Protests, council discord make for difficult meeting, discussion

In what was expected to be a night of possible historic ramification on the sewer system, last week’s Wimberley City Council meeting will be remembered more for the drama and fiery dialog than any given vote.

The tension built around the city’s decision over a wastewater treatment provider spilled over during the meeting both on the dais and from the crowd.

Councilmember Allison Davis, who consistently is the only dissenting member of the council as it is currently made up, did not have an opportunity to speak on the agenda item to “modify the Central Wimberley Wastewater Project,” which was expected to be the vote on Aqua Texas. After very brief discussion, the council voted to postpone the item.

“I sit here and listen respectfully for my time and part of transparency is not using Robert’s Rules and open meetings to quiet your council and to quiet people,” Davis said while bringing up that she had tried to speak on the topic but was never given the chance.

The mayor said that she is new to this position and Robert’s Rules of Order and is trying to get better at running the meeting. It was stated that Davis had four agenda items at the end of the meeting to discuss the topic and the council moved on to the next topic. After a recess later the meeting, Jaggers said that Davis should have been able to speak during the item and that the council would bring the topic back up later for discussion. The item was never brought back during the meeting.

Jaggers also introduced a new standard for allowing discussion of items on the agenda. Historically, any member of the council has been allowed to place an item on the agenda and discussion was allowed on the topic. Jaggers announced at the beginning of the meeting that she would be following Robert’s Rules of Order, a set of procedures for running a meeting that are generally adopted across the country though rarely followed to a T.

The starkest change from normal procedure is that an item must receive a motion and second in favor of discussing for the item to even been taken up by the council at all. If no motion for a second is received, the item is tabled without any discussion.

This resulted in three of Davis’ four agenda items on the wastewater system, which were referenced earlier in the meeting as a reason she did not need to speak on the Aqua Texas agenda item, failing to reach the threshold for discussion. Councilmember Craig Fore did second one of Davis’ motions, which allowed for discussion on the dais.

Davis also requested an executive session to discuss the Black Castle contract for the Wastewater Treatment Plant. The city has typically allowed any member of the council to call an executive session with the previously stated reason being that individual council members had a right to legal representation. In this meeting, executive session was not allowed without a majority vote of council as is required by Roberts Rules of Order.

Throughout the meeting, much of the crowd responded vocally and negatively when Davis was not able to speak or to the threat that public outbursts would result in the constable removing individuals from the meeting. Two people, at separate points in the meeting, were escorted out after standing up and yelling at the council in protest.

When Davis’ first few items were not seconded for discussion, there were more shouts from the crowd and a few dozen people walked out of the meeting in protest.