Bastrop judge dismisses case against ACC officals

Bastrop voters will still be able to vote to annex themselves into the Austin Community College taxing district in November. A lawsuit filed by five Bastrop County residents to have the annexation vote canceled was dismissed by State-District Judge Reva Towslees-Corbett on Wednesday morning.

The suit was filed on Sep. 22 by George Lewis, Dorothy Landoll, Carolyn Smith, Ray Smith, and Victor Vreeland.

The suit was filed against ACC President Steven Kinslow, and ACC Special Assistant to the president for external affairs, Linda Young, as well as Bastrop County Elections Administrator Nora Cano, The Bastrop County Friends of Higher Education Political Action Committee, and former Bastrop ISD president John Eaton.

The Bastrop residents who filed this suit claim the petition to get the annexation on the ballot contained language that mislead voters about who was leading the effort, and about the Bastrop Independent School District support and involvement.

They also feel that the signatures should have been verified by an outside organization, as opposed to the college.

The Judge dismissed the case on the grounds that the court can not cancel an election.

Stephen Casey, lawyer for the plaintiffs, has said that his clients are considering contesting the election on Nov. 3.

"She (the judge) did not rule on the merit of our case. It was a procedural issue, so I think with an election contestation we still have a strong case" Casey said.

Part of the annexation process is gauging interest by collecting signatures of registered voters on a petition. If enough signatures are gathered and verified, the annexation goes on the ballot and the residents get to vote on it.

The Bastrop County Friends of Higher education, who circulated the petition, submitted 1750 signatures to ACC. The ACC Office of Governmental Relations Verified 1672 of those signatures.

The remaining signatures were not necessarily invalid, but 1672 is well over the required five percent of registered voters needed to move forward with these petitions.

ACC has committed to building a campus in Bastrop if they become part of the taxing district.

"We're calling it the ACC Lost Pines College," Bastrop County Friends of Higher Education Tom Scott Said in a previous interview with the Accent.

In a press release from the college Bob Heath, the attorney representing ACC said,

"This was a baseless lawsuit that the judge properly found was not even within the jurisdiction of the court. Five plaintiffs sought to overturn the work of the more than 1,700 persons who signed the petition asking the issue to be put on the ballot. Because of the judge's ruling, the issue will be decided by the voters, not by the court."