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If you look at the recent polls
nationally about the public's trust of

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government, slightly less than 50% trust
the federal government to handle

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national affairs. Slightly more uh 50
60% trust the state government to handle

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state affairs. But when you look at
polls, more people trust their local

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governments. about 65 70% trust their
city councils, their counties and school

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districts to take care of local affairs.
So, yay, we're more trustworthy than the

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state or federal government, but those
numbers are still very low. If you're

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going to run for city council, I urge
you, I challenge you to do what you can

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to improve the public's trust. Conduct
yourself with integrity so that while

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citizens may not always like your
decisions, they trust that you're making

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it for the right reason. Together, each
of us can bolster citizens belief in

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their local governments and strengthen
democracy at the local level.

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The different types of cities in Texas
are important to know as a council

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member, especially before your
elections, because they all have

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different rules and different
regulations that you must abide by. the

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four different types of cities. There's
your three general law cities, which is

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general law A, general law B, and
general law C. And then you have home

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rule cities, which allow you just a
little bit more power, but each are

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important for knowing the rules and
regulations before your elections. The

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main difference between the general law
and home rule municipalities is the

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population that is within the city as
well as where they derive their

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authority from. With a general law city,
you are only given the authority and

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power that's provided by the state, such
as your statutes and codes, the Texas

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Constitution, those are the rules that
govern and you can only um have

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authority that's given or granted by
those rules and statutes. Whereas with

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the home rule municipality, you look to
the legislature not for powers or grants

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of power, but rather for limitations of
power.

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So, it's important to understand the
differences between the mayor council

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form of government in cities and the
city manager council. A lot of the

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larger cities in Texas have chosen the
city council/city manager form of

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government. It's kind of like having a
corporation. You have a board of

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directors, which is like a city council,
and then you have a CEO. The CEO runs

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the day-to-day operations. In a city,
your CEO, if you've chosen that form of

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government, is your city manager. Your
smaller cities may be the ones that

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choose the mayor council form of
government. In that case, your mayor

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will do the CEO job for the city. When
you have a city manager as the CEO of

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your city, the city council does not
have the authority to micromanage the

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city manager. Will be very important for
that council when hiring a city manager

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to choose the right person and have
trust in that person to run the

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dayto-day.

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The budget document is a culmination of
a whole lot of decisions and it can get

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pretty complicated. Your chief
executive, whether that's the mayor or a

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city manager, will present the budget
picture in terms of services. If one of

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your campaign promises is to improve
public safety, you go into the budget

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and you look for ways to enhance the
community's ability to provide public

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safety services. The budget, it's a
zero- sum game. In any community,

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resources are always limited. A lot of
that budget development process is

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negotiation and bargaining and there's
never enough resources to go around to

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fill everybody's promises. That budget
process is a great avenue for

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collaboration about just what is it we
are able to afford and what promises are

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we going to keep here.

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It is really important to keep in mind
that is actually the citizens's job to

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be skeptical. It is the citizens job to
ask the hard questions. This is what

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they get to do. This is how this system
was set up by our founding fathers. Uh

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we we don't have kings in this country.
What we have are citizens. We govern at

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the consent of the citizenry. They they
don't have to agree. They don't always

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have to be polite. They get to ask
questions. I think it's okay for

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citizens to be disruptive. It's not okay
for there to be a loss of decorum. That

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mayor's role during council meetings,
that responsibility to run a meeting

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with a certain decorum is not always
easy. And it's uh really important and

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there's a lot of great examples of
mayors who have uh performed that

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responsibility really well. It is a
constant

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job to engender trust with the citizens.
Never hide from the truth. Even when the

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news is really really bad, uh there will
be people whispering in your ear to spin

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the the news to something positive. Um
avoid that temptation because in uh the

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public service it never works out in the
end. It always backs fire backfires. It

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is always best to own it. The people
will forgive you. That is absolutely how

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you build trust.
Well, hopefully if you're running for

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city council, you believe in good
governance. And what's vital to

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governing well at the local level is
having our citizens trust us. And

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winning the public's trust starts during
your campaign. So, if you run a campaign

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that's transparent and you demonstrate
integrity, you can build up that trust

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and carry that momentum into being an
elected official. Once you're elected to

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the city council, you'll have a city
attorney advising the council on what

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you can do legally, what you cannot do,
and what you're mandated to do. But what

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I hope you do as an elected official is
not just settle for legal mandate. Just

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because your city attorney tells you you
can do it doesn't mean it's the right

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thing to do. And so I hope you'll strive
to actually govern with integrity and

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honesty and transparency and be an
ethical public official, which means

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going beyond just the legal limits. Once
you're elected, you're going to be

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subject to federal, state, and local
regulations that are going to affect

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your conduct. If your city is building
infrastructure using federal grants,

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there's going to be federal
anti-corruption rules that apply to your

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conduct, such as bribery. And then here
in Texas, we have many ethical rules

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that apply by law. And then beyond that,
many cities have their own local rules.

