General Board Meeting Recap: March 19, 2025

“The Circus is Back in Town (and Sage is Ringmaster)”

No surprises, folks. As forecasted when this clown car of an agenda rolled out: Sage is back—and you know what that means. Rocco and Jones have dragged our district back into the same old quagmire of cronyism and contract violations. Once again, they’ve gifted a six-figure sweetheart deal to their favorite enforcer without so much as pretending to follow local government procurement law. A contract exceeding $75,000? That’s supposed to trigger a competitive process. Instead, they hand-picked Sage to enforce the rules they themselves don’t follow. Sage walks away with over $100K/year of taxpayer money. And the district? Left holding the bag.

Timestamp 9:04 – Hanoi Avila, Esq. (Not a Lawyer), Requests to Interrogate the Public

What could possibly go wrong?

9:20 – Old Business Resurrected (Unlike the Hatch Lift Station)

Beth bumps up the agenda to accommodate Inframark’s presence (how polite). The subject: the catastrophic failure of the Hatch Lift Station, which drowned a cool $1 million in taxpayer dollars.

David Flores makes the bold move to pursue litigation for the district’s loss, citing gross negligence by Inframark. And just like that, the Protect-Inframark-At-All-Costs committee springs into action.

Beth claims the district’s insurer paid some of the loss, so clearly Inframark can’t be at fault. (Reminder: Inframark submitted the claim themselves—odds they confessed to negligence? Slim to none.) Beth’s loyalty to Inframark is about as subtle as a sewage backup.

Rocco, ever the philosopher-king, reasons that because the insurance didn’t name a villain, no villain exists. Must’ve been an act of God! Or perhaps an act of “We Don't Want to Check the Records Because Our Friends Run That Company.”

Hanoi, armed with 2.5 years of “I’m In Law School,” warns the district of the doom and gloom of litigation, without citing his own lawsuits as evidence of his prudence (oh, the irony). He warns it’ll cost $200K to pursue. Funny—he didn’t seem to worry about costs when he sued his own nonprofit board. Probably because he Pr Se’d those lawsuits.

Let’s be clear: the station was actively failing, and Inframark’s brilliant solution was to turn off the autodialer. Like silencing a smoke alarm because the fire’s annoying. And when the inevitable disaster happened? The tech on call blamed Cedar Park and left the sewage spilling into the streets. Genius.

Inframark knew. They silenced the warning signs. That’s negligence, and four board members just let them walk away.

Beth then forbids the topic from being raised again. The queen has spoken.

29:11 – Financial Reports and Fantasy Accounting

David Flores dares to ask questions about the financial report. Shocking! The bookkeeper punts to Inframark. Inframark promises a recap. Beth jumps in with the ole’ “send questions to the committee beforehand” rule, which, spoiler alert, creates a quorum violation. Public meetings are for public discourse, not secret deals in backrooms.

Rocco attempts to block David from discussing the district’s bills because he won’t vote to approve them. Thankfully, the attorney has to step in to teach this crew how basic democracy works: motion, second, discussion, vote. You’d think that might be covered in the “Board of Directors for Dummies” manual.

Meanwhile, Norrell and Rocco declare the bills are fine—because they looked at them. Yes, the same people helping themselves to illegal reimbursements for iPad mishaps and attending meetings within the district boundaries.

42:00 – The Sage Sham

Rocco insists that no one but Sage submitted a proposal for deed enforcement—because everyone else is just too scared of our district. Sure, Jan. He adds that the neighborhood doesn’t look like it did 40 years ago. Maybe not, but at least back then people knew what a conflict of interest looked like.

Motion passes to install Sage as the new neighborhood tattletale. Enforcement of chickens? Of course not—those belong to Hanoi. Consistency is for peasants.

Beth admits the proposal isn’t even what Sage will be doing—confirming the RFP was a work of fiction. This whole deal smells like a backroom steak dinner. Because that’s what it was.

56:58 – Proposals Are Not Contracts… Unless You’re Rocco

Rocco tells the attorney that Sage’s proposal is the contract. The attorney sighs in lawyer. Rocco agrees to get an actual contract, probably one he helps Sage write. Because why not?

1:12:04 – Let’s Talk Shredding

Beth floats the idea of choosing how long to retain public records. Attorney reminds them they already have a rule: TSLAC guidelines. Avila presses about lawsuits and records, suggesting—in not-so-subtle tones—that we really should shred some stuff. You know… just in case.

Note to Avila: The only thing you’re covering up is your own incompetence.

1:22:35 – Let the Shredding Begin!

Motion is made to destroy records that fall outside retention schedules. Norrell can’t count backwards four years (no, really). TSLAC retention schedules are based on record class, not dates. But thanks for playing.

Reminder: Beth, Hanoi, and Kelley Masters once voted to shred 59 boxes of unknown records that inframark was storing. Wonder what was in those?

1:36:46 – Deposits Audit: Lies, Damned Lies, and Water Bills

Operator claims 20 accounts just happen to be new. Lies. Claims deposits from the 1980s were removed because of good payment history. Also lies. There’s no board action authorizing such refunds. Where did the deposit money go? Nobody knows.

Meanwhile, the water meters we supposedly bought? Not all installed. Elizabeth Reeves, are you even awake?

1:56:00 – Transparency Gets Body-Slammed

David Flores asks for board packet materials to be posted online to reduce PIR costs. Logical. Sensible. Transparent.

Avila: That’s too vague.Jones: Only three people file PIRs anyway.Reality: False.

Jones and Avila are desperate to change the rules to hide from the public. Transparency, they claim, is expensive. No, it’s not. What’s expensive is covering up your messes.

1:59:06 – Public Info Requests: Avila’s Villain Origin Story

Avila cross-examines the attorney about PIRs like he’s auditioning for “Law & Order: MUD Edition.” He wants to penalize residents for working together to access public records. Jones thinks that would be “easy to prove.” The attorney, politely: It wouldn’t hold up in court.

The irony? These are the folks who let Inframark off the hook for a million-dollar failure. But they draw the line at you asking for a PDF.

Final Takeaway:

This meeting was a masterclass in:

• Crony contracts

  
  

• Legal illiteracy

  
  

• Blatant conflicts of interest

  
  

• Document destruction

  
  

• Fiscal smoke and mirrors

  
  

• And a fierce, almost impressive, contempt for public transparency

  
  

Beth Jones, Hanoi Avila, Chris Rocco, and Carrol Norrell have proven—yet again—that their loyalty lies with friends, favors, and face-saving, not the residents of this district.

If you only watch one part of this disaster, go to 1:59:06 and witness your local government in its raw, unfiltered glory.

Stay loud. Stay sharp. MUDucation continues.