On Dec. 2, Lakeway City Council held a special meeting to discuss and prioritize proposed amendments to the Lakeway City Charter put forward by the City Council, staff, and the city’s Charter Review Committee.
The overview
The Charter Review Committee was appointed in March. On Oct. 21, the committee presented their initial suggested amendments to City Council. The Dec. 2 meeting was intended to further clarify those amendments and to prioritize them appropriately.
A summary of the suggested changes to the charter include:
- Items 1, 2, 7: removing certain boards and city positions, including city treasurer, City Building Commission and Board of Ethics
- Item 3: ensuring the city attorney is managed by City Council
- Items 4, 14, 15: clarifying authorities of the city manager
- Item 5: changing the budget contingency fund requirement to a minimum percentage of revenues
- Item 6: transitioning property tax collection to the county tax assessor
- Item 8, 9: title updates to city secretary and court clerk, now referred to as city clerk and court administrator, respectively
- Item 10: removing references to Zoning & Planning Commission regulating development in ETJ
- Item 11: clarifying term limits for council, adding election cycle requirements that specify that a person who has served as mayor for six years must wait one election cycle before again seeking election as a City Council member or mayor
- Item 12: modernizing references to public record availability
- Item 13: updating appointment process and terms for board, commission and committee members
- Item 16: allowing city manager to approve police policy and procedures
- Item 17: removing residency requirement for city manager
At the Dec. 2 meeting, each item was reviewed and discussed by both the City Council and the Charter Review Committee.
Considerable time and discussion was given to items 16, 13, and 7, which concern authorities of the city manager; appointment processes for city boards, commissions and committees; and removal of the Board of Ethics.
Item 16, which shifts approval of police policies and procedures from being a function of the City Council to a function of the city manager, was put forward by the city attorney and Charter Review Committee, City Manager Joseph Molis said.
With this new change, the city manager and police chief would report any of the police department’s policy or procedural changes to the City Council on at least an annual basis.
Mayor Thomas Kilgore argued that the city manager and police chief should be required to seek approval from council for these changes, rather than simply notify council of them.
The committee’s suggested change to the charter would not provide for council oversight of the city’s police department, Kilgore said, but council members Jennifer Szimanski and Kelly Brynteson disagreed with this interpretation.
“I don’t think every time we make a change we need to jump through all these hoops and have council approving every change that we make to police policies,” Szimanski said.
Louis Mastrangelo, chair of the Charter Review Committee, agreed that council oversight was needed but argued that providing notice to council of changes, rather than seeking approval on those changes, provided the council with adequate oversight.
Item 13—which updates appointment processes for city board, commission and committee members so that each council member can elect one member to each committee for a term of one year, subject to approval of the council—was also discussed.
Council member Christopher Forton argued that the council shouldn’t have to approve each member’s individual nominations, and that the individuals selected should simply be appointed to that committee.
“One single council member or even the mayor does not have the power to appoint anybody to any commission or committee,” said Sanjeev Kumar, a member of the Charter Review Committee. “It has to be by council resolution or council ratification. That will always be the case—how you word it ... you guys can decide that.”
Item 7, regarding removal of the Board of Ethics, was put forward due to the Charter Review Committee’s belief that the board did not have purview over much and that its purpose was not being fulfilled.
“I don’t believe in having administrative bodies which do not fulfill a function or cannot fulfill a function,” Kumar said. “That’s why I supported the removal—not that I don’t like ethics, but I just don’t think the Board of Ethics as defined today in the city of Lakeway really serves a purpose.”
In response, Mayor Pro Tem Gretchen Vance brought attention to ethical concerns currently being dealt with on council in neighboring cities, and stated that she did not want similar situations to come up in Lakeway as a result of the board’s dissolution.
The council did not make any decision on the Board of Ethics item or any other items proposed at the meeting.
Ultimately, the council decided to direct City Manager Joseph Molis to work with the city attorney to come up with clarifying language and bring items 1, 2, 7, 13, 16 and 17 back to the council’s January meeting.
What’s next?
All proposed charter amendments will now be decided upon by City Council. A revised version of items 1, 2, 7, 13, 16 and 17 will be brought to the council’s January meeting, and if approved, a special election will be called through city ordinance. The approved charter amendments will appear on a ballot for voter approval May 3, according to city documents.
