Wait, what?

Members of the Commissioners Court said this week that the Hood County Republican Party was misrepresenting the resolution it adopted at its regular meeting Tuesday, giving the impression that the court collectively voted to defy Gov. Greg Abbott.

Court members said they altered the resolution placed on the agenda for the third time by Precinct 4 Commissioner Dave Eagle specifically to avoid that very thing.

Abbott’s executive orders that shut down “non-essential” businesses for weeks during the coronavirus pandemic and then reopened them in phases has caused a split among Republicans. That party is dominant in Hood County, and every elected county official is a Republican. So is the governor.

Some Republicans, including Eagle, believe that the governor’s orders were unconstitutional and should have been defied from the start.

Others, including every other member of the Commissioners Court, believe that the county had a responsibility to follow the law and that Abbott’s orders are law. The state Legislature gave the governor that power when it adopted Chapter 418 of the local government code.

After a version of Eagle’s resolution was adopted, the Hood County Republican Party began handing out letters to businesses stating, “We are extremely pleased and overjoyed to inform and present to you the attached resolution passed unanimously by the Hood County Commissioners Court... to effectively open Hood County 100% and take back local control afforded under the U.S. and Texas Constitutions.”

As of 12:01 a.m. Friday, all Hood County businesses were allowed to open at full capacity, but that was because of the low number of COVID-19 cases here, not because of the resolution, County Judge Ron Massingill said Thursday.

According to the most recent update from Hood County Public Health Authority Dr. David Blocker, which he emailed to the HCN just before 7 p.m. Thursday, the county has nine active COVID-19 cases.

The letter from the Republican Party further stated, “Over the past couple of months, citizens and business owners deemed ‘non-essential’ by the government have been unable to freely conduct business and react to the COVID-19 pandemic as they see fit. Now however, the Hood County Commissioners Court ‘recognizes that the US and Texas Declarations of Independence advance the ‘unalienable rights’ of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness in the face of governmental overreach,’ and have deemed all businesses and individuals in Hood County as essential.”

Except that’s not really what happened, nor was it the intention of the majority of the court, according to Massingill, Precinct 1 Commissioner James Deaver and Precinct 2 Commissioner Ron Cotton.

The HCN was unable to reach Precinct 3 Commissioner Bruce White before press time.

Massingill, Deaver and Cotton said that court members, who did not agree with Eagle the previous two times he brought his resolution to court, wanted to make sure that if they passed some type of sanctuary county resolution, it would be worded in such a way that it did not go against the governor.

Part of the reason was fear that the $2.5 million that is due to be funneled to the county through the state to help with the economic impact of COVID-19 might be slowed down if the county insults or defies the governor.

The county received $505,000 of the money on Tuesday, but court members don’t want to do anything to jeopardize the other $2 million that is supposed to be coming.

State Rep. Mike Lang, who lives in Granbury, explained to the court how the payments are processed and indicated that there is no need to fear any hold-ups by a peeved governor.

Lang is running for Precinct 3 commissioner to replace White, who is stepping down. He faces Jack Wilson in the Republican primary runoff election next month. Wilson, too, was in the audience.

THE WORDING

During the final minutes of the lengthy discussion, as changes to the verbiage of the resolution were being discussed, Eagle at one point stated, “I’ll take it!”

The final version, which removed one paragraph entirely, includes a paragraph that may have opened the door for either innocent misinterpretation or deliberate misrepresentation.

In the resolution’s final paragraph, the word “businesses” is stated twice. The court agreed to strike the second reference and replace it with the word “individuals.” The first reference remained.

The altered paragraph states: “Be it further resolved that, subject to the foregoing, Hood County hereby declares that Hood County is a Sanctuary County for all businesses and considers all individuals essential.”

The words “Sanctuary County for all businesses” is what the Hood County Republican Party seems to be running with.

THE NUMBERS

As Eagle was making his case during the Commissioners Court meeting, he cited figures indicating that COVID-19 cases make up a small percentage of some communities’ populations.

Still, though, on Wednesday Texas saw a spike in coronavirus cases – “the highest reported in a single day by far since the pandemic started,” according to Forbes.

On Wednesday afternoon, the letter from the Hood County Republican Party was hand-delivered to the Granbury Opera House, where Granbury Theatre Company employees continue to wear protective masks.

GTC board president Micky Shearon stated in an email to the HCN that the theater “has no immediate plans to alter our current reopening protocols, which are to reopen this weekend at 50% of our capacity, pursuant to Governor Abbott’s minimum standard health protocols for Fine Arts Performance Halls.”

Shearon said, “Obviously, we want and need to be putting on shows at the Opera House for as many people as possible, but we are not going to do so at a risk to our patrons, cast, crew, and staff. We want to see how things go this first weekend at 50% capacity and then we will look at making adjustments to our protocols at the appropriate time.”

On Thursday afternoon, Hood County Republican Party Chair David Fischer emailed to the HCN a statement that the party “strongly endorses” the Commissioners Court’s declaration making Hood County “a Sanctuary County for All Businesses.”

Fischer’s message said that the local party’s position is that the governor “exceeded his authority” and that this will likely be confirmed through pending litigation and “future legislative adjustments” to the government code.

The party chair’s email referred to the “clear wording” of the final paragraph of the resolution and stated that Deaver and Cotton “seem to be distancing themselves from the Resolution they voted for, and signed. We believe they are setting themselves in opposition to the welfare of the Hood County economy and its citizens.”

Shortly before Fischer sent his email to the HCN, Massingill phoned the newspaper and said that Deaver’s and Cotton’s assessments were correct: the Republican Party was misrepresenting the court’s action.

Wilson also contacted the HCN to express the same view.

“I’m not trying to distance myself from it,” Massingill said, repeating the words used by Fischer. “I signed what I signed. I said during the discussion that people are going to try to misinterpret this, and that’s exactly what’s happening.”

Massingill and others on the court have repeatedly expressed concern for businesses that were forced to close, and indicated that they didn’t necessarily agree with the governor.

They have expressed the belief that as elected officials they are required to follow the law, and until the Legislature changes the statute, the governor’s declarations in emergency situations are law.

In Eagle’s view, elected officials’ oaths to the constitution and the laws are contradictory if a law is unconstitutional.

kcruz@hcnews.com | 817-573-7066, ext. 258