Float News
From the New Braunfles Herald
Former New Braunfels Mayor Stoney Williams is hanging his tube on the other side of the city council dais these days on the river ordinances issue.Williams said he was given a citation for violating the cooler size ordinance while floating on the river this past weekend. However, he did it for a reason, he said.
“I took my old standard 48-quart cooler that I’ve been floating with since 1989 on purpose,” he said. “It was really a test to see if police were enforcing it (the ordinance).”
Williams is named as a plaintiff in the latest filing aimed at overturning the city’s river ordinances.
Attorney Scott Tschirhart for Stop the Ordinances Please, an unincorporated group of business owners and other parties interested in the use and enjoyment of the Comal and Guadalupe rivers in New Braunfels’ city limits, filed an amended plea to jurisdiction with the Comal County District Court Wednesday.
STOP members named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit include Rockin “R” River Rides, Texas Tubes, Corner Tubes, Inc., Gruene Home Run Batting Cages and Tubing, Rivercrest Food Mart, Tire Repair Supply and Equipment, Tavern on the Gruene, Inc., Stone Randall Williams and Lindsay Michelle Crim, according to the court document.
The latest filing by Tschirhart expands the scope of the lawsuit to include eliminating the $1.25 per person river management fee levied on outfitters by the city.
The lawsuit says “Plaintiff Rockin “R” River Rides has paid the city over $480,000 in illegal and unconstitutional fees.”
A show cause hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. June 6 at the Comal County Courthouse.
Mick McKamie, attorney for the city, could not be reached for comment.
Williams said nobody, including the police, want the ordinances and said the city council is to blame.
“What infuriates me is the police don’t want to write these tickets,” he said. “The city’s ego is too big to say we’re going to waste the tax payers money by reversing the ordinances on the big tubes and cooler size. It all comes back to council — get rid of the noise ordinance, get rid of the cooler issue, get rid of the tube size issue — that’s what council needs to do to make things right.”
Williams said New Braunfels police wrote Jennifer Seidel a ticket for an ordinance violation. He said when she went to the police department to pay the fine, she was told the penalty has not yet been set.
City Manager Mike Morrison said the ordinances will be enforced first by the river police, and second, the judge, Morrison said.
“The police officers will enforce the ordinances and the judge will set the fines,” he said.
Williams said he is not interested in reversing the beer bong or Jell-O shot ban.
“It amazes me the council passed the big tube and cooler size rules,” he said. “It would never have happened if I was still the mayor.”
Williams said a fellow rotarian equated him to a famous figure at the Rotary Club of New Braunfels meeting Wednesday.
“He said I was the Rosa Parks of the Comal River,” he said.
From the San Antonio Express New
NEW BRAUNFELS — When Stoney Williams was mayor, he voted in favor of a $1 fee on every tube and raft rental on the Comal and Guadalupe rivers in the city.Now he’s a plaintiff in a lawsuit seeking to have that fee declared unconstitutional.Williams joined the lawsuit, filed by the local group “Stop The Ordinances Please,” or STOP, after he was caught violating one of the more controversial aspects of the new rules: having an oversized cooler on the Comal River on Memorial Day weekend.
The lawsuit claims the city overstepped its authority in passing the cooler-size restriction, limits on the size and number of floatation devices people can bring on the rivers, bans on Jell-O shots and beer bongs, and the tube rental fee, which now is $1.25.
Williams said he was floating the Comal River with a group of friends, and purposefully brought an illegally large cooler and three tubes larger than the rules allow.
He said the officer who ticketed him either didn’t notice or did not care about the oversized tubes, but gave Williams one of the 18 tickets issued this past weekend for having a cooler larger than allowed.
“It’s shockingly ridiculous,” Williams said. “And I feel so sorry for the Police Department. I’ve talked to several policemen and they don’t want to be writing these tickets. They are being turned into political soldiers for an ordinance that is politically motivated.”
The lawsuit aiming to stop the city from enforcing those rules on tubers in the Comal and Guadalupe rivers was postponed again Wednesday, to give the Texas attorney general’s office a chance to intervene in the suit.
Visiting State District Judge Ron Carr reset Wednesday’s hearing on a temporary injunction to stop enforcement of the rules to June 21. He also ordered STOP and the city to hold a mediation conference before then to see if some or all the issues can be resolved.
Bradford Bullock, representing the city, said the amended suit filed May 30 by STOP alleges, for the first time, that the ordinances and fee violate the state constitution.
“When you make that claim, you have to give the attorney general the opportunity to respond and appear in court,” Bullock said. “We think, frankly, that if the attorney general gets involved, he will get involved on our side on some of these issues.”
STOP’s lawyer, David Earl, predicted that if the AG’s office chooses to get involved in the lawsuit, it would support his client’s position.
“I think every Texan has a right to enjoy public waterways and I think the attorney general will be very interested in protecting that right,” he said.
Williams said that although he’s now a plaintiff in the STOP lawsuit, he still thinks the tube rental fee is a good idea and he does not care about the Jell-O shot and beer bong bans. His only area of concern is the rules about cooler and floatation device sizes.
Williams said he also plans to fight the $219 ticket for having a too-large cooler at his June 11 appearance in Municipal Court.