Brackettville Citizens Sue City and Mayor for Amended Animal Control Ordinance

By: Jose G. Landa, Copyright 2015, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc.

The Brackettville Animal Lovers Association, a non-profit organization comprised of animal, livestock, and real property owners in the City of Brackettville, Texas, have filed a lawsuit against the City of Brackettville and its Mayor Andres Rodriguez for approving an Amended Animal Control Ordinance on December 9, 2014 which prohibited the possession of livestock within a certain restricted boundary area within the City Corporate Limits for the first time since the City’s founding in 1928 while allowing another boundary area to possess livestock within the city limits, alleging that the Amended Animal Control Ordinance discriminates against the citizens of Brackettville and fails to comply with the City’s municipal Ordinance passage requirements.

The lawsuit was filed on Monday, April 20, 2015, in the 63rd Judicial District Court in Kinney County, Texas. On Tuesday, April 21, 2015, 63rd Judicial District Judge Henry Fernandez issued a temporary restraining order against the City of Brackettville and its Mayor Andres Rodriguez from continuing to enforce the Amended Animal Control Ordinance until a temporary injunction Court hearing can be held on Wednesday, April 29, 2015, at 1 P.M. to determine if the Court should order a temporary injunction against the disputed Ordinance until a trial on the merits is determined.

The lawsuit alleges that the Brackettville City Council failed to comply with its own municipal Ordinance passage requirements, violated its citizens constitutional due process and equal protection rights, that the Ordinance is overbroad and vague, and that the Ordinance constitutes a taking of their personal and real property.

The Brackettville Animal Lovers Association seek a declaratory judgment holding that the Amended Animal Control Ordinance was not approved pursuant to Brackettville’s municipal Ordinance passage requirements, is unconstitutional, illegal, and unlawful and should be stricken. The non-profit association also seeks against the City of Brackettville and Mayor Andres Rodriguez actual damages, attorney’s fees, court costs, and expenses incurred in the lawsuit.

The Brackettville Animal Lovers Association lawsuit alleges that its individual members attended City Council workshops and meetings concerning the proposed Amended Animal Control Ordinance to express their opposition to it, but that their concerns and complaints fell on Brackettville City Council’s deaf ears. Even though a majority of the citizens opposed the Ordinance, the Brackettville City Council denied their citizens’ pleas and approved the defective Amended Animal Control Ordinance. The lawsuit alleges that Brackettville Mayor Andres Rodriguez admitted at a March 9, 2015 meeting with members of Brackettville Animal Lovers Association that the majority of people who spoke at the City’s workshops and meetings regarding the Ordinance expressed their opposition to it, but that he listened to the “Silent Majority” of citizens whom he speaks with daily and supported the controversial Ordinance. Mayor Rodriguez failed to identify any members of the “Silent Majority.”

The citizens’ lawsuit alleges that the City of Brackettville’s enforcement of the defective Amended Animal Control Ordinance after March 9, 2015 by issuing criminal misdemeanor citations for alleged violations has caused personal and economic damages and detriment to the citizens and animal and livestock owners and real property owners within the city limits affected by the Ordinance prohibition of livestock to only one group. The lawsuit alleges that individual members of the Brackettville Animal Control Ordinance have been harmed by having to rent real property outside the city limits to keep their animals and livestock, have had to sell their animals and livestock at discounted prices, have had to donate their animals and livestock, denied their use and enjoyment of their animals, livestock and real property, has decreased the value of their real properties, have lost the use and companionship of their animals and livestock, increased the costs of maintaining their animals and livestock, and charged citizens with a criminal misdemeanor facing a fine of up to $500 per violation.

The lawsuit also alleges that the enforcement of the Amended Animal Control Ordinance against only one group of citizens living within the city limits while allowing another group to keep livestock is discriminatory and a violation of their constitutional due process and equal protection rights.

Members of the Brackettville Animal Lovers Association stated that the City of Brackettville City Council’s approval of the defective Amended Animal Control Ordinance is a travesty of justice and a total lack of representation of its own constituents and citizens. The fate of the Amended Animal Control Ordinance will now be decided by the legal system.