New Braunfels councilman recalled over beer rules

Remember the New Braunfels City councilman who was facing a backlash from area outfitters because he wanted to limit alcoholic beverages consumed by people partying on the local rivers? He has been recalled.

From the Express-News:

NEW BRAUNFELS — Voters turned District 6 Councilman Ken Valentine out of office Saturday in a successful recall effort spurred largely by anger over Valentine's advocacy of strict new rules for tourists floating on the Comal and Guadalupe rivers.

...

Valentine was the council's leading proponent of controversial rules aimed at taming the rowdy, drunken behavior that has bothered riverfront residents for years.

He helped persuade a majority of the council to ban Jell-O shots and beer bongs, adopt one of the country's strictest noise ordinances and prohibit alcohol in riverfront parks.

But the measure that caused the biggest backlash limited the size of coolers allowed on the rivers.

Recall proponents said Valentine was preoccupied with river issues and did not pay enough attention to other city problems. They also criticized his style on the council as too confrontational.

New Braunfels gets a lot of visitors. I guess enough people in the town didn't want to see those visitors go elsewhere that they thought it would be better to turn out one of their council representatives. But, Valentine could still run for the seat in the fall, and he might do so. It would be interesting to see if he could get elected again.