What you need to know
According to the Texas Regional Council, regional planning commissions are designed to give counties greater control in planning decisions, involving the health, safety and general welfare of residents as well as future developments, such as lithium battery storage facilities.
Precinct 1 Commissioner Jennifer McCall addressed county residents' concerns over the two counties forming an extra governmental body.
“The structure of the 391 is going to be established by bylaws, and we’re trying to draft those now. The commission will be involved in drafting it, but the commissioners courts have to approve the bylaws, so the bylaws aren’t going to be expanded in any way to have any more authority other than the will of the courts, and there is a dissolution clause,” McCall said.
She also noted that the 391 Subregional Planning Commission will not take any government funding with respect to the county budget and will not apply for grants. The only cost associated with the formation that McCall mentioned were postage fees.
“This is not a power grab, a money grab and not another layer of government. It’s just one more tool in the toolbox, because as commissioners we don’t have a lot of tools,” McCall said.
Also of note
Precinct 4 Commissioner Chad Carpenter also addressed residents’ concerns over the discrepancy between Kerr County’s draft for the interlocal agreement compared to Kendall County’s draft, especially the difference in length.
Carpenter said Kerr County Commissioners Court submitted a 39-page document, while Kendall County submitted a seven-page document, but Kendall County’s draft was very specific and the court requested multiple edits to Kerr County’s draft.
“We brought [the draft] back and spent two weeks working on those edits,” Carpenter said.
He noted that the agreements between the counties must be the same and there won’t be anything within the draft that the commissioners court hasn’t agreed to.
“It has to be an exact replica of each document, so there’s no way one of us can just make a change to a document without involving the other court,” Carpenter said.
Quote of note
“I would hope that you would trust your commissioners because you voted for all of us. You know us to be conservatives, you know us to be limited government, and [I hope you will] trust us to make this work,” McCall said.
