of the quid pro quo of Gov. Abbott's demand for private school vouchers where he withheld his approval of teacher pay raises, for years , until he got the bill he wanted. If you get nothing else from this blog post, get this - this is a terrible way to treat government employees, particularly teachers, who should never have been considered pawns in a game of satisfying large campaign donors. (Yes, this is an example of why we need campaign finance reform and term limits.) To dive into the weeds, here is what TEA has written on HB 2, the recent law that is the foundation for these raises. In time, I think our state will regret this privatization of public education, and no wonder seeing how this has shamelessly come down. We all should have done more than relying on our local legislators. Closed session and action on closed session, items 10 and 12: I encourage reading about any closed session. Even if something is not listed specifically, as nothing is here, the Board can discuss matters in closed if the matter is on another part of the agenda and qualifies for an exemption. They may then be able to vote on it in during the open meeting portion. Formal votes cannot be taken in a closed meeting, of course. At one time the now raised building here housed 1st - 4th grades, principal's office that sometimes substituted as a school board meeting room (my father met there when he was school board president), and boys and girl's restrooms. Gone forever is the breezeway between Mrs. Bridges' and Mrs. Scoggins' first and second grade classrooms, where Mrs. Scoggins would paddle unruly second graders with "Ol Henry". The doors on the breezeway were left open during such teaching events, so that the rising first graders knew that Mrs. Scoggins really was as mean as she looked. Across the hall, fourth grade teacher Mrs. Wolfenbarger kept "Big Red" (her paddle) hanging from the door frame so that it was the first and last thing you would see when you entered and left the classroom. If I was ever unruly, it had passed by then. B. Meeting Review Staff raises, item 7: Clearly the most important part of this meeting was this part. The Board did a good job with their analysis. They are undoubtedly between a rock and a hard place financially because they are already running a deficit budget and the Legislature and Gov. Abbott have them out on a limb. In the end, they approved the HB 2 increases for the teachers and, though not mandated by HB 2, also gave raises to the support staff. They should be commended for this support of teachers and staff. It's impossible to drill down here on how much each position is going to get without an updated pay scale. The larger picture, though, is that the HB 2 increases will add $250,000 to $300,000 to the budget to be used for teachers , while an additional approximate $100,000 unfunded money will have to be found for the support staff pay increases. These are for certain more than cost of living raises. "Huge" raises is the way Supt. Moore described them. But, there's a hitch... As President Carlile described it, what the legislature did in HB 2 is "buy some time". The funding for the HB 2 raises is only for the next two years, and according to Supt. Moore, there's no going back to the previous pay scale. By law, the legislature can only budget two years at a time, and that's all they did here. What they failed to do is create a long term funding solution for any of this. Open forum, item 2: Emily Allen, a counselor at the school, spoke to encourage the Board to give raises to support positions at the District. She was well spoken and appropriately deferential to the Board. Bond projects, item 4 and Consent agenda, item 8. There was no bond matter to approve, and the Board approved the consent agenda. What's the connection here? See my commentary below . Administrative Reports, item 3 : a. Supt. Moore -Band field has been paved, striping goes on this week. -Corrections have been made at the new field so that it is now level. (The latest saga is that ants like the cooling beads on the field.) -Aide positions have been posted. -Newest portables are installed but not set up. -Aug. 11 is the groundbreaking for the new elementary - all demolition should be complete by then. b. Kandra Lakey - Ms. Lakey mentioned that local revenue (from ad valorem taxes) is at 103% and she appropriately credited Joyce Gray, the Tax Assessor Collector for Irion County. Dr. Gray gets very busy in August as she does presentations to all the local taxing entities to help nail down their budgets for the upcoming fiscal year. These presentations are all public and very worthwhile, if how your local government is funded is of interest. Irion County is very fortunate to consistently have a high collection rate, and Ms. Lakey's praise is well placed. c. There were no reports from either Principal Parker or AD/Asst. Principal Morrow.- MOU with Sonora ISD for special education services, item 6 : The Board approved the MOU, its first with Sonora. The cost is $21,000 per student, per year. I'll be seeking the MOU with a Public Information Act request in the near future. ADA football stand modification, item 5 : This involved approving a bid to move the ramp to one of the stands, and not the tail wagging the dog kind of deal. (ie, not new stands are needed because the ramp is in the wrong place.) Closed session, items 10 and 12 : there was no closed session. The new band marching “field” now has its tack coat before it is paved with asphalt. The completed field, really an asphalt area of 60x 40, costs $638,000 according to the documents I recently received in my PIA request. The earthwork done a few days before allowed for some of the stormwater to collect next to it. The costs for the drainage work is excluded from the marching area. C. Commentary One of the school bond reforms that I have recommended is that districts need to be required, prior to the bond election, to disclose to voters what the projected M&O (maintenance and operations) costs will be over a period of years after the new project/building is complete. It's just too easy for the district to discuss only the first half of the finance equation - that half that says "we can build all this without increasing your property taxes". The real meat and potato costs, though, come with the ongoing M&O costs. Those kind of costs are ongoing costs, unlike the bond funds. Bond funds get a special status from the legislature in that they are funds that are not considered in the recapture formula. Which is to say - bond fund money stays here. So, "wealthy" property districts, like IC ISD, can have a lot of money to build, but not necessarily enough money to maintain and operate what it builds. All this came to light at this meeting with a simple question from Board member Ashley Hill during the consent agenda portion of the meeting: Tell me about the monthly fees being paid to Anthony Mechanical for work on the new gym. So, I've been doing PIA requests for months now on these very expenses. The company is doing specialized AC repair and maintenance just on the AC's for the new gym. They have a contract with the District to do monthly maintenance and repair. Apparently the gym when built has a type of unit that most companies can't maintain, and Anthony Mechanical cornered the market. Without competition, they can charge what they want. The other part of the discussion during the consent agenda included that a local Mertzon company, Air Tech, is no longer going to be servicing the filters on the remaining units for the rest of the District. This means the District is going to have to go searching for an additional A/C company, or perhaps do it themselves. In any event, what taxpayers should know is that all this A/C maintenance and repair doesn’t come cheap. It’s a far cry from the days I recall when the 1909 building was heated with steam radiators and cooled with open windows. Now, the jury is still out on the cost savings from Supt. Moore's initiative to centralize the heating and cooling through one system app. Early indications are that savings will be significant. I'm also doing PIA requests on the District's electricity costs, which obviously increase with the added buildings. In the last 10 or so years, those electric costs have exploded from a few thousand a month to $30,000+ a month. Electricity costs, like maintenance of an AC unit, come out of the M&O side of the budget, and they last the life of the building. All this is to say that it is shortsighted to look at only half of the bond finance equation. Voters need to be told in advance about projected M&O costs as well. Otherwise, the Anthony Mechanicals in our free market system become yet another cog in the privatization of our public school finance system...and the public never thinks about it. It is just a transfer of public wealth to a private company, without which the District couldn't survive. What's next in this transfer of wealth?! Robots powered by artificial intelligence, programed by TEA, to replace classroom teachers? This door is opening, I fear, and the longer the Legislature and Gov. Abbott kicks the can down the road on financing teacher and support salaries, the wider that door will open. The Athena Owl, Lux and Veritas steles have been saved from destruction. Supt. Moore has told me they will be added to the new elementary building. Kudos to her and all those involved for preserving them. Read more about them here . The legacy building was built in 1909 (one year before my home a block away was built), and as a state historic building its exterior can't be modified. It's interior, though, has served all sorts of purposes. At one time the second floor of this northwest corner was a small chemistry lab. The lab chemicals were kept in unlocked shelves, giving students easy access. I don't recall ever being warned or disciplined when several of us played with mercury, yes mercury, Hg , on the lab table with our fingers . More than once. What things are IC ISD students doing today that decades from now might be considered horrific? Copyright 2025 G. Noelke

