Hawk Cove, Texas, May 31, 2023. Few things say “orderly transition” like finishing your work before the new people arrive. At a special meeting called to order at 6:47 p.m., the Council heard public comments from two citizens and then, in the words of the minutes, “FUTURE COUNCILMEMBERS [names omitted] GAVE PUBLIC COMMENTS.” The future council members spoke from the public microphone, which is where the public speaks.
The sitting Council then went “OUT OF OPEN SESSION @ 7:02 P.M.” and into executive session at 7:18 p.m. on nine items, each an ordinance. It came out at 9:48 p.m., returned to open session at 10:01 p.m., and approved all nine, one motion at a time. Each one reads the same: “ALL MEMBERS PRESENT WERE IN AGREEMENT AND THE MOTION CARRIED.”
What passed
- The police department and Chief of Police (item A), the office of City Administrator (B) and its agenda authority (C).
- Council members’ dealings with City staff (D), with vendors and contractors (H), and with City records (I).
- The sewer system’s plan of operation (F) and its utility rates (G).
- Item E: an ordinance “establishing qualifications/procedures candidates for seats on council shall be elected, qualified/ administered the oath of office.”
The minutes give titles, not numbers. Our library holds nine ordinances numbered 2023-05-31.1 through .9 whose titles match. Our copies are unsigned, and the line “Passed and approved this ____ day of ___________, 2023” is blank on each.
Item E, for the incoming class
Ordinance 2023-05-31.9 explains how winners become members. Before the oath, the Council “sitting at the time of any election,” or investigators it picks, “shall have not less than thirty (30) days from the date of any such election in which to begin investigation,” and “such investigation may continue for so long as the Investigator/s continue to collect information, materials and witnesses relating to Election Wrongdoing” (§6). Until every qualification is complete, “No Candidate shall have any authority” (§8), and “The Oath of Office administered to any Candidate shall be by the Mayor” (§9). Changing it takes “not fewer than four (4) Council members in the presence of all five (5) voting members” (§10).
Also that night, and the week before
The Council accepted “THE RESIGNATION OF CITY COUNCIL MEMBER PLACE 4” and filled the vacancy the same evening with “AMANDA BODIFORD, NOMINATED BY LEETTA GOOLSBY IN HER RESIGNATION” (minutes, p. 7), then adjourned at 10:20 p.m. Six days earlier, on May 25, it had approved the City’s agreements with twelve positions and vendors, from the “Wastewater Plant Operator” and the “City Administrator” to the “City Attorney/Prosecutor,” each with all members present in agreement. That meeting’s announcements read: “MAYOR DARREN EVANS WANTS TO SHOW APPRECIATION TO CURRENT COUNCILMEMBERS AND CURRENT STAFF.”
The new members, the minutes of May 31 tell us, were already in the room. They were simply in the other part of it.