The Council-created City of Bastrop Charter Commission met yesterday (July 29). The City Council, when creating this Commission, required a super-majority (10 out of 13) to vote in favor of any proposed changes to the Charter. The Commission is not empowered to place changes on the ballot for voter approval. The Commission is only empowered to recommend changes to the City Council. Even in the face of super-majority recommendations, the City Council can nix any recommendation it doesn’t like.
Will the City Council vote to support the super-majority recommendations of their own duly created Charter Commission, or will they vote against restoring transparency and integrity to City business?
The current charter sets a quorum at 4 for all business, allowing a voting majority of 3 City Council members to meet in private.
The Charter Commission voted 11 – 2 to set the City Council quorum at four for meetings, and three for all other city business. The two no votes came from lawyer Joe Grady Tuck and his law partner Chris Kirby.
The proposed change would prevent a voting majority from meeting outside the eyes of the public. It would prevent them from meeting in advance and determining how they were going to vote prior to a meeting, prior to even hearing from the public on an issue. It would force transparency and go a long way to restoring integrity to City business.
The Council’s next meeting is August 13. They must vote at that meeting, or call a special meeting to place any Charter Commission recommended changes on the November ballot for voter approval. The Council must act by August 19 at the latest.
Of course, they can vote no, refusing to follow the recommendations of their own appointees. Email the City Council members now supporting this Charter recommendation to restore transparency and integrity to City business.
Come out to tonight’s City Council meeting. 6:30. Come early. Once seats are filled, no one else is allowed in.
Read Councilwoman Fossler’s flyer below. https://bastropbog.com/…/uploads/2024/07/Fossler-Flyer.pdf
Sign up to speak or share your thoughts. https://www.cityofbastrop.org/page/cc.request_to_speak Item 9O, 9P, Prop 5, page 508 on the agenda is about reducing quorum so a voting majority can’t meet in private.
In the City of Bastrop, they’re getting worse.
=> At the June 11 City Council meeting, three members of the City Council, led by Cynthia Meyer, John Kirkland and Kevin Plunkett succeeded in undermining the Mayor’s authority to appoint the volunteer members to the City Charter Revision Commission. They included Council-recommended names by reference in an ordinance. Under the City Charter, the Mayor has no veto power.
=> The City Charter specifies “The Mayor shall appoint members to all City boards and commissions, subject to confirmation by the Council.” That means the Mayor must first appoint someone, and then the City Council must concur in that appointment. It does not mean the City Council can appoint people by resolution or by ordinance, and the Mayor must concur.
=> They forced three of their appointees onto the Commission: developer attorneys Joe Grady Tuck and Chris Kirby, and former City Council Member Jimmy Crouch, all leading supporters of the Gateway Project – the project on the hill behind Buc’cees — whose zoning change had been defeated two weeks earlier.
=> Joe Grady Tuck had spoken at the April 29, 2024 special meeting in support of stripping Mayor Nelson of many of his duties under the City Charter. (See agenda item 4D proposed by Mayor Pro Tem John Kirkland. https://mccmeetings.blob.core.usgovcloudapi.net/bastroptx-pubu/MEET-Packet-3d949e03e2314f09b5f8dcdd064dc558.pdf Click 4D for specific minutes and list of modifications to the duties of the Mayor.) He spoke in favor of the Gateway Project and was seen at the Ethics Commission meeting conferring with the attorney for Council member John Kirkland.
=> Jimmy Crouch was just defeated by the voters and lost his City Council seat. He had voted in favor of the Gateway Project.
=> Chris Kirby is employed by the Tuck Law Group. He spoke in favor of the Gateway Project.
=> At the June 25 City Council meeting, Council Members Meyer, Kirkland and Plunkett employed a surprise maneuver to require the all-volunteer citizen Charter Revision Commission of 13 members to have a ¾ super-majority before they could simply recommend changes to the Council to place charter amendments on the November ballot. This modification was upon second reading and is a significant change to the ordinance. Notwithstanding no advance public notice of this modification, it was allowed to stand. Two readings of ordinances are required so the public has an opportunity to review any proposed ordinance prior to adoption.
=> This now allows only three people (guess who!) to stop any recommendations to the Council they don’t like. (See minutes on Ordinance 2024-18, pages 46-49 https://mccmeetings.blob.core.usgovcloudapi.net/bastroptx-pubu/MEET-Packet-db6d6f7eaa1e40598ddc7e121b468b5d.pdf)
=> At the July 9 City Council meeting, Council Member Cynthia Meyer casually mentioned she attends regular private meetings with two other members of the Council (Kirkland and Plunkett), after which she proceeded with Kirkland and Plunkett to block a motion that would put an end to their misdeeds. (Minutes are on the July 23 agenda for approval.)
Call or email Council Members Meyer, Kirkland, and Plunkett to urge them to end their private meetings, to discuss public business in public, and to place the Bastrop Open Government Amendment on the November ballot.
You can also thank Council members Kerry Fossler, Cheryl Lee and Mayor Lyle Nelson for their support for this amendment.
The Council has until August 13th to do the right thing: voting to put this amendment on your November 5 ballot.
- 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.