You Decide Part 2: City Charter Violations
How Many Laws Is the City Breaking?
An Opinion Piece
by Joe Carter
Draft Version 1.0
As of 8/12/2022
[Website Administrator’s Note: The following is a naive layman’s analysis of laws relevant to the Stephenville, Texas Senior Center construction project. To this naive layman, it appears that the City may be breaking a lot of them. The law works in mysterious ways, so we’ve provided direct links to the laws and relevant evidentiary documents, so you can make up your own mind. If you were on a jury, what would you think?]
“A municipal charter is the basic document that defines the organization, powers, functions and essential procedures of the city government. It is comparable to the Constitution of the United States or a state’s constitution. The charter is, therefore, the most important legal document of any city.”
Possible Violations of the City Charter
The process by which the Senior Center project was launched appears to have violated a number of provisions of the City Charter, specifically the provisions related to budgeting and capital improvements. Relevant sections of the City Charter Article VIII - The Budget and Title 3, Chapter 36,ARTICLE III. - CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS PLAN, and FINANCIAL POLICY STATEMENTS AND FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT POLICY are cited below along with possible violations of each relevant section. Text lifted directly from official city and state documents is printed in italics.
City Charter, Article VIII - The Budget
§ 1. - Fiscal year.
The fiscal year of the city government shall begin on the first day of October and shall end on the last day of September of each calendar year. Such fiscal year shall also constitute the budget and accounting year. As used in this charter the term "budget year" shall mean the fiscal year for which any particular budget is adopted and in which it is administered.
(Ord. No. 2018-O-47 , § 4(Exh. A), 11-15-2018 (Elec. of 11-6-2018))
§ 2. - Preparation, submission; content of budget.
A budget shall be submitted to the council by the City Manager at least forty-five (45) days prior to the beginning of each budget year. The budget shall provide a complete financial plan for the fiscal year, and shall contain the following:
(7) Summary of proposed expenditures by fund, department and activity
(16) A capital improvement program for the budget year and proposed method of financing;
(Ord. No. 2018-O-47 , § 4(Exh. A), 11-15-2018 (Elec. of 11-6-2018))
Possible violations of Section 2:
The cost of building a new Senior Center was not in the FY 2021-22 Annual City Budget before the project was started or anytime after.
In the Sept 28, 2021 Council Workshop minutes, the Senior Citizens Center is listed for the first time as a $1 million item to be funded from the Fund Balance of the General Fund. A notation in the minutes following the item states, “Council directed staff to proceed with pursuing funding for the above projects.” This directive is the closest the new Senior Center project came to being formally approved. The project seems to have been on auto-pilot from that point forward. A thorough examination of City Council Meeting Minutes reveals that no other approval votes were ever sought or executed until a winning bidder was selected on January 4, 2022. The Council’s directive to fund the project appears to be unusual for several reasons as follows:
The City’s fiscal year runs from October 1 to September 30. September 28 is way late to be approving budget items for the upcoming fiscal year. Per the City Charter, the budget is to be approved 45 days before October 1 when the fiscal year begins.
There was no vote to OK the directive
Even if there had been an approval vote, it would have been invalid because the Sept 28 meeting was a workshop. Final decisions are never voted in workshop meetings.
Link to City Budget: {Editor’s Note: The following is a dead link due to City website maintenance. Updating of dead links on this website is work in process.} https://www.stephenvilletx.gov/sites/default/files/fileattachments/finance/page/7841/proposed_budget_fy_2021-2022_08-13-21.pdf A thorough review of the 2021-2022 Stephenville Budget reveals no mention of the Senior Center Project in either the proposed expenditures by fund, department and activity or the capital improvement program as required by points (7) and (16)
City budget for Senior Center shows budget for capital outlays of $24,438 and total budget of $174,190 on pages 4 and 25 of 66. The Senior Center Project supposedly has a budget of $1,180,000, far in excess of those numbers.
General Fund 1 on page 1 of 66 shows no mention of senior center - this is supposedly where funds are coming from
Fund 10- Capital projects fund on page 14 of 26 in budget worksheet shows no mention of senior center
No other mention of a capital project for a new Senior Center anywhere in the adopted budget
§ 4. - Budget a public record.
