Start Here: Work So Far and What’s Next

Status checked November 7, 2026.

Who we are and what we’re studying

The Freestone County Good Governance Council is an independent citizens’ organizing initiative. No directors have been seated yet. We are not a county office, a campaign committee or a victim-services provider. We ask questions about public services, public spending and government decisions, request the public records, and post what comes back so residents can read it for themselves.

Our first study looks at hospital and emergency medical services across the county. It does not assume an answer. Working together, sharing services, a different structure and keeping things as they are will all be judged on the evidence. Our questions are points of clarification, not accusations.

What we’ve done so far

Asked for public records from the County Judge and Commissioners Court, the County Clerk, the District and County Attorney, the County Auditor, the County Treasurer, the Sheriff, the Elections Administrator, the Fairfield Hospital District and the Teague Hospital District. Every request and every reply is on the Open Records Requests page.
Posted what came back with a permanent reference number on every page: 209 catalog entries in the Document Index, plus 77 sets of Commissioners Court minutes on the Court Minutes page. (The 209 includes five numbered placeholders and four labeled duplicates, so it is a catalog count, not 209 separate records from government.)
Built practical help pages: Help for Crime Victims, drawn in part from the materials the District and County Attorney’s office provided, and License Plate Readers.
Opened a community survey on hospital and emergency medical services, open through November 15.

The County Clerk now posts Commissioners Court minutes online at freestone.easydocs.us. Robert asked the Court on Aug 17 to put minutes online; we can’t say what led to the change, only that minutes are now easier for everyone to find. Some meetings also have the approved documents attached, such as the order calling the bond election and interlocal inmate-housing agreements. Where those match one of our open requests, the Records Requests page now links to them, but the requests stay open until the office answers.

Records we hold, by office

These are documents in hand, not a score. Some came in answer to a request; others we found in official public sources, and we say which. The groups overlap, so the numbers should not be added together.

Office	What we hold
County Clerk	77 sets of Commissioners Court minutes through Oct 9, 2026: 69 provided on a USB drive, and 8 downloaded from the County’s public archive.
County Judge and Commissioners Court	The written answer that the County has signed no non-disclosure agreements; the CyrusOne Tax Abatement Agreement with its Road Use Agreement; 27 abatement agreements, zone orders and amendments in all; and agendas and minutes from the 14 meetings that acted on them.
Fairfield Hospital District	16 core financial files: audited statements, board financial reports, tax rates, tax collections and monthly cash summaries. Its election order and notice are posted separately.
Appraisal districts	6 certified-value and tax-rate files for the Fairfield Hospital District, from the Freestone and Navarro appraisal districts.
District and County Attorney	9 documents on victim services: the coordinator’s job description, three years of budget sheets, and the packet sent to crime victims.
County Treasurer	5 report files covering FY2024 and FY2025.
County Auditor and public budget filings	5 financial files: the FY2024 annual financial report, an audit-status letter, and three county budgets. These do not answer our requests about officials’ pay or jail costs.
Elections Administrator	The original and corrected Fairfield Hospital District ballot wording, and election notices and results found in public postings.
Teague Hospital District	No records yet in answer to our requests. Two public tax-rate filings are posted separately.
Sheriff’s Office	No records yet in answer to our requests.

A short timeline

Aug 17: Robert, as a private resident, filed the first records requests and four agenda requests with the Commissioners Court.
Aug 19 – Sept 1: The Court answered in writing on non-disclosure agreements; the Treasurer sent reports; the District and County Attorney sent victim-services records.
Sept 2: Robert spoke to the Court on his four agenda items. The minutes record no action on the victim advocacy, license plate reader and countywide healthcare items, and approval of a letter to Robert about non-disclosure agreements on the minutes item.
Sept 3: Records requests on the jail and justice center went to seven county offices, and a request went to the Teague Hospital District.
Oct 1 – 27: Requests to both hospital districts. The Fairfield Hospital District sent financial records; the Elections Administrator sent the corrected ballot wording; the County Judge’s office sent the CyrusOne and earlier abatement agreements. The Fairfield Hospital District asked the Attorney General whether it must release its operating agreements. That is a request for a ruling, not a ruling.
Nov 1 – 6: Follow-up to the Sheriff with a new request on inmate medical costs; more Fairfield Hospital District records; proof of delivery for our mailed requests; and 8 more sets of minutes from the County’s archive.
Nov 3: Election. Unofficial county reports show the County jail and justice center bond did not pass (3,108 for, 3,803 against) and Fairfield Hospital District Proposition A, the $0.25 per $100 tax rate, passed (2,319 for, 1,666 against, adding the Freestone and Navarro County reports together). These are not the official canvasses; we will add those when available. The Council did not endorse either side.

What’s still open

Fairfield Hospital District: line of credit and lease schedules; any separate letter from its auditors; governance and planning records; and its operating and management agreements, which are with the Attorney General.
Teague Hospital District: the financial, governance, EMS and planning records we asked for.
Sheriff’s Office: license plate reader records, payroll, jail operations and outside-housing costs (requested Sept 3), and inmate medical costs.
County offices: officials’ pay, and the jail and justice center records requested Sept 3.
Jail bond order: its Exhibit B and section 6 show different figures for existing debt. We have asked the County and its financial adviser to clarify. The bond vote does not answer that question.
Tax abatements: which version of the County’s Tax Abatement Guidelines applied to each earlier zone, and which letter on non-disclosure agreements the Court approved on Sept 2. Robert has not received a second letter.

What’s next

When	What
About Nov 9	Reply due from the Elections Administrator on our follow-up about Fairfield Hospital District ballot styles.
Nov 15 – 16	Survey closes Nov 15; results and charts posted Nov 16.
About Nov 17	Replies due from the Teague Hospital District (second notice) and the Sheriff’s Office (Nov 1 follow-up). The earlier Teague requests are already past due.
About Dec 31	Expected Attorney General ruling on the Fairfield Hospital District agreements. That date is an estimate, not a promise.
No date yet	Answers on the jail bond figures and the abatement guidelines; the other county records still open.

These are check-in dates, not promises that records will arrive that day, and not findings that anyone broke the law. We update each status from the documents we actually hold.

Finding your way around

Open Records Requests: what we asked, what came back, and what is still open.
Document Index: search every record by number, office, topic or words inside.
Court Minutes: the Council’s numbered copies, with a link to the County’s official archive. Agenda topics are not outcomes; open the minutes to see the vote.
Help for Crime Victims and License Plate Readers.
About: how this effort began.

See something wrong? Email info@freestonegoodgov.org and we’ll correct it. Last updated November 7, 2026.