The October 4th meeting

The meeting began at 5:30 pm, presided over by Mayor pro tem Gil Lillard (Mayor Bill Weber was traveling). Perhaps 10 visitors were present, maybe less. I did the invocation.

The first agenda item was Yard of the Month awards, which went to the Crook, Riley, Williams and Wells families. Gil Lillard was assisted by Carolyn Baccus.

Next was the quarterly report from the Community Services and Development, presented by City Engineer Mitch Davison because Community Services Director Randall Riggs was out. Mitch showed photos of six new buildings, and mentioned that three new homes were under construction.

Then was a time to hear from visitors. First came former Councilman Robert Humphrey "seeking justice" regarding the investigation of evidence of impropriety during Karen O'Bric's management of the Arboretum. Noting that this issue was on the agenda, he encouraged the Council to "be brave" in pursuing this, but only if actual evidence came to light. He did not want to sanction the expenses of an investigation without evidence, unlike the recent investigation of City Manager Yost Zakhary. He also mentioned that he had determined via an Open Records request that the total cost of investigating the City Manager had been just over $71k, rather than the ~ $25k figure that was only the cost of Barney Knight's investigation (actually $23.6k, see here). Mr. Humphrey had alluded previously to costs of the internal investigation that preceded the external one. So I think the $71K figure must include costs of the City Attorneys and personnel hunting down documents and getting statements, etc., though no details were given.

Next came Sue Wolff to say that she appreciated getting the Mayor's letter announcing the exoneration of City Manager Yost Zakhary (see here) in her water bill a few days ago. She hopes the City will continue to use this venue to get out the facts of various situations to counter gossip and rumors.

Then former Councilmember Dee Smith came to ask about when the letter would be showing up in water bills. It turns out that these letters only began going out a few days ago because the three billing cycles are 14 days apart, and the letter had to await the signatures of all seven Council members before going out. But if you haven't gotten it already, you should in your next water bill. (it hasn't shown up in mine yet)

Incidentally, expect your next water bill to include the 10% increase that was deemed necessary to keep the water fund viable. (I think that part did show up in mine!)

Then came the "consent agenda", which consisted of

(a) last meeting's minutes;

(b) paying for pizzas for the Woodway Family Center's programs (this comes out of a fee each team pays); interestingly, Mazzio's under-bid Pizza Hut and Rosati's, with a large 1-topping pizza (including drinks) at $5.25 each.

(c) purchasing a backhoe for the City. The lowest bidder (out of six) was RDO Equipment (a local place) with a John Deere at $51,961. This was well under the next nearest bid, reflecting excellent homework by the City staff on this. Buying locally an American-made unit at the lowest cost was the best of all possible outcomes. And "nothing runs like a Deere"!

Items 6 and 7 dealt with costs associated with rehabilitation of the Hwy 84 well, and Item 8 dealt with authorizing the City manager to get started on the Business Acres well. This well is projected to cost a total of about $4 million (including the pipes to connect it to the existing system) and is expected to be online about next June. With the Hwy 84 well back in service and the new Business Acres well, Woodway would have enough capacity to need no external water Oct. - April. However, during May - Sept., Woodway uses so much water per capita, in the same range as very upscale communities like Highland Park in Dallas, etc., that even with the new wells we will have to purchase outside water (from Waco and/or Lake Belton).

The final item was discussion and possible action on authorizing the City Attorneys to proceed to look into allegations regarding Karen O'Bric's management of the Arboretum (mentioned previously). Mayor pro tem Gil Lillard mentioned that he had been called late this afternoon (as had Don Baker) by one of the City Attorneys and asked to table this item, with explanations to be given each Councilmember individually by phone. This caused a good deal of frustration among several of the Council, especially Scott Giddings and myself. I had asked one of the attorneys to deal with this at least two weeks ago. I think everyone on the Council wants whatever is known or can be known about this to be made public. Former Councilman Robert Humphrey has certainly been very patient waiting for some action or announcement on this. Several of the Council were under the impression that the City Attorneys had already investigated this, so why not make it public? The explanation seems to be that once a report is made to the City Council, that information becomes public record, and the attorneys want to keep some things confidential in light of the pending lawsuit Karen O'Bric has against the City. Incidentally, Texas Municipal League attorneys are representing the City in the lawsuit, but our City Attorneys still render legal counsel on this matter. As Scott Giddings suggested, as things stand the Council will likely require an executive session with the City attorneys on this at the next meeting (Oct. 25) or the one following.

The meeting adjourned about 6:15 pm, making this the shortest regular meeting of the Council since the May elections. No meeting for three weeks, since next Monday is a holiday (Columbus Day). Incidentally, daylight savings time doesn't start until the first Sunday in November (the 7th).