Agenda Analysis  | Meeting Review  | Meeting Documents  | Commentary  | Last Meeting The base for the new IC ISD storage facility is taking shape at the stadium in City Park. Is Gallagher Construction betting the farm that the new field won’t flood during construction, given the erosion fence openings around the pad? This very location is the most vulnerable location for flooding of the field. We are having an unusually rainy summer. Just ~35 miles away San Angelo in Tom Green County received 12+ inches of rain on July 4. Open Meeting Agenda A. Agenda Analysis Trimming trees by pavilion, item 5 : The trees along Spring Creek are City managed trees, so it appears that trimming is needed for this new Lions Club project. Close alley, block 152, item 6 : I'll reserve my analysis for the meeting review below. Below is my best guess of the location of the alley. It is on the north side of Mertzon. Note that the alley, approximately marked in red, is undeveloped. 4th and 5th streets on its east and west sides are also undeveloped. Block 152, Mertzon Texas The pad for the new band practice area is going in. This is E Juanita St. and 2nd St., facing east. The Irion County Courthouse is in the upper right corner. B. Meeting Review Here are the meeting documents for this meeting. Tree trimming, agenda item 5: Mr. Dolan appeared before the Council to ask permission to trim trees around the new Pavilion. Perhaps there is a bit of mission creep here because Mr. Dolan's stated reason is to put in a pad for a bbq'er, something not discussed when the initial proposal for the location was requested. Mr. Dolan agreed with the Council's request that he coordinate with City staff regarding the trimming before it occurred. Closing alley at Block 152, item 6: Apparently using only City Ordinance 93.07.02 for authority, the Council voted, apparently, to abandon the entire alley of Block 152. I say "apparently" here because from the discussion it wasn't clear whether the City was retaining a portion of the alley to access the water and sewer line that is being abandoned. City Ordinance 93.07.02 has, for so long as I have been following the issue of closing streets and alleys in Mertzon, has never been openly discussed. Because it is not on the City's online ordinance page, I am transcribing Mayor Stewart's version here: No structures or obstructions shall be erected in City alleys or streets. It is the landowner's responsibility to determine the property line. Request for opening or closing an alley and/or street right of way shall be considered on an individual basis by the City Council. " The motion, as proposed by Mayor Stewart, appeared to include a proviso that the City was abandoning or closing the alley but still retaining access to sewer and water that service Mr. Bolen's nearby residence. One problem here, of course, is that the ordinance does not include the word "abandon" as used by the motion sought by Mayor Stewart and made, seconded and approved by the Council members. Another problem is that state law governs street and alley abandonment and closure. See Texas Transportation Code 311.008 , which provides: Sec. 311.008. CLOSING OF STREET OR ALLEY BY GENERAL-LAW MUNICIPALITY. The governing body of a general-law municipality by ordinance may vacate, abandon, or close a street or alley of the municipality if a petition signed by all the owners of real property abutting the street or alley is submitted to the governing body. So, clearly what was not done in this instance was, like I argued here in 2023 at City Gym , the Council failed to pass an ordinance to abandon or close the alley. There was no hue and cry from the public at this meeting that the public interests were not being served by effectively donating City land to Mr. Bolen. (I didn't object because to do so I would have to have offered a legal opinion. That is the role of the City's attorney, Jeff Betty, who was not present at the meeting.) The rub is that time will pass, as will Mr. Bolen, and a future owner or potential purchaser of Mr. Bolen's lots will have reason to need legal certainty about the ownership of the alley, just like the Tillman's ( see B.1. on this page ) needed to have about the encroachment of their property into a city street. I think the City is being too discreet, and perhaps inconsistent, with what law it thinks applies to street and alley abandonment. When I argued that the City should not close 4th Street and the alley for the new IC ISD gym at this hearing , there was no public discussion at all of either Transportation Code 311.008 or City Ordinance 93.07.02. This lack of transparency, then and now, I think may allow Council members to think they have a degree of discretion in the "individual basis" language in 93.07.02 when, by law, 311.008 trumps 93.07.02 every time. Like it or not, the City needs to pass an ordinance in this case, just as it should have when it closed 4th Street and the alley for City Gym . And, like I said before, there's no amount of squatting that IC ISD or, in this case Mr. Bolen, can do that will change the ownership of the alley. If the transfer is not done to the letter of the law the City will always retain ownership because, as adopted from old Common Law, no one gets to squat on the King's property and claim ownership. The City of Mertzon is a sovereign when it comes to its streets and alleys, whether or not a city water or sewer line inhabits the space. Even the land under City Gym remains the property of the City of Mertzon to this day. The pad for the new transportation barn is also being developed. The runoff from this structure will be sent down the alley immediately to the right of the fence for the tennis courts. C. Commentary One thing that all levels of government, federal, state and local, ought to excel in is emergency management in times of natural disaster. At the time of this posting, over 100 lives have been claimed in the July 4 Texas floods, including one person next door in Tom Green County. Irion County, thankfully, has avoided these torrential rains that have taken lives. But, this is a wet summer, and there are citizens, young and old, living in Mertzon that are vulnerable to these kind of storms. (One reason I remain focused on localized flooding in these posts is that there are folks downhill from me that are in a far more precarious position than I am.) Lack of coordination during natural disasters among the various levels of government is nothing new in our system. What appears to be new, however, is the intentional failure on both the federal and state level to fund the kind of programs and agencies that help citizens in crisis during natural disasters. That should concern us all. That shows a lack of empathy by our elected officials for our fellow citizens, as well as a misunderstanding of what good government should remain focused on - the safety of its citizens. Batten down the hatches. Our federal and state governments are sending a clear message that they do not intend to proactively manage natural disasters. The earth work by IC ISD for their drainage project on 2nd Street and Juanita has started. One way or another, this project will impact the flow of storm water that reaches City Park, as well as all the residents between the school and City Park. Copyright 2025 G. Noelke

A double bloom on a Horse Crippler cactus on Cowboy Hill a few weeks ago. June 2025 update: the post below continues to get hits even after 2 years. Did the county step up? No, and now they are in the awkward position of wanting to increase their impermeable footprint in the park and thereby flood IC ISD’s football stadium . Here are my comments to the Irion County Commissioner's Court this morning during their open forum: George Noelke May 9, 2023 Comments to County Commissioners Court, Irion County I had the good fortune to listen to TXDOT’s City Council presentation last week. So, I am here to speak on agenda item 5 and ask you to put stormwater flooding at City Park high on your priority list with TXDOT and our community. Here’s why. The school district proves time and time again that it is willing to displace more stormwater into the basins that flood City Park. What is certain is their hydrologist has said that the barrels at the bridge by the football stadium that go under Hwy 67 are too small for the amount of floodwater that must go through them. Their hydrologist has also said that more stormwater is going into the basin after the construction of the new gym and cafeteria kitchen than before construction. Leaving aside what this means for me for my property at 4th and Fleming, what this means for the County is that with the next heavy rains the County’s property at City Park is about to experience worse flooding than before. I can’t say, just yet, how bad it is going to be, but were I in your shoes I would plan for water and erosion damage to County property. In 2019 before the bond election, I asked the school to coordinate its plans to deal with stormwater runoff with our citizens, the City and the County. The District chose to ignore my advice, and now their new impervious cover from that bond jeopardizes even more of the County’s property at City Park. You have so much at stake at the Park that I am asking you to put stormwater flooding as a top priority. The timing for your leadership on this issue is right. There’s now a leadership vacuum on flooding issues. As of Saturday, there is a new city mayor, Aubrey Stewart, and as of last night there is a new school board president, Maegin Carlile. The school is now publicly searching for a new superintendent that will replace Superintendent DeSpain in July. So, some of the folks that have created these problems are gone or are leaving. Now is a good time for the County to begin addressing its concerns about flooding. You, and more importantly, we’ve got a lot to lose. There is a very troubling leadership mentality to overcome, however. That mentality, to put it plainly, is that it is OK for our city and school to flood itself and the County. Let me be clear: it is not OK to continue to spend taxpayer dollars for our city and school to flood itself and the County. Flooding is a community wide problem, and these are self inflicted wounds. Now, I have a lot of data available to prove my points. I have three years worth of material I’ve requested under the Public Information Act from the District that supports my positions, and I’m not stopping. I’ve put up a website, Government In The Sun (.com) to more publicly address all this. One goal of the site is to create some public accountability for our leaders who, in my opinion, seem eager to waste taxpayer dollars and destroy public and private property with stormwater runoff. Even today you can go to 5th and Fayette and see that the District is putting in a new parking lot. That lot is going to increase flooding at the Park. In conclusion, please take this opportunity with TXDOT’s presence today to begin a leadership role on flooding at City Park. Thank you.

