Aug 27, 2020 City Council on 2020-08-27 11:30 AM (Special Called Meeting)

Welcome everybody to this meeting of the Denton City Council on August 28th, 27, excuse me, 2020. It is 1139 a.m. in the morning. We do have a quorum, so I'll call this meeting to order. We have two agenda items. One is a closed meeting and one is an item for individual consideration. I will not be participating in the item for individual consideration 1A, and so when we get to that point, I will turn that over to the Mayor Pro Tem just to move through that. And on the closed session, Mr. City Attorney, was that sort of a placeholder in case anybody had any questions? Yes, Mayor, that was specifically put there if there were any city-related legal issues or questions the council may have in connection with the written resignation under the IC item. Okay. Does anyone have any need to go into closed session at this time? And Mr. City Attorney, you will, I'd also request that you just sort of, I mean, I don't think we need to do it in closed session. I think it needs to be an open session about filling vacancies and holdovers in the law pertaining to that as well, if you wouldn't mind going over that when you get to agenda item 1A, which I will not be participating in. Okay. So at this time, I will turn it over to Mayor Pro Tem just to move through the agenda item 1A and I will rejoin y'all when y'all have completed that. All right. So, Aaron, if you do you do I need to call that 1A, right? Yes, sir. That will bring us to item 1A, which ID 2017-11, 17-11 deliberations regarding personal matters under Texas government code section 551.074, consultation with attorneys under Texas government code section 551.071. So I will turn it over to staff for any initial comments or presentation. Okay, Mayor Pro Tem, this is Rachel. I'm sorry you can't see me right here right now, but we do have one caller that will be on the line with us shortly. Okay. In their name? Not sure at present, sir, if you could hold, please. Okay. Sure. Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem, would you want to do the staff presentation before the callers or maybe that's what you had in mind? Yeah, I was asking if staff has a presentation. Oh, gotcha. It's not a formal presentation. It's just basically discussing the law because this is a different type of written resignation that the city usually receives and I can just briefly walk the council through that as to how this is different. Okay, and then Councilmember Ryan. Yeah, Mayor Pro Tem, I believe you called the closed session item as opposed to the item for individual consideration. I appreciate that. Let me look. 1A, you're right. Wrong 1A. Got it. Thank you for that, John. So let me recall that. And so this is again, 1A, ID 20-1709, consider approval of the resolution to formally accept Mayor Chris Watts' resignation for City Council, Place 7, with said resolution being effective Thursday, August 27, 2020. Thank you again for that, John. Mayor Pro Tem, we have Ms. Helen Owen on the line, catching her through. Thank you. And do you have a timer or do I need to time it here? We have a timer. That's no problem. Thank you. Hello, Helen? Yes, this is Helen. Yes. If you could please state your name and address and then once you do that, you will have four minutes. You're speaking here with the Denton City Council. Okay. Good afternoon. I mean, good afternoon, everyone. And this is Helen Owens of 2900 Lipazen Drive, Denton, Texas. Okay. Thank you. You may proceed. Hello. I just want to say that my name is Helen Owens. I've been a part of Denton for many years and have been served on many different boards there. And I personally know the Mayor and just wanted him to say, I know that it's not a hard job and I appreciate your servitude. Okay. Thank you very much. Did they hear me? Yes. Good. Good. Okay. Well, thank you. Just want to tell me or watch that. Okay. And just one second, I think Councilmember Meltzer. Yes, ma'am. I just want to thank you for serving on boards and commissions through the years. It's great that, you know, people in Denton are involved with the local government and I appreciate that you've done that. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you for calling in. Have a great day. Thank you. Bye. Okay. Staff, do we have any other callers? We're not aware of anyone else right now. Thank you. Okay. And, right. So then Erin, I will turn it over. Oh, Councilmember Briggs. Yes. I was wondering if when the City Attorney gives his update or if you could tell us what duly qualified means, as mentioned in the letter? Will do. Thank you. On Monday, August 24th, 2020, the Mayor submitted his letter of resignation to the City of Denton and he didn't give a specific reason for that and he's not required to do so, but he has submitted that and that is included in your backup. In the letter, he also included a reference to the constitutional provision, Article 16, Section 17, that talks about for all officers that they continue to serve in their current positions despite resigning from a council or the governing body that they're with. They continue to serve until their successor is duly qualified. What this means is that when there's, in most cases, including our own, it's when their successor has been elected and sworn into office. This is no different than what happens under our city charter when a council member resigns from their current seat to seek another seat on the council. And that is the difference between what the mayor has submitted and what our charter specifically provides for, which is current city council members can apply for another seat on the council and they must submit a written resignation that's delivered to the city secretary's office. An example of that is what occurred earlier this year when Council Member Briggs and Mayor Pro Tem Hudspeth submitted their written resignations pursuant to the charter, both seeking to run for the mayoral seat. Since this type of resignation that the mayor has submitted does not fall under our charter, we have to look at state law. And state law does provide and address this type