By Dan Ochoa
Guest Commentary

Let’s see how closely the County Judge and the Mayor, both members of the Kendall County Republican Party, conform to the 2006 state Republican Party platform. It was reported in the March 14 edition of the Boerne Star that Judge Schroeder and Mayor Heckler are considering the donation of about $100,000 each of public funds to the Rainbow Senior Center. The Express-News quoted Mayor Dan Heckler as saying “all the council members are in favor of assisting the Rainbow Senior Center. We’d like to match the county’s contribution of $100,000.”

Unless both the judge and the mayor are prepared to shower our tax dollars on every nonprofit in this community equally, this initiative appears to promote unequal opportunity while guaranteeing a privileged outcome, the complete opposite of Preamble, Item 3, which states (in part):  We believe equal opportunity is a right and a privilege, but equal outcome is not.

Second, consider the party platform plank that calls for preservation of republican form of government. What may be good for the goose (State of Texas) is not good for the gander.

For example,  Boerne’s City Charter allows direct citizen/democratic action through initiative, referendum and recall. The Development Agreement (DA) between the city of Boerne and MA Boerne Partners LP was enacted by resolution instead of ordinance, thereby bypassing an opportunity by the citizens to reconsider the DA through referendum.

I suppose Mayor Heckler and his advisors decided that referendum wasn’t in the voter/taxpayers’ best interest. Next, the plank on Environment, Property Ownership and Natural Resources, which states: “We believe in local stewardship of our natural resources for our children’s future freedom and use.”

I would very much like to have both the mayor and the county judge weigh in publicly on how the Cibolo Creek Watershed and the Cibolo Corridor Conservation Initiative created by the Cibolo Nature Center is best served by a proposed 12-acre wastewater treatment plant located at the confluence of the Cibolo and Menger creeks. The new plant will eventually process 5.2 million gallons of effluent daily, Esperanza accounting for 1.2 million gallons per day of the total daily volume. It seems to me that a $100,000 contribution to the CNC from both the county and the city is in order.

Finally, the preamble to the party plank on small business states: “We urge Texas legislators to find ways to mitigate the impact of governmental regulations on small businesses and to ensure that small businesses are adequately represented in the regulatory process.”

The City of Boerne recently consummated the Esperanza Development Agreement, arguably the largest public-private partnership/governmental regulatory action favoring big, for-profit corporate business in the state’s history, a huge encumbrance upon a strong and vibrant private sector.  I find it extremely difficult to understand how this blatant perversion of governmental regulatory authority helps small businesses. 

While making all the right noises regarding small businesses, these guys are busy promoting the benefits of intergovernmental agreements (water control improvement districts and municipal utility districts) that line the pockets of corporate big shots, leaving the small businesses the crumbs. Yeah, real trickle-down economics!  But is it faith-based? Judge Schroeder and Mayor Heckler, if you’re intent on ignoring your own party’s rule book, stop calling yourselves Republicans, much less conservatives. It makes me look bad.

Dan Ochoa is a Boerne resident.