Big decisions ahead while we battle rising costs and shrinking buying power

Tomorrow morning I’ll be in the Judge’s chair for the Presidio County Commissioners Court meeting in Marfa (10 AM courthouse). Judge Portillo is traveling, working on International Bridge issues with the State and Federal government. He’ll be attending on Zoom and speaking, but Zoom is not a good way to run an in-person meeting so he’s asked me to do that in this case.

We have some big decisions and projects on the horizon, the most important of which is the potential transfer from TXDOT of the Presidio/Ojinaga car/truck/pedestrian bridge over to the County. I’ll write a post this week on exactly what the vision is at this point from the County perspective. The short version is that the County would lease it to the Presidio International Port Authority to operate. They would then establish a toll and tolling infrastructure and procedure in order to fund economic development infrastructure for international trade facilities related to commercial bridge traffic. They would also transfer some of the toll funds to help pay for the services that the City of Presidio police, fire and EMS provide to the bridge. Currently that’s a responsibility and a liability that the City of Presidio incurs with only assistance from the County. With tighter and tighter budgets, this is already been a problem and is unsustainable.

There’s a whole lot more that I’m not prepared to discuss publicly yet, but the next five years holds the potential for us as a leadership group to shape the direction of the County’s finances and also it’s identity. There will be disagreements, anger, controversy and possible not much will happen. Most of it will be out of Commissioners Court’s hands. There will be policy matters that could affect these things, though. There could be changes in the way we view a lot of things. I’m hopeful things go well. I’m hopeful the voters will reward thoughtful policy and come out against policies they disagree with at the voting booth. In the meantime, we have t work on this year’s upcoming challenges…

Software upgrades, new reporting requirements, internal and external auditing deadlines being shortened… All more costly and challenging for our small County. The new District Judge Monty Kimball wants more office help, and wants the five Counties he serves to split the cost. The cost is more than pretty much anyone that works for Presidio County gets paid. Also, I am automatically opposed to a newly elected official being caught off guard by the heavy workload he or she faces (we are all overloaded, underpaid and understaffed) and immediately requesting expansion of his staff. Having been a well-paid attorney for years before taking on the District Judge position also tugs at my suspicion that menial paperwork and answering the phone is not something Judge Kimball wants to start doing. Anyway, enough of this rant.

Please join us at Commissioners Court and watch this space for some important updates and commentary coming…

Sincerely,

David Beebe