By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Tenants at the county fairgrounds who operate businesses there should be required to carry insurance, County Attorney David Martinez told members of county commissioners court April 26.
Martinez made his comments to the court at the outset of a discussion on an agenda item to consider requiring any individual that rents or leases at the fairgrounds to purchase insurance “and includes but is not limited to rodeos, bull riding, barbecue cook-offs, monster truck shows, circuses, concerts, training horses, horseback riding lessons and (anyone) conducting any other type of business at the Val Verde County Fairgrounds.”
After County Judge Lewis G. Owens Jr. announced the agenda item, he asked Martinez to share his research and perspective on the issue.
“It’s my opinion that if any individual is going to be conducting business out there, and I know that this agenda item lists several types of events that are out there, but I also know that some of the concerns have been that some people who rent stalls out there are conducting private businesses out there. My opinion is this exposes Val Verde County to potential liability, and if someone is going to be conducting a business out of their stall or stalls, my opinion is that they ought to be required to provide some type of insurance that’s going to protect the county from liability,” Martinez told the court.
“How are we going to determine that?” County Commissioner Pct. 3 Beau Nettleton asked.
“I don’t have that answer for you, but you do have a fairgrounds manager out there. One way would be, if you belong out there, if you’ve rented a stall, obviously you belong out there, but as an example, this individual that has brought all this attention to the fairgrounds a few weeks ago, the abuse of the horse, was an individual that we’ve learned doesn’t rent from Val Verde County, didn’t really belong there, and we don’t really know how he got there or at whose invitation he was brought there,” Martinez said.
“So that leads me to believe that there are third parties – and when I say third parties, I mean individuals who don’t have any formal business being out there – that are out there,” Martinez added.
“What’s our plan to control that?” Nettleton asked.
“You tell me, commissioner,” Martinez replied.
“I don’t know. I’m not the one in charge of the fairgrounds,” Nettleton said.
One unidentified member of the audience who attended the meeting called out, “In our contract, it says that the county is not responsible for any accidents.”
“That type of a waiver really doesn’t hold much water in a court of law,” Martinez said.
“And I’m going to throw some examples out, and people are going to get mad, but this is what I’ve seen. We have people out there that break horses for a living. They have horses that come in from other places. If you are breaking a horse and using the fairgrounds to run your business, I think you should have insurance to cover the rest of us,” Owens said.
“If you’re an individual and you have a horse and you’re out there to ride and bring your cousins out so they can ride, then they’re going to come ride your horse, but if I give lessons, if you’re breaking horses, if you’re training racehorses, anything that is your business, I believe that you should have insurance to cover the county, and that’s the reason I asked David (Martinez) to look into this, to see if it would be legal for us to require insurance,” the county judge added.
“If you just have your personal horse and you’re just out there riding or if you have your cousin or your brother or somebody and you help feed his horse every now and then, I don’t think there’s a problem, but if you’re charging anything, whether with hay or with feed or with money, to train somebody’s horse, it’s a business, and that’s my opinion,” Owens said.
Audience members and the court then diverged into a discussion of improvements planned for, but not yet made, at the fairgrounds.
County Commissioner Pct. 1 Martin Wardlaw assured those attending the meeting that he had a plan for making those improvements.
“But I’ll tell you what I do not have a plan on is the drinking that takes place on the weekends. Friday afternoon is when it starts. Monday we go through and we check the barrels, and they’re half-full of beer cans. The employees at the fairgrounds are not law enforcement. They cannot confront those people. I’m not law enforcement. I’m not going to confront them, but it takes place starting Friday afternoon and it goes on and on, and that’s when a lot of that fighting and all that goes on, and it’s people that lease there,” Wardlaw said.
Owens steered the conversation back to the issue of requiring insurance.
Nettleton asked if the county requires youth sports leagues to carry insurance when they play on county fields.
“Yes,” Owens said.
“My concern is how are you going to determine what is and what isn’t a business?” Nettleton said.
“Perhaps that’s a good issue for your fairgrounds committee to take up as well in conjunction with members of this court and the fairgrounds manager,” Martinez said.
Nettleton said it was his opinion that if the fairgrounds committee were to continue, he would like to see fairgrounds tenants Brenda Castillo and Virginia Vargas be placed on it.
One man from the audience called out, asking if there would be no more beer at rodeos.
Owens replied that events at the fairgrounds, like the George Paul Memorial Bullriding and the Rotary Club Rodeo, pay for insurance and buy a liquor license from the state.
“I’m going to make a motion to table this until somebody can determine what a business is and how that’s going to function,” Nettleton said.
County Commissioner Pct. 4 Gustavo “Gus” Flores gave the second.
“Could we have the fairgrounds committee make that decision?” Flores asked after some additional discussion.
“Ultimately this court is going to have to make that decision,” Martinez said.
Nettleton then amended his motion, asking that Castillo and Vargas be appointed to the fairgrounds committee.
Owens again reiterated his opinion that if anyone has a business at the fairgrounds, they should be required to have insurance.
Sheriff Joe Frank Martinez then asked to be placed on the committee as well.
Nettleton then said he wished to withdraw his earlier motion, and make another motion to table the item for further discussion and to put an item on the court’s next meeting agenda to again discuss the issue.
Flores gave the second, and Nettleton’s motion passed unanimously.
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