[0:00] If you look at the recent polls
nationally about the public's trust of
[0:04] government, slightly less than 50% trust
the federal government to handle
[0:10] national affairs. Slightly more uh 50
60% trust the state government to handle
[0:17] state affairs. But when you look at
polls, more people trust their local
[0:21] governments. about 65 70% trust their
city councils, their counties and school
[0:27] districts to take care of local affairs.
So, yay, we're more trustworthy than the
[0:32] state or federal government, but those
numbers are still very low. If you're
[0:36] going to run for city council, I urge
you, I challenge you to do what you can
[0:41] to improve the public's trust. Conduct
yourself with integrity so that while
[0:46] citizens may not always like your
decisions, they trust that you're making
[0:50] it for the right reason. Together, each
of us can bolster citizens belief in
[0:54] their local governments and strengthen
democracy at the local level.
[1:07] The different types of cities in Texas
are important to know as a council
[1:11] member, especially before your
elections, because they all have
[1:14] different rules and different
regulations that you must abide by. the
[1:19] four different types of cities. There's
your three general law cities, which is
[1:23] general law A, general law B, and
general law C. And then you have home
[1:28] rule cities, which allow you just a
little bit more power, but each are
[1:32] important for knowing the rules and
regulations before your elections. The
[1:37] main difference between the general law
and home rule municipalities is the
[1:42] population that is within the city as
well as where they derive their
[1:47] authority from. With a general law city,
you are only given the authority and
[1:52] power that's provided by the state, such
as your statutes and codes, the Texas
[1:57] Constitution, those are the rules that
govern and you can only um have
[2:03] authority that's given or granted by
those rules and statutes. Whereas with
[2:07] the home rule municipality, you look to
the legislature not for powers or grants
[2:13] of power, but rather for limitations of
power.
[2:20] So, it's important to understand the
differences between the mayor council
[2:26] form of government in cities and the
city manager council. A lot of the
[2:32] larger cities in Texas have chosen the
city council/city manager form of
[2:38] government. It's kind of like having a
corporation. You have a board of
[2:42] directors, which is like a city council,
and then you have a CEO. The CEO runs
[2:49] the day-to-day operations. In a city,
your CEO, if you've chosen that form of
[2:54] government, is your city manager. Your
smaller cities may be the ones that
[2:59] choose the mayor council form of
government. In that case, your mayor
[3:05] will do the CEO job for the city. When
you have a city manager as the CEO of
[3:11] your city, the city council does not
have the authority to micromanage the
[3:17] city manager. Will be very important for
that council when hiring a city manager
[3:23] to choose the right person and have
trust in that person to run the
[3:27] dayto-day.
[3:30] The budget document is a culmination of
a whole lot of decisions and it can get
[3:37] pretty complicated. Your chief
executive, whether that's the mayor or a
[3:42] city manager, will present the budget
picture in terms of services. If one of
[3:49] your campaign promises is to improve
public safety, you go into the budget
[3:56] and you look for ways to enhance the
community's ability to provide public
[4:03] safety services. The budget, it's a
zero- sum game. In any community,
[4:08] resources are always limited. A lot of
that budget development process is
[4:13] negotiation and bargaining and there's
never enough resources to go around to
[4:19] fill everybody's promises. That budget
process is a great avenue for
[4:26] collaboration about just what is it we
are able to afford and what promises are
[4:32] we going to keep here.
[4:37] It is really important to keep in mind
that is actually the citizens's job to
[4:43] be skeptical. It is the citizens job to
ask the hard questions. This is what
[4:50] they get to do. This is how this system
was set up by our founding fathers. Uh
[4:55] we we don't have kings in this country.
What we have are citizens. We govern at
[5:01] the consent of the citizenry. They they
don't have to agree. They don't always
[5:07] have to be polite. They get to ask
questions. I think it's okay for
[5:12] citizens to be disruptive. It's not okay
for there to be a loss of decorum. That
[5:20] mayor's role during council meetings,
that responsibility to run a meeting
[5:27] with a certain decorum is not always
easy. And it's uh really important and
[5:35] there's a lot of great examples of
mayors who have uh performed that
[5:41] responsibility really well. It is a
constant
[5:46] job to engender trust with the citizens.
