Texas City Government Overwhelmingly White, Male; Bastrop Mayor Resists Recall Over Ethics With Trump-Esque Refusal To Accept Responsibility

The city of Bastrop has rejected a petition to recall Mayor Lyle Nelson over allegations of ethics lapses on legal grounds but gave the petitioners more time to address the issue.

The petition received 1,632 signatures, exceeding the 25% threshold of registered voters the city charter requires for recall petitions.

However, interim City Secretary Irma Parker told the City Council on Tuesday that the 96-page petition did not have the affidavits the city charter requires to support a recall petition. She said the petitioners will have 10 days “to cure the defective petition” after they receive a letter from the city secretary about the missing affidavits.

The city secretary received a petition calling for the recall of Nelson on July 25 from Council Members John Kirkland, Kevin Plunkett, Cynthia Meyer and former Council Member Jimmy Crouch, among others. The petitioners demanded Nelson’s removal because they said he violated the city’s ethics ordinance by impeding the city’s investigation into financial mismanagement at Visit Bastrop after having a romantic relationship with its CEO, Susan Smith.

In May, the City Council limited and stripped some of Nelson's duties as mayor after he was accused of refusing to give officials 8½ months' worth of communications between him and Smith, who was investigated for misuse of public funds while she was the head of Visit Bastrop. The marketing company promotes tourism and is funded by more than $1.5 million of the city's hotel occupancy tax.

If the petition is validated and the voters recall Nelson, the city of Bastrop could spend up to $50,000 ordering special elections, according to the city secretary.

“I made a personal and private mistake,” Nelson said at Tuesday's meeting. “I took responsibility, apologized for my actions and sought forgiveness from God, family and friends. However, some people, including some on this council, continue to try to wrongfully connect my private indiscretion to a misuse of funds and alleged criminal conduct. … All I did was resist an unlawful invasion of my constitutional right of privacy.”

Nelson will host a community meeting with his attorney at 6:30 p.m. Monday at the Hampton Inn, 240 S. Hassler Blvd., in Bastrop to share information about the recall petition.

Political divides also were on display Tuesday as the council approved changes to its rules and considered action to include proposed city charter amendments.

Council Member Kerry Fossler proposed lowering the council’s quorum, or the number of members necessary to hold a meeting, from four to three at the council’s July 23 meeting. She said she proposed the change to prevent three or more council members from discussing city business behind closed doors, possibly forming voting blocs.

On Tuesday, Fossler proposed adding language to the council’s rules that would keep the council’s quorum at four members but would prohibit voting council members from discussing city business in groups of three or more outside public meetings.

Meyer and Kirkland said Fossler’s proposal should make an exception for ad hoc subcommittees with three council members serving on them, such as the committee with the Bastrop Economic Development Corp. to build a new recreation center. Meyer said these subcommittees often handle sensitive information that doesn’t lend itself to a public meeting.

Fossler proposed lowering the council’s representation on those subcommittees from three to two to promote transparency. However, Plunkett said having a third council member present ensures “diversity of thought” from the council in those subcommittees.

“I still don’t think it requires three people to have a healthy discussion,” Council Member Cheryl Lee said. “The other thing we have to remember is that with the ad hoc committees, [their business] will come back to council anyway… [Council will have] the final discussion publicly.”

Fossler ultimately motioned to prohibit three or more council members from discussing city business outside of a public meeting without Meyer and Kirkland’s requested exceptions. The motion failed 3-2, with Kirkland, Meyer and Plunkett dissenting.

Kirkland later motioned to include the exceptions he mentioned previously, which passed unanimously. The City Council then unanimously approved the rule changes with the amendment to the quorum rules.

Separately, in an 11-2 vote, the city’s Charter Review Commission had recommended an amendment to the city charter to keep the quorum at four to hold City Council meetings but lower it to three for all other purposes to prevent members from discussing city business outside public meetings.

“That was a strongly held feeling by the commission,” said David Bragg, the Charter Review Commission’s chair. “The suggestion of a subcommittee thinking deviously — if I’m one of three members of the council, and I choose to conduct things secretly, and I’ve got two others that agree, you can form a subcommittee on any sensitive issue and discuss it at heart’s length without ever having to have a public meeting.”

Bragg said he thinks the council’s current quorum rules would make it easy for council members to avoid public discussion of public issues. Charter Review Commissioner Debbie Moore said she “could see no reason to not go with the two quorum [solution], unless it is to further a personal agenda.”

The City Council plans to approve placing the proposed charter amendments, including the quorum change, on the November ballot at a special council meeting Monday.