Recall effort initiated against Selbera

A group of citizens, led by an individual who once contributed to Becky Selbera’s election campaign, has filed a recall petition against the District 2 council member for "misconduct and abuse of her power." Specifically, the petition claims Selbera improperly solicited a job offer, used "city personnel for her own personal gain" and recently voted to raise taxes for Kyle property owners "but she has not paid her own property taxes for many years."

"She is an embarrassment to the City of Kyle," the recall effort’s leader, Lila Knight, told me. "The people of Kyle deserve better."

Early yesterday, I e-mailed Selbera seeking her response to each of the allegations, but she has yet to respond. She, along with Mayor Todd Webster, offered a statement to the authors of an Austin-American Statesman story concerning the recall effort, but both sidestepped the issues raised by the petition.

Yesterday, city spokesperson Kim Hilsenbeck told me "The recall petition against Council Member Becky Selbera was filed by Lila Knight. It has been certified by our City Secretary Amelia Sanchez as having all the information required by the city charter. Ms. Knight can begin attempting to collect the required signatures. She has 90 days to return the forms to be verified. "

In those 90 days, Knight and her group must collect somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,450 signatures, which raises an interesting ethical question I don’t have an answer for: Should registered voters in Districts 1 and 3 be able to unseat a council person elected only by the voters of District 2? Incidentally, the number of signatures required is about 13 times the number of votes Selbera received in her last election in 2014.

Selbera told the Austin newspaper that Knight "has run people against me and she has failed." Knight told me that not only is Selbera’s statement untrue, but that she actually wrote Selbera a check for $160 for her 2011 election campaign. Her support for Selbera waned, Knight told me, once the council member started being forced to appear before the Ethics Commission to answer various complaints lodged against her.

She also said this effort is not hers alone. "We have an informal group of people who are involved in this," Knight told me. "We've been talking amongst ourselves for a long time about this. I was the one who pulled the trigger on actually submitting the petition because I know the Election Code pretty well. There is no way in hell I could do this alone.

"How successful the recall effort will be depends on the voters of Kyle," Knight said. "Do they really want a council member who refuses to pay their taxes, year after year, setting their tax rate and voting on spending? Do the voters of Kyle want a council member who is repeatedly charged with ethics violations? This is not about the ‘survival’ of Miss Selbera. It’s about the survival of the citizens of Kyle.

"I do not have a personal vendetta against Miss Selbera. I am, however, personally offended that an elected official would vote to raise taxes while being delinquent in paying their own — year after year. The taxpayers of Kyle deserve better."

According to the article that appeared in Saturday’s American-Statesman, Mayor Webster claimed the recall effort was launched by "no growth" advocates who are trying to gain influence on the city council.

"No one in their right mind would think they could be ‘no growth’ and simultaneously gain any influence on the city council,’ Knight countered "The vast majority of the people of Kyle are pro-growth, including myself. But the council should be listening to the people — they do not want, for example, a roundabout, soccer fields in Waterleaf Park, or higher taxes. Our council is not listening. I am for ‘smart growth.’ Frivolous spending resulting in the raising our tax rate to the highest of any municipality in Hays County - and higher than any town on the I-35 corridor does nothing to encourage our growth as a city. Quite the contrary. It kills it.

"By the way, none of this has anything to do with the recall of Miss Selbera," Knight added. "And the Mayor knows it. If the mayor wants to comment on the recall petition, he should address the facts stated in the petition. His inability to refute the facts speaks loudly. The mayor and Miss Selbera are left only with attacking my character and my motives. But that is a common political ploy, regardless of how distasteful it might be."

Fogley fumbles recusal attempt

It is a given that the Kyle City Council does not follow Robert’s Rules of Order or any other accepted parliamentary procedures, but there are certain ethical guidelines that are so tantamount to good government, they must be obeyed. Every single person who serves on a city council or a city board/commission/committee in Kyle should know how to recuse themselves so as to avoid any hint of conflict of interest.

