NRH City Council Violates Open Meetings – Again!
by Ron
West
A few days ago, I posted an article on the cost of our
closed NRH government. This is a sequel
to that article.
The Fort Worth Star Telegram reporter, Mr. John Kirsh, reported
on Tuesday morning, November 9th, that the
City Council had voted to approve the appeal of the Hughes verdict in the age
discrimination lawsuit which the city lost last week.
This appears to be a problem
because:
1)
There was no vote
taken by the City Council during the Monday night meeting.
2)
While the city
council is allowed to deliberate on such matters in private, no voting on such
matters is allowed in closed sessions under the Texas Open Meeting laws.
So, if the City Council did vote in private on this
issue, they are in clear violation of the Open Meetings law – which is probably
not unusual for them or, in reality, Mayor Trevino and his majority on the
council decided this matter in secret and did not actually vote on this
additional futile expenditure of taxpayer money.
If the majority on the council had wanted to comply with
the law, a vote could have been taken in a regular council meeting that was
open to the public. The reason the law
provides for this is so that the taxpayers can see who is authorizing such
additional expenditures required by the appeal.
Remember that the City Attorney, Mr. George Staples continues to advise
the city on these matters while he is personally a recipient of your tax money
for his fees.
You and I as taxpayers have a right to know, by a public vote, what the individual votes of the council members were. It is the duty of the City Attorney, George Staples, to advise the council that they are required to vote publicly. The state law is written for our protection, not the council's. By voting, outside the view of the public, the council has denied us the right to know who is authorizing the use of additional funds to pay legal fees to Mr. Staples.
We as citizens of NRH have a right to require our council
people to adhere to the laws of our state. Your
calls and emails to them are important.
You can find their individual email addresses at:
http://www.ci.north-richland-hills.tx.us/council_members.cfm
Please let them know that enriching Mr. Staples is not one of your higher priorities and that they must comply with state law!