By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
A divided commissioners court has voted to allow one of its members control over many of the
county’s buildings.
The court took the action during its last meeting of the year on Dec. 30.
The court has been discussing control of county offices and buildings during each of its meetings
since Nov. 19.
During that meeting, Commissioner Pct. 2 Juan Carlos Vazquez told the court he had placed the
item on the meeting agenda because there are two relatively new members of the court,
Commissioner Pct. 1 Kerr Wardlaw and Commissioner Pct. 3 Fernando Garcia, who both took
office at the beginning of 2025.
Vazquez said during the Nov. 19 meeting, “I just wanted to visit regarding the office space and
the county fairgrounds.”
During the ensuing discussion, County Judge Lewis G. Owens Jr. noted Wardlaw’s predecessor
as Precinct 1 commissioner, his father, Martin Wardlaw, had been placed in charge of the
fairgrounds in 2018, despite the fact the fairgrounds are physically located in Precinct 3.
Owens also voiced the opinion that the members of the court “need to respect our boundaries and
our lines,” adding he believed the community center in Comstock needed to be under Garcia’s
control as commissioner of that precinct, the community center in Precinct 4 needed to be under
the control of Commissioner Pct. 4 Gustavo “Gus” Flores and so on.
At the end of the discussion during the November meeting, the court voted to postpone any
action until a future meeting.
The issue was brought back during the court’s Dec. 3 and Dec. 17 meetings.
During the Dec. 3 meeting, after some discussion, Garcia offered the suggestion that all buildings
on the courthouse square be placed under the control of the county judge, the fairgrounds be
placed under Wardlaw’s control and all of the remaining county buildings be placed under
Vazquez’s control.
Garcia subsequently made a motion that all of the buildings on the courthouse square, as well as
the county administration building, the county agent’s offices, the county library and the fire stations – the existing station and the new station the county is planning to build – and the
veterans service office, be placed under the control of the county judge; that the buildings at the
fairgrounds be under Wardlaw’s control and that all other buildings be under Vazquez’s control.
Flores immediately asked, “What other buildings are you talking about? You need to mention
them.”
Garcia said he was not going to mention them, adding, “We know what the list is.”
Owens asked if Garcia would have control of the community center in Comstock, and Garcia
said no, adding the Comstock community center had been under Flores’ control, as per a court
order appointing a buildings committee.
The court order Garcia referred to is a years-old action by the commissioners court at that time to
create a committee, headed by Flores, whose mandate was “to formulate a plan for office space
assignment.”
In response to Garcia’s statement that the Comstock community center had been under Flores’
control as per the court order, Flores replied, “No, it’s not.”
“You said all buildings are under you,” Garcia said.
“That building was under (former Commissioner Pct. 3) Beau (Nettleton). It was given to Beau,
and he had control of that building. I’ve never had no say-so over that building,” Flores replied.
Owens then said, “Okay, let’s get to the elephant in the room. The community center in Cienegas
would be under who?”
“Precinct 2,” Garcia responded, drawing a laugh from Flores, who added, “Oh, come on. It’s in
Cienegas (in Precinct 4).”
When Garcia noted the court order had placed Flores in charge of buildings not in his precinct,
Flores again insisted he had never been in charge of those buildings.
After additional discussion, the court voted to table the item until after its executive session later
in the meeting, but after the executive session, Owens said he would bring back more
information about the issue at a future meeting.
During its Dec. 17 meeting, the court first rescinded the order that created the buildings
committee headed by Flores.
Control of county buildings was also on the agenda of the court’s Dec. 17 meeting, but was once
again tabled.
The issue came up again on the court’s Dec. 30 agenda as “discussion and possible action on
office space and the control of the county buildings.” Vazquez again had placed the item on the
court’s agenda.
After Owens read the heading of the agenda item, Vazquez said,
“I want to make a motion that
the (county) judge would have control of all the buildings at the courthouse square, the CAD
building, the Dink Wardlaw (Agricultural Complex), the county library, the fire station and the
veterans affairs office. Commissioner Pct. 1 would have the buildings at the fairgrounds, and
Commissioner Pct. 2, myself, would have authority over all the remaining county buildings.”
Garcia gave the second.
There was no further discussion, and Owens called for the vote.
Vazquez, Wardlaw and Garcia voted in favor of the motion, and Owens and Flores voted against
the motion.
After the meeting, Owens explained his vote in opposition to Vazquez’s motion.
Owens said, “I’ve voiced my opinions on this before. The community center in Comstock should
be under the control of the commissioner of Precinct 3. The community center in Precinct 4
should be under the control of the commissioner of Precinct 4. The Tony Faz County Annex
should be under the control of the commissioner of Precinct 2. The fairgrounds, there’s a court
order putting that under the control of Commissioner (Pct. 1) Wardlaw.
“All the other buildings, at the end of the day, when we rescinded the court order where we had a
committee (in charge of them), it goes back to what it was before, basically if you want to go to
somebody about a county building, you go to any one of the members of the court or you go to
the judge, but for a commissioner to have control over what happens in another commissioner’s
precinct, I don’t think that’s right,” Owens said.
Vazquez, contacted by The 830 Times following the meeting, reiterated what he had said during
the initial discussion of the buildings and offices issues, simply that he wanted to revisit the issue
because of the two new commissioners on the court. He said following the elections later this
year, the court seated in 2027 may want to look at the issue yet again.
“I’m not trying to take anything away from any of the other commissioners. It’s simply
something I thought we needed to revisit because of the new faces on the court, and also, this is
not a daily, building operations type of deal,” Vazquez said in a telephone interview.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com