Now different municipalities have different procedures for initiating the recusal process. For the sake of example, let’s use a member of a city council as our subject here because the situation I’m talking about involved a neophyte city council member, Damon Fogley, at last Tuesday’s city council meeting. Normally what happens in situations like this is council members will prepare somewhat before they come to council meetings. They will have at least carefully read the council’s agenda and, thus, will be aware of any item which may pose a conflict of interest before the meeting even starts. I don’t know the exact procedure here in Kyle, but in the civilized world of municipal government, a council person wishing to be recused because a particular agenda item may pose a potential conflict will file a signed affidavit noting that possible conflict with the city secretary, who will then notify the council’s presiding officer just prior to the commencement of that meeting.

The key here is "preparation," a council member actually studying the agenda somewhat a day or two, or even an hour or two, prior to the start of the council meeting. I am not sure that every member of the Kyle City Council takes any time preparing for these meetings.

However it’s handled, there are certain rules that apply in all situations of recusal. The presiding officer must know of a council person’s recusal intent before the agenda item comes up for discussion. And the council member who has been recused must physically leave the chamber where the item is being discussed and voted upon. Fogley did neither Tuesday.

The item in question was a rezoning issue to allow a convenience store/gas station type use on a 1.75 acres that was zoned single family residential. at 2050 E. RR 150. Instead of saying anything ahead of time, Fogley sat through the entire discussion of the item and, just as the vote was about to be taken, asked to be recused. But then, instead of getting up and leaving the chamber as is required in any recusal motion, even one as illegal as Fogley’s was, he just sat there like the Say-No-Evil monkey and simply didn’t cast a vote. Not voting or abstaining from voting on an item is not the same thing as a recusal. The item passed 5-0.

Now I’m not going to put the entire blame for this foolishness on Fogley. Just as much responsibility for this inexcusable behavior needs to be shared with city staff. And there is a very simple way to guard against having our city leaders acting like idiots in the future. Between the time a person is elected for the first time to the city council and that person is sworn in, the staff, led the city attorney, must conduct some form of orientation program for these individuals so that they are aware of the basic rules of Robert’s as well as the reasons to recuse oneself and the proper procedure for a recusal. Staff should conduct the same program for all new members to city boards and commissions as well. If handled correctly, such an orientation class could be held in under an hour.

In other action Tuesday night, the council:

• Seemed receptive the idea presented by an organization called Appa Aguilas to form a soccer program in Kyle, especially if that meant Appa Aguilas was going to relieve the city of the responsibility of maintaining Waterleaf Park.
• Reappointed Mike Wilson, Irene Melendez and Timothy Kay to the Planning & Zoning Commission and appointed former city council candidate Dex Ellison to the commission to replace retiring commissioner Dan Ryan.
• Denied a request to permit overhead electrical service along Bebee Road.
• Approved 5-1 (CM Diane Hervol cast the lone dissenting vote and CM Daphne Tenorio had an excused absence due to illness) a zoning request that will allow the construction of a pair of warehouses on Lehman Road near RR 150.
• Unanimously approved a zoning request to permit the construction 82 rental duplexes directly behind these warehouses.
• In one of the quickest annexation moves on record, the council voted 5-0 (CM Becky Selbera left the meeting without announcing why just prior to discussing this item) to annex the 135.78 acres where David Weekley Homes and Scott Felder Homes are planning a subdivision immediately west of Hometown Kyle. The entire discussion on this issue and the vote consumed less than two minutes of the council’s time. Moments later, the council allowed 2.681 acres of this property to be rezoned so it could be used for retail services right at the intersection of North Old Stagecoach and Cypress roads.
• Discussed the possibility of installing up to three stop signs in the Waterleaf subdivision in an attempt to slow drivers who are apparently racing through the streets of this area at speeds close to 40 miles an hour.
• Heard that, although construction has begun on the Marketplace-to-Burleson road project, the official groundbreaking ceremonies will take place Wednesday, Oct. 7, at 9:30 a.m.
• Was reminded that the council’s first meeting in October will be on the first Wednesday of the month, not the usual first Tuesday, because that Tuesday is National Night Out in Texas and Florida.
• Was informed by City Manager Scott Sellers that Stage 2 water restrictions were returning because (1) water consumption in Kyle was 33 percent greater this year than last and (2) the Barton Springs Pool of the Edwards Aquifer is "steadily dropping" and the San Antonio Pool of the Edwards is in Stage 2.