Citing what he called “an unconstitutional, ridiculous interpretation of the [Bee Cave city] charter,” Bill Aleshire, the attorney for City Council Member Bill Goodwin, sent a letter to council stating neither he nor Goodwin will attend a June 17 meeting intended largely for Goodwin to respond to allegations that he violated the city’s charter.
The June 15 letter from Aleshire is in response to a report released by the city June 9, in which attorney Martha Dickie stated Goodwin violated the Bee Cave Home Rule Charter by "impermissibly giving orders to subordinates, and impermissibly pressuring subordinates of the city manager to communicate information to Goodwin before that information was made known to the city manager."
Council originally initiated the investigation into Goodwin on May 18, and following the executive session of the June 9 meeting, voted to submit Dickie's report to Goodwin and allow for his response June 17.
Dickie interviewed nine people as part of the investigation, including Mayor Kara King, Council Member Andrea Willott, City Manager Clint Garza and police Chief Gary Miller.
"It is apparent that Goodwin has regularly involved himself in many of the minute details of the administration of the business of the City," the report states. "This pattern of conduct from Goodwin may well be a leftover from the days before the City became a Home Rule City by adopting the Charter in 2013. However, the Charter makes clear that the administrative tasks in which Goodwin has involved himself are to be carried out by the City Manager only. Moreover, the Charter specifically and explicitly prohibits Goodwin from involving himself in these administrative tasks."
City Manager Clint Garza said June 15 despite Aleshire’s request to cancel the meeting June 17, city officials cannot legally do that since it has already been publicly posted.
Council may elect to table the agenda items or not take action with regard to Goodwin’s removal from office, among other options, Garza said, but he added he does not know what may happen during the meeting.
Bee Cave Council Member Jon Cobb said June 15 that while he feels Goodwin did violate the city charter, he is not sure if there are enough votes to remove him from office.
Aleshire’s letter to council makes several arguments against the investigation into Goodwin, including one that has been brought up in recent council meetings regarding whether a council member may be subject to investigation and possible removal for actions committed during a previous term of office.
“Therefore, if Council were to vote for removal under these facts, it would be an unconstitutional, and perhaps ultra vires, act subject to a court injunction to stop,” Aleshire’s letter states. “Such an interpretation of Charter § 3.03(C) is so ridiculous and unreasonable, no person would have been given fair notice by reading that Charter language that it would be applied in such an unprecedented, retroactive fashion, basically barring CM Goodwin from ever holding office in Bee Cave again.”
The letter goes on to assert that council should reject the interpretation of the charter that if a newly elected member of council ever violated the charter at any point, no matter how long ago, that member would forfeit the office to which he or she was just elected.
Cobb said June 15 that while ambiguities pertaining to a council member’s removal from office could be read into the charter, specifically with regard to actions alleged to have been committed during a previous term of office, the findings in Dickie’s investigation largely refer to actions that came to light after the deadline for another candidate to run against Goodwin had passed but prior to his May 12 swearing in to a new term.
