Media Release: LIV Complaint Filed on Bastrop Bonds with Texas AG

On Tuesday, October 21, the Bastrop City Council voted to issue $15,000,000* in certificates of obligation (CO) bonds that include a golf course. A complaint filed on the bonds with the Texas AG is awaiting review, filed by The League of Independent Voters of Texas (LIV) on Monday, October 27. (See complaint link below).

Linda Curtis, a co-founder of LIV, Advisor, and chief organizer, said today,

"We are challenging the City's bond issuance in a complaint filed with the Attorney General. We believe the city played hide and seek with its public notice, the effect of which denies the right of citizens to petition for a public vote on the bonds. We also believe that using certificates of obligation bonds -- new debt -- on a golf course is not only taxpayer abuse, under the circumstances laid out in our complaint, it is not legally permissible."

City resident Cecilia Serna, retired from the largest non-profit national hospital system after 32 years.  She worked from ancillary to supervisory roles. She is a well-known (and a very nice) stickler for detail and open government. In copious detail, Serna laid out in public

comment on October 21st, how the public notice was improper. She ended with this request, after which the Council -- as advised by their bond counsel -- unanimously passed the ordinance to issue the bonds:

Cecilia Serna

"Since the notice was not published in the city’s official newspaper, I’m asking you, my city council, to re-issue the 45-day notice in the city’s official newspaper, the Elgin Courier per Texas local government code 52.004."

The Complaint is HERE

The Updated Public Comment is HERE

LIV expects a quick turnaround from the AG. Fingers crossed.

COs in Texas are sometimes abused because they don't require voter approval. That is, unless citizens use the 45-day window to petition between the notice and the issuance of the bonds. The petition hurdle is 5% of registered voters. Though petitions are doable in small cities, in large cities where bonds can involve hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars, the 5% hurdle is too high to overcome in 45 days.

One Texas city used COs for a water park. LIV's Linda Curtis was a leader in the petition effort in Austin in 1995 that effectively stopped the City Council's plan to issue $20,000,000 in COs. Currently, the City of Austin plans to issue COs for the controversial teardown and redo of the Austin Convention Center. (See LIV article "Uprising Against Taxpayer Abuse".)

Special thanks to Michele Gangnes, an original founding member of LIV, and a retired public finance attorney. Michele has done over 30 years of pro-bono work to protect Lee and Bastrop counties' groundwater.

For more information, call Linda Curtis at 512.657.2089.

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NOTE:

There's more information about COs at the Texas Comptroller's Office HERE.

*Community Impact News misreported the City of Bastrop's bond issuance as $20,000,000.