City
Council meeting - October 20, 2016
This was a Special Council meeting called primarily to appoint
a replacement for the recently deceased Councilman Gary Stork's
Place 3 postion. During the discussion of Item 2 the
Council made a motion to go into Executive Session. Mr. Baroody
requested the discussion of his application be held in Open Session.
The Council elected to go into Executive Session anyway. When they
returned to open session a motion was made to appoint Mary Ellen
Summerlin to Place 3 and the Council Adjourned. No discussion regarding
Mr. Baroody's application was held in Open Session.
The Council cited Texas Open Meetings Act Section Section 551.074 as
the basis for Executive Session. That Section States:
PERSONNEL MATTERS; CLOSED MEETING.
(a) This chapter does not require
a governmental body to conduct an open meeting:
(1) to deliberate the appointment, employment, evaluation, reassignment,
duties, discipline, or dismissal of a public officer or employee;
or
(2) to hear a complaint or charge against an officer or employee.
(b) Subsection (a) does not apply
if the officer or employee who is the
subject
of the deliberation or hearing requests a public hearing.
Added by Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 268, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1993.
Based on Subsection (b), the Council appears to have violated the
Open Meetings Act when they chose not to honor Mr. Baroody's request for Open
Session discussion of his application. |