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Sitting midway between Dallas and El Paso, Big Spring, Texas, grew up as an oil and farming town.
As the rural outpost grew over the years -- about 9 percent to more than 25,000 residents in the decade ending in 2000 -- its issues also grew. Public policy, once made among pals in a place where everyone knew everyone else, was now a more formal matter.
As can happen in blossoming municipalities, those policy makers were now watched more carefully to ensure they followed the letter of the law.
Enter John Huckabee, the 74-year-old chairman of the Concerned Citizens Council, a watchdog outfit created in 2006 to give residents who might disagree with the status quo a say in local matters. The council made news in February when it filed a lawsuit against the city for allegedly violating the Texas Open Meetings Act.
The Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas is aiding the citizens' council in their efforts and had this to say in announcing the lawsuit:
"We are in Big Spring today not to tell local citizens or their elected officials what to do," said Keith Elkins, Executive Director of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, "but to ensure that government bodies comply with Texas laws on open meetings, and to ensure that taxpayers are granted every legitimate right to make important decisions for themselves allowed under Texas law.
Huckabee says he had never been much for politics, but as the town grew and prospered, he saw things he didn’t like.
“Like spending more money and new code enforcement and things like that,” says Huckabee, who has lost two bids for a city council spot in the last few years. “Now we’ve lost residents, and so we should take a look at what the government is doing.”
Indeed, the city population dipped 4 percent between 2000 and 2006, to settle at more than 24,000.
Huckabee says his volunteer group, a loose-knit coalition of locals both old and new, has been around for a few years and meets informally every few weeks.
“We’ve done some other things that help the town, like trash pickup and community activities,” says Huckabee, who came to town in 1961, worked for decades as a service manager at local auto dealerships and still runs Huck’s Automotive, a vehicle repair shop.
His group's lawsuit claims that the city failed to give the required 72-hour notice on a meeting to consider a citizen-filed petition requesting a public vote on a property tax rollback. The city council wants to maintain the current tax rate and claims the meeting was lawful.
According to the lawsuit, the city had received a petition calling for a tax rollback election on Dec. 18 and was required under law to affirm or deny the petition within 20 days.
That 20 days expired on Jan. 7, according to the complaint. The city posted notice of an “emergency meeting” six hours in advance of a Jan. 6 meeting. But the provisions of Texas law only deem an emergency in cases of a threat to public safety or an unforeseen occurrence.
At the meeting, the council deemed the petition invalid.
The suit asks the court to demand the city schedule a public vote on whether to lower the property tax rate.
The city, in a response filed Friday and reported by the local newspaper, claims the people on the citizens council are "trying to force their will ... on the other citizens of Big Spring."
For his trouble, Huckabee says he received a letter over the weekend from the city. It was from codes enforcement stating that his business has some items to take care of. Such notes are common in most places, but for Huckabee, the only question is the timing.
“I suppose that’s from the lawsuit,” he says with resignation.
Contact Steve Miller at stevemiller@texaswatchdog.org or 832-303-9420.
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