Area mayors are expressing concern over a flurry of bills in the recent regular legislative session and some corresponding bills in the current special session that would effectively keep cities from lobbying legislators.
In her report to residents, Horseshoe Bay Mayor Elsie Thurman noted that 8,719 bills were filed during the regular session that ended in June.
“Of those, 2,189 were written to impact cities (primarily to remove local community control),” she wrote. Adding that “1,231 bills passed and were sent to the governor. 262 of those bills will directly impact cities.”
Thurman, Meadowlakes Mayor Mark Bentley and Granite Shoals Mayor Ron Munos were most concerned about bills that purportedly would have taken the high road of banning spending of public money on lobbying by political subdivisions.
Several bills to do this were introduced in the Senate; Thurman says the most dangerous to cities was Senate Bill 19, authored by a handful of senators including Pete Flores. Flores’ District 24 runs from Bell County in the north, jogs west to include Sutton County and runs south through Medina County and includes both Llano and Burnet counties.
The companion bill in the house was House Bill
Mayors 1189, written by Rep. Ellen Troxclair. Her District 19 includes Burnet, Blanco and Gillespie counties.
A bill has been introduced in the senate to do the same thing during the special session and Troxclair has written one of 12 bills submitted in the house that would keep cities, counties, school districts and other governments subdivisions from spending public money on lobbying.
Bentley worries that if it’s carried to its conclusion such a law could end in the abolishing of the Texas Municipal League (TML), which was formed in 1913 to represent cities and municipalities across the state.
It serves as a resource to provide information, training, legal expertise, and policy analysis to cities such as Meadowlakes, Bentley wrote in his recent newsletter.
“I cannot underestimate the value of training that TML provides. I attended a seminar a few years ago that is designed to educate newly elected officials on the legal maze that has to be adhered to in order to operate within the law. I certainly benefited” he wrote.
“Elected officials in small cities are just regular residents like you and me who want to serve the community but have no experience in municipal government. How can citizens serve within legal structures without being adequately trained? And who would serve if they could potentially and unknowingly violate complex municipal law issues that could place their city or themselves in legal jeopardy?”
Just the limitation on spending public funds could hamper cities, said Munos, the Granite Shoals mayor.
“What funds do cities have except public funds?” he said. “This (bill) is definitely detrimental to cities.”
“Luckily, many of the seriously damaging bills … were amended so they only applied to large cities,” Thurman wrote. “However, we had to work very hard to get amendments made to many other bills that would have critically damaged Horseshoe Bay’s ability to maintain its unique character.”
Thurman pointed out that earlier this year the city launched what it calls a “Speak Out” program, inviting residents to write to their representatives and senators to express opinions about proposed legislation. She said at least 150 Horseshoe Bay residents did that, and credits it with helping keep some of what she considers bad legislation from passing during the regular session.
