Boatright votes down closed-door negotiation with LCRA over tower project

A closed-door negotiation session between Gonzales County commissioners and representatives from the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) did not take place Monday, Dec. 16, after Precinct 4 Commissioner Collie Boatright voted against going into executive session.

Just last week, LCRA was awarded a $4.998 million bid to build a new emergency radio communications system for Gonzales County on a 3-2 vote. Representatives from LCRA sought a private meeting with commissioners in order to negotiate terms, which include future use, leasing and other possible benefits and considerations.

However, incoming County Attorney Eddie Escobar, who is serving as a consultant for the court before he officially takes office on Jan. 1, advised the court that Section 551.0725 of the Texas Open Meetings Act will not let a commissioners court go into executive session to negotiate a contract unless the court “votes unanimously that deliberation and open meeting would have a detrimental effect on the position of the commissioner's court in negotiations with a third person.”

“There's got to be a unanimous vote of the commissioner's court to be able to get into executive session,” Escobar said. “Just wanted to point that out to everybody. We don't want to do anything contrary to what the law says. It's got to be legal; otherwise, if there isn't a proper vote, then going into executive session would be contrary to law.

“Every specific code section to go into executive session has its own set of rules, and I just reviewed that a few minutes ago to make sure everything was fine. I have to advise commissioners that the vote to go into executive session needs to be done prior to that executive session, and pursuant to that code section, it has to be unanimous.”

Precinct 2 Commissioner Donnie Brzozowski asked Escobar why this was the first time in his 18 years on court that he had been made aware of this.

“Where's that been the last 18 years I've been here because we've had executive sessions before,” Brzozowski said. “It looks like someone would have stumbled onto that.”

Escobar said the section of code actually has been in effect since 2003 and was last updated in 2013.

“I'm not suggesting that the negotiation has to happen in open session. What I'm saying is that there has to be a vote before it goes into executive session,” Escobar added.

Boatright said he didn’t understand the need to go into executive session as “it shouldn’t have a detrimental effect on negotiation as we only have one bidder and one negotiation.”

Precinct 3 Commissioner Kevin La Fleur made a motion to go into executive session, which was seconded by Brzozowski. La Fleur, Brzozowski and Precinct 1 Commissioner K.O. “Dell” Whiddon all voted in favor of the motion, while Boatright voted against it. County Judge Pat Davis did not indicate his vote.

La Fleur, Brzozowski and Whiddon were the three votes that had awarded the contract to LCRA, while Boatright and Davis had voted against awarding the bid as they favor a partnership with the Texas Department of Transportation and the Greater Austin Travis Regional Radio System (GATRRS).

Following the vote, Eric Anderson, the vice president of telecommunications at LCRA, addressed the court and expressed they appreciated the court awarding LCRA a bid, but were unwilling to negotiate any changes in an open session.

“I would never want to do anything that's detrimental to Gonzales County, so I didn't quite understand what (Escobar) shared,” Anderson added. “I am happy to also remember the last meeting when I was here (in October), and I remember sitting up there and (current County Attorney Paul Watkins) said ‘we don't negotiate an open session’ when I asked if it was customary to negotiate in open court in Gonzales County.

“I respected that advice from the meeting, so we don't believe in negotiating in open court based on that last advice from Gonzales County’s counsel, but we're happy to answer questions, talk about anything, or share ideas that we have.”

La Fleur questioned Escobar about how a negotiation could take place if one member of the court votes against an executive session.

“You are never always going to have a unanimous decision with the court, so how do you get from where we're at to negotiate?” La Fleur asked.

Escobar suggested the court could grant authority to “a particular county official to negotiate with a third party” as long as the vote is made in open session.

“Negotiations can happen outside of commissioners court as long as that authority is given,” Escobar said. “That's just one of a few ways to be able to do that, but that's not my call.”

A new meeting would have to be called no sooner than 72 hours after an agenda is posted if the court wanted to appoint La Fleur or another commissioner to be the lead negotiator and meet in private with LCRA officials, Escobar said.

Davis advised either the county judge or a group of three commissioners can call for a special meeting, but it must meet all requirements for posting under the Texas Open Meetings Act.

A notice for a 2 p.m Thursday, Dec. 19, called meeting — signed by Whiddon as Judge Pro Tem for the court — was posted later Monday during which the court will consider appointing an individual representative “to further negotiate with the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA), regarding the future use, leasing and possible benefits of the previously approved Emergency Communication Tower Project.”