Guest Column
by RAY WOLBRECHT
Two weeks ago the headline story of the Hays Co Free Press was that the lawsuit against ACC was dropped. Actually it was dismissed, not dropped (there’s a difference you know) and some were happy, some weren’t, and some don’t have a clue and don’t care. Now they can get on with the job of building the campus, the article said. The appellate court ruled that the protest issue was the consolidation of the annexation with an issuance of bonds, and that issue was an interlocutory decree and thus could not be appealed. For some reason Texas law provides for the non appeal of a decision or decree that is made on the way (interlocutory) towards a ruling or settlement, that final settlement being the ordering of a security bond to the tune of $3 million dollars (we couldn’t put up that bond( well, duh) so the lawsuit was dismissed). So the court ruled not to rule because it was non jurisdictional (they couldn’t). Does this make your brain ache or what? Therefore we should’ve protested the amount of the security bond, not the consolidation. But the consolidation of the annexation lawsuit with the issuance of bonds is what never should’ve happened. Well spin me till I’m dizzy!
So this means that the recipe, established by the Texas legislature, for a service plan which is supposed to tell the voters what, among other things, the tax liability of the property owners will be if they vote for ACC annexation, can be ignored. All any entity has to do now is to tag the issuance of bonds to any election and in doing so force the plaintiff to put up an enormous security bond or the lawsuit is dismissed. That means only the very wealthy will be able to contest malfeasance during the election process. And you sure won’t be able to get the Texas Ethics Commission interested.
Now I’m sorry if you have to read this several times before you understand this, as I had to do, but it’s worth it to see how mysterious logic has become these days.
Well hold on there; it’s not over yet. A motion for a rehearing has been filed and possibly the appellate court may see the non logic of this type of activity. At the very least let them see what the intent was when the Legislature wrote the law. It surely wasn’t meant to be used like the way ACC is using it.
Speaking of ACC, Steve Kinslow, CEO of ACC was quoted by the HCFP as saying, “The delay caused by this baseless legal challenge…blah blah…etc.” Baseless…?” The lawyer for ACC said they were eager to discuss the merits of this case in court but did everything they could do to make sure that discussion never saw the light of day. They did an end run around the issue and so far have been successful. Let them prove it’s baseless. Let us try to show the public that it isn’t.
We have no regrets in pressing the lawsuit and the appeal. “Think globally, act locally” is the way the adage goes. We saw an entity which demands, through the weight of a lien on our property, money from property owners and in return promises us increased prosperity through job creation via education. Trouble is, the taking of our by- the-sweat-of-our-brow money is not measurable; it is abstract and theoretical. We’ll never know what kind of a deal we get in return. Far above that is the fact that this junior college will have the ability to tax much more than what they led so many voters to believe…up to 10 ½ times more. Even better than that is ACC’s reputation concerning forged signatures on ballot petitions and the attempted but unsuccessful intimidation of an election official when they were trying to annex San Marcos a few years ago. Kiddos, this is how they work. They give us a goat and tell us it’s a pony.
Phil Jones in the “Opinions” section of the same issue lamented that money has corrupted the election campaign. That’s on a national and local level. Barry Gilardi, a supporter and comrade-in-arms told me, “ACC’s too big to fight. They have the money, the politicians, the lawyers.” But we’d do it again in another fight if it came to that. None of us can stand by and watch anymore while we are lied to and used.
