What a beautiful Christmas Eve, eve. Looks like a great weekend coming up with a little winter cool down. We had about .17 inch of rain Friday, but that's all gone for the remainder of the weekend.
I'd like to take a moment to thank all the Lakeway City Staff, all the elected officials and volunteers that make life wonderful in our little city. I appreciate all their hard work that continues to keep our taxes low and makes us so desirable. Thanks to all of you and merry Christmas!
Council met in regular session Monday evening - here was the agenda. The Charter review committee made their report. It included changes to:
Section 3.01 - removing language that established staggered 3 year terms - there is no further use for this language and can be removed.
3.05 - establishing compensation for the Mayor and Council Members - originally set at $15 for Mayor per meeting and $100 for Council. The main reason for this is advantages if elected officials are sued - state law has provisions that make it easier for the city to indemnify them. This was lowered to $1.50 for Mayor and $1 for council.
3.09 clarifies that is someone was appointed to fill a vacant position, that will server as a full term as far as term limits.
6.03 corrects an issue in the charter to allow circulators of a petition attest to signatures instead of the City Secretary.
7.01 and 7.07 have to do with appointments to Boards and Commissions. This would be a major change to the Charter. Currently, the Mayor makes appointments to committees and commissions with help and approval of council. The change would have each council member make an appointment to these boards and committees and would make members terms follow the council member that appoints them. This item was tabled for further discussion. It has worked well for decades and the council was uncomfortable with it without more discussion.
8.09 changes wording from requiring one reading on bond discussion to "at least" one reading to allow for further discussion if needed.
11.06 - This change would establish statute of limitation on time and procedure for filing claims against the city. It would require claims to be filed within 6 months of issue.
<There was a comment from a citizen that this would be contrary to state law - the City Attorney made her aware that it would more closely mimic state law>
There were several changes that were considered non-substantive such as deleting spaces and changing gender pronouns.
The entire document can be found in red line status on the web site - here is a link. All items approved by council will be on the ballot for voters to approve in May.
Item 6 was to approve a contract with Travis County regarding the development, maintenance and management of the Bee Creek sports park. Passed unanimously.
Item 7 was a resolution establishing a public engagement committee. There was some discussion on this issue - some members (myself included) would like an option to speak directly with citizens to find ways to improve engagement instead of filtering comments through a committee. Over the past year we have reached out and made many inroads to improve engagement and communication. Here is a like to a partial list of 2012-2017 improvements to engagement.
This item passed 4-3 after the provision was taken out for Council Members on the committee.
As in many other items, your council is committed to keeping Lakeway the GREAT city it is. There are different opinions on how to make this happen but we all come together to work together!
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The Chief reports we are participating in high visibility traffic enforcement task forces over the holiday. We will have additional officers on duty, DPS will have additional officers in the area and the County will also support the project.
Lakeway is always a "No Refusal" city - we will have judges available for warrants. Let's make this a safe holiday this year! Remember, the speed LIMIT is 30 mph in most areas of Lakeway - it is perfectly permissible to go 29.....
Thank you for all the support over the last year - I'm looking forward to 2018! Please tell your friends about the blog and as always, questions are welcome and answered.
To get added (or removed) from my email list send a note to lakeway@bain.us and I'll make it happen.
Merry Christmas to everyone - be safe and enjoy the holiday!
Joe Bain
lakeway@bain.us
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