Charter committee narrows council access to city staff, approves revised Section 3.06

The Lago Vista Charter Review Committee on an unspecified date approved an amended Section 3.06 of the city charter that clarifies how the mayor and city council may obtain information from city employees, voting unanimously to adopt the change after discussion.

Committee members debated whether council members should be able to contact city employees directly or whether such contacts should flow through the city manager. City Manager Taylor told the committee that routine requests should route through the city manager "because we don't want to inundate all of our department heads with unnecessary back and forth," and that the manager should remain the primary contact unless an investigation or inquiry warrants direct contact.

The discussion centered on two competing goals: ensuring elected officials can gather timely, accurate information and protecting the city's chain of command and workload of department staff. One committee member said the proposed language risked creating "too many bosses," arguing direct access to staff could lead to conflicting directions. Others said elected officials need direct access at times to do due diligence, but many agreed on limiting and documenting such contacts to avoid operational disruption.

Committee members agreed to amend the draft language to: (1) specify that the provision applies to employees who report directly to the city manager (including department heads); (2) require that the city manager be notified or copied when a council member contacts a department head; and (3) preserve an exception allowing direct contact for formal investigations or inquiries specified elsewhere in the charter. The committee then approved the amended Section 3.06 by motion.

The approved change is intended to let council members obtain information needed for policy decisions while minimizing the risk that multiple direct lines of request will interrupt department operations. The committee did not change other parts of the charter at this vote.

The committee recorded the motion to approve Section 3.06 as amended and the vote as unanimous. The committee noted the change will be incorporated into the charter text to be offered to voters or to the next step in the review process.

Ending: The committee moved on to other charter topics after completing the Section 3.06 revision; committee members asked staff to incorporate the agreed edits for the next draft of the charter language.