In the scheme of things, a 40th anniversary isn’t one of those hallmark events, but an organization that doesn’t understand its roots can easily stray from its true mission and values. So, it’s important for TAC — during what for us is a time of transition — to pass along our history before it’s lost for the next generation. Therefore, during this 40th anniversary year, we are spending time documenting our past.

Passing on the TAC’s history isn’t just important for members of our staff. Many “generations” of county officials have come and gone since that June day in 1969, when a group of county officials representing each elected county office and the county auditors met at the Baker Hotel in Dallas to form the Texas Association of Counties.

The records of that event are a detailed, fascinating read. While we’ll be highlighting those details as part of our annual conference in August and hope to prepare a special publication that does a good job of telling the story to our staff and our members, I’d like to share some of that afternoon with you today.

First, before TAC could be formed, it took special legislative action at the Capitol to allow counties to pay dues to an association of counties. Today it’s hard to believe that establishing TAC was controversial. Texas was not an early adopter — 46 other states had already formed similar organizations. But the first attempt to pass legislation in 1967 was unsuccessful. Reportedly, the bill was killed as a payback for opposition from county officials on a measure that then-Gov. John Connally was promoting.

There was evidently a fair amount of opposition again in 1969 from Realtors and some of our municipal friends, but by then Preston Smith was governor and that year the bill passed. The senator who sponsored the legislation was Ralph Hall. So we could say that Ralph Hall is the founding father of TAC, and that we were fortunate to have his leadership. Congressman Hall is approaching his 60th year in public service. Beginning in 1950, he served 12 years as Rockwall County Judge, including a term as president of the County Judges and Commissioners Association of Texas. He then served about 18 years in the Texas Senate before he was elected to Congress in 1980 to represent his East Texas district. Congressman Hall still ably holds that seat today. What a truly remarkable man!

So Governor Smith signed the bill, and on June 19, 1969, elected officials gathered at the Baker Hotel for the first meeting of the Texas Association of Counties.

In that one afternoon of debate and discussion, the Baker Hotel group established the purposes and structure of our organization, decided on dues and even designated an acting executive director, Bill O wens of Gladewater. T he next week, the South Texas County Judges and Commissioners Association met in Brownsville and decided to make a loan to fund the startup. By the next legislative session in 1971, TAC leaders were organized enough to have a presence in Austin working out of a trailer house.

We’ve come a long way since those early days, but it seems that we’ve stayed well focused on the purposes that were envisioned in 1969. I wanted to share a few of those from the minutes of that meeting:

“The new association will try to help coordinate the activities and needs of all elected officials, do research, hold seminars and give legal help.” “The new organization will help harmonize the relations between the counties and the state. It should be an effective instrumentality for cooperation between the state government and counties.” “To function as intended, the organization will speak for all county officials . . . an organization where all association could flow to the Legislature.”

“As we see it, counties have two choices. T hey can continue to flounder in a sea of indecisiveness and allow the cities, school districts, water districts, soil and conservation districts and all other taxing bodies to gradually deplete county duties and their responsibilities or they can assert themselves as valid local governmental entities — willing and able to provide the many services that our modern society demands.“

That last statement could be our mission statement. It is our mission. With all the varying things we do, our aim must be to keep counties viable and relevant and able to meet the needs of their citizens.