Open Meetings
Lawsuit Alleges Open Meetings Violation
Lawsuit Alleges Open Meetings Violation
Yet another instance of agenda posting
not sufficiently detailed for public notice
by Ken Martin
© The Austin Bulldog 2017
Posted Tuesday June 6, 2017 3:00pm
Potential Plaintiff to City of Austin: Like to settle instead of getting sued?
City to Plaintiff: No thank you.
The plaintiff in the latest lawsuit against the City of Austin made a settlement offer before filing the litigation and gave the City 45 days to accept one of two options: (1) Cancel the City Council’s approval given November 10, 2016, and repost with proper notice of the proposed waivers of sections of two city ordinances. Or (2) Accept an Agreed Judgment.
By not responding to the offer, the City will have to face off in court.
The lawsuit, Lake Austin Collective Inc. v. City of Austin (Cause No. D-1-GN-17-002447) was filed in Travis County District Court yesterday by Austin attorney Bill Aleshire of Aleshire Law PC.
City Attorney Anne Morgan did not respond to a request for comment about the lawsuit and instead funneled a written statement through a City spokesperson: “The City of Austin appreciates having had the opportunity to review the issue before the plaintiffs filed the lawsuit, but we disagree with Mr. Aleshire’s interpretation of the Texas Open Meetings Act.
“We believe the City gave appropriate public notice about the subject matter to be discussed. In fact, the record shows that this issue had a robust public engagement process,” the statement said.
Aleshire disagrees.
“The City Attorney said the same thing about the Pilot Knob open meetings lawsuit and lost. The ‘robust’ discussion of environmental waiver the City claims occurred did not start with or ever involve the boards and commissions before the Council let the Champion developer slip those waivers (of the Lake Austin Watershed Ordinance and Hill Country Roadway Ordinances) in on third reading. Part of the robust engagement process was just trying to find out what kind of backroom deal the developer and the Council majority was cooking up.”
Shade On Record About Private Meetings
On the Record About Private Meetings
Question and Answer Interviews
by The Austin Bulldog
As reported by The Austin Bulldog January 25, County Attorney David Escamilla is reviewing a complaint about allegations that the Austin City Council may have violated the Texas Open Meetings Act.
This is a serious matter and the city is taking it seriously. In lieu of the private meetings that for years have been held among the mayor and council members to discuss items on the Thursday council meeting agendas, the council will now hold work sessions to discuss the agenda in posted open meetings. The first work session was held this morning. No action will be taken during work sessions and no citizen participation will be allowed. As always, citizens will be permitted to address the agenda items during the Thursday council meeting.
If the mayor and council members should be found to have in fact violated the Act, they may be subject to criminal prosecution under Section 551.143 of the Government Code, a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not less than $100 or more than $500; confinement in the county jail for not less than one month or more than six months; or both the fine and confinement.
The Austin Bulldog is publishing selected text excerpts from each of the exclusive interviews conducted with the council members before breaking the story. The complete copyrighted MP3 audio file for each interview is linked at the bottom of each article for easy access. You may listen to these recordings to gain a better understanding of the published excepts within the context of the complete interview.
Council Member Randi Shade was interviewed in her office at City Hall on Monday, January 24, 2011. The recording runs 42 minutes 33 seconds.
The Austin Bulldog:
As I said in my e-mail requesting the interview, I’m developing a story about the working relationships among the mayor and the council members and how the city council works together to develop public policies. One thing that stands out in my mind is that four members, including you, keep your calendars online. So, you’re being pretty transparent. You mentioned at your event the other night that you thought you were the first one (to post your calendars online).
Randi Shade:
Oh yeah, I was. ...
The Austin Bulldog:
... I got you now. Okay. ... Something that caught my eye in the published calendars is it indicates the mayor and the council members spend considerable time with each other meeting, typically in the days right before a council meeting. It seems all of you are making a big effort to do that. So, I was wondering, what sort of things do you discuss in these meetings?
