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September / October 2009
Volume 21, Number 5

Made by Officials, for Officials
How TAC Grew in Its Early Years
By Jim Lewis

The surprise of learning about a new mandate long after it was considered by the Legislature is what persuaded Navarro County Judge Kenneth A. “Buck” Douglas that Texas counties needed a single statewide association to look out for county interests.

In 1963, Douglas recalled, county budgets across the state were disrupted by a legislative requirement that counties supplement the pay of juvenile judges by $4,000 a year. In 1963 dollars, “that was a lot,” said Douglas, who nine years later would become the first paid executive director of the texas Association of Counties.

“As far as my own county was concerned, it (the pay raise) might have been okay with me, but what bothered me was that they passed it without anyone asking the counties,” he said. “We didn’t know a damn thing about it.”

At the time, each of the independent county officials could join one of the associations that represented that breed of official. These independent groups had been started during the previous century, going back to 1874 when the Sheriff ’s Association was called together by McLennan County Sheriff Sul Ross (later known as Governor Ross). Most were formed in the 1930s and ‘40s.

But no one spoke for all the county officials.

The autonomy of each organization of officials caused confusion, “without any coming together at the top,” according to a letter written by a businessman at the time. “

…(W)hen our lawmakers inquire from one of the county officials associations as to what is needed for county government, they get one set of answers and when they inquire from another county association, they get another set of answers, etc.,” stated the letter that was read at the organization’s first meeting in 1969.

Some of those who remember the events back then said what got the sometimes quarrelsome relatives of the courthouse family to thinking alike was a movement to alter how counties would operate.

Warren G. Harding, then-Dallas County treasurer and later State treasurer, remembered that after the people of Miami consolidated city government with Dade County’s structure in the late 1950s, “there was kind of an undertow to do away with several county offices, or even to combine some whole offices.”

Harding said the pot was stirred when then-Governor John Connally in 1965 asked the independent texas Research League (TRL) to take a look at texas’ urban counties.

A research organization funded by business groups, TRL was asked “to undertake a study of local government structures and services in the metropolitan areas of texas,” according to the TRL report.

When completed, the study proposed a constitutional amendment to create a special category of “urban county” that could levy additional types of taxes and enact city-type ordinances affecting only their unincorporated areas.

Under the proposed amendment, the Legislature would have authority to make special provisions for these new types of counties to create larger commissioners courts (up to nine).

Perhaps of more interest to the rest of the family, these counties would be allowed to propose that appointed administrative heads replace elected officials, with voter approval in local referenda.

The TRL proposals were submitted by Connally to the 1967 session of the Legislature in the form of two constitutional amendments and five bills, but “none of the bills was reported out of committee,” TRL said in a later version of its study, titled “texas County Government: Let the People Choose.”

A bill that did pass the Legislature that year was a measure to set up the County and District Retirement System; credit for that law apparently belonged to Dallam County Judge W.D. Henson and Gregg County Commissioner Bill Owens.

These two, who were successive presidents of the County Judges and Commissioners Association, spent two days a week in Austin working on the retirement bill that passed and two others that failed. of the two failed bills, one they called a victory; the other a setback.

As often occurs in legislative battles, the fate of one unsuccessful bill determined the fate of another for a simple legislative fact of life known as “revenge.”

While supporting a bill to allow counties to pay dues to create an association of counties, the county leaders were fighting a bill to strengthen regional councils of government (CoGs). In the context of the Connally/ TRL proposals, CoGs were apparently perceived as the “camel’s nose under the tent,” as longtime Harris County Commissioner E.A. “Squatty” Lyons put it.

In his presidential address the following year, Judge owens explained the tradeoff to the judges and commissioners assembled in Austin.

“We all know that politics is a give-and-take proposition. For example, in retribution for our opposition to the CoG bills, the bill establishing an organization of counties was killed,” he said. “It appears rather petty and vindictive that the counties should be denied the urgent legislation necessary to establish an organization similar to the Municipal League just for the sake of revenge, but that’s the way the game is played.”

The previous year, in Forth Worth, judges and commissioners voted 95 to 15 to adopt a resolution that asserted the Connally/ TRL proposals would “encourage corruption and political machines,” according to a Dallas Morning News article.

