Martindale forms river advisory commission

It wasn’t an easy task, but the city of Martindale has created and appointed members to an advisory board that will discuss issues related to the San Marcos River.

At its meeting Tuesday night, the Martindale City Council approved an ordinance creating the Martindale San Marcos River Advisory Board and appointed eight volunteers to the group: Carlton Carl, Jay Daniel, Steven Fonville, John Hohn, Joy Jungers, Charlie Olds, Alexander Roeber and Malcolm Johnson.

When the ordinance was introduced, council member Mike McClabb made a motion to table the item because he had concerns about some of the language in the ordinance.

“I don’t understand,” he said. “I’m not an attorney. I’d like it to be more understandable, in layman’s terms.”

Council member Lisa Shell Allan suggested that the city’s attorney Kent Wymore could answer McClabb’s questions on the spot. The text that McClabb had concerns about is standard language found in ordinances passed by cities across the state, Wymore said. The first instance McClabb pointed out is language concerning an ordinance that could be in conflict with another ordinance or regulation.

“When an ordinance is potentially in conflict with something else — and I don’t think it’s in any way in conflict with the ordinance that was just passed (the “can ban” ordinance) — this is almost what we refer to as boilerplate language,” Wymore explained. “If you look at ordinances passed … you’ll see language very similar to this, if not identical to this.”

The second instance McClabb had questions about states that if part of an ordinance is found to be invalid, the rest of the ordinance would remain in effect.

“Again, boilerplate language,” Wymore said. “It isn’t something new or specific to this ordinance.”

Council member Sonja Villalobos, who has been spearheading efforts to form the river advisory group for months, pointed out that the draft of the ordinance was sent out three months ago.

“Any time a council member had a discrepancy with the draft that the attorney did, they could have emailed him back,” she said.

Villalobos and Allan expressed a desire to move quickly.

“This item has already been tabled twice,” Villalobos said. “... It’s ridiculous for it to be tabled again. We have people who are ready to get busy on this, to form the committee.”

Allan noted that the number of interested volunteers had already dropped.

“There’s eight in our packet,” Allan said. “Last month there were 10. I’m guessing two people pulled out because it was taking so long.”

McClabb said that Wymore gave him a good explanation of the text, but refused to withdraw his motion, which had been seconded by Mary Alice Paul, because he wanted Wymore to give him an explanation in writing.

“I just heard it verbally,” he said. “He’s an attorney, I’m not.”

McClabb and Paul were the only council members who voted to table; Allan then made a motion to pass the ordinance, and the motion was approved.