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Here is some of my video posted on my Mertzon.Floods YouTube Channel of the flooding of 4th Street Flooding at Irion County ISD One reason the area is so dangerous is that it is impossible to tell how deep the water is on the street. It's a bit like black ice because of the glare from the nearby street lights. The first part of the video shows how much water is coming from City Gym. The gym runoff is also combined with the water flowing down Juanita Street. Keep in mind this area is often packed with school buses and pedestrians/students during events at the tennis courts and at City Gym. It will be particularly dangerous to folks on foot because it is impossible to tell how deep and fast the water is moving. Finally, also keep in mind that this water ultimately reaches City Park and the football stadium. And this isn't as bad as it gets...

When this wall fails the new athletic equipment approved in a late budget amendment during this board meeting is going to be under flood waters. May 8, 2023 ICISD School Board Meeting Here is my analysis and audio for this meeting: Listen to this YouTube audio clip of clean up budget amendment discussion that accounts for $98,000+ in athletic equipment that has already been purchased, is not being used, and is being kept at the stadium where it is certain to be flooded in the next flood. This audio underscores the "Spend, Spend, Spend" mentality of unquestioning board members who have no limits on their desire to spend taxpayer money on athletics and not academics. Three things to note about this audio: 1. Athletic Director Jacob Conner is present during the discussion and does not have to justify these purchases OR justify why the money has already been spent above the budgeted $5,000 budget limit; 2. Superintendent DeSpain is entirely silent during the discussion and likewise offers no excuses, and 3. When CFO Robert Helms says he doesn't know what an item being purchased is, not a single board member cares enough to seek clarification from Conner or DeSpain. This board and superintendent will spend, spend, spend on athletics, without question, even when it wrecks the budget and takes money from the fund balance. This sort of approach to education is how our community ended up with an $18 million bond package that went over budget and no classrooms were built. The board approved new officers. Maegin Carlile is now President, Ricky Rey is VP, and Ashley Hill remains Secretary. Ms. Hill's maverick 2019 solo vote against the alternate gym location at 2nd and Juanita appears to have not paid dividends for her with leadership authority, as Rey, previously without any title, leap frogged over her to become the new VP. Tony Martinez, who has never appeared at a single board meeting in the 3+ years that I have regularly attended, was sworn in as a new board member. There were several instances during the meeting, including the hiring of Region 15 to conduct a superintendent search, where it was mentioned that Superintendent DeSpain was "leaving". One mention even included that he was going to Giddings. But, as of the time of the initial posting of this entry, May 10, there was no mention on the Giddings ISD website announcing DeSpain as its new superintendent. And, DeSpain himself did not offer up a resignation or announce his new post at Giddings. May 11 update: TASB has announced that Giddings "voted to hire" DeSpain on May 4, but there is still no press from the district on the hire. During Region 15's Laura Strube's presentation on the superintendent hiring process, it became clear the Board is light on experience. Of the seven board members, only Carlile, Hill and Rey were present when DeSpain was hired in 2019. Given it was announced that they needed to fill DeSpain's shoes in July, it seems likely they will seek an interim superintendent from Region 15. Former board president Vicente Flores attended the meeting, apparently as a private citizen, and did not speak during open forum. No one spoke during open session. More updates may be posted here...

A double bloom on a Horse Crippler cactus on Cowboy Hill a few weeks ago. 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.

The sign on the South end of the new gym. Students: For a deeper dive into our constitution's separation of church and state, listen to Preet Bharara's Stay Tuned podcast interview of Noah Feldman entitled The Changing State of Church and State. You might also have better luck finding it on the Cafe site here. If you'll stick with me as I document my efforts since 2016 to stop the flooding by my neighbor, you might consider with me whether my interpretation in the graphic above of the sign on the South side of the new gym is sacrilegious or whether the sign itself is sacrilegious. Or, maybe it is something else? What? Don't come to a conclusion just yet. I have much to document and my Public Information Act requests are ongoing. Just consider the question for now... "The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them." Ida B. Wells-Barnett

Superintendent DeSpain's legacy will include using school funds to pave a city owned street, Juanita, that is notorious for flooding. Stay tuned for how this pavement will stand up to the flood waters. Here is the agenda for the May 8, 2023 school board meeting, with my commentary in red on the agenda. The district finally discloses at agenda item 7 that it is searching for a new superintendent.