Riley On the Record About Private Meetings
On the Record About Private Meetings
Third in a Series of Recorded
Question and Answer Interviews
© The Austin Bulldog 2011
As reported by The Austin Bulldog January 25, County Attorney David Escamilla is reviewing a complaint about allegations that the Austin City Council may have violated the Texas Open Meetings Act.
This is a serious matter and the city is taking it seriously. Mayor Lee Leffingwell has canceled the private meetings he has for years been holding with council members and has said that council work sessions will be held in open meetings.
If the mayor and council members should be found to have in fact violated the Act, they may be subject to criminal prosecution under Section 551.143 of the Government Code, a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not less than $100 or more than $500; confinement in the county jail for not less than one month or more than six months; or both the fine and confinement.
The Austin Bulldog is publishing selected text excerpts from each of the exclusive interviews conducted with the council members before breaking the story. The complete copyrighted MP3 audio file for each interview is linked at the bottom of each article for easy access. You may listen to these recordings to gain a better understanding of the published excepts within the context of the complete interview.
Council Member Chris Riley was interviewed in his home on Monday, January 24, 2011. The recording runs 40 minutes 13 seconds. (The interview was interrupted more than once by a man doing work for Riley.)
The Austin Bulldog:
As I said in the e-mail requesting the interview, I’m developing a story about the working relationships between the mayor and council members and the city manager in connection with how the city council works together to develop public policies. One thing that stands out in my mind is that four of the council members, including yourself, are pretty transparent in how you spend your time on council duties, by posting your calendars on the city website. Have you any idea why the other council members…you know, the mayor and (Mayor Pro Tem) Mike (Martinez) and (Council Member) Sheryl (Cole) don’t publish their calendars?
Chris Riley:
I haven’t talked with them about it so I just don’t know. I don’t think it was really a common practice previously.
The Austin Bulldog:
Well, it seems like the four of you all that were elected in ’08 and ’09 are the ones that are keeping the calendars. Sheryl (Cole) and Mike (Martinez) were (first) elected in ’06.
Cole On the Record About Private Meetings
On the Record About Private Meetings
Second in a Series of Recorded
Question and Answer Interviews
by Ken Martin
© The Austin Bulldog 2011
As reported by The Austin Bulldog January 25, County Attorney David Escamilla is reviewing a complaint about allegations that the Austin City Council may have violated the Texas Open Meetings Act.
This is a serious matter and the city is taking it seriously. The Austin American-Statesman editorial published today announced Mayor Lee Leffingwell is reinstituting council work sessions to be held in posted open meetings and he is canceling the private meetings he has for years been holding with other council members.
If the mayor and council members should be found to have in fact violated the act, they may be subject to criminal prosecution under Section 551.143 of the Government Code, a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not less than $100 or more than $500; confinement in the county jail for not less than one month or more than six months; or both the fine and confinement.
The Austin Bulldog is publishing selected text excerpts from each of the exclusive interviews with the council members that were conducted before breaking the story on January 25. The interviews are being published in the order in which they were conducted.
The complete copyrighted MP3 audio file for each interview will be linked at the bottom of each article for easy access. You may listen to these recordings to gain a better understanding of the published excepts within the context of the complete interview.
Council Member Sheryl Cole was interviewed outdoors at Starbuck’s Coffee in the Mueller Commercial District on January 21, 2011. The recording runs 33 minutes 20 seconds. (The background noise in the recording is from passing traffic.)
The Austin Bulldog:
As I said in the e-mail that I requested the interview, I’m developing a story about how the city council develops policies. One thing that stands out in my mind is the council members are pretty transparent on how they spend their time on council duties. Four of the council members put their calendars online. Some don’t. I was wondering, why don’t you put your calendar online?
Sheryl Cole:
Well, I have three boys and a husband and a mom. I still take a lot of responsibility for them from soccer to doctor appointments. It just has not been possible for me to keep a separate calendar of those activities.
The Austin Bulldog:
It seems like from looking at the other council members’ calendars that they post online that you all are spending a lot of time coordinating, meeting each other to work on city business. It seems like you’re making a big effort to plan, coordinate, and things like that. What I’m interested in, what sort of things do you all talk about in those one-on-one meetings with council members and with the mayor?
