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2021 06 10 WS MinutesMINUTES OF THE REGULAR WORK SESSION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BAYTOWN June 10, 2021 The City Council of the City of Baytown, Texas met in a Regular Work Session on Thursday, June 10, 2021, at 5:40 P.M., in the Council Chamber of the Baytown City Hall, 2401 Market Street, Baytown, Texas with the following in attendance: Laura Alvarado Jacob Powell Charles Johnson Mike Lester Chris Presley Heather Betancourth Brandon Capetillo Rick Davis Karen Horner Angela Jackson Council Member Council Member Council Member Council Member (Teleconference) Council Member Mayor Pro Tem Mayor City Manager City Attorney Acting City Clerk Mayor Capetillo convened the June 10, 2021, City Council Regular Work Session with a quorum present at 5:40 P.M., all members were present. 1. DISCUSSIONS a. Receive training and discuss the Ethics Ordinance and the composition of the Ethics Commission. First Assistant City Attorney Trevor Fanning stated that City Council receives the ethics training on a biannual basis and proceeded to provide an overview of the Ethics Ordinance through a slide presentation. He stated that the Ethics Ordinance passed in 2009 which applies to all city officials: City Manager, Assistant City Manager, the City Attorney, Assistant City Attorneys, and any department heads. The ordinance, however, excludes the Police and Fire departments as they are covered by Civil Service. Mr. Fanning noted that one can break the standards down into two broad categories: one being statutory standards or those found in other Texas laws; and second, the local standards, those are the ones that apply just in the ordinance itself. The statutory standards are conflicts of interest, which are found in the Local Government Code, and then the acceptance of honorariums and the acceptance of gifts as those are found in the Penal Code. It does not include the higher crimes like bribery or things like that that are felonies because felonies disqualify you anyway. The local standards are not crimes to be violated. Basically, it amounts to doing anything for anyone that you would not normally do in your official capacity, treating someone differently than you would treat somebody else. A city official will not represent any other person other than City Council Work Session Minutes June 10, 2021 Page 2 of 4 themselves before a board, or disclose information that is confidential. He stated that you cannot receive a pecuniary gain from the sale of property if your interest in that property was obtained at a time that it was foreseeable that the city was going to be interested in buying, or renting, or doing something with that property Mr. Fanning proceeded to explain the process for filing complaints for violations to the Ethics Ordinance. The Ethics Commission has the primary responsibility to investigate those complaints and then make recommendations. All along the process, someone who is accused is entitled to representation. Once the Ethics Commission makes their finding, they then have five days to report to the appropriate entity, whether it be City Council or the City Manager, who will then take appropriate action pursuant to the ordinance and other rules. Lastly, Mr. Fanning proposed a possible amendment to the composition of the Ethics Commission. The current makeup of the Commission consists of five individuals who have membership to the Bay Area Ministerial Alliance and if Council would like to increase the opportunity for other people to serve, then they could expand the eligibility requirements to all citizens. Mayor Capetillo opened the floor for questions or comments from the Council Members. Council Member Presley commented on the fact that he, personally would like to keep the requirement of the membership to the Bay Area Ministerial Alliance in order to keep things apolitical and to have a very high standard of the individuals on the committee. Council Member Johnson interjected, suggesting opening it up to other clergy by including other forms of religions based off what we have in the City. Mayor Capetillo stated they should include a mix of different faiths and perhaps reconsidering this item at a future meeting for further discussion as he would like to reach out to a few contacts to see how many current members are part of the Bay Area Ministerial Alliance and perhaps bring back a few naives of interested individuals. b. Discuss and consider possible amendments to the City Charter of the City of Baytown. City Attorney Karen Horner presented the item and stated the City of Baytown will be calling the general and special elections at their first meeting in July. Thus, the staff wanted to touch base with Council on possible Charter Election propositions that they may want to consider. She stated that Council received a final report from the Charter Review Committee at their March 25"' meeting. She noted that there did not seem to be an issue with the first two propositions, but wanted to get confirmation. The first proposition consisted in making the