A divided Texas appeals court has revived the legal path for Hays County’s voter-approved $439 million road bond package, reversing a Travis County district court ruling that had thrown out the November 2024 election over an alleged Texas Open Meetings Act violation. The Fifteenth Court of Appeals ruled June 9, 2026, that the lower court went too far when it declared the county’s election order, the election itself, and the bonds tied to the vote void. The case focused on whether Hays County gave the public enough notice before commissioners approved an order calling the bond election, and whether residents who challenged that notice waited too long to seek relief.

The dispute involves Proposition A, the road bond measure Hays County voters approved in the November 5, 2024, general election. The bond package was designed to fund 31 road projects across a fast-growing county facing rising traffic pressure between Austin and San Antonio. Voters approved the proposal by more than 13,000 votes, with 64,599 ballots cast in favor and 51,258 against. Months later, a Travis County district court ruled that the election had never been lawfully ordered because the public notice for the August 13, 2024, Commissioners Court meeting did not adequately identify the subject of the proposed action.

The appeals court disagreed. The majority said Hays County’s physical and online notices should be read together and, when read together, provided enough information to satisfy the Texas Open Meetings Act. The majority also said the residents who challenged the election waited until early voting had already begun to file their case, making the challenge too late to stop, prevent, or reverse any alleged open meetings violation. A dissenting justice said the majority created a procedural problem by blocking residents from challenging the very declaration Hays County asked for in its later bond-validation case.

The Road Program Behind the Lawsuit

The legal fight grew out of the 2024 Hays County Transportation Program, a road package that was controversial before it reached the ballot. Hays County officials promoted the bond as a way to improve safety and mobility, respond to rapid population growth, address infrastructure needs, continue long-term transportation planning, and support economic development. The county said the proposal would add two cents per $100 valuation to the tax rate, meaning a home valued at $400,000 would see an estimated $80 annual increase. Supporters argued that county roads had not kept pace with growth, especially in areas near Kyle, Buda, San Marcos, Dripping Springs, and the Interstate 35 corridor.

Opposition identified issuing involving transparency, environmental concerns, project selection, and the amount of debt. Some residents and advocacy groups argued that the process moved too quickly and did not give the public enough opportunity to shape the package before it was sent to voters. Environmental concerns focused on projects affecting sensitive land, aquifer recharge areas, creek corridors, and areas where new road capacity could encourage heavier development. Some landowners also raised concerns about eminent domain and whether residents would be forced to give up property for road expansions they opposed.

One of the most controversial components involved the SH 45 SW Extension, a regional connectivity project that would extend into Travis County and connect to Interstate 35. That project had long generated friction because it involved not only Hays County transportation goals, but also Travis County, Austin-area environmental concerns, and broader regional growth politics. The Texas Attorney General’s Office later objected to validation of the part of the bond package involving the SH 45 extension into Travis County. Hays County eventually withdrew that portion from the appeal, meaning the appellate ruling revives the larger bond-validation fight but does not appear to restore that disputed SH 45 piece.

The road bond was not the county’s first large transportation funding push. Hays County voters approved a road bond in 2016 worth $131.4 million for more than 25 projects, and the 2024 proposal was far larger. The new package arrived as Hays County’s population continued climbing, adding pressure to roads that were once rural corridors but now serve subdivisions, schools, commuters, and commercial development.

Earlier Meetings Used Clearer Transportation Language

Before the August 13 meeting at the center of the lawsuit, the Commissioners Court discussed the 2024 Hays County Transportation Program at two earlier meetings. At the July 2, 2024, meeting, the agenda referred to discussion regarding development of the 2024 Hays County Transportation Program, including a presentation of potential projects and discussion of funding strategies. At the August 6, 2024, meeting, the agenda went further and referred to discussion and possible action regarding development and funding of the transportation program, including potential projects, issuance of debt, and bond election procedures.

The August 13 agenda was different. Hays County posted written notice both physically at the Hays County Government Center and online through the county website. Under the miscellaneous section, agenda item K.2 called for discussion and possible action to approve an order calling a November 5, 2024, bond election in Hays County. The item also referenced polling places, early voting, election day voting, administrative duties, a joint election with other political subdivisions, and other matters related to the election.

What the physical posting did not say became the heart of the case. It did not mention the 2024 Hays County Transportation Program, transportation projects, the $439 million amount, or the tax levy tied to repayment. It also did not identify that commissioners were preparing to call an election on 31 road projects, some of which were already controversial. The residents who challenged the election argued that the words “bond election,” standing alone in the physical notice, did not tell the public what commissioners were actually preparing to approve.

