This Blog will be about All Things Aransas County Navigation District

 I became interested in the Aransas County Navigation District in late 2021 and their lack of proper procedures regarding Open Meetings.  From the evidence I found, any meeting they held on a Monday has not been properly posted at the County Courthouse since that building became the Courthouse following Hurricane Harvey.  Notices of meetings must be posted at least 72 hours in advance of a meeting in 2 places.  The first is at the outside front of the Navigation District Office and it is compliant.  The second notice is placed outside the County Clerk's office on a bulletin board.  Those notices are routinely posted Thursday or Friday for the District's Monday meeting.  But the front door to the Courthouse is locked at the close of the business day Friday for the weekend and the postings are not available for public viewing for the required 72 hours in that circumstance.

I attended the January 3rd meeting of the District and addressed the Commissioners under the Citizen's to Be Heard section of their agenda.  I informed them that the meeting was not proper under the Open Meetings Act and that any action they were to undertake in that meeting was void under the law.  The only question asked was from Commissioner Vlasek who asked if I was an attorney.

I attended the next meeting and addressed them about Jeff Hutt's nomination to the EDC by the District.  The District had written and sent a letter to the EDC appointing Mr. Hutt to the EDC in October of 2021 but did not have authorization to do so without a vote in an open meeting.  I called their attention to the sloppy nature of their work.  Ms. Vlasek then addressed me and said that their attorney informed them their notices met the Open Meetings Act Requirement.  She then asked Mr. Benadum for comment, to which he said "from what I've been told, the notices are compliant".  Now there is an intelligent response from an attorney.  They tell him what they do and he renders an all-clear verdict.  When I tried to explain differently, Chairman Diekow cut me off saying they were not going to debate it further.  The requirement is law, not a suggestion.

That set me on a course that leads to the creation of this blog.  I wondered if they were so flippant about matters of law what else might be worth looking into.  And did I find something. Frankly I continue to find things!  I attended the March 7th meeting and asked several questions about their website and the lack of minutes, budget records, lack of monthly financials, tax rates etc.  After asking these questions, I submitted an Open Records Request.  The next blog entry will examine the questions and the surprising lack of information they provided, not because they purposely withheld it, but because they simply don't perform the duties I asked about.  It's not just sloppy work; in my opinion it's dereliction of duty.  I will get into the detail next blog So we can know What's the Rest of the Story.