City Council meeting - November 08, 2016

Item 4E
Approve hiring of an outside attorney. (Mayor White)

The background:

• City Attorney hires outside legal counsel to file a brief with the Texas Attorney General requesting the AG's opinion for denial of all Open Records requests by the City of Kerrville for information relating to the death of, and misconduct with a minor charge by deceased Councilman Gary Stork, Place 3.
• Mayor requests City Attorney to place the hiring of outside counsel on a Council agenda for Council's approval.
• City Attorney does not comply with Mayor's request.
• Mayor places item on 11-08-2016 Council agenda for Council to approve hiring of outside legal counsel.

Based on our information, the Mayor was unaware the City Attorney hired an outside counsel until after the fact.

The City Charter states in Section 7.01:

The City Attorney shall have authority to appoint one or more assistants, subject to the approval of the City Council.

The key words here are "appoint", "assistants" and "approval of the City Council".

The City Charter does not state the City Attorney has power to "hire" in Section 7.01, or anywhere else in the Charter.

Appoint - definition - to choose (someone) to have a particular job: to give (someone) a position or duty.

The Charter definately gives the City Attorney the authority to "appoint" assistants, but only with Council approval.

The argument made by four of the Council members (Fine, Andrew, Summerlin and Allen) is that since the Council approves the City budget, and the City Attorney's budget is part of that, and the City Attorney's budget includes a line item for "Legal Service", that gives him the right to hire outside counsel.

Notwithstanding the above provision, the City Council may engage special legal counsel to represent the city of Kerrville in any specific matter or for the performance of any specifically delineated duties otherwise to be performed by the City Attorney.

"Notwithstanding" is an often mis-understood term, especially when used in legalize. What that term basically means is; "regardless of what was stated previously". So, reading the City Charter literally, not as one pleases, the City Attorney can appoint assistants subject to Council Approval. And, only Council has the authority to hire special legal counsel.

You be the judge as to whether the City Council violated the City Charter by allowing the City Attorney to hire outside council without City Council approval!