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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council Faces Judge; newspaper article (10-18-2005)~~ `Fuesday October 18, 2005 ...... theeagle.com Bryan-College Station, Texas • 50 cents ~ ~ u n By APRIL AVISON ~~ ~ d Eagle StatJ'Writer ~/~ • • issued by Turner. Cargill College Station Mayor Ron Sil- via confirmed Monday that the City Council is expected to appear before a district judge Tuesday and agree to policy changes for violating the Texas Open Meetings Act. Silvia said Brazos County Dis- trict Attorney Bill Turner closed his investigation into the coun- cil's July 14 meeting, during which it voted 4.3 to fire City Manager Tom Brymer. The post- ed meeting agenda listed "per- sonnel matters" under an execu- tive session discussion but did not specifically list Brymer's name. The council immediately came Council ~.~ur.,i. ,~r~ iuiu~ t)lllc:l~u5 violated.open meetings act under fire when Brymer chal- lenged the action and threatened a lawsuit if he was not reinstated and allowed to resign. The coun- cil agreed to Brymer's terms, and he eventually resigned with a $177,585 severance package. Silvia said the entire council is responsible for violating the act, although he doesn't believe any member intentionally did so. "We violated the open meet- ings act when it wasn't posted like it should have been," Silvia said. "People of [special signifi- was controversial." The requests from Turner are specified in a petition for injunction sent to the council last week, according to several council members who said the document states that "justice will be served" ff certain safe- guards are ensured, including: ^ The City Council cannot discuss its four appointed positions -city manager, city secretary, city attorney or municipal judge -without a specific posting. ^ The council must audio- record executive sessions to ensure compliance with the open meetings act and have the city attorney or his repre- sentative present during exec- utive sessions. In the past, the council has had written min- utes from its executive ses- sions but has not used audio recordings, Silvia said. ^ Council members must refrain from participating in a meeting that is not properly posted. ^ Council members must attend mandatory training on the open meetings act each year. Such training already is in place, Silvia said. Council members receive in-house training from the city attor- ney and also attend an annual conference hosted by the Texas Municipal League. The training is voluntary, but after Jan. 1, 2006, it will be required by the state once a new law takes effect. An attorney general's opin- ion and a nearly 20-year-old Texas Supreme Court case determined that persons of "special sfgnif"icance," such as a city manager, should be list- ed individually when the council plans to discuss them, according to experts with the Texas Freedom of Information Foundation. Freedom of Infor- mation Foundation President Joel White said violations of cance] have to be listed specifi- cally." Turner declined to comment on the outcome of his inquiry until after Tuesday's 9 a.m. hear- ing in the 85th District Court- room at the Brazos County Cour- thouse. Council members said Monday afternoon that City Attorney Harvey Cargill advised them they won't be charged criminal- ly, but could be found in con- tempt of court if they do not adhere to and sign the requests the open meetings act happen often but rarely are chal- lenged. In the past five years, there have been about a dozen instances in which a city council in Texas appeared in a courtroom in connection with an open meetings act viola- tion, White said, "It's very difficult fora pros- ecutor to go after a public offi- cial," he said. The three College Station council members elected in May -Ron Gay, Chris Scotti and Ben White - took an open meetings class in August as part of a two-day training ses- sion hosted by the Texas Municipal League for new council members. The session occurred after the July 14 meeting that was challenged by Brymer. The other city council mem- bers -Silvia, Nancy Berry, John Happ and Susan Lan- caster -have received some sort of training either from the city attorney or the Texas Municipal League this year, Silvia said. Berry, Gay, Happ and Scotti voted for Brymer's termina- tion in the early hours of July 15, after discussing the former city manager in executive ses- sion. The entire council violat- ed the open meetings act, Sil- via said, because all the mem- bers participated in a meeting that wasn't properly posted. "As the mayor, I take full responsibility," Silvia said. "I should have stopped that meeting. I won't let this hap- pen again. I don't ever want to have to go through this again." City Attorney Cargill has said he wasn't asked his opin- ion on whether it was appro- priate to discuss Brymer that night, another action Silvia said was a mistake made by the council. "I'm not going to have any more meetings without the city attorney," Silvia said Monday. Cargill had been asked by the council to leave the meet- ing, which is not uncommon when personnel matters are being discussed, council mem- bers have said. Gay said he believes he did the right thing by voting to terminate Brymer. "Obviously, it could have been done with a different kind of posting," he said. "We had a posting that said we could discuss personnel issues, Most reasonable peo- plewould look at that and say, `This is a personnel issue; we should be able to discuss it."' Council members reached for comment Monday had varying opinions on the signif icance of the proceedings scheduled for Tuesday morn- ing. Scotti said signing the paperwork in court on Tues- day sends a message to the public that "we did something wrong, and we want to do whatever we can to keep it from happening again." "I stick with the decision we made, but the way we went about it was wrong," he said. Councilman White said he doesn't think any council member purposely violated the open meetings act in July. "I don't think any of us would have considered doing anything illegal," he said. acknowledged that he advised the council to sign the docu- ments, but would not say what penalties could be assessed if the order is breached. Showing up in court and sign- ing the document is not an admission of guilt, but rather a promise to "do a better job of adhering to the open meetings act," Councilman Ron Gay said. "If we had violated the open meetings act, they probably would have indicted us," Gay said. "There is no indictment. Nobody had any .intent to cir- cumvent the law. We would not have done it ff we felt like we were wrong. We're sorry that it See COUNCIL, Page A3 ..NOW iu reiru~peci, uavui~ visited with our attorney, obviously we did wrong. We should have exercised some common sense and walked out of that meeting." None of the four who voted for Brymer's termination pub- liclyannounced their intent to do so, but Councilwoman Lan- caster, who voted against the measure, said the outcome was a fulfillment of a political promise. "That immoral promise cost this council its integrity and the taxpayers of College Sta- tion agood deal of money," she said in reference to Brymer's severance package. Berry and Happ declined comment. White, of the Freedom of Information Foundation, said Monday that the City Coun- cil's action was a "clear viola- tion" of the open meetings act. "That's been litigated enough for everyone to know better," White said. "There's never any reason not to inform the public about something that important. They obviously should know better." ^ April Avison's a-mail address is april.avison@theeagle.com.