Hawk Cove, Texas, January 20, 2026. We’re pleased to report that the City’s storage has been working harder than anyone expected. At the Council’s January 20, 2026 regular meeting (Part 3), the Council heard that “there are a lot of city original records that have disappeared” (0:24:50).
The records that remain are being found, too, in a manner of speaking: “finding a lot of records that went back in the back to got destroyed by storage, let’s just put it that way, by storage” (0:25:04).
The search came up during a review of the sewer loan’s payment history. The plan discussed was for City personnel “to dig into the city’s records and see what we can come up with to compare and bank statements,” going back to 2007, “when the city started paying.” As the Council heard, “we’re going back 20 years” (0:24:04 to 0:24:07).
Highlights
- Status: many original City records “have disappeared.”
- Cause, as reported: “by storage.”
- Timeline for sorting it out: “that vetting will take months. Because people have the regular stuff to do for the city as well and it’s a three-day work week” (0:25:12).
- Office hours: “Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday 9 to 5,” as the Council was reminded on June 17, 2025 (0:34:59).
Hawk Cove has a records program on the books for exactly this kind of work. Ordinance No. 06-103, as revised February 10, 2011, notes that state law requires each local government to establish “an active and continuing records management program,” and establishes “a records management retention program” in “the interests of cost-effective and efficient recordkeeping.” Section 2 is titled “Records Declared Public Property.”
On cost-effectiveness, the results speak for themselves. A record that no longer exists costs nothing to store.
We salute everyone taking on twenty years of paper in a three-day week, and we’ll share more as the vetting continues.