Customers will have the opportunity to cast their vote potentially on Jan. 15, 2023 for or against the transfer of the RCH WSC to the City of McLendon-Chisholm. Board members voted for Mr. Jackie Pullen to contact the City Administrator to request the City Attorney Michael Halla to advise on conducting an election.
Your vote can determine the future of McLendon-Chisholm’s water
In case you missed the December 7, 2022 meeting I recorded the videos. The second video was the actions taken from the Executive Session.
At public comments I said, “I wanted to mention that at the October meeting there was an executive session item that is again mentioned here [referring to the printed agenda see FIGURE 1] about the McLendon-Chisholm Asset Transfer Agreement. Is it possible to update us outside of the executive session on where we are at with the attorney (RCH WSC Art Rodriguez)? Such as an update like reviewing the agreement or a timeline or something to give us an indication of where we are on the status of that? Have ya’ll been having meetings with Walter, TXDOT Coordinator to discuss the relocation of the lines?”
After the close of public comments Mr. Pullen shared an update with the two attorneys, “He hasn’t heard from the City Attorney. Although, he has heard from the City Administrator that the two attorneys have been working together and he hopes that they are working on their due diligence.” Pullen also said, “I tried to contact RCH WSC Attorney Art Rodriguez yesterday, but he has been out of the office.”
Steve Hatfield shared, “We have had a hard time for our attorney to return phone calls. Mr. Rodriguez has just moved to a different law firm. So we are working on that.”
RCH WSC is moving forward with relocation of the water lines on Hwy 205
Steve Hatfield also answered my TxDOT Coordination question, “Yes, we have been meeting with Walter Caraig. He is fixing to have everything he needs to go bother someone else.”
Linda another RCH WSC customer asked, “Why is that sign still on the door that people are not welcome to come in here?”
“On the notice regarding the COVID deal we will discuss that.” Jackie Pullen assured RCH WSC customers.
Before the public portion of the meeting ended, RCH WSC operator Dwight Lindop shared a maintenance report that everything is running real smooth.
What actions taken after the Executive Session?
At 2:41pm, the public meeting continued with the five attendees present returning to listen to the actions taken.
Mr. Pullen shared that they discussed the release of their CCN to Trilogy. “We haven’t heard from them and I think they are just waiting until the water system is in the hands of City of McLendon-Chisholm.”
Mr. Pullen continued, “We did discuss the transfer agreement with McLendon-Chisholm. I’m going to contact the City Administrator to contact his attorney about what we can do to mail out ballots so people can vote either for or against the rural water system to the City of McLendon-Chisholm. We are going to have an independent firm do that. I’m going to ask the City Administrator to contact his City Attorney whom he recommends.”
Lindop added, “As far as a timeline goes, Mr. Pullen is going to contact the City of McLendon-Chisholm lawyer on their take who they will trust on conducting an election. This will allow the city to send out the ballots to the customers and we would like to do that by January 15, 2023. So that we can have them back by February 15, 2023 and have the total by the [March 1, 2023] meeting.”
I asked, “Is there a reasoning where you came to do this? In your bylaws and just like other Water Supply Corporations could vote for a transfer.”
Hatfield answered, “We are just going by what the City’s water attorney [Emily Rogers] advised in a previous memo.” He read, “Art Rodriguez and I finally talked this morning and he agrees with me that the Water Supply Corporation [WSC] would need to have an election. The next annual meeting is in January and the likeliest date when the election could happen. The Asset Transfer agreement is contingent on the majority of the voters approval and the PUC.”
Dwight Lindop believes that this is a big ordeal and that everybody needs to have a say in this.
Linda a RCH WS customer mentioned, “I am on a HOA Board and we have a heck of time getting homeowners to vote at the annual meeting. So it is difficult to get that accomplished. We have been talking about electronic voting which has had a high success rate. That might be something you guys could look into. The quote we received for 73 members was about $800. I don’t know what the cost would be for our water district.”
One of the board members said, “I would think that customers would jump at the chance to get us out of here and have the city take it over.”
Dwight Lindop optimistically said, “If the board sent out 2,700 ballots and only got back 1,500 with 1,000 vote in favor the board would vote for the sale.”
Will customers cast a mail-in ballot for the RCH WSC Resolution?
Mr. Pullen ended the discussion, “The attorney that is going to conduct the election will send out the ballot. The ballot will have: are you for or against the transfer of the RCH WSC to the City of McLendon-Chisholm? It will have yea or nay. It will have to be postmarked on a certain date and then they will tabulate them and give us the results. I think that is the best way to do it. Whoever this lawyer [City Attorney Michael Halla] suggests we will go with.”