Agenda Analysis  | Meeting Review  | Meeting Documents  | Commentary  | Last Meeting This photo shows how close the Irion County Community Center, the building in the center with a tan roof, is to the IC ISD football stadium. June 24 Agenda A. Agenda Analysis Community Center Committee presentation, item 5 : As written, this item appears to be for just receiving the committee's presentation, so that no formal action (a vote) is going to be taken. For my "how to read an agenda" series, note, however, the language above the item, "DELIBERATE, CONSIDER and/or TAKE ACTION ON ANY OF THE FOLLOWING". This is the fail safe language for the Commissioners to take any action, including a vote. Why you should be interested in this agenda item: If you are a resident of Irion County (or own real property in the county), your tax dollars are or will be being used for the capital improvements at both the stadium and Community Center. Stormwater flooding inundates this area of City Park, a matter that I have extensively written about in this website. Because some, not all, of that flooding can be sourced to local government authorities (IC ISD and the City of Mertzon) I have described this situation as one where government is flooding itself . This problem has grown more complex with the possibility of expansions or improvements to the Community Center that could worsen the flooding at the football stadium. The folks that pay for flooding are local taxpayers. My goal here is not to quash whatever the Committee has found, but rather to continue to bring light to the problem of flooding so that our local governments do not make the flooding worse, at taxpayer expense. (A number of private landowners, myself included, are also experiencing flooding.) If at the same time, you get a lesson in civics, decide to attend a public meeting or learn something new about the law, all the better. Some sand piles currently in the parking lot between the Community Center and stadium conveniently show the direction of the stormwater runoff. This parking lot was a joint project in 2022 between IC ISD, who paid 60%, and Irion County, who paid 40%. The stakes for IC ISD to avoid flooding have increased since the passage of the 2024 school bonds. They are spending some of that bond money on replacing the turf and track, as well as on an extension of the field house, the building left of center. B. Meeting Review Community Center Committee Presentation, item 5 : The Committee, comprised of Ashley Hill, Nicole Hamilton, Jennifer Thorp, Michelle Rushing and Deborah __, presented these slides (.pdf) to the Commissioners. It was a well thought out presentation, and clearly the committee invested a lot of time and energy into the effort. Count this as the "thinking phase" of the project; these were Committee recommendations to the Court, not the final decision of the Court. An architect has already been hired and was present at the meeting . C. Commentary A few brief comments about the presentation: As a member of the IC ISD Board, Ashley Hill (a member of this committee) is quite aware of the flooding issues at City Park. In this committee presentation she, I'm glad to say, paid special attention to the flooding issues. I know, as well, that Judge Criner herself, and the entire Court, is also aware of these problems. This brings the local flooding issues full circle. Or, perhaps this is a circular firing squad with taxpayers in the center and Board members and County Commissioners doing the shooting. If neither the IC ISD or the Commissioner's Court can reach a truce on development in the basin (which includes how any new Community Center might flood the football field), then both are assured mutual destruction by floodwaters. Without a a reasoned approach to development in the basin, countless taxpayer dollars will be wasted by local flooding. I just don't get the previous lack of cooperation on this issue by elected government representatives. I can't be any more clear than this: without careful planning and cooperation, expansion of the Community Center will result in flooding of the football stadium . The Committee did an excellent job presenting only plans and features that preserved the existing oaks. The Committee appears to have endorsed doubling the size of the current Community Center. The amount of money to do so was not discussed, and I gather from their recommendations that their charge did not include a specific budget amount. I'm unaware of what the dollar amount the Commissioners' Court is considering. The fly in the ointment for the County I suspect will the very limited space at City Park, and in particular, limited parking. And, any increase in size of the facility is going to require more disability parking spots, per ADA requirements. That equals more paving and more impermeable areas, which means more flooding to the football field. Limited parking will also be a concern for IC ISD given their need for parking when the field is used. (IC ISD is no stranger to parking issues, as evidenced by the parking problems created with the new gym paid for with 2019 bond funds.) The Committee's maps/proposals formally did not consider taking out the arena and using its space for a new Community Center, and I was surprised there was some consensus at the end of the presentation for doing so. Rodeo and horse folks, take note. Removal of the arena has been put on the table. There was some mention of a rain catchment system and putting in underground tanks for water storage to use for watering in the park and to decrease flooding. Again, it is commendable that the Committee is sensitive to the issue of water conservation and stormwater flooding. If underground storage is cost prohibitive, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin has a well thought out and attractive above ground system, as an example of how to integrate a rain system with a garden. Who was not present at the meeting and should have been? Any representative from the City of Mertzon. (I am not privy to why the City wasn't present, but they should have been invited.) Supt. Moore was present for IC ISD, however. Like I said back in April, 2019, before that bond election, the way to solve our flooding issues is to have all 3 of our local government stakeholders - the City, IC ISD and Irion County - all working together and agreeing to limit their input of stormwater runoff into the basin. Another way to put it is...they need to mutually agree to help the other save taxpayer dollars. In the end, it will continue to be the taxpayers who are losing out if nothing is done to control the flooding. Note to any new readers, as I typically don’t cover county government: I earn no income off of this site. If anything, this site is an is an experiment in civics and the 1st Amendment. Copyright 2025 G. Noelke

Agenda Analysis  | Meeting Review  | Meeting Documents | Commentary  | Last Meeting The new 6 man field, still under construction, at the OK Wolfenbarger Stadium in City Park. The track is yet to be re-built in this photo. A. Agenda Analysis Meeting date: June 23. Administrative reports, item 3: In the "how to read an agenda" department, I know from regularly reading these agendas that noticeably absent from this agenda are reports from Principal Parker and A.D./Asst. Principal Morrow. Again, read agendas also for what is missing. Sometimes its relevant, sometimes its not. Bond design and construction, item 5: This is the standard bond language, though if memory serves it is about time for the next design stage to be approved - the drainage and band field. Update 125, item 6: This appears to be a TASB policy update. To get into the weeds here, try this search . You might be able to find some interpretive guidelines posted by other school districts. (Note: when I used to sue nursing homes at the AG's office for abuse to residents, defense counsel invariably would whine that nursing homes could not possibly comply with the law because they were over regulated . I don't know, maybe our schools are over regulated. "Local control" is meaningless once you try to digest the meaning of all these policy changes. Nursing homes, by the way, are NOT over regulated. ) Closed session, item 10a and action items from closed, item 11: In the last year there has been talk of the District moving from the Menard special ed coop to the one in Wall . I’m unaware of anything in the Open Meetings Act that would permit this topic to be determined and finalized in a closed session, so hopefully this will be addressed at item 11. These services are not cheap, and there is reason to be concerned about funding. The Texas Legislature purportedly dedicated $834 million to special ed reforms , but the future of funding from the Department of Education appears questionable. Everything else : Typically, bond construction updates will be at Supt. Moore’s administrative reports at item 3a. The installation of this erosion fence around where the new transportation facility will be is a non event to most in the community. In fact, it speaks volumes...like a SWPPP is forthcoming, like elevations and water flow directions and like another City of Mertzon alley is potentially being gobbled up. This City alley is immediately adjacent (north) of the IC ISD tennis courts. That is, the alley runs parallel to this sidewalk and retaining wall and extends to the left of that about 18-20 feet. B. Meeting Review Administrative reports and bond matters, item 3 a: The reports were quite brief. Ms. Lakey did not have a specific report, and Supt. Moore mentioned that she is doing a walk through on the new field this week. She also mentioned, and I recommend, her video updates on the IC ISD YouTube page. Check out Moore's Monday Minutes each week here . Bond design and construction, item 5: My sense is that the initial plans for the band field and drainage project behind (east of) the band hall have changed dramatically. Here the Board approved only a 40x60 paved area that will drop off (taper?) at the end to the East. There was no discussion about it including, or being connected to, a flood control project. A Gallagher rep was present and answered a few of the Board's questions on the project. I will be asking about the scope of this project in my next open records request. Advocacy tip: motions to change the use of bond funds or omit or revise bond projects are not explicitly announced. That is, what you won't hear are motions like, "I move that we not longer do project A, as represented to the community before the bond election, but instead do in its place revised project A." For my series on "How to read an open meeting", you are going to have to read some tea leaves during the meeting and probably do a document request. When bond projects get amended it may be impossible to understand the amendment even by attending the meeting. Special education/dyslexia matters, items 4, 10a and 12: This also will be a topic for my next open record request. The District has been subject to a TEA review, while at the same time, as discussed above, it is considering a different Sped