Below is the agenda for the October 7 Board meeting, with my agenda analysis and meeting analysis underneath. Also, see my commentary here.
A. Agenda Analysis 1. Administrative Reports, item 5: There's a full lineup of all 3 top administrators at this meeting. 2. 2024 Tax Roll, item 6: This will pretty much cement the revenue that will begin coming into the District from the tax office. Here is the disclosure (Rule 15c2-12 signed in February 2024) for the top taxpayers used for the bond issuance last month:
The tax roll approved at this meeting will be different. There's a lot of meat on this bone because the Scottish Rite revenue has dropped off, mineral values have depreciated, wind power revenue has proven totally unreliable and the new Matterhorn gas pipeline is not online yet. I will be providing more tax roll analysis in the future. 3. Design of construction projects, item 8: The City of Mertzon punted on the flood control structures at their last meeting, so its anyone's guess what can happen with this item. 4. Consent agenda, item 9 c: It was Supt. DeSpain and board member Ashley Hill teaming up during a board meeting several years ago and complaining about the rising costs of legal services that now causes me to keep the annual approval of this contract in focus. (A certain "community member" was the cause of the increase, they said. I was the only public member in the board room at the time and the tension was palpable. And, later, Eichelbaum even tacked on an extra $100 per hour just to deal with my advocacy.) From my perspective, it's not the one, and only one, community member (me!) that is responsible for the increase in legal fees the District has experienced in recent years. Leaving the decisions by board leadership off the table for these purposes, one huge problem is the method of delivery of legal services. The Eichelbaum lawyers are never present. This board is now managing roughly $75 million in taxpayer funds, and the District doesn't have an in house lawyer present and rarely do they have a lawyer present at their open meetings and executive sessions. That's risky business, and it allows for legal problems to develop and fester and that increases costs. Well, and the Eichelbaum firm, given its size and prestige, is bound to have a lot of overhead. 5. Closed session, items 11 and 13: As always, what arguably gets to be said in private should always be recognized and questioned. This month it is health insurance and personnel.
B. Meeting Analysis: 1. Design of construction projects, item 8: In a significant move, Supt. Moore, after consulting with Parkhill, recommended that the Board adopt building codes for the new construction. In brief, the Board adopted the codes found at 19 TAC 1040(j)(1)(B)(i)-(vi). That is, the Board adopted the International Building/Existing Building Code (2014), International Mechanical Code (2014), NFPA 101 and NFP 1 as adopted by the Texas Fire Marshall, International Plumbing Code and International Fuel Gas Code, National Electric Code and International Energy Conservation Code. Which is all to say: New construction built from the 2024 bond funds will be built to code, something that cannot be said with any degree of certainty about the 2019 construction projects (gym, cafeteria kitchen and football stadium upgrades.) Read my commentary below for a deeper dive on construction codes. 2. Tax roll approval, item 6: The Board approved the 2024 tax roll, in this case a stack of 8 or so notebooks about a foot high, without discussion. Funding for the 24-25 academic year is basically a certainty at this point. (Tax Assessor Collector Joyce Gray has a very high collection rate.)
3. Consent agenda, item 9c: The Board approved a 6% retainer fee increase for Eichelbaum’s legal services. That makes the annual contract $21,200. There was no discussion by the Board, but a strong recommendation by Supt. Moore.
4. Closed session, items 11 and 14: The Board voted to initiate negotiations with Shannon Hospital on part of a health insurance claim. There was no discussion.
5. Other matters: Board members DJ Rainey and Tony Martinez were absent. On the ESL (English Second Language) program at item 7, six students took the STAAR test last year. Of those, 1 student performed Masters, 2 students performed Approaches and 3 students performed Does Not Meet on reading. For math, 1 student performed Meets, 3 students performed Approaches and 2 students performed Did Not Meet.
C. Commentary My regular readers perhaps know the lengths I went to during the 2019 IC ISD bond build out to point out that the District and City of Mertzon were throwing caution to the wind by approving the dumping of stormwater runoff from a 30,000+ sf gym directly into a city street. Among my arguments was a Texas Administrative Code (TAC) rule passed by the Texas Education Agency that required the District to adopt building codes because the City of Mertzon has none.
I decided to revisit my history with that TAC provision, , and rediscovered my effort in an email as far back as January 2021 - before the gym was built - to convince the District and City to follow building codes that would prohibit water dumping and unlawful construction on an improperly closed city ally. Indeed, my email was shot gunned to everyone: President Flores, Supt. DeSpain, two Eichelbaum attorneys, WBK Construction representatives and, of course, architect Jeff Potter. No one ever replied to my email. Similarly, the City Council never responded to my years' long efforts to get them to adopt building codes. I was quite certain back then that IC ISD was coming back with more construction and would not adopt any. Well, I was partially right. They came back for more construction, but this vote shows a never seen before interest in construction codes.
One role of government is to protect people, particularly children, who cannot protect themselves. I confess I find it extremely disturbing that the 2019 bond leadership at IC ISD was so callous to adopting building codes. Mistakes happen, as everyone learned when the lighting of a pilot light caused a gas explosion during the construction of the new cafeteria kitchen back then. That leadership and the construction/design team they hired appeared to act as if they were inoculated from the consequences of the poor decisions they were making. Today’s leadership is different, though.
Sunlight on government is a good thing. Sometimes, like in this instance where the Board finally adopted building codes, it has tangible results. Why this has taken literally years to accomplish, though, is a worthwhile question for everyone, especially our elected Board and City Council members.
It should not have taken this long.
Copyright 2024 G Noelke