Backers of an effort to launch “Constitution City” will not see the issue on the November ballot.
Kendell County Judge Shane Stolarczyk is requesting an Attorney General’s opinion regarding a petition to incorporate 177.6 acres of land in far northwestern Kendall County as “Constitution City.” Stolarczyk said he declined to sign an order initially approved Aug. 12 by Commissioners Court due to ambiguity surrounding the proposed area’s inhabitants.
“I cannot say that satisfactory proof has been made that the community contains the requisite number of inhabitants,” Stolarczyk wrote in an Aug. 15 letter addressed to Rick Green, owner of the Patriot Academy in far northwestern Kendall County.
“Law dictionaries provide a plain and common meaning of the term ‘inhabitant’— one who resides actually and permanently in a given place and has his domicile there,” Stolarczyk added.
Section 8.001(a)(2) of the Texas Code requires 201-4,999 inhabitants in order to incorporate, a number Stolarczyk said the proposed city does not meet.
Stolarczyk said Commissioners Court will request an opinion from the Texas Attorney General’s office on specifics of the resident-inhabitant issue; Green assured Commissioners Court that “efforts regarding the incorporation ... will continue.”
Aug. 18 was the deadline to submit items to appear on the ballot for November’s general election.
In his presentation to Commissioners Court Aug. 12, Green said the proposed 177.6-acre region had more than the required 201 inhabitants when the number of students attending the Patriot Academy at any given time were taken into account.
But when presenting the petition for incorporation, Green referred to having petition signatures of 10 of only 11 voting-age residents who reside within the borders of the proposed city.
“I now have concerns about whether your proof satisfies section 8.001(a)(1), and what ‘constitutes an unincorporated city, town, or village,’” the judge wrote.
Law dictionaries, Stolarczyk said, provide a plain and common meaning of the term “inhabitant.” In situations where the terms “resident” and “inhabitant” have been held not synonymous, law dictionaries he said, “‘inhabitant’ implies a more fixed and permanent abode than (‘resident’) and imports privileges and duties to which a mere resident would not be subject.”
At the time Green first submitted the petition for incorporation of Constitution City, Stolarczyk said he and members of the Commissioners Court were focused on the July 4 Guadalupe River flooding search and recovery efforts.
“I relied on your representations that case law supported your position,” the judge said, “and that all requirements under the law were satisfied, based on the definitions provided by this precedent. Now, it appears that no such legal precedent exists.”
Stolarczyk said petitioners and all the people living in Kendall County "will be best served if Kendall County requests an opinion from the Attorney General’s office regarding Section 8.001 and other sections applicable to incorporation of a Type C general-law municipality.”
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