Unregulated school district growth and community wide flooding are regretfully part of Mayor Taylor's and Superintendent Ray DeSpain's legacies. (Audio of the May 1 2023 city council meeting relating to Superintendent DeSpain and board member Chad Koonce request for the City's approval allowing ICISD to place speed bumps on City streets may be found here.) As I shook Mayor Taylor's hand at the conclusion of his last meeting as Mayor on May 1, 2023, I said to him, "Don't be a stranger. We have a lot of work to do." This is my message to all outgoing mayors, city council, members, school board members, school board, presidents and even superintendents: just because you've left office, you are not relieved from the duty and obligations of public service, especially where your service has created new problems for our community. During Mayor Taylor's term in office, my street and property flooding has increased dramatically. This means the flooding at elevations lower than mine (my neighbors, City Park and the football stadium) is also worse than ever before. Superintendent DeSpain shares the same responsibility, as his and President Flores's decisions have directly caused increased stormwater flooding from the 2019 school bond build out. Below are my comments during the open forum at the Mertzon City Council meeting , May 1, 2023: This may be the last time, Mr. Mayor, that you and Supt. DeSpain are together in the same room in a public meeting. Your term ends with the election on Saturday, and Superintendent DeSpain will be learning about his new job at Giddings ISD on Thursday. The agenda item at tonight’s meeting that brings the City and the District together is  speed bumps around the school. Speed bumps. Not street flooding, not flooding of private residences, not even the flooding of City Park and the football stadium. As you each eye the door, I would like to emphasize two things that I have been able to prove using the Public Information Act. First, in a 100 year flood - a rain of approximately 4.25 inch an hour - City Gym will be producing 1,574 gallons  of water a minute. That equals 94,482 gallons of water an hour. That’s stormwater that must enter our streets, cross my property, flood my neighbors’ property and ultimately reach City Park and the football stadium. And, this amount is only for the water coming from the roof.  There will be more caused by the sidewalks and parking lots. Second, since the City has no building codes, the District was required to comply with TEA’s administrative rules regarding building inspections.  In fact, the District entirely failed to comply with a key provision that required that they have their own independent building inspector conduct inspections during the building process.  Therefore, neither the City or the District can verify that any of the buildings built from the 2019 bonds was built according to code. So, as the City looked away, the District cut corners on safety and conducted no inspections. I will be posting my evidence of these points on my site,  Government In The Sun.  I intend the site to create a level of accountability of our government leaders that has not previously existed in our community. So, as you each discuss the pros and cons of speed bumps tonight, know that I am thinking about two things.  First, who is really in charge of our streets?  And, second, I am thinking that this is yet another missed opportunity among our leaders to deal with stormwater flooding. Speed bumps are not the critical safety issue in our streets.  Stormwater flooding  and new municipal construction codes should be your higher priority. Be good to your neighbor. Thank you.

There are plenty enough reasons to hate Opuntia, but Cowboy Hill looks spectacular with its blossoms this year. Below is the agenda for the May 1 2023 Mertzon city council meeting. Additional comments follow the agenda. This will be Mayor Taylor's last meeting as Mayor and as a member of the council. The Transportation Code section that requires an ordinance to close or abandon a street or alley is 311.008. I discuss this law in this City Gym post and this Alley Oops post. The Civil Practices and Remedies section I am referring to that prohibits adverse possession of public property is at section 16.030(b). I discuss this in my Alley Oops post. The City Council and Irion County share the language on their agendas that remarks that attack character can be called out of order, and I can find no authority supporting this language. I can also find no other examples of this language on any other public entity agenda. If you are aware of the origins of this language, please contact me.

