Mayor alleges fraud on sewer system permit

Allegations were abundant on the dais during the last Wimberley City Council meeting as Mayor Susan Jaggers said that the city had submitted “inaccurate” information that would “deliberately mislead” the TCEQ even going so far as to call it “fraudulent.”

The issue, which Councilmember Christine Byrne said was being “grossly misrepresented,” stems from an application for a renewed wastewater discharge permit.

The city has an approved three-phase permit that would keep the currently operating wastewater treatment plant at Blue Hole Regional Park running while transitioning to the future sewer plan in phases. The most recently approved permit, not to be confused with the overall sewer system plan, is still based on the city-owned treatment plant project and would expire before that sewer system is finished causing the city to need an extension. The city has gotten conditional approval of a change in scope to have wastewater treated by Aqua Texas.

Jaggers said that extending the current permit without updating the information to include the Aqua Texas plan, among other issues she said were incorrect or missing, was a “serious violation.” Byrne said that the city doesn’t currently know which direction it will go yet and that renewing this permit keeps options open.

“We don’t know honestly where we are going to go,” Byrne said. “We say we are going with Aqua Texas, but we have to keep our options open.”

Jaggers refused to sign the paperwork to extend the permit. Mayor Pro Tem Rebecca Minnick signed the paperwork, and it was sent to the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality. Minnick said that Jaggers did not have the authority to veto the council’s decision to submit the application. After the paperwork was submitted, Jaggers said she called the TCEQ to withdraw the permit. A TCEQ spokesperson said the application is under administrative review and that they have “not received a written request to withdraw the application,” as of Monday afternoon.

City Administrator Shawn Cox said that he spoke with the project engineers about the permit and it was their advice to renew the permit under the current conditions in the manner the city followed. He said that the mayor’s request would be an amendment to the permit and would need to be filed separately.

Minnick stated that the city has professionals hired to advise and complete such applications. Others on the council felt the process was being correctly followed.

“If the mayor pro tem is comfortable signing what she signed and the city administrator is comfortable with what he submitted, I think we should leave it at that,” Byrne said.

Councilmember Gary Barchfeld said that he didn’t think anyone on the council would want to submit incorrect information and thought the application should be updated to the best of the city’s abilities.

The city attorney at the meeting said that the item on the agenda was “whether or not council will approve for resubmitting it. That would be the question and council has the authority to make that determination.” Jaggers said the council “can approve to resubmit it or not; however, I am going to resubmit a correct application. And the council can deal with that.”

The council voted 3-1 in favor of denying the mayor authorization to resubmit the application. Rebecca Minnick, Christine Byrne and Bo Bowman were in favor. Gary Barchfeld was against. Craig Fore abstained stating that he hadn’t seen either permit application and did not know which was correct. Jaggers said she would “start an open case about lying to the TCEQ and the council that did this are going to be held responsible.”