Never hide from the truth. Even when the
[5:53] news is really really bad, uh there will
be people whispering in your ear to spin
[6:00] the the news to something positive. Um
avoid that temptation because in uh the
[6:07] public service it never works out in the
end. It always backs fire backfires. It
[6:14] is always best to own it. The people
will forgive you. That is absolutely how
[6:19] you build trust.
Well, hopefully if you're running for
[6:23] city council, you believe in good
governance. And what's vital to
[6:28] governing well at the local level is
having our citizens trust us. And
[6:33] winning the public's trust starts during
your campaign. So, if you run a campaign
[6:38] that's transparent and you demonstrate
integrity, you can build up that trust
[6:44] and carry that momentum into being an
elected official. Once you're elected to
[6:49] the city council, you'll have a city
attorney advising the council on what
[6:53] you can do legally, what you cannot do,
and what you're mandated to do. But what
[6:59] I hope you do as an elected official is
not just settle for legal mandate. Just
[7:04] because your city attorney tells you you
can do it doesn't mean it's the right
[7:09] thing to do. And so I hope you'll strive
to actually govern with integrity and
[7:14] honesty and transparency and be an
ethical public official, which means
[7:19] going beyond just the legal limits. Once
you're elected, you're going to be
[7:23] subject to federal, state, and local
regulations that are going to affect
[7:28] your conduct. If your city is building
infrastructure using federal grants,
[7:34] there's going to be federal
anti-corruption rules that apply to your
[7:37] conduct, such as bribery. And then here
in Texas, we have many ethical rules
[7:43] that apply by law. And then beyond that,
many cities have their own local rules.
[7:48] So if you're running for public office,
it's wise to know those ethics rules
[7:52] before you get into it so you understand
if it's going to affect you, your
[7:56] family, your business, and how you
conduct your affairs.
[8:03] Immunity, be it sovereign immunity, uh
legislative immunity, or qualified, is
[8:10] the privilege not to have to face a
lawsuit and damages because of acts that
[8:15] are taken in one's official capacity. If
they're sued in their official capacity,
[8:20] it's just like suing the governmental
entity. If someone's acting in in an
[8:26] ultravirus fashion, like they were
acting without any sort of authority to
[8:30] do what they're doing, not staying in
their lane, they can definitely lose
[8:35] their immunity. Before taking action
that's going to significantly affect
[8:41] someone else's rights, an elected
official should try to pay attention to
[8:46] their city manager's instructions and
their city attorney who should give them
[8:51] advice uh of the potentials of these of
these decisions. Don't rush into any
[8:58] decisions without considering exactly
how your actions might affect some
[9:03] individual's rights.
[9:08] The Texas Public Information Act is a
statute that regulates um local
[9:12] governments or all government in the
state of Texas and it creates a
[9:16] presumption of openness in all official
business. So any official business that
[9:20] takes place there's a presumption should
be available to the public. So this the
[9:24] public information act regulates that
and it explains to the public how to get
[9:28] that information. The number one thing
that um candidates and elected officials
[9:32] need to know about the public
information act would be the presumption
[9:36] of openness. Especially if you're coming
from a private entity background where
[9:40] there is a lot of confidential private
conversations that are not going to go
[9:44] out to the public. That really doesn't
exist when you are a elected official.
[9:48] Pretty much everything your entire
business is to run the city and all that
[9:52] business is is subject to public
disclosure. A lot of times we think,
[9:56] "Oh, we're taking my personal notes
about this meeting or I'm having a quote
[10:01] unquote private conversation about a
potential contract." Anything that is
[10:05] related to the transaction official
business is going to be available to the
[10:09] public. And so just everything you
create or everything that comes across
[10:12] your desk, kind of keeping that in mind,
this could be in the newspaper or these
[10:16] days Facebook. This could go out there.
