Meet the Mayor of a Small Texas Town Who Wants to Limit How Cities Can Govern

In February, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit accusing Dallas officials of failing to adequately fund the city’s police department and violating a voter-approved measure requiring it to hire up to 900 new officers.

“I filed this lawsuit to ensure that the City of Dallas fully funds law enforcement, ensures public safety, and is accountable to its constituents,” Paxton said in a press release demanding that the city adhere to a change to its charter by 2024. “When voters demand more funding to enforce the law, local governments must immediately comply. »

The reason Paxton was able to pursue such action, the reason the Dallas city charter even requires the hiring of more officers, was due in large part to a man named Art Martinez de Vara. A private attorney with a law practice based in Houston and a small South Texas town called Von Ormy, Martinez de Vara was a driving force behind the charter changes that opened Dallas to such a lawsuit in the first place.

Martínez de Vara personal website lists him as state historian, anthropologist, and lawyer, in that order. He is also mayor of Von Ormy, a community of 1,100 residents. But over the past two decades, Martinez de Vara has been much more than that. He made a name for himself in Texas conservative circles as the architect behind the formation of a handful of small towns with austere, if any, local governments.

His promotion of limited government concepts is not unusual in Texas, a state that has long worn that badge with pride. But the so-called “freedom city” experiment, in which communities accept lean government, few or no taxes and few regulations, never developed into a large-scale movement. So in recent years, Martinez de Vara and other advocates of limited government have taken a different approach: They have stepped up their efforts to restrict the ability of local governments to decide how they spend their money and what policies they can adopt.

This is what happened in Dallas.

Two years ago, Martinez de Vara joined a coalition of power players associated with a nonprofit called Dallas HERO, a group funded in part by Republican megadonor and Dallas-area hotelier Monty Bennett.

As HERO’s attorney, Martinez de Vara helped develop and lobby ballot measures that required the city to spend a large portion of its budget on hiring more police officers and dramatically increasing starting salaries, even if it meant cutting other public services. Last year, the city agreed to fund the hiring of 350 additional officers to begin meeting the new requirement, which has no timeline for compliance.

Another measure that Martinez de Vara helped draft made the city more vulnerable to lawsuits from opponents of its actions, by stripping it of its immunity from litigation.

The group says these measures would make Dallas safer and ensure local officials are more accountable to their constituents. But Dallas elected officials, almost all opposed to these measures, say the reality has been detrimental. They are cutting city services and staff to ensure they have the money for new recruits, even if crime continues to fall. And they’ve already had to spend additional money defending themselves against a lawsuit filed by a couple who claimed the city violated its own noise regulations by allowing a basketball court to be built at a church near their home. (A judge rejected the couple’s requests related to the city charter amendment, but that decision is now under appeal.) Paxton’s lawsuit — from which Dallas maintains it still has immunity — now puts a new microscope on the city more than a year after the proposals were adopted.

“Republican officials who run Texas have long sought influence over Democratic officials who run the state’s largest cities, so I’m not surprised that Attorney General Paxton has joined HERO’s attorneys in suing Dallas,” said Cal Jillson, professor of political science at Southern Methodist University.

Dallas is not the only city to suffer the consequences of Martinez de Vara’s efforts.

Earlier in his career, he persuaded five small towns to incorporate. At least two of them still struggle to provide basic services.

In Von Ormy, just outside San Antonio, the city still lacks a sewer system 18 years after its founding, relying entirely on septic tanks. And about 60 miles away, in the town of Kingsbury, Mayor Shirley Nolen, a Martinez de Vara supporter, acknowledged that the low-tax, small-government model was difficult to maintain. “It’s kind of a double-edged sword,” she said. “There are no regulations.”

For the past year, Martinez de Vara has also served as an attorney for the Texas Government Accountability Association, a nonprofit organization. According to former Texas Republican Rep. Matt Krause, previously a member of the association’s board of directors, the organization is funded in part by Bennett, who used his wealth to advocate for the bill’s passage. school vouchers, ending transgender care for young people And disrupt services for the homeless in big cities.

Bennett and Martinez de Vara declined to speak to WFAA for this story. When WFAA went to Von Ormy to interview Martinez de Vara about HERO, he refused to speak, citing pending litigation. Asked about his work in Von Ormy, he replied: “I can’t because it’s all connected. »

Accountability association leaders spent most of 2025 trying to attract, and sometimes force, through petitions, various Texas cities and other government entities to enter into contracts that required them to pay dues to the organization and adhere to a set of prescribed accountability and transparency requirements. If they did not do so, they risked being prosecuted.

Odessa, a Republican stronghold in West Texas, became one of the first cities to join. But the city quickly sued TGAA to get out of the deal, arguing in court papers that the group sought to “unlawfully transfer” local regulatory power to itself and wanted veto power over decisions made by city leaders.

