Upper Trinity does not penalize Double Oak
Flower Mound Leader
By Molly McCullough
(Created: Friday, May 5, 2006 5:49 PM CDT)

The Upper Trinity Regional Water District Board of Directors decided on Thursday to reject a measure that would charge Double Oak $18,000 for legal fees incurred while defending the district’s decision to amend the membership bylaws.

When the district’s board of directors passed the bylaw in August, they were aiming to weed out potential conflict of interest problems that district officials felt could happen. Flower Mound Fire Chief Eric Metzger, who represented Copper Canyon, and assistant town manager Tracy Kneirim, who represented Krum, no longer qualified to be representatives after the amendment.

After that decision, officials from Double Oak, Copper Canyon and Flower Mound further questioned the board’s authority to make this kind of decision and petitioned State Sen. Chris Harris, R-Grapevine, to submit the situation to the Texas Attorney General’s office for review.

The Texas attorney general’s office declared they would not issue an opinion because it was discovered that a previous 2000 Texas court ruling had given the district power to establish membership rules and voting rules.

The attorney general’s office does not exercise its power to overrule, or, in effect, appeal a previous judicial action.

After that, Upper Trinity executive director Tom Taylor and the board of directors went after Double Oak, who they saw as the main instigator, to recover legal costs that were incurred by the district, when they sought legal services to defend their behavior to the attorney general’s office.

District officials said they notified Double Oak that they would be responsible for the district’s legal costs when they chose to seek the attorney general’s opinion. Taylor said it is the board of director’s policy to seek any costs or damages incurred because of a board member’s independent actions against the district. Lamel came to the board of directors in December, asking the board to collectively petition the attorney general’s office for its opinion. Board members turned down the opportunity.

“It’s a fairly simple policy,” Taylor previously said. “…They [Double Oak] knew the potential impact of it because we had just gone through it with Flower Mound.”

Double Oak Representative Jerry Lamel read a letter from his mayor, Richard Cook, addressing the situation. In the letter, Cook said Double Oak was not responsible for the district’s legal costs since Upper Trinity was only “invited” to defend their measure by submitting a legal brief, but “required” to. Cook also said Double Oak was not the only entity interested in seeking the Texas attorney general office’s opinion.

During Thursday’s monthly board meeting, Flower Mound representative first proposed to deny the measure, which was turned down in a subsequent vote. Then, Highland Village representative Rick Lubke, a Flower Mound resident, proposed splitting the $18,000 in legal costs among Double Oak, Copper Canyon and Flower Mound but to immediately forgive the debt. He said it was a form of verbal reprimand for taking actions against the district.

This measure was also turned down, after much discussion and confusion on the board members’ part as to what they were voting on and how the decision was different than Torley’s first proposal.

During the discussion, several members of the board said they were tired of the fights among members, and suggested they all work together to promote the mission of the water district.

“When do we stop doing this,” acting board president Richard Huckaby said. “When do we get down to business?…Let’s work again together.”

Torley did not agree with this opinion and said each director has the responsibility to make sure the board is doing the right thing, not blindly agree with everything the district proposes.

“The idea that there can’t be any dissension on the board is ridiculous,” Torley said. “…I think we all as directors have a responsibility to ask the tough questions.”

The third action by the board was to vote on the existing measure — to seek the $18,000 from Double Oak. In the end, board members voted 11-9 to not seek the funds from Double Oak.

In other Upper Trinity news, Irving representative Sandy Cash will become the new board president effective June 1. Cash was elected during a secret ballot taken during the meeting, defeating Torley, the other presidential nominee in a 17-3 decision.