City council has decided to file a lawsuit to get a declaratory judgment that would say that they have the right to issue bonds for the construction of the new ball park.
It seems that there just might, maybe, could be valid legal challenges to their claim of legality. They need a definite ruling to make the bond issuing process safer.
I have been vocal about my thoughts that tearing down city hall is a horrible idea, but at this point we need to go ahead with the project. Undoing the damage (buildings purchased, contracts started, movement of staff, etc.) that has already been done would be expensive and really messy.
A declaratory judgment in the city’s favor would make it clear that the court thinks issuing the bonds is legal under Texas law.
The mechanism they are using is chapter 1205 of the Texas Government Code. The chapter gives the city the right to file the suit either in Travis County or El Paso County.
It seems that they chose Travis County. According to the chapter, the court must now issue an order.
Sec. 1205.041. NOTICE TO INTERESTED PARTIES.
(a) The court in which an action under this chapter is brought shall, on receipt of the petition, immediately issue an order, in the form of a notice, directed to all persons who:
(1) reside in the territory of the issuer;
(2) own property located within the boundaries of the issuer;
(3) are taxpayers of the issuer; or
(4) have or claim a right, title, or interest in any property or money to be affected by a public security authorization or the issuance of the public securities.
(b) The order must, in general terms and without naming them, advise the persons described by Subsection (a) and the attorney general of their right to:
(1) appear for trial at 10 a.m. on the first Monday after the 20th day after the date of the order; and
In other words, if you want to say anything about it show up in court in Travis County. I don’t see a lot of us traveling to present our thoughts.
If the lawsuit had been filed in El Paso County a visiting judge would probably have been appointed so that no local judge would have to be involved. That would make sense to me. We could have then gone to court to have our say one way or the other.
City council obviously did not want that. We might have had a say on the issue.
Is there no end to how far they will go to deny public input?
We deserve better
elpasospeak 
I wonder how much has the city has spent on legal fees thus far. All the legal maneuvers are adding to the total cost of the ballpark.
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