Look closely at the picture above. The grey highlights show the approximate overlay of several Mertzon city streets. The yellow arrow represents the city owned alley that runs the distance between 5th and 4th streets. That white/silver roofed building on the right is the new gym, now called Hornet Gym. My purpose here is to show you where the new gym sits on top of 4th street and the alley. Neither 4th Street or this alley were lawfully transferred from the City of Mertzon to Irion County ISD. The citizens of Mertzon still own the land that city street and alley the gym rests on. (Might "City Gym" be a better name for the facility? I think so.) Here's why. Mayor Bill Taylor and the City Council do not have complete discretion to do what they want with our city streets. Mertzon is classified under law as a "general law" municipality, which practically speaking means that our city leaders have only the authority that the state legislature grants to the city. Here is what our legislature has said about the authority to close a street and alley: Texas Transportation Code 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. This statute says that the City Council may vacate, abandon or close a street by ordinance. Further support can be found in Texas Civil Practices and Remedies Code 16.005(a)(1), which provides that the statute of limitations for challenging "passage by a governing body of an incorporated city or town of an ordinance closing and abandoning, or attempting to close and abandon, all or any part of a public street or alley in the city or town" is two years. An ordinance is, simply, municipal made law. The process for passing municipal laws is very specific. Here are examples of current ordinances from the City of Mertzon website. Mayor Taylor and the City Council did not vacate, abandon or close 4th Street with an ordinance, as required by the law above. In fact, they abandoned the street with an MOU, a Memorandum of Understanding, and an affidavit. An MOU is simply a form of agreement often used between two governmental entities. An MOU is not and ordinance and does not carry the enforceability of law like an ordinance does. The affidavit they filed also does not qualify as an ordinance. Here are the MOU and affidavit (pdf) filed by the City and Irion County ISD at the Irion County Courthouse. Keep in mind that President Vicente Flores, the school board and Superintendent Ray DeSpain have no authority over streets. Like the City of Mertzon, their authority is limited by the authorities they are granted by the Texas legislature and in the Texas Constitution. Put plainly, they have no authority in law to build a gymnasium down on a city street of their choosing. If they ever build on a street or alley lawfully, it is only allowed when agreed to by the City of Mertzon. Were President Flores, Superintendent DeSpain, the school board and Mayor Taylor and the city council aware of the requirement of an ordinance? You bet they were. I notified them in my public comments to the City Council on December 7, 2020 and January 4, 2021, before ground was broken for the new gym. Everyone with authority knew, as did the District's key agents, WBK Construction and Potter Architects, and the District's lawyers at Eichelbaum Wardell. I copied the planet with emails, including the Texas Education Agency, advising everyone that the street had not been properly closed. But, the District and its agents persisted in building anyway, apparently taking the position that they would ask for forgiveness later IF anyone cared to make a point of it. Well, I care to make a point of it. I am a taxpayer and property owner - an abutting property owner, at that. Why should YOU care? See this post about how there is NO documentation on the closure of the alley. If you are a property owner in Mertzon, you need to be aware of this. The school is going to come back in a short few years for more bond money to build more facilities, so you need to pay attention. Related Post: Pickin' a Fight. (The alternate site, approved by the school board, would have been built on property solely owned by the school district and would not have involved closing a street.)

