|
Dual role violates water authority's bylaw
Published August 27, 2009
LAKE JACKSON — Freeport City Councilman Clan Cameron must give up his seat on the Brazosport Water Authority board under new bylaws adopted this week, but Cameron made it clear he doesn’t plan on writing any resignation letters.
The bylaw change states water authority board members cannot also hold an elective office with the city they represent. Cameron’s dual role violates the new rule, meaning he has to give up one of his seats, according to the authority’s attorney.
However, Cameron said he will continue to be a member of both bodies, despite an opinion by the Texas Attorney General’s office stating a board can determine doing so represents a conflict of interest.
“You make the assumption that somebody tells me what to do,” Cameron said. “Nobody tells me what to do.”
And at least one other board member supports Cameron’s position.
Angleton representative Larry Shaefer said the board does not have the legal authority to tell member cities who they can appoint to the board.
“I believe the BWA bylaw revisions will create legal conflicts and represent unwarranted intrusion into the member cities’ business,” Shaefer said.
Frank Mauro, the authority’s lawyer, presented members with an attorney general’s opinion that states a board can find a position on the board and at a city council to be incompatible because the person will be unable to represent both the people who elected them and the board that serves a larger area. The opinion extends to city employees.
“As a city councilman and a member of this board, I don’t think these two positions are incompatible,” Cameron said.
The attorney general’s opinion also states that when someone from a city council joins a board, they must resign from the city council, Mauro said.
Until Mauro finds what action can be taken, the board will continue to move forward as normal, even if Cameron violates the bylaw, Board President Steve Boykin said.
“It’s sticky at best,” he said.
The board is not trying to specifically exclude Cameron, but to keep the continuity that the board has had for the last 20 years, he said.
Board President Steve Boykin of Richwood said the new rule governing representation on the board officially put in place what has been an unwritten rule for years.
The board also approved allowing the presiding officer of the meeting to sign the minutes after they are approved by the board as opposed to only the president and vice-president being allowed to sign the agenda.
In other business Tuesday, the Brazosport Water Authority:
APPROVED: Requiring General Manager Landon Roberts to generate a form for the Internal Revenue Service detailing pay information for contractors. Shaefer found that the authority had failed to do so for a contractor from 2002 to 2007, Shaefer said.
The error was an accounting error that needed to be fixed, he said.
“We need to follow the laws,” he said. Shaefer doesn’t think the authority will face any legal consequences because the error was a mistake and they did not intentionally try to thwart the law, he said.
APPROVED: Omitting a 40-year contract from their agreement with Jones Creek. Instead they suggested a contract that is renewable every four years for the first 20 years and then is cancelable every year after that without cause on either side.
Jones Creek should not be treated the same as the member cities, Mauro said.
DISCUSSED: Brazosport Water Authority’s overage rate for member cities.
“It doesn’t make sense to me that we bill less money for more usage,” Shaefer said. Instead cities should be billed more for overages to encourage conservation, he said.
The overage rate was set up to cover the cost of producing the water, while the regular rate also covers the cost of the water authority’s bonds, Roberts said. This process was set up many years ago, he said.
The board will discuss the overage rate again at the next meeting.
Katlynn Lanham covers the Brazosport Water Authority for The Facts. Contact her at 979-237-0150.
Share |
Save |
Mail |
Print
|
|
|
 |
|
Click for all
Top Ads listing
|
