David Wilfong - Editor
In the very last item on the agenda for the Rockwall City Council's regular meeting on Monday night, Councilmember Matt Scott fired a salvo at local State Senator Bob Deuell when he accused the legislator of conspiring to kill House Bill 1976 on behalf of a Houston-area developer.
The bill, which Scott has previously acknowledged helping to author, pertains to reforming homeowners associations that have recently been under fire for allegedly strong-arming individuals in many recent high profile cases. Scott's involvement in the reform effort came after an altercation with his own homeowners association over a $1,500 special assessment for a jogging trail through his neighborhood.
Scott reported to the council that the bill had passed through the Texas House on May 15 with an almost 3-1 majority. On May 19 the bill went to the Senate Intergovernmental Relations Committee.
Scott reported that up until that point, all interests in the debate had worked through differences and reached a compromise; which is why he credits the bill with passing through the house so easily.
“Shortly after that, Bob Perry of Perry Homebuilders and some other developers — who we've all had our love of developers here at the council on things that they have done on other laws that affect cities — got involved and decided that they didn't like the bill,” Scott said, adding that Perry was originally working from an older version of the bill that had since been amended.
“Well, you all know that the developer lobby is probably one of the strongest ones in Austin, so on May 23 House Bill 1976 passed out of the Intergovernmental Relations subcommittee on a 3-2 vote. On May 26 it was placed on the intent calendar, which is ... it was put in line to come up for a senate vote ... and that's where it died.”
Scott went on to say that through conversations with the sponsoring senator they had ascertained that there were definitely enough votes to pass the legislation, but then a small group of senators conspired to kill the bill before it was allowed to reach a vote.
“The senate has a — for lack of a better word — stupid rule that says two-thirds of the senate has to approve of a bill coming to a vote,” Scott said. “Which essentially has let 11 senators kill anything. And the homebuilding lobby, or the development lobby being what it was ... that's exactly what they did.”
Scott expressed particular frustration in that the lobby had not participated in the process leading up to that time, and added they don't really “have much of a dog in the fight.”
“Unfortunately the way the senate operates, it's sort of like a boy’s club more than it is a legislative body,” Scott continued. “So figuring out who actually did what is difficult, but we know there were roughly 11 or 12 senators that were able to put it on a list that they didn't approve of — there's no record of the list — and killed it despite what had been uniform support for it.
“Although there's no ‘official’ notes of who was on it, in talking with folks who were supporting the bill and calling senate offices we know who some of the senators were who killed it. One of them unfortunately was Sen. Bob Deuell. It's also not much of a surprise that Bob Perry - I believe by the reports that I heard in talking with someone who's familiar with his campaign finance reports - has given Senator Deuell well in excess of $200,000 over the last few years.
“So ... Senator Deuell again killed something that I think this council supported, and our community supported; and he did so for a man who lives in Houston because the man gave him a lot of money. So ... that's what happened to House Bill 1976. That leaves us going back to the drawing board.”
Scott said that there was a possibility of the bill being revived in a special session but that nobody was seriously expecting that to happen. Scott gave praise to Texas Representative Jodie Laubenburg saying that she has progressed well and developed as a legislature, but ended with condemnation for Deuell.
“It's no secret I've been critical of him before,” Scott said. “I will continue to be critical of him even moreso now, until hopefully the rest of his senate district wakes up and votes him out of office and puts somebody in there who has ... some modicum of allegiance to the people who voted him in and also who will listen to his local elected representatives from his district. We've had issues from the last legislative session where he picked up bills — again for developers — that our county commissioners had opposed publicly and had to go back down to Austin to try to get killed again.”
Scott said that his group of supporters will work to try to get the bill back on the agenda at the next legislative session.
When contacted Tuesday, Deuell said he was aware of Scott’s comments.
“As usual, Mr. Scott is ranting and raving about something he knows too little about,” Deuell said. “It is no surprise Mr. Scott did not have the decency to call me and ask why I and 14 other senators opposed that bad bill. The bill would have placed many unfair and restrictive burdens on countless homeowners in my district. My vote was based upon the opinions of many of my constituents.”
Reporter Brad Kellar contributed to this story.
