Below is the agenda for the July 16, 2024 meeting, with my agenda analysis and meeting analysis underneath.
Agenda analysis a. Meeting time: note the meeting is not on Monday but Tuesday, July 16 at the earlier time of 5:30. b. Superintendent's report, item 4b: There's a lot of meat in each of the listed topics. The Kramer Consulting would appear to be the kickoff of the 2024 bond spending on new busses. c. What's different: Again, approach all agendas critically with an eye toward trying to understand what is different this month from last month. A lot of thought gets put into the drafting of agenda because if the topic isn't listed technically it can't be discussed. Here we see that there is no principal's report. There was also no report last month. Who knows whether this is significant at this point. My goal here is to educate my readers about how to read agendas and to not accept them passively. d. Procurement of construction and procurement of design and construction, items 6 & 7: This appears to be the first formal steps in getting Gallagher Construction and Parkhill hired for the 2024 bond projects, as my best guess is that it entails choosing the method of construction contracting for the projects. This area of law, Texas Gov't Code 2269, is complex and mind numbingly boring UNLESS you have previously been burned by it like I was, and our community was, when the Board chose the Construction Manager at Risk method for the 2019 bonds. Stay tuned. e. Adding a new signor to all accounts, item 8: This is a LOT of authority, and signing off on the annual spend down of a $20+ million budget and $50+ million in bonds is significant. It also begs the question: What about Mr. Helms? f. What's different, take 2: School law is largely understood to be "administrative law" because so much of it is regulated by the Texas Education Agency and its many, many rules in the Texas Administrative Code, Title 19. I cannot over emphasize the sea change created on the federal side of administrative law by the US Supreme Court this last session in the Loper Bright case where the Court pared back the agency authority to interpret its own administrative rules to effectively zilch. If this approach is adopted in Texas (and I believe Chevron deference has been the rule here as well), this could mean that TEA's interpretation of ALL of its Title 19 rules is likewise zilch. In place of TEA's interpretation could be the interpretation of the Travis County District Courts, the 3rd Court of Appeals and the Texas Supreme Court. Here is some more analysis of the Loper Bright case. This will be an area to watch both in the Texas state courts and in the upcoming 2025 Texas legislative session. There were other recent US Supreme Court case relating to administrative law that also have the potential to revolutionize Texas law. A great deal of uncertainly now exists in Texas administrative law, including uncertainty in the area of public school funding and performance testing. Think you understand school construction law because of TEA's interpretation of its own statutes and rules? Well, you don't because their view may not be important any more.
2. Meeting analysis: a. Open forum, item 3: A local resident presented on the specs of her residential property that is for sale and the District clearly has interest in. Open Meetings Act sunshine: the governmental body can't ask questions to the public speaker. Perhaps more on this, and the real estate purchase, later. b. Superintendent's report: 1. Communications audit results - the District hired a consultant a few months back and her work product was reviewed. I'll come back to this issue.
2. Health Insurance Update - The District has contracted with Blue Cross, apparently thanks to their consultant contract with Neil Seltz. I am in the process of getting his contract, I hope. 3. Local Ryan Kramer presented his pitch to be hired as a consultant to aid the District sell and purchase its busses. No action taken publicly on this. 4. Financial - Mr. Helms was absent, so nothing substantive was discussed regarding finances at item 4a; she referenced his materials were in the board packet. Checks and reports were approved in 10 b. I'll cover more about the financial condition of the District next month as it goes through the 24-25 budgeting process. c. 2024 bonds, items 6, 7 and part of 9: In due time I'll be delving into the contracting method chosen by the Board at this meeting - construction manager - agent. See Texas Gov't Code, Subchapter E, Section 2269.201 - .208. The action taken by the Board in thee items was to grant authority to Supt. Moore to negotiate the contracts for construction and design and construction. ("Design" means "architect".) Negotiations are already underway with Gallagher via the District's law firm, Eichelbaum. So, the upshot is that the contracting is taking shape for who will do the build out for the 2024 bonds.
In other bond news, at item 9 the board approved a $10,000 construction management stipend to James Green, head of the District's Ag Department. In contrast to other stipends at the District, this one would appear to be outrageously high. Let me tell you, if his job is what I think it will be, he's going to be earning every penny of that and asking for it to be renegotiated at a higher amount before this build is complete. The issue of what construction code standards to use alone ought to be a hair raising experience for the District. TEA in its rules imposes different build standards on communities like ours when the municipality has no building codes, as the City of Mertzon has none. I definitively proved that the new gym was not properly code inspected during its construction, and neither then superintendent Ray DeSpain, WBK Construction or Architect Jeff Potter could attest to its safety as required by TEA rules because...the District did not have its own independent inspector. Moreover, the City of Mertzon has punted on the issue of imposing construction codes (I've tried!), so there's a real concern here that the District will do a repeat of what it did with the 2019 bonds.
As an aside, I don't want to imply that I am a safety nut. I do some dangerous things like hunt, hike and bike. But, the closure of the street where the new gym now sits was justified by the District's then administrators for "safety" reasons, and it created way more safety problems than it solved. So, until the District corrects some of the safety issues it created with the 2019 bonds by properly using the 2024 bonds, I'm not inclined to look the other way. The parents of the children who will be attending school in these new buildings should not look the other way, either. And, the Mertzon City Council should especially not look the other way. This issue - that of not having construction codes - is where I believe the City's brand of libertarianism seriously fails. Children can't always look after their own safety at school, and that is where good government comes in.
I hope to be visiting with Supt. Moore in the near future about these issues so the mistakes of 2019 are not visited upon the 2024 bonds. In the mean time, hats off to Mr. Green! My prediction is that he will be earning his keep. c. Closed session and action on closed session, items 12 and 14: No matters were voted on after the closed session went into open. d. Other matters: There will be a special meeting in July coming up, and the next regular meeting will be August 5. Also, very soon I will be posting more Jacob Conner documents. I was able to get his Agreed Order with SBEC and will be posting that.
Finally, all the talk of the bus sales at this meeting had me reminiscing with Board member Taylor Douglas after the meeting. As a member of Mertzon's Troop 116, I took a camping trip about 1973 with his uncle Lynn Freitag, one of my best friends, and grandfather Pinkie Freitag to Big Bend for a week of floating the river, camping and fishing. We had to leave Mertzon (from what is now the Museum) at midnight because we used Pinkie's beat up old school bus and it would over heat during the daytime. I slept like a baby during the trip out because all the seats had been pulled out of the bus, and I rolled over off the 1/4 inch plywood we were supposed to sleep on and slept prone on top of the Troop's bread supplies for the week. Morris Grice, France's Grice's husband who was the other parent on the trip, was none too happy with me, but Pinkie just laughed and laughed. It was a magical childhood fishing trip that included wandering and fishing from the Mexico side of the border. Even today I miss Pinkie and Lynn.
Copyright 2024 G Noelke