By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
(Story detailing sheriff’s office investigation into mailbox thefts here.)
A county resident expressed frustration and outrage during a commissioners court meeting
earlier this week when county elected officials and a U.S. Postal Service supervisor told her they
couldn’t provide immediate help to repair or replace a community mailbox damaged by thieves.
County commissioners court members discussed the legality of replacing damaged mailboxes
during their December regular term meeting on Wednesday.
Judge, commissioners discuss
County Judge Lewis G. Owens Jr. initiated the discussion, telling the court a number of
community mailboxes, known as “cluster mailboxes,” have been vandalized and broken into in
Precinct 3 and Precinct 2.
Owens said Commissioner Pct. 3 Fernando Garcia and Commissioner Pct. 2 Juan Carlos Vazquez have both asked him what can be done. Owens said the court has encountered this
problem before, and added there isn’t anything the county can do to repair or replace the
damaged mailboxes.
Owens invited County Attorney David Martinez to elaborate.
Martinez explained the mailboxes are private. To repair or replace them, “the court would have
to find it serves a public purpose,” the county attorney said.
Martinez said in a past instance, the county assisted with relocating a group of cluster mailboxes
from the highway right-of-way to an adjacent county road right-of-way because the court found
the mailbox cluster along the highway created a public safety hazard.
Martinez told the court, “That’s a little different than what we’re facing right now. As I
understand the issue, right now commissioners are being asked to replace damaged cluster
mailboxes. The issue isn’t the location, and if that is, in fact, the case, it is my opinion that that
does not serve a public purpose, therefore we cannot expend public funds for that private
purpose,” Martinez said.
He added, “The question that was posed to my office was whether or not it was legal for
commissioners court to approve the purchase and replacement of cluster mailboxes, and under
the current situation, I don’t believe that it meets a public purpose, and I’m not asking this court
to find that meets a public purpose.”
Commissioner Pct. 4 Gustavo “Gus” Flores commented he believed the issue fell squarely within
purview of the U.S. Postal Service.
Martinez replied, “At the end of the day, that, sadly, is a situation that doesn’t involve the county.
It involves the postal service and their customers, who are our citizens, some of our citizens, but
that’s not a county issue.”
Post office perspective
Owens then recognized Raul Salazar, who introduced himself as a supervisor at the U.S. Post
Office.
Salazar began by saying he would like to “meet halfway and find a solution,” noting his office is
on a budget and that despite rumors circulating in the community, the post office does not keep
spare mailboxes on site.
Salazar said the mailboxes could be ordered right away, noting a total of seven mailboxes were
damaged and estimating the replacement cost at about $9,000.
Owens said funding is not the issue.
“The problem is I’m being told, by my county attorney, that I legally can’t do it,” Owens said.
When Salazar said, “Well, in his words, he said, ‘I don’t believe,’ or, ‘in his opinion,’ being the
location of where it is, you wouldn’t be able to. . .”
Martinez interjected, “If I may, just to clarify the record. My statement was, the issues in the past
dealt with location. The issue now doesn’t deal with location. It has nothing to do with location.
It’s the legality of finding a public purpose, which doesn’t exist.”
Salazar again talked of “meeting the county halfway,” noting the damaged mailboxes affected
about 112 customers, all trying to receive holiday cards, checks and packages. If left to the post
office, Salazar said, the solution is “going to take months.”
Owens said since the county can’t legally pay for the replacement mailboxes, he suggested the
citizens whose mailboxes were affected might be able to split the cost of a cluster mailbox for
their area.
The county judge told Salazar, “I don’t think that I, as a citizen, should burden the county to go
pay for a mailbox that I’m being told by my legal department that I can’t do, right? So if you all
can’t do it because you don’t have it in your budget, and you don’t have the boxes, then you all
can’t do it, just like we can’t put them up as a court. So the next thing is, do you want your
mailbox put out there? Well, as a citizen, then we have to go pay for that box.”
Salazar replied, “Well, judge, if you had heard me correctly, I didn’t say we couldn’t do it. I said
it was going to take time to do it. I can’t do it in one swoop. Again, I reiterate that. I can’t do it in
one month. It’s going to be over several months, but my important thing is getting this mail to
your constituents, our customers, and that’s why I’m trying to come out to a solution.
Owens replied, “I appreciate you coming. I really do. That way everybody gets to listen. They
can go back and listen to some of this later on, the ones that didn’t show up. Legally, we can’t do
it. We can’t pay for mailboxes.”
Owens and Salazar carried on additional discussion about the issue. At the end, Owens again
thanked Salazar for coming in to talk to the court, and Salazar said, “Just let your constituents
know that it is going to take time. We’ll go ahead and resolve the issue.”
Upset postal customers
Owens then recognized Carolyn Rempfher, a resident of the Hold Up Pass area.
Rempfher spoke about the damaged mailboxes and asked the court, “Why can’t you just hire
somebody to fix what was broke, put new locks on it until you figure this out, so we don’t have
to drive 10 miles and back out 10 miles. It wasn’t our fault. Plus the fact that night the thing was
broken into, there was a dark blue, older model SUV right there behind those mailboxes with a
beige cattle guard on it. How hard would it be to find who did this, number one?”
Rempfher then asked if the county could obtain a grant to replace the mailboxes.
Owens told her, “All I can give you is my opinion, and you’re not going to like it, just like you
didn’t like it on Friday. I don’t think it’s the county’s responsibility to pay for my mailbox out in
Quail Run, just like it’s not the county’s responsibility to pay for yours.”
Rempfher told the court, “There’s no reason that the county cannot go halfway with the post
office. They can come up with the money. I don’t care what the law is.”
Martinez interjected, telling her, “It’s my job to care what the law is, to advise them
accordingly.”
Rempfher said, “And it’s my law to sit in here and bitch if I want to bitch about it.”
Owens said, “That’s how come I asked you to come up, because I knew this was coming, and I
asked you to come up. . . and yes, ma’am, it is your right.”
Rempfher said, “I just don’t understand why you all don’t get it? You all just don’t get it. If
anybody in here, their mailboxes had been broken into like that, you don’t think they’d be in here
complaining to the county who we pay our taxes (to), just like everybody else? Take some of the
money you’re going to use for the stupid whatever you’ve got coming up, the bridge or the road
or whatever’s going to Mexico. Take some of that money. You’ve got money to do it. You’ve got
money to do it. You’ve got money to do half with the post office.”
Owens said, “The money – and that’s what I told the individual from the post office – the
money’s not the problem.”
Garcia told her, “Do we have the money? Yes. Can we legally spend the money? No. And I know
you’re upset at our county attorney for his opinion, and you may not care about his opinion, but
we also have an attorney general, Ken Paxton, who, in (AG) Opinion KP-0169, expressly stated that ‘municipalities or taxing units cannot spend money on a mailbox,’ so he (Martinez) is just
following up with what our attorney general has stated, so I can forward you the opinion if you
want, but it’s no one in here saying I don’t want to do this, okay? It’s, we legally cannot do this.
It’s not a want. It’s a legal issue. Like I told you Friday.”
Garcia said if he were able to pay to replace or repair the mailboxes out of his precinct budget, he
would.
“If I could legally spend the money in my budget, I would spend the money. The problem is, I
cannot, and it’s his (Martinez’s) and the attorney general of Texas’ opinion that I legally cannot,”
Garcia said.
After additional discussion, Rempfher continued to express her frustration the mailboxes could
not be fixed and finally told the court, “That’s just my bitch for the day.”
Owens thanked her for coming in and thanked Salazar again.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com
