(Note — For a fuller understanding of this article, please read this story about slate of proposed amendments.)
By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Three citizens appointed by the city council as members of a commission to review the city charter and recommend changes spoke to the council during its most recent meeting.
The trio addressed the council following an overview of the recommended changes given by Charles Zech, an attorney with the city’s contracted legal advisors, Denton Navarro Rocha Bernal & Zech, who advised the commission during its work. (See separate story.)
After Zech’s presentation, Mayor Al Arreola invited the members of the charter review commission in the audience to step to the podium and address the council.
Former Mayor Roberto “Bobby” Fernandez and Sandra Fuentes came to the podium, but Ken Herrera remained in his seat in the audience.
Fuentes told the council one of the additions recommended by the commission was a requirement that the council must begin advertising for the positions of city manager, city attorney, city secretary and municipal judge – the four city positions that answer directly to the council – when any of those positions becomes vacant.
Fuentes said, “That does not mean that you have two months to find someone, but just to advertise, and we voted on that and it passed, so we are asking for that to be in the city charter.”
Zech added, “(The change) essentially requires council to engage in some activity to begin filling those vacancies.”
Fernandez addressed the council next.
Fernandez told the council, “Just to speak on behalf of the committee that you all appointed, I want to thank the council for your appointments. Members of the committee were myself, Sandra Fuentes, Bea Vallejo, Eloy Padilla, Ken Herrera and Ana Markowski Smith.”
Fernandez continued, “We met twice a month. We went item by item. The assistance of your city staff, secretaries, the city manager, were awesome. The assistance of the (contracted) attorney to guide us and correct us on legal matters and point us in the right direction was awesome.
“I can speak for the committee and say that each item we read, we discussed, and sometimes we didn’t agree, but each person presented their reasons for their opposition and the person for it would present why, and we went back and forth, and we asked the attorney’s assistance.
“What do the citizens need to know about our city charter? It’s the most important instrument in the governance of the city, but it’s impossible to list specifically because of the changes in (state) legislation. You would be required to change the charter all the time. Whenever there’s a question on state statutes, that’s why you have your legal department to give you that clear definition,” Fernandez said.
He said the commission’s intent was always to work in the best interests of the community.
“Every amendment change was approved after considerable discussion, with the interests of our citizens all the time being the priority,” he added and thanked the council for the opportunity to serve.
Arreola thanked Fernandez, Fuentes and Herrera and the rest of the committee.
DeReus also thanked the committee.
He then asked about a recommended change in the municipal court section, which calls on the municipal judge to be appointed by the city manager, with confirmation by the council.
“So we’re turning that (the municipal judge position) into a department head? Because that is how department heads are hired and that person would no longer report to the city council. Am I reading that correct?” DeReus asked.
“That’s an accurate statement. That’s what would occur,” Zech replied.
He said he would defer the reasoning behind the recommended change to the committee members.
Fuentes said, “If memory serves, the intent of the committee was to make sure that we all understand that this is a city manager-run municipality. Our understanding is that whenever there are vacancies, the city manager brings the applicants forward, and I think that was the intent.”
She said the intent was not for the city manager to select the final candidate, but to bring the council a slate of qualified candidates.
DeReus also commented he believes the council must have a code of ethics or a code of conduct council members must sign saying they will comply with the provisions of the charter. He said he believes the code must also contain penalties for non-compliance.
“I think it is something we need to do. And as you said, the city manager is the prime driver of everything we do. We provide the guidance, we provide the direction we want the city manager to go, but on the day-to-day basis, he’s the one who’s doing it, and when we have all these different directions, if I go to the city manager and say, ‘Hey, go here,’ and Randy goes and says, ‘Go there;’ one, we’re both wrong, and now the city employee is torn, and we need to stop that,” DeReus said.
Fernandez said the committee had long discussions about that issue.
“The city charter calls on operating under a city manager-council form of government, and we want to continue with that form of government, with the city manager having the authority to run the daily activities of the city. With legal advice and discussion, it was the committee’s opinion it would be best for the council to develop their ordinances or their rules and regulations on how they want to monitor themselves, versus putting it in the city charter. It is needed, we agree, we just didn’t feel the charter was the place for it,” Fernandez said.
Herrera also spoke to the council, and he said he believed any discussion of a code of ethics for the council must include the mayor, and DeReus said when he said “council members,” he meant all of the council, including the mayor.
Councilman Jesus Lopez Jr. then asked about why the city auditor position had been eliminated from under the supervision of the city council.
“So the city council won’t be able to appoint a city auditor? Is that what this is about?” Lopez asked.
Fernandez replied, “There are two city auditors. It’s required by state law to have an auditor to audit your (financial) books. Then there is your in-house auditor, and there’s a difference. That’s what we were trying to distinguish between.”
Lopez then asked who appointed the auditor.
Zech replied the current charter reads the city council “may” appoint the in-house auditor.
“(The change) doesn’t change the city council’s authority to do that,” he added.
Fuentes said she is unaware of the city appointing an auditor but said city council can include whatever it wants.
“So (an in-house auditor) was added in 2017 to the charter, and that’s why it was changed on the organizational chart. We have tried multiple times putting it out there to hire someone, but that’s why we’ve had to go with the outside auditors for the past few years. The way I read this if we want to add it to the org chart, we’re allowed to do that,” DeReus said.
The council took no formal action at the end of the discussion.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com.
