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Council to determine attorney role in lawsuit
By Chris Roark, roarkc@acnpapers.com
The Flower Mound Town Council will have a special meeting Saturday to discuss three items in closed session, including a lawsuit filed against the town by Mockingbird Pipeline, L.P.
Mockingbird is an affiliate of Williams Production.
The petition states that Mockingbird is seeking to condemn a 30-foot permanent right-of-way and pipeline easement across a 0.415 acre piece of town-owned property just west of Shiloh Road, behind Fire Station No. 2. Mockingbird is also seeking a 50-foot temporary construction easement for 180 days.
The petition states that these would be used for pipelines to transport oil, gas, condensate, distillate or water, or any combination of those substances.
According to Section 181.004 of the Texas Utility Code, Mockingbird has the right as a gas corporation to condemn and appropriate the property.
Saturday’s closed session meeting is designed to adopt a resolution to let its town attorney represent the town in the case.
Council member Al Filidoro told the Leader that the reason the council has to adopt this resolution is because Mockingbird is challenging Flower Mound’s right to defend the condemnation suit.
But Williams spokesman Kelly Swan said there is a history in the situation, and Williams simply ran out of options.
During a probate hearing on Tuesday, Filidoro said, the judge gave the town two days to pass the resolution.
“The judge asked us if we had a resolution to authorize our town attorney to defend us,” Filidoro said. “Our town attorney said no, and our town attorney said no because we’ve never had to do that. Our attorney always vigorously defends our town.”
Passing the resolution Saturday would allow the town attorney to defend Flower Mound in the lawsuit. Only four council members – Filidoro, Deputy Mayor Steve Dixon, council member Mike Wallace and council member Tom Hayden -- will vote on the resolution since Mayor Pro Tem Jean Levenick and Mayor Jody Smith are recusing themselves from the issue because of a conflict of interest with Williams.
Filidoro fears that if the council doesn’t approve that resolution, the town is left vulnerable.
“Mockingbird’s actions will render the town defenseless, thereby giving them a default judgment because the town would have lost its ability to defend itself,” said Filidoro, who was present at a probate court hearing. “It’s a very dangerous precedent.”
Williams spokesman Kelly Swan said, however, that Mockingbird had no other choice. In a letter sent to the Leader, Swan addressed the situation. The letter states that Flower Mound approved a project in October that would allow Mockingbird to build a mile-and-a-half long pipe to pick up the gas from the wells for delivery to market.
The only part of the project not approved was a short easement that the company needs on the edge of the town’s fire station property on west FM 1171.
Williams then installed piping on either side of the fire station, based on the expectation that consent from the town council for the easement was forthcoming, the letter stated.
The wells the pipeline would serve have long been drilled and others are ready, and all of them need to go online for Williams to meet various contractual commitments, it stated.
Williams says the route makes sense because it falls within an existing utility corridor where another pipeline already is in the ground.
“Flower Mound made two requests -- that we give them a check for $36,000 and that the fire station can have access to the safety valve to shut the pipe down at their discretion,” Swan said. “We met all of their requests.”
But on Jan. 21, the council voted 2-2 on an item where Williams was requesting access to 500 feet of right-of-way to complete the project. Dixon and Wallace voted yes, with Wallace saying it would be a waste of taxpayer dollars to fight something the town probably wouldn't win anyway. Filidoro and Hayden voted no, with Hayden saying the town had a chance to win.
“Our position is that with the 2-2 vote, the town didn’t render a decision,” Swan said.
Swan said that’s why Mockingbird is challenging the town’s right to have its town attorney defend the town.
“There really wasn’t a decision to defend,” Swan said. “If it was 3-2, for or against, then there would have been one. But 2-2 means there was no decision.”
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