The News quoted the resolution as stating that the proposals “could result in county managers and other appointive officials getting ‘broad powers,’ which should be wielded only by elective officials. This would be a big step away from local self-government, the resolution declared.” The Fort Worth Star Telegram quoted Squatty Lyons as saying, “Some people are advocating change for change’s sake. They ought to just leave things alone.”

Among those opposing the resolution were Dallas County Commissioner Mel Price and Lubbock County Judge Rod Shaw, who termed the resolution “inflammatory” and without “useful purpose.”

The reform proposals eventually faded into the background among other pressing legislative business; treasurer Harding said it was Dallas County Judge Lew Sterrett who privately persuaded Connally to back off.

But the county officials intent on a new organization kept at work, campaigning for support among the different organizations of officials.

In September 1967, the Volume 1, number 1 issue of Treasury Notes, the “Voice of the CTA” (County Treasurers Association) reported that Commissioner owens addressed the treasurers’ annual meeting “and briefly hinted about the prevalent complexities of county government and about his unique idea of a texas organization of counties, which would be an instrument of dissolving many county problems simply by unified efforts to solve and upgrade by education and comprehensive legislative action.”

In the Legislature, it was Sen. Ralph Hall who was carrying the counties’ load. As Rockwall County Judge from 1950 to 1963, Hall had been president of the County Judges and Commissioners Association from 1958-59.

In the Senate, he had successfully carried the retirement system bill as well as a number of other measures for various associations, but his first attempt at an organization of counties bill failed.

Hall, a member of Congress since 1980, said in 1994 that “counties were my first love, and still, the love of my life is local government.”

After the first defeat in 1967, Hall assigned two staff members the task of passing the counties’ bill. one was a veteran of legislative intrigue; the other knew counties like the back of her hand.

Donna Conn (then Donna Andrews) worked for Hall as clerk of the Local and uncontested Committee; she had been around the Legislature long enough to know how to get things done.

New to the game was Cay House (then Cay Braziel), who served Hall as clerk of the County, District and urban Affairs Committee. (Hall chaired both committees.)

Braziel was the link to counties; after all, both her mom and dad were county judge of Rains County.

Here’s how that happened: Her father, Sam Braziel, was president of the Judges and Commissioners Association in 1964, when he died of a heart attack in El Paso while preparing for their annual convention. Then, Rains County commissioners appointed his wife Marguerite Braziel as his successor. Her seven years as judge complemented Sam’s nine years.

As the county bill progressed through the legislative process, Cay House remembered some interference from the Realtor lobby and the texas Municipal League, who were concerned that an association of counties might infringe on their interests. Those concerns were eventually brushed aside, she said.

But the big problem that Hall’s bill faced was a fear among House members that future opponents would criticize them for voting to create another lobby organization, supported by taxpayers’ money.

“A long line” of county officials raised their hands in support of the bill at the committee hearing, House said, but passage was not assured until Hall and the legislative sponsors agreed to accept an amendment that prohibited the new organization from engaging in lobbying or promoting any candidate for office.

Donna Conn credited Judge Henson and Commissioner owens as the officials who did the lion’s share of the work, although she remembered Midland County Commissioner Winn Brown, Randall County Commissioner Jim Fletcher and Dalhart Commissioner Bernard Eads as the officials who she got to know among the dozens who worked on the bill.

“Mainly, I thought they were a bunch of nuts,” she laughed, explaining that she meant they were “a bunch of fun-loving guys, fun to work with.” Conn went to work for the Teachers Retirement System.

What Cay House remembered was the nervousness they both felt standing on the floor of the House of Representatives when the bill came up for a vote; Senate passage had previously occurred “rather easily.” But “when the voting lights came on the board, it was so red (signifying “no” votes), we thought it had failed,” she said.

But it passed, and when Governor Preston Smith signed Senate Bill 167 into law, standing with him were Conn and House, along with Sen. Hall, Judge Henson, Commissioner owens and the House sponsors, who included Reps. Bill Clayton of Springlake, Dean Cobb of Dumas and Henry Sanchez of Brownsville.

Shortly thereafter, presidents or designated representatives of the 11 county official associations were called together for a meeting at the Baker Hotel in Dallas on June 19, 1969.

