March 3. 2025

Mar 03, 2025

In this edition:

Local workshop assembles caring professionals; Federal government changes likely to affect DeLa Express pipeline; and Resisting Presidential power grabs.

Easing Human Suffering as Public Policy

At some point in our lives, most of us have got into some trouble. If we were fortunate, we had someone we could call or turn to, or at least the strangers we encountered were kind and respectful.

Last week I met some of those kind strangers, and witnessed a great example of this newsletter’s motto, when I attended the Sequential Intercept Model (SIM) Mapping workshop at the Brownwood Event Center. The rancor of national politics was mostly ignored, as local professionals in mental and behavioral health joined their counterparts in public safety and criminal justice to find better solutions for those suffering from serious mental illness, substance abuse, and/or intellectual and developmental disabilities.

The SIM identifies multiple opportunities to help these individuals when they get in trouble with the law—during crisis line or 911 calls, arrest, jail booking, court appearances and hearings, release and reentry to society, and probation or parole.

https://www.prainc.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/PRA-SIM-One-Pager-2025-2.pdf

The SIM is used as a strategic planning tool, to create a community-wide response for these targeted populations. SIM Mapping workshops are designed to inventory existing local resources, identify gaps in programs and services, prioritize opportunities to increase diversion, access to treatment, and coordination amongst local agencies, and develop community-wide action plans.

My own interest in these issues comes from knowing many friends and family who have experienced trauma, some who went to jail or prison, and from working with youth and adults with a range of disabilities.

State of Texas Coordinates With State Courts in Small Towns

This 2-day workshop, facilitated by staff from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC), was the culmination of months of planning and coordination between the local Center for Life Resources, and the 35^th District Court of Brown County. It was also clearly the beginning of a new phase of increased communication and collaboration between the many public and private agencies and organizations represented.

https://cflr.us/ns/

https://www.browncountytx.gov/page/brown.District.Court

I chose to sit in one of the rear corners of the meeting hall. I found myself in between a Brown County Commissioner and the supervisor of the Brownwood Dept. of Public Safety office (Texas Highway Patrol), which also covers Coleman and Comanche counties.

Expert Panels Reveal Frontline Challenges

As the workshop began, the HHSC facilitator noted that this was the 25^th workshop of its kind in the past few years, and held the record for attendance, with around 120 participants.

Most of Day 1 consisted of a series of expert panels focusing on the various intercept opportunities, numbered 0-5. After a review of Best Practices for their intercept level, panelists answered questions posed by the HHSC facilitators and the audience, and then summarized both the gaps in services, and opportunities for increased cooperation in their respective positions. These discussions were informed by local data that had been collected in the months or year prior.

I was impressed at the level of awareness and communication on these issues already evident between these folks—most had clearly been in contact before, even if they hadn’t ever met face to face. The first panel, for Intercepts 0-1, included Brownwood’s Fire and Police Chiefs, the BPD 911 Dispatch Coordinator, Brown County Sheriff, Operations Director for LifeGuard Ambulance, Director of Nursing Services at Hendrick Medical Center, and mental health professionals from the Center for Life Resources.

After 3 expert panels, we were each asked to state one priority we felt needed to be addressed here in Brownwood/Brown County. From that poll, the facilitators made a list of priorities for us to vote on with red sticky dots, on our way out at the end of the day.

Four Priorities Emerge

On the morning of Day 2, the facilitators announced the top 4 local priorities chosen the day before:

1. Plan for a Diversion Center (an alternative to jail for those eligible)

2. Implement a better process for Code of Criminal Procedure 16:22 (mental health or intellectual disability assessments for defendants)

3. Expand housing options for justice-involved people

4. Enhance prevention/early intervention services for the targeted populations

We then went into breakout sessions for the priorities that interested us. I ended up in a conference room with 20 people talking about early intervention. Danielle Howard, Brownwood Independent School District Mental Health Coordinator, mentioned that the BISD website included a 30-page Community Resource Guide. You can find it here:

Click on the Brownwood Resource Map button. https://sites.google.com/brownwoodisd.org/brownwood-isd-counseling-and-m/resources

The workshop closed out with presentations from each of the breakout groups, summarizing their objectives, action steps to reach the objectives, who would be the point of contact, and when they would be reviewing their progress.

There was also a brief presentation of state and federal funding sources, mostly grants, and tips on which to apply for, and when.

Brown County (and Texas) Needs a Functional FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission)

Sometimes the cure really is worse than the disease.

The hasty, haphazard, and ill-informed intrusions and mass firings in the federal workforce by the DOGE wrecking crew are already the stuff of legend—and ongoing litigation.

Reckless reductions have required equally hasty reversals of alarming blunders like cutting critical staff at the National Nuclear Safety Administration, and firing USDA workers responding to the bird flu outbreak and Dept. of Veterans Affairs employees who answer calls to the Veterans Crisis Hotline. Most recently, layoffs at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will reduce access to basic weather and climate research and data.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trumps-firings-us-weather-agency-will-put-lives-risk-scientists-say-2025-02-28/

These DOGE mistakes all threaten public safety, and are disturbing signs of more dangerous trends to come.

What stands out to me is the utterly un-American presumption of guilt that is being projected on the federal workforce. They are all accused of complicity in vast schemes of “waste, fraud, and abuse,” with very little, and often no evidence of any wrongdoing presented, and no consultation with the officials already charged with oversight—they were the first to be dismissed!

