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Tag: county commissioners

  • Did Tarrant County commissioners interfere with the historical board’s election?

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    Tarrant County Commissioner Alisa Simmons, an Arlington Democrat, and County Judge Tim O’Hare, a Southlake Republican, listen to public comment during a Commissioners Court meeting May 7, 2024.

    Tarrant County Commissioner Alisa Simmons, an Arlington Democrat, and County Judge Tim O’Hare, a Southlake Republican, listen to public comment during a Commissioners Court meeting May 7, 2024.

    FortWorth

    The words “preservation, not politics” were heard over and over at Wednesday’s Tarrant County Historical Commission meeting. Yet multiple people said there was something more at play when the proposed slate of executive committee nominees were replaced with a new set of more conservative nominations.

    Some people fear the county commissioners got involved in the election of the executive committee in reaction to a proposed LGBTQ+ marker that was rejected in May after County Judge Tim O’Hare, a Southlake Republican, asked the Texas Historical Commission to rescind approval.

    The Fort Worth marker, detailing the LGBTQ+ history in the city, was rejected without further investigation by the Texas Historical Commission, but Todd Camp, who helped with the marker application, said he would try again in the spring.

    The county historical commission has limited say in what markers get approved and which get rejected. Bill Perdue, the newly-elected chair, said the Tarrant County Historical Commission can give its two cents, but really the Texas Historical Commission makes the decision. The Tarrant County Historical Commission primarily exists to help residents apply for a historical marker.

    Tarrant County commissioners appoint three Historical Commission members each and three at-large members. On Tuesday, the Historical Commission members elected their five-person executive committee.

    Ahead of the new Historical Commission executive election, Perdue said he had multiple phone calls with O’Hare. Perdue said members of the Commissioners Court had said who they wanted on the executive committee, though he didn’t detail who said what. Perdue did say that not all of those wishes were granted.

    The nominating committee made up of Historical Commission members proposed a slate of officers on Oct. 29. Only the treasurer, Preston Patry, and parliamentarian, Floreen Henry, were voted in as proposed. Members who had been appointed by O’Hare and Commissioner Matt Krause, a Republican from Keller, were elected chair, vice chair and secretary.

    Tammy Nakamura, a member of the commission who was appointed by Krause, was one of the members who made new nominations to put other Krause appointees on the executive committee.

    She said she nominated who she did because she knows their history and the board needed to go in a new direction.

    “I just think we needed some new leadership,” said Nakamura, a former Colleyville City Council member and Grapevine-Colleyville school district trustee.

    Though Nakamura didn’t specify why or what direction she wanted the commission to go, Perdue said he thinks some of the people on the commission were worried there would be another LGBTQ+ marker issue.

    As far as what direction Perdue will take the historical commission in his two-year term, he said: “Really, I want to get this thing back on track again. We had so much distractions last couple of years.”

    Democrat Commissioner Alisa Simmons said O’Hare meddled in the nomination process to ensure history he doesn’t agree with is not memorialized.

    “I think that he was attempting to manipulate the outcome, because, like he does with everything, he makes it political,” Simmons said.

    History should never be controlled by politicians, Simmons said. She thinks the Historical Commission should be reflective of the diversity of the county and the election process should be independent of politics.

    “In a Republican county, with a Republican Commissioners Court and every countywide office held by a Republican, Democrats are upset that a Republican is the new Chair of the Historical Commission,” O’Hare said in a statement. “Nothing new under the sun.”

    Perdue said no matter who anyone wanted on the executive committee, the commission will be apolitical and continue preserving history for the entire county.

    Perdue said he’s known O’Hare a long time.

    “He and I talk a lot,” he said. “In fact, I was on the phone with him before the meeting today, but I will tell you that he understands where I’m from, I understand where he’s from, and he is not going to dictate to me how I’m going to run my job.”