The Online Posting Changed the Legal Argument

Hays County’s strongest argument came from the online version of the agenda packet. The appeals court majority said the online posting included the final order calling the road bond election. That order listed the proposed road projects, ballot language, voting times and locations, the $439 million bond amount, and language stating the bonds would fund construction, maintenance, and operation of roads or turnpikes and require a tax sufficient to pay principal and interest. To the majority, those online materials mattered because Texas law at the time required both a courthouse bulletin-board posting and an online posting.

The majority treated the physical and online postings as parts of the same notice system. The court said the Texas Open Meetings Act should be read in light of modern public access to information, where interested residents are more likely to search online than travel to a courthouse bulletin board. It also noted that while the case was being litigated, the Legislature changed the law to allow counties to post notices electronically rather than requiring both physical and online posting. In the majority’s view, the online materials disclosed the information residents claimed was missing, and the court refused to isolate the courthouse posting from the general notice available to the public.

The dissent rejected that approach. Justice Scott K. Field wrote that the statute addresses the notice itself, not supporting documents that may be attached by hyperlink or placed somewhere else in an online packet. He reasoned that if the agenda item is too vague, a person reading it may never know there is a reason to click through the hyperlink in the first place. In his view, the online attachment did not cure the defect because the agenda item still failed to tell the public that the subject was a $439 million road bond package involving 31 transportation projects and a tax impact.

Residents Filed Suit as Voting Began

The timing of the challenge became just as important as the wording of the agenda. The Commissioners Court unanimously approved the order calling the election at the August 13 meeting, and the election was set for November 5, 2024. According to the appeals court, nearly 30 citizens appeared and commented at the August 13 meeting, including two of the residents who later challenged the election. The majority emphasized that those residents knew about the bond and opposed it, yet the lawsuit was not filed until October 21, 2024.

October 21 was the first day of early voting. Four Hays County residents — Leslie Carnes, Jim Camp, Cathy Ramsey, and Gabrielle Moore — sued Hays County, County Judge Ruben Becerra, and Commissioners Debbie Ingalsbe, Michelle Cohen, Morgan Hammer, and Walt Smith. They alleged the August 13 agenda item was misleading and did not give adequate notice of the subject of the proposed bond election. They sought relief under the Texas Open Meetings Act, but the election proceeded as scheduled.

After voters approved Proposition A, the residents amended their case to include an election contest under the Texas Election Code. They asked the court to void the election and prevent Hays County from recognizing or acting on the November 5 road bond vote. The majority said the residents’ delay prevented any practical cure and left the court with a request to undo an election rather than correct an agenda notice before voters cast ballots.

The Bond-Validation Case Added Another Layer

The dispute became more complicated in March 2025, when Hays County filed a separate bond-validation case in Travis County under the Expedited Declaratory Judgment Act. The EDJA allows issuers of public securities, such as counties issuing bonds, to obtain a court ruling on the legality and validity of public debt. Hays County asked the court to declare that the August 13 notice complied with TOMA and that the calling of the election and related election actions were legal and valid. The residents intervened in that case, and the Hays County case and Travis County bond-validation case were consolidated.

To the majority, the residents were trying to use the county’s EDJA case to revive an open meetings complaint they had forfeited by waiting too long. To the dissent, Hays County itself put TOMA compliance at issue by asking the court for a declaration that the August 13 notice complied with the law. Field argued that once the county sought that declaration, the residents had a right to challenge it as a defensive matter in the EDJA case.

The trial court sided with the residents. After a combined hearing and trial, the court granted summary judgment declaring the election order void and the election results void because the vote was “never lawfully ordered.” Three days later, the court denied Hays County’s EDJA petition in its entirety and rejected the county’s request to declare the bonds valid and legal. The judgment was framed as binding and final against the county, the Attorney General, Hays County residents, and others with interests affected by the bonds.

The Appeals Court Majority Says the Election Should Not Have Been Voided

The Fifteenth Court of Appeals reversed the trial court for three core reasons. First, the majority held that Hays County did not violate TOMA because the physical and online postings should be read together. The online posting, according to the court, disclosed the road projects, debt, tax language, ballot language, and election details. Because TOMA is generally satisfied by substantial compliance, the majority concluded the county’s postings were enough.

Second, the majority said that even if the notice had violated TOMA, the residents challenging the election forfeited the complaint by waiting too long. The court emphasized that TOMA provides remedies through mandamus or injunction to stop, prevent, or reverse a violation or threatened violation. The majority reasoned that the residents waited until early voting had already begun, at which point court intervention would have disrupted an active election. The court said people challenging election-related actions must act with maximum speed because late court orders can create electoral confusion.