The budget and all supporting schedules shall be a public record in the office of the city secretary, open to inspection by anyone.
(Ord. No. 2018-O-47 , § 4(Exh. A), 11-15-2018 (Elec. of 11-6-2018))
[For reference, A copy of the {Editor’s Note: Dead link needs to be updated.} 2021 - 2022 Budget is available at this link ]
Possible violation of Section 4: There is no public record of the Senior Center Project in the City Budget. It is only ever mentioned in passing in meeting minutes.
§ 5. - Budget, public hearing.
At the meeting of the council at which the budget is submitted the council shall fix the time and place of a public hearing on the budget and shall cause to be published a notice of the hearing, setting forth the time and place thereof and presenting a condensed summary of the budget, at least seven (7) days before the date of the hearing.
At the time and place set forth in the notice, or at any time and place to which public hearing shall from time to time be adjourned, the council shall hold a public hearing on the budget submitted and all interested persons shall be given an opportunity to be heard for or against any item or the amount of any item herein contained.
{Editor’s Note: Dead link needs to be updated} (Ord. No. 2018-O-47 , § 4(Exh. A), 11-15-2018 (Elec. of 11-6-2018))
Possible violations of Section 5:
Since the Senior Center Project was not included in the City Budget, the public was not given the opportunity to be heard for or against the project or the amount of expenditure during the public sessions scheduled for that purpose prior to budget approval.
Given that voters had rejected a bond issue that included a new Senior Center a few months prior, it would seem that public input on whether to fund the project would have been extra apropos
There was no subsequent opportunity for a public hearing on the project. There were a limited number of poorly attended sessions at which Council Members presented the project as a fait accompli, but none in which the desirability of the project or its dollar amount were up for question
The only formal approval involving the project was a vote during the January 4, 2022 Council meeting on whether to accept the sole bid for construction of the building. The question in that vote was whether to accept the bid, not whether to fund the project. Accordingly, the only appropriate public input at that meeting would have been on whether to accept that particular bid, not on whether to approve the funding.
There seems to have been a planned and overt coordinated effort to obscure the actual location of the building site from the public until construction commenced at the site. Evidence of this information blackout is itemized in a separate blog post named Evidence of the Information Blackout on the Vine Street Senior Center Location Near The Seniors Tree. To determine whether this information blackout was intentional or coicidental, it would probably be necessary to depose Council Members and Senior Citizen’s Center Advisory Board Members under oath to determine what actually happened. Whether the blackout was planned or accidental, it deprived citizens of the right to express approval or disapproval of the project based on its proposed location.
Citizens have suffered actual damages both to public and private property as a result of the City Council’s failure to subject the project to the required public scrutiny. The Seniors Tree, a valuable public asset, has suffered damage from fill-dirt compacted over its root system. The property values of private homes on Vine Street have been devalued due to the City’s publically announced plans to widen Vine Street to accomodate Senior Center traffic. A property purchase contract has fallen through resulting in thousands of dollars of damages to a private citizen.
That the public would have exercised their right to object to the project before approval is evidenced by the vigorous campaign they launched in opposition to the project at the target location once they found out about it after construction started. They were deprived of the right to protest before project approval by the City Council’s failure to follow the clearly stated procedures in the City Charter.
§ 6. - Budget final adoption; failure to adopt.
The budget shall be adopted in original or amended form by the favorable votes of at least a majority of all members of the whole council and shall be finally adopted not later than seven (7) days prior to the beginning of the fiscal year.
Should the council take no final action on or prior to such date, the budget as submitted shall be deemed to have been finally adopted by the council.
Upon final adoption the budget shall be in effect for the stated fiscal year.
{Editor’s Note: Dead link needs to be updated}. (Ord. 2001-15, § 3, 7-17-2001 (Elec. of 5-5-2001); Ord. No. 2018-O-47 , § 4(Exh. A), 11-15-2018 (Elec. of 11-6-2018))
Possible violation of Section 6: The Council never voted to approve the budget for the Senior Center project, either by itself or as part of the larger fiscal year budget
§ 8. - Amendments to final adopted budget.
In case of grave public necessity, emergency expenditures to meet unusual and unforeseen conditions which could not, by reasonable diligent thought and attention, have been included in the original budget may from time to time be authorized by the affirmative vote of at least six (6) members of the entire council, as amendments or supplements to the original budget.