    Related Stories from Fort Worth Star-Telegram

    Rachel Royster

    Fort Worth Star-Telegram

    Rachel Royster is a news and government reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, specifically focused on Tarrant County. She joined the newsroom after interning at the Austin American-Statesman, the Waco Tribune-Herald and Capital Community News in DC. A Houston native and Baylor grad, Rachel enjoys traveling, reading and being outside. She welcomes any and all news tips to her email.

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  • Tarrant residents form their own court to deal with commissioners’ reduced schedule

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    Alex Montalvo began the inaugural People’s Commissioners Court meeting on Oct. 21, 2025 with an overview of the evening agenda before opening up the floor for public comment.

    Alex Montalvo began the inaugural People’s Commissioners Court meeting on Oct. 21, 2025 with an overview of the evening agenda before opening up the floor for public comment.


    Rachel Royster

    rroyster@star-telegram.com

    In response to the Tarrant County Commissioners Court deciding to only meet once a month, local residents decided to start their own version of commissioners court “where the voices of the people will be privileged,” according to an Instagram post.

    The inaugural People’s Commissioners Court was hosted on Tuesday evening at Blanc Co-Work & Studios by Tarrant4Change, an advocacy organization, and co-founder Alex Montalvo. About 30 people came to take part. Many of those were familiar faces from the county commissioners meetings, but there were new faces as well.

    Much of the meeting was used as a listening session through public comment and small groups to find out how it can best serve the participants. Attendees were given 3 minutes to speak, same as in the commissioners court, and primarily spoke about jail deaths and the freedom of speech being eroded.

    Montalvo said the meeting will be recurring on the third Tuesday of each month — a week after the county commissioners have their meeting — and always at 6 p.m., with a potluck. This week’s offerings included a fan-favorite frito pie, tortilla soup, Hawaiian roll sandwiches and an array of desserts.

    People’s Commissioners Court attendee Nydia Cardenas notified the public commenters how much time was left for them to speak in their allotted three minutes.
    People’s Commissioners Court attendee Nydia Cardenas notified the public commenters how much time was left for them to speak in their allotted three minutes. Rachel Royster rroyster@star-telegram.com

    Among the crowd was Commissioner Alisa Simmons, a Democrat from Arlington, and two of her staff members. Jamal Williams, the chief of Commissioner Roderick Miles’s staff, was also present.

    Williams said People’s Commissioners Court gives the citizens a place to formalize their ideas and solutions to county issues that they can then present to the commissioners for action.

    “My linear mind wants to put this in a box and structure it, but I thought Dr. (Harriet) Harral made a really good point earlier today: It’s about the people, and allowing the people to lead the effort, and seeing what this looked like and seeing where it goes,” Williams said.

    Commissioner Alisa Simmons sat alongside the other People’s Commissioners Court attendees to hear what residents wanted to see the group’s monthly meetings to serve as.
    Commissioner Alisa Simmons sat alongside the other People’s Commissioners Court attendees to hear what residents wanted to see the group’s monthly meetings to serve as. Rachel Royster rroyster@star-telegram.com

    After the meeting, Simmons said the fact that the citizens feel the need to create their own version of the commissioners court tells her that they are not being properly served by the people in charge.

    “We’ve disrespected them so much that they’ve had to pivot and come up with new strategy for getting their concerns heard and addressed,” Simmons said. “And I think the People’s Commissioners Court is their effort to strategize differently and become more cohesive, so that when they do show up at commissioners once a month, their presentations are titled, their messages are communicated.”

    Simmons said she will be receptive to the ideas the People’s Commissioners Court brings her, whether it be putting something on the agenda for more information or a possible solution to an issue at the county.

    Through small group brainstorming, the People’s Commissioners Court heard from attendees who said they would like to see the meetings be a place for delving deeper into county issues, breaking down what all is on the agendas and coordinating what they will speak out about in the county’s public comment section.

