Who Owns the Roads?

On February 26, 2014 the City Council met to fix the tax debacle they created when they created an illegal amount of sales taxes.  The issue was that the city could only create up to 1.5% in sales taxes and instead created 1.75%.  The only reason it was 1.75% and not 2% is because someone illegally, and secretly, changed what the City Council approved before submitting the paperwork to the County Elections Department.

The primary reason why the Council created more taxes than what is legally allowable is because the Council did not research the issue before taking action.  The 2nd main reason is because the City Attorney, Art Martinez de Vara, didn’t stop them.

At the February 26th meeting, Alderman Micki Ball led most of the meeting and suggested the council disregard what the voters approved for the street maintenance tax.  According to Ball, the city doesn’t own many roads to begin with.  Here’s what she said:

My suggestion is we eliminate the street maintenance tax.  It was dropped to a 1/4 on the ballot, we’re a 1/4 over, it’s outside chapter 321, and quite honestly, the city owns very very few streets that need to be maintained to begin with, those are all privately owned by the WPPOA.

In response, Alderman David Trembay said this:

My thoughts exactly, the roads that are in the subdivision, at this point, have not been turned over to the city so they’re not the city’s responsibility…The roads we have are county roads, which I understand are Waterwood Pass, Shady Forest, and New Mathis.

To this, Alderman Earnest Gay responded with “That’s exactly right.”

Who Owns The Roads?

On March 7, 2014 Aldermen Tremblay and Alderman Ball held a meeting at the WPPOA clubhouse to meet with citizens.  The two were directly asked who owns the roads.  Here’s what Alderman Ball had to say:

There’s something in one of the minutes that talks about specific roads.  If they are chip sealed they’re Waterwood Development’s, and if they’re – something about the color of white and black – Is what I remember from that.

The only one’s I know for a fact the county owned that transferred to the city is that little stretch of Mathis – where the bridge is, that little piece they put in – that’s the only one I know for a fact.

Alderman Tremblay was told that he was very quick say the issue of roads wasn’t city business.  This was his response:

Well it’s city business in the sense we will not maintain the roads that belong to the developer.  The developer is turning over common grounds to the PPOA.  The common grounds include the roads.

(Italics added for his emphasis on “common grounds.”)

When it was asked if either of the Aldermen could provide evidence on paper about who owned roads they both said they didn’t have any, but Alderman Tremblay said he’d get it at some point.

When they were next asked about the status of Waterwood Development handing over property to the WPPOA, Alderman Ball became defensive and said

Are you a property owner?  Is that relevant to this discussion for some reason?

Bexar County Maintenance Has Ended

Bexar County has set up signs on both Priest and Mathis Roads stating “Bexar County Maintenance Ends.”

Priest serves as the North entrance to the City of Sandy Oaks and Mathis serves as the Southern entrance.  Physically, they’re the same road.

The only other entrance to the city is the part of Mathis Road that is the highway overpass.  It intersects in the middle of the road that County signs claim the County doesn’t maintain.

A mysterious entity is supposed to be responsible for the maintenance of the remaining portion of Priest and Mathis, but the Sandy Oaks City Council doesn’t seem to be aware of who that is.

Personal Gain

Alderman David Tremblay gains by pushing the belief that the roads belong to the Developer/WPPOA.  Roads are expensive and would cost the city a lot of money to maintain.  Alderman Tremblay doesn’t live in Waterwood and doesn’t have to pay Waterwood assessment fees.  He also doesn’t have to use Waterwood roads to drive to and from his home since he lives just inside the entrance to the community.

Alderman Tremblay also owns one of the most expensive properties inside the City of Sandy Oaks.  His  property taxes would be lowered if the  WPPOA had to maintain roads.  But for the WPPOA to do so, citizens in Waterwood would have to pay both a maintenance fee and a property tax.

City Charges CPS to Access Roads

The City Council created a contract with City Public Service to get Franchise Fees from CPS.

Franchise Fees are another name for Right-of-Way (ROW) rental access to publicly owned property such as roads.  The concept is that CPS has to use roads to reach customers, and the city must maintain those roads, so the city charges a fee to CPS.

ROW is for access to public property.  Public roads.  That is, roads maintained by the city.

However, according to the majority of the Sandy Oaks City Council (Alderman Tremblay, Alderman Ball, and Alderman Gay,) the city does not own any roads.

Where does the money come from?

CPS gets the money for the fees it owes the city by charging people who use CPS.  Every time residents pay their bills, 4.5% of the payment goes to franchise fees.  So the money that the city gains through fees from CPS originally belonged to residents.

Where does the money go?

As of right now, the City of Sandy Oaks is currently in debt and no one knows how much.  In fact, the city has violated the Public Information Act and has ignored an Open Records Request asking exactly how much the city is in debt.

The purpose of Franchise Fees is to collect money to maintain roads.  But the City Council is already planning to spend the money on other things.  Most of the city debt is currently owed to the City Attorney, Art Martinez de Vara, who encouraged the City Council to collect franchise fees from CPS.

State Law

If the city does not own any roads, and if the city created a contract forcing CPS to pay to access roads the city does not own, then does that mean the city created an illegal contract?

Of course not, that’s crazy talk.

Texas Transportation Code Chapter 311 is very clear about road ownership.  It states the following:

A general – law municipality has exclusive control over the highways, streets, and alleys of the municipality.

The Bottom Line

The people on the City Council claim to want Sandy Oaks to be a successful city.  A successful city maintains its roads.  It doesn’t give money intended for roads to a lawyer.