By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
A county resident is urging Val Verde County Commissioners Court for greater transparency, calling on the court to publish more information about agenda items prior to meetings during which decisions on those items are made.
County resident Lori Reyes spoke to the court during the citizens’ comments portion of its agenda on Wednesday.
Reyes told the court, “I have a concern about your agendas and,
in particular, multiple items on today’s agenda. Your agenda items are very vague. Items that may be of concern to the constituency are passed too quickly. When do we, the voters, have input?
“One of the few things the city of Del Rio does well is make all of the details of the agenda items available ahead of time. The (information) is attached to the agendas posted on the city website. The county agendas are very vague and seem incomplete,” she said.
Reyes then went into specifics about the items she had questions about.
“For example, today’s item 17 (on the agenda): ‘discussion and possible action on giving the county judge authority to sign property deeds to the city of Del Rio after final review by the county attorney.’ What properties? Where are they located? Why does the county want to give them to Del Rio? Is there a review board? How are these decisions made? We know nothing from this agenda item, so therefore we can’t do our own due diligence to look into any of this,” Reyes said.
She continued, “Item 18 is ‘discussion and possible action to apply to TxDOT (Texas Department of Public Safety) for the transportation alternative funding for a hike-and-bike trail along Las Brisas Boulevard.’ If the city gets its way and turns Las Brisas into a four-lane highway (leading to a proposed second international bridge), is the county prepared to fight the city for reimbursement? I think the trail is a great idea, unless the city paves over it and it becomes a waste of taxpayer funds.
“We’re always looking for money for projects. Spending money on a project that may be about to be paved over, while it’s a great project, is it a great idea? We need to fight the city, they need to come up with a decision on the route (between a proposed second international bridge and U.S. Highway 90), if there’s even going to be a bridge, which is completely unnecessary, which is also besides the point,” Reyes said.
“Next item, number 39: ‘discussion and possible action on permit request for a frontier fiber optic installation within the county ROW (right-of-way) located in the Lake Ridge area. . . Where is this installation going to be? What roads will be affected? This is just public information that residents of our area would like to know,” Reyes said.
She finished, “Please make the agenda items more transparent and user-friendly to the public. We would appreciate understanding what is being discussed. Thank you.”
Later in the meeting, County Judge Lewis G. Owens Jr. responded to Reyes’ comments, saying, “Ms. Reyes, I will try to do a better job of what we post on the website. I do think it’s important, and we do take your comments seriously.”
As the agenda moved along, the court took up the three items Reyes spoke about during her comments.
On the item dealing with the signing of property deeds to the city, Owens explained, “There are properties on Brodbent (Avenue) across the street from the San Felipe Cemetery that belong to the city and the county, both sets of lots belong to the city and the county, but when you do research on them, some of them say city and some of them say county and you do more research and they say city, so the park that Commissioner (Pct. 1 Martin) Wardlaw just built across from the cemetery, those are the lots we’re talking about.
“There’s also some lots that belong to the county there across from Bank & Trust baseball field, a lot with a bunch of mesquites there on the corner and a parking lot. Those are the lots we are talking about swapping with the city for the lots on Brodbent.
“There’s also a tract of land, when the city did a subdivision out on Lewis and Ray Drives out in Val Verde Park Estates. When you’re going to the base (on Highway 90), you’re going to see a water tower on your left, if you head toward that tower and go just a little bit past it on Lewis and Ray Drives, there’s an empty lot that’s sort of pie-shaped. The city owns that tract, and it would be given to the county so the county can maintain it and make a little walking park for the citizens in the area,” Owens said.
County Commissioner Pct. 4 Gustavo “Gus” Flores made a motion to approve the exchange as presented, with County Commissioner Pct. 2 Juan Carlos Vazquez giving the second. The motion passed unanimously.
On the second item Reyes addressed, the hike-and-bike trail, County Commissioner Pct. 3 Beau Nettleton asked that it be tabled. He said he was waiting for additional information from TxDOT, which he had not yet received. The court unanimously approved the motion to table.
The third item Reyes questioned, the installation of fiber optic cables on county rights-of-way, was addressed by Nettleton, as the roads involved lie in his precinct.
“The roads that these fibers optics will be in are Las Brisas, Kenwood, Sunny Lane, Gabriela Way, Gabriel Loop, Dos Pistolas, Dos Caballos, Dos Amigos and Camino Del Flor,” Nettleton said in making the motion to approve the permit request.
Vazquez gave the second, and the motion passed unanimously.
The writer can be at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com
