Throughout the month of June 2002, I worked long and hard on my "open letter" presentation for June 25 to the Sulphur River Basin Authority (the SeRBiA, and we can thank Libby Farmer of Wake Village for inventing this acronym). I arrived early and arranged the original open letter and copies on the meeting table in front of the chairs. I watched Judy Lee read through the first few pages of her copy, but I didn't see any of the other members looking at it.

For information about the meeting itself, CLICK HERE to read newspaper articles.

The meeting ended before 3 PM, but quite a number of board members and public attendees stood around and chatted with one another for another 45 minutes or more. By 3:15 most people, including the entire SeRBiA, had left. Only a dozen or so of us remained. Suddenly one of the women pointed out to me that Comrade Chairmen Muddlestonvic and Bursky had left their copies of my presentation behind.

Pictured above, as they were left behind, are (middle) the orginals in a red folder and a copy of the letter itself on top, which I left for Mr. Huddleston, and (right) the full copy of the presentation given to Mr. Burke. Dr. James Presley (blue-green shirt, back to camera), David Nabors (light shirt, seated, facing the camera), Max Shumake (white shirt, facing camera), the Love Brothers (standing at the very back of the room, overalls), Libby Farmer (gray hair, dressed in black), Billie Lindsey (black and white blouse) and Shirley Shumake (blue and white blouse, obscured by Libby here) and others were present when this discovery was made.

These are the signed originals from which all the copies were made. The blue post-it note says "looseleaf originals". I didn't bind or staple these together so that it would have been easier for Mr. Huddleston to make additional copies, if he had so desired.

It defies one's comprehension why Mr. Huddleston and Mr. Burke would have carelessly left their copies behind. Their lawyer had a copy. The engineering firms took copies. The rest of the board members left with their copies. It would have been impossible for Mike & Mike to plead "ignorance" of their existence, especially when everyone else in attendance received a copy of the presentation. If they had not wanted to read it, preferring to leave these little "details" to their attorneys, they should at least have had the common sense and courtesy to take them home to Texarkana before ditching them in a trashcan.

Suffice it to say that after such an arduous task of putting this presentation together (not to mention the $100+ that I had to spend on all the photocopies, etc.), I was extremely upset with this discovery. Fortunately I was able to retrieve the errant documents. The next day, when I awoke, I was still seething. First of all, since these board members are appointed by the Governor, I telephoned the Governor's office and lodged a complaint against the SeRBiA. And the oddest scenario transpired. The woman at the Governor's office asked me whom exactly was I complaining about. I told her the Sulphur River Basin Authority. "Who?" she asked. I repeated it. She put me on hold for a moment, and then she told me that she had no listing for such a "river authority". "Are you sure?" I asked her. "They had a meeting only yesterday." "Well," she said, "I am looking at the directory of river authorities. Under S, there are only Sabine River Authority, San Antonio River Authority, and San Jacinto River Authority. There is no Sulphur River Basin Authority." I was astonished. Then she suggested that in view of their absence from the list, she would connect me to the TNRCC (Texas Natural Resource Convervation Commission), which is the oversight agency for the clean-rivers program, amongst other things; and the SeRBiA receives considerable annual funding from TNRCC. The person at "Trainwreck" didn't know why the SeRBiA was not listed with the Governor's office, but she kindly listened to my complaint and promised to get back in touch with me after checking the pertinent statutory provisions governing the Authority.

Then I prepared the following cover-letter to accompany my return of the documents to the SeRBiA's mailing address in Texarkana.

26 June 2002

Dear Sulphur River Basin Authority:

At yesterday's meeting in Mount Pleasant, after the board members had departed, it was called to my attention that Mike Huddleston and Mike Burke had apparently and inadvertently left their copies of my presentation behind on the table. Fortunately, I was able to retrieve them. Quite a number of us were present when this discovery was made. I took a photograph of the group, along with the errant documents lying on the table.

One wonders if, on the other hand, you simply and arrogantly deliberately left those documents behind, personally ignoring them, since you knew that your attorney David James Tuckfield of Vinson & Elkins (the firm who also represented Enron, if I recall correctly) had a copy.

All of us are well aware that your agency is funded by public tax-money from the State of Texas. As such, you are a state agency subject to all state freedom-of-information laws and regulations. You cannot continue to operate in secrecy and stealth. Your SeRBiA is not the Politburo of some banana-republic Communist country. I lodged a complaint with the Governor's office this morning.

Enclosed here are the documents that you neglected to receive. Copies of this letter will be sent to various newspapers and other interested parties along with copies of the documents that you left behind at the Mount Pleasant Civic Center.

Sincerely Yours, Robert T. Russell

I sent this package to them by certified mail, return-receipt requested. As of this writing (Saturday afternoon, June 29), I have still not received confirmation that they received this certified letter. Surely they will not be so "amateurish" as not to claim the letter. We shall have to wait and see!

Also, I mailed a complete set of the photocopied presentation, plus a copy of this cover-letter, to the person with whom I talked at TNRCC.

After I have received the notification from the post office, then I am planning to compose a formal written complaint and send it directly to Governor Rick Perry himself, along with the other material.

The Comrade Chairmen created their own SeRBiAn Minefield by leaving these documents behind! They will live to rue the day they ever heard of me! Roberto