coordinator. (Upon further refection, I may have it wrong above. Perhaps the consideration for a new coordinator is the Small School Coop in Angelo.) In any event, the review by TEA did not appear too problematic. And, there was no discussion of the merits of a new coordinator after the executive session at item 12. The matter was tabled by the Board. It is impossible to tell whether there are ongoing negotiations with a new partner or whether this is a fiscal issue. I am keeping Sped and dyslexia issues on the table because, well, these are the hidden students not getting celebrated with tennis courts, a new gym or new football field each time a bond rolls around. Moreover, at some point in time there are going to be consequences for the current attempt at eliminating the Department of Education by the Trump administration. It appears to me that the federal government is turning a blind eye. I recommend reading my page on this Irion County Commissioners' Court meeting in conjunction with this page. I am attempting to connect how the City of Mertzon, IC ISD and Irion County all are dependent upon one another on flood issues at City Park. Maybe a situation has arisen where cooperation among these 3 will be a must. I hope so. C. Commentary Exterior of IC ISD cafeteria under construction. Best I can tell, there’s nothing in the law that mandates a district to develop, adopt and follow a specific strategic growth and capital improvement plan. My read is that this sort of planning is recommended by TEA rules but not mandatory. The consequence of that is visible here, where 2024 bond funds are being used to take out an ADA compliant sidewalk put in with 2019 bond funds next to an undersized cafeteria built in 1976. Not visible above is the new cafeteria floor paid for with 2019 funds. As I recall from the board meetings, the Board had it reinstalled in 2022 because of its initial imperfections. So, two floors were installed. Well, the skid steer in the photo below sits on top of where that new floor once was. IC ISD cafeteria in the background. The IC ISD campus is comprised of a patchwork of buildings built during the last 115 years, all a testament in some way to inadequate planning. That lack of planning, at least in recent years, can be tied to the Board, a revolving door of superintendents, TEA and the Texas legislature. Notably, the legislature has created an incentive for the District’s wealth to be invested into buildings instead of the many other intangible things that make up a good education. The community generally goes unaware of the particular inefficiencies of how bond funds are spent, or perhaps it is just safer to not speak up in such a small community. While I supported the 2024 bond vote, it sure is difficult to watch these public dollars spent this way. I have a long memory because I’ve had to work so hard to protect my property. It is impossible to look the other way. Copyright 2025 G. Noelke

Agenda Analysis  | Meeting Review  | Meeting Documents  | Commentary  | Last Meeting Speaking of alleys (see item 5 below), one alley to watch is this one west of 5th Street between W. Fleming and Duncan. IC ISD fenced off all of its lots at this location to use for construction staging, and in the process also fenced off the alley (marked in red). Up close it is easier to see that the fencing is temporary, but a land grab of a City alley by the previous IC ISD leadership allowed an entire gym to be built on City owned land. Citizens have to mindful in Mertzon to protect public property boundaries. Agenda for City of Mertzon Council meeting A. Agenda Analysis Tree in alley, item 5: Locals know that Mertzon has a history of protecting its trees, even when they are in the middle of a street, alley or Hwy 67. I will be on alert here for whether this particular tree is the one I helped my father plant in the 1970's that, unbeknownst to both of us at the time, is smack dab in the middle of an alley. In the "how to read an agenda" department, note that the language of the agenda item says this is about "trimming". This limits what the Council can do with the tree. The Council cannot "destroy" or "remove" the tree because that kind of language is not specifically stated in the agenda. Any formal action related to the tree can only be related to its "trimming". Lightning damage at the wastewater plant, item 6: The plant is going through a losing streak lately. The clarifier has finally been repaired, and apparently the recent lighting storms have taken their toll. The plant is scheduled to go through a major overhaul with some recently acquired bond funds, but now one also has to wonder how feasible that will be with the Trump tariffs. The upgrades may be more costly now than when they were initially approved last year. Prior to 1976 when this IC ISD cafeteria was built, this area was undeveloped pasture land on the west side of the old gym. In its undeveloped state, it never flooded 4th street (not pictured at the lower right corner). Today all the water from this area pours directly into 4th Street and contributes to area flooding. The building is slated to become a "cafetorium" with 2024 bond funds. B. Meeting Review Alley tree trimming, item 5: The citizen on 3rd street requesting the tree trimming failed to attend the meeting, so the discussion here was missing some specifics. I opted for a right provided for in the Open Meetings Act to speak publicly at the time the matter was being heard. (I have some lots nearby what turned out to be alley in question, and I wanted to protect my property.) Ultimately, the Council approved a motion to have staff provide guidance in the removal of the limbs. In this case it appears it was a mesquite, and not the oak my father and I planted in the 70's. Advocacy / civility tip: If you speak during a particular agenda item, make sure and ask to be recognized by the chair (in this case, Mayor), before speaking. My courtroom habit also caused me naturally to ask for permission to "approach" when Mayor Stewart began looking at a wall map of the City. These trial advocacy techniques (asking to be heard and asking to approach the bench) are intended to show respect and provide the ultimate deference to the sitting judge. They can do the same in public meetings where a chair is presiding, and I recommend their use. Another advocacy tip: if you want the Council to take action on a particular matter, use their process to get the matter on the agenda and then show up at the meeting . Again, failure to attend a meeting where you want a particular matter to be considered by the Council invariably causes a level of confusion during the discussion of the matter by the Council members. If you want decisive action, show up and be an advocate for your cause. Wastewater treatment plant lightning damage, item 6: the Council accepted a bid from RM Electrical to rework the damage done during a recent lightning storm. See the meeting notes at pages 2 and 3 for the bids. The Council did a good job here discussing and ultimately awarding the bid to the lowest bidder. Brim’s Crossing flooded last week after ~4+” of rain in the area. C. Commentary This shows the re-turfing of the field at OK Wolfenbarger stadium the day of this meeting. To those perhaps already complaining about a purple and grey field (the school colors are purple and white) I’m certain I won’t advance the ball by pointing out that at least through the 60’s and 70’s the field was all grass and its lines were marked with flour . Enough stormwater flowed under Hwy 67 next to the field in the last 2 weeks that, if harvested, no doubt could have kept a natural grass field green all summer and fall. We are acting counter to our natural environment by using a synthetic grass while a literal river of rainwater isn’t being harvested to green a natural field. All the while, the massive wealth of IC ISD is being spent on companies outside the District, like Hellas, instead of for local jobs, like groundskeepers, who could retain the wealth locally. Copyright 2025 G. Noelke

Agenda Analysis  | Meeting Review  | Meeting Documents  | Commentary  | Last Meeting Imagine, if you can, this exact location in the 1970's: a 3 foot high chain link fence around a 6 man grass football field, with a caliche parking area around the fence and 1950, 60 and 70 model cars and trucks pulled right up to the fence to watch the game. In the spring, the caliche parking area around the field would be turned into a track with flour used to mark the running lanes. The lights were incandescent bulbs hung from telephone poles, and somehow the kids never knew there was anything better. A. Agenda Analysis Executive Session, item 5: Just because it's listed as being on the agenda, doesn't necessarily mean the Council will have one. Sometimes, these are place holders in case something dicey is on the agenda. Executive Session drafting error : I highlighted in red an incorrect reference to the Open Meetings Act. That first reference to 551.072 should instead be 551.071 . Agenda language has to be accurate to give reasonable notice, and this one is technically inaccurate. I have practiced with opposing attorneys in Travis County who would make a mountain out of this molehill. Generally, exploiting these type of errors would create delay and generate extra billing for the opposing lawyer. I raise it here for the larger point that accuracy sometimes matters. Here, I don't think it does. In time, if not already, agenda drafters will be using AI to draft public meeting agendas, so it may be prudent to learn how and when to evaluate an agenda for accuracy. There are already instances of lawyers foolishly using AI for court briefs and those briefs referring to nonexistent law. Survey / Property line issues, item 7: a. Is this what the executive session is about? I put in the black arrow to perhaps connect the two references to "property". b. A closed session under 551.072 is permitted to " deliberate the purchase, exchange, lease, or value of real property if deliberation in an open meeting would have a detrimental effect on the position of the governmental body in negotiations with a third person ". I'll address below in the Meeting Review whether this definition was met. c. Property Law 101 : Boundary line issues with local government come up here and there, and when they do the issue in some way turns on basic property law concepts that first year law students learn as a bundle of rights or bundle of sticks . Here, the property owner has some boundary issue, apparently being raised though the realtor (which is odd because technically only the property owner has ultimate " standing "). The right to raise this dispute is allowed because the property owner has the ultimate right to exclude others from his property. A boundary is significant. This is the same law I am using to keep the City's and IC ISD's stormwater off of my property. I have the legal right to exclude others, including asserting that they are prohibited from invading my property with stormwater . Exclusion of others is a foundational concept in property