How we got here
During a Feb. 11 City Council meeting a motion to remove and terminate Hyde failed in a split vote. Mayor Mark Allen and council members Randy Roberts, Jeff McGlothin and Robert Mahoney were the four dissenting votes.
Council members Joel Hicks, Katie Cunningham and Norma Sanchez-Stephens argued that the mayor could not vote per the city's charter, but the mayor said he could vote on all matters subject to the city attorney. Following the motion, the dais directed its city manager to hire a third-party attorney to review and interpret the city charter to see if the mayor was able to vote on matters related to the city attorney, according to previous reporting by Community Impact.
What happened
Following the council's motion to waive its attorney-client privileges, Community Impact reached out to the city to get a copy of the third party legal opinion requested by council in February.
In its opinion, the third party law firm—Messer Fort—found that the mayor could not vote on any matter including removal of the city attorney absent a tie vote.
Following Hyde's termination, the dais appointed the Denton Navarro Rodriguez Bernal Santee & Zech law firm.
What the council is saying
Sanchez-Stephens said the cost of the third party interpretation could have been avoided, and that the situation was not an attempt of good governance.
"Yet, the steadfastness of those on council to stand with our [c]harter and the [precedents] set by many councils before was that of an unwavering commitment toward good governance and determination to be the voice by the vote for the people of Cibolo," she said in a Facebook post.
In another Facebook post, Cunningham thanked city staff for their hard work.
"I am very hopeful that moving forward we can get the Charter Review, Unified Development Code (UDC) update and all of our other projects done timely and without incident," Cunningham said.
What's next
The city of Cibolo has since published a Request for Proposals for attorney services.
