Bee County commissioners will meet behind closed doors on Friday to discuss the legal action Beeville ISD has taken against the county.

Beeville ISD trustees met with their attorney via telephone conference on Tuesday and decided to take legal action against Bee County in order to force it to collect the school district’s property taxes at a lower rate.

Bee County commissioners voted late last month to increase the collection fee from $1.50 per parcel of property to $1.98.

They based that higher rate on the recommendation of a two-person committee appointed to study the issue and come up with a binding dollar amount to which all parties could agree.

BISD, working jointly with the three other school districts, and the county each appointed one person to the committee. The two-person committee made its report to commissioners in late August. Commissioners tabled adopting the recommended higher rate until the other entities could be informed.

Joe B. Montez, one member of the two-person committee, said he and his fellow committee member would present the study to BISD at a later unspecified date.

Commissioners finally adopted the higher rate at a meeting on Monday, Sept. 28.

However, BISD trustees said commissioners voted to increase the rate before the study was reviewed by the school board.

Trustees said they believed the committee should have explained the findings of the study to them before commissioners took a final vote.

Pettus ISD Superintendent Tucker Rackley and Skidmore-Tynan ISD Superintendent Brett Belmarez said they also do not like the fact that commissioners changed the rate arbitrarily.

“What are they going to do next time, raise it to $10?” Rackley asked.

He said he has already sent a letter to the Bee County tax assessor-collector asking her to “honor the resolution adopted by commissioners in July, which called for collecting Pettus ISD’s taxes at $1.50 per parcel.”

Rackley said the school district stands to spend an additional $3,500 at the higher service rate.

Belmarez said S-TISD stands to spend about the same amount.

“It’s not the amount, but where it’s going to come from,” Belmarez said. “We’ve already set our budget. Where are we going to get that money from?”

BISD trustees also complained that the school district’s budget had been filed and tax rate set before commissioners raised the collection fee rate.

Both Rackley and Belmarez plan to attend Friday’s special called meeting at the courthouse. Beeville ISD school chief John Hardwick Jr. will undoubtably attend the meeting as well.

The meeting’s agenda calls for commissioners to go into executive session to discuss “pending litigation regarding collection fees for Bee County school districts.”

However, ”We’ve invited all the taxing entities to send representatives to the meeting,” Precinct 2 Commissioner Susan Stasny said.

Commissioners are scheduled to return to open session after the executive session, at which time they may take action on the item if need be.

Belmarez said Skidmore-Tynan ISD trustees are scheduled to discuss the matter at their board meeting on Monday, Oct. 12. At that time the board may choose to join Beeville ISD in taking legal action against the county if “the issue is not resolved beforehand,” Belmarez explained, inferring that STISD will not take legal action if commissioners rescind the higher fee.

The special meeting is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. Friday.