To kick things off , the new law was read aloud, then Sen. Hall was introduced as “a true friend” of county government, according to the minutes of the meeting.

“I would really like to see this organization get off the ground and fly – not a political organization in Austin, but a place where all the county associations could flow to the Legislature,” Hall said. “I have sat down there through committee hearings and noted the lack of cooperation.”

County Progress, the publication of the County Judges and Commissioners Association, quoted Hall as saying “I know real work is being done to promote better government but it is not being conveyed to the Senate. There is lost each year some of our precious rights due to the gradual chipping away at them in Austin. I would like for you to have someone there to represent 90 percent of government.”

Sen. Hall estimated that three out of four senators of the day were willing to abolish the office of Justice of the Peace.

“They do not realize how important these people are,” he said. “They (JPs) are father confessors, advisors, etc., and they are very important.”

The senator then excused himself to head off to campaign for lieutenant governor (he lost in 1972), and the meeting turned to the business at hand.

Judge Henson read a proposed constitution for the new texas Association of Counties and then fielded questions from the assembled officials.

He explained that the board of directors would be made up of one representative of each organization, with judges and commissioners also designating members from four regional organizations and the statewide association.

According to an account printed in County Progress, one question that was asked by several people was why there should be more directors from the County Judges and Commissioners Association than from their own individual associations.

“It was explained that there are five members of the commissioners court in the courthouse and only one from each other others,” the publication reported. “Also, it was explained that the commissioners court was the one that determined if the county joined the organization. one must remember that they control the purse strings and thus must not completely lose control. That is just the facts of life.”

It was also pointed out that each individual organization was expected to continue to thrive as before.

“There was not bitterness or ill will shown by anyone and little, if any, disagreement on changes that should be made,” according to the County Progress report.

According to a partial transcript of the session, Judge Henson, who was elected as the first T AC president, suggested that initially, the organization should operate “out of a Poor Boy office” and someone made the remark, “Longview would be a good place.”

A few minutes later, the judge from the Longview courthouse, Bill O wens, was appointed “acting executive director and Poor Boy.” The initial T AC mailing address was a post office box in Owens’ hometown, Gladewater.

In Austin, a trailer house on the edge of town served as both office and sleeping quarters for Henson and Owens, and when they were at home, Cay Braziel would run out there periodically to collect the mail and forward it to Gladewater.

Supporters of the new organization set out to convince commissioners courts to join up and pay dues to TAC and by November 1970, 122 of the 254 had joined.

But minutes of the December 1971 meeting indicated that the ongoing membership drive had stalled at 123.

Judge Henson encouraged the group to continue the membership efforts because “if we did not have the full support, Austin would eat us up and then Washington would eat Austin and us up.”

A month later, Navarro County Judge Buck Douglas, who was immediate past president of the judges and commissioners group, was elected over Henson for the T AC presidency and took over the organization in the middle of the meeting. (Sen. Hall dropped by to say hello, according to the minutes.)

Douglas said the effort to get counties to join had lagged “because counties weren’t satisfied with how things were going.”

Seven months later, a committee to screen applicants for the job of paid, full-time executive director recommended Douglas be hired. The following day, August 25, 1972, the board voted by acclimation to approve the hiring, effective Sept. 5, when Douglas formally resigned the Navarro County judgeship.

Over the next few months, Douglas rented an Austin office on Interstate 35 (by the “round Holiday Inn”) and hired an assistant named Marilyn Snipes, who had been highly recommended by the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations.

Membership numbers began to grow, he said, especially after a chartered plane expedition in 1974.

“Most Texas county officials had never been too involved with the National Association of Counties, so we chartered a plane to take our Texas people to Washington, D.C., to visit NACo and our congressmen from Texas,” Douglas said, adding that the 179 airplane seats were full. “A hell of a lot of the people on that plane had not been T AC members, but they joined after that.”

Douglas maintained his Corsicana residency, staying two days a week in Austin and spending the rest of his time traveling the state or at home with his family. In 1976, he resigned to run for district judge. (He won.)

“TAC is the best thing that’s happened to Texas county government,” Douglas said. “There is no way that county officials can keep up with what’s going on without some organization to keep them informed.”

Editor’s Note: This is a reprint of an article originally published in County magazine in 1994 in celebration of TAC’s 25th Anniversary.