By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Val Verde County Commissioners Court currently won’t support the construction of a second international bridge northwest of Del Rio.
County Judge Lewis G. Owens Jr. reiterated that statement Wednesday, after a county resident approached commissioners court asking for more information about the court’s stance on the proposed construction of a second international bridge by city of Del Rio officials.
County resident Luis Maldonado spoke to commissioners court during the citizen comments portion of the court’s May regular term meeting on Wednesday.
Maldonado told the court, “I’m up here, I haven’t been able to make these meetings for a while, and from my understanding, most of you all have gone back to wanting the (second international) bridge up in the Lake Ridge area (northwest of the Del Rio city limits). This is in regards to the point of entry, the new point of entry.”
“Could you repeat that?” Owens asked.
“This is in regards to the new point of entry, that you all are wanting to go back to the Las Brisas area for it, so I’m here to ask what’s going on? Because I haven’t been here,” Maldonado said.
“We’re not going to be able to respond to you, in citizens’ comments, but if you want to talk to me after the meeting, I’ll visit with you,” Owens said.
“Is there a reason why not?” Maldonado asked.
County Attorney David Martinez responded, “This is not a communication. You can make comments, but they (the members of the court) are not permitted to discuss. That’s under the (Texas) Open Meetings Act.”
After the meeting, Owens met briefly with Maldonado and three other county residents who have regularly attended commissioners court meetings over the past year-and-a-half to repeatedly voice their opposition to the placement of a second international bridge northwest of Del Rio.
Asked by The 830 Times to repeat what he had told the residents, Owens said, “The discussion that I just had with Mr. Maldonado is that he implied the members of the court were changing their minds, and as I told him, as of right now, I have not had any member of the court – and there’s been no vote taken – to change our minds.
“As I told him, I still stand by my vote, that I think the bridge needs to be north (of Del Rio), as long as the route (between the bridge site and area highways) is changed. At that point, if that doesn’t happen, then we’ll need to have another conversation, but as of right now, the court has voted 4-to-1 not to support a bridge north of the bridge we have right now. Simple. That’s it. It doesn’t matter what my vote is. The court has voted, and that’s what we’re going to do,” Owens added.
After the meeting, Martinez further explained why neither the judge nor the commissioners could respond directly to citizen who address the court during the citizen comments portion of the meeting.
“Under the Open Meetings Act, there is a section that allows the commissioners or the judge, whoever sets the agenda, to allow for citizens’ comments. It is simply for comments by the citizens. It is not for a back-and-forth discussion between the citizen and the judge or the members of the court.
“It’s not a discussion item. It’s a comment item. So the commissioners can listen to whatever comments any citizen wants to make about anything. No, there have been occasions where we have citizens’ comments that are related to items that are on the agenda, and the court at times has moved up that agenda item immediately after citizens’ comments to allow for a discussion to occur, but that is when the item is on the agenda,” Martinez said.
“In today’s instance, there was not an item for that discussion to occur, and it seemed like the citizen was a little disappointed that he wasn’t allowed to have a discussion, but the Open Meetings Act prevents that. If there is not an item to address that issue, you can’t have that discussion,” the county attorney added.
Reach the writer at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com