Ground had not been broken at 4th Street and the alley on December 6,2020, the date I took this photo and the day before I told the City and District that an ordinance was required. There was time for all involved to stop and pass an ordinance. I ended this post, City Gym, mentioning that there were no documents supporting the closure of the alley that the new gym sits on. I will flesh that out a bit more here. As a reminder, this photo shows that the gym sits on part of the alley, shown by the yellow line, that initially extended the distance between 4th and 5th streets. Page 1 of this document, an agenda item request made by Superintendent Ray DeSpain to the City of Mertzon before anything was closed, shows that the District knew it needed the alley for the placement of the gym. This page also shows, however, that the actual request was for only the closure of 4th Street, not the alley. Consistent with that, page 2 of the document, the agenda item showing the City's closure, likewise is worded only to "abandon and vacate" 4th Street and makes no mention of the alley. (Note that this "abandon and vacate" language tracks the language of the statute.) And, to drive this point home, when you closely read the MOU and the affidavit what you will see is that only 4th Street was "released". There is no mention anywhere that the alley was released or closed...or abandoned and vacated. Why? One plausible answer is that the City and the District (both represented by lawyers) had decided they were never going to receive written approval required by the statute from the landowners whose property is abutting the alley. So, they chose to ignore the statute. They created a legal fiction in the MOU and release of easement, and they commenced with the build out. If they had sought written approval from the landowners, it would have brought attention to the fact that they did not have legal authority to close the alley. In other words, they chose to build now and ask for forgiveness later. (Thus, the title of this post, Alley Oops, as in "Oops! Did we violate the law?! So sorry! I guess the new gym is here to stay!") Ignoring the statute (Texas Transportation Code 311.008) was a terrible solution. First, it hyper alienated the District's next door neighbors. Second, it is not legally effective. The legal character of 4th Street and the alley are unchanged to this day. An unlawfully abandoned or vacated street and alley leave behind a street and alley still owned by the City. Their legal status and location as street and alley hasn't changed. Granted, they have a huge gym on top of them. And, in traditional property law a building is considered an attachment to the real property and owned by the property owner, so one could even argue that the City now owns that portion of the gym on top of the street and alley. ("City Gym" is what I like to call it.) In addition, it is not as if the District can claim adverse possession of the street and alley were the City Council to get wise and one day ask for the land back. Adverse possession laws do not apply to land put to a public use that is owned by our government, so the District will never be able to claim that it is theirs. (See Texas Civil Practices and Remedies Code 16.030(b)). So, doing this MOU thing didn't accomplish a thing, and instead likely created some chinks in the City's and District's sovereign immunity armor. (Remember this sovereign immunity chink when I start putting up the images and videos of flooding in our community.) And, third, ignoring the statute sends a terrible message to the ICISD students. It tells young people that their school and city will sacrifice the law in order to have athletic facilities, even when those facilities flood the football stadium. (No classrooms were built with bond funds.) This is a twisted set of values to communicate to young people our community is educating! Hopefully, though, this site will whet some appetites for more sunshine among our younger citizens. (Tip of the day to any sun worshiping ICISD students: 1. there is no minimum age to attend a public meeting like a school board or city council meeting, you just can't be disruptive; and 2. there is no minimum age to send a public information request, and if you can't afford the cost you can ask to just look at the documents for free.) Can the City's MOU be challenged? I believe so, and there's no statute of limitations. The City Council's act of approving the MOU was void at the time it occurred because an ordinance is mandated by law, and there is a statute in the Local Government Code that tosses out the usual three year statute of limitations to bring an action when an act was void at the time it occurred. All Mertzon property owners need to be aware that an MOU and a release of easement affidavit are not an acceptable methods to abandon a street or alley. The City Council will be tempted to use these methods as a precedent for future actions if none of us are educated on the law. This site is about more than storm water runoff and waste of taxpayer dollars. It's also about you learning how to protect your property from government overreach. Alley Oops! Be good to your neighbor. Related post: City Gym is a must read if you want to know why an ordinance is required to close a street or alley.

That suburban in the background is Superintendent DeSpain's. It is impossible to deny the flooding caused by City Gym. Here is the audio of the Irion County ISD special board meeting on April 26, 2023. In time after this site gains momentum (a sure thing because the destructive force of storm water will make my case), the Board may realize that it is more to their advantage to follow their policies and post their own audio on their website rather than allow me to upstage them on Government In The Sun. Until such time, I will be posting what will seem to most to be mundane audio, but to the trained ear speaks volumes. Here's some analysis of this meeting. There's no discussion during the meeting that Superintendent DeSpain is leaving for Giddings ISD. The Vice President, Maegin Carlile, is presiding. Where's the president, Vicente Flores ("Junior" in the audio at the ping)? He's on vacation and has "permanently checked out" according to statements from Superintendent DeSpain to Ms. Carlile before the meeting started. But, as of this posting, there is nothing in the public record showing that Mr. Flores has resigned. They don't state the pledges to our flags, an easy symbolic win for good and patriotic leadership, as I have discussed before. Open forum? None. I'm the only member of the public present. And, speaking of public, it's been raised on this site and elsewhere that both DeSpain and Flores are headed out the door. A significant sign of disfunction of the board and administration in this meeting is that no one in the community is present to ask about it or show an ounce of concern. The District is truly disengaged from parents and stakeholders in the worst way. Background noise? You won't hear much. The only staff present was Chief Financial Officer Robert Helms. And, at one point during the Executive Session both DeSpain and Helms left the building. A sure sign of a board improperly conducting business in an executive session is when staff is absent. A two hour and ten minute executive session for a "private consultation with Board attorney" and "Personnel Discussion" is highly suspect. Both areas under the Open Meetings Act are thick with pitfalls and traps. The Board came out of executive session and took no action. Again, this lends itself to questioning what decisions, particularly financial decisions since the CFO was present, were made in private. The board came out of executive session improperly. (Listen for the ping in the audio.) Because it must document its executive sessions, it should read a script each time it goes back into open session and when the public is present. Their lawyer should have provided them a script to read; reading from a script at the conclusion of executive session and beginning of open is common practice. Generally, once in open session again they should be stating when executive session concluded, when open session is beginning AND an affirmative statement that no action was taken by the board in executive session. Calling for a motion to adjourn as was done in this meeting fails to create this record. There was no lawyer present in the meeting, nor was one piped in on their video equipment or from what I could tell during open session on call by phone. Frankly, were I a school board member handling the kind of money and issues they regularly handle, I wouldn't serve on the board without having a lawyer physically present in the room or always on the line. State agencies handle meetings with lawyers always present, and it does a lot for keeping board members out of the weeds and subject to the kind of problems I have seen this board get into. This school district can certainly afford to pay for more legal guidance.

