UPDATE: The Orange County Courthouse will be closed on Friday and 260th State District Judge Buddie Hahn now said he will make his decision by Monday for requested temporary injunction against the city of Orange.
Judge Hahn conducted a hearing on the injunction Wednesday and told the two sides he would make a decision by Friday. However, the courthouse will be closed Friday for Texas Independence Day.
The issue of whether the city of Orange can abandon historic downtown and buy a commercial bank building is a legal matter that City Attorney John Cash Smith said hinges on the word “may” and not “shall.”
Smith told that to 260th District Judge Buddie Hahn Wednesday morning during a hearing for a non-profit group asking for a temporary injunction to stop the city from abandoning the historic downtown city hall and buying the First Financial Bank building on 16th Street.
David Starnes, attorney for the plaintiffs, honed in on how the city council secretly made a deal to buy the bank building for $2 million without a public hearing or following the city’s master plan and city charter.
By questioning City Manager Shawn Oubre, Starnes brought out that the city issued a press release a day after the city council voted, without comment, to buy the bank building. The city did not issue a press release before the purchase. Also, the meeting when the council voted was at 9 a.m. on a Tuesday when most citizens had to work.
Oubre agreed the council held a public workshop on buying a new fire truck, but did not have a public workshop on city hall decision.
Oubre, on questioning, said the current city budget had $350,000 budgeted to renovate the old city hall. The budget went through a public hearing and two votes of the council. Starnes said as far as citizens were concerned, the city had promised to the citizens in the budget the money would be spent on the old city hall, not to buy another $2 million building.
The city council has not voted on a budget amendment to change that budget item, according to the testimony.
Starnes asked the judge to stop “the illegal expenditure of public funds” and argued “the government should not be allowed to place themselves above the law.”
Judge Hahn said he will take the arguments under advisement and make a decision by Friday. He told the plaintiffs and the city the decision is “strictly a legal matter, not a matter of what the city council should have done.”
After the hearing, Smith said “the question is not should they (city council) have done it, but can they legally do it?” He said Judge Hahn “gets it completely, is it legal for them to do it?”
The city council on January 12 voted unanimously after a 30-minute close-door executive session to buy the bank building for city hall. Five people had protested during the citizens comments part, including Leslie Barras, who lives in the Old Orange Historic District near city hall. Barras is a lawyer and said the purchase was violating the city charter, which requires the council to follow the master plan. She asked the council to step back and wait on the purchase.
During the time to vote, City Manager Oubre told the council they did not have to comment on the vote.
Barras and the non-profit group Historic Orange Preservation Empowerment (HOPE) filed the lawsuit against the city and asked for the temporary injunction to stop the purchase. The city agreed to stop the purchase for a few days.
The plaintiffs hired Starnes, a Beaumont attorney. During the hearing Wednesday, Starnes questioned Barras about her background in government and law.
She has a bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M and worked as an intern for the City of College Station planning department. She then went to the University of Texas to earn a double degree in law and public administration through the Lyndon Baines Johnson School of Public Affairs. She was one of 12 students chosen to study a semester under legendary Congresswoman Barbara Jordan.
Barras has an extensive career working in Austin and also Louisville, Kentucky, with planning and zoning issues and historical preservation law. She has also been hired by the U.S. Department of Interior to do a historical survey of veterans’ buildings and is a historic preservation consultant for the U.S. Army’s Fort Polk.
She grew up in Port Arthur and moved to Orange a few years ago to be near her parents. She and her husband are currently doing more renovations on their historic home.
On the witness stand, she talked about her research into the city’s comprehensive master plan and city charter. She said the charter requires that the city council and planning and zoning commission conduct a public hearing and separate votes for any changes in the master plan.
The 1996 master plan, which is still in effect, called for keeping government in the Old Town Center. The plan called to move the public works department near city hall. In the past 15 years, the city has spent $6 million to $8 million on a new police station, new public works building and new fire station. All are across a street from city hall and were designed to blend into the 1920s Craftsman-Mission style of city hall.
Barras said if Judge Hahn refuses to grant the temporary injunction, she and HOPE could appeal to the Ninth Court of Appeals in Beaumont. However, by the time the appeal is heard the city could complete the purchase of the bank building.
-Margaret Toal, KOGT-
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