law. And, when it comes to a boundary/exclusion dispute with the government, the Constitution kicks in and prohibits the government from "taking" the property without first providing due process (notice and fair hearing) and paying a fair price. So, while they may not express it openly during the meeting, the City is no doubt constrained in how it handles this matter. Why is the realtor appearing and not the property owner? Perhaps that will be addressed at the meeting. Waste track rubber that was removed last week from the track. Perhaps it is a vicious cycle - the District relies on the oil companies in the county to pay off a high percentage of the bonds used to purchase a new track, while the oil companies rely on companies like Hellas to sell rubberized, petroleum based, track to the District and keep it dependent on a product that has to be replaced over and over again. B. Meeting Review: Property law 102, survey property line issues, item 7 : my analysis in 3 above was far too simplistic. Here a property owner was selling their home to a buyer and the buyer's lender refused the loan because the seller's residence is encroaching into the City's right of way by about 94 square feet. See pages 2-5 of the meeting documents . The buyers, the buyer's lender, buyers realtor and the sellers, the Tillmans , were all present at the meeting. Jeff Betty, attorney for the City, met with the Council in executive session. The Council, upon returning from the executive session, had no motion and advised the parties that there was nothing the City could do to help. There are restrictions in the Texas Constitution and Texas Local Gov't Code that require that any sale of public land in this scenario can only be done for a "public" benefit, and here this clearly only would benefit private parties. (I've done minimal research, but generally can confirm.) Another example of the wild, wild west: This property line issue that is hamstringing the sale of a residence is yet another example of local government headaches that folks have to endure when there aren't robust ordinances to protect land owners. The City of Mertzon does not have any zoning or set back ordinances that might have caught this problem at the time of construction . It also has no stormwater control ordinances - something I have argued for now for years . In the long run, I think the lack of ordinances is more often than not harmful to property owners. Why? Why no protections for property owners? A few well drafted ordinances could be so helpful to property owners. That the Council can't fund and then does not want to enforce its ordinances is an unacceptable answer. That assures that folks like myself and, in this instance, the Tillmans, have to find work arounds to protect their property value, which in turn, hurts everyone else's property value. That answer also assures lawlessness. That allows everyone to sink to the lowest level of property management. Properly drafted ordinances and a fair enforcement mechanism promote appreciation of property values, which in turn increases the value of the transfer of wealth to our next generation. A municipality without sufficient ordinances suppresses the value of that transfer and hurts everyone. Caveat Emptor: one preventative solution in the Tillman situation is, buyer beware, hire a title attorney to give an opinion before you purchase. Apparently, no one knew about this encroachment until now, so apparently when the Tillman's purchased they had no idea. (It wasn't stated, but it sounds as if they did not get a title opinion when they purchased the property.) If they had a title attorney when they were about to purchase they could have decided back then whether to purchase. Another solution is to find a lender that won't deny a loan on such an encroachment...or, don't use a lender and buy with cash, which is usually not possible. C. Commentary Hellas , who got the IC ISD contract for the new track and field , needs to be taken to task for not doing more to keep the waste rubber out of the watershed. Two to three inches of rain in the last 2 weeks has assured that some of the waste rubber will end up in Spring Creek. Moreover, now that there are rolls of waste artificial turf, filled in part with rubber pellets, all over town on the lawns of private residences, the sources of transfer of the rubber into the watershed are dispersed and long lasting. Hellas needs to be more sensitive to our local environment. In pictures, after an approximate 1.5" rain 6/3/2025: I found waste rubber track like this in the parking lot being washed into the runoff in the next picture. Flooded entryway to OK Wolfenbarger Stadium after 1.5” rain two hours before. The runoff goes under Hwy 67 and ultimately to Spring Creek. For aerial photos of this area, go here . No effort was made to control the waste rubber from washing away on the pavement to the entrance above. An erosion fence, apparently installed by Hellas, corralled the storm water, but did nothing for the rubber washing down the pavement to the entrance. Coincidentally, this is what 1.5” of rain looks like several hours after the rain has stopped. The floods that overtake the field are the 8” rainfalls in 48 hours. Here is an earlier picture, on May 18, of the waste rubber pellets from the turf when it was removed. They were all over the parking lot. Some but not all was swept up by Hellas. Some has been washed down to Spring Creek, and the remainder has been relocated to private residences in the area as part of the repurposing of the turf. Those properties will surely become pollution sources in time. June 4, 2025 update : After posting my photos above on June 3, I contacted Supt. Moore and asked her to let Hellas know about this page. Within 12 hours, the mess had been cleaned up. See below. Also note that there was another rain, about 1/2”, that fell overnight. I appreciate that Hellas and Supt. Moore got right to this. The waste rubber track had been cleaned up overnight. The distance the stormwater travels from the football field to Spring Creek is not far at all. This is worth protecting, folks. This is Spring Creek at Brim’s Crossing. The entry point for runoff from the football field is where the view of the river ends at the top of this photo. The headwaters, a crystal clear spring, are 3 miles upstream. As I have said in other posts, from my observation there is now more water running in Spring Creek than the Pedernales River in Travis County. Water is the future of our community. Copyright 2025 G Noelke

I asked ChatGPT to help me fix this photo. The result, which I consider amazing if not too perfect, is at the bottom of this page . It didn’t do so well, though, when I asked about the current pope. In the background, I have started researching “civic morality” for some posts I want to do about the separation of Church and State. To set the context, the Texas Legislature, with full support of Texas Governor Greg Abbott, is about to require our public schools to post the Ten Commandments in our public school classrooms. The matter is almost certainly going to end up in the US Supreme Court, and I want to write about it in advance of the legal dispute and consider what current day leaders are thinking. So, I’ve been wanting to incorporate ChatGPT in more of my work. Below is my verbatim exchange with ChatGPT I would like to share. If anything, it’s the perfect example of why users of AI should not throw out their analytical reasoning. If I had been in a hurry and not read closely enough, this could have been a mess! ChatGPT had it all wrong. It overlooked the new Pope Leo XIV, and then initially denied that Pope Leo XIV existed. And, don’t miss this part of its response: “ AI models often speak with confidence—even when wrong. That’s why critical thinking is crucial. ” Me: What is Pope Leo’s position on the separation of Church and State? ChatGPT: Pope Leo XIII, who served as pope from 1878 to 1903, addressed the issue of the relationship between the Church and the state in several key documents, most notably in his encyclicals Immortale Dei (1885) and Libertas Praestantissimum (1888). Key Points of Pope Leo XIII’s Position: 1. Church and State Are Distinct but Should Cooperate • Pope Leo XIII upheld the principle that the Church and the state are distinct institutions with different spheres of authority: the Church governs spiritual and moral matters, while the state governs civil and temporal affairs. • However, he argued that both should work in harmony, not in opposition. He rejected the idea of total separation that excludes religion from public life. 2. Against Secularism and Radical Separation • In Immortale Dei, he criticized the modern secular state for trying to separate itself completely from the Church, calling such attempts a “grave error.” • He believed that religion, especially Catholicism, was essential for the moral foundation of society, and that public life should be informed by Christian values. 3. Natural Law and Divine Authority • Leo XIII emphasized that both civil and ecclesiastical authority ultimately derive from God, and that governments should respect divine and natural law. • He warned that when states ignore this divine foundation, they risk promoting injustice and moral relativism. 4. Religious Freedom • While he defended the Catholic Church’s rights and privileges, Leo XIII also cautiously supported a limited form of religious tolerance, acknowledging the need for peace and the reality of pluralistic societies (Libertas). • However, he did not embrace the modern liberal idea of religious freedom as an absolute right disconnected from truth. Summary: Pope Leo XIII rejected the modern liberal idea of a strict separation of church and state. Instead, he advocated for a collaborative relationship, where the state respects the authority and moral teachings of the Church, and both work together for the common good. He opposed secularism and promoted the integration of Christian principles into public and political life. Me: Please answer the same question for the Pope Leo XIV. ChatGPT: As of now, there has never been a Pope Leo XIV. The most recent pope with the name Leo was Pope Leo XIII, who reigned from 1878 to 1903. There has been no Pope Leo XIV in the history of the Catholic Church. If you’re referring to a fictional or hypothetical Pope Leo XIV (such as one that appears in literature, film, or a speculative context), let me know the source or scenario, and I’d be glad to analyze or interpret his stance within that framework. Me: Robert Francis Prevost is Pope Leo XIV. Today. Does your model not recognize this? ChatGPT: Yes, you are correct: Robert Francis Prevost has been elected as Pope Leo XIV, becoming the first American-born pontiff in the history of the Catholic Church. He was elected on May 8, 2025, succeeding Pope Francis.   Pope Leo XIV’s Position on the Separation of Church and State As of now, Pope Leo XIV has not issued a formal encyclical or doctrinal statement specifically addressing the separation of church and state. However, his background and early public remarks provide insights into his perspective on the relationship between religion and civil governance. 