Pickett withdraws House stormwater bills in favor of Senate bills to resolve delegation dispute

State Rep. Joe Pickett said Tuesday that he would resolve the dispute over competing bills that exempt the schools and the county from paying stormwater fees by withdrawing the House versions, which he co-authored with state Rep. Norma Chavez.

"I used my minimal clout as dean of the delegation and told the chair of Borders to pass out the Senate bill," Pickett said. "We're getting cut up back home."

'Borders' refers to the House Border and Intergovernmental Affairs Committee, chaired by state Rep. Veronica Gonzalez, D-McAllen. Two stormwater bills by state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, sponsored in the House by state Rep. Chente Quintanilla in the House, were there; the two House bills were stuck in the Senate, failing to find a sponsor.

Neither side was willing to compromise until Tuesday morning, when Pickett said he realized the issue was "fodder for discussion back home."

That's when, he said: "I just put my foot down. I just made the decision, chairman to chairman. So sorry, no more controversy."

The issue was starting to take on a life of its own, in part because the two sets of bills were so similar and it didn't seem to make sense to waste legislative and lobbyist time fighting over egos. It put border affairs Chairwoman Veronica Gonzalez, D-McAllen, in a sticky position. Gonzales has had to schedule public hearings on four El Paso stormwater bills – with it being such a small and local issue, that represents a fair amount of wasted time in an already congested session.

She has nothing to gain from taking sides in the stand-off but a fair amount to lose. Stormwater fees are not her problem. But she wouldn’t want to anger Shapleigh on one side, or Chavez (on the powerful Calendars committee) and Pickett (Transportation Chairman) on the other.

Quintanilla told NPT, prior to Pickett's comments, that there was no good reason for the standoff.

“I think there is a lot of political maneuvering going on to get their name on the bill,” Quintanilla said. “It should not be a matter of who takes credit for it. I think all of us can take credit for it because all of us are trying to do something. But I think we’re having a problem in the fact that some of us want to make sure our name appears on the bill and it shouldn’t be that way.”