of resignation. It has to be a written resignation, just like under our charter, and it doesn't have to provide the reason for resignation. And it is provided to what is referred to as the appropriate authority. Our charter doesn't really address this, as I've mentioned, so we don't know who the appropriate authority is. In my opinion, the city council is being the highest legislative body, or the legislative body for the city of Denton and the highest body can serve as the appropriate authority. So once that resignation is provided to the city, and now before you, the council, a vacancy will be created. And I will touch upon the vacancy and the holdover provision. The vacancy will occur on the date that this council approves the resolution, accepting the written resignation. The law also provides that it becomes automatic if the authority doesn't, for some reason, couldn't approve it on the eighth day after the receipt by the authority. And that would be the city. I'm certain that there is a reason why the mayor wishes to do this rather than wait to the eighth day. I won't speak for him. He can answer that question. One peculiar requirement for a written resignation is to submit it. State law, the election code, specifically provides that the authority cannot refuse the resignation. So if this is adopted today, the resolutionism, I mean, a vacancy will be created. And some of you have heard me before mention that law, Texas law hates vacancies. And so the constitution includes what is called a holdover provision, which is the one that council members Riggs alluded to earlier, which is article 16, section 17. The mayor will continue to be the mayor until his successor in the upcoming election, November 3rd is elected and sworn into office. And that that's the extent of my short presentation. I'll take any questions. All right. Let's, uh, council member Meltzer and then council member Armitter. All right. So if I, if I could try to sum that up for the listening public, tell me if I'm getting this right, whether the mayor resigns or doesn't resign and whether his resignation is accepted or not accepted, all those scenarios look exactly the same. The mayor serves until his successor is sworn in. That is correct. Okay. Thanks. Council member Armitter. Yes. Uh, so I'm a city attorney. Can you flesh out a little bit more how this particular resignation is different from the previous resignations other than it being, uh, you know, the resignation of the mayor? Is it the timing of it? Anything else about it? As far as how this is different, this is not the type of resignation which typically occurs in the city under the city charter when a council member usually in a district seat wants to run for an at large seat that we specifically provide. This is not that nor does our charter address that, but we do look to the election code to fill in that, that gap. Uh, that is what, how this is different than what we usually see. Thank you. And then another question. Uh, so, so it sounds like you can't speak to the reason I was hoping that, that we would be hearing today the reason for that resignation, but is there, there nobody present? Uh, and I understand why the mayor can't be participating in this conversation. Is there anyone present who can speak to the reason? Well, I think I'll, I'll jump in here. Aaron stipulated at the beginning. It's not a rec, it's not a requisite. It's not required. So, um, no, no one has that answer and nor can we compel it. It's not in our purview. So, but if you have other questions by all means. Okay. Yeah. Um, that, uh, a number of, I'm sure that you all too have, uh, been asked by members of the public, what the reason is for it. And I've only been able to say, I don't know. So I understand that he's not required to give a reason, but I would still like to know, uh, as with the public, but I understand that the reason is not required under law. And I would advocate for them to contact him directly through his, uh, city council email or the, the phone, um, city provides. Uh, so that's all public information. And I would advocate for anyone that's watching that they contact him directly, uh, because he is the sole source of that information. Thank you. But supposedly the press hasn't also has not been able to get a reason either. Okay. Noted. Uh, Briggs. Thank you mayor pretend, um, Aaron. So on the resolution, if approved, it does say, um, I see that there's a new updated, uh, section where the mayor shall continue. Um, so if something were to happen in that process before the November election, um, would we have to come back and what would happen as far as that resolution, if something were to happen and he could not, um, continue as mayor, uh, and the word shall was, um, irrelevant, what would be that process and is there something that may affect that? There definitely is. I mean, the, what I've quoted to you and described in my presentation was the general rule. There are some instances in which an automatic vacancy is created. The most common one that you see across the state is when a, a sitting council member passes away. And by then, I mean that, that's a different situation that will be addressed if that was to occur. And I'm not saying that's what's going to happen, but if that in the unfortunate and likely event that happened, then the, uh, there would be only six council members. And since we have a special election already, uh, call for November 3rd, there would be no need to, uh, schedule a new special election. It would, it would be filled via the election. So that's how we would go about play this through. Uh, if that event happened. And what I didn't mention is because we do have an election set off. Normally when this happens, the, the city would have to schedule a special election, but we have already done that. So that step is not necessary. I have follow up. Yes. Okay. So what you're saying that if, if something were to happen in between now and November and, um, the mayor could not fulfill his seat on council as stated in the resolution, we wouldn't do anything different. It would just, it would just be exactly