Third, the majority said the residents could not use the later EDJA case to obtain what TOMA did not allow them to obtain after delay. The court said a TOMA violation makes government action voidable, not automatically void. Because the residents did not act in time to stop or correct the alleged violation before the election began, the majority said the election order became final for purposes of the bond-validation fight.

The majority also stressed the weight of the vote itself. It said setting aside a local ordinance because of an open meetings violation is one thing because officials can redo the process. Setting aside a general election is different because it overrides the decision of tens of thousands of voters. The court said it appeared no Texas court had ever overturned the results of a general election because of a TOMA issue tied not to the election itself, but to an agenda notice posted months earlier about whether to call the election.

The Dissent Says the Majority Asked the Wrong Question

Justice Field’s dissent argued that the majority answered a question no one asked. He said the majority identified the issue as whether residents could revive a TOMA complaint after the election through Hays County’s EDJA case. But Field said Hays County was the party that filed the EDJA case and specifically asked the court to declare that the August 13 notice complied with TOMA. Because the county requested that finding, he said, the residents had the right to argue against it.

Field wrote that “procedure matters” because the EDJA case placed the burden on Hays County to prove it ordered the election in a valid manner. He acknowledged that the residents’ separate election contest was likely filed too late. But he said that did not erase their right to participate in the county’s later bond-validation case and challenge the declaration the county wanted.

The dissent warned that the majority’s approach could create a loophole in future bond cases. Field said that under the majority’s logic, once a bond election occurs, no one can meaningfully challenge whether the election order complied with TOMA unless they had already filed and won a pre-election lawsuit stopping the vote. He said that would be true even when the local government later files an EDJA case asking a court to declare that it complied with TOMA. Field said that result would weaken the role of open meetings law in public securities cases and undermine public trust in local government.

Field described the case as a “procedural mess” that the majority only made messier. He argued that Hays County could not ask for a declaration of TOMA compliance while simultaneously preventing opposing parties from contesting that declaration. He also said the majority ignored the practical reality that bond-validation suits often happen after elections, which means a strict pre-election-only approach could leave almost no room to challenge TOMA compliance in the very case where the county asks a court to validate the bonds.

The Dissent Also Found a TOMA Violation

Field also concluded that the August 13 notice violated the Texas Open Meetings Act. He emphasized that TOMA exists to give the public access to the decision-making process, not just the final decision. Government bodies must give written notice of the date, hour, place, and subject of each meeting. While agenda notices do not need to list every detail or consequence, they must alert interested members of the public to the topic being considered, especially when the matter is controversial or of special public interest.

The dissent compared the Hays County notice to prior Texas cases involving vague agenda language. Field noted that general notice can be enough for ordinary matters, but a higher level of specificity may be required when the subject is unusually important to the public. In this case, he pointed to the size of the bond, the controversy surrounding certain projects, and the fact that the $439 million package would roughly double the county’s debt. He also emphasized that earlier agendas had used transportation-specific language, while the August 13 notice dropped that language at the meeting where commissioners actually called the election.

To Field, the words “bond election” did not tell the public enough. A county can call a bond election for many different purposes, including roads, buildings, parks, jails, drainage, or other public projects. Without the words “roads,” “transportation,” “Transportation Program,” “$439 million,” or similar language, Field said an interested resident would have no clear way to know that commissioners were about to act on a major road bond package. He said the notice did not need to list every project, but it did need to identify the subject of the bonds.

The dissent also dismissed the idea that attendance at the meeting proved the notice was adequate. In his words, a “no harm, no foul” approach might work in basketball, but it is not a legal principle that saves an insufficient public notice.

The Hyperlink Problem

One of the most important issues in the case is how online agenda packets should be treated under TOMA. Hays County’s online agenda used the same general agenda language as the physical notice, but the online item was hyperlinked to additional materials. Those materials included an attachment labeled as the order calling the road bond election. The attachment contained the bond amount, project list, general project locations, ballot proposition language, and draft ballot wording.

The majority treated those materials as part of the notice landscape. Because state law then required both a physical posting and online posting, the majority said the court should read them together. The majority also noted the practical reality that online information is often more accessible to the public than a courthouse bulletin board.

The dissent said that approach gives too much weight to materials outside the actual agenda notice. Field reasoned that an agenda must be clear enough to alert the reader to the subject before the reader decides whether to click, download, or search deeper. If the agenda item itself is too vague, the public may never know that the attachment is worth opening.

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