So, the Texas Open Meetings Act is a
[10:23] state law um really focused on the
public's ability to uh engage in
[10:29] conversations and discussions with their
public officials um and also to hold
[10:33] their public officials accountable to
the decision-making process happening in
[10:37] an open setting where it can be observed
um in a transparent fashion. And so
[10:42] anytime that city officials are gathered
to discuss public business, that usually
[10:47] is going to have to take place in an
open properly posted meeting. What that
[10:50] means is that we have an agenda that
goes out beforehand, a list of topics
[10:54] you're going to discuss, give the public
an opportunity to weigh in and provide
[10:58] input and then any discussions,
especially if they're going to occur
[11:02] amongst a majority or a quorum of that
governing body, need to occur during
[11:06] that properly posted meeting. There are
few exceptions that allow for closed
[11:11] executive session discussion of topics,
but those are limited circumstances
[11:15] under the law. The part of open meetings
that's often tricky is is communications
[11:20] outside of those formal uh context in
the formal meetings. And so that's where
[11:24] we start to to really focus in on is
there a series of communications? Are we
[11:28] having emails or text chains on the side
between council members? Are we meeting
[11:33] up maybe in a less formal setting where
we got to count up and say, "Ah, do we
[11:37] have a quorum here? Do we have a
majority of council members present? Um,
[11:40] when those things happen is when council
members need to be aware they need to
[11:44] hold off on that discussion and make
sure it takes place in a properly posted
[11:47] public meeting.
[11:52] Cities are political subdivisions of the
state. So, we look to their authority
[11:56] from the Texas Constitution as well as
state laws and administrative rules. So,
[12:02] there are two types of cities in Texas,
general law and home rule. General law
[12:07] cities basically have the powers that
the state has given them. If a statute
[12:11] says that the city can do something, it
can. If the state has not said that this
[12:16] general law city has authority to act,
they probably don't. Homeless cities, on
[12:21] the other hand, have the powers that are
given to them in their city charter,
[12:24] that their voters elected, and they're
basically authorized to do such actions
[12:30] unless they are prohibited by other law.
The most important thing for candidates
[12:35] for office to understand is that you
need to determine what authority you
[12:41] have before you can take certain
actions. Many people running for office
[12:45] assume that their community is not doing
certain things and should change their
[12:51] practices. And sometimes they can, but
you first have to check and be sure
[12:56] they're authorized to do that.
[13:00] So when you're dealing with your zoning
regulations, a lot of times they
[13:04] separate your uses into residential,
commercial, industrial, and
[13:09] agricultural. It can regulate the lot
sizes, the building heights, the
[13:14] building sizes. One of the concerns that
a city councilman may have is when I'm
[13:21] making my decision, what are any kind of
constraints that I may have under state
[13:26] or federal law in my decision making?
And it depends on the type of decision
[13:31] that you're making. For example, if it's
a zoning decision, it is discretionary,
[13:37] but you can't make a decision that's
arbitrary or capricious or
[13:41] discriminatory. That would violate state
and federal laws. It has to be done in
[13:46] conformance with the comprehensive plan.
If you're zoning an area and the area is
[13:51] residential, you wouldn't want to
approve an application to make it a
[13:56] heavy industrial use within that
residential area. That would violate
[14:01] probably your comprehensive plan. When
they're running for office, they should
[14:05] get a copy of the city's comprehensive
plan. In the comprehensive plan, you
[14:10] usually have your capital improvement
plan. So these are major infrastructure
[14:15] that the city would put in their budget.
The candidate and then the elected
[14:20] official will know what um land uses the
city has in their comprehensive plan and
[14:28] then what their needs are, what their
infrastructure needs are.
[14:33] When you become a candidate and
certainly when you get elected, there
[14:38] are different expectations of you. There
are different standards that are going
[14:41] to apply these days. Once you're a
public official, you're always a public
[14:47] official. You can't just take off your
city council member cap nights,
[14:52] weekends, or when you travel to Las
Vegas. People are going to expect that
[14:56] higher level of conduct all the time.
