March 15, 2007

Spring Roundup
By Jack D. McNamara

State Representative Pete P. Gallego took responsibility for the failure to notify local elected officials of his water district legislation, HB 545 and HB 546. He said, “my name is on the door,” and that he was “trying to rectify a mistake” when he spoke to a gathering of county and city officials in Marfa on March 6.

Janet Grubb, administrator of both the Presidio and Jeff Davis County groundwater districts, echoed Gallego and took part of the “blame.” She said she “assumed” everyone was “up to snuff.”

The apology took care of the procedural issue well enough but there were many questions regarding the substance of the bills. Gallego said his intent was merely to unify the county districts in the event of another water marketer coming into the area.

Gallego said, “You all are grandfathered.” Turning to his staffers they offered the term “historical use” which generally means among the water planners that whatever we are doing we can keep doing.

City Secretary Cindi Clarke of Presidio wanted some more specificity, however, and posed a hypothetical question: “When Presidio reaches 50,000 (population) the water district will not shut us off from drilling another well?”

Gallego said No. Janet Adams said No.
Gallego concluded the session by saying that before the Marfa event he had met with Rod Ponton (a fellow who is “up on water law”) as well as Alpine City Manager Jesus “Chuy” Garcia and Alpine Ward 1 Representative Avinash Rangra. They resolved their differences and that evening the city of Alpine passed a resolution supporting the bill. On March 9, Senator Carlos Uresti filed a companion bill in the Texas Senate, SB 1895.

Representative Gallego has introduced about two dozen bills in the House as of the close of filing deadline of March 10.

Representative Gallego has another bill concerning water, HB 3477 “relating to the creation of a strategic mapping program to be administered by the Texas Water Development Board.”

Texas Open Meetings Act
As the debate over HB 545/HB 546 wound down a quarter page ad appeared in the Alpine Avalanche of March 8, “Resolution of the Brewster County Groundwater District supporting House Bill 545.” The ad says the resolution was adopted March 5, 2007.

Which is a good thing because state law says clearly the groundwater districts are subject to the Texas Open Meetings Act. Of course, the resolution should have preceded the assertions of support but who wants to quibble at this point?

Elected officials are somewhat skittish about open meetings. On February 12 the Austin American-Statesman reported that three House committees posted notices of meetings of the committees at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, Carmelo’s and the Austin Land and Cattle Company.

The committees were advised by the House Parliamentarian, Denise Davis, that they should post notices if they expected a quorum to attend, so they did.

Senator Jeff Wentworth, a San Antonio Republican, has filed a bill (SB 1306) for just such occasions. The bill amends the TOMA to allow a quorum to attend a “ceremonial event or press conference” without incurring a violation.

Shield Law
Of great interest to journalists here and elsewhere for the past several years and in the news now is the flurry of subpoenas to working journalists. Several legislators are sponsoring a bill “relating to a qualified privilege of a journalist not to testify” in a Texas court. This is called a “shield law” and similar proposals are before legislators in five states.

Press coverage of this bill is likely to be considerable (OF COURSE), such as the February 13, 2007 headline in the Houston Chronicle, “Upcoming bill pits prosecutors against the media.”

The need for such a shield is asserted vigorously in the wake of the conviction of Vice President Dick Cheney’s aide, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby last week in Washington, D.C.

Libby was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice on the testimony of a few federal officials and a platoon of high-profile journalists. The trial exposed in excruciating and nauseating details the ways of journalists and sources in the Nation’s capital.

What the trial also did is show a pathway for overly zealous prosecutors to intimidate, coerce and ultimately control press coverage of public events by subpoena.

This is bad. But at the same time journalists cannot be proud of their craft as it was portrayed in the Libby trial. No matter how one may deplore the excesses of the Bush Administration in general, and Vice President Dick Cheney in particular; few can applaud the conviction of the hapless “fall guy” Libby.

(Although Jack Cafferty of CNN said anyone who uses the name “Scooter” past the age of 10 should be convicted of something).

Back to Water
Simultaneous with our thrilling little brouhaha here regarding HB 545/HB 546, the U.S. House of Representatives last week started action on renewing federal funding for water projects (HR 700 and HR 720). Funding has been suspended for perhaps 10 years. One bill will cost about $11 billion, according to the subcommittee chair, Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson of Dallas. Our Representative Ciro Rodriguez spoke in favor of the funding on the floor of the House last week.

The City of Alpine is still waiting for approval of Alpine’s water distribution plan. The city was approved exactly two years ago for a $4,860,000 loan from the Texas Water Development Board.

There was great urgency at the time because in April 2002 Alpine’s southeast sector was determined by the Texas Council on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to have dangerously low water pressure.

Since 2002 we have spent unnecessarily $1.35 million on a new water and sewer system for the U.S. Border Patrol. We have paid several hundred thousand dollars to the middlemen bondsmen, lawyers and engineers. But you still can’t take an after-work shower in New Town.

The failure of this project to date has many causes, principally the inability of the city to overcome the obstructionists here and elsewhere. Neither Brewster County nor the expanding bureaucracy of water planners has offered a penny. Thousands of dollars in campaign contributions to U.S. Representative Henry Bonilla did not produce a single south Alpine earmark for water distribution.

Now there’s a good campaign slogan for the 2007 municipal elections — “Showers for the South Side!” •

(Also published by the Big Bend Sentinel of Marfa, Texas March 15, 2007.)