Official Website of the City of Horseshoe Bay, Texas

Press Release - 22 November 2005

PRESS RELEASE

City Council
Village of Horseshoe Bay
November 22, 2005

We confirmed with the office of District Attorney Sam Oatman that a representative from an Austin law firm delivered papers requesting that the District Attorney initiate a quo warranto action in district court for the purpose of disqualifying the incorporation of the Village of Horseshoe Bay. We do not know at this time who the “relator” or moving party is. We have not been given copies of the materials that were delivered to the District Attorney, nor has anyone contacted the Council or Mayor concerning this matter.

We were informed that the basis for the request appears to be a claim that the incorporated area for the Village does not contain a sufficient number of inhabitants.

The basis for calculating the number of inhabitants in the Village of Horseshoe Bay was submitted to the County Judge in affidavit form along with the Application for Incorporation. The Order calling for the incorporation election was issued on that basis.

The approach used to calculate the number of inhabitants was the same method, we understand, that was utilized by Marble Falls, Granite Shoals, Burnet and other Texas cities to determine their inhabitants for purposes of converting to a home rule city. This method of calculating number of inhabitants was approved by outside legal counsel specializing in municipal law as the appropriate approach to use.

We believe that the method Horseshoe Bay followed is the most conservative and effective way of determining inhabitants during the period between official census takings. How much area can be incorporated by a new city is dependent on the number of inhabitants, not on population, residents or registered voters. Typically, the number of “inhabitants” of an area is larger than population, residents or registered voters.

The area to be incorporated, the number of inhabitants and the approach utilized to make such a determination has been discussed since spring, and presented in writing on June 3, 2005 to representatives of our communities’ eight property owners’ associations, Wayne Hurd and Doug Jaffe. It was also presented in the HSB POA’s Recommendation for Incorporation dated June 15, 2005 that has been distributed widely within our community and been available on the POA’s Website.

We feel that an effort to disrupt the organization of the Village of Horseshoe Bay through a quo warranto request is without merit and by waiting until this late date, is being pursued in bad faith. Fortunately, an official receiving such a request is not required by state law to take any action. We are confident that our County and District Attorneys will share our views that this challenge to the creation of our city is untimely and has no merit.

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