TownshipFuture Renews Calls for Township Board Transparency, Proposes Expanded Incorporation Task Force

THE WOODLANDS, TX - The Houston Chronicle reported today that The Woodlands Township three-person Incorporation Task Force will continue to work in “private and closed to the public”.

This important committee made up of Township directors Gordy Bunch, Bruce Reiser and Bob Milner, will meet outside the public view, at undisclosed locations and times. According to the article it appears that The Township Board will continue its practice of not publishing meeting notices and agendas, if any, and no minutes will be published. It is therefore left for the residents to speculate on how this Task Force has directed our consultants and shaped the final products prior to the public and the full Board reviewing them.

TownshipFuture strongly opposes such closed meetings. Incorporation is the most important issue ever considered in The Woodlands. Incorporation will affect the lives and pocketbooks of every resident and business in The Woodlands. It is imperative that voters have every opportunity to observe and participate in incorporation decision making. And that includes the opportunity to attend Incorporation Task Force Meetings.

While the Texas Opening Meetings Act allows committees that only advise the board to meet in secret, a committee may be subject to the Open Meetings Act if its decisions are routinely adopted by the Board. See Tex. Att’y Gen. Op. Nos. GA-0999 (2013), JC-0060, (1999), H-994 (1977); Willmann v. City of San Antonio, 123 S.W.3d 469 (Tex. App. – San Antonio 2003, pet. denied.

Whether or not the Task Force is legally required to hold open meetings, the Board repeatedly promised this community transparency and they are not delivering.

TownshipFuture also encourages the Township to open up membership on the Incorporation Task Force. We need a diverse range of voices and ideas at the table during these important discussions. To that end, TownshipFuture supports expanding the Incorporation Task Force to include one member selected by each Village Association and at least one member selected by Woodlands Water. Such an expansion will go a long way in making sure that the Incorporation Task Force will be a forum for robust debate and consideration instead of a secret cabal of three Township directors.

When The Woodlands last considered a monumental issue as a change in governance—the creation of The Woodlands Township, we did so with a governance committee comprised of many members who were a broad representation of the many stakeholders affected by the change. Residents should expect nothing less this time.