    The People's Commissioners Court attendees broke up into small groups to discuss what they would like the monthly meetings to serve as.
    The People’s Commissioners Court attendees broke up into small groups to discuss what they would like the monthly meetings to serve as. Rachel Royster rroyster@star-telegram.com

    Zoe Wilkerson, who uses they/them pronouns, said their full-time jobs means attending the 10 a.m. commissioners court meeting isn’t possible without taking time off. Getting to the 6 p.m. People’s Commissioners Court meeting on the third Tuesday of each month is much more doable for them.

    “This is an opportunity for me to be involved and figure out those times that it is important for me to take that time off without necessarily having to be constantly on top of what’s happening in the Commissioners Court,” Wilkerson said. “What’s happening is important, but it also can be exhausting for those of us that are doing a million other things.”

    Joe Palmer, who is a regular at the county commissioners meetings, said he wasn’t surprised to be the only Republican in the group, but he hopes more people from the right or middle will join him next month. He said it would bring more attention to the issues that really do affect everyone in the county, indiscriminate of their party affiliation.

    “If I can bring in people from the right or people from the middle, it would add legitimacy to anything that comes out of this group,” Palmer said, “because, you know, it’s going to be bashed as ‘Oh, it’s just another leftist activist group, and shocker, they’re complaining about stuff we’re doing.’ But if somebody goes to the meeting and says, ‘I’m a Republican voter, I went to that meeting, and here’s a new idea or a new understanding that I have on this agenda item,’ that’s powerful.”

    Related Stories from Fort Worth Star-Telegram

    Rachel Royster

    Fort Worth Star-Telegram

    Rachel Royster is a news and government reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, specifically focused on Tarrant County. She joined the newsroom after interning at the Austin American-Statesman, the Waco Tribune-Herald and Capital Community News in DC. A Houston native and Baylor grad, Rachel enjoys traveling, reading and being outside. She welcomes any and all news tips to her email.

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  • Santa Fe County commissioners approve high-profile solar energy project near Eldorado

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    Santa Fe County commissioners have given the green light to a high-profile and controversial solar and battery energy storage facility that has divided opinion in the region and generated heated opposition in the Eldorado area.

    The commission’s 4-1 vote Tuesday to approve the Rancho Viejo Solar project is likely not the end of the story — opponents have said they plan to appeal the approval to state District Court.

    The project comes as New Mexico aims to make a shift to clean energy and away from coal and gas, and commissioners who voted to support the project cited the need to get renewable energy projects online to combat climate change.

    “I think that this project is much, much, much safer than the alternative — the alternative would be a 332-home development, with 332 potential fire hazards,” said Commissioner Hank Hughes, who is a resident of Eldorado and made the motion at Tuesday’s meeting to approve the proposal.

    He added, “I think this is the right decision. We are living in a climate crisis. … This is so much safer than fossil fuels.”

    The commission’s decision comes after a public hearing earlier this month that featured more than 20 hours of testimony. When the roll-call vote played out, at least one person in the audience cried out in frustration. Rancho Viejo Solar, proposed by Northern Virginia-based AES Corp., has drawn fierce opposition from residents concerned about impact on property values and the risk of fire from battery cells overheating.

    Company lauds vote

    Aiming to generate 96 megawatts of power and roughly 45 megawatts of battery storage, the project would cover 680 acres of a roughly 800-acre parcel and include a solar facility, a 1-acre collector substation, a 3-acre battery storage system and a 2.3-mile generation line about four miles east of La Cienega.

    Public Service Company of New Mexico is the intended client for the project.

    Joshua Mayer, senior development manager for AES, said in a statement the vote is “an essential step toward delivering safe, reliable, and affordable energy to the local grid as energy demand continues to rise, while directly advancing New Mexico’s clean energy goals.”

    081225_GC_]RanchoViejo02rgb.jpg (copy)

    Joshua Mayer, senior development manager for AES, listens to concerned citizens speak about on the Rancho Viejo Solar project during Day 2 of a hearing at the Santa Fe County Commission chamber earlier this month. The public hearing featured over 20 hours of testimony on the project before commissioners approved the site Tuesday.

