By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
About 10 county and city residents on Wednesday urged county commissioners court members to keep at least some of their meetings in the evenings.
The court by state statute can only change the meeting time and date during the last meeting of the fiscal year, and last year, the court voted to move one of its meetings to the evening hours.
This year, a number of citizens have asked the court to hold all of
members to move all of its meetings to the evening hours or to keep one meeting in the
morning and the other in the evening. Fuentes made her comments during Wednesday’s
commissioners court meeting. (Photo by Karen Gleason)
its biweekly meetings in the evenings.
Some of those citizens spoke to the court again during the citizen comments portion of its meeting Wednesday.
County resident Lionel Reyes asked the court to maintain the status quo of morning and evening meetings.
He gestured at the audience behind him as he addressed the court and said, “You’ve got a full gallery. A lot of people can make the evening (meetings).”
Reyes’ wife, Lori Reyes, asked the court to move all of its meetings to the evening hours. If the court could not do that, she urged the court to keep at least one of its meetings in the evening.
“As you can tell, much better attendance in the evening, and that in general has happened throughout the past year,” she said.
County resident Patricia Grace asked the court to move all its meetings to the evenings.
“It is very important in a democracy that we have as much participation in the democratic process as is possible. This is what makes our government the best in the world and unique from the rest of the world. Changing the meeting time to the evenings, even though it may be inconvenient for some, will allow many more of your constituents to show up and participate, which is good for everyone,” Grace told the court.
Del Rioan Jake Carsten said he believed the meetings should be
be held at the most convenient time for citizens. Carsten spoke to the court during its
meeting on Wednesday. (Photo by Karen Gleason)
held at times “most convenient to the most citizens.”
County resident Yazmina Zapata told the court she lived in the Moreno Valley Subdivision and also supported evening meetings.
“I work for the high school, and my hours are 7:30 to 4, so I do agree for the meetings to be in the evenings so we can attend,” she said.
Melinda Ponce, a leader in The Border Organization and a resident of Precinct 2, told the court she would appreciate it keeping at least one evening meeting.
Sandra Fuentes, a co-chair of The Border Organization, was the last person to address the court about the issue.
Fuentes and The Border Organization had prodded the court last year to change the time of one of its biweekly meetings.
“I’m not too sure what I can add to what the people before me have already stated. . . I looked up your mission. What is the mission statement for Val Verde County? It said this: ‘Our mission is to listen attentively to constituents, to truly understand their needs and provide the best solution with a sense of warmth, friendliness and good spirits.’
“You have a crowd tonight, and for those people who think there are more people in the morning (meetings), I’m going to say, you’re wrong. There are more people in the evenings. They’re standing in the hallway (tonight).
“We are very respectfully asking the court: we’d love to have the two meetings in the evenings, but at the very least, do what your mission statement says and provide the best solution for the constituents, not for the county judge, not for the commissioner, not for the county clerk, for the constituents,” Fuentes said.
Fuentes returned to her seat amidst scattered applause from the audience.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com.
