The overview
In February 2024, Lakeway City Council formed a Charter Review Committee. That committee’s responsibility was to collaborate with both the city manager and city attorney to put forward recommendations for city charter amendments. Usually, those recommendations are based on updates to state law or city policy and changes in the local environment, Lakeway City Manager Joseph Molis said.
Recommendations put forward by the Charter Review Committee were first presented to Lakeway City Council on Oct. 21. Following this, a special meeting was held Dec. 2 to determine which of the 17 recommended amendments should move forward and appear on the May ballot. Six amendments were selected, and with ballot language now finalized, these amendments will appear on the May ballot as propositions, B-G.
The city is currently in compliance with state law, and none of these amendments are strictly necessary—they simply reflect changes that the city would like to make, Mayor Thomas Kilgore said at council’s Dec. 2 meeting.
The details
Summarized descriptions of each proposition on the ballot follows:
Proposition A: Reauthorizes a local sales tax, at the rate of 0.25%, to fund road maintenance projects in the city.
The road tax must be reauthorized by voters every four years, and has been in place in Lakeway since 2001, according to city documents. The funds apply mostly to repaving projects and spot repairs on municipal streets, Molis said.
Proposition B: Revises residency requirements for the city manager, requiring that the individual occupying this position reside within the boundaries of Lake Travis ISD, rather than within Lakeway’s city limits.
The Charter Review Committee believed that this amendment was needed due to current policies hampering the city’s ability to hire qualified candidates, Charter Review Committee member Sanjeev Kumar said at the council’s Dec. 2 meeting.
Proposition C: Eliminates the city treasurer role, and allows the finance director and finance department to assume that position’s duties.
This amendment was put forward to account for the fact that the job functions of the city treasurer are currently being met by other departments, Kilgore said.
Proposition D: Revises the approval process for police department policies and procedures to require approval from the city manager rather than City Council, with the city manager reporting any new changes to council within 10 days of approval.
This amendment was put forward by the city attorney and Charter Review Committee, and aims to avoid inefficiencies caused by requiring the city’s police chief to report every change in policy to council.
Proposition E: Standardizes appointments of individuals to boards and commissions in such a way that each City Council member will appoint one individual to each board or commission for a term of one year, with the mayor’s appointee serving as the chair of each board or commission.
This amendment was recommended by the Charter Review Committee in order to simplify board and commission appointments.
Proposition F: Eliminates the city’s Board of Ethics while maintaining that the city must still adopt a city ethics ordinance.
This amendment was put forward due to the Charter Review Committee’s belief that the board does not currently have a wide scope of influence on city matters and that its purpose is not being fulfilled.
Proposition G: Eliminates the City Building Commission, or CBC, with duties of that commission being assigned either to the city’s Zoning and Planning Commission, Board of Adjustment, or Building and Development Services director.
This amendment was recommended by Molis. Given developments in city policy since the CBC’s founding, Molis suggested the board could be removed if its narrow scope of duties were transferred to other boards and commissions.
What they’re saying
The removal of the city treasurer role was previously put before voters and failed, Charter Review Committee Chair Louis Mastrangelo said. This year, council decided to place it on the ballot again, with language specifying that the duties of that position would be assumed by other city officials.
As for eliminating the CBC, Molis stated that this commission may no longer be needed considering how the city has developed since its formation.
“When CBC was initially founded, Lakeway was a much smaller community, and state laws allowed intense regulation of physical development of the city,” Molis said. “State law and policies of the city have changed dramatically since then, and a lot of the functions of the CBC are either redundant or have been amended through the code so they’re not necessary anymore.”
For Proposition D, Lakeway City Attorney Cobby Caputo shared that shifting authorization of police policies to the city manager, rather than City Council, reflects a setup seen in many other municipalities.
“It’s something that I’ve seen in a lot of cities and other governmental bodies that have police departments—that it’s an administrative function to appoint them, the elected body can approve them, and the review of the rules is something that’s done at an administrative level with a report to the governing body,” Caputo said.
In reference to the Board of Ethics removal, Kumar shared that he did not believe the board was necessary.
“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.”
What’s next?
The city is currently working on an educational campaign to share information with voters regarding the proposed amendments via explanatory videos, Molis said.
The full text of each amendment can be found on Lakeway’s website.
