- In the City of Bastrop, three City Council members can operate as a block, enabling them to hold meetings and possibly coordinate votes in private prior to public meetings.
- This practice is a transparency nightmare. However, a flaw in the city charter (the city’s constitution) seems to allow this block to skirt the Texas Open Meetings Act (TOMA).
- TOMA requires official City business to be open to the public when a quorum is present.
- The City Charter defines the City Council as the Mayor and the 5 city council members. The City Charter also defines the City Council as the Mayor and the 5 city council members.
- The Mayor, under the Charter, has no vote other than in ties.
- So under this provision of the current City Charter, three of the five voting members of the City Council can meet and plan majority votes on issues in secret.
- Three of the five voting members of the City Council can meet with the City Manager and other staff prior to publicly noticed open meetings.
- The remedy is to change the quorum to three (3). Then, only 2 voting members, not a majority, could meet in advance.
- This is the essence of the Bastrop Open Government Amendment that we want to go to the voters in November for their up or down vote.
- Other Charter Amendments will likely be on the November ballot.
- The last day for the Council to place any amendment on the ballot is August 13th.