    The county Planning Commission approved a conditional use permit for Rancho Viejo Solar earlier this year, a decision project opponents appealed to county commissioners. In an interview earlier this month, leaders with the Clean Energy Coalition of Santa Fe County, an organization that opposes the solar project and has about 2,000 members, said the group intended to appeal if the commissioners opted to uphold the Planning Commission’s decision.

    The vehement pushback has been a source of frustration for the project’s supporters, who say it could generate enough electricity to carry roughly the entire residential power load of Santa Fe and would mark a significant move in the state’s clean energy transition.

    Commissioners sound off

    Commissioner Lisa Cacari Stone was the lone member of the board to vote against Rancho Viejo Solar. In her comments ahead of the vote, she indicated she has concerns about safety, technology and about the application overall.

    Lisa Cacari Stone headshot

    Lisa Cacari Stone

    “There is the importance of the public health impact. The proximity of this large-scale project to neighborhoods and Rancho Viejo continues to create potential hazards and can be very detrimental to all those in the area,” Cacari Stone said.

    “My vote is not against solar energy,” she added. “It is against this particular proposal by AES because it does not meet — based on the evidence I’ve reviewed, written submissions and testimonies — the highest standards we owe all of our communities.”

    Commissioner Justin Greene, who is among the candidates running to be the next mayor of Santa Fe and who voted to support the project, noted some of the conditions with which AES will need to comply, including increasing the distance between battery containers in the interest of reducing fire risk.

    Justin Greene

    Justin Greene

    “We get calls for environmentalism and sustainability, and we are answering that call by creating a project and helping a project that will power Santa Fe and Santa Fe County,” Greene said.

    Some commissioners noted county officials as well as third-party technical experts recommended approval of the conditional use permit.

    “The environmental benefits of this are very important to me as an environmentalist myself and as someone with a 7-year-old child who will inherit our future,” Commissioner Adam Fulton Johnson said. “Projects like this are critical to meeting our renewable energy goals and replacing retired coal plants.”

    ‘It will go to District Court’

    Lee Zlotoff, who helms the Clean Energy Coalition of Santa Fe County, said in an interview earlier this month the organization has raised more than $50,000 and is prepared to go to court if the commissioners approve the land use permit. He noted his group is “in this for the long haul.”

    “The fight’s not over,” said Randy Coleman, the organization’s vice president, confirming Tuesday the group plans to file an appeal.

    081125_MS_AES Hearing Protest_003.JPG (copy)

    John Lee, left, and Pat Czeto stand outside with protest signs ahead of a public hearing on the Rancho Viejo Solar project in August 2025. The Clean Energy Coalition of Santa Fe County, an organization that opposes the solar project and has about 2,000 members, said the group intended to appeal if the commissioners opted to uphold the Planning Commission’s decision.

    Selma Eikelenboom, a resident of Ranchos San Marcos who lives near the project site, was unsurprised by the outcome Thursday, but said she is confident the matter will end up in court.

    An opponent of the project, she said she has spent three years studying AES’ proposal but, as a party with standing before the county commissioners, had only an hour to make her case.

    “It’s a shame, but it’s not over till the fat lady sings, as they say, and it means it will go to District Court,” Eikelenboom said.

    ‘A great precedent’

    After the meeting, Robert Cordingley, president of the nonprofit 350 Santa Fe, said the Rancho Viejo Solar hearing process can serve as a template moving forward for advocates who are pushing to get such projects approved.

    “We think this will set a great precedent and a template for future battery storage and solar farm projects, not just in Santa Fe County but in the state as a whole,” Cordingley said.

    Glenn Schiffbauer, executive director of the Santa Fe Green Chamber of Commerce, has also supported Rancho Viejo Solar through the lengthy process alongside groups like the Sierra Club’s Rio Grande Chapter.

    “It’s a good day,” Schiffbauer said. “For me and my organization, I think it was really good to see the county of Santa Fe take advantage of the opportunity that was presented to them to lead in renewable energy generation. … This was the first big one. Rather than doing nothing, which is usually the easier way, they did something, and now we have a template going forward.”

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