Yeah, yeah, the picture is sunrise at the Bluff. Pretend it’s sunset – as in maybe we’re getting nearer sunset on the Cherokee County Development District No. 1.  With an energetic flourish, Ms. Clarke and Dr. Bray put together a petition of the vast majority of the residents of Eagle’s Bluff requesting the unilateral dissolution of the District by our County Commissioners.  The commissioners declined.

At an August 23, 2010 meeting of the Cherokee Country Commissioners’ Court however, the names of five Eagle’s Bluff residents – Jean Bray, Sam Clarke, Vicki Jackson, Elaine McGowan and Ted Wheeler – were proposed as nominees for appointment to the board of Cherokee County Development District No. 1.  The Commissioners appointed these residents to the board and they were sworn in at the court house in Rusk.  This article in the Jacksonville Progress describes it.  The appointment of Eagle’s Bluff residents who are committed to dissolving the District absolves the Commissioners of making the decision – they simply have to rubber-stamp the newly appointed board’s resolution to do so.

But… as Jim Compton’s little speech at the homeowners’ meeting suggested, we need to beware of the “unintended consequences” of creating a group like this.  Prescient advice.  At their first meeting on Thursday evening, September 2, 2010, the new board elected Mr. Wheeler as President, Dr. Bray as Treasurer, and Ms. McGowan as Secretary then spent the next hour deciding how to get their hands on the money left behind with the district’s name on it.  They’re planning to write letters or visit County Judge Chris Davis to get him to cough up any checks he might have in his possession, then George Newman, the former president of the originally chartered board of the District, to get him to cough up any checks he might have, and then the Comptroller of the State of Texas, to get them to cough up whatever money the state thinks it might owe the District.  Just to see it (there were only 3 other residents present at the meeting) was terrifying.  The new president even declared that the board’s “legacy” lay in retrieving these funds.  I’ll have to admit they did talk about dissolving the District – but not before deciding “to follow the proper procedure” that fills up their spanking new checking account.  (A checking account which Dr. Bray says will cost $50 to open…  I thought checking accounts were free - and included a new toaster.)

One of the observers spoke at the end of the session admonishing the new members for wasting time with unnecessary and distasteful business.  He suggested they had only one decision to make - to dissolve the district - and they couldn’t even do that.  I agree with that assessment.  We now have a committee of residents already well beyond what the rest of us thought was their charter.  I’m dismayed, but not quite sure what I can do that discourages further “adventures” of this group without risking some flak from the people involved, all of whom I respect as well intentioned.  Maybe my criticism will be understood as legitimate concern about those “unintended consequences” Mr. Compton mentioned.  I hope so.

I’ll leave it here until I see some real progress to dissolve the district and stop unnecessarily taxing the residents. I’ll return.