2006 01 18 CC Minutes, Special
MINUTES OF THE SPECIAL SESSION
OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BAYTOWN
January 18, 2006
The City Council of the City of Baytown, Texas, met in work session on January 18, 2006, at 6:00
p.m. in the Council Chamber of Baytown City Hall with the following in attendance:
Ronnie Anderson Council Member
Brandon Capetillo Council Member
Sammy Mahan Council Member
Don Murray Council Member
Scott Sheley Council Member
Calvin Mundinger Mayor
Gary M. Jackson City Manager
Bob Leiper Deputy City Manager
Kelvin Knauf Assistant City Manager
Ignacio Ramirez, Sr. City Attorney
Lorri Coody City Clerk
Council Member Mercedes Renteria III was not present.
The meeting was opened with a quorum present after which the following business was conducted:
Discuss and take appropriate action regarding the possible charter amendments for a May
2006 election.
Mayor Mundinger opened the meeting by summarizing the purpose of the meeting. The purpose of
the meeting is to review the Charter Committee’s substantive issues and others for amending the
current city charter and to see where the Council stood on the issues. Council Member Sheley
suggested moving the recommendation on firefighting staff to the end of the meeting.
Council Member Renteria arrived at 6:10 PM
The City Council discussed the Committee’s recommendation to amend Section 16 of the City
Charter concerning filling vacancies on the City Council. City Council discussed previous
problems with filling vacant Council positions. A variety of ways to amend the charter was
discussed including holding an election in the affected Council district, appointment of a person to
fill the vacancy and a method which would give the City Council a number of days in which to fill
the vacancy before the decision would have to go before the next election. No consensus was
reached on the issue. The request was to ask the City Clerk and the City Attorney at the next
meeting to give the Council some information about the timing of an election. The City Council will
discuss the timing needed to call elections and the filling of vacant Council positions at the next
meeting.
The City Council also discussed whether a person can run for Mayor and City Council at the same
time or whether a person should be required to resign a Council seat upon signing up to run for the
Mayor’s position. The discussion included the impact of the requirement on Council Members
Page 2 of 3
Minutes of the Work Session – January 18, 2006
whose terms ran concurrently with the Mayor’s and Council Members whose terms do not run
concurrently with the Mayor’s. No consensus was reached on the issue.
The City Council also discussed the recommendation to amend Section 12 of the Charter by adding
two at-large Council positions to the City Council. Discussion ensued concerning the ramifications
of the proposal with the federal government due to the impact on minority voters. The Mayor
reminded the Council that the purpose was to talk about what amendments the City Council was
going to put on the ballot for the citizens to decide. One idea discussed was whether one at-large
position could represent one-half of the city and the other at-large position would represent the
other half of the city (“overlay districts”). The staff was asked to see if the approach could be
employed. The City Manager responded that the proposal would still be a district, albeit a
differently configured district. Another item mentioned was that as the City grows, there may be a
need for more single member districts needed. The value of the overlay districts was discussed.
There was additional discussion on the impact of at-large districts on minority voters. City Attorney
Ignacio Ramirez and Randy Strong, local attorney who previously represented the City in a lawsuit
over voting rights, spoke about the process and issues in creating at-large Council seats. City
Council discussed the need for a specific plan of adding the at-large seats, a timeline for implanting
the steps that would help in the submission of pre-clearance for the at-large seats to the Department
of Justice, calling public hearings public hearings on the creation of at-large seats and whether there
was sufficient time before the May, 2006 election to accomplish these tasks. The City Council asked
Dr. Joe Floyd, Chair of the Charter Committee, about the public input about creating at-large seats.
Dr. Floyd responded that there was a moderate response to at-large seats. The City Attorney
pointed out that there had not been any public hearings on a specific plan for at-large seats. Randy
Strong added that the Department of Justice is going to want to see specific plans and how the
Council goes about getting public input on the specific plan. The Council consensus was that more
direction and advice was needed from Randy Strong and City staff on the issue and to look at the
timing. The Council will look at the issue at the next meeting.
City Council discussed the recommendation to change Section 24 of the Charter which would
establish the qualifications for a municipal judge is spelled out and require that the municipal judge
be elected. The consensus of the City Council was that the current system of City Council
appointing the municipal judge was working and to not consider the recommendation further.
Council discussed the recommendation to amend the City Charter by removing Section 22.1 which
requires minimum staffing for the Fire Department. Charlie Murrell spoke about the fire staffing
recommendation. He also urged the City Council to look at the cost of filling vacant City Council
positions. The consensus of the City Council was to not place on the ballot the recommendation to
remove four-man staffing from the Charter.
City Council discusses the recommendation to amend Section 25 of the City Charter to allow
executive sessions to be conducted. Discussion ensued about whether or not to make the City
Charter more restrictive than what State law allows on executive session. The City Attorney
recommended that the Council go with the requirements of the State law because laws change and
that the Council could restrict itself through Council policy. The consensus of the City Council was
to move forward with the possibility of putting the recommendation on the ballot with further study
and after the City Attorney has reviewed the recommendation. The City Council also stated the
need to inform and educate the public about executive sessions.
The City Council recessed at 7:59
Page 3 of 3
Minutes of the Work Session – January 18, 2006
The City Council re-convened at 8:10.
The City Council discussed the recommendation to amend Article X, Section 110 concerning
petitioning for recall of City Council members from single member districts be signed by at least
51% of the number of votes cast in that district in the last general municipal election in which a
council member from that district was elected and that the phrase “…or 700, whichever is greater”
be removed from the section. The intent of the recommendation is to prohibit the residents of one
district from petitioning for the recall of a Council Member from another district. The City Council
discussed various options regarding the number of signatures and the percentage of registered voters
required to call for an election to recall a City Council Member. The consensus was to continue the
discussion at the next City Council meeting and ask for staff’s advice.
The City Council discussed the recommendation to amend Section 126 regarding the posting of
public records and documents on the website or whatever technology supersedes the website. The
problems of posting all records and documents on the website were discussed as well as current
State Law requiring the posting of agendas on the website. The City Attorney advised against
putting the recommendation in the charter because State laws change from time to time but could
be included in the Council policies. Deputy City Manager Bob Leiper informed the Council that
current State law requires agendas to be posted on the website. Council also discussed the problem
of how future city councils would decide what technology supersedes the website.
The City Council discussed items to discuss at the next meeting. Among the items mentioned were
length of terms, term limits, and compensation for the Mayor and Council. The Council briefly
discussed various ideas on the compensation of City Council members. Council asked the staff to
research how other city councils were compensated and the amount. The consensus of the City
Council was to look for direction from staff concerning continuing the discussion of the Charter
amendment recommendations at the January 26, 2006 work session.
The City Council briefly discussed future meetings.
Adjourn.
There being no further business, Council Member Anderson moved adjournment. Council Member
Renteria seconded the motion. The vote follows:
Aye: Council Members Anderson, Capetillo, Mahan, Murray, Renteria, and Sheley
Mayor Mundinger.
Nay: None.
The motion carried and the meeting adjourned at 8:52 p.m.
____________________________________
Kelvin Knauf
Assistant City Manager