A program enabled by the Texas Legislature in 1997, dubbed “The Scofflaw,” and only now beginning to spread across the state, was adopted July 23 by the Llano County Commissioners Court.

Anyone owing the county fines, fees or auto sales taxes will find his ability to register a vehicle blocked and flagged statewide by the Texas Department of Transportation until payment is made.

Precinct 3 Commissioner Duane Stueven, who paved the way to adopt the program locally, pointed to $593,000 in outstanding fines as the impetus for his support.

“With road oil going up 94 percent and the threat of tax caps hanging over our heads, we have to have other sources of money,” he said.

Once software is prepared, local records can be transferred to TXDoT records. Any vehicle registration form for a scofflaw (a person who flouts the law) will be flagged until that person takes care of the outstanding payment.

Russ Duncan, a regional collections specialist from the Texas Office of Court Administration, attended the last meeting of the court to offer assistance with setting up the program. Under Section 502.185 of the Texas Transportation Code a county may adopt a scofflaw program.

Duncan said he has been working with eight programs in the state and Stueven said he has found interest among other county leaders he has met at Capital Area Planning Council of Governments meetings.

A resolution was adopted July 23 that added Llano County to a list growing from the 15 Central Texas members of the new Hill Country County Coalition lobbying the state legislature for more statutory authority.

“Right now we would have no authority to stop an asphalt plant,” said County Judge Wayne Brascom.

“Now there is nothing to stop someone from building in a creek bed that is not in the floodplain, even if we know they will be flooded,” said Stueven.

“We have very little authority to control growth that affects infrastructure,” the Judge said. “The Texas Association of Counties supports more land use legislation assisting rural counties in their development.”

The variety of needs being addressed by the coalition varies widely and includes the encroachment of Austin and San Antonio population, control of water rights, land-use authority and seeking the power to impose impact fees on new development.

The resolution approved July 23 is asking the legislature to allow counties to “diversify availability of funding options,” he explained.

“We have no way of charging a one-time fee for roads used during development or of charging impact fees of any kind,” Brascom said.

Commissioners returned to a knotty problem that never completely unsnarled, despite the fact that the county met the state’s deadline two years ago for identifying county roads. They contracted with Robert T. “Bob” Bass of the Austin, firm of Allison, Bass & Associates, LLP to produce the map of some 570 miles of county roads and a spider web of private roads with which they connect.

The map is a tool of emergency management, but also one for road maintenance and that is where the problem lies. Because the county cannot legally maintain a private road both have to be identified.

Even though lists of roads were published for hearings and, ultimately, negotiations were held with some citizens over whether roads were private or public, problems have persisted.

Duplicate names that weren’t caught in reviews of lists in 2006 are one problem. Another lies with the fact that the official list of roads to be maintained by the county does not correspond to the official map.

Responding to just such an instance July 23, commissioners accepted the dedication of a plat in Unit 4 of Buchanan Lake Village, to place Betke Street on the county maintenance list.

The result may be that the county will have to repeat the process advertising and holding hearings once again.

Commissioners approved the gathering of 8.42 acers of land in Precinct 1 into a single plat. The property, first purchased by meets and bounds, lies in the Mrs. C. E. Ellison Survey in the John Eugene Sears deed.