Elected officials should not give up government immunity or their ability to make their own decisions, said Bill Helfand, a municipal law expert and Houston attorney.

“I can’t imagine how any responsible government official or agency could agree that it is not capable of self-governing, literally,” Helfand said. “I would vote against anyone running for elected office who acknowledges they need outside oversight to ensure they are carrying out their elected duties. »

The rise of “Liberty City”

In a career that began nearly two decades ago, Martinez de Vara worked for two state legislators and served as deputy general counsel for the Republican Party of Texas. He also has at least 15 years of experience in local government, including serving as mayor or city attorney in several small towns near San Antonio.

That journey began in 2006, when Martinez de Vara was still a law student at St. Mary’s University and launched a campaign to incorporate Von Ormy, a 2-square-mile community just southwest of San Antonio on Interstate Highway 35. By forming their own local government, the citizens of Von Ormy would have the legal authority to make their own laws.

Martinez de Vara worked with residents who feared the annexation of the sprawling city of San Antonio, presenting the effort as an example of how Texans could resist what he saw as creeping municipal excess. Von Ormy, he said, would form a government that would work to eliminate property taxes while continuing to provide basic services to its residents, and that would offer free business permits and few regulations.

“We were fighting not only for the protection of sewers, potholes and police, but also for self-determination and empowerment of our community,” Martinez de Vara said. wrote in a first-hand account of the incorporation campaign. In May 2008, residents of Von Ormy said yes to the idea of ​​becoming their own town by 117 votes to 16.

Martinez de Vara, who did not grow up in Von Ormy but whose family has lived there for generations, became its first mayor. The city’s incorporation and election attracted statewide attention for the model of government he proposed, a model he said made Von Ormy the “freest little town in Texas,” according to one report. 2017 story in the Texas Observer. He went on to describe the community as “a unique opportunity to experience democracy,” describing it as the kind of place where people can freely set off fireworks and smoke cigars wherever they want.

But cracks soon began to form. Martinez de Vara had pushed the incorporation in part to help finance the construction of a sewer system for the community, whose residents relied on septic tanks. But the sewer service was going to cost millions of dollars and require the city to borrow money. Martinez de Vara opposed any additional debt.

Tensions have escalated over Martinez de Vara’s plan to eliminate property taxes, according to interviews, city council minutes and previous news reports. Some members of the municipal council began to question whether the zero property tax approach was sustainable, perhaps creating an overreliance on sales taxes.

Martinez de Vara ultimately succeeded in eliminating the city’s property taxes. But the move threw the city council into disarray and ultimately led to misdemeanor charges against council members who were accused of violating the Texas Open Meetings Act in an effort to overturn its action. Those charges were later dropped, and Martinez de Vara ultimately decided not to run for another term as mayor amid the turmoil. Council members reinstated the property tax in his absence.

The challenges, however, have not deterred his vision to expand the Liberty Cities model. Over the years, he helped various communities, to some extent, incorporate themselves and eventually began working to enshrine the Liberty Cities model into law.

In doing so, Martinez de Vara told participants during a January 2015 Forum sponsored by the influential conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation, would prevent future elected leaders from abandoning the model, for example by raising taxes. The group supported such legislation in a guidance note calling the Liberty City model “a new concept of self-government.”

Martinez de Vara had by then become chief of staff to state Sen. Konni Burton, a Republican who represented parts of North Texas west of Dallas and was a leader in one of the founding chapters of the Tea Party. In February 2015, Burton filed an invoice it would prohibit Liberty City leaders from passing a property tax without the approval of at least 60 percent of voters, require voter approval before incurring public debt, and allow a citizens’ bill of rights to “expressly limit” the city’s authority. The bill was not adopted. Burton, who left office in 2019, declined to speak to WFAA for this story.

The idea behind the Liberty City movement in Texas, particularly for small rural towns, was to promote the incorporation of basic, low-cost public services. But in practice, the model is unproven, said Jillson, a political science professor at SMU.

“A few cities, like Von Ormy, tried it, but the results were disappointing,” Jillson said. “It turns out that meaningful public services cost money, so mayors and city councils found themselves fighting over tax cuts and poor services until everyone gave up. »

More than a decade after its founding in 2015, the town of Kingsbury, which Martinez de Vara helped form, has just one paid employee. Everything else is run by volunteers. “We don’t have water or sewer. We don’t have trash collection,” said Nolen, the city’s longtime mayor. “There are all very self-sufficient farmers and ranchers here. We don’t want a property tax.”

However, the Liberty Cities model, characterized by fewer regulations, also brought the challenge of managing a landfill that sat just outside the small city’s boundaries. Some hesitated when Nolen started talking about adopting zoning rules, she said.

“People say, ‘Well, I don’t want someone telling me what to do on my own property,’ and I’m like, ‘Me neither.’ However, I don’t want Joe Bob’s linerless battery disposal system coming next to me,” she said.

