City of Brackettville, TX agrees Animal Control Ordinance is Invalid, Offers Judgment to Animal Lovers Association

By: Jose G. Landa, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc., Copyright 2016

The City of Brackettville, Texas admitted that its Animal Control Ordinance, amended on December 9, 2014, by its City Council under the leadership of Mayor Andres Rodriguez is invalid and null and void in the pending lawsuit styled Brackettville Animal Lovers Association v. City of Brackettville, Texas in U. S. District Court, Western District of Texas, Del Rio Division, in Del Rio, Texas, offering a Judgment in favor of the Brackettvile Animal Lovers Association, according to a document filed in federal court on Monday, May 2, 2016.

Despite the overwhelming opposition of Brackettville residents, the City of Brackettville, Texas City Council amended its City Animal Control Ordinance on December 9, 2014 prohibiting livestock within the corporate city limits by drawing controversial boundaries which disallowed livestock in only one area of the city while allowing livestock in another area of the city limits without a legitimate governmental purpose.

The Brackettville City Council composed of Mayor Andres Rodriguez and Aldermen/women Chica Hernandez, Frank Rodriguez, Roy Garza, and Joe Garza disregarded the pleas of hundreds of 4-H and FFA students, parents, citizens, residents, local businesses and ranchers, property owners, and livestock owners not to prohibit livestock within the city limits and approve the discriminatory boundaries within the city limits, trampling the voice and legal rights of their own citizens.

In a March 9, 2015 meeting with representatives from the Brackettville Animal Lovers Association, Mayor Andres Rodriguez stated that “the majority that were here were opposed to it–were opposed to us supporting the ordinance, but at the same time, we also have to listen to the silent majority, which I’m calling it, the ones that did–supported it, the ones that talked offline. For some reason, or the other, they didn’t want to come and speak in front of–in front of a public meeting,..”Mayor Rodriguez acknowledged that that the majority of Brackettville citizens and residents opposed amending the Animal Control Ordinance, but that he and the City Council chose to listen to the “silent majority” instead of the overwhelming majority of their residents. Mayor Rodriguez’s statement contradicts Texas Open Government and Transparency laws which requires that all decisions and deliberations of a public governmental entity be held in public meetings, not in private, closed door meetings with alleged members of the “silent majority.”

Mayor Rodriguez and the City Council’s total disrespect of their own citizens’ voice, real property and livestock property rights, and legal rights is evident throughout the public workshops and meetings held, giving more credence to members of the “silent majority” in private, closed meetings or conversations than those Brackettville citizens who went to speak before the City Council at public meetings, as well as their dreadful decision to amend the Animal Control Ordinance on December 9, 2014 to prohibit livestock within a certain boundary in the city limits contrary to the overwhelming opposition of their own residents. To add insult to injury, Mayor Rodriguez and the City Council later made another amendment to the controversial December 9, 2014 Animal Control Ordinance on March 19, 2015.

Brackettville residents made many, many pleas and efforts to Mayor Rodriguez and the City Council to understand the wishes and preferences of the community and the City Council’s misguidance concerning the Animal Control Ordinance, but their pleas and cries fell on deaf ears at City Hall, according to the federal lawsuit.

Mayor Rodriguez and the City Council’s process in approving the now self-admitted invalid Amended Animal Control Ordinance of December 9, 2014 was riddled with procedural and technical errors and mistakes, according to the federal lawsuit.

On March 10, 2015, Mayor Rodriguez and the City Council began to enforce the controversial December 9, 2014 Amended Animal Control Ordinance through its Police Chief and Animal Control Officer by issuing citations for violation of the invalid Animal Control Ordinance to over 30 Brackettville residents, citing them for a criminal misdemeanor with a fine up to $500 per violation, and court costs. Most Brackettville residents issued a citation for allegedly violating the Animal Control Ordinance had never had a citation, traffic ticket, or any criminal matter on their record. They were hard-working, honest, and outstanding citizens of Brackettville. Many had to sell at a discount or give their livestock and tear down their pens, corrals or chicken coops to avoid being issued new citations, causing them to suffer damages.

Brackettville citizens and residents had no choice but to defend their legal and property rights against their own Mayor and City Council and formed a non-profit association to protect and promote animal and livestock rights, real and personal property rights, livestock owners, and local residents in Brackettville and Kinney County, Texas. They formed Brackettville Animal Lovers Association.