the council would continue with six current council members. Our charter does not have any provisions that address, uh, allow or appointing a temporary council member to fill the vacancy for the rest of the term. Many cities do ours doesn't. Okay. But just, just to confirm though, because the shall and his, um, his wish to continue to serve is, is the intention that that, that will remain, um, unless, um, an, an extraordinary circumstance happens. That is correct. Okay. Thank you. Council member Meltzer. I'm just going to share what may be a completely unrelated statement that the Texas legislature is seated in January. That's all I've got. And I think Aaron, I think really the key that I'd like to bring out, if you would please, uh, if, what is, what is the, the process, for example, understanding the, the mayor, if he's not able to attend, I would chair the meeting. I think really to educate the public, what's the next level. So assuming I'm not a, I'm not in attendance, uh, my understanding is the council would then make a decision at that meeting who would chair the meeting. But correct me where I'm wrong. That is correct. That is provided in your rules of procedure. It's city ordinance section two dash 29 does provide for such an event that the, that the mayor or the mayor pro temp is not present. You all can elect a temporary chairperson for the purposes of that meeting or for an individual item, which we have done over the years. Perfect. Thank you. Just wanted to state a record for that. Uh, council member Melzer, I move approval of the resolution council member armature. So I, I, another question for city attorney. So not knowing the reason for this and not being required to have a reason I'm trying to wrap my head around the, the timing of this. Uh, so can you maybe walk us through, uh, if there, uh, if the mayor had not resigned, if there was no resignation submitted, uh, would, would that cause any complication, uh, in the November 3rd election, if it were to proceed just as, uh, as scheduled? I'm sorry, Aaron, let me frame, let me make sure I understand the question. You're asking, um, if the resolution, which has been submitted, wasn't submitted. Is that yeah. I don't know that, that, that, um, that's relevant to this conversation that Aaron correct me where I'm wrong. I would think it's out of scope because we're discussing, she would be asking a question about something. I can, I, I can put it another way. So it's not a hypothetical if you'd prefer that would be, that would be optimal. Okay. So what I'm trying to figure out and I'll explain what I, what I'm looking for is if you could explain the timing of this, you know, why, why an emergency meeting for today. Uh, and if you can explain if a resignation from a mayor who's turned out it's required to, uh, elect a successor after that term has already expired. That question is the same one that was posed to me yesterday and I'll answer the same way. I can't speculate as to the mayor's reasons for doing this. I think that he is the person that you need to ask this. Um, I don't mean, I'm not talking about the, the reason, uh, for, for that, I'm talking about the timing. In other words, so this is a special called emergency meeting for today. We have others meeting scheduled. Can, can it be explained why there was a special called meeting for today as opposed to putting this on the agenda with some feature of meeting? I mentioned earlier in the presentation that the, the charter and, or this type of resignation is not pursuing to our charter. The written resignation is submitted to the appropriate authority. Our charter doesn't provide who that is, but the council certainly is. And so that, that is why this request was put on, on your agenda and a special call meeting to, to accept that officially, um, on behalf of the city and to via a resolution that you would adopt. Okay. Okay. So you're saying, are you implying that because, because, uh, there's no stipulation for an event like this in the charter that for that reason, it had to be a special called meeting and couldn't be put on the agenda for a regular meeting. And I didn't say that. What I said was that the request was to be able to put this before the council. The special call meeting was, was scheduled. I I'm not involved in calling the special call meetings. I prepared the resolution. Our office did and the captions. Uh, so for that, I could not answer that question other than a special call meeting was called for, and there are only three individuals in the city that can call for a special meeting. Thank you. So maybe the, the city manager, uh, could speak to, uh, why this is a special called meeting as opposed to putting that item on the agenda for a regular meeting. Mayor requested that, uh, the council get together and do this. I'm not really at liberty to disclose or to discuss what his primary intentions are, but he asked as in his role as the mayor that we put together this, this meeting, uh, we've pulled all of you could attend and I really can't go into too much more than that at this point. Okay. It's his prerogative to ask that the council come together to, uh, to consider this item. And that's what he has done. Thank you. Uh, council member Briggs. Uh, I will second. I think we still need a second. That is correct. Thank you. Uh, any other discussion? We have a motion by council member Meltzer second by a council member Briggs. Uh, so now I'll pull the, the council council member Meltzer. I'll say you. Aye. Council member Briggs. Uh, yes. Council member armature. No. Council member Davis. I, we can't refuse this. Council member Ryan. Aye. And mayor pro tem hudspeth is an I motion carries six one. Uh, and then if someone will get word to the mayor that we are, we've concluded that discussion or do, do I close it out? Mayor pro tem. There we go. Yeah. My video feed went down. So, um, I presume that y'all, uh, took action on the, on the motion. We did. All right. I believe that's the last item on the agenda. And we will adjourn this, uh, meeting of the Denton city council on eight 27, 2020 at 1203 PM. Thank you. Thank you.