1. Emphasis on Social Justice and Moral Engagement Pope Leo XIV has a history of advocating for social justice issues. As a cardinal, he was vocal about supporting migrants and critiqued policies that he viewed as unjust, such as the Trump administration’s family separation policy. This suggests a belief that the Church should actively engage in societal matters to uphold moral and ethical standards.   2. Homage to Pope Leo XIII By choosing the name “Leo XIV,” he pays tribute to Pope Leo XIII, known for his encyclical Rerum Novarum, which addressed the rights and duties of capital and labor. This choice indicates a commitment to continuing the Church’s involvement in addressing social and economic issues, implying a role for the Church in guiding moral aspects of public life. 3. Advocacy for Dialogue and Unity In his first address as pope, Leo XIV emphasized themes of unity, peace, and dialogue. This approach suggests a preference for collaboration between the Church and state entities to promote the common good, rather than strict separation.  Summary While Pope Leo XIV has not explicitly outlined his stance on the separation of church and state, his actions and statements indicate a belief in a cooperative relationship. He appears to support the idea that the Church should engage with societal and governmental structures to advocate for justice, morality, and the dignity of all individuals. For a more in-depth look at Pope Leo XIV’s background and perspectives, you might find this video informative: Me: Why is it that today, May 28, 2025, your data could be so totally incorrect about who the current pope is ? What should I be considering when I evaluate the current reliability of large language AI models? ChatGPT: Your question is thoughtful and absolutely on point. Let’s break down why a model like mine may have out-of-date or incorrect information—and more importantly, what you should consider when evaluating the reliability of AI-generated information, especially in a fast-changing world. ⸻ 🔎 Why My Information Was Incorrect About the Current Pope 1. Model Training Data Cutoff • My core knowledge was trained on data up to around June 2024. • I don’t inherently “know” events that happened after that unless I access the internet (as I did just now). • So when you asked about Pope Leo XIV, my default response was based on pre-2025 knowledge, where Robert Francis Prevost had not yet become pope. 2. AI Models Do Not Auto-Update • Unlike a live news feed, models like me don’t auto-sync with the latest events unless I use a real-time web access tool, which I did once you clarified your question. • Without being prompted to check the web, I will provide the best answer based on my static training data. ⸻ 🧠 What to Consider When Evaluating the Reliability of AI Models ✅ 1. Check the Date of the Knowledge • Ask explicitly: “What’s your knowledge cutoff?” or “Is this current as of today?” • For fast-moving topics (elections, deaths, wars, scientific breakthroughs), assume that the default answer might be outdated. ✅ 2. Use AI for Framing, Not Finality • Think of large language models as great for: • Summarizing complex topics • Explaining ideas clearly • Generating drafts or options • But verify facts—especially names, dates, and statistics—through current sources. ✅ 3. Prompt for Web Checks When Needed • You can say things like: “Please check if this is still true as of today.” “Look up the most recent updates on this topic.” • This enables the model to use real-time tools to get the latest info. ✅ 4. Beware of Confident Errors • AI models often speak with confidence—even when wrong. That’s why critical thinking is crucial. * • Always ask yourself: • Does this make sense? • Is this information verifiable elsewhere? ✅ 5. Know the Model’s Limits • I don’t have emotions, intentions, or firsthand experience. • I don’t “know” anything in the human sense; I predict likely words based on patterns in my training data. • That means I can be fluent, convincing, and wrong—all at once. ⸻ Summary Your instinct to question the response was exactly right. Large language models are powerful but not omniscient. To get the most out of them: • Know their limitations • Ask for real-time checks • Cross-reference important facts • Use them as tools, not authorities Let me know if you’d like tips on verifying AI-generated content or using it responsibly in research or writing. End of chat. *My comments on this sentence of ChatGPT's: Yes, lots of folks, especially lawyers and elected officials, speak with confidence - even when wrong. This is something for all of us to remember in our current political climate that seems to favor ChatGPT-like hallucinations. I uploaded the photo at the top of the page into ChatGPT, and in only 2 prompts (Replace the missing petals; Try again but leave no spaces between the petals. Make the perfect flower from this photo.) this is the photo ChatGPT generated for me. Compare it to the photo at the top of this page . Copyright 2025 G Noelke

Agenda Analysis  | Meeting Review  | Meeting Documents  | Commentary  | Last Meeting Out with the old, the turf at OK Wolfenbarger Stadium is currently getting taken out. The land the stadium sits on is owned by the City of Mertzon and leased to IC ISD. The District is paying just over $1 million in bond funds to Hellas to replace the field and track . Agenda for this meeting 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. Roll upon roll of the waste turf for a short bit was stored on the stadium parking lot. If you know where to look in town you might find where some of it was relocated / liberated. 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. This is the rock base under the old turf. When I played on this field it was all grass and the kids enjoyed getting muddy during the games. And, it never flooded. 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. I’m not sure just yet, but it appears this is what will be going in under the new turf. Copyright 2025 G. Noelke

Agenda Analysis  | Meeting Review  | Meeting Documents | Commentary  | Last Meeting The lots between Duncan and Fleming on 5th Street in Mertzon were purchased recently by the District from David Harris. The District has cleared the brush and will be using them as a construction staging area during the build. Agenda for this meeting A. Agenda Analysis Budget amendments, item 6: As noted many times before, I always encourage citizen involvement when a governmental body amends its budget. It's especially important here because the public gets no substantive notice about how the budget is proposed to be changed. "As presented" here means, in effect, the public gets notice if, and only if, it shows up at the meeting. I have protested this language many times before and will continue to do so. Let's say, hypothetically, this amendment involves the budget line item related to energy costs (electricity). Then, this particular item need only read, "Budget amendment related to energy costs." All budget amendments, no matter how complex, can be synthesized down to a general matter it relates to. 2. Approve total sheet and prime contractors, item 7 : This is a follow up to the special meeting where the Board approved an initial list to avoid the Trump (not approved by Congress) tariffs . This should be a comprehensive approval of the prime contractors, presented by Parkhill, upon their review and recommendation. 3. Superintendent approval to sign contracts, item 8: You might not think about it much until an item like this pops up. Superintendents serve at the direction of the Board. She isn't the ultimate boss, they are. I'm not going to research it, but I would guess that this item is a statutory requirement for bond related construction contracts. It is a good thing because it creates accountability for the Board and the Superintendent on high dollar contracts. 4. Administrative reports, item 5 : Each and every report at each and every meeting is important. 5. Raises for 12 month employees, item 9 : I don't see how anyone gets a raise with the chaos taking place in Austin. I hope I'm wrong. If I'm consistent on anything, its that communities need to support government employee pay raises regularly and above the rate of inflation. 6. Letters of reassurance for paraprofessionals and aides, item 10 : If these folks were getting raises for next year, they likely would have been added to item 9. Also, typically paraprofessionals and aides are "at will" staffers, so they don't have protection of a contract with the District. I am assuming that this item is about giving those folks some assurance that they still have a job next year. While that may only be an assurance, in the face of the headwinds of a pending Trump tariff related recession, it might mean a lot to some folks. 7. Closed session, action from closed session, items 13 and 15 : I'm guessing the "approve" part in item 13's "Discuss/ approve resignations/new hires" is an oversight. This Board and Supt. Moore know that they can't formally "approve" anything in closed session with a vote. ("Approve" typically calls for a formal vote, which is not permitted in closed pursuant to the Open Meetings Act.) But, as I've said before, don't be fooled. Achieving a consensus in a closed session can and does regularly happen. Here, the formal vote will come at item 15, in open session. I will be listening to see who is resigning and whether the new band director is being hired. The buildings marked with X are the ones being demolished and replaced. (Though I did not mark teacher housing.) First up will be the cafeteria extension, not pictured here. B. Meeting Review Approve total sheet and prime contractors, item 7 : Ashley Foye, and estimator and cost manager with Gallagher , presented the total sheet with some analysis of the meaning of the numbers and categories. I have not reviewed her sheet at the time of this review, but I anticipate posting it as I did the previous one  on April 28. Probably the most significant part of this meeting  was the Board’s response to Ms. Foye's presentation. Just like their consideration back on April 28, the Board was spot on with their questions. Several members drilled down to get additional information from Ms. Foye, and she answered best she could but sometimes could only promise “I can get you that information.” For my “how to read an open meeting” series, the dialogue in this item is a perfect one to point out pregnant pauses during discussions. Pay attention to pregnant pauses during discussions over money. They speak volumes about the comfort level board members have with the answers, and here some of the pauses were in their 9th month. At the end of the discussion and just before President Carlile called for a vote, Board member Ashley Hill landed the perfect question: In the future can y’all give more information? The correct answer by Ms. Foye was given - yes of course. In fairness to Ms. Foye, what the Gallagher folks may not appreciate is something I am