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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