Kendall County Commissioners Court will have to wait another week until it appoints members to a committee to help negotiate an agreement dealing with county property owners’ right in the city’s ETJ.
At its March 11 meeting, commissioners voted 2-2 on a motion to appoint Commissioners Andra Wisian and Chad Carpenter to open lines of communication with similarly appointed Boerne City Councilmen Joe Macaluso and Quinten Scott.
“I think this is going to be a difficult negotiation. It’s gone from a position where we all thought that Boerne was going to sign the agreement; but now we’re in a position where we’re going to have to go back and renegotiate,” County Judge Shane Stolarczyk said. “I think it would be better for us as a group to be united on the group representing us, moving forward.”
Wisian offered herself and Carpenter for the negotiating team, as the two have worked on the issue since its inception 13 months ago. But Precinct 3 Commissioner Richard Chapman asked to be one of the two members as he is the only sitting commissioner who lives in the ETJ.
“This is something we’ve been fighting for, for over a year. It’s something I ran on,” Precinct 4 Commissioner Carpenter said, referring to his election campaign. “We have to continue the process of getting the ETJ out of the city. There’s got to be a point where we take a stand as (county residents) and we start saying ‘no more.’” Precinct 2 Commissioner Wisian talked with Boerne Mayor Frank Ritchie about establishing the two-plus-two committee.
“These representatives will be able to meet face-to-face, to foster better communications between the county and the city,” Wisian said, “and allow us to talk openly about handling development and mobility issues.
“Any modifications to the amended interlocal agreement draft must come back to this court for adoption,” she added.
“I would like to throw my name in the hat,” Chapman said. “I am the only one who sits up here that is directly affected by this. I have a very vested interest in the outcome of this, so I would like to be one of the two appointed to this committee.”
Stolarczyk said he would defer to the commissioners to work on appointing two representatives, but said he agreed that Chaopman would be a good rep.
“(Commissioner Chapman) does raise a point that he is impacted by this significantly,” Stolarczyk said, “and he does have the institutional knowledge of being on the court when the other when the other agreements were drafted.” The county judge asked for the item to be tabled, to allow further discussion on how to add Chapman to the panel. But Carpenter spoke against any further delays.
“We need to move forward and get this done,” Carpenter said. “Our voters, our constituents, have made it very clear that they are supporting Commissioner Wisian and myself on this, moving forward.”
Wisian then moved to appoint herself and Carpenter to the city-county commission to work on the amended interlocal agreement.
But the motion died, with Wisian and Carpenter voting for, and Stolarczyk and Chapman voting against. Precinct 1 Commissioner Christina Bergmann was not in attendance at the meeting, leaving the four seated commission members to split their vote.
“Motion failed for a lack of majority. This will have to come back for Commissioner Bergmann at the next court to be the deciding vote,” Stolarczyk said.
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