An Environmental Report Card on San Antonio Legislators

This year, San Antonio legislators did a mediocre job of protecting the Edwards Aquifer from polluting development. The legislator with the highest grade was David Leibowitz (Democrat), who voted to protect the Edwards Aquifer 75% of the time. Representative Michael Villareal (Democrat) came in second with a 63% score. The worst legislators were Senator Jeff Wentworth (Republican), Representative Frank Corte (Republican), Representative Edmund Kuempel (Republican) and Representative Joe Straus (Republican), who had scores of zero – i.e. they voted against the AGUA and GEAA (Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance) positions 100% of the time.

Senators Leticia Van de Putte (Democrat) and Frank Madla (Democrat) did not do much better, with scores of 11% and 22% respectively. GEAA found itself both for and against Senator Madla’s positions, and he seemed to respond well to pressure from constituents. He started out as a sponsor of a bad grandfathering bill, SB 848, but later withdrew his sponsorship. Senator Madla was aggressive in protecting San Antonio from the two worst bills in this session: the takings bill that would have eliminated all land use regulation in Texas, and SB 1858 that would have wiped out San Antonio water quality regulations and prohibited the Edwards Aquifer Authority from enacting water quality regulations too. However, Senator Madla was the author of the water hustlers bill SB 1857, which would have eliminated the Kinney County Water District, which was being punished for strictly limiting pumping from the Edwards Aquifer.

Senator Wentworth for a long time has been one of the biggest supporters of Edwards Aquifer polluters. Two years ago, he authored legislation to exempt (by grandfathering”) all developers from local land development laws even when the laws were necessary to protect imminent destruction of property and injury to persons. He also sponsored an amendment on behalf of the North Carolina Lowe’s corporation that was intended by the Lowe’s lobbyists to exempt one of its big box stores in the recharge zone from all municipal water quality regulation. This year Wentworth sponsored an amendment authorizing Bexar County, without a vote from the public, to provide government financing for the large polluting PGA development that San Antonio citizens have fought long and hard to stop.

Senator Wentworth also nominated former Dripping Springs City Attorney Rex Baker to the Commission on Judicial Conduct. Mr. Baker is the subject of two ongoing lawsuits, where he is accused of fraud or other unethical conduct. His conflicts of interest relating to his negotiation of sweetheart development agreements in the Edwards Aquifer watershed were even condemned by the American-Statesman newspaper. Now due to Senator Wentworth’s nomination, Mr. Baker is serving on the Judicial Commission, where he will sit in judgment of the judges who are judging his conduct in litigation.

Representative Robert Puente (Democrat) played a key role as chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, and like Madla, Puente gets a mixed review. With Senator Madla he sponsored SB 1857 to abolish the Kinney County Groundwater District but, after a public outcry arose against the bill, Representative Puente never let the bill out of his own committee. Puente was effective in protecting San Antonio’s interests from legislation preventing local control by negotiating an exemption for San Antonio from the takings bill and attempting to do so for the grandfathering bills, but his effort notably left the rest of the Aquifer outside of San Antonio at risk. Representative Puente voted for the tax subsidy to help the PGA project.

To see report cards for all San Antonio-area legislators and descriptions of the bills referenced in the report cards, click here.