4th St. next to the tennis couts with its flood ruined pavement and speed bump (This post has corrections.) Mertzon Mayor Bill Taylor took some parting shots at his next to last council meeting on April 17, 2023. The topic on the agenda was speed bumps, but it turned out to be about much more. This combined audio clip of Superintendent DeSpain's update to the school board on speed bumps and the City Council's discussion on whether to allow ICISD to put speed bumps around the school on city streets underscores the tensions between Irion County, Irion County ISD and the City of Mertzon. The timing of it all was nothing short of extraordinary because the School Board and City Council were meeting at the same time, April 17, 2023 at 6:30, so neither could have known what the other was in fact doing or saying and neither had representatives at the other's meeting. Here is the 7:38 audio of Supt. DeSpain's update and the City Council discussion on the Government in the Sun YouTube channel. First up in the audio is Supt. DeSpain's update (1:40 in length) to the Board in which he clearly is reporting that he has already purchased the speed bumps and has several locations he intends to place them. From his perspective, it is a done deal and he is only waiting for the order to come in to place the bumps and add another feather in his "safety and security game plan". DeSpain's presentation was an update, and no action was taken by the Board. After his clip, at -5:55 in the clip, I have added the discussion from the City Council. Apparently, the City had a request from Supt. DeSpain to place the issue of speed bumps on the City Council's agenda in order to receive their blessing to place the bumps. (The City has jurisdiction over our streets under state law, not the school.) What takes place in the City Council discussion is a surprisingly robust discussion about the merits of speed bumps and a final vote to table the matter. But their discussion was about so much more than speed bumps. Here are some highlights to listen for, at minutes and seconds in the audio: -4:46 Mayor Taylor takes a swipe at Irion County Sheriff, W.A. Estes, (without giving his name) and makes the point if speeding is a problem the citizens and the City shouldn't be using speed bumps but looking for "better law enforcement". -1:18 Mayor Taylor and Mayor Elect disagree on whether Superintendent DeSpain (without giving his name) is acting in good faith because no one from the school is present at the City's meeting, but they do agree on one thing: the school is "pushing us around". -:39 Council Member Councilman mentions that the ongoing meeting of the School Board may be the last meeting for Supt. DeSpain and President Flores (without giving their names), and Council Member Crutchfield quickly defends, "Allegedly. Allegedly." Refer to this post about the Board's special meeting regarding Supt. DeSpain, where I first raised publicly DeSpain's potential termination. -:17 The City Council vote to table the issue of speed bumps, not knowing that Supt DeSpain had just updated the Board that this was another victory for safety and security. So, this audio is about way more than speed bumps... My analysis: Mayor Taylor is right to be concerned about our Sheriff's failure to enforce certain laws, but this argument goes both ways because the City has no enforcement mechanism of its own and some municipal ordinances are too weak to be enforced. The City has complete authority to ramp up an enforcement department, but clearly Mayor Taylor and this Council have not wished to fund it. There is a sentiment on the Council that the way to keep Mertzon a small town is to not enforce the law. When Supt. DeSpain, or any school superintendent for that matter, mentions "safety and security" watch for the sun to go behind the clouds. ICISD more often than not is creating more safety and security problems than it resolves. "Safety and security" is an emotional hook to justify spending tax dollars or an attempt at covering something up. Case in point: one justification for closing 4th St. for the new gym (City Gym) was for the "safety and security" of the kids, even though the school had not one child injury incident on the street. If the school wants to tackle "safety and security", it need look no further than the flooding problems it has created for itself and our community. There is real merit to the exchange between Mayor Taylor and Mayor Elect Stewart that the school is pushing the City around. Supt. DeSpain's update proves that point well; he was taking the streets for the school's purposes, regardless. But, see this post where I point out that both the school and City knew that the 4th Street was improperly closed. And, Mayor Taylor cooperated in all that, at the behest of Supt. DeSpain and board members Ashley Hill and Wade Miller. The City will trade with the school when it thinks it has to or has something to gain, but when the stakes are down it gives in. It will be interesting to see if Mayor Taylor puts the matter on the agenda again. Though the election is on May 6, it has been cancelled since it is uncontested. Mayor Elect Stewart's first meeting as Mayor is May 15. (I previously had Mayor Elect Stewart taking over on May 2. That was incorrect, and I apologize any inconvenience this might have caused Mayor Taylor and Mayor Elect Stewart.) Here's a potential way to go forward: The governing bodies, Irion County Commissioner's Court (the Sheriff's office is part of the County), Irion County ISD, and City of Mertzon, should have representatives at each other's commissioner/board/council meetings. This would create sunshine for all.

