Liberty Hill council convenes executive session to review water, utility and land-acquisition matters

Liberty Hill — The Liberty Hill City Council convened a special called meeting at 5:30 p.m. July 2 and entered an executive session to receive legal guidance on a slate of utility and real-estate matters, including a proposed temporary water agreement with Georgetown.

The council’s presiding speaker told members the session was intended to get leadership and staff "on the same page" ahead of significant upcoming decisions. "So what we thought would be best is to sit down with key staff and to discuss, what is listed here in executive session," the presiding speaker said. He added the goal was to be prepared to act "effectively, efficiently, and, start making some massive moves for the city that I know a lot of people have been kind of waiting on."

City Secretary Elaine Simpson read the executive-session agenda aloud and cited the applicable Texas Government Code sections authorizing closed deliberations, including consultation with attorneys and deliberations about real property. "City council will go into executive session at 05:32PM, 07/02/2025 to discuss the following ... pursuant to Texas Government Code section 551.071 consultation with attorney," Simpson said as she read the items.

Agenda items listed for closed deliberation included: legal guidance on a proposed temporary water agreement with Georgetown and other water-provision efforts; legal issues and guidance on utility evaluations and the city's utility obligations; legal advice regarding utility reservations and refund requests; discussion of a power failure at the wastewater treatment plant; deliberations about real property for the CR 260–266 gravity line project; acquisition of real-estate interests for an Advanced Water Purification Facility; review of master service agreement issues and processes; and acquisition of real estate for city administrative, public safety and related facilities.

The transcript of the public session contains no recorded motions, votes or outcomes arising from those executive-session deliberations. The council returned to open session at 8:15 p.m., and, following an inquiry for motions, adjourned at 8:16 p.m.

Council members present were recorded during roll call as Michael Helbing, Diane Williams, Wade Ashley and Tim Hennessy. The public portion of the session included no public comments.

Next steps: any formal actions arising from the executive session were not included in the public transcript; the council indicated any action would be taken after returning to open session if appropriate.