change to the administrative departments to allow Council to consolidate or change offices and departments by ordinance. The second proposition was the passage of ordinances, and this was just a typo clarification as the City does require two public hearings for annexation ordinances, and the Charter only stated that we had to have multiple readings of a franchise agreement. In regards to the third proposition, Ms. Horner stated they had proposed setting term limits for Council, and due to the fact that Council had quite bit of discussion on this item, the staff wanted City Council Work Session Minutes June 10, 2021 Page 3 of 4 to see how Council wanted to move forward. The Charter Committee had recommended that the mayor and council members serve three consecutive full tenns, each tenn being three years. Staff has done some research in nearby cities and found that 44% of the cities do not have tenn limits, while 56% do have term limits. The Charter Review Committee from 2012 did conduct an electronic survey through Survey Monkey, and found that 80% of those that participated did want to set term limits, while almost 18% percent did not, and there were some that just had no opinion. Ms. Horner stated that they wanted Council to revisit this item so staff can be better prepared on how to proceed when providing Council with ballot language at their July 8"' meeting. Mayor Capetillo noted that he believed the consensus of the meeting on March 25"' was that as far as length of terms, it was preferred that each term be three -years. However, his preference was that that length of each term be four -years, so it would be three four-year tenns, for a total of twelve years, but he would be good either way and is in favor of tenn limits. He then asked Council to express their thoughts on the matter. Council Member Presley stated that he has always been a proponent of term limits, and that he agreed with the Mayor in that it should be a total of twelve years. Council Member Alvarado indicated that she believed their tenn limits were based on their voters, and if a council member is not doing a good job, then they can vote you out. At the same time, she is really not opposed to tenn limits and would be in favor of four three-year tenns. Council Member Johnson stated that he was not in favor of tenn limits by the simple fact that if you are not doing a good job, the people will vote you out. However, if you are doing a good job, tenn limits mean you are going to be forced out. Personally, he believes they are actually tying the hands of their constituents, the voters, by setting tenn limits. There are benefits of a tenured councilperson, as relationships are formed, and you never know what you are going to get when you leave the field wide open for anyone to run. With that being said, if they are going to do tern limits, then he would support the one with more length to it and requested for voters to reach out to any of the council members to let them know what they think. Mayor Pro Tern Betancourth stated that she in support of tenn lit -nits. She has no strong preference whether it is three-year terms or four-year tenns, and is okay with it being a total of twelve years. Council Member Powell agreed that he is in favor of the twelve years with it being four three- year terms. He stated that he understands their point of view of somewhat limiting the voters, however, they will have the opportunity to vote on this item as well, so it is up to thetas to see if they want to vote it down, but they at least need to give them the opportunity to make that decision. Finally, Council Member Lester stated that he agreed with Council Member Johnson, in that the voters make the decision in the long-term, however, based on the survey that was conducted, the voters made it clear that they would like to see some type of term limits. If they are going to go to term limits, then it should be four three-year terms. As Council Member Alvarado pointed out, City Council Work Session Minutes June 10, 2021 Page 4 of 4 he believes it takes a while sometimes to get good things going, and he believes twelve years would be sufficient. City Attorney Karen Horner thanked Council for their direction and stated they would come back with a proposed ordinance at the July 8`t' meeting. Council Member Presley suggested that perhaps a future Charter Committee should discuss the gap in pay between the mayor and council member positions since all members put in a lot of time and effort in their work. Council Member Johnson asked what happens if the seat is vacant and no one decides to run, and City Attorney Horner answered that there is a holdover provision, and the last person that qualified would hold over in office until a successor was elected. C. Discuss any or all of the agenda items on the City Council Regular Meeting Agenda for June 10, 2021. There was no discussion for this item. 2. ADJOURN With there being no further business to discuss, Mayor Brandon Capetillo adjourned the June 10, 2021, City Council Regular Work Session at 6:11 P.M. Angela Jackson, City of Baytown