Next month’s meeting is exploratory in nature, with the purpose of discussing whether there is interest in pursuing this further.
The process to become a liberty city starts with collecting signatures. A petition of at least 20 percent of the area’s registered voters is required to call for a special election. If a court orders the special election, voters will then be asked to choose whether they wish to incorporate as their own city, according to news stories on a recently incorporated liberty city.
Deirdre Gilbert, who has lived in Sienna Plantation for six years, is organizing a meeting scheduled for March 4 to discuss the possibility of forming the city of Sienna Plantation. Gilbert said she and other residents in Sienna Plantation have seen their bills and taxes increase considerably over the years. She said she has asked the city and her municipal utility district about different itemized fees appearing on her bills but has not received explanations. “I’m paying a fire-prevention fee for a MUD that I don’t live in,” Gilbert said. “Our water costs have gone up considerably.” Missouri City officials declined to comment. Gilbert said she has researched liberty cities, which usually have the intent of keeping taxes and debt loads low. "The great benefit is you can become a city and become debt-free,” Gilbert said. “We want to not be in debt like we are and continually paying high fees. Once we’re incorporated into Missouri City, we’ll have their debt to pay." Attorney Art Martinez de Vara was mayor of Von Ormy when the small town outside San Antonio became what is considered the first “liberty city” in Texas. Gilbert said she spoke to Martinez last week. “He said he’d be willing to come out and discuss how to get this done,” Gilbert said. “My plan is at the meeting to tell the community about him, and see if they want to invite him to come and make his presentation.” Phone calls to the Martinez de Vara Law Firm were not returned. After leaving the Von Ormy mayor’s office, Martinez de Vara went on to serve briefly as chief of staff to state Sen. Konni Burton, R-Coleyville, who in 2015 introduced legislation that sought to codify the process by which towns designate themselves “liberty cities” while also laying out a specific bill of rights for those towns. Burton’s bill, Senate Bill 710, never made it through the Senate Committee on Intergovernmental Relations. Cyndi Hernandez, community relations manager for the Sienna Plantation Homeowners Association, said the meeting is being held by individual residents and is not organized by the HOA. The population of Sienna Plantation was about 14,000 in 2016, according to http://suburbanstats.org.