Saw in the Glen Rose Reporter, page A2 of this week's paper, in an article by Travis Smith about how Glen Rose Medical Center is in need of resuscitation, that Ron Hankins "advised Reynolds" to write that open letter to the employees that Somervell County Salon posted earlier this last week. I noted at the time that there was no board meeting held since June 9th, so it's pretty clear that Ron Hankins was acting as a lone rogue *advising* Ray Reynolds to make this decision, without benefit of bringing this to the board, even in a special meeting.  Hah, who needs to have an elected board when Ron Hankins is around? Or heck, who needs to take any action to let people of this county know in an open meeting? 

Of course, this isn't the first time Hankins has *advised* people.

Remember this? When Ron Hankins *advised* the sheriff's department to investigate someone  who wrote a letter to the editor of the newspaper (hint: the letter was not flattering to him). 

On going to the NRC.GOV safety open house meeting that was this last Monday. Ron Hankins: 

Well, I uh, in. some plain language to Ken Peters... I told him in some plain Somervell county language how I felt about what was going on, let him know about some history that he didn't know about, that this community had done some things in the past.. which has saved this plant probably hundreds of millions in taxes.. he was incredulous, well, it was 25 years ago. I told him I did not appreciate what was going on and the way we're being treated after what we've done for the plant and they saved a lot of money by being here period in the first place. There's very good reason why they built the plant here because they knew that Glen Rose was not likely to grow fast and they would not have to look at the annex by a home rule city. In fact that's turned out to be 1 that the city of Glen Rose is no closer to being a home rule city 5000 pop than they were 40 years ago ... I don't feel like we're being treated fairly at all and I let him know. 

Um. "Somervell county language". What the heck is that, a new language Hankins has invented? Does it include not only being rude but making up stuff out of your head that you think might happen? Is it taught in the public schools so that all Good Citizens Of Somervell County must take it and speak like Hankins? Where is the manual? And.. did Mr Hankins conversation with Ken Peters include letting him know he thinks Luminant is evil, ignorant and bullies?  (Because when you have a responsible elected position on a board, trashing corporations that pay around 80 percent of your property taxes seems like a smart thing to do?) How whiny is it to say, basically "I don't like the way we're being treated". Sure, Hankins, although he would like to deny freedom of speech to anyone that doesn't agree with him, can have that opinion but sure seems like an ignorant thing to say and makes him look petulant. 

And, what a ridiculous argument to make to say that Luminant built its nuclear power plant here because of whether Glen Rose would achieve home rule or not. So, no engineering considerations such as the fact that Lake Granbury had already been built by TXU for DeCordova Dam previously (water capacity), that Somervell County was close to DFW for customer base, and Somervell County was available for transmission lines. Oh, none of that, and no geological considerations. I didn't live here in the mid 1970's but to suggest that Luminant (then TXU) decided to specifically go with Glen Rose on the chance that the city would never grow is specious and contradicts evidence from Comanche Peak's inception, available from records and from speaking to other long-timers other than Hankins.

And what about Texas Open Meetings? Hankins clearly doesn't understand the concept, despite having been a county attorney and attending government meetings for almost 20 years. During the public comment section of the meeting, Hankins decided to veer off onto his own soapbox and opinion about whether mismanagement had any part of a reasonable argument against a taxing hospital district.

He misunderstands the public comment section is not for him to bring up some pet peeve he has, which he has said before has made him so mad he wanted to punch someone,  but for members of the public. If he wants to wheeze his opinion about those who opposed the hospital district, he ought to have it put on the agenda as an item, so that ALL board members could weigh in and discuss. Further, I was amused when he said that there weren't other members of the public at the meeting, besides Dr Carpenter, who had made a publc comment shorty before Hankins. Actually, anyone who was not on the board, even if employees, were also members of the public and citizens, and would be able to speak out on matters of public concern (whether they would or not, being employees, excepting myself, is a different question). Essentially, Hankins afforded himself, as board member, special treatment and the right to speak on a subject which was not on the agenda, and then closed off further public comments as not being relevant to anyone else, excepting the board, in the room.