Two cities met for the first time in court Monday, November 26, 2018 in what may prove to be a long and complex process of determining what went wrong in the Interlocal Definitive Agreement between Teague and Fairfield, signed more than twenty-eight years ago.
District Judge Patrick Simmons presided over the hearing regarding the City of Teague versus the City of Fairfield, with Teague citing a breach of the Agreement between the two cities and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s (TDCJ) Boyd Unit.
The Cities’ attorneys presented drastically different opinions on the pending litigation.
David Tuckfield aims to prove that the City of Fairfield maintains sovereign immunity, and is in this case exempt from civil suit.
However Andrew Messer, attorney for the City of Teague, claims that Fairfield’s proprietary status as the operator of the water and wastewater facilities gives the 87th District Court jurisdiction over the matter.
Messer requested a continuance to allow his firm more time to examine the 8,761 pages of documentation regarding the operations and maintenance of the Boyd Unit water and wastewater facilities since the Agreement was signed in 1990.
These records, along with twenty years of Council minutes and budget reports, were provided by Fairfield at Teague’s request when research into the Agreement began in April.
[To clarify, the City of Teague began submitting open records requests to the City of Fairfield when investigation into the Agreement began in April of 2018. Over the last six months, the City of Fairfield has been releasing those documents.]
Tuckfield told Judge Simmons that Fairfield would agree to a continuance, but asked that Teague refrain from making additional requests for records during that time.
Judge Simmons granted the continuance, setting the next hearing for January 30, 2019.
(Photo by Megan Hempel)
