City-county roadwork talks stalled

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“Who is going to be here thirty years from now?”

Although a request by the La Salle County government at Cotulla City Hall last month that road repairs be allowed within the municipal jurisdiction by precinct workers was welcomed by councilors, an actual agreement has been stopped in its tracks.
City councilors learned at their September 12 meeting that the county’s four commissioners are interested in exchanging road repair work by their own crews for an allowance of city services at their respective yards, including trash collection.
In a brief presentation to the council at its last regular meeting, City Administrator David Wright said a memorandum of understanding had been floated by the county government and had been proposed for a 30-year period.
“This would be a blanket memorandum for all the commissioners’ precincts,” Wright said of the proposed handshake agreement. “Each commissioner looking to do roadwork would notify us.
“Even if they just repair one road inside city limits, this benefits the city,” the administrator said.
“Who is going to be here thirty years from now?” City Attorney Steve Pena asked, cautioning councilors against an agreement that could be doubted at a later date. “I won’t be here. Who is going to know we have these agreements?”
“We will have it stored and identifiable by keyword,” Wright said of the city’s efforts at documenting all its agreements with other government entities. “The original was on a yearly basis. I did not negotiate this for thirty years.”
None of the county commissioners was present at the council meeting to address the apparent offer of an exchange in services.
“There are no funds paid here,” the city attorney added. These agreements need to be made formally with commissioners’ court, not with individual commissioners. I recommend you table this.
“Another option is to create an ordinance and make this part of the permanent record,” Atty. Pena said. “Keep all these memoranda of understanding in there.”
The council is expecting to resume talks with the county on the service exchange and on the draft of the gentleman’s agreement that would allow county workers to assist in road maintenance in the community.
Each of the commissioners’ precincts has its starting point on the La Salle County map in a quadrant of the city of Cotulla, with Pct. 2 also including all of Encinal. The majority of the commissioners’ constituents live within the city boundary and presently benefit from few county labor projects in the community infrastructure.