The Kyle Report is an opinion column written by Kyle resident, Pete Oppel, that covers city leadership issues. You can follow The Kyle Report here on the Kyle Life or by subscribing to Mr. Oppel’s blog, The Kyle TX Report.
During last night’s City Council meeting, Mayor Todd Webster was informing the council and others in attendance what transpired at a meeting held Monday to discuss the Interlocal Agreement among Kyle, Mountain City and Hayes County created, at least in part, to make sure a planned residential development had an adequate water supply. And, truth be told, Mayor Webster acquitted himself extremely well at this meeting and Kyle residents can rest assured he represented their best interests at the session. And to be even more honest, he handled himself far better than I might have had I been in his place. After enduring close to two hours of constant abuse from the residents of Mountain City, I would have been tempted to simply say “Hey, if you hate this deal so much, fine. I’m going to convince our City Council to rescind the offer and let you solve these issues all by yourself.” Yep, Mayor Webster displayed much more patience and far better discipline than a lesser mind might have in that same situation.
However, he finally lost that patience and that discipline last night and at the most inopportune time. He was relating what was being said at this open meeting when suddenly the city attorney popped up and said they had to take this discussion into executive session.
Whaaat??? The subject being discussed was an open, public meeting. The subject of that meeting is a public document — so public the city posted it as part of its supplemental material to last night’s agenda. How in heaven’s name could anyone possibly conceive a discussion on this subject had to be held in secret, that it was not for public consumption?
I posed that exact question to Mayor Webster and he snapped back at me “Because I decided to do so.” Not because it was the right thing to do, because it so obviously wasn’t. Not because it was legal, because it doesn’t come close to meeting the restrictions of the Texas Open Meetings Act. The reason was just “Because I decided to do so.”
And the rest of the council meekly acquiesced to this totalitarianism. Like lambs to the slaughter.
I could attribute the mayor’s action to a delayed reaction to the events that transpired the night before. I could, but I won’t, because that would mean excusing the wrong-headed actions of any political leader simply because he or she didn’t get a good sleep the night before. He didn’t just snap at me, he snapped at everyone who lives here.
Anyone who has followed my rumblings and rants for any length of time knows that I’m a relative newcomer to Kyle and the first thing I noticed when I got here was the complete lack of involvement in municipal affairs by residents of the city and the ridiculously low voter turnout numbers in municipal elections, compared to other places I have lived and worked. Others even asked me to try to explain the citizens’ laissez faire attitude and I couldn’t.
But now I’m beginning to understand. The citizens realize the fix is in, the system is rigged, it has become corrupted. They have come to know that they are going to be excluded not only from the process of government, but from the discussion of that process. That this is a government designed only to protect and further the interests of developers at the expense of individual citizens. That this is a government that operates under the simple rule that it takes action, not because it’s in the public interest, but because the mayor, by his own admission, “decided to do so.”
My tone and response to this blogger’s question was a reaction to him interrogating our city attorney as we were trying to go into executive session and his delaying us from going into the room. His behavior at our meetings borders on the bizarre. Increasingly, the stuff he says in these blogs appears to be intentionally inflammatory and untruthful. He also tends to make up quotes, which is a truly misleading thing to do. So, what happened here? Upon the advice or our city attorney in open session, we stopped short of discussing any possible amendments to the inter-local agreement with Mountain City as this is essentially now a contract negotiation at this point. It was good legal advice. I was the person presenting on the item and chose to stop presenting after hearing that advice and no one else on the dais had questions. I understood him to be asking our attorney why it was that I stopped discussing the item. Thus, my terse but direct answer to his question was “because I decided to do so.” I then ushered our city attorney into the executive session. He seems prone to seeing a lot of black helicopters where there are none. The “fix” isn’t in as he suggests and no one on the city council is trying to reduce transparency or open government. He just didn’t like getting rebuffed – bless his heart. As for open government, anyone wanting to watch this proceeding or any other can go here… https://cityofkyle.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=1 . We are working through sound quality issues but our efforts to offer better quality live video of our proceedings runs counter to his closed government assertions. He also failed to mention that the council unanimously adopted rules that include a prohibition on receiving electronic communication while on the dais to ensure all discussion of public business in our meetings is out in the open. At every meeting you will notice my and some of the other members’ cell phones are off and visible to the public on the ledge of the dais. The rules also mandate citizen comment periods at all regular council meetings – again, open government. I get it. This kind of stuff does just go with the job. Unfortunately it is the kind of stuff that likely discourages many well-meaning and talented people from running for public office. Please, if anyone has any questions about the accusations he frequently lobs at the city, please just call me and I will do my best to answer them. I can be reached at 512 787-4464. Todd Webster, Mayor
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The only thing that is Bizarre is this mayor who was recently fired from his paid job. Would you like to tell us why you were fired I know the reason you were but why don’t you tell the citizens another lie and than I will tell them the truth. This mayor is the most corrupt of all mayors of Kyle and him and about three corrupt city council members needs to be evicted once and for all. We have a serious problem in Kyle and it’s starts at the top and the city management needs to find other jobs. It’s time the citizens unite against this mayor and corrupt and incompetent city management (Earp) the man who is so completely incompetent and a liar.
For you, sirs..
I’m not crying about it I’m doing something about it.