Trinidad Faced Conflict All Year. It's Still Standing.

Trinidad faced conflict all year, much of it out in the open, and the city is still standing.

In March, after my first Trinidad council meeting, then-Police Chief Charles Gregory wrote publicly about something I'd said in that room:

What you said about having tough conversations without taking things personally really stuck. That's not always easy, especially in a small town where people are passionate and deeply invested, but it's necessary. Growth doesn't happen without a little discomfort, and respectful dialogue is how we get there together.

He wrote that on March 18.^[1] He's now named as a defendant in ongoing federal litigation against the City, and eight months later I still think he was right on this point.^[1] I believe drifting away from it led to other mistakes inside Trinidad PD, and some of those mistakes are now being worked out in court.

The police department was only one piece of it. Trinidad has had more than its share of discomfort this year.

A Hard Year, Out in the Open

Four people have run City Hall since February.^[2] In May, Jennifer Combs and Winston "Otto the Watchdog" Noles were arrested. Both cases ended within two weeks, both turned into federal lawsuits with attorneys Brandon J. Grable, CJ Grisham and Ryan Franceschina, and FOX 4's David Sentendrey brought the story to Dallas-Fort Worth.^[3][1]

The Council then removed Municipal Judge Shellena Bivens and seated Susan Carver, which led to another lawsuit and open questions about when Carver took her oath. Carver is now the judge in Brownsboro.^[4][5][6] Chief Gregory resigned, and in September the state pulled the police department's authority to appoint officers. The Henderson County Sheriff's Office covers the city now.^[7][8]

Then came the money: no adopted budget a month into the fiscal year, and an audit more than seven months past due.^[9] My November 1 article has the numbers.

Look around, though. Trinidad is still here. Residents still show up at public comment, meetings still get streamed thanks to Jennifer Combs, and the conversation keeps going in the Beware of Trinidad Texas Water Facebook group.^[10][11] A year like this one could have driven people away from City Hall. They kept coming back.

People Make Mistakes. I Do Too.

Every one of those stories has people in it, and people make mistakes. Some got in over their heads. Some got pulled into situations that turned messy fast. Some said things in a meeting or a comment thread they'd take back if they could.

I've been one of them. I work constantly to make sure my information is correct, and I've still made mistakes in some of my recent reporting. When I get something wrong, I correct it in public. I've also changed how I work, so you can check me:

• Every article now lists its sources at the bottom. You may have noticed the citations on my recent articles. They show where my information comes from.
• Every claim links to its source. The number at the end of a sentence jumps to the source at the bottom. Click the number beside that source to jump back to where you were reading.
• Anonymous tips are labeled as confidential sources.
• The full story lives on my website. Anything with allegations, or anything people may dispute, stays in the article on watchtowerci.com, and Facebook gets a summary. If I ever need to correct a fact or retract something, it's all in one place.

None of us are perfect. We all have days where we do or say something we look back on and wish we hadn't. What matters is what happens next.

What's Going Right

Watching where a city goes wrong is half of this work. The other half is noticing where it's getting things right, and Trinidad's recent agendas have more of that than the comment threads would tell you.