Two other recent actions by the new administration are likely to affect the safety and legality of the proposed DeLa Express natural gas pipeline, planned to be routed just south of Brownwood, near the Country Club. These actions degrade the integrity of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) which will approve or deny eventual construction of this 42 inch, 690-mile interstate pipeline. (FERC Docket No. PF-24-4-000)

The Feb. 18 Executive Order (EO), “Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies” could significantly alter FERC’s operations by imposing additional presidential supervision and control over what has always been an independent agency. There are good reasons for that independence.

FERC’s mission is “to assist consumers in obtaining reliable, safe, secure, and economically efficient energy services at a reasonable cost through appropriate regulatory and market means, and collaborative efforts.”

FERC is part of the Dept. of Energy, and is already accountable to the President, who personally appoints the 5 FERC commissioners, who must then also be confirmed by the Senate.

FERC’s criteria for approving or denying a pipeline like DeLa Express are “whether the project is in the public convenience and necessity.” FERC has decades of experience siting natural gas pipelines, and the expertise and regulatory practices to guide its process.

Despite all this, the Feb. 18 EO will require FERC to establish a White House Liaison position, and allow the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to adjust FERC’s congressionally-approved funding appropriations.

Strategic Plans developed by FERC would also need to be submitted to the Director of OMB for clearance before finalization, and all proposed and final significant regulatory actions from FERC would need to be submitted to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs within the Executive Office of the President, before publication in the Federal Register.

Is this increasing government efficiency, or Presidential overreach?

Another blow to FERC’s functionality came Feb. 20, when Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris indicated a change in Justice Dept. policy toward administrative law judges, who handle the internal case load of regulatory agencies like FERC. The Justice Dept. will no longer defend removal restrictions for administrative law judges against challenges in court, effectively paving the way for their swift removal.

https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-declares-administrative-law-judge-removal-rules-unconstitutional-2025-02-21/

What is the public benefit in this?

According to the FERC website, “FERC Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) resolve contested cases as directed by the Commission, either by serving as a Presiding Judge, conducting a hearing, developing a record, rendering an initial decision, or by serving as a Settlement Judge and facilitating a negotiated resolution by settlement.
ALJs perform various other Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) procedures as directed by the Commission, including mediation, arbitration, and facilitation.”

https://www.ferc.gov/office-administrative-law-judges-oalj

The Jan. 20 Executive Orders, Declaring a National Energy Emergency and Unleashing American Energy, aim to sweep aside statutory protections of oceans, waterways, marine mammals and endangered species under NEPA, (the National Environmental Policy Act). So the weakening of ALJs at FERC is likely just another strategy designed to fast-track approval of any and all oil and gas pipelines, including DeLa Express, at the expense of landowners’ constitutionally–protected 4^th Amendment private property rights, and community health and safety concerns, all along the pipeline route.

For a quick review of the FERC Pre-Filing Environmental Review Process, as it existed PRIOR to the recent developments outlined above:

https://www.ferc.gov/media/pre-filing-environmental-review-process

The fact that this page is still available on the FERC website is no guarantee that the process will still be followed now.

When it comes to pipeline construction, speed can be the enemy of safety. Another concern is the fact that Moss Lake Partners, the parent corporation of DeLa Express, has never even built a pipeline before.

If you agree that FERC and its Administrative Law Judges should be left alone to continue their valuable oversight please call and write Congressman Pfluger and Senators Cornyn and Cruz. If you conclude, as I have, that the DeLa Express pipeline is not in the public interest, join the Hold the Line campaign by emailing beemonster@verizon.net.

The Vocabulary of Failed Democracy

National resistance to what I’m calling the ‘Rump-‘Usk Rampage is spreading.

If you are looking for rational voices in the resistance, I can recommend two, for now.

First, Brad Johnson’s Hill Heat newsletter, for “Science, Policy, Politics, Action.” Hill Heat gave me a good example to follow when I started my own newsletter:

https://hillheat.news/

Second, Timothy Snyder’s Substack, Thinking About… Snyder is an American historian of Europe, and offers an invaluable historical perspective on current events, especially American foreign policy, and the timeless struggles of free people to stay free.

Sadly, it is now time to review and discuss a vocabulary we have long reserved to describe other nations and other eras: words like oligarchy, autocracy, fascism, plutocracy, and terms like “state capture.” Brad Johnson and Timothy Snyder will help show you the way.

Support Your Green News

Your feedback is always welcomed, especially updates and corrections to keep the Civic Calendar current.

If you like this newsletter, forward it on to someone else, and ask them to subscribe. Send correspondence to beemonster@verizon.net.

Send story leads anytime, or drop by to see me at the Brownwood Art Center, 215 Fisk, weekdays, 2-6 pm. I’ll be the Gallery Guy greeting you at the front desk.

Civic Calendar: Your shortcut to citizenship and political participation

Brownwood City Council 501 Center Ave City Hall

9 am every 2^nd and 4^th Tuesday

https://brownwoodtexas.gov/150/City-Council

City of Brownwood Agenda Center posts agendas for Boards and Commissions including:

City Council, Airport Board, B’wd Municipal Development District Board, Building and Standards Commission, Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee, Planning and Zoning Commission and more….

https://www.brownwoodtexas.gov/AgendaCenter

Early City Council 960 Early Blvd. City Hall

6 pm every 2^nd and 4^th Tuesday

https://www.earlytx.net/96/City-Council

Blanket City council 718 Main St. Blanket Lions Club

5:30 pm Third Monday

https://www.facebook.com/cityofblanket/photos

Bangs City Council 109 S. First St. City Hall

6 pm 2^nd and 4^th Monday

https://cityofbangs.org/government/city-council/

Brown County Commissioners 200 S. Broadway County Courthouse

9 am most Mondays confirm on county calendar