Possible violations of Section 8.
This section would seem to imply that items not in the originally approved fiscal year budget are only to be approved under “unusual and unforeseen conditions”, etc. A new senior center is not a “grave public necessity”. The existing Senior Center, while not ideal, is serviceable and capable of adequately satisfying the need for the immediate future.
At any rate, one would assume that, if emergency additions to the budget have to be approved, then certainly a non-emergency budget addition would undergo even more thorough scrutiny before approval and it would certainly need to be approved. The budget for the Senior Center Project never was approved at all, either as a regular budget item or as an emergency item.
There is no supplement or amendment filed for the Senior Center Project with the original budget
Title 3, Chapter 36,ARTICLE III. - CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS PLAN
Sec. 36.31. - Adoption of plan.
There is hereby established a Capital Improvements Plan that lists all Capital Improvement Projects that are approved for the current fiscal year and for the five years following the current fiscal year.
(Ord. No. 2016-O-02 , passed 3-1-2016)
Sec. 36.32. - Definition.
Capital Improvement Project shall mean a new or expanded physical facility, as opposed to equipment or services that prudent management defines as routine maintenance or repair or operating budget items financed out of current revenue resources. The term shall include new construction of physical facilities intended for long-term usefulness and permanence; renovation, remodeling, major repair, or major maintenance of an existing facility; a major landscape improvement; land or one-time major equipment purchase; utility, street, or public park modification that affects numerous residences, businesses, or citizens; or other improvement that enhances the usefulness, productivity, or life expectancy of a new or existing city facility. Any question regarding the identity of a particular project as a Capital Improvements Project shall be decided by majority vote of the City Council.
(Ord. No. 2016-O-02 , passed 3-1-2016)
Sec. 36.33. - Implementation of the plan.
The provisions for implementation of this plan shall be set out in the City of Stephenville Financial Policy Statements and Financial Management Policy, which provides for an annual review by the city council of said policy.
Financial Policy Statements and Financial Management Policy
VIII. CAPITAL BUDGET AND PROGRAM
A. Preparation. The City's capital budget will include all capital projects. The budget will be prepared annually on a fiscal year basis. The capital budget will be compiled by the Finance Division with the input of all City Divisions.
B. Control. All capital replacement expenditures must be appropriated in the capital replacement budget. The Finance Division must certify that each capital item is in the capital budget and that funds are available to pay for the item before a capital replacement item is presented to the City Council and/or purchased.
Possible Violations of Title 3, Chapter 36,ARTICLE III. - CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS PLAN and Financial Policy Statements … VIII. Capital Budget and Program
Link to City Budget: {Editor’s Note: Dead link needs to be updated: } https://www.stephenvilletx.gov/sites/default/files/fileattachments/finance/page/7841/proposed_budget_fy_2021-2022_08-13-21.pdf A thorough review of the 2021-2022 Stephenville Budget reveals no mention of the Senior Center Project in either the proposed expenditures by fund, department and activity or the capital improvement program as required by points (7) and (16)
Fund 10- Capital projects fund on page 14 of 26 in budget worksheet shows no mention of senior center
A new Senior Center in some form does appear to be anticipated on page 39 of 41 in the City’s 5 year Capital Improvement Program (CIP) which appears to be last adopted in 2016-17. The plan is described at this link. The CIP lists a $1,500,000 item for a 15,000 square foot shared Library/Senior Center space to be located in the City Park. Inclusion in the CIP in no way constitutes approval of the new Senior Center project plan that is currently being executed. A project similar to this entry was rejected by the voters in May 2021 subsequent to this entry being made. For approval by-the-book, the CIP would need to be amended to specify a stand-alone 5700 sq foot Senior Center at a location other than the City Park with a budget of $1,180,000. The project would then need to be formally approved via majority vote in an open meeting as part of an annual budget or via an emergency amendment.
Possible global violation of the City Charter
In a July 19, 2022 letter, the City Attorney issued a letter stating, “As for the Senior Center Project, all procedures and rules have been correctly followed.” This opinion was rendered in spite of the plain evidence as laid out above that prescribed rules and procedures of the City Charter clearly had not been followed.
