Covering 11 city council meetings at the same time and on the same night may seem a little daunting in our business.
But, the Gazette succeeded in pulling off this feat last Thursday as 11 city councils met simultaneously to approve a resolution re-establishing the Wright Patman Regional Water Supply Agency.
The 12th city to consider the resolution, Queen City, had its meeting a half-hour earlier than the other 11 cities: Annona, Atlanta, Avery, Clarksville, De Kalb, Hooks, Maud, Nash, New Boston, Redwater and Wake Village.
Of course, Queen City set itself apart from the other cities in another way as well; rejecting the resolution to re-establish the agency.
While I have no strong feelings one way or the other about the resolution and recreation of the Wright Patman Regional Water Supply Agency, I do have strong feelings and beliefs about the manner in which these cities all convened at the same time to pass the resolution.
I've always believed it was more than coincidence for a city council and a school board in the same city to have their meeting on the same evening.
And, there's a reason that occurs as officials on both governing bodies believe the residents or reporter can make only one of the meetings and not both.
It's really not good government to violate the spirit or intent of the open meetings law like that.
But 11 area cities holding meetings at the same time on the same night reeks of conspiracy, cover-up and corruption. This outright orchestration of multiple meetings on the same night is obvious and undeniable.
I can tell you, without a doubt, in the last 14 years there has never been a time before this water agency proposal came up that all of these 11 cities have had their meetings on the same night at the same time.
Most of these city councils usually meet on a Monday, but not the same Monday of each month.
Granted, it's not hard for the Clarksville Times to cover the Clarksville meeting, the Atlanta Citizens Journal to cover the Atlanta meeting and so forth.
But, there has been substantial coverage in the Gazette about this whole water rights/overbilling issue between these smaller cities and Texarkana, Texas, and Texarkana Water Utilities.
And that coverage has been the primary duty of one reporter on our staff.
Believing the Gazette would have only one reporter assigned to cover more than 10 meetings in one evening was a serious miscalculation on the parts of all these cities' officials.
We had perhaps the biggest reporting commitment we have made to any one issue at one time last Thursday.
And we would do it again if these cities decide they want to play by those underhanded rules again.
I found it interesting that a Redwater city council member and former mayor said she thought the cities meeting at the same time showed "a sign of unification" on their parts.
This shows it was agreed upon well in advance and it wasn't accidental that these meetings were at the same time.
No, a sign of unification wouldn't be the phrase I would choose.
Instead, my description would be a sign of manipulation on the parts of the city councils when it came to the law and their constituents.
And, the fact that Maud and Annona elected officials put their political posturing and priorities on this issue ahead of the wishes of their residents is miserable.
Voters in both of these towns wanted to decide for themselves at the polls if they wanted to rejoin this water agency.
Unfortunately, the Maud and Annona city councils already had their rubber stamp ready for the resolution.
They didn't want to postpone that vote to consider voters' concerns; forget about the opinions and wishes of the voters who put them in office.
Perhaps some of those rubber-stamping city council members should remember their political futures are in the hands of those same voters in less than a month.
We'll see if they care about the voters' opinions then.
The coverage our staff and correspondents offered by attending all these meetings was commendable.
But the supposed leadership and listening skills of the city councils on this issue is deplorable.