Councilmember resigns amidst ‘power struggle’

Councilmember Patricia Cantu-Kelly resigned from the Wimberley City Council after stating she could no longer be part of a “mayoral regime.”

“I can no longer be a part of a mayoral regime that treats and thinks of everyone as their subordinate and is in constant need for the power struggle with staff and council,” Cantu-Kelly said.

Mayor Susan Jaggers said the council would consider accepting the resignation during the next council meeting.

“She is entitled to her opinion,” Jaggers said. “We disagree, and it is really disappointing she decided to quit.”

While the city of Wimberley elections do not have political parties, in comparison to Republicans and Democrats on the national level, recently candidates have begun running for election in groups as opposed to individually. During Cantu-Kelly’s election, she ran as part of the same group as the mayor.

The resignation came at the end of a council meeting that showed a glimpse into the power struggle Cantu-Kelly referenced.

City Administrator Shawn Cox and City Secretary Laura Calcote placed an item on the agenda to designate the placement of the city secretary’s office in city hall. Cox said that he had been asked to swap the city secretary’s office with that of the mayor but he did not think it was the right move.

“It is my responsibility to set out where the offices are,” Cox said. “Subsequently, after the Thanksgiving holiday, I was no longer asked if the office locations could be moved, I was told it would be moved. And, in fact, it was moved. We came out to a number of pieces of furniture” from the mayor’s office moved into council chambers.

Jaggers said she felt the other office was better situated for the city secretary.

After the meeting, Cantu-Kelly posted a statement on Facebook about the situation.

“This has been a constant use of harassment for the past 6 months by the Mayor,” Cantu-Kelly said. “The Monday after (T)hanksgiving the staff came in to find the mayors office belongings in the Council Chambers with instructions of moving the office once again. This really bothered me, so I took it upon myself to move all of the items back into the Mayors office. I find this behavior rather bewildering and vindictive to say the least.”

The mayor asserted that she had the power to change the offices as Chief Executive Officer of the city, which is the term used by the Texas Local Government Code when describing the mayor’s powers and duties.

State law gives the mayor the power to act as the “chief executive officer of the municipality” and that the mayor “shall at all times actively ensure that the laws and ordinances of the municipality are properly carried out. The mayor shall perform the duties and exercise the powers prescribed by the governing body of the municipality... The mayor shall inspect the conduct of each subordinate municipal officer and shall cause any negligence, carelessness, or other violation of duty to be prosecuted and punished.”

The distinction comes from what type of government the city of Wimberley runs and whether city ordinances can grant certain powers to a city administrator. Historically, the city of Wimberley has empowered the city administrator with the day-to-day operations of the city under the direction of the council as a whole, per city code.

“The city council shall work through the city administrator in dealing with the city officers and employees who are under the direction of the city,” City Ordinances 2.02.013 says. “City staff shall respond to direction from the council as a whole, and not to direction from individual members of the city council.”

A previous portion of the city code establishes that the mayor is a non-voting member of the city council.

But Jaggers said that some of the city ordinances incorrectly divert power delegated to the office of the mayor granted by state statutes.

Jaggers said that the city was actually set up to allow the mayor to run the city and that the city never went through the proper procedures to give the powers of the mayor to the city administrator or manager.

“We have been acting as a manager-council type government without going through the due process,” Jaggers said. “The due process would be it goes to an election for the citizens to decide if it truly is the process that we want to do. Right now we are considered an aldermanic, which is council and mayor.”

The statement that the city is acting as a “manager-council type government” refers to the duties and powers of each elected and municipal official where the council is the governing body of the city directing an administrator as opposed to the mayor having more powers over the operations of the city. Jaggers’ assertion is that if the city would like to empower the city administrator to the point that it has, there would have to be an election held to change the type of local government. State law does allow for a city with Wimberley’s style of government to hire a city administrator to “assist with the management of city business without an election” but the bill analysis does not specifically say if such an administrator can be given the powers instead of the mayor.

“You would have to take it to the citizens (to vote for) a city manager form of government, which they did by a go-around by creating a ordinance and hiring an administrator and assign him duties of a manager to do a work around of the system,” Jaggers said.

Jaggers said that she planned on forming a petition to have the measure added to the ballot in May for the citizens to vote on.

“I am planning on putting that on a petition in May to actually have the citizens look at taking a vote and seeing what they would officially like to do,” Jaggers said. “A petition will be going around. We need to get at least 20 percent of the (amount of) people who voted for me as a mayor (to sign the petition).”

In a council meeting in August, the city council voted to remove a section of the city code that stated the mayor “shall have no regular administrative duties.” The city attorney said during the meeting in August that “any power the mayor has requires this governing body (the city council) to affirmatively give that authority” and stated that he did not believe removing the line would grant that authority.

The Wimberley View reached out to the attorney for the city of Wimberley for clarification, but he said he could not share his legal opinion with the public on the topic as it is under attorney client privilege.

In last week’s council meeting, the council voted 4-1 in favor of leaving the offices as they are currently situated with Gary Barchfeld being the lone vote against. Jaggers stated that she did not believe the council had that authority.

“I do not think y’all have the authority to do this, and I’m going to challenge this because as the CEO of city hall you can make for the running of city hall.”

The Wimberley View also could not find any other municipal lawyer willing to give clarification on which officer of the city, the city administrator or the mayor, has power to manage the location of individual city offices or if city ordinances are allowed to give these particular powers to a city administrator as opposed to a mayor.