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So if you're running for public office,
it's wise to know those ethics rules

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before you get into it so you understand
if it's going to affect you, your

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family, your business, and how you
conduct your affairs.

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Immunity, be it sovereign immunity, uh
legislative immunity, or qualified, is

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the privilege not to have to face a
lawsuit and damages because of acts that

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are taken in one's official capacity. If
they're sued in their official capacity,

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it's just like suing the governmental
entity. If someone's acting in in an

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ultravirus fashion, like they were
acting without any sort of authority to

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do what they're doing, not staying in
their lane, they can definitely lose

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their immunity. Before taking action
that's going to significantly affect

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someone else's rights, an elected
official should try to pay attention to

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their city manager's instructions and
their city attorney who should give them

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advice uh of the potentials of these of
these decisions. Don't rush into any

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decisions without considering exactly
how your actions might affect some

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individual's rights.

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The Texas Public Information Act is a
statute that regulates um local

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governments or all government in the
state of Texas and it creates a

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presumption of openness in all official
business. So any official business that

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takes place there's a presumption should
be available to the public. So this the

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public information act regulates that
and it explains to the public how to get

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that information. The number one thing
that um candidates and elected officials

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need to know about the public
information act would be the presumption

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of openness. Especially if you're coming
from a private entity background where

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there is a lot of confidential private
conversations that are not going to go

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out to the public. That really doesn't
exist when you are a elected official.

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Pretty much everything your entire
business is to run the city and all that

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business is is subject to public
disclosure. A lot of times we think,

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"Oh, we're taking my personal notes
about this meeting or I'm having a quote

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unquote private conversation about a
potential contract." Anything that is

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related to the transaction official
business is going to be available to the

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public. And so just everything you
create or everything that comes across

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your desk, kind of keeping that in mind,
this could be in the newspaper or these

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days Facebook. This could go out there.
So, the Texas Open Meetings Act is a

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state law um really focused on the
public's ability to uh engage in

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conversations and discussions with their
public officials um and also to hold

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their public officials accountable to
the decision-making process happening in

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an open setting where it can be observed
um in a transparent fashion. And so

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anytime that city officials are gathered
to discuss public business, that usually

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is going to have to take place in an
open properly posted meeting. What that

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means is that we have an agenda that
goes out beforehand, a list of topics

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you're going to discuss, give the public
an opportunity to weigh in and provide

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input and then any discussions,
especially if they're going to occur

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amongst a majority or a quorum of that
governing body, need to occur during

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that properly posted meeting. There are
few exceptions that allow for closed

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executive session discussion of topics,
but those are limited circumstances

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under the law. The part of open meetings
that's often tricky is is communications

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outside of those formal uh context in
the formal meetings. And so that's where

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we start to to really focus in on is
there a series of communications? Are we

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having emails or text chains on the side
between council members? Are we meeting

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up maybe in a less formal setting where
we got to count up and say, "Ah, do we

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have a quorum here? Do we have a
majority of council members present? Um,

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when those things happen is when council
members need to be aware they need to

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hold off on that discussion and make
sure it takes place in a properly posted

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public meeting.

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Cities are political subdivisions of the
state. So, we look to their authority

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from the Texas Constitution as well as
state laws and administrative rules. So,

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there are two types of cities in Texas,
general law and home rule. General law

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cities basically have the powers that
the state has given them. If a statute

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says that the city can do something, it
can. If the state has not said that this

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general law city has authority to act,
they probably don't. Homeless cities, on

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the other hand, have the powers that are
given to them in their city charter,

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that their voters elected, and they're
basically authorized to do such actions

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unless they are prohibited by other law.
The most important thing for candidates

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for office to understand is that you
need to determine what authority you

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have before you can take certain
actions. Many people running for office

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assume that their community is not doing
certain things and should change their

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practices. And sometimes they can, but
you first have to check and be sure

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they're authorized to do that.

