Mayor Webster trying to destroy Kyle’s form of government; council members need to display some backbone and prevent it

There are basically two forms of municipal government — the council-manager form and the strong mayor form. Kyle employs the council-manager type, which is perfectly suitable for a city of its size. The strong mayor type is usually reserved for cities with a population hovering around or exceeding 1 million — cities than can afford to have a full-time mayor who is also the city’s administrator.

Under the council-manager form of government, all council members are relatively equal. The mayor is little more than the chair of the council, but only has one vote, the same as every other council member, and has absolutely no veto power. The council appoints a city manager who is charged with running the city. The council is a policy making body only and is absolutely forbidden, under the council-manager form of government, from getting involved in the day-to-day operations of the city. If it has any questions or concerns about those day-to-day operations, it directs those concerns to the city manager.

The Kyle City Charter, in Section 4.03 (p) also grants the City Council the power to "Appoint and remove the city attorney, the municipal judge and the associate municipal judges." Then there is Section 4.05 of the charter, called "Prohibitions," which, as that title suggests, prohibits council members from inquiring directly with anyone on the city staff except those individuals the charter permits the council to appoint; i.e., the city manager, the city attorney, the municipal judge and the associate municipal judges.

The overwhelming number of council inquiries, however, will be directed to the city manager and it is the city manager’s responsibility, under the council manager form of government, to answer these inquiries as accurately and as expeditiously as possible. Now the manager may decide the best way to accomplish this is to have some other member of his staff — the assistant city manager, the chief of staff, the finance director, the parks department head, etc. — to research the information and relay that information to the council. But that is a decision for the manager to make.

Kyle Mayor Todd Webster, who is acting like a petty despot using his office to exact revenge on those he feels opposes him, is blatantly and illegally trying to subvert Kyle’s established form of government. He blatantly misinterpreting Section 4.05 (Pay attention, mayor. The word "prohibition" is defined as "A law, order, or decree that forbids something." Even you should be able to grasp that concept.) is trying to push through a resolution that would effectively abolish a basic tenant of the council-manager form of government. Hopefully the other six members of the council will display some backbone and have the courage to stand up to Webster’s tyranny. And if the rest of the council is too weak to stand up to Webster, than City Manager Scott Sellers should submit his resignation immediately simply because the council is not allowing him to do the job they hired him to do and the job the council-manager form of government requires of him. Sellers needs to place himself on a much higher ethical level than the muck the mayor is trying to drag him into.

What Webster is trying to do is block council members’ access to the city manager, one of the few city officials the council is permitted to interact with and the only person who, under the charter, can address the council’s questions about the city’s operations. He is trying to pass a resolution that would direct the city manager to refer all requests for information to Chief of Staff Jerry Hendrix. This is not only in direct defiance of the council manager form of government (i.e., th mayor getting involved in the day-to-day operations of the city), but it also erects an unnecessary roadblock in the flow of information. Like I said, if Sellers believes Hendrix is the best person to expeditiously handle a council member’s request, he has the discretion to instruct Hendrix to handle it. But it’s the manager’s decision to make on an individual basis, not the mayor’s to make on a blanket basis. Let me repeat: What Webster is attempting is an example of the one member of the council getting involved in the day-to-day operations of the city and that is strictly prohibited under the council-manager form of government.

Webster’s subversion of the charter also robs the council of its accountability functions and the other six council members must step up and prevent this from happening.. Under the charter or the council-manager form of government, the council can’t hold the chief of staff accountable for anything. That position reports to the city manager, not the council. If Hendrix fails to respond to council inquiries, there’s not a damn thing the council can do about it. But, when you get to the nub of it, that’s Webster’s motive. He is seeking to silence those council members, specifically Diane Hervol and Daphne Tenorio, who disagree with him. That’s all this is about and it’s absolutely shameful, despicable and petty.

Here’s hoping the other six members will have the courage to stand up to Webster, to tell him "We refuse to allow you to deny us our basic right to communicate directly with the city manager as the charter directs us to, we will not allow you to subvert the council-manager form of government and destroy our system of government in Kyle by getting directly involved in the day-to-day operations of the city. You are nothing more than one member of this council without the right to act as dictator over us." And if they lack that courage, I hope City Manager Scott Sellers has the integrity to say "You are putting roadblocks in my path to doing the job you hired to me to do, you are prohibiting me from acting the way a manager is supposed to act in a council-manager form of government, so I’m submitting my resignation so that I may go to a community that respects and values my talents and abilities." Sellers doesn’t deserve to be treated with the mayor’s kind of disrespect.

It is worth noting that if Hendrix really was a "chief of staff," instead of someone with the title, but not the responsibilities, it would be natural to make all inquiries through that position. By definition, a chief of staff "provides a buffer between a chief executive and that executive's direct-reporting team. The chief of staff generally works behind the scenes to solve problems, mediate disputes, and deal with issues before they are brought to the chief executive." But that is not Hendrix’s role with the City of Kyle and the proof of that is the fact that on page 4 of the city manager’s proposed budget, the page that lists the "City Management Team," Hendrix’s name appears third, behind that of Assistant City Manager James Earp. Besides that, under the council-manager form of government, the city manager is just that, the manager, and is not a chief executive.

So there’s that, as well.

But here’s the proof that Webster is acting in direct defiance of the charter as well as an illustration of how ludicrous his idea is.. His resolution does not just state the position which the city manager should direct inquiries to — it actually cites Hendrix by name. That, has the affect of prohibiting the city manager from ever assigning Hendrix to another position within the city; i.e., the mayor is prohibiting the city manager from doing is job. And what happens if Hendrix should resign or retire? Under this resolution, all council inquiries would cease until the city manager could find another person named Jerry Hendrix to accept the job.

This just so wrong for so many reasons. It is illogical as well as illegal. The mayor should apologize for even suggesting it.

Finally, for what it’s worth, here’s some advice for the mayor on how to act for the rest of his time in office:

• Stop micro-managing. Quit trying to rip apart the fabric of the council-manager form of government by dictating how the city staff should do its job. Let the city manager do what you hired him to do.
• Treat each and every member of the City Council with dignity and respect, regardless of how you feel about them personally. Ennoble them, empower them, encourage them. Honor their individuality and give them the freedom to be different and act differently than you might in a similar situation. If their individual constituencies do not approve of their council performance, they will make that known if that council person seeks re-election. Promote unity not divisiveness, which will be the result of this resolution. Work as hard as you can to create an atmosphere of trust, not suspicion, among council members. And never forget, you can achieve unity, you can achieve respect, you can achieve harmony without having 7-0 votes on every issue.
• If a reporter asks you a question, answer it, even if you can’t stand what that reporter writes. Remember, if you’re in the news, someone’s going to tell your side of the story. It can either be you, who really knows your side better than anyone else, or the reporter, who doesn’t. It’s your choice.
• Rise above all the petty differences and be the leader this city elected you to be. I am absolutely, 100 per cent confident you can do this. I know you have it in you.