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Residents at Hood County meeting say documents were unavailable and question conditional approvals
Summary
Public commenters told the court they could not access conditional-approval documents, alleged a judge attended a prior vote without clearance and urged transparency; a county attorney told a commenter the Open Meetings Act did not require the posting she expected.
Public commenters at a Hood County meeting said they were deeply disappointed and concerned about transparency around a recent conditional approval tied in discussion to Spectrum/Amazon-related approvals.
Mr. Long, a citizen who addressed the court during the public-comment period, said he was "disappointed in the meeting on Tuesday," alleging a judge who was not cleared for the meeting attended and voted on an item with long-term county implications and that commissioners had disregarded the county strategic plan and Subchapter K. "I just want to get up here quickly and publicly state my disappointment in the meeting on Tuesday," Mr. Long said, adding that the episode set a troubling precedent.
A subsequent public commenter described an email trail showing that documents had been transmitted to consultants in March but that the county-provided shared link had expired, preventing public review; she said the documents were re-transmitted on May 5 and that she had not been copied. She said she asked the county attorney about possible Texas Open Meetings Act violations and was told public posting in that form is not a legal requirement; she suggested seeking a second opinion.
Why it matters: Commenters argued the lack of timely public access to project documents prevented meaningful public review of conditions tied to approvals and could undercut confidence in development decisions. One commenter called the apparent sidelining of the volunteer development commission "disgraceful" and said the volunteer group's recommendations were ignored in the most recent approval.
What the meeting recorded: The court approved the minutes by voice vote and then heard the technical presentation by Dr. Andrew Wolford (covered in a separate article). No formal action reversing prior approvals was taken during the meeting and no developer representative responded to the public commenters' claims on the record.
Next steps noted by speakers included posting Wolford's materials to the county website when available and the possibility of additional legal or administrative review of whether prior approvals complied with county rules and applicable law.
