Honorable Rick Perry
Governor of Texas
Governor's Office, State Capitol
Austin, Texas 78701

Dear Governor Perry:

First of all, I would like to applaud your recent statements regarding the desalinization of ocean-water as one solution for meeting the state's growing water needs. As you may know, we here in Northeast Texas are battling against the proposed construction of the Marvin Nichols Reservoir. I am enclosing a set of documents which I presented to the Sulphur River Basin Authority on June 25. Their President Mike Huddleston and Executive Director Mike Burke "forgot" to take their copies with them, so I mailed them the following day, certified return receipt requested; and their secretary Melodie Clemmons picked up the package and accompanying cover-letter at the Texarkana post office on July 1.

For general information about the Marvin Nichols Reservoir controversy, I refer you to my website, rather than attempt to explain it here. For the specific matter of the errant presentation, the URL is:

http://www.sulphurriver.net/presentation.html

Mr. Huddleston and Mr. Burke act like small-time dictators. They prohibit or restrict public discussion about matters over which they have jurisdiction, clearly in violation of the Texas Open Meetings Act. They deceive the public by advertising meeting dates that are often misleading. According to the 1985 statute under which their authority was created, they are expressly required to maintain an office within the boundaries of their authority. However, Mr. Huddleston and Mr. Burke have been operating from the office of "Communications Specialists" located at 401 Wood Street in Texarkana, Arkansas. Their telephone number is an Arkansas number (870-774-2144), but a woman answers the telephone by saying "Good afternoon. Sulphur River Basin Authority. This is Nancy."

At the end of June, the SRBA modified their website <http://www.sulphurr.org/> to include notice of a Steering Committee Meeting in Texarkana on July 23, to be attended by representatives of the Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission. I noticed at their website that they had changed their Arkansas telephone number to a Texas number, perhaps to make it appear to any of the Austin visitors that they were operating legally within the boundary of the state. That telephone number was 512-281-4572. It belonged to Ms. N. Jensen-Case, County Road 87, Elgin, Texas 78621. On July 3 I called this number and spoke to Ms. Jensen-Case. She seemed surprised to learn that her number was listed at the website of the SRBA, and she denied knowing either Mr. Huddleston or Mr. Burke. "Perhaps they made a typo," I suggested. I then advised her to get in touch with them as soon as possible because she should not risk having her telephone number associated with what I personally consider to be a nest of criminal activity.

The following morning, July 4, I checked their website and Ms. Jensen-Case's telephone number was still listed. That afternoon I checked again, and in the meantime someone had had to interrupt his/her holiday festivities to modify their website, because suddenly the Arkansas telephone number had replaced that of Ms. Jensen-Case. In both instances, however, these are illegitimate telephone numbers because neither the 870 nor 512 area code falls within the boundaries of the SRBA.

At their recent June 25 meeting they finally took steps to remedy this situation by appropriating money to open a new office on the Texas side of the border, where presumably they will then have a legitimate Texas telephone number. However, it goes without saying that all transactions made out of an illegitimate office may themselves be suspect as null and void. A good legal argument for this idea could be made in a court of law, but one would hope that such drastic action need not be initiated.

Also at this same meeting, their attorney David James Tuckfield of Austin, a "partner" of Vinson & Elkins, stood up in front of numerous witnesses (who have since discussed this amongst ourselves) and stated that as long as an act is not specifically "illegal", it doesn't matter if it's "unethical". We were appalled by the arrogance of Mr. Tuckfield's snide remark. This absence of any sense of personal ethics seems all-pervasive in American culture at the moment, unfortunately; and Mr. Tuckfield certainly provided us with an excellent public example of it.

Your office should take a good, long investigative look at the Sulphur River Basin Authority. In addition to these "minor infractions", there is no telling what else you might find. Personally I think that you should immediately fire the whole sorry lot of these shifty-eyed, lying weasels (these SeRBiAn "running dogs"), especially Mr. Huddleston and Mr. Burke, and then appoint new people who will be more responsive to the true needs of the residents of the Sulphur River Basin.

Let me express my gratitude and appreciation in advance for any assistance that you may be able to provide in this matter. It goes without saying that your vote count in Northeast Texas in November would certainly increase if you were to fire Mr. Huddleston and Mr. Burke between now and then. I would certainly vote for you and encourage others to do so as well. For many of us locally, this November will be a "one-issue election" -- for or against the Marvin Nichols Reservoir.

Copies of this letter will be included with other documents and will be submitted to newspapers and other interested parties.

Respectfully Yours,

Robert T. Russell
Historian & Scientist