There's going to be a higher level of
[15:01] scrutiny. Sometimes I have clients say,
"Allan, I just want to be treated like
[15:06] everybody else." You're not everybody
else once you're elected. And you may
[15:10] have some tough choices between what you
think is right for you, your business,
[15:15] your family versus the community at
large. Cuz once you're elected, ethics
[15:20] are going to mandate you care more about
your city and your community than your
[15:24] own personal financial gain.
Fortunately, there's lots of information
[15:28] freely available about ethics online.
the office of the attorney general's
[15:32] office, the Texas Municipal League, they
all publish information about the ethics
[15:37] codes and statutes that apply. If you
are running for city council in a
[15:42] particular city, inquire with the city
secretary, the municipal clerk, if
[15:46] perhaps their city attorney has
published any rules, or if the city has
[15:50] any local rules you're going to have to
abide by. Get those rules, read through
[15:55] them, and understand them before you
actually take the oath of office.
[16:01] So many people who are thinking about
running for city council or mayor are
[16:07] not aware of the time commitment that's
involved. So there's a um a whole lot
[16:12] more to it than one meeting a month.
There's regular meetings that these
[16:18] people are aware of, but there's also
special meetings and workshops.
[16:23] And before every council meeting, you're
going to get a council agenda packet
[16:28] with background information on all of
the agenda items that are on the
[16:33] upcoming agenda. And that packet can be
anywhere from 250 pages to 2,000 pages
[16:41] just depending upon what is on the
agenda for that meeting. Most cities,
[16:46] the council members serve on other
committees, and those committee meetings
[16:52] usually happen during the daytime. If
they're not self-employed or retired,
[16:56] they need to make sure that their boss
is cognizant of the time commitment.
[17:03] Serving on city council can impact your
personal life, especially your family
[17:08] life. You know, you're going to be gone
on the evenings that you have council
[17:12] meetings. You might go out of town for
training as there's a lot of weekend
[17:16] commitments. A lot of times there's
banquetss and fundraisers. Your partner
[17:21] needs to understand the time commitment
and possibly their level of involvement.
[17:26] Uh if you're going to go represent the
city at a banquet or a fundraiser,
[17:31] perhaps you're expected to bring uh your
partner or your spouse with you. Most
[17:36] cities don't pay a salary to council
members or most cities if they do, it's
[17:42] very minimal. For example, uh College
Station doesn't pay anything uh to their
[17:48] council members. Brian pays $10 a month
and it is subject to withholding. So,
[17:53] they actually get $7.89 a month. I have
had people come in that wanted to run
[17:58] because they thought that being the
mayor or council member was a
[18:02] well-paying job, and it's not. Some
cities have more strict guidelines than
[18:08] just state law on conflict of interest.
Under state law, you may just have to
[18:13] abstain, but in Brian, you can't have an
interest at all. We had a guy that owned
[18:18] a glass company and he used to get all
the city work when windshields got
[18:22] broken or, you know, glass in a building
or something. Couldn't do that while he
[18:26] was on the council. Zero. We had another
council member that was a caterer and he
[18:32] couldn't cater for the city anymore. And
when you think about all the catering
[18:36] jobs that he could not do for the city,
that's a lot of money. You need to know
[18:42] going in, uh, I won't be able to cater
for the city. I won't be able to fix
[18:47] glass for the city if I'm on the
council. People that do this have a
[18:51] servant's heart. They truly want to
serve and help uh, improve the quality
[18:57] of life in their communities, and that's
admirable.
[19:01] But they need to understand but going in
the huge time commitment that's
[19:05] involved. And I think as long as they
know that and they have the family
[19:09] support, the employer support and they
they can work it in the way they need to
[19:15] into their life, they're going to be
fine.
[19:23] [Music]
[19:30] [Music]