Freestone County Judge Patrick Simmons has decided that his court does not have jurisdiction over The City of Teague vs. The City of Fairfield case CV-18-334-1, which involves claims of violation to the Texas Open Meetings Act (TOMA).
The two cities met in Judge Simmons’ court on Wednesday, April 24, 2019 to address this case in which Teague is suing Fairfield, alleging “an abhorrent pattern of Open Meetings Act violations too numerous to list here.”
Teague is asking the court to affirm that Fairfield has committed these violations, ruling that actions taken by Fairfield’s City Council during innumerable meetings named in the suit be declared void, and order Fairfield to cease committing these violations in the future.
The City of Teague is also requesting that the court assert that the City of Fairfield’s 2018 budget ordinance was not passed in accordance with the law and therefore, Fairfield’s expenditures, so far this fiscal year, are illegal and improper.
Furthermore, Teague asks that the court order Fairfield to pay necessary attorney’s fees and grant them a judgment for all costs of the suit.
Judge Simmons began the hearing by explaining while there were several matters scheduled to be discussed, the main issue was the matter of Jurisdiction. The remaining items were stayed by the court.
After an hour of hearing multiple examples of case law from both cities’ attorneys, Judge Simmons decided that he does not have Jurisdiction on this matter.
He concluded the proceedings by stating that he will not hear any further information on this case until a response is received from the Court of Appeals.