Sun is the best disinfectant... According to TexasISD, Irion County ISD is in search of a new superintendent...upon Gidding ISD's acceptance of Superintendent DeSpain as its new superintendent. KWHI Radio has also announced that DeSpain is the "Lone Finalist" for the Giddings job. This certainly explains Irion County ISD's posting for yet another special board meeting this week, Wednesday, April 26 for the sole purpose of an executive session on personnel and to meet with their attorney. I have posted that agenda below. Technically, DeSpain is in the window under the law where nothing can be finalized for 21 days. That period appears to have started on April 12 or 13, if one considers Giddings ISD postings, so at the time of this posting, April 25, it is still ongoing. TexasISD states that TASB Executive Search Services did the search for Giddings. Last year I copied TASB with a number of my issues concerning Irion County ISD and how it has mishandled the 2019 bond package. Surely everything has been fully disclosed to Giddings. But even TASB failed to open a dialogue with me on the issues I raised, the most significant one being whether anyone ever should be allowed to donate to a public school anonymously. (No!) But this timing is indeed awkward. Maybe folks don't know?! Right now is a good time to recall my message to be good to your neighbor found in my About page. The District, lead by Superintendent DeSpain and President Flores, has wholly dismissed me as its neighbor. Perhaps now folks wish they had at least invited me over for a cup of coffee and confirmed that they intended to work with me to protect my 110 year old home from being destroyed by the District's storm water runoff. In addition to this post, in the last 24 hours I have continued my journey for more sunlight with yet another open records request to ICISD, along with a log provided to them that spells out how they haven't responded to my last request and all the ones before. In an era of free ink, such things can be posted online in seconds, I am well aware, and could potentially impact the Giddings decision. As a reminder about the seriousness of the impending floods to the football field that will be caused by City Gym, before their meeting I had initially planned to post a drawing of architect Jeff Potter. (Potter was the District's architect, and it is his plans that send storm water directly into the street from District property.) I have a page of his that shows exactly how many gallons per minute of water will be coming off the new City Gym and thus will be flooding the football field. Then I was going to convert that to acre feet of water. Yes, acre feet. But, I am reminded of the 2019 joint special meeting between the City of Mertzon City Council and the ICISD school board when ICISD Principal Jessica Parker spoke and asked her elementary students to stand. She then announced that she didn't need data I was saying the District needed about storm water runoff, her students were all she needed as proof that the gym needed to go on 4th street. The 2019 bond has all along been about the students and, of course, their safety and security. Right? Or has it? What to do, what to do? For today, I'll emphasize this: Be good to your neighbor. Be good to your neighbor. It's really that simple. When that water gap busts and cattle are everywhere, man is it a good idea to have been decent to your neighbor before the flood. Sometimes sharing a simple cup of coffee with your neighbor will do. My father taught me that at the ranch, and its something we all need to remember. Below is the posting for Wednesday's board meeting. In my opinion, there has never been a darker day at ICISD. By reading this posting one could never know what was really going on. Total blackout. No sun. A deep infection.