The attorney for the association appeared in the City of Brackettville Municipal Court on behalf of most people issued a citation and challenged the constitutionality and legality of the December 9, 2014 Animal Control Ordinance and requested a jury trial for each defendant.

Mayor Rodriguez and the City Council were stunned and in disbelief when the residents of Brackettville exercised their legal rights, believing that their constituents would never stand up for their legal rights and dignity. Mayor Rodriguez and former Aldermen Joe Garza, who approved the invalid Ordinance, attended the proceedings before the Brackettville Municipal Court and took a front row seat to watch how every resident of Brackettville contested the legality of the December 9, 2014 Animal Control Ordinance and requested a jury trial, except two residents whom appeared without an attorney and plead guilty to the invalid Ordinance and paid $150 fine each. The City of Brackettvile and its City Attorney later agreed to dismiss with prejudice every citation issued for allegedly violating the invalid December 9, 2014 Animal Control Ordinance, except the two residents whom plead guilty without legal representation.

Shortly thereafter, the association filed a lawsuit in state district court in Kinney County challenging the legality of the controversial December 9, 2014 Amended Animal Control Ordinance and its subsequent amendment on March 19, 2015, alleging that the adoption process of the ordinance did not comply with the City’s ordinance passage rules and orders established since 1928-1929, violated their constitutional and civil rights for not providing them due process under the law, equal protection, the boundaries were discriminatory and without a legitimate governmental purpose, the ordinance was over broad and vague, took their real and personal property rights, unlawfully affected interstate commerce, and violated the Texas Open Meetings Act and other municipal laws. The City of Brackettville and its attorneys removed the case to federal district court in Del Rio, Texas instead of it having been heard in Kinney County.

“This case is a prime example of what goes wrong when public government does not listen to its constituents, fails to represent its citizens, fails to treat its citizens with dignity and respect, and denies the voice and legal rights of its constituents,” said Ricardo E. Calderon, attorney for Brackettville Animal Lovers Association. “Public government owes a duty to represent the best interests of its constituents, operate an open and transparent government, and hold all public decisions and deliberations in open public meetings, not behind closed doors,” added Calderon.

According to the federal court document titled “Plaintiff, Bracketville Animal Lovers Association, Notice of Acceptance of Defendant, City of Brackettville, Texas, Rule 68 Offer of Judgment, the City of Brackettville agrees to submit an Offer of Judgment consisting of the following terms: “(1) A declaration that the City of Brackettville, Texas Amended Animal Control Ordinance 2001-09-01-AC of December 14, 2015 [sic], is invalid and null and void; (2) Superseding any and all Animal Control Ordinances with the readoption of the 2014 Ordinance provisions with new definitions of ‘Owner” and ‘Animals at Large’ without the boundaries Plaintiff contested stating it shall be unlawful for any persons to keep livestock within the corporate city limits of the City unless the livestock is being kept in accordance with the following restrictions: a) livestock shall be kept on a parcel of land that is at least one acre in size; or b) if a parcel of land is less than one acre in size, the livestock shall be kept in accordance with the following restrictions.”

In other words, the City of Brackettville City Council agrees that its controversial December 9, 2014 Animal Control Ordinance is invalid, will have to approve another Animal Control Ordinance without any discriminatory boundaries and which will state that livestock is prohibited within the city limits, but will allow citizens and residents to possess livestock within the city limits if their property is one acre or larger in size and those whose property is less than one acre in size will also be allowed to possess livestock provided they meet certain conditions enumerated in the document. The key provision for property owners whose parcel of land is less than one acre will have to meet a condition that their pen, corral or coop be 50 feet from a neighbor’s boundary line, not 50 feet from a neighbor’s residence as the old ordinance provided.

The association and the City of Brackettville had been negotiating several months the terms of a new Animal Control Ordinance in order to settle the federal lawsuit pending in Del Rio. In effect, this Offer of Judgment settles the federal lawsuit. The federal court is expected to issue a Judgment in the immediate future bringing to conclusion the lawsuit filed by Brackettville citizens and residents against the City of Brackettville for the controversial Animal Control Ordinance of December 9, 2014. Livestock will be allowed in the city limits of Brackettville subject to the terms of the new Animal Control Ordinance agreed between the parties and subsequently to be approved by the City Council.

The City of Brackettville will not pay any damages to the association as a result of this lawsuit, but will have to pay its attorney’s fees, court costs, and expenses.