Sixty miles away, in Von Ormy, two truck stops account for a significant portion of the town’s revenue. Residents and businesses still rely on septic tanks, and residents say large businesses are reluctant to locate there because of the lack of sewer service.

“I’m sure you’ve looked around,” said Alex Quintanilla, a former city commissioner. “There’s nothing here. What is it?”

A new tactic, an uncertain future

Martinez de Vara’s vision for a city of freedom, and his ability to realize it, will once again be tested. Von Ormy re-elected him as mayor last year, a few months after the Dallas HERO initiatives were passed.

Even as he resumed the role of city leader, Martinez de Vara and his allies, through the Texas Government Accountability Association, continued their efforts to dictate how other cities make budgetary and policy decisions.

The TGAA presented itself as an initiative to help local governments adopt stronger ethics and transparency. But city officials who met with the new organization questioned that goal. Some argued that the organization’s true goal was to find a way to control cities, such as what happened with Dallas HERO in 2024.

Dallas HERO’s ties to TGAA extend beyond the related philosophies and legal services of Martinez, who also served as TGAA’s attorney. The man who manages TGAA’s finances is the accounting director of a hotel company founded by Bennett, the owner of the company that provided financial support for the Dallas HERO proposals. Dallas HERO and TGAA share a mailing address, according to the 990 organizations’ 2024 tax forms. The same mailing address is also listed in the 2024 IRS filing of Dallas Express Media, the parent company of the conservative online site Dallas Express, of which Bennett is the publisher. The website published several articles defending Dallas HERO and lambasting city leaders who opposed it. Similarly, the site criticized one community’s city council members for refusing to join the TGAA.

Krause, a former state representative and former TGAA board member, said he has known Bennett and Martinez de Vara for years through his work in conservative politics. As with HERO, he said, Bennett financially supports the accountability association.

“When I found out I was going to work with Art again on TGAA, I was really excited,” Krause said. “He’s just a brilliant guy. It doesn’t surprise me that he’s someone that Monty would have trusted and respected to be sort of the final voice on this stuff.”

The TGAA’s model has been to require cities to conduct frequent audits and, typically, to tie future guidance to an externally drafted regulation that limits local officials’ discretion, critics say. If a member entity is accused of violating the agreement, the TGAA requires it to waive government immunity from citizen lawsuits.

TGAA appealed to at least two of the towns Martinez de Vara helped form, including Kingsbury, where he still resides. city ​​attorney. The city was the first to join.

The group also contacted Providence Village, a planned community in North Texas that Martinez de Vara had contributed to integrating more than a decade earlier. City leaders refused. TGAA representatives launched a door-to-door campaign in the small town. They sought to gather signatures to “force the city to hold and pay for, at taxpayer expense, an election to add a provision to our city charter requiring membership in the TGAA,” Mayor Linda Inman said. posted on Facebook last June.

Inman, who did not respond to repeated requests for comment, wrote on Facebook that TGAA was using a recruitment strategy “that relies on buzzwords and scare tactics to mislead voters into handing over their tax dollars to a third-party, non-public entity that has no interest in the cities they target.”

In the end, only Kingsbury and Odessa, town of 124,000 peoplejoined the organization. Von Ormy officials considered joining but took no action.

Odessa signed on at the request of its conservative city manager, John Beckmeyer, former head of the state Republican Party. Beckmeyer did not return messages seeking comment for this story.

After new members of the municipal council have been elected in Odessa in November 2024, the city filed a lawsuit to withdraw from the agreement. The terms of the contract were demanding: After a grace period, Odessa would have to pay about $24,000 a year to maintain its membership, an amount that could increase and would have no cap. The contract had no end date. And the only way the city could get out of the deal was to hold citywide elections.

Layne Rouse, an attorney representing Odessa in the case, said TGAA is an example of “dark money controlling politics through a backdoor contract” because its donors are not public.

In December, a judge declared Odessa’s TGAA contract “void and unenforceable.” The association appealed the decision but, on February 12, withdrew its appeal without explanation.

TGAA officials did not respond to questions about the lawsuit or its efforts to recruit cities.

The future of TGAA and the role of Martinez de Vara within the group now appear up in the air. Besides withdrawing its appeal against the Odessa trial, the group has not held a meeting since December. Recent efforts to contact TGAA employees and board members have resulted in returned emails.

But Martinez de Vara remains busy. When Paxton, the state attorney general, filed a lawsuit in February against Dallas, a post office box associated with Martinez de Vara’s law firm in Von Ormy was listed on the petition. He represents two Dallas residents in the lawsuit who say they were harmed by the city’s failure to increase its police force.

He told the Dallas Morning News that Dallas HERO had “no formal role in the litigation” but confirmed he remained counsel.

“I coordinated with the Attorney General’s office. They needed someone to represent the private plaintiffs and I agreed to do so,” Martinez de Vara said. “I was a logical person to go to.”