• Money the City wasn't collecting. On July 23 the Council voted to reauthorize the quarter-cent sales tax for street maintenance. The minutes say the City hadn't been collecting it, "an estimated $66,000 per year in uncollected revenue," and the Council directed staff to start the process with the Texas Comptroller.^[12]
• Residents at the water table. The same night, the Council appointed residents to its Water Advisory Committee, and the committee's chair delivered the water report: sampling, main flushing, 21 service calls, a new flush hydrant at Olive and Walnut, and a meeting set with a free state assistance team from TCEQ to assess the system.^[12]
• A plan for the pipes. The Council authorized a request for engineering services for a water infrastructure assessment, a capital improvement plan, GIS mapping and funding opportunities. By September 15, a task order with the engineering firm Schaumburg & Polk was on the agenda.^[12][13] The EDC approved a $300,000 infrastructure grant this summer.^[12]
• Controls on spending. On October 15 the Council put the event committee's spending under the City's purchasing controls, with the audit cited as the reason. It chose a grant administrator for a Texas Community Development Block Grant through a scored process, and it authorized the Mayor to pursue selling the police vehicles.^[10]
• The Sheriff came to the table, and so did Log Cabin. The same night, Sheriff Botie Hillhouse presented the County's proposed law enforcement agreement and took questions for about 45 minutes. The City of Log Cabin has offered to serve Trinidad too: the Mayor met with the Sheriff, Malakoff and Log Cabin in September, and the October 15 agenda put the Sheriff's Office and Log Cabin side by side.^[14][15][10] The Council took no action that night, and the City is still working out its long-term plan for policing.^[10]
• A clearer budget. The October 26 update from the City's outside CPA, Christopher Turner, shows the City's cash for the first time: $801,468 across 15 bank accounts, each labeled by purpose. It replaces ten months of projections with 12 months of actual results.^[16]
• A search with the next council in mind. The Mayor, Leah Melton and Velma Womack will narrow the applicants for city administrator and hand the finalists to the council seated after the election.^[10]
• Answers when asked. When I asked Mayor Dennis Haws about the audit on October 25, he answered the same day with the auditor's estimate and a promise: "When we get it I'll send it to you."^[17] When I raised the quorum question on October 27, the city attorney checked and agreed.^[18]

None of that finishes the audit. All of it is real work, and the people who did it deserve to hear it.

Both Sides of the Table

A year in Trinidad has taught me this much. The disagreements that went somewhere started with someone putting the facts on the table and talking directly, and respectfully, to the person across from them. The ones that went nowhere stayed in the comment threads.

If we're right, great. If we're wrong, own it, find a resolution both sides can live with, and keep going together. Trinidad is better united than divided, and a city can survive its mistakes. It has a much harder time surviving people who stop talking to each other. Hard conversations build strong cities.

My work in every city I cover has one goal: to move it toward good faith and the best interests of the people who live there. That holds for Trinidad, and for everyone on every side of this year's arguments.

To Council Members and Candidates

Listen to your constituents, including the ones you disagree with.

I've found myself in the middle of more than one local government controversy, and to me they all trace back to the same place. A resident feels unheard at city council, so they take it to social media. Social media then puts that post in front of the people most likely to engage with it, good or bad. Negative discourse grows fast when people feel unheard. It starts there, and it can be stopped there.

The fix is the table, and when residents bring their concerns to it, it's on the people at the dais to listen. Be receptive when someone stands up at public comment to tell you you're wrong, and answer them like a neighbor. Do that consistently, and I believe you'll find your loudest critics on social media slowly turning into your biggest promoters.

In the software and business world, there's a name for this idea: the Net Promoter System. It asks people one question, how likely they are to recommend you on a scale of 0 to 10, and sorts them into detractors, passives and promoters. It's something I feel every town across Texas should put in place to strengthen communication within the community: ask residents regularly, treat every piece of feedback as worth weighing, especially the angry ones, and look for ways to turn a critic into a promoter. To me, that's the key to positive discourse in a small town.

To Trinidad's Voters

On Tuesday, November 3, Trinidad voters choose three council members from four candidates. Gun Barrel City, Tool and Enchanted Oaks have races of their own.^[19] Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.^[20]

I'm asking voters to bring the same thing to the ballot box that I'm asking of the Council. Go by the record. Ask the candidates direct questions, respectfully, and listen to the answers, even from someone you disagree with. Vote for the people you believe will sit down with the residents who didn't vote for them.

After Tuesday, bring it to the table. Take your concerns to city council, to the EDC, to Planning and Zoning, and put them on the record where they count. A post on social media reaches whoever the feed picks. A comment at the podium reaches the people who make the decisions. If you feel unheard, bring it to social media in the most respectful way possible, and allow for open, fair discourse.

Whoever wins, the work doesn't change. The budget still needs adopting, the audit still needs finishing, and the water still needs fixing. Both sides of this table have to work together to build a stronger Trinidad. If every city facing these same issues recognizes them and responds the same way, we can build a stronger Texas.