Here some of my thoughts, questions, and observations I here submit to the Charter Review Committee for their consideration and discussion:
Topic One: Council interactions, and any limits thereupon, with staff
Question: What, if any, should be the limitations or controls placed on individual council members in interacting with the CM, his/her direct staff, and all city employees?
This was debated in extensive detail last year when council voted 4-2 to approve ordinance 24-09-19-03 adding section 1.310, “Procedures for Personnel Interaction” to the code of ordinances. Those in the majority felt that some rules and limits were needed and appropriate. Those in the minority assert that the charter imposes no limits and therefore opposed this ordinance
Notes:
- (1.02) Lago Vista is a Council-Manager form of government. In 2018, the charter was modified to remove the title of executive from the mayor and apply it to the city manager. Thereby "weakening" the mayor to be more equivalent in authority to all council members.
- (3.06) details rules for the Mayor in interactions with city staff
Note that there is no similar section in Article III defining the rules for Individual Council members interaction with City staff
- Section (3.23) Prohibitions and section (4.01) City Manager seem to conflict in rights granted to individual council members.
(3.23) “The individual Council members shall have the right…”
(4.01) [in the paragraph just before section 4.02] says “Except for the purposes of inquiries and investigations…”
Topic two: (3.08) Removal from Office:
The process and options for dealing with Council member (or mayor) charter violations could be cleaned up
- “The council may remove… for any of the following reasons” gives significant discretion to Council (it does not say “shall remove”)
- Initial consideration… “for the sole purpose of the Council deciding if the complaint alleges a violation that is grounds for removal”
(this says “is grounds for”, not “that may be grounds for”)
- “...may in the discretion of the Council, include a lesser penalty of censure and/or fine”.
Council was advised during recent charter violation proceedings that a fine was not allowed under state law, so the options allowed are (a) removal, or (b) censure. It has been suggested by me and others that language allowing other options between these extremes, or more discretion in selecting a penalty by council is needed.
Topic three: (3.16) Procedure to Enact Legsliation:
- (3.16, Para 2) “…shall be authenticated by the signature of the mayor, or in the absence of the mayor, by the Mayor Pro-tem and the City Secretary”
This came up during the recent charter violation deliberations. The mayor refused to sign a resolution but was not absent. This language prevented the M-PT from signing it. Perhaps this should read: “shall be authenticated by the signature of the mayor, or by the Mayor Pro-tem and the City Secretary”
Topic four: (3.09) Filling vacancies. [Paragraph 1]
This paragraph deals with small numbers of vacancies, in which there still exists a quorum of elected council members. It now says:
- If there is one opening, appoint someone within 30 days
- If there are two or more openings, don’t appoint anyone. Instead, within 30 days, call for a special election. But, appointments may be made if… the next general City election is less than 180 days away “or” if there is no uniform election date prior to the next general election (should this be “and”?)
More logical and simple language would be good. e.g. Appoint to fill all vacancies within 30 days, appointments are valid until the next opportunity to fill by election, either in the next general election or a sooner uniform election date.
Topic five: (3.09) Filling vacancies. [Paragraph 2]
This paragraph deals with large numbers of vacancies, in which there does not exist a quorum of elected council members. The language here is confusing, but I believe the intent is as follows:
- If there exists less than a quorum of Council (fewer than four elected or appointed council members), then appointments shall be made to create a temporary council of five members using the following process until a council of five members is formed.
- The chair of the Planning and Zoning Commission shall be appointed
- The chair of the Board of Adjustment shall be appointed
- These two members, along with any remaining council members shall appoint further members as needed to create a temporary council of five members, by selecting from the chairpersons of any standing City board, committee, or commission.
- The temporary Council shall call for an election to fill all City Council vacancies and replace all appointees at the first opportunity of a general or uniform election.
Topic six: (Article V) Election topics
- Should council seats all remain “at-large” vs “geographical” ?
Historically there have been many cases of council members running unopposed to some of the at-large Place seats. Is Lago Vista large enough to consistently support any geographical based seats? How would they be defined? (North/South of Dawn is the current partitioning for roadway impact fees. No other city partitioning is currently defined).
- Should Elections continue to be by individual places vs all candidates run equally for City Council, and those receiving the most votes are elected.
As is, incumbents must run in the same seat, other candidates declare a place they are running for (effectively running against an individual). We have seen elections with multiple candidates for one seat and unopposed candidates for other seats. Would it be better to simply take the top 3 candidates across all seats?
- Replacing a council seat vacated due to a council member filing to run for mayor.
Problem statement / Observations:
Council members filing to run for mayor must resign their council seat, but not until after the election takes place. Mayors are elected in odd numbered years. If a council member in an odd place number seat resigns to run for mayor, their (odd) place seat is already on that same ballot. However, if a council member in an even place number seat resigns to run for mayor, their (even) place seat will not be on that same ballot, and the timing does not allow it to be added after the seat is vacated. Thus incumbent odd place council members choosing to run for mayor will be replaced by election, but even place council members choosing to run for mayor will be replaced by appointment for a full year until the next general election.