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So when you're dealing with your zoning
regulations, a lot of times they

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separate your uses into residential,
commercial, industrial, and

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agricultural. It can regulate the lot
sizes, the building heights, the

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building sizes. One of the concerns that
a city councilman may have is when I'm

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making my decision, what are any kind of
constraints that I may have under state

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or federal law in my decision making?
And it depends on the type of decision

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that you're making. For example, if it's
a zoning decision, it is discretionary,

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but you can't make a decision that's
arbitrary or capricious or

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discriminatory. That would violate state
and federal laws. It has to be done in

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conformance with the comprehensive plan.
If you're zoning an area and the area is

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residential, you wouldn't want to
approve an application to make it a

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heavy industrial use within that
residential area. That would violate

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probably your comprehensive plan. When
they're running for office, they should

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get a copy of the city's comprehensive
plan. In the comprehensive plan, you

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usually have your capital improvement
plan. So these are major infrastructure

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that the city would put in their budget.
The candidate and then the elected

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official will know what um land uses the
city has in their comprehensive plan and

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then what their needs are, what their
infrastructure needs are.

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When you become a candidate and
certainly when you get elected, there

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are different expectations of you. There
are different standards that are going

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to apply these days. Once you're a
public official, you're always a public

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official. You can't just take off your
city council member cap nights,

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weekends, or when you travel to Las
Vegas. People are going to expect that

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higher level of conduct all the time.
There's going to be a higher level of

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scrutiny. Sometimes I have clients say,
"Allan, I just want to be treated like

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everybody else." You're not everybody
else once you're elected. And you may

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have some tough choices between what you
think is right for you, your business,

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your family versus the community at
large. Cuz once you're elected, ethics

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are going to mandate you care more about
your city and your community than your

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own personal financial gain.
Fortunately, there's lots of information

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freely available about ethics online.
the office of the attorney general's

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office, the Texas Municipal League, they
all publish information about the ethics

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codes and statutes that apply. If you
are running for city council in a

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particular city, inquire with the city
secretary, the municipal clerk, if

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perhaps their city attorney has
published any rules, or if the city has

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any local rules you're going to have to
abide by. Get those rules, read through

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them, and understand them before you
actually take the oath of office.

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So many people who are thinking about
running for city council or mayor are

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not aware of the time commitment that's
involved. So there's a um a whole lot

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more to it than one meeting a month.
There's regular meetings that these

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people are aware of, but there's also
special meetings and workshops.

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And before every council meeting, you're
going to get a council agenda packet

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with background information on all of
the agenda items that are on the

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upcoming agenda. And that packet can be
anywhere from 250 pages to 2,000 pages

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just depending upon what is on the
agenda for that meeting. Most cities,

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the council members serve on other
committees, and those committee meetings

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usually happen during the daytime. If
they're not self-employed or retired,

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they need to make sure that their boss
is cognizant of the time commitment.

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Serving on city council can impact your
personal life, especially your family

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life. You know, you're going to be gone
on the evenings that you have council

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meetings. You might go out of town for
training as there's a lot of weekend

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commitments. A lot of times there's
banquetss and fundraisers. Your partner

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needs to understand the time commitment
and possibly their level of involvement.

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Uh if you're going to go represent the
city at a banquet or a fundraiser,

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perhaps you're expected to bring uh your
partner or your spouse with you. Most

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cities don't pay a salary to council
members or most cities if they do, it's

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very minimal. For example, uh College
Station doesn't pay anything uh to their

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council members. Brian pays $10 a month
and it is subject to withholding. So,

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they actually get $7.89 a month. I have
had people come in that wanted to run

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because they thought that being the
mayor or council member was a

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well-paying job, and it's not. Some
cities have more strict guidelines than

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just state law on conflict of interest.
Under state law, you may just have to

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abstain, but in Brian, you can't have an
interest at all. We had a guy that owned

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a glass company and he used to get all
the city work when windshields got

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broken or, you know, glass in a building
or something. Couldn't do that while he

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was on the council. Zero. We had another
council member that was a caterer and he

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couldn't cater for the city anymore. And
when you think about all the catering

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jobs that he could not do for the city,
that's a lot of money. You need to know

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going in, uh, I won't be able to cater
for the city. I won't be able to fix

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glass for the city if I'm on the
council. People that do this have a

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servant's heart. They truly want to
serve and help uh, improve the quality

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of life in their communities, and that's
admirable.

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But they need to understand but going in
the huge time commitment that's

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involved. And I think as long as they
know that and they have the family

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support, the employer support and they
they can work it in the way they need to

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into their life, they're going to be
fine.

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[Music]