Fort Bend County creates another government

The State of Texas allows for the creation of special districts in which most residents never vote for their leaders. These special districts come with extraordinary taxing power accompanied by the ability to issue millions of dollars in public bond indebtedness backed by the payment of taxes and fees of unsuspecting residents, business owners and shoppers.

Among the concerns of watchdog groups who follow the workings of special districts is the spending of millions of dollars in taxpayer money to profit the developers under the rubric of providing a “public benefit”, how transparently the districts conduct their affairs if the local media does not incorporate coverage of these government meetings in their news coverage and whether the special district board members and their employees are subject to the conflict-of-interest, oath of office and anti-bribery statement laws that apply to most elected officials.

And with the news reported by Steve Miller over at Watchdog.org that the City of Keene, a member of the Texas Municipal League, wants the TML to lobby the next Legislature to cap the number of hours a governmental entity spends on a single requestor, the notion that the public should know what their government is doing is at risk.

But given that too few old media outlets report on local governments meeting agenda items the bloggers will have to do it.

Here’s the government Fort Bend County Commissioners Court voted favorably to create on during their August 25^th meeting; the creation of a new government:

Take all appropriate action on Resolution approving the creation of the East Fort Bend County Development Authority, including approval of the Articles of Incorporation and the Bylaws and confirming the appointment of the initial directors and chairperson

Take all appropriate action on Resolution approving an Agreement Between Fort Bend County and the East Fort Bend County Development Authority, and authorize County Judge to countersign agreement upon execution by the authority and final review by the County Attorney.

The East Fort Bend County Development Authority has the power to solicit cash contributions and enter into contracts to cover the costs of services to be performed by the authority and appointed consultants, to borrow money to meet any expenses or needs to be performed by the Authority or any capital improvements undertaken by the Authority contracting with landowners, cities, political subdivisions and other entities for funding of the Authority’s projects and perform any other functions requested by the County in order to promote and develop projects in the County.

The Authority also has the power to acquire land

While provisions of Section 501 ( c ) 3 of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code do not permit the Authority  to participate in nor intervene in any political campaign on behalf of any candidate for public office nor may the Authority attempt to influence the outcome of any election of public office, the Articles of Incorporation are silent on Authority participation or intervention in ballot measures such as bond elections.

The Authority is to be operated to perform an essential government function—the improvement of the Texas Instruments Property at Highway 59 in Fort Bend County:

The Articles of Incorporation disclose the names and street addresses of the three Authority incorporators who ironically are also listed as Officers of the Greater Fort Bend Economic Development Council—one of the first beneficiaries of a recent Texas Supreme Court decision authored by Justice Eva Guzman allowing the entity to shield itself from public scrutiny under the Texas Public Information Act.