A divided Bryan city council decides to not consider a Brazos County health district (BCHD) request to enact an ordinance regulating public swimming pools.
A proposed ordinance drafted by the health district was discussed at Tuesday’s (February 18) council workshop meeting.
The original web story stated that no one from the health district attended the meeting. A Facebook post in the comment section stated “four members of the health district were present at the Bryan City Council Workshop meeting where they thought they would present information on the ordinance: the director of the Health District, the head of environmental health and two staff members.”
Councilman Paul Torres said he was asked by an unidentified representative of the health district to present the request.
Torres, Ray Arrington, and James Edge were interested in hearing from health district representatives.
Edge, who represents the city on the BCHD board, said the board discussed the ordinance at length several times. Edge said public safety and public health is a responsibility of the city and the county. He also said “We don’t have the answers to the specifics to allow us to act on this at this time.”
One of four councilmembers who did not want a health district presentation, Marca Ewers-Shurtleff, said “based on the brief amount of information we have”, “if an industry has been self-regulated and that has been successful, I don’t understand why the government needs to insert themselves.”
Shurtleff pointed out what she described as “troubling language” in the ordinance (Section 2.2a) that “The regulatory authority may, without warning, notice, or hearing suspend any permit to operate a public swimming pool or spa”. She considered that as “a lot of overreach here that I’m very uncomfortable with”.
Shurtleff added that “I still like that old adage ‘The scariest words in the English language is we’re from the government and we’re here to help.'”
Councilman Jared Salvato said he was opposed to the city getting involved in what was considered a county matter. He also questioned why BCHD did not include private swimming pools in their proposed ordinance. And Salvato said “the court of public opinion is far superior than any government oversight. In the world we live in today with social media” “if a commercial pool operator is not taking care of their equipment or sanitary issues, they’ll be out of business quicker than any type of regulatory business”.
Salvato also asked Torres, who Salvato identified as a health district employee, for more information regarding five cases of pool related water borne illnesses that were identified by the health district. Shurtleff added “we’re not sure with any kind of clarity if those have been traced to one pool, multiple pools”.
When Torres brought up Salvato’s swim school business, Salvato told Torres “It’s not just my business, it’s everybody that has a business related to this.” “We’ve been around (the city) since 1871 and we have five cases of what could possibly be a water borne illness. I don’t understand the budget constraints that the county might have to go out hire new CPO’s and then they’re talking about fees that are going to be assessed for all these different companies (public pool owners) when they’re already self-monitoring.”
Mayor Bobby Gutierrez added “This is a current time where we’re trying to do away with as much regulation. If the county health department wants to do this, why do we have to be involved?” Torres said “What I understand is the ordinance is to be able to enforce the ones that are not doing it properly, the ones that are not taking care of their pools and actually having the correct pH, the correct facilities”.
Shurtleff, Salvato, and mayor Bobby Gutierrez were joined by councilman Kevin Boriskie and city manager Kean Register in opposing the proposed ordinance.
Register, who expected the proposed ordinance would also apply to city pools, said “We take the cleanliness of our pools very important because there are two things that loom over our head with pools. One is a lawsuit if someone gets sick because of it. And two is the bad PR (public relations) that we’re going to get for the same reason. So those two things keep us on top of our act.”
The council was told out of 22 health districts in the state, Brazos County is one of four that does not regulate public pools.
After the council discussion, a Brazos County spokeswoman told WTAW News that the health district is not just a county operation. The spokeswoman says BCHD is equally funded by both cities and the county. Additionally, any BCHD decisions are health district decisions and not just county decisions.
Click below to hear comments from the February 18, 2025 Bryan city council meeting: