COLDSPRING — The San Jacinto County Commissioners Court opted not to get involved in a disagreement between the Coldspring Volunteer Fire Department and the county’s Emergency Services District.
At Wednesday’s regular meeting, Commissioner Luke Sweeney made a motion to allow the court to remove members of the ESD, which died for the lack of a second.
County Judge Fritz Faulkner said the motion came about because the ESD canceled a contract with CVFD, which area residents, and that the county was asked what can be done.
However, Faulkner said when the appoint people to the ESD, that’s the end of it.
“We can’t dictate what they do, and they don’t account to us,” he said. “If they were to be declared incompetent or there was official misconduct, the county does have authority to begin the process of removal, and the first step of that is to pass a resolution.”
The deadline for the termination approaching, but at a meeting on July 21, the ESD presented options for paid firefighters, which Faulkner said was close to a solution, if the ESD can afford it.
“Is there any evidence of incompetence or misconduct at this point? Absolutely not, far as I know, and I’m not sure that there’s any need to pass this resolution,” he said.
Sweeney disagreed, saying that the court asked the ESD for information on how a 501(c)3 was to be set up and to show commissioners a 5- to 10-year plan on how this transition was going to work.
“We got a snippet of that on Monday, but in my opinion, the plan, including a timeline and funding, comes first,” Sweeney said. “I feel this is going the wrong direction on getting something in place; they’re sitting on $3 million and I don’t see any oversight in place. I make the motion to pass the resolution to have that in our back pocket. Just to have it in place.”
Sweeney said that based on feedback from his constituents, the ESD plan is moving like a freight train, and it needs to slow it down and get it under control.
Commissioners Donnie Marrs and Mark Nettuno said the timing of the request was suspect, and it was not the right time to put it; Faulkner said it just “puts another tool in the tool shed.”
During public forum, Gerald Deeter said that he agrees that growth is upon the county, but was not in favor of dictation, which is how he described the actions of the ESD board.
“You appoint the board members, and you must give an account of what they do,” he said.
Ray McCoppin told commissioners that he found numerous issues with the ESD budget.
“One of the things I saw was that the ESD was advocating training, but the training budget had been on a decline since 2003,” he said. “They also have over $3 million in the bank collecting interest. They’re not budgeting in a way that tells the truth.”
In other business, commissioners:
