County Judge Sydney Murphy recently spoke to the Rotary Club of Livingston regarding the 89th session of the Texas Legislature currently underway and the impact that pending legislation could potentially have on Polk County.
She started out talking about Rep. Pat Curry (R-Waco) who filed legislation to dismantle the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department.
“Why would you take a great agency and parcel it out to wherever? He had one complaint – they haven’t solved the problem of Chronic Wasting Disease. We sent a letter opposing it. He later pulled it, saying that he wanted to start a conversation,” Murphy said, commenting that that is not how you go about starting a conversation.
“There are a few bills we’re concerned about,” she said, mentioning House Bill 23 which relates to ‘the authority of certain persons to obtain third-party review of plats and property development plans, permits, and similar documents, and the inspection of an improvement related to such a document.’
“That’s the trifecta in Polk County for bad concerns – out-of-town developers, out-of-town surveyors and out-of-town realtors,” she said as she showed slides of some of the “roads” in Polk County – many of which are oilfield roads or timber company easement roads. “I’ve seen first responders bringing people out on a stretcher between two four-wheelers because an ambulance couldn’t get there.
“Last year during the search for Audrii Cunningham, the FBI wanted plats. From the early 80s? We don’t have them. They weren’t required,” she said, emphasizing the importance of the subdivision regulations the county adopted in recent years. “We didn’t just pull them out of the air. We want to make sure everyone has power, make sure one person’s water well isn’t affected by someone’s septic system. Now you know why we need subdivision regulations.
“And why would people in Harris County know what’s best for us in Polk County?” she asked.
Moving on, Murphy talked about how the county took the American Rescue Plan Act funds and parlayed them into full fiber connectivity throughout the county.
“We looked at areas that were unserved, underserved and fully served and we asked, ‘what would it take to provide fiber connectivity?’ We basically became our own grant administrator and Eastex went 60-40 with us and Highline 50-50 to make it happen. Eastex has just taken it and run with it. So we have really great infrastructure now,” Murphy said.
“We partnered with DETCOG to create a regional project and when this project is done, every resident and every business in Polk County will have the latest and greatest fiber or broadband,” she said.
She told about the recent completion of a 440-foot interoperable tower off of US 287 that came about through these partnerships and cost well over $2 million.
“In emergency management situations, we can now connect directly with emergency management, Tyler County, Angelina County, Nacogdoches County. We have connectivity from Houston to Nacogdoches to Louisiana. Prior to this, the Corrigan-Camden ISD buses could not even communicate with the bus barn. It was a black hole on the north end of the county,” she said.
Murphy said another big concern is biosolids which are contaminants that have been taken from waste treatment plants and used in fertilizer.
She said she is following House Bill 1674 which relates to ‘the production, sale, and use of certain agricultural products containing perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS); creating a criminal offense.’
She told about a situation in Johnson County were people living downstream and downwind from where biosolids were being used were getting leukemia and cancer.
“We certainly don’t want to accept any waste or biosolids from Harris County,” she said.
“There are over 8,900 Senate bills this legislative session and we have a list we call ‘the good, the bad and the ugly.’ One is about silencing local officials,” she said.
Senate Bill 19 relates to ‘the use by a political subdivision of public funds for lobbying and certain other activities.’
Some examples are Texas Association of Counties, Texas Association of School Boards and Texas Municipal League, statewide resources for counties, school boards and municipalities, respectively, that research and study every single bill that is filed each legislative session to determine what is beneficial and what is harmful.
“They targeted those guys. We’re very vulnerable right now. How would we know what we need to be concerned about? We don’t know without a great organization. You take this away from rural counties, you’re going to hurt us,” Murphy said.
“It’s very important that we are able to work with our legislators and pick up the phone. We just want proper drainage, adequate water, access to emergency services, and for our residents to be able to get in and out of their house,” Murphy said.
