Last Thursday I headed down to Austin again for a hearing of the House of Representatives County Affairs Committee. A quick lesson in committee scheduling - when the time on the agenda is followed by "or upon final adjournment" then there is no way of knowing when it will take place. Pack a lunch and a sleeping bag. I'm still glad I arrived when I did since I got a lot of work done even though I ended up missing the hearing. The House was in session with a myriad of amendments to work through in the budget bill so the timing of the committee meeting was completely unknown at 10:00 am. What to do? I quickly re-evaluated the situation and decided that if I couldn't speak to all the members at one time I'd do it individually, at least to their staff. I used the handy-dandy Texas Legislature Online Blackberry app to find all the committee member's offices in the Capitol, made a list and started walking.
The first office I entered had none other than the ESD lobbyists, SAFE-D, on their way out. That told me two things. First, I'm on the right track. Second, I'm already one step behind. At the conclusion of that meeting with Rep. Gonzales' Chief of Staff I switched to plan B of plan B, go to the other end of the Capitol since the ESD was taking the path of least resistance and obviously hitting the closest offices first. I went to the committee chairman's office. In the end I don't think it mattered who got there first since the staff members in the latter offices were able to get some eye-opening information from me and provided some sometimes amusing eye-rolling in regards to what the ESD was telling them.
The facts of the case have not changed. There is still no reasonable explanation for not letting a city out of an ESD. I'll continue my communication with the committee member's offices this week and I still won't let up on our own Rep. Orr and Senator Birdwell. In the truest sense of the term I "lobbied" Rob Orr literally in the lobby outside the House floor in the Capitol. We had a good, frank discussion about what I'm working on and for the first time he admitted being against it. He did concede that at some unknown population number a city should be able to get out of an ESD, but he didn't know what that population should be yet. I say population should have nothing to do with the requirements. If a city can provide the necessary emergency services for their local population without ESD assistance then they should be eligible to vote themselves out.
If you're with me on this then keep up the pressure on the powers that can make this change. Use my list in my previous post to make contacts in Austin and pass this on.
A.J.
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