keenly aware of. The previous Administration, Board, architect and construction manager operated mostly in the dark with the 2019 bond funds. I can say that with some authority, as I had numerous PIA requests back then get outright ignored by the District, and several sent to the Attorney General’s Office to get quashed. I sense that some of these board members don't want a repeat of those dark days, and certainly Supt. Moore and President Carlile don't. Thus, the extra questions. Also, I can tell this Board and Administration are more fiscally conservative than the past. And, they should be . Some of the problem supply chain and recessionary indicators are present today that were present during the pandemic when the 2019 bonds were being spent down. We have been here before . Gallagher and Parkhill need to carefully navigate this terrain. I will post more on the actual numbers in Ms. Foye's document once I have obtained it. In the end, the Board approved her list, but not without hesitation. They also gave Supt. Moore authority to sign the contracts under item 8, a matter that is a practice of Gallagher's and apparently not a statutory requirement according to the discussion. Open forum, item 4 : Sara Lindley and Erin Douglas presented their concerns about how the District has handled recent transfer rejections. Some 20+ citizens attended the meeting apparently for this one issue. I haven't seen this kind of community attendance on a school conflict since 2020 when the Board organized the community to overturn the City of Mertzon's refusal to close 4th Street for the new gym ! I detected a sense of chumming for sharks, which has been unheard of at IC ISD meetings since that 2020 board meeting to close 4th Street. (Chumming occurs at large school board meetings all the time, in my experience.) In fairness to both sides of this dispute, let me confess I don't have the time or the resources to delve into this issue. And, this blog is not really about reporting on the conflict of the day with local government. It's intended to promote civics and interaction with local government, among other things. My thoughts on the issue behind this open meeting? Advocates on this transfer issue should get off Facebook and regularly attend the school board meetings, first. Social media is where ill intentioned chumming gets started, and then gets promoted by folks who have their own agendas. Organize in a group text if you have to, but in 2025 it is time to dispense with Facebook as an organizing tool. Second, there's nothing better than a direct one on one meeting with the Superintendent to clear the air before airing the laundry at a board meeting. Superintendent Moore excels in one on one conflict resolution, in my opinion, whereas the previous superintendent was rather Trumpian in his authoritarian style of doubling down with resistance and excluding dialogue and information. If discussions didn't happen before this meeting, then start over. Trust sometimes has to be built from scratch. Advocacy tip: if the law at issue says “there is no appeal”, then asking for a one-on-one with the superintendent is likely going to be denied. One’s only option then might be what was done here: speak to the board in an open forum. But, even that approach has limitations. A board can’t just invent a remedy where they had no authority in the first place. Time permitting, I’ll look further into the appeal ability of transfer decisions. In her comments to the Board, Erin Douglas eloquently said, "Transparency is a foundational principle of public institutions." And there you have it - that's the sum total of all that is contained in our Open Meetings Act and Public Information Act laws. And so, while I stay on the sidelines on the particulars of who is right and who is wrong on this transfer debate, I support wholeheartedly the freedom of these citizens to assemble, speak and ask for transparency. Whether you realize it or not, what all of us are ultimately asking for when we lodge a complaint with our government is increased transparency. Transparency is the sun. Here are the folks that attended this meeting: Meeting attendees. Raises for 12 month contracts and letters of reassurance, items 9 and 10: During a discussion of the potential raises I engaged the Board in a manner I usually don't recommend. A sidebar discussion (private) on the board caused a stall, more sidebars occurred, then the audience started talking, and within a flash it was impossible to tell whether the board members were speaking publicly or privately. And, it was impossible to hear because the audience began to chatter. So, I asked the Board to please speak up. I don't like interruptions from the audience during public meetings (technically the Open Meetings Act doesn't permit it), but sometimes it is necessary because board members shouldn't deliberate in a manner that the meeting can't be heard. Here my interruption was important because the Board was backing into a practice of giving employees a raise of only once every three years. The language of the motion did not contain explicit language to that effect , but the discussion approved the 3 different categories of employees getting raises on a rotating basis every three years. While the economic reality may be that grim, the practical effect of such a practice - backed into without a full discussion - is not something the Board should endorse. The Board, rather, should take each year on its own financial merit so that each year all employees, regardless of category and whether contracted, are considered for pay increases . In end, the Board approved the pay raises at item 9. Item 10, the letters of reassurance, were as I expected - letters telling employees they could come back next school year. To put this in perspective, the practice backed into, if implemented, means the 12 monthers would not be eligible for their next raise for another 3 years , whiled those who got their letters of reassurance would be eligible, I think, next year. Teachers would be eligible in 2 years, if I understand the calendar correctly. Who wants to work under those facts?! Advocacy tip: perhaps a better way to ask for board members to speak up is to ask a staffer at the meeting to ask the chair to raise their discussion volume. This adds more civility to the exchange, and civility is important because I have seen meetings go south where even just one member of the public starts to yell. Yelling encourages yelling, unfortunately. Sometimes, though, just blurting out that you can't hear is as good as it gets. Much more and in certain situations you might be encouraging a riot. Budget amendment, item 6 : Ms. Lakey reported on the need for a roughly $6,000 increase in the budget for special education services through the Menard co-op. The Board approved. Upon hearing about the purpose of this item, I with my analysis above at A1. An agenda item that reads "Discuss/Approve budget amendment as presented" is entirely too vague. It could easily be amended to be more public friendly by changing it to, "Discuss/Approve budget amendment related to special education services". This would generally give notice to the public about the nature of the amendment. Administrative reports, item 5: a. The meat on Principal Jessica Parker's report was that enrollment was: Elementary 210, Secondary at 139, for 349 overall. Attendance for both is just under 97%. b. Asst. Principal/Athletic Director Morrow reported on various track awards, but money part of his report was about the replacement of the field and track. Demolition at the stadium will start on May 14. The entire field and track are being replaced, and once started will take about 7 weeks.   Here is the offer document from the construction firm, Hellas. The Board approved Proposal alternatives 1 and 2 on page 2, for just over $1 million. In keeping with my commentary below that I do not want to see the field wasted (again) by flooding, I had a brief conversation with Mr. Morrow before the start of this meeting where I said that the cement wall acting as a foundation for the fence adjoining the field house was not built to keep out flood waters. Parkhill and Gallagher , please make note of this. The cement wall was built to hold up the fence that sits on top of it, which was a requirement of the School Safety Commission a few years ago. c. Supt. Moore's report, bond wise , addressed the clearing of the lots for staging, pictured above, as well as the two lots behind the current admin office at 5th and Juanita. She mentioned several oak trees were saved and replanted, a matter I discussed at the last City Council meeting here at B4 . These lots are being used for sea containers for storage of various things during construction. Another portable will be coming at the end of July to be placed on street in front of the High School. Closed session, items 13 and 15: The closed session lasted approximately 2 hrs and 40 minutes, an especially long time for the posted items of accepting resignations and new hires. The Board approved the following, without discussion: Resignation: Darla Tillman New hires: Kimberly Williams, Ashley Nutgrass and Tommy Nutgrass. No mention was made whether any of these were the new music director, and I assume the position is still unfilled because it remains listed on the District's vacancies page . Meeting Documents: I have not yet submitted a PIA request for them at the time of posting this on May 14. When received, I will post on this page. Especially relevant to this page will be the final prime contractor sheet used by Ms. Foye. Advocacy tip: Documents talked about and physically shared in the open portion of a public meeting will almost always be available through the Public Information Act. Miscellaneous: The Board was in full force with all in attendance at this meeting. Watch this part of this page for anything else that I might add in the near future. This page is getting a larger than normal number of views, so I may need to update. The stormwater was still flowing at the Field House several hours after a 1.5” rain fell this week. The new storage extension will be added at the end of this building. If the County increases its impervious footprint with a new Community Center, this location will be the first to see increased flooding. C. Commentary The Irion County Commissioner's Court is evaluating community input for the new Community Center. In response to question 4 asking "What would you like to see in a new Community Center?" I stated: I would like it to be environmentally and tax friendly. Please do not take out oak trees or flood City Park or the Stadium with storm water runoff. Please coordinate with the City and IC ISD and develop a comprehensive storm water management plan before undertaking Community Center improvements. I have been asking for greater coordination among the the District, City and County since April 2019, before the passage of the 2019 school bonds. To date, I haven't seen any movement on the issue. I raise it now for two reasons. First, it is readily transparent that if the County expands its impervious footprint at City Park the first to receive the stormwater will be the District's football stadium. Though the District is flooding my property upstream, I am not small enough to favor their getting flooded down stream, especially by another governmental entity, the County. I am a taxpayer upstream and downstream, and community wide flooding impacts us all. (My advocacy is about more than my own property.) Second, I see an increased need for local government to coordinate given that President Trump is attempting to decommission FEMA . One way to interpret what is happening in Washington is that the Whitehouse is decentralizing its key functions, which may include absence of federal resources and money even in an emergencies . This potentially means that we all are going to need rely more on local government in dire circumstances. Let's hope our local folks are coordinating on more than just stormwater management. None of us have ever been here before. See also Local Officials Brace for Loss of Disaster Preparedness Funding . You can respond to the County’s inquiry here . The deadline is May 15. Copyright 2025 G. Noelke

A few months back I mentioned on the My Pick of the Month portion of my site (found at the bottom of the home page) that I was reading some of the Magna Carta . Honestly, I felt a bit too lawyerly when I referenced it. Who has the inclination to read about an ancient foundational document about democracy except a lawyer? My purpose in doing so, to bring this home right away, was to make a larger point that the concept that my local government can't take my property, even by flooding it, without first providing me due process was born from the Magna Carta. The Magna Carta came to life again this week when Harvard Law School discovered that their copy of the document was in fact authentic. I'm going to turn over the significance of this to historian Heather Cox Richardson and publish below the entirety of her May 15, 2025 newsletter that addresses the find. This is an essential dive into the foundations of democracy, folks, but worthwhile because it is difficult to find anything as concise. Here it is, with her links at the bottom if you wish to dig further still: Perhaps in frustration, this season’s writers of the saga of American history are making their symbolism increasingly obvious. Today the story broke that a long-neglected document held by Harvard University Law School, believed to be a cheap copy of the Magna Carta, is in fact the real document. More than 700 years ago, the Magna Carta, or Great Charter, established the concept that kings must answer to the law . King John of England and a group of rebel barons agreed to the terms of the document on June 15, 1215, at Runnymede, a meadow a little less than an hour from London near the River Thames. After the king had raised taxes, barons rebelled, insisting that he was violating established custom. There were rumors of a plot to murder the king, and the barons armed themselves. Those two armed camps met at Runnymede, where negotiators for the king and the barons hammered out a document with 63 clauses, mostly relating to feudal customs and the way the justice system would operate. But the document also began to articulate the principles central to modern democracies. The Magna Carta established the writ of habeas corpus—a prohibition on unlawful imprisonment—and the concept of the right to trial by jury. Famously, it put into writing that: “No free man shall be seized, imprisoned, dispossessed, outlawed, exiled or ruined in any way, nor in any way proceeded against, except by the lawful judgement of his peers and the law of the land.” It also provided that “To no one will we sell, to no one will we deny or delay right or justice.” The Magna Carta placed limits on the king’s ability to tax his subjects and established the law as an authority apart from the king. Anticipating the idea of checks and balances, it set up a council of barons to make sure the king obeyed the charter. If he did not, they could seize his lands and castles until he made amends. The original charter did not last. King John convinced the pope to declare the document illegal because it circumscribed the power of the monarch, and in reaction, barons fought for the rights outlined in the Magna Carta. After the death of King John in 1216, the Magna Carta was confirmed and reissued, becoming an accepted part of the understanding of British rights. In 1297, and then again in 1300, King Edward I reissued the Magna Carta and confirmed that it was part of England’s law. The copy in Harvard’s possession is from 1300. Harvard bought the document after World War II for $27.50, about $500 today. It is one of seven original copies of the 1300 Magna Carta, and in the United States of America in 2025, it is priceless. In the early 1600s, King James I and King Charles I both reasserted the power of the king. Jurist Sir Edward Coke used the Magna Carta to insist that longstanding English customs guaranteed liberties to British subjects and required the king to comply with the law. There were limits to a king’s power to tax his subjects and his power to punish them. This legal struggle was unfolding just as British subjects were colonizing the North American continent, and the charters of the new colonies echoed Coke’s arguments. The 1629 charter of the Massachusetts Bay Company, for example, established that colonists and, crucially, the children they might have in the colony, “shall have and enjoy all liberties and Immunities of free and naturall Subiects.” As constitutional scholar Mary S. Bilder notes, lawyers and political figures put into the documents of the early British settlement of North America the belief that liberties were the birthright of English subjects. That belief informed colonists’ opposition to the 1765 Stamp Act, which imposed a new tax to which they had not given their consent and called for those who violated the law to be tried not by a jury of their peers but rather in admiralty courts. The Massachusetts Assembly declared the Stamp Act to be “against the Magna Carta and the natural rights of Englishmen, and therefore, according to Lord Coke, null and void.” British politician William Pitt told Parliament: “The Americans are the sons not the bastards of England.” In September 1774, as tensions between the king and the colonists intensified, the first Continental Congress met in Philadelphia and wrote a declaration of rights and grievances, claiming the liberties guaranteed by “the principles of the English constitution, and the several charters or compacts.” Showing the unity of the colonies, the Congress published an image of 12 arms holding a column crowned by a liberty cap and resting on the words “Magna Carta.” In 1776 the colonists threw off the monarchy to establish a government based on the idea that all people must answer to the law. As Thomas Paine wrote in Common Sense : “in America the law is king. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be king; and there ought to be no other. ” In 1776 the new states were writing their own constitutions that defended their liberties, including their protection from loss of life, liberty, or property without due process of the law. That concept went directly into the first ten amendments to the Constitution, known collectively as the Bill of Rights. The Fifth Amendment provided that no “person shall be…deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law,” and in 1868 the Fourteenth Amendment applied that principle to the states as well as the federal government, saying: “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” The Harvard document is not the only Magna Carta in the U.S. In 2007, philanthropist David Rubenstein bought a 1297 copy of the Magna Carta from former presidential candidate Ross Perot. It was the only copy in the U.S., and Perot had permitted the National Archives to display it. Rubenstein bought the document for $21.3 million, hoping to keep it in the U.S. “to ensure that Americans could continue to see it, and to thereby be continuously reminded of its importance to our country.” He promptly lent it to the National Archives for public display, “as modest repayment of my debt to this country for my good fortune in being an American.” And yet the fundamental principles on which the government of the United States is based are under attack. In an interview that aired on Sunday, May 4, President Donald J. Trump told NBC’s Kristen Welker that he “didn’t know” if persons in the United States had a right to due process. When Welker reminded him that the right to due process is written into the Fifth Amendment, he said: “I don’t know. It seems—it might say that, but if you’re talking about that, then we’d have to have a million or two million or three million trials.” Musician Bruce Springsteen has no doubts about those rights, embedded as they are in the country’s DNA. At a concert in Manchester, England, yesterday, he warned: “In America, the richest men… [are]... abandoning our great allies and siding with dictators against those struggling for their freedom. They’re defunding American universities that won’t bow down to their ideological demands. They’re removing residents off American streets and, without due process of law, are deporting them to foreign detention centers and prisons. This is all happening now.” He criticized lawmakers who have “no…idea of what it means to be deeply American.” And yet, Springsteen told the crowd: “The America that I’ve sung to you about for 50 years is real and, regardless of its faults, is a great country with a great people, so will survive this moment.” — Notes: https://apnews.com/article/harvard-magna-carta-rare-copy-97754aee08aaab65a36e49bedebd5992 https://www.parliament.uk/magnacarta/ https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-surrey-32828251 https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2010/winter/magna-carta.html https://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/mass03.asp Mary Sarah Bilder, Charter Constitutionalism: The Myth of Edward Coke and the Virginia Charter,” North Carolina Law Review 94 (June 2016): 1545–1592, at https://scholarship.law.unc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured-documents/magna-carta/legacy.html https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/magna_carta https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/04/us/politics/trump-meet-the-press-interview-due-process.html https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/magna-carta-muse-and-mentor/magna-carta-and-the-us-constitution.html https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/15/world/europe/harvard-magna-carta-original.html https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2014/03/31/the-man-who-owns-a-magna-carta/ https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/15/entertainment/bruce-springsteen-trump-criticism-scli-intl https://archive.org/details/commonsense50pain Copyright 2025 G. Noelke, except the entirety of Ms. Cox Richardson's newsletter, of course.