This is the old Scout House on 202 just north of the Sherwood Courthouse. I spent a lot of time here as a kid here looking for something and never quite finding it. The home my Great Great Grandfather Ferdnand Noelke built sits nearby a few blocks away and is still in use today.
Here are the agendas for the March 4 and February 15 meetings, with my agenda analysis and meeting analysis below. I did not attend the Feb 15 meeting, so that part of this page is still pending.
Agenda Analysis
March 4, 2024 meeting: The meat of this agenda is at items 5 and 6 relating to the cancellation of the May 4 election. See my meeting analysis below for more on this.
February 15, 2024 meeting: Agenda item 5, Order of General Election, is a required part of the May 4 council member election. The remainder of the agenda is a stock City of Mertzon agenda.
Meeting Analysis
March 4, 2024 meeting
Here are the meeting documents for this meeting. In addition, here is my analysis:
Election efficiency with a bite. On rare occasion our democratic system serves up efficiency, and this meeting is an example. But, this efficiency comes with a bite. At items 5 and 6, the Council made quick work of dispensing with an entire election for 3 city council positions. Can they do that?! Well, yes, if no one opposes the current positions up for election and the the incumbents timely file for re-election. See Texas Election Code 2.051-.053 that allows for this. It only makes sense, doesn't it, that if candidates don't draw an opponent that there need not be an election. Elections are expensive, and they should not be held when there is no contest. Here comes the bite, though. In a small community like Mertzon where there is voter apathy, no public attendance at city council meetings and no news organization covering local politics (the 4th estate), elections that are lawfully waived allow the incumbents to serve without any real accountability. They can also serve as long as they wish since there are no term limits and the cost of re-election is $0. In this instance, Council Members Jayton Lindley, Danny Crutchfield and Randy Councilman all got a lawful pass on a re-election campaign and will serve another term without the requirement of a single vote being cast in their favor on election day two months away. The bite is this: it was Council Members Crutchfield and Lindley who voted to close 4th Street for City Gym during their current terms in office. (Indeed, Council Member Crutchfield made the motion.) And, on the very same election day that they get to skate, May 4, 2024, there will be a $55 million dollar school bond election. In that election, if Irion County ISD does what it has already expressed its intent to do, funds are necessarily going to be dedicated to flood diversion to correct the massive flooding problems caused by the very City Gym supported by Council Members Crutchfield and Lindley. So they, like the others I've covered in this blog (most recently Athletic Director Jacob Conner) get to avoid accountability for their involvement with City Gym. (Note: Council Member Randy Councilman was not on the council at the time the vote to close 4th Street was taken.) One goal of Government in the Sun is to create public accountability where there was none before. In this city council meeting, a seemingly efficient Election Code works to the favor of local government that still has yet to come to grips with community wide flooding. Indeed, that flooding is largely aggravated by the affirmative actions of both the School Board and the City Council and a passive county government, Irion County. The Election Code, even if lawfully used here, is yet one more part of the narrative of how our community allowed government to flood itself without accountability. We often hear that the remedy for complaints with our elected officials is our right to vote. (Please, by the way, vote today in the primary election.) Sometimes, however, we don't always get that right. In this case, then, our First Amendment rights and open government laws become essential in creating public accountability and correcting the errant behavior of elected officials who aren't challenged on election day. Folks, if you sit on the sidelines in this experiment in democracy, your local government may, literally, flood your property and think nothing of it, just as it thinks nothing of flooding itself when it unlawfully closes a street and an alley for a new gym.
The cost of water. Page 9 of the meeting documents points out an accounts payable to Abel Water System for $4,579. This expense was to repair a City owned water well. The repair bumped the production of the well up to 32 gallons per minute. The overall impact will be less reliance on the City's private wells owned by Loye Tankersley and Rodney Robertson. The City spent a combined $2,818.75 for those wells last month alone. As previously stated, the City needs to continue its search for its own water sources and rely less and less on private water. (See my meeting analysis # 4 on this page.) Independent water production should be a goal for the City.
Speed on the Hill. As reported in this meeting, the top speed logged by the new radar sign was 51 mph. That is in the 25 mph zone on the west side of Bank Hill (Main and 2nd Street.) C'mon now, it is dangerous enough out there already. You can't be serious to top out at 51 coming over Bank Hill. If anything, Chief Bill Taylor at the Irion County Volunteer Fire Department (at Main and 1st Street) ought to up in arms over the danger. The new Fire Department facility is extremely vulnerable to speeders traveling East on Main since their drive way is on Main and blind from view going east.
February 15, 2024 meeting analysis:
Here are the meeting documents for this meeting.
Further analysis pending.
Copyright 2024 G. Noelke