RCH WSC working on relocation of water lines.
Pullen addressed the relocation of the water lines, “We also discussed the relocation from water lines down 205 TxDOT expansion. We have not received the official right-of-way (ROW) map from TxDOT. We do have a drawing that was supplied to us by an engineering company, but we have to go by the official document provided by the state. That’s the one that would be signed off.”
He also said, “Even though we are moving forward in transferring to the City we still have to vote for and approve these maps to TxDOT. We can’t afford to stop and TxDOT can’t afford for us to stop. It is an expensive undertaking but it has to happen.”
McLendon-Chisholm Council Member Daniel Tucker asked, “It sounds like the engineer has access to the official TxDOT documents that you need and you are trying to work through that engineer to have access to those?”
Steve Hatfield replied, “Our engineer will produce the drawings that shows the locations and TxDOT will review it. And that will be an official drawing that we will put out for bid.”
Gary Lovell shared, “Hope that these two lawyers talk to each other.”
Pullen added he will stay on top of it like a duck on a June bug. Pullen asked, “Have ya’ll heard from the city attorney?”
I shared that I did speak with the City Administrator that Ms. Rogers [City Water Attorney] was trying to reach RCH WS Attorney and working on a timeline.
Pullen asked, “Did ya’ll hire someone to do an evaluation of the water system for $75,000?”
I responded, “Correct, there was an agreement made with TNP.”
Daniel Tucker added, “Yes there is an agreement with TNP that they have requested information from you all. Some of it may be engineering or records. It’s kinda stifling the city a little bit because you haven’t come through with that information. There is speculation that perhaps that the information will not be released until there is an agreement made. We don’t have a lot of insight because we don’t have information coming from the lawyers themselves.”
I also asked, “Have either one of you fellas been contacted by TNP directly?”
Mr. Pullen, Mr. Hatfield and Mr. Lindop haven’t heard from them. Dwight added, “I would be forthcoming.”
I shared, “I’m going to tell you just for you to hear. Ya’ll have integrity to show up, conduct the meeting, and discuss these things openly. You have been talking to Konrad (City Administrator) –THANK YOU. Thank you from me. I don’t know how many people realize it’s a lot of work when it comes to managing and operating a service like this. As far as communication goes, we have a committee formed and these are things that we want addressed because it should be streamlined. The lack of communication, we need to improve that.
Daniel Tucker, “As Adrienne said, we will make sure we will get this ball rolling a little bit faster. If you can be cooperative, we can certainly circumvent the lawyers so that we can fill in the requests.”
So what else is there to do?
On November 9, 2022, I have been appointed by the McLendon-Chisholm City Council to be on a City Water Committee with Michael Hatcher, Anthony Crawford, Council Member Daniel Tucker and Council Member Dyon Purdy.
The committee will be a recommending body to the City Council and will present findings for formal discussion and action to the entire City Council. With the creation of this committee it will be able to do many things to keep the process moving, achieving the overall goal of transparency, communication to residents and ultimately have a great water system.
What’s the timeline?
To my understanding Ms. Roger’s (City’s Water Attorney) advisement is a lawful process of dissolving a water supply corporation which includes an option for membership invitation to vote in an election the RCH WS Board’s Resolution [See FIGURE 2 Sec. 22.252]. There will be a formal filing with the Secretary of State (SOS), records will be updated with PUC and TCEQ that will be meeting the process of dissolution.
• Once the attorney’s finally advises RCH WSC Board to sign the Asset Agreement within 14 days McLendon-Chisholm will have the “right to inspect” to review available records, maps, business, system operations, water distribution lines and obtain all the assets pertaining the operation.
• It appears the RCH WSC Board would feel comfortable to have an election in January 2023 managed by a third party that would be recommended by the City Attorney Michael Halla.
• Mid March 2023, we could see potentially major movement of the physical assets begin officially transferred to the City of McLendon-Chisholm.
• Within 30 days after the closing date of RCH WSC filings the City of McLendon-Chisholm must file PUC documents.
• Approximately six (6) months could be the winding down process, but it is all depending on the actions of the board to respond to the agreement and to stay on task to respond to providing information to the representatives.
In the mean time, to streamline the process there is still much to do in preparing for this public works undertaking. Stay tuned for the next few months for the City Council will need to deliberate and vote on information presented to them to help facilitate a new milestone for the City of McLendon-Chisholm. It appears progress is underway in such a short time span.
Photo Cover Credit: Adrienne Balkum
3 comments
With the transfer to MC and the TXDOT issue, is anything progressing to purchase more